Chapter 111
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 111
Chapter Title: Request for Support - 2
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We'd squeezed information out of the knights subdued by Forest, but it wasn't what we were after.
Except...
"A tunnel connects the Lugadrian underground waterways to an underground city?"
Viscount Ishur possessed shockingly startling intel.
A tunnel... the classic ploy.
"This is absurd!"
Even the Catkit Merchant Company was tangled up in it.
Viscount Ishur flew into a rage at the revelation.
"Nyaha- I-I don't know anything. I'm not involved!"
Pina swiftly washed her hands of the Catkit Merchant Company.
Well, considering how they'd screwed her over from the start, it made sense.
"Thank you, Sir Forest. Without you, Lugadrian would have fallen to those treacherous rats."
"You're planning to seal it off yourself, Viscount Ishur?"
"Naturally. And I'll use this as grounds to expose every last atrocity the Catkit Merchant Company has committed."
"Good luck to you."
The tunnel was noble business, so I handed it off and set out with my new acquaintances.
"Mom... you're not really moving, are you?"
Collin's son—who was basically being kidnapped into the move—was thrown by the sudden turn of events.
"Haha, hang in there, my sweet Ida. Mommy's gotta earn some coin. We'll hustle for two years and head back to Lugadrian."
"Hm?"
Who said anything about just two years?
I planned to work her bones dry until I recouped my investment.
"Gives me the chills for some reason."
"Sian, what do you plan to do with this catkin?"
"What? Pina, you still tagging along?"
"P-please take me with you! I won't turn down any job!"
Pina, clinging like gum on a shoe, was beyond ridiculous.
Honestly, without the Catkit Merchant Company, she was useless now.
"I think we should bring her along."
"What for?"
"She's a former traveling merchant at least, so she could handle things in my stead while I'm pregnant. She'll pick up the local geography too. Could be handy for trade in whatever land you end up ruling, Sian."
"Hmph... If Elsia insists, can't be helped. Hop on the carriage, Pina."
"Hyaa~ Thank you! Thank you so much!"
With Pina hired on, we made straight for Lugeron Village.
About three days' travel—not exactly close.
'But if I push it, I could cover it in one bound.'
I eyeballed the distance, sketching a mental map of the region.
"H-Hero..."
"Forest, what is it?"
Forest approached me atop the carriage—face drained of color—to relay some news while I scanned our surroundings.
"Word from the Holy Kingdom's communications division. The second apostle, Lady Helen, is surrounded by Hadron's forces."
"What?"
The sudden report made my head throb.
Just for an instant, though. I turned to Forest right away.
"Where?"
"Y-yes! Best we can pinpoint, it's the Storm Plains. Roughly 300 km northwest from here."
"Location-wise, that's old Anitul Earl territory."
"Correct."
"Gregor, anything on the Storm Plains?"
Gregor rattled off what he knew without hesitation.
"Lightning strikes there regularly, so folks steer clear. But the underlings handling Anitul Earl's dirty work carted slaves in there all the time."
"Slave markets, huh. Figures there's a Hadron tunnel linked up. Any defining features?"
"Higher elevation than the surroundings, fields of yellow flowers, thunderheads rolling in every night."
"Perfect."
I issued orders to the group, having roughed out the spot on my internal map.
"Send the carriage back to the village. Gregor, drop at Baron Hippo's lands and stand ready with him against any raids—as my vassal. If that line folds, Lugeron Village is next."
"Understood."
"Forest, vouch for Gregor with Baron Hippo in my place. That knight's more skittish than he looks."
"Kh!"
"Hero, you planning to charge the Storm Plains solo?"
"Gotta, to make it in time."
Part of me wanted Gregor for his lay of the land or Collin for his adventurer travels, but syncing their paces would burn too much clock.
"Sian, at least take a horse, just in case."
"Nah. I'm faster than any nag."
"Huh?"
Navira chimed in with advice, but sadly, horses were pointless for me.
