Ending Maker Chapter 131
Ending Maker Chapter 131
Chapter 49 - Journey to the Royal Capital
After the birthday banquet that could only be described as a Cordelia massacre.
Quite naturally, all hell broke loose at the Count Pikers Household.
"I'm so annoyed! I said I'm annoyed!"
Emma Pikers's personality was not as quiet and cute as her small, lovely appearance suggested.
If you compared her to a dog, she was closer to a chihuahua that couldn't control its temper and went wild.
She did more than break, tear, and destroy everything in her room—she even struck the maids. The commotion was so severe that word of what had happened at the birthday banquet inevitably reached Count Pikers.
"Explain it to me in a bit more detail."
Count Pikers, who had his youngest daughter at the age of forty, was a large man with a fierce appearance.
At his irritated question, the head butler broke out in a cold sweat and explained what had happened at the banquet.
The Cordelia massacre.
And because of it, Emma Pikers, who should have been the star of the banquet, had been reduced to a nobody.
After hearing the full explanation, Count Pikers burst out laughing. Then he smashed the ornaments on his desk, knocked over the bookcase in his study, and roared in fury.
"How dare they pull that kind of stunt in my house?!"
Where did Emma Pikers's nasty personality come from? From Count Pikers's genes and upbringing, of course.
Count Pikers flew into a rage, and the servants, including the head butler, had to endure miserable days under immense stress.
After hearing all of this, Yuder spoke with a deeply satisfied smile.
"So what are they gonna do about it?"
Besides getting pissed and wrecking their own household, what could they actually do?
At Yuder's confident attitude, Cordelia narrowed her brows and asked, somewhat timidly,
"Will nothing really happen?"
Because the Count Pikers Household's influence was considerable.
Looking at sheer wealth alone, the gap was so large that it was questionable whether the Count Bayel Household and Count Chase Household combined would even amount to half of the Count Pikers Household.
If the Count Pikers Household tried to do something terrible to the Count Chase Household or the Count Bayel Household.......
Just imagining it was dreadful, so Cordelia's face grew even more gloomy, and Yuder shook his head.
He lightly pinched Cordelia's cheek and said,
"That won't happen. Touch us? As if they could. They won't be able to do anything, I'm telling you."
"For real?"
"For real. I'll explain why."
Yuder took a seat next to Cordelia, who was sitting quietly on the sofa with her shoulders hunched, and began explaining step by step.
"First of all, they have no justification."
"No justification? Even though we completely ruined the party?"
"Yeah, because of how the banquet was ruined. Think about it. Where could they even go to complain? 'Cordelia Chase was so goddess-like in her beauty that our daughter was completely overshadowed. Isn't that too much?!' Something like that."
That was true. One way or another, the fundamental reason the banquet had been ruined was simply that Cordelia was overwhelmingly prettier than Emma.
"Should they go to your father and demand like this? 'Your daughter is too pretty! What are we supposed to do if she's goddess-like pretty! Our daughter is suffering because of your daughter's heavenly beauty! Explain why she's so pretty! Explain it!'"
As Yuder clenched his fist and spoke, Cordelia's face instantly flushed red. She understood his point, but the praise was incredibly embarrassing.
"Or should they go to my father and demand? 'Why is the girl who's going to be your daughter-in-law so pretty? Why is she so pretty that she's driving a nail into our daughter's heart?'"
"S-stop......."
"Or to other nobles? 'Cordelia Chase's beauty is like that of a heavenly goddess—what kind of atrocity is this? How can a person be born with such beauty and crush our daughter's spirit?'"
"Stooop......."
"Or to the neighbors—'Cordelia's beauty reaches the heavens—.'"
"You crazy bastard, I said stop! Silence!"
Cordelia, her face red as if about to burst, cast a silence spell, and Yuder quickly tore a scroll to dispel the magic.
"Dispel."
"What the?!"
"Whoa, whoa, calm down."
As Yuder tickled under Cordelia's chin like soothing a puppy, it took effect immediately.
Cordelia narrowed her eyes and began to growl.
"Anyway, they have no justification. You understand why they have no justification, right, Cordelia?"
At Yuder's question, Cordelia nodded, even with her reddened face.
It was certainly not something they could complain about to anyone.
And actually, there was one more reason that Yuder didn't mention.
Because Emma Pikers's becoming a nobody wasn't only due to Cordelia's beauty.
'A superior version'
Every last piece of clothing and jewelry Yuder and Cordelia wore outclassed what Emma Pikers and her fiancé had.
How could they complain about that?
If the two heirs of the Count Bayel and Count Chase households possessed far finer jewelry, it implied that the Count Pikers Household stood below both of them.
It was something they could never complain about, no matter what.
"And the Count Bayel Household and Count Chase Household are by no means easy targets. If you consider military strength alone, they're among the upper ranks of the Twelve Northern Houses. Picking a fight with two households like that? Even if the Count Pikers Household is doing well, that's overreaching."
