Ending Maker Chapter 21
Ending Maker Chapter 21
Chapter 5 — Devil's Hand #2
A great many things happened overnight.
Recognizing the gravity of the situation, Sir Barua, commander of the Blue Lion Knights, mobilized not only the knight order but also the ordinary soldiers of the Langesthei city guard and struck six Devil’s Hand branches simultaneously.
At this point, the Devil's Hand had no way to hold out.
They had infiltrated over a hundred personnel, but those people had been scattered across twelve branches in a cell-based structure, so each branch had only around ten members.
Overwhelmed by sheer numbers, the Devil's Hand branches were literally destroyed one by one.
As a result, six branches were annihilated.
One branch had caught on to the situation and fled, but six out of seven had been wiped out—a truly tremendous achievement.
And this meant that the Devil's Hand had suffered a devastating blow.
"How—how in the world did this happen?!"
A forest near Langesthei.
A middle-aged man with a bulging belly erupted in fury inside a forester's cabin.
Baron Edgar.
One of the three wealthiest men in Langesthei, and one of the Devil's Hand's longtime patrons.
"Seven branches were wiped out in a single night! Do you have any idea how much money I spent to get those people in?!"
Moreover, the people he had infiltrated this time were no rabble. Every one of them was a combat operative, so the damage the Devil's Hand had suffered from this incident was truly enormous.
"My apologies. We are still investigating the cause."
Under Baron Edgar’s pressure, the demon worshipper disguised as a forester bowed his head again and again.
In truth, he was just as baffled.
The Blue Lion Knights had known the locations of the branches far too precisely.
"Ugh, damn it all. What happened to the remaining branches?"
"Moving now would be more dangerous, so I had them hide somewhere other than the branches."
"Ah...... my blood pressure....... Sir Minos, can the operation still proceed like this?"
Baron Edgar, who had been venting his anger at the forester, turned and asked the last person seated inside the cabin.
Minos, the Demonic Human.
A man sent from Devil’s Hand headquarters to take overall command of this attack.
With skin so white it was pale and silver hair tinged with blue, he looked like a young man barely twenty years old—but a Demonic Human who had taken a demon into his body could never be judged by appearance alone.
Dressed in the aristocratic attire befitting his cover identity as Baron Edgar's nephew, he spoke with a cold smile.
"Baron Edgar, it is not a question of whether we can proceed. We will proceed."
Five of the twelve remained.
More than half their forces had been broken, but the option of calling off the attack did not exist.
Baron Edgar flinched involuntarily at Minos's glassy, gleaming eyes, then clamped his mouth shut and stepped back.
If he kept running his mouth, he felt he would be in serious trouble.
Minos gave a small laugh at Baron Edgar's behavior. The man was loud and frivolous, but he did like that one quality—his ability to read the room.
"First, we have obtained some information on our side as well."
At Minos's low words, Baron Edgar perked up his ears with interest again, though he did not press for more—perhaps still cowed.
The forester likewise merely swallowed dryly and waited for what came next.
Minos narrowed his brow slightly and continued.
"This morning, Yuder Bayel, the second son of Count Bayel, and Cordelia Chase, the second daughter of Count Chase, arrived in Langesthei."
Minos had come to Langesthei in the first place to attack the gathering of the twelve families.
It was only natural that he kept a sharp watch on the comings and goings of the twelve families' children.
"As soon as they secured lodgings, they headed for the knight order headquarters. And then the Blue Lion Knights began raiding the branches."
The timing was far too exquisite to dismiss as unrelated events.
Baron Edgar exclaimed with a fuss.
"Hah! You mean those brats passed information about our branches to the Blue Lion Knights? How in the world?"
The Count Bayel and Count Chase households were located in faraway Baylun, several days by carriage from Langesthei.
How could two count households located there get their hands on information about the Devil's Hand branches infiltrating Langesthei?
Minos could not figure that out either.
And so he decided.
"We capture them."
Yuder and Cordelia.
They would find out how the two of them had obtained the Devil's Hand's information.
Minos was the only one who knew the exact locations of the Devil's Hand branches infiltrating Langesthei.
Yet seven locations had been exposed, if not all twelve.
How in the world had they found out?
Had they gotten their hands on some means of locating them?
"We'll know once we catch them."
There were any number of ways to toy with a fragile human mind, after all.
Moreover, Cordelia had been one of the two most important targets of this attack from the very beginning.
They were merely waiting until the day of the gathering to seize both at once—she was prey they had to capture anyway.
'I'm looking forward to it.'
What secrets were hidden in those two? What kind of screams would a girl born as a young lady of the twelve families and raised gently let out?
Minos smiled whitely and straightened his posture.
As he himself had told Baron Edgar, the option of canceling the attack did not exist.
No matter the sacrifice, carrying out the main branch's mission was the duty of a sword of the main branch such as himself.
