Chapter 35
Chapter 35
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: Butler and Young Lady
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Jane was a child abandoned by the World Tree.
Because her father had supposedly betrayed the World Tree.
But even she, at such a young age, could see that the charge was an brazen lie.
"Father was a councilor. He argued that if we refused交流 and sealed off the forest, the elves would only decline and self-destruct."
Her father had brought the matter before the council.
But there was no one to support him.
The citizens hurled stones at her father, calling him a traitor, and even the other councilors who had once debated philosophy with him turned their backs.
- "How dare you suggest joining hands with lowly humans!"
- "That man is trying to sell out his own kin to humans!"
Her family, branded traitors in an instant, was chased out of the forest.
The councilors, who preached that all opinions should be equal and respected, used their tongues to condemn her family.
And the fairy knights, who so exalted their own nobility, had pointed spears at their backs and driven them away.
Thus, in her heart, the conviction took root that public authority was nothing but ugly hypocrites cloaked in clean pretensions.
Having left the forest behind, her family arrived at a second homeland.
It was a small village.
A modest utopia where humans, Ain, and beastkin lived without discrimination.
Though their lifespans, races, and beliefs differed, they knew how to respect one another and coexist.
Outside the village, the culture sorted people by race, but at least within this small haven, they were equals.
She believed without doubt that this utopia would endure forever.
Until the sky turned black.
"One day, a superior species came to the village. A black dragon."
The Empire considers all Ain inferior except humans.
But superior species were treated as exceptions to that culture.
Just as everyone learns manners before the barrel of a gun, no one pointed fingers calling a dragon lowly.
Thus, dragons could receive noble treatment despite not being human.
The black dragon that visited the village was one such imperial noble.
"He was the young heir. Claiming he needed an opportunity to surpass his father, he demanded tribute from our village."
And that tribute was human sacrifice.
Of course, it wasn't a wise method.
Because human sacrifice accumulates far too much evil karma.
But the dragon had his own strategy.
There aren't many confirmed 8th rank beings in this world.
The young heir was at 7th rank at the time, and he calculated that rising just one more rank would let him crush any karmic backlash with sheer power.
So the young heir demanded the villagers as human sacrifices, treating them like his property.
Naturally, the villagers couldn't offer up their families and resisted.
Fortunately, Jane's father—his reputation as a former elf councilor well-earned—possessed the realm to fight the young heir.
The villagers resisted fiercely and severed the arrogant black dragon's wings.
The dragon fled in a pathetic state, unworthy of his dignified appearance.
A week later.
The sky turned black.
Brought by the black dragons the fugitive had summoned.
"The village was destroyed like that."
Beneath the dragons' rampage, she lost her parents and her homeland.
Thanks to her parents' sacrifice, she was able to hide in the basement warehouse.
- "Don't let go of this stone, no matter what."
Her parents pressed the single barrier stone into her hands and drew the dragons' attention.
The tearful smile she glimpsed as the warehouse door closed was the last sight she had of her parents.
Once the door shut, horrific sounds came from outside.
The gruesome noises of flesh crushed underfoot and bones snapping between jaws.
"The dragons saw it as an opportunity and devoured the villagers. They deemed those who routed the young heir worthy of being eaten."
Her father, her mother, her neighbors—they all became their meal.
While the dragons' feast, adorned with the screams of the people, unfolded on the surface, she stifled her sobs in hiding.
The precious barrier stone her parents gave her concealed her from the dragons' keen senses, but it couldn't shield her mind.
Then, that eternal nightmare shifted in a direction she hadn't anticipated.
The dragons, reveling in their feast, began to scream.
- "Caidra! Rudra! Elidra! Respond!"
- "My eyes... I can't see..."
Jane first thought it was a hallucination.
She figured she was imagining the villagers' screams in the dragons' voices.
But when the sounds of massive bodies collapsing one by one reached her, she finally acknowledged that someone was felling the dragons.
"When I opened the warehouse door, only a single swordsman stood amid the burned ruins of the village."
Though his appearance was obscured by dragon blood, she could still tell he was a sharp-featured young man.
The swordsman, lost in sentiment amid the dragon corpses, belatedly noticed Jane and approached her.
- "Are you from this village?"
Trembling in fear, she nodded.
Having seen too much violence through brute force since childhood, she couldn't help but dread what the swordsman might do.