Of course, the royal family would never stand by and watch a clash between the Twelve Northern Houses, so the likelihood of direct bloodshed was low, but if push came to shove, the sword was another thing they could wield.
From the Count Pikers Household's perspective, the formidable military strength of the Count Bayel Household and Count Chase Household could only be a burden.
"They could subtly apply commercial pressure, but...... as you know, our Baylun isn't a frontier city for nothing. Our main trading partner is Langesthei anyway."
The Count Pikers Household was a master of trade, but that didn't mean they controlled the entire north.
"In other words, even if Count Pikers flies into a rage, all he can do is break some of his own household goods. He can't harm us—more precisely, he can't harm our family members. So don't worry. Got it?"
"Yeah."
As Cordelia answered with a faint smile, as if somewhat relieved, Yuder also smiled, as if satisfied.
"Anything else you're curious about?"
"Uh...... yeah. About the shampoo and conditioner."
"Oh, what about them?"
"How did you make them? No, why do you know how to make them?"
Cordelia had simply accepted Yuder's former-life occupation without thinking much about it until now.
What on earth could it be?
What kind of person had he been to know how to make not only Detonating Cord, but shampoo and conditioner as well?
As Cordelia narrowed her eyes for the first time in a while and asked sharply, Yuder shrugged and answered.
"A friend taught me."
"Was your friend a chemical factory worker?"
"No, he was a business partner, and he had a hobby in this kind of thing."
Yuder briefly recalled his old friend's face, as if missing him, and continued.
"He taught me in case I ever ended up somewhere without shampoo and conditioner. So it stayed in my memory palace too."
He said it as if it were nothing, but Cordelia frowned.
Because it sounded strange no matter how she heard it.
'In case he ended up somewhere without shampoo and conditioner?'
Where would that be?
"Did your friend predict you'd be reborn in a game world or something?"
"No, no way. He probably just prepared for going to some remote place."
At the word "remote place," Yuder and Cordelia pictured completely different places, but since the two of them could communicate with their eyes yet couldn't know each other's mental images, the conversation didn't go on any longer.
"Then what about the Detonating Cord?"
"That too, just, you know, from my job?"
"What was your job? Were you really a spy? Were you 007?"
Before, she had thought it was ridiculous nonsense, but the more she looked at him, the more she felt it might actually be true.
First of all, Yuder was strange—too strange.
Even setting aside the absurd Yuder Wiki based on his memory palace, he was definitely not an ordinary person.
'Where in the world is there an ordinary person who habitually sets traps around his sleeping area?'
If there was, he'd be a lunatic.
On top of that, Yuder knew how to make explosives such as Detonating Cord, and he was skilled at schemes and plots.
'And he's good at gathering information.'
How on earth did he know what clothes Emma Pikers and her fiancé would wear and what accessories they would put on?
'Putting it all together.......'
Spy, 007, legendary mercenary.
They were all occupations that sounded as though they belonged in a comic, yet Cordelia's eyes began to shine with both excitement and conviction.
"There's a...... possibility!"
"I can tell what you're imagining, but I'm not telling you, okay?"
"No, whyyyy!"
"Then what were you?"
"Huh?"
"I'm asking what kind of person you were. Don't you know give and take?"
At Yuder's words, Cordelia flinched for a moment, then stammered and averted her gaze.
'Ugh, what do I do?'
Should she just say it outright?
That she was a student?
But if she did that.......
'I might have to speak formally to Yuder!'
Actually, the real reason wasn't about formal speech.
It was a vague uneasiness.
The current relationship that might change if they fully revealed their past lives to each other.
"Should we say it at the same time on the count of three?"
"I don't want to."
"Huh? You don't want to?"
"Yeah, I don't want to."
Cordelia pressed her lips shut, and Yuder blinked, but soon smiled.
"Okay, let's not then."
"Mm."
Cordelia, who had suddenly become docile, pouted her lips and then brought up a different topic.
"But Yuder."
"Yeah, Cordelia."
"Why aren't you making the shampoo and conditioner into products?"
The morning after the shampoo and conditioner were first unveiled at the banquet.
Sylvia Crossbell appeared with her glossy hair flowing and proposed commercializing the shampoo and conditioner.
"This will sell! It'll definitely sell!"
Sylvia, of all people—the very embodiment of elegance—shouted in excitement, but Yuder rejected her proposal without a moment's hesitation.
Why had he done that?
Even Cordelia herself thought that if they made it, it would sell well.
"Because we need to use it in the royal capital."
"What does using it in the royal capital have to do with not selling it in the north?"
"It has a lot to do with it."
Having said that much, Yuder stood up and continued his explanation.
"One way or another, the north is ultimately the north. From the royal capital's perspective, it's the boonies, so to speak."
At Yuder's words, Cordelia, who was born in the north, pouted her lips, but no matter what, facts were facts.
"Try thinking from the perspective of the high-ranking people and royalty in the royal capital. If they accepted and used something that was trending in the boonies...... wouldn't that look bad?"
"You're saying they don't want to adopt a backwater trend?"