"Two nights from now, we execute the plan as scheduled."
With a slight modification.
Minos turned to look out the window. His glassy eyes gleamed in the moonlight.
* * *
Cordelia looked up at the sky.
As if to make up for the dim moonlight, the clear night sky was full of stars.
"Haaah."
But what came out of Cordelia's mouth was not a clear, pure exclamation of wonder—it was a sigh steeped in exhaustion.
"My legs hurt."
They had been moving around all day long.
In the morning, they had gone to raid the branches with the Blue Lion Knights; in the afternoon, to meet the mages from the Red Dawn Tower.
Even Dahlia and Jun, trained knights, were worn out—so Cordelia, a mage, needed no further explanation.
And that meant.......
"No reaction. Guess he's just a corpse."
Cordelia poked Yuder's shoulder as he lay collapsed like a dead man on the long chair on the balcony, giggling. Yuder spoke without moving.
"Wanna die?"
"Look at you talking. You've got a real filthy mouth."
As Cordelia clicked her tongue, Yuder opened his eyes out of sheer indignation.
"Hey, who's got a filthy mouth?"
"You."
Cordelia answered shamelessly, nudged Yuder's legs aside with light taps, and sat down at the end of the long chair.
"Anyway, I'm glad it went well."
"Yeah."
The mages of the Red Dawn Tower had been more cooperative than expected.
All four mages they met today had not only promised their cooperation but had even offered to spread the word to those around them.
"So this is the sweetness of money and power."
Combining the status of a peerless beauty and the tower master's daughter with the financial resources of a count household had produced results beyond imagination.
"Maybe they just helped because they were worried."
"That'd be even better."
Of course, there was no way that was the case.
Well, a peerless beauty pleading might have stirred some sympathy, but without Cordelia's status and the money Yuder offered, not even one of the four would have agreed.
Mages belonged to the social elite, and moving such people required a commensurate price.
"Anyway, what matters is that Phase 2 succeeded too."
Among the four mages persuaded today was the Fire Mage Ronin.
He was a character you encountered at least once when following the mage path in Hero Legend 2, and as his epithet suggested, he was a promising talent in fire magic.
Was he even thirty?
He seemed weak to women, and the way he floundered under Cordelia's pleas had been quite a sight.
"Minos handles ice and cold. Ronin is his perfect counter."
Strictly speaking, Minos was not a mage.
He was a Demonic Human who had taken a demon into his body and become half-human, half-demon, capable of wielding the various supernatural powers granted by the demon.
"He's closer to a magic swordsman. Can Ronin handle him?"
"Well, Ronin isn't the only one we have on our side."
Sir Barua, commander of the Blue Lion Knights, was no figurehead.
Having come to harbor doubts about Langesthei's public order itself because of this branch search operation, he would not simply overlook the gathering of the twelve families, of all things.
'He won't be able to cancel it, so he'll probably dispatch a few knights on the day.'
Knights were knights for a reason.
Dahlia alone could handle more than ten ordinary soldiers by herself.
"And there are the other twelve families' kids too."
He meant the escort forces their families would have sent with them, rather than the children themselves.
They were the twelve houses, after all; of course each family had assigned capable fighters.
Cordelia nodded at Yuder's words, but then shook her head and clenched her fist.
"Still, we can't let our guard down. In the game, everyone brought escort forces too, but they got wrecked in the end."
"Right, good mindset. But don't worry too much. That's exactly why we prepared Phase 1 and Phase 2, isn't it?"
Cut the enemy’s strength in half and bolster their own side.
With both Phase 1 and Phase 2 proceeding smoothly, the situation was far better than in the game.
"Good, then let's do Phase 3 now."
Cordelia's eyes sparkled as she asked. They were full of anticipation.
That was only natural, since Yuder still hadn't told her what Phase 3 was.
"Well...... about that."
"Yeah, about that."
"Actually, Phase 3 is already almost finished... or should I say?"
"Huh? What's Phase 3?"
As Cordelia's eyes went wide, Yuder answered with a bitter smile.
"Narrowing it down."
"Narrowing it down?"
"Yeah. In the original, the attack itself was literally a surprise attack, and the Devil's Hand had a lot of people, right?"
"Ah, I think I get what you mean. You're talking about the attack targets, right?"
"Right, the attack targets."
In the original, the number of twelve-family children gathered at the social gathering was seven including Cordelia, and the Devil's Hand had made all seven their attack targets.
"Their ultimate goal is demon summoning, after all."
Even kidnapping the twelve families' children to sow chaos in the north was, in truth, only a secondary objective.
The easiest way to summon a demon was human sacrifice, but a high-ranking demon was not summoned simply by having a large number of offerings.
'The caliber has to match.'
To summon a high-ranking demon, one had to offer a sacrifice of corresponding value, and from the perspective of human sacrifice, the twelve families' children were all appetizing prey.
