Ending Maker Chapter 130
Ending Maker Chapter 130
Chapter 48 - Invitation #2
Emma Pikers.
As the second daughter of Count Pikers, she had never much liked Cordelia, and the reason was truly simple and clear.
'Because she's annoying.'
Cordelia's very existence was.
A girl as pretty as a doll, and on top of that, she was even kind. And not just pretending to be kind—the fact that she was genuinely kind rubbed Emma the wrong way.
'I'll have fun trampling her again this year.'
In truth, "trampling" was just a nice way of putting it—all she really did was embarrass her through her fiancé—but this year, the circumstances were a little different.
'Because she dug her own grave so very diligently.'
Had her fiancé, who could barely even go outside, gotten a little healthier and gotten carried away?
Over the past couple of months, Cordelia had gone and prepared plenty of ways to disgrace herself.
'Ah, I can't wait.'
Emma Pikers, trembling with excitement, sat down in front of her vanity and looked into the mirror.
A small, lovely girl with long pink hair looked back at her.
In truth, the fundamental reason Emma Pikers was so particularly displeased with Cordelia lay precisely in their hair color.
Because they both had red hair, they were compared wherever they went.
'Good, good. This year, I'll really, truly crush her.'
Emma Pikers wore a scheming smile that did not suit her lovely appearance and mentally reviewed everything she had prepared.
The new dress and accessories she had pestered her father to procure, and on top of that, a wonderful fiancé handsome enough to inspire envy.
'Ah, I'm so, so excited.'
If only her birthday would come soon.
Still wearing that scheming smile, Emma Pikers looked into the mirror again.
Completely unaware that far away in Baylun, there was a man anticipating her birthday even more than she was.
* * *
Five days later, in Count Pikers' territory.
Sylvia Crossbell, the eldest daughter of Count Crossbell, one of the Twelve Northern Houses, frowned without realizing it.
'Their flashy tastes haven't changed.'
Across the Count Pikers Household's enormous garden—so vast it could only be called sprawling—stood an extravagantly decorated banquet hall.
Despite it still being winter, fresh flowers filled the banquet hall, and temperature-control devices made the outdoor event possible.
Those two things alone were already enough to make an ordinary noble house worry about its annual budget, and the quality of the various goods brought in to decorate the banquet hall was no less formidable.
'One way or another, this is what it means to be the Pikers.'
In truth, Emma Pikers was simply unusually obsessed with Cordelia; there was no particular relationship between the Count Chase Household and the Count Pikers Household.
They both belonged to the Twelve Northern Houses, but their fields of activity were far too different.
The Count Chase Household owned a magic tower but lacked a proper territory, so it maintained its influence through the strength of its people.
The Count Pikers Household, by contrast, controlled the delta of the Silicones River—the lifeline of the north—and with it both the north's greatest granary and its greatest hub of intermediary trade.
In other words, it was a case of maintaining influence through the power of a mighty territory.
Because of this, the true rival of the Count Pikers Household was not the Count Chase Household but the Count Crossbell Household.
'Crossbell of the north, Pikers of the south.'
The Count Crossbell Household earned enormous sums through finance, while the Count Pikers Household made substantial profits from both agriculture and commerce.
Relations between these two houses, both among the wealthiest of the Twelve Northern Houses, had begun to sour when the Count Pikers Household expanded into finance as well.
Of course, compared with the Count Crossbell Household, which already controlled more than half of the north's financial sector, the Count Pikers Household's financial business was still child's play. Even so, Crossbell could not simply tolerate the encroachment.
'It's annoying, but the Count Pikers Household has real underlying strength.'
Its financial business might be child's play for now, but the Count Pikers Household had the resources to expand its influence at any time.
In sheer wealth, the Count Pikers Household was by no means inferior to the Count Crossbell Household.
'Haa...... I really didn't want to come if I could help it.'
From Sylvia's perspective, the Count Pikers Household was practically enemy territory.
In fact, both the Count Crossbell Household and the Count Pikers Household generally preferred to avoid direct encounters.
The Count Pikers Household had not even attended the recent social gathering of the Twelve Northern Houses' children.
