Ending Maker Chapter 25
Ending Maker Chapter 25
Chapter 5 - Devil's Hand #6
Time passed.
As people waking from a deep sleep often do, Yuder opened his eyes in a daze.
Many things, including the ceiling, entered his blurry vision, but they were all hazy, and he couldn't properly make out their shapes.
"Ugh."
Yuder let out a sound close to a groan, squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again. Only then did proper images begin to appear in his sight.
"Haa."
A few seconds.
Maybe ten-odd seconds.
Finally fully awake, Yuder looked around.
A well-appointed, luxurious bedroom—it was clearly the high-class lodging where Yuder himself was staying.
"Young master! You're awake?!"
Just then, Maia's voice rang out.
It was a voice close to a scream, mixed with anxiety and joy.
"Maia."
"Young master."
At the main house, Maia was expressionless enough to be called the Ice Queen, but in front of Yuder she smiled readily.
But right now, her smile was beyond that.
Maia was crying and smiling at the same time.
"Young master."
"It's all right, Maia. Are you hurt?"
To Yuder, Maia was practically family, but outside the Count Bayel Household she was ultimately just a personal maid.
Forcing her to attend the banquet would only have made Maia uncomfortable, so Yuder had sent her back to the lodging early.
Of course, it was also because he had foreseen this attack.
"I'm fine. I was only ever at the lodging. More importantly, young master...... ah......."
When Maia burst into tears again, Yuder flustered and fidgeted, then awkwardly reached out and hugged her.
"It's all right. I'm safe, as you can see."
"Young master."
And a few minutes.
When Maia, who had been quite agitated, seemed to be gradually calming down, Yuder patted her back and asked.
"Maia, what about Lady Cordelia?"
"She's safe."
Maia sniffled and wiped her tears, steadied her breathing, straightened her posture, and continued with a faint smile.
"She overexerted herself so much that she's still lying down, but she regained consciousness a little earlier than you did, young master. The doctors also said she was simply exhausted and that there would be no issue with her health."
"Haa."
Yuder reflexively let out a sigh of relief and let his shoulders slump.
He had been worried, one way or another.
"Young master, if you're feeling all right, would you like to go see Lady Cordelia?"
When Maia said this with a beaming smile, Yuder immediately nodded.
"Please."
"Yes, young master."
Yuder got up with Maia's help, washed up roughly, tidied himself, and left the room.
They had been sharing an entire floor, so Cordelia's bedroom was just past the parlor between them.
"Lady Cordelia, Lord Yuder has come."
The knight of the Count Chase Household guarding Cordelia's bedroom door greeted Yuder with a very glad face and immediately announced his visit.
Then, without a long wait, the door to Cordelia's bedroom swung wide open.
"Lord Yuder."
Dahlia, with tear stains as clear on her face as Maia's, greeted Yuder with a smile.
And inside the room was Cordelia, lying as if buried in a bed so large you could wrestle on it.
"Lady Cordelia."
Instead of answering Yuder's call, Cordelia simply nodded once.
Just from her condition, she looked far worse off than Yuder. Her already white face was pale without a trace of color, and there was no strength in her eyes at all, as if she might collapse and fall asleep at any moment.
"Dahlia, I'm sorry, but could we have a moment alone?"
"Yes, my lord. Please take care of the young lady."
Dahlia readily agreed, gave Cordelia a nod, and left the room with Maia.
And a few seconds.
When the door closed completely, Cordelia spoke.
"I feel like I'm gonna die."
"Yeah, me too."
Yuder walked to the bedside with unsteady, feeble steps and flopped down onto the chair where Dahlia had presumably been sitting.
"You're in pretty bad shape, huh?"
"I used...... too much mana. My head feels so heavy, like it's going to split."
"Uh...... is it a similar feeling to a hangover?"
"Hangover?"
"Yeah, hangover."
"Uh...... ah, maybe?"
Cordelia, who had answered somewhat awkwardly for some reason, let her shoulders slump again and said.
"Anyway, it hurts, it's hard, I feel like I'm gonna die."
"Hmm, you really do look bad."
Because she wasn't the Yellow Storm who openly whined in front of Outboxer.
"Hey, but doesn't it feel good? Your level went up a ton, and...... you saw the title pop up too, right?"
"The One Who Makes the Impossible Possible?"
A smile bloomed like a flower on Cordelia's face, which had been drooping just moments ago as if she were dying of exhaustion.
She was so genuinely happy that she even laughed like an idiot, hehehe.
"Hero Legend Tales is going to be completely turned upside down."
"The chat window guys are going to go nuts too."
"Do you think Hero Soft will contact us or something?"
"Probably?"
It was impossible, and that was exactly why it was a fun thing to talk about.
Cordelia let out a long breath anew and said.
"Dahlia told me—Viola and Felix are safe too. Same with the twin brothers."
People who, originally, would have died or been kidnapped in the Devil's Hand attack.
They had not died.
They had not been kidnapped either, and were alive and perfectly well.
"Why am I so excited about this?"
The title was nice, and so was the satisfaction of twisting the main scenario to her will, but somehow Cordelia was even happier that they had saved so many people, including the children of the Twelve Northern Houses.
"Oh my, look at our Cordelia being so good. How precious."
When Yuder smiled fondly and stroked Cordelia's hair, her eyes immediately narrowed.
"Wanna die? Where do you think you're touching?"
"Now that's our Cordelia."
Yuder smiled with satisfaction and leaned back against the chair.