Perhaps sensing her feelings, the swordsman patted her head and offered her candy.
- "If it's all right, I'll escort you to another village."
Thus began her brief journey with the swordsman.
And after seeing her safely to another village, he vanished as if his business was done.
"He was like a mirage."
For a moment, she wondered if he was a hallucination she'd conjured, but soon after, she gained certainty that he was real.
"This marquisate has statues commemorating that swordsman."
Crude sword statues could be found throughout the marquisate.
In other words, not just her—others had seen him too.
Afterward, she searched for the nameless swordsman who had saved her.
But she never met him again.
"He was murdered. By a man called the Godfather of the Mafia Alliance."
At first, she didn't believe it.
A swordsman who could slaughter a pack of black dragons, killed by some mere mafia boss?
But even as the mafia boss swallowed the entire marquisate and smashed every statue honoring the swordsman, he never appeared.
Yet the citizens refused to believe the swordsman was dead and took up swords themselves.
"That was about a hundred years ago now."
During the Empire's fall, the marquisate was deep in war with the mafias.
The war ended when the Godfather decorated the plaza with the swordsman's head.
As if his goal was to instill despair in the people.
In truth, the Godfather's strategy was highly effective.
The citizens who had risen against the mafia lost all will the moment they confirmed the decapitation.
Thus, the marquisate fell under mafia rule.
Even after the Empire collapsed and the marquisate was annexed by the Eschric Kingdom, it remained a mafia den.
"That's why I took up the sword."
Most of the resistance had given up or died of old age over those hundred years.
But she was an elf, with a naturally long lifespan, so she could still wield a sword.
Using memories of the swordsman's crude swordsmanship from their brief journey as her guide, she had self-taught her way this far.
"I must have my revenge."
Otherwise, the last hundred years would mean nothing.
It was the sole purpose keeping her—the one who lost her family and homeland—alive.
But...
"Honestly, I don't even know what's what anymore."
A hundred years was more than enough time to erode even vengeance.
She had pursued it out of inertia, but when Dominic's help finally achieved it, she couldn't name the emotion.
"It's not emptiness, but not catharsis either. I don't know what this feeling is."
Dominic, who had listened silently to her tale, nodded.
"You're afraid."
"What?"
"Aren't you afraid of what will happen when it's all over, and you have to return to being an ordinary person?"
Her lips clamped shut at the old butler's precise insight.
Dominic gave her a kindly smile, as if understanding her completely. As always.
"Don't worry. You've changed now. Even without revenge, haven't you discovered other precious things?"
Her eyes widened at his words.
Yes. I have something precious...
"You've even picked up a hobby of hunting down the best crepe spots."
"Right. Cre... Hey!"
Heh heh.
Dominic chuckled as he rose from his seat.
As if her state of mind was no big deal.
Not because he took her lightly.
It was consideration to ease her anxiety.
"I suppose I should head to the market for tonight's dinner."
The old butler petted her casually and turned away.
"For dinner tonight, how about your favorite hamburg steak?"
With those words, the old butler left the room.
Jane's thoughts drifted back to the past from the old butler's mention of hamburg steak.
- "Kid. Last time, so I went all out."
Hamburg steak was the meal the swordsman had made for her right before they parted.
That's why it was her favorite menu... but
'Why does it feel so familiar?'
The hamburg steak the old butler made felt strangely familiar.
She tilted her head, then shook off the thought.
The swordsman was dead.
She had clearly seen his head hanging in the plaza.
She steeled her resolve once more and opened the pendant.
'It'll be over soon.'
Putting thoughts of what came after revenge aside for later.
*
Meanwhile, as Dominic set out for the market, he pondered.
'Why does this story sound so familiar?'
Was it one of the hero legends passed down in this region?
Duke had experienced so many incidents over 200 years that he felt déjà vu no matter what happened, but this tale felt especially familiar.
'Did I ever come to this area?'
He didn't know.
Duke had wandered wherever his feet took him, without maps, so he couldn't even remember where he'd been or what he'd done.
'Whatever.'
Duke stopped thinking and focused on the present.
Using his head wasn't his style.
What mattered now was clashing with her beliefs in some conviction.
Conveniently, the old butler and her beliefs conflicted.
'She doesn't trust public authority.'
With a plan forming in his mind, Butler Dominic began plotting their farewell.