Yet for some reason, the Count Pikers Household never failed to send an invitation to Emma Pikers's birthday party.
Even though the distance between the two houses was so great that it took several days just one way.
'Well, I can guess their ulterior motive.'
Getting on their nerves.
We're doing this well.
We'll at least be polite and send an invitation, but whether you come or not is entirely up to you.
Count Crossbell was famous for his fiery temper and would never ignore such provocation from the Count Pikers Household, so every year Sylvia had to attend Emma Pikers's birthday party dressed to impress.
'Though there's one more reason.'
None other than Cordelia.
Emma Pikers had been strangely cruel to Cordelia for a long time, but since Cordelia rarely went out, she had few close young ladies and couldn't properly defend herself.
You could say she just took the hits as they came.
'This year, I'll be more help than last year.'
Because Emma Pikers always struck with facts, Sylvia hadn't been able to properly help Cordelia either, but this year, she intended to protect Cordelia even if it meant pushing herself a little.
She had to repay the favor from Langesthei.
'And...... this year will be a little different.'
Cordelia's fiancé had been Emma Pikers' main means of attack.
Briefly recalling what had happened in Langesthei, Sylvia wore an uncharacteristically lecherous smile.
Because she was looking forward to it.
"Oh my, Lady Sylvia. You're truly beautiful again this year."
"Lady Mia, you're the lovely one. I've felt this for a while, but you have such good taste. You chose the color of your dress so well again this time."
"Really?"
"Of course."
At Sylvia's praise, Mia Baylun, the second daughter of Viscount Baylun, blushed bright red with delight, but for some reason, no other young lady approached Sylvia.
'Because this is the Count Pikers Household's party.'
Everyone here was mindful of the Count Pikers Household. The invited houses were also concentrated near Pikers territory, so it was only natural that no one approached Sylvia, daughter of the Count Crossbell Household.
'Mia is the unusual one.'
But seeing the young ladies over there glancing this way with troubled expressions, it seemed that from next year, even Mia wouldn't approach her.
"Wow, it's Lady Emma."
When Mia spoke with shining eyes, Sylvia gently stepped away to put some distance between them for her sake.
Because if Emma Pikers caught Mia being friendly with her, Mia would likely end up in a difficult position.
'In any case...... the protagonist has arrived, I see.'
Emma Pikers strode confidently into the banquet hall with her fiancé, Daren Philoff.
It was irritating, but the Count Pikers Household really was a formidable opponent.
'They're not just some nouveau riche family.'
They did have nouveau riche tendencies, but as a family with its own tradition of wealth, they knew how to spend money properly.
Emma Pikers was wearing her pale pink dress, and while the design itself was impressive, the accessories attached to the dress were anything but ordinary.
'A fairy.'
A lovely design that suppressed Emma Pikers' weakness—her small, petite frame—while highlighting her strengths.
Emma Pikers looked like a fairy, and Daren Philoff, dressed in a white ceremonial outfit decorated with gold thread, looked like a prince out of a story.
'They really nailed the concept, didn't they?'
But they did suit each other quite well.
Enough that the young ladies in the banquet hall all let out genuine admiration.
"Oh my, is Lady Cordelia not here yet?"
After exchanging light greetings with the young ladies in the banquet hall, Emma Pikers made a small fuss as if she had just remembered, and the surrounding young ladies immediately chimed in.
"It seems she's running late."
"I heard she's caused a lot of trouble recently...... Could she have been confined to her home?"
"Maybe she's late because of her fiancé......."
"Well, she is unwell. Though she seems to have improved a little...... Recently she's...... overexerted herself quite a bit, hasn't she? Isn't that right?"
When Emma smiled slyly and spoke, the young ladies immediately echoed her.
'Haa, seriously.'
It was an irritating sight just to watch, but Sylvia decided to hold back for now. There was no point in stepping forward when Cordelia herself wasn't even here.
'Anyway, why is she really so late?'
Cordelia was never late to events like this.
So why was she late today?
'Did something really happen?'
Like those people said, was there some problem with Yuder?
It was half right and half wrong.