"Anyway, we got past one hurdle."
"So what do we do now?"
"What do you mean, what do we do? We twisted the main scenario, but we still have to follow the main scenario."
Cordelia's main scenario.
In the Devil's Hand attack event, Cordelia was fated to be kidnapped no matter what she did.
Escaping from the kidnapped situation was the second mission, so to speak.
If she succeeded in escaping, the survival route opened; if she failed, she became a sacrifice and it was game over. The survival route went as follows.
"Cordelia, having escaped from a Devil's Hand branch in an unknown location, wanders through a deep, dark forest while evading pursuers and monsters...... and, as if led by fate, encounters the soul of a witch."
When Yuder recited the story summary posted on Hero Legend Tales verbatim, Cordelia let out a hollow laugh.
'Seriously, what was this kid...... no, this person doing?'
How could a person remember all of that?
Rotten fossil or not, Yuder’s memory was far beyond anything normal.
'Should I ask?'
If she asked, he might unexpectedly answer readily.
While Cordelia was mulling it over for a moment, Yuder, whether aware of her inner thoughts or not, continued speaking.
"We stopped the kidnapping by the Devil's Hand itself, so Cordelia won't have to wander the forest...... but we still have to go. Because you have to meet the witch's soul."
The meeting with the witch's soul was not a hidden event like the Moonlight acquisition event. It was one of the main events absolutely necessary to continue the game.
'Because we need to power up.'
One way or another, Hero Legend 2 was ultimately a fighting game.
Apart from hunting, if you steadily followed the main events, you naturally became stronger.
"Uh...... that forest was north of Langesthei, right?"
"Yeah, so we have to head north."
It wasn't just because of Cordelia.
Yuder's main scenario, which had not yet begun, was concentrated in the north.
"Hmm, what to do."
"Why?"
"No, Dahlia told me something earlier. It's been almost a full day since we regained consciousness. The news hasn't fully spread to each household yet, but it seems the escort knights have decided on a policy among themselves."
"What kind of policy?"
"Since there could be additional attacks, everyone is to gather together in Langesthei and wait until people come from each main house to pick them up. Also, it seems everyone is going to meet together this evening to exchange information about this incident."
"Hmm."
Since the Devil's Hand attack itself had been stopped, the remaining problems were various preparations and explaining yesterday's fight.
'There’s also the matter of the Blue Lion Knights.'
They also needed a way to clean up the lie Yuder had told to move Sir Barua, commander of the Blue Lion Knights—the part about Count Bayel being involved.
Since the matter had grown this large, word of the Devil's Hand attack and the Blue Lion Knights' earlier branch raid operation would surely reach Count Bayel's ears as well.
"Anyway, seriously, what do we do? If we're going to head north without going home, don't we need some kind of excuse?"
Apart from the cleanup, they also needed a plan for moving forward.
At Cordelia's question, Yuder crossed his arms and answered.
"For now, I do have a few ideas in mind."
"Like what?"
"First, you and I need to get our stories straight...... hey, I don't mean it that way. Anyway, we'll also need some help from the people around us."
"Who do you mean by people around us?"
"Well, Luca...... hold on."
Yuder suddenly stopped speaking, furrowed his brow, and tilted his head.
Because he had the feeling he was completely forgetting one important thing.
'What is it?'
They had defeated Demonic Human Minos.
The kidnapping had ended in failure, and Yuder himself and Cordelia were safe.
'That Lucas guy would obviously be safe too.'
According to Cordelia, Viola, Felix, and the twin brothers were also safe.
Then.......
"Ah!"
Yuder sprang up from his seat, and at that moment, Cordelia's eyes also flew wide open.
Because the two of them had simultaneously remembered the same thing—the same person.
"Sylvia!" they shouted in unison.
* * *
"Waaaaah! How could you, how could you forget me...... forget me and...... waaah......."
The secret room in the corner of the banquet hall, which had now become the scene of the incident.
Sylvia, who had been trapped in the pit for a full day, burst into sorrowful tears in Cordelia's arms.
"Sylvia, I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry."
Cordelia still clearly looked ill, but she held Sylvia and apologized over and over.
"I was scared...... it was dark...... and there was no sound at all...... sniff!"
Sylvia even blew her nose into the handkerchief Yuder offered with good timing, and kept sniffling.
Seeing the haughty, beautiful Sylvia cry like a child and bare her heart made it clear just how frightened she had been over the past day.
'I handled that a little too well.'
The pit in the secret room had been carefully constructed to serve as a panic room just in case.
Worried that sound might give it away, he had even drawn a silence magic circle inside the pit, and thanks to that, Sylvia had been forced to tremble in perfect, lightless silence without knowing what was happening outside.
"Sylvia, Sylvia, I’m sorry."
Because she was Cordelia before she was Yellow Storm.
Cordelia had always admired the beautiful and elegant Sylvia, so she was sincerely sorry.
'What the hell did that bastard Lucas do?!'
Because Cordelia herself and Yuder had been unconscious.
Hadn't Cordelia herself asked him to handle the aftermath right before she lost consciousness?
'I’m killing him later!'
Just as Cordelia was making that resolute vow, Yuder gently tugged at Cordelia's sleeve to put some distance between her and Sylvia.
Because they had to hand Sylvia over to the knights of the Count Crossbell Household.
"My lady, let us go."
"Hic, yes."
Sylvia, now unusually compliant, left the room with the knights. Yuder and Cordelia both sighed on reflex, and Dahlia spoