Ending Maker Chapter 19
Ending Maker Chapter 19
Chapter 4 — Holy Staff #4
Time passed.
Yuder and Cordelia opened their eyes, and instead of the fairies' banquet hall, the two found themselves in a valley in the middle of the night.
"Achoo!"
When Yuder, who had been dazed for a moment, sneezed, Cordelia snapped back to her senses and looked around.
"The valley? We're back? The banquet's over, right?"
At the remark that openly dripped with desperation, Yuder nodded.
"Yeah, it's the valley. The banquet's over. It's over!"
"Whoa! It's over! It's over!"
Cordelia, who had been bouncing up and down in the water, threw her arms around Yuder, and Yuder likewise embraced Cordelia, feeling both emotion and relief at the same time.
Twelve hours.
That was how long Yuder and Cordelia had spent in the fairies' banquet hall after meeting the Fairy Queen.
"Ugh, I'm never singing Little Star again, just watch."
Cordelia said with a shudder, as if she were sick to death of it.
It hadn't been five or six times—she'd belted it out dozens of times. And Little Star wasn't the only song she'd sung.
"Yellow Storm."
"What?"
"You only know nursery rhymes, don't you?"
Because after Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, the next thing she'd sung was Three Bears.
Cordelia snorted and said,
"No way. I know plenty of other songs. I was just matching the fairies' level."
"Sure, well, it was cute."
Truthfully, Yuder himself could count on one hand the pop songs he could sing all the way through.
When Yuder grinned and let it slide, Cordelia shoved him hard out of the embrace and grumbled.
"Anyway, I seriously thought I was going to die. In the game it just says 'Time passed' and skips right over it, so I didn't know, but this is absolutely not something a person should have to do."
"Agreed."
Playing with dozens of fairies—how should he put it? It felt like looking after dozens of beagles at once.
Cordelia, who'd sung endlessly, had it bad enough, but Yuder had also been put through the wringer among the fairies who liked handsome faces.
"Even the Fairy Queen was still a fairy."
"Right?"
The image of her smiling elegantly while egging on the fairies who were trying to strip Yuder's clothes off was still vivid in his mind.
He supposed he should be grateful she hadn't joined in herself.
"Hah."
"Hoo."
Yuder and Cordelia let out sighs almost at the same time, then without either of them starting it, they both burst into laughter.
"Either way."
"Mission clear."
The two slapped their palms together with a clap and each turned to inspect their own spoils.
What Cordelia had obtained was the Holy Staff, Moonlight.
It was an item that could convert moonlight into mana and store it, making it extremely useful equipment for mages who inevitably suffered from chronic mana deficiency.
'It even has a built-in finishing move of sorts.'
In fact, the reason Yuder had insisted on securing Moonlight was precisely that finishing move.
It was certain to play a major role in the fight against Devil's Hand.
'And Fairy's Footsteps.'
As he gazed at the silver ring on his right index finger, a smile naturally spread across his face.
At Yuder's current level, once a day was the limit, but even that was something to be grateful for.
It was practically like gaining an extra life.
"Hehe, the Bicorn is still there, right?"
"He's fine."
Because while twelve hours had passed in the fairies' banquet hall, only a few dozen seconds had passed in reality.
Yuder and Cordelia looked toward where the Bicorn had fallen. Seeing its corpse half-floating in the water, they wore expressions mixing joy and awkwardness.
The reason was simple.
"Um...... we have to extract it from there, right?"
At Cordelia's question, Yuder nodded.
"Unlike in the game, loot doesn't drop automatically."
But that also had its good points.
Kill a Bicorn and you get two horns.
This perfectly obvious outcome was something that often didn't happen in the game.
'Most of the time, killing a Bicorn yields either no horns or only one.'
In reality, on the other hand, you could obtain not just the horns but everything else as well.
"Don't worry too much. The knights will handle the harvesting."
"Right. We're both scions of count households, aren't we?"
It was a moment when Cordelia tasted the sweetness of power anew.
"My lady! Young master!"
"Where are you! Young master!"
"My lady!"
The knights' voices came from afar.
They'd set off a monstrous light and even booms, so it would have been strange if no one had noticed.
"My lady! Where are you! Lady Cordelia!"
"Young master Yuder!"
Dahlia's and Maia's voices drew closer, and Cordelia made a face like she was about to cry, then turned to Yuder and said,
"We're......."
"Yeah, we're."
"We're going to get chewed out, aren't we?"
"We are."
There was no way they wouldn't.
They hadn't just sneaked out alone—they'd gone and fallen into the water and caused a whole commotion.
"Don't worry, Cordelia."
"Huh? Do you have some brilliant plan to avoid getting yelled at?"
"No, just......."
"Just?"
"Giving up makes it easier."
Yuder smiled brightly, and Cordelia raised her middle finger.
* * *
Yuder and Cordelia did, in fact, get yelled at a lot.
Sir Zibek, a knight from the Count Chase Household who was in charge of the party's journey, brandished letters of delegation from Count Bayel and Count Chase and issued Yuder and Cordelia a "ban on leaving the carriage."
"If the two of you need private time that badly, I will arrange it for you."
Before Sir Zibek, who spoke with the utmost seriousness, Yuder and Cordelia could only hang their heads.
But in truth, it wasn't such a bad thing.
There was no longer any reason to go outside during the journey to Langesthei anyway.
If anything, having just the two of them in the carriage like this was better for discussing their future plans.
'I do feel a bit sorry for Dahlia, though.'
Dahlia, who had been severely scolded by Sir Zibek for forgetting her duty as an escort and once again exposing the two to danger, had even been hit with a pay cut.
Cordelia had defended her earnestly, but there was nothing to be done.
'Still...... at least public opinion is favorable, I guess.'
By public opinion here, he meant the knights of the Count Bayel Household and the Count Chase Household.
In fact, ever since the previous daytime escape, rumors had spread about how deeply Yuder and Cordelia adored each other, so this latest trip to the valley wasn't all that surprising.
What the knights focused on was the fact that Yuder and Cordelia had taken down a Bicorn together.
"Young master, you've truly become strong."
"Heh, so the young master did inherit the count's martial talent after all."
In the memories of the knights who served the Count Bayel Household, Yuder had always been a sickly invalid who couldn't even go outside freely.
But now that Yuder had not only become considerably healthier but had also taken down a Bicorn—not even a goblin—it was only natural for them to be moved.
Jun in particular was so happy that he even wrote a letter to send to the count household in haste.
The knights of the Count Chase Household were happy for a slightly different reason. Rather than the fact that Cordelia had brought down a Bicorn with Yuder, they focused more on the fact that "Yuder had become strong."
Cordelia was the flower and youngest child of the household, beloved by everyone in the Count Chase Household.
And the Yuder whom that Cordelia was to marry had always been a sickly invalid, so although no one said it openly, everyone had been full of concern, worry, and dissatisfaction.
But now that Yuder was showing a fairly dependable side, how could they not be pleased?
Sir Zibek, too, after scolding Yuder and Cordelia thoroughly, immediately wrote a letter to Count Chase.
"He's finally starting to grow on me."
It was a short, emphatic assessment, and exactly how Sir Zibek truly felt.
In any case, once things were more or less settled, another half day passed.
Yuder was sick in the carriage.
"It's a cold."
As Cordelia had succinctly diagnosed, Yuder had caught a cold.
Falling into the valley water on an autumn night and flailing around had been a problem, but the biggest cause was walking around while wet.
"Ugh......."
Yuder lay stretched out on the carriage seat, covered with a blanket and with a wet towel on his head, drifting in and out of consciousness, and Cordelia clicked her tongue.
"I didn't catch one."
So what was he supposed to do about that?
Yuder was racking his aching brain over how to counter when—
"I'll change your towel."
Cordelia changed Yuder's towel herself, then wiped the sweat from the visible parts of his forehead and neck.
"Th...... thanks......."
"Yeah, yeah."
"If only...... my Nine Yin...... Meridian...... Blockage...... were cured......."
"Yeah, yeah, then you'd hug me and carry me on your back and climb over walls for me and stand in the front line for me and nurse me when I'm sick, right?"
As Cordelia rattled on without pause, Yuder wore a blank expression, and Cordelia soon laughed softly.
"I remember all of it, so you'd better be ready, okay?"
Apparently, she was quite pleased with her own counterattack against Yuder.
"For now, don't think about anything and just sleep."
After tidying the towel and sitting back down, Cordelia opened a book, and Yuder watched her for a moment before closing his eyes.
And then, late afternoon came again.
Yuder, who had barely managed to open his eyes, shook Cordelia awake where she sat dozing across from him.
"Hey, hey. Wake up. Stop drooling."
"Huh?"
Cordelia snapped her head up and flailed as she wiped away the drool that had been trickling down.
'She really is pretty.'
Even drooling and flailing, she was pretty.