The reason for being late was indeed because of Yuder, but it wasn't because a problem had arisen.
The reason Yuder deliberately attended late.
The reason he waited until all the young ladies had gathered and today's protagonist, Emma Pikers, had also made her appearance.
"Lady Cordelia of the Count Chase Household is entering."
At the butler's words, everyone's gaze focused on one spot.
It couldn't be helped.
Because all the young ladies except Cordelia had already gathered.
"She's finally arrived, it seems."
"Is it really because of her fiancé?"
A few young ladies spoke as if gossiping to curry favor with Emma Pikers, but only for a moment.
They couldn't keep talking about Cordelia.
Because their gazes had been stolen.
Because one after another, they were left spellbound.
"Wow......."
Mia Baylun let out a dazed voice.
It wasn't just her—every young lady attending the banquet wore a dazed expression.
Cordelia Chase.
Her beauty had been famous for a long time.
Everyone knew she was a girl so beautiful that even other women would stare at her blankly.
But this time, it was beyond that.
The word "beautiful" alone could not describe the sight before their eyes.
"Cordel......ia?"
Even Sylvia lost her wits.
All she could do was blink with a foolish voice.
A goddess.
A being beyond humanity.
Cordelia, wearing a white dress with a faint pink tinge, entered the banquet hall with an elegant smile.
Her crimson hair seemed to shine with light, and the accessories she wore here and there revealed their presence without being excessive, further illuminating Cordelia's beauty.
Truly overwhelming beauty.
'Wh-what the.'
Sylvia, the first to regain her senses, blinked several times.
She had always been pretty, but was she this pretty?
And once she regained her senses, she noticed something.
'The same?'
The design of the dress Cordelia was wearing.
It wasn't exactly the same. But the design trend was the same as Emma Pikers' dress.
'The color is similar too?'
Similar clothes.
Because of that, it was something that forced comparison whether one wanted to compare or not.
The young ladies, regaining their senses one by one, also noticed that fact. Without realizing it, they looked back at Emma Pikers, then looked at Cordelia again.
No one spoke, but everyone knew.
The gap between the two could only be described as overwhelming.
Emma Pikers was a lovely girl too, but the Cordelia before them now could be called a goddess without exaggeration.
She was taller, and her figure was far better.
If at least their clothes had been different, it might not have been so obvious, but since even their clothes were the same, Emma Pikers, who had been a lovely girl, was instantly reduced to a crumpled squid.
'It's not just the clothes.'
Other things began to enter Sylvia's sharp gaze.
The accessories Cordelia wore.
None of them were ordinary. What was even more frightening was the fact that the positions and number of the accessories were the same as Emma Pikers'.
'And they're all strictly better versions?'
You used gold? Yeah, we used platinum.
Diamonds? Yeah, ours are bigger and more beautiful.
—was that the feeling?
'They really went all out.'
To crush Emma Pikers.
To completely erase Emma Pikers' presence from this banquet hall.
And the one who had schemed this was, of course—
'Just as planned.'
Looking at the completely overwhelmed banquet hall, Yuder wore a wicked smile, and Cordelia turned to Yuder with a flustered face.
'Yuder, Yuder. What is this? What's going on?'
'Yeah, it's just as planned.'
Yuder had already figured out exactly what clothes Emma Pikers would wear and what accessories she would use.
She was a character who only appeared once in a side quest, but the Yuder wiki contained all the information about her.
'I also did a bit of spying.'
The Count Pikers Household had spent a truly enormous sum for today.
Naturally, rumors were bound to circulate in the industry about what dress she would wear and what accessories she would use.
Add the spied information to existing knowledge and strive for perfection.
Yuder had taken the dress specially prepared for today and visited the Fall Fairy Queen.
A dress doused generously in fairy blessings, and accessories from Magellan.
And on top of that, one more weapon.
'Behold, that shining, flowing hair.'
Cordelia's hair was far more beautiful than usual.
The reason was simple: she had used shampoo and conditioner.
'They don't have shampoo and conditioner here.'
As a world with fairly advanced civilization, there were basic cleaning agents including soap, but there was no shampoo or conditioner.
Because of this, Yuder had continued his research ever since seizing the Sun's Necklace from Leisegang, and at last he had succeeded in developing shampoo and conditioner good enough for commercial use.
'There's no woman uninterested in beauty.'
No, at least for upper-class women, they had no choice but to be interested even if they didn't want to be.
The reason Yuder had worked so desperately to develop shampoo and conditioner was simple: to use them as bargaining material when making contact with royalty or high-ranking nobles in the royal capital arc.
'It's working.'
Sylvia and the other discerning young ladies noticed the change that had occurred in Cordelia's hair.
What would happen if he approached them and offered shampoo and conditioner, saying they too could become the same?
And if he didn't give it to just anyone, but selectively gave it only to Cordelia's friends?
'I'll take control of this banquet.'
It may have started as Emma Pikers' birthday party, but I'll make the ending a fantastic debut stage for the new Cordelia.
And this was still only the beginning.
Yuder still had many things prepared.
First, Yuder himself.
"I am Yuder Bayel. I greet all the young ladies for the first time."
When Yuder stepped forward and offered his greetings, small groans and shrieks spread among the young ladies.
Yuder Bayel.
A man who occupied one of the top spots among Hero Legend 2's handsome male leads.
Since such a Yuder had deliberately dressed himself up, it was only natural for shrieks to spread among the women.
'And I matched too.'
Emma Pikers' fiancé's outfit and accessories. Even his hairstyle.
Yuder's intention worked this time as well, and Daren Philoff, like Emma Pikers, met the fate of becoming a crumpled squid.
'Still, it'd be a problem if they collapse this much.'
Not yet. I still have a lot prepared, so please don't crumple like this.
Perhaps Yuder's wish had reached her, because Emma Pikers gritted her teeth and stepped forward.
Forcing herself to maintain her expression, she welcomed Cordelia.
"Oh my, he truly is a wonderful person. It's no wonder Lady Cordelia left such a letter."
Such a letter.
Cordelia's repeated elopements.
In an instant, Cordelia's face turned red, and small murmurs spread among the young ladies. A little life also returned to Emma Pikers' face.
But Yuder still did not lose his wicked smile.
Because this was, of course, an anticipated development.
'It's about time.'
The people he had arranged for today.
Yuder counted the numbers inwardly, and at exactly the expected time, the sound of footsteps was heard.
"The Guardians of the Holy Cross have arrived."
No sooner had the flustered butler's voice ended than the elite of the Guardians of the Holy Cross, dressed in pure white vestments, entered the banquet hall.
"The Guardians of the Holy Cross?"
"Oh my, could it be they've come to celebrate Lady Emma's birthday?"
The Guardians of the Holy Cross, who protected the continent from demons.
Their renown was by no means low. In a sense, they were an organization with authority surpassing even the royal family.
At the appearance of the Guardians of the Holy Cross wearing ceremonial vestments rather than simple combat attire, everyone's gaze once again focused on one spot, and the holy knight of the Guardians of the Holy Cross who had become the center of that gaze—Sir Aindolph—advanced with unwavering posture toward his destination.
"Oh my, are they really here to celebrate Lady Emma's birthday?"
"The Guardians of the Holy Cross?"
Small voices spread among the young ladies, and both embarrassment and anticipation spread across Emma Pikers' face.
And then Sir Aindolph knelt and offered his respects.
Not before Emma Pikers, but before Cordelia.
"The Guardians of the Holy Cross greet the order's benefactor."
"We greet the benefactor."
When the order members positioned behind Sir Aindolph offered their respects all at once, it created a scene like a holy painting.
Cordelia turned to Yuder in bewilderment, and Yuder smiled slyly and said,
"Sir Aindolph, we merely did what was natural. Please rise. I'm sure Cordelia would wish the same."
At Yuder's words, Aindolph slowly rose to his feet.
At the same time, surprise, curiosity, and unbearable wonder spread across the young ladies' faces.
Why?
Why were the Guardians of the Holy Cross paying respects to Yuder and Cordelia?
But there was still more to be surprised about.