"To put it bluntly, yes. And it also includes the trend of their inferiors......."
"That's annoying."
"But you understand, right?"
"I understand, and that's why it's annoying."
She felt like she roughly understood what he meant.
He was saying that in order to make shampoo and conditioner trendy in the royal capital, they first needed to hold back.
"Then after making it trendy in the royal capital?"
"We'll make it trendy nationwide and make a solid profit. Then I'll buy our princess lots of delicious things, lots of pretty things, and treat her well."
"Hmph."
Cordelia composed her expression as though she did not care, but her eyes gave her away. She seemed quite pleased.
"Now, anyway, the invitation from the royal capital will arrive soon, and all we have to do is head there."
Yuder had been too sickly to make the trip, but Cordelia went to the royal capital with Count Chase every year for the Founding Anniversary celebrations.
Because it was a precious opportunity to meet Adelia, who was working in the royal capital.
"Do you think they'll allow us to leave first?"
"It'll be possible if we use the Guardians of the Holy Cross as an excuse. That's also why we made contact with them this time."
Yuder and Cordelia had absolutely no intention of just quietly going to the royal capital.
They needed to clear every quest along the road from Baylun to the royal capital and power up along the way.
"We absolutely have to stop at the Temple of Life and Akeiman's Dungeon in particular."
They were places where the items needed for Yuder's and Cordelia's respective power-ups lay dormant.
"We also need to find clues to meet Fran."
At Cordelia's words, Yuder immediately nodded.
The two of them had gathered rough information from Lena about the locations of the remaining two of the five heroes, the druid Fran and the necromancer Velkian.
"Do you think Lena is doing well?"
"She's probably fine. Maybe by now she's even met her master."
Lena, who had left for the southern part of the Saelun Kingdom to meet Landius.
Cordelia took out the feather ornament Lena had given her.
It was a token proving she was Lena's friend, something she had received to reassure Fran and Velkian when they met them.
"On the way, we'll clear quests, find traces of Fran and Velkian if possible, and arrive in the royal capital first to do groundwork. We're going to be very busy."
"Mm...... okay. Cordelia will follow along, so our Yuder can do the thinking. Got it?"
"Yes, my lady. I shall serve you well."
Yuder, who had bowed exaggeratedly as if acting in a play, held out his hand to Cordelia.
"Anyway, if the conversation is over, shall we get going?"
"Yes, young master."
Cordelia, who had deliberately answered demurely, took Yuder's hand and stood up.
Their destination was Count Bayel's study.
It was to get permission to depart for the royal capital first.
* * *
A few days later, in a completely different place.
Soluzia, a high-ranking Demonic Human of the Devil's Hand, let out a faint smile.
"You've finally returned."
Yuder Bayel and Cordelia Chase.
The two who had fled across the border to the Wild Lands had returned to the north.
"Shall we strike this time?"
At the question from her trusted subordinate Kanos, Soluzia slowly nodded.
"We'll target the two heading for the royal capital."
While they were returning to Baylun, Count Chase himself had accompanied them, so they hadn't even dared to touch them, but if the two set out traveling alone again, the story changed.
'Foolish things.......'
Did they think the Devil's Hand would give up so easily?
Or did they mistakenly believe that after one trip to a distant place, they had become completely independent from the past?
Either way, it didn't matter.
All she had to do was get her hands on the two of them—offerings who were utterly foolish, yet irresistibly sweet.
"What will you do? Will you personally take action this time as well?"
"No, I must shake the Guardians of the Holy Cross. Dispatch three mid-ranking Demonic Humans."
Yuder and Cordelia each had strength equivalent to a low-ranking Demonic Human.
That was how strong they had been when she last met them, so how much stronger could they possibly have become in only a month?
Three mid-ranking Demonic Humans was a truly excessive allocation, carrying the will to absolutely not fail.
"I shall carry out your orders."
As Kanos bowed and left the room, Soluzia, now alone, opened the Demon Register.
It was to decide which demon to summon with Cordelia as the offering.
'It's an exaggerated story anyway.'
The exploits that Yuder and Cordelia had supposedly performed beyond the border.
Soluzia knew that the Devil's Eye, which had occupied the Wild Lands, had suffered a major defeat, but she did not know exactly how it had happened.
'They must have earned some merit.'
But even so, what two people with the strength of low-ranking Demonic Humans could do was obvious.
The truly important matters must have been resolved by Count Chase and Count Hraesvelgr.
'I'll make you regret it.'
Regret not being caught sooner, regret not becoming offerings earlier.
A faint smile spread across Soluzia's face.
It was not because she had found the perfect demon to summon using Cordelia as the offering.
It was the Boss's trust she would regain once she captured the two of them.
And the position she would firmly secure once again.
'I hope that day comes soon.'
The day when Yuder and Cordelia set out on their journey toward the royal capital.
With her smile deepening slightly, Soluzia turned her gaze back to the Demon Register.
She moved her long, slender fingers and turned a page of the Demon Register.