'All twelve houses carry angelic blood to varying degrees.'
The nobles of Pleiades were not just nobles in name—they were truly special beings.
Of course, that angelic blood came from centuries ago and had grown extremely diluted, but it was angelic blood nonetheless.
Atavism sometimes produced people in whom the angelic blood awakened strongly, and there were such heirs among the twelve houses.
"Their forces have been cut in half. So they won't be able to target all of the twelve families' children like in the game. They'll concentrate their remaining strength on the one person they absolutely must secure."
"And we stick close to that one person?"
"Right, that's Phase 3."
Weaken the enemy, strengthen the allies, and focus defense on the target the enemy aims for.
"So who is it? You said it's already almost finished."
At Cordelia's question, Yuder smiled bitterly and looked at Cordelia anew.
"You've probably already figured it out, but considering the original story, there are two people who could be their target."
Two people.
By now, Cordelia had a guess too.
She let out a long sigh, then narrowed her brow and spoke.
"Cordelia and Lucas."
"Correct."
If Yuder had been born with the Nine Yin Meridian Blockage and the Heavenly Martial Body, Cordelia had been born with a clear, noble soul and the blood of a high-ranking angel.
It was not a talent that stood out as conspicuously as Yuder's, but depending on Cordelia's development, it was an ability that could show tremendous late-game strength.
In any case, as a sacrifice for demon summoning alone, Cordelia was a blue-chip stock with an A-rank guaranteed.
And Lucas Hraesvelgr.
A sword genius called the prodigy of Hraesvelgr, and one of the Playable Characters in Hero Legend 2.
"Ugh, I don't like Lucas."
"Huh? Why?"
Come to think of it, Yellow Storm played all sorts of characters, but she had notably few playthroughs as Lucas. She had never written a guide for him either.
It felt like, as a rotten fossil, she had only seen his ending once out of courtesy.
'He's handsome though?'
If Yuder was a peerless pretty boy, Lucas was a refreshing, ruggedly handsome man.
His personality wasn't particularly prickly either, so why did she dislike him?
As Yuder tilted his head in confusion, Cordelia pouted her lips and said.
"If you play as Lucas, Cordelia becomes a Demonic Human."
"Ah."
He understood now.
Whether as Cordelia or Lucas, being attacked by the Devil's Hand at the social gathering was the same, but on the Lucas route, Lucas became the protagonist, so Cordelia ended up captured by the Devil's Hand.
'She was used as a sacrifice and became a Demonic Human...... and eventually became a demon.'
Her angelic blood was so strong that she ended up on the fallen-angel path.
"You really like Cordelia, huh."
"She's my favorite character in Hero Legend 2."
And now she had become that favorite character.
'Was Yuder my favorite character too?'
He was the character she played most often, but whether he was her favorite was questionable.
In any case, now was the time to set aside personal preferences.
"Anyway, let's protect him. You know if we leave him and he gets captured, he becomes a huge enemy, right?"
"I know. On the Cordelia route, he blocks your path so horribly it's terrifying."
Just as Cordelia became a demon on the Lucas route, Lucas became a demon on the Cordelia route—and since his innate sword talent was already monstrous, he became a truly fearsome monster.
"Let's protect them both."
"Yeah, let's protect Cordelia and Lucas."
Perhaps it was funny even to her own ears, because Cordelia suddenly giggled.
After all, she was using third-person speech to say that Cordelia should protect Cordelia.
And it was at that very moment.
"Young master."
"My lady."
Maia's and Dahlia's voices came from beyond the balcony window.
It was a call implying that it was time to end their private time and come inside to rest.
"Time to sleep soon."
"Yeah, I think I'll sleep really well tonight."
It was a rare luxury lodging, and they had been through plenty of hardship.
Cordelia smiled lightly at Yuder's answer, dusted off her bottom as she stood, and grabbed the balcony door.
"Anyway, good night."
"Yeah, you too. Dream of me."
At the same exchange as always, Cordelia grinned, raised her middle finger, and opened the balcony door. Instead of following right away, Yuder lifted his head for a moment and gazed up at the night sky.
"Lucas Hraesvelgr."
The heir of House Hraesvelgr, which stood at the head of the twelve houses.
A sword prodigy who rivaled Maximilian, the true protagonist of Hero Legend 2.
'Well, I'm looking forward to Sylvia more than Lucas, though.'
A peerless beauty and daughter of the Crossbell family, one of the twelve families.
As a man, looking forward to a peerless beauty more than a handsome guy was only human nature.
'Fairy Queen, you were right.'
As he spouted nonsense and recalled the Fairy Queen's elegant smile, Maia's voice came again.
"Young master!"
"Yeah, I'm coming now."
Taking in Langesthei's night view one last time, Yuder opened the balcony door.
And two days later, in the late afternoon.
The social gathering of the children of the Twelve Northern Houses began.