After letting his mind wander for a moment, Yuder looked out the carriage window and continued.
"Let's start talking about work."
"Ugh, yeah. Hoo...... You feeling okay?"
Cordelia, who had shaken her head to clear it, asked as she opened the cap of her waterskin.
"Yeah, I slept deeply and I think I'm better. This thing's working too."
When he lifted the Sun's Necklace hanging around his neck slightly, Cordelia let out a hollow laugh and said,
"What is it, Nine Yin Meridian Blockage 2?"
"Huh?"
"I said it's a miracle cure-all."
After they'd traded a certain amount of nonsense, both of them were in the right frame of mind to talk.
Yuder sat back down and opened his own waterskin as he spoke.
"At this rate, we'll probably arrive in Langesthei in three days."
Even at a leisurely pace, it was a distance that required several days of carriage travel, so both of them had come quite far from their hometown of Baylun.
Cordelia counted on her fingers, then blinked and said,
"Uh... then that's about four days before the event starts?"
"Probably."
Currently, Yuder and Cordelia were moving on a schedule about a day ahead of Cordelia in the main scenario.
The event in Langesthei.
If you counted all the big and small ones, there were more than ten, but the event Cordelia was talking about now was only one.
The first main event of Cordelia's main scenario: the "Devil's Hand Raid Incident."
The original story went like this.
The underage children of the Twelve Northern Houses gathered in the commercial city of Langesthei.
Just as Yuder had originally been scheduled to be absent, it wasn't an event where all of the twelve families' children gathered.
Quite a few families were absent for reasons such as having no underage children or being too busy with matters at their main houses.
In Cordelia's main scenario, the number of participating families was exactly half: six.
With Yuder added on top of that, seven families would now be gathering.
"Langesthei doesn't belong to any of the twelve families' territories."
And that was precisely why it had been chosen as the venue for the twelve families' children's social gathering.
Not all of the Twelve Northern Houses were on good terms with one another.
In the end, they were simply the twelve strongest families in the north; there was no great bond or solidarity between them.
Depending on where they were located, some of the twelve families were rivals, and in severe cases, some had even established outright hostile relations.
'We're the exception.'
Engagements between the twelve families were common enough, being political marriages, but families that were truly on good terms like the Count Bayel Household and the Count Chase Household could be counted on one hand.
"Anyway, as you know, this event is brutal from the start. It's a story where you're meant to get beaten... I mean, it's a scenario designed for you to lose."
In the original scenario, the Devil's Hand raid was supposed to succeed.
They committed atrocities, killing some of the children of the Twelve Northern Houses, kidnapping others, and even using them as sacrifices for demon summoning.
The world of Hero Legend 2 was a world heading toward Armageddon—in a word, a world heading toward ruin—and one of the starting points of that was the Devil's Hand Raid Incident.
As Yuder continued speaking, Cordelia's expression grew darker.
"Can we really stop this?"
It was a slightly odd thing to say, but Cordelia liked Cordelia.
In other words, she had played Cordelia multiple times back in her Yellow Storm days.
Because of that, Yellow Storm knew how brutal the Devil's Hand Raid Incident was. The number of personnel mobilized for the raid alone easily exceeded a hundred.
She had even secured Moonlight for today, but she doubted whether Yuder's and her own strength alone would be enough to stop this event.
"Wouldn't it be better to just cancel the event itself?"
"How?"
When Yuder asked, Cordelia opened her mouth, then closed it again. Nothing in particular came to mind.
Even if Yuder and Cordelia talked about the Devil's Hand Raid Incident together, it was doubtful anyone would believe them.
And making some other excuse to wreck the social gathering itself was also unreasonable. If anything, there was a high chance that only Yuder and Cordelia would end up kicked out of the gathering.
Because there was no clear evidence that the Devil's Hand Raid Incident would occur.
Moreover, if they clumsily disbanded it, things could actually get tangled up worse.
Devil's Hand might attack the twelve families' children individually, after all.
"Ugh."
As Cordelia clutched her head in distress, Yuder clicked his tongue and unfolded a piece of paper.
"I have an idea."
"What kind of idea?"
"A good idea."
"The f**k?"
When Cordelia bristled, Yuder snickered, then set his pen to the paper and continued.
"First, let's do this."
Yuder himself and Cordelia—a method only the two rotten fossils in this world could pull off.
Yuder began his explanation, and Cordelia, who had been listening intently, opened her eyes wide.
A bright smile spread across her face.