Yuder sent a signal to Cordelia, and Cordelia, though hesitating, proceeded with the plan as promised.
Angelification without bringing out her wings.
In an instant, Cordelia's aura changed.
She had already seemed like a goddess, but now true holiness began to emanate from her.
And the ones who most sensitively detected that change were the Guardians of the Holy Cross.
Sir Aindolph blinked without realizing it and let out admiration.
"A-an angel?"
Honestly, it was a production so cheesy that one could call it childish, but the effect was tremendous.
Because Cordelia had gained the title of a woman mistaken for an angel by none other than a holy knight of the Guardians of the Holy Cross.
"N-no. A-an angel, you say?"
Cordelia stammered with a completely red face, and Yuder's smile deepened.
The reason he had called the Guardians of the Holy Cross to this place, of all places.
The reason he had promised future cooperation and asked them to dispatch the Guardians of the Holy Cross here today.
To sweep away the various rumors spreading about Yuder and Cordelia.
To repackage them from delinquent youths who had simply fallen in love and repeatedly run away from home into heroes—heroes whose deeds were great enough for the Guardians of the Holy Cross to personally honor them, heroes who had fought demon worshippers for the north.
'Perfect.'
Receiving Yuder's gaze, Sir Aindolph began to speak before everyone about the exploits of Yuder and Cordelia in the north.
Of course, it was a story with much of the Wild Lands omitted and many parts adapted here and there, but it was enough to reverse public opinion.
'Excellent.'
Wearing a deep smile, Yuder turned toward Emma Pikers.
He was quite pleased to see her just blinking with a dazed face.
'There's no need to do anything more now.'
The rest could simply be left to the flow.
And it truly went as Yuder thought.
When the Guardians of the Holy Cross, led by Sir Aindolph, withdrew, Sylvia approached Cordelia, and Yuder advertised the shampoo and conditioner to Sylvia.
"You should try it too, Sylvia."
The moment Cordelia handed a small jar to Sylvia, another change occurred.
The young ladies who had only been glancing this way hesitantly began to approach.
From Emma Pikers to Cordelia Chase.
The center of attention at the banquet had completely shifted, and it remained that way until the event ended.
And in the late afternoon.
Yuder, looking at the banquet hall that had ended far earlier than scheduled, turned to Cordelia and asked,
"Were you satisfied, by any chance?"
At the shameless question, Cordelia narrowed her eyes and first kicked Yuder in the shin.
"Ow! Why?!"
"What do you mean, why?! Do you know how embarrassed I was?"
Especially when Sir Aindolph gasped, "An angel?!"
Her face turning red anew, Cordelia struck Yuder's chest with her dainty fists.
"I'm always the one who has to be embarrassed!"
You could at least tell me in advance!
"Heh heh, but didn't it turn out well?"
"That's exactly why it's more annoying!"
At Cordelia's words, Yuder chuckled and quickly moved his feet. In an instant, he shifted to Cordelia's side and pulled her slender waist into his arms.
"So, do you hate it?"
"No, I love it!"
Honestly, it was a little pitiful.
But anyway, all the irritation that had built up was released at once.
"As expected of my Yuder, right?"
"Yeah, yeah, my Yuder."
Cordelia laughed happily, then soon smoothed her hair and said,
"But Yuder."
"Yeah."
"You still have some shampoo and conditioner samples left, right? Besides the ones you're taking to the royal capital."
"I do?"
"Then let's give some to Emma too. Think of a way that won't hurt her feelings."
Because no matter how she thought about it, it seemed a little too harsh.
It was her birthday, after all.
At Cordelia's words, Yuder smiled again and nodded.
"If that's what you wish."
As expected, it wasn't for nothing that she carried the blood of an angel.
Satisfied with Cordelia's thoughtfulness, Yuder extended his hand to escort her, and Cordelia gently took Yuder's hand.
And then, about a week later.
Just as rumors about the shampoo and conditioner were spreading among the young ladies of the north.
Invitations to the founding anniversary celebration, marking the start of the royal-capital arc, arrived at the Count Bayel Household and the Count Chase Household.