"Elsia, you're in charge of the rest."
"Leave it to me."
"Brother Sian, be careful."
"Thanks."
I ruffled Elin's hair, traded a quick kiss with Elsia, then bolted in the direction Forest had pointed.
"Whoa~ Our nephew's hauling ass."
I tuned out Collin's crude whoop.
...
"If I make it back safe, I'm marrying that guy."
"You don't even have a boyfriend."
"Doesn't matter. I'll do it anyway."
"Isn't that a crime?"
The Holy Kingdom's Second Paladin Order found itself encircled by Hadron's horde.
At first, it was a deadlock.
Hadron might be one of the three great scourges, but something was missing to wipe out the Second Paladin Order.
Then Anitul Earl's vassal nobles defected to Hadron's side, and the battle teetered into catastrophe.
The paladins hadn't seen the betrayal coming.
Why?
No noble in the Empire's millennium-long history had ever sided with scourge forces.
This was high treason against the Emperor.
An Imperial subject—noble or not, versed in history—would never stoop to such infamy.
"Not scared of the black sky over there?"
"Maybe that's Hadron's angle."
"The black sky? Forgotten the thrashing from a thousand years back?"
"Who knows. No winning head-on. But black sky drops, and every westerner bites it."
"Mutual annihilation, straight out of the history books."
The paladins traded banter to size up their straits, but their lines could buckle any second.
"Sorry, everyone."
"No need, Your Highness."
Helen was a wreck right now.
Backlash from chaining miracles.
Hadron's trap.
"Your Highness, those fiends pulled foul play. Don't shoulder the blame."
Any ordinary snare wouldn't faze Helen, near-pure nymph that she was.
But Hadron—a thousand years back in the old kingdom days—had butchered and dissected more nymphs than anyone. He knew their weak spots cold.
Preyed on their kindly natures with "desperate" humans as bait.
Bombs planted in unrelated villagers.
Camilla took on Hadron's troops solo to shield the rest; the paladins guarding Helen got harried by Anitul's noble turncoats.
"Surrender, all of you. It's my body they're after—the second apostle."
"No way, Your Highness. If it's defilement they want, we'll fight to the last."
"Yeah. What daughter hands her mother over?"
"Everyone..."
Every paladin in the Second Order was a child Helen had raised herself.
She'd watched them toddle, grow into adults, become knights.
To her, daughters. To them, mother.
Such daughters throwing lives away for her sake.
Helen—against all her seasoned years—felt her eyes sting red.
That was when.
Boom!
Someone in the Storm Plains leaped skyward, fearless.
As if thumbing nose at Tarannis, god of thunder and retribution.
Rumble... Crash!
Tarannis's lingering wrath couldn't abide the hubris and unleashed judgment.
But what plummeted from the heavens wasn't lightning. Nor was the man struck down by divine penalty.
It was...
A roar.
The bellow of the Titan hillfolk that once cowed the gods and lorded over the world.
"Ah..."
The first time they'd met, he was little more than a tiger cub.
No innate Titan divinity, no command of vast holy power.
But not anymore.
Devouring gods' legacies had sparked his divinity; now he wielded oceanic holy force at will.
He'd grown into a true Titan, and as his brief mentor, she couldn't help but feel joy.
"Grown so much already, unseen for mere moments."
He blew past knights who'd dropped dead shrieking from that single roar, planted himself before Helen, scratched his head, and ventured cautiously,
"Sorry."
"???"
"Broke my promise not to roar. Won't use it next time, even if it's dire."
Helen stifled a laugh inside.
Eyes stinging moments ago, now clear.
With the world's most tender smile, she replied,
"It's fine. You're a proper Titan now, Sian."
"Yeah?"
No mere platitude.
That world-shaking roar came with the heavenly fox's gaze—watching this place—brimming more with delight than before.
Of course, whether parental pride in a child's bloom... or fresh hunger for prey to devour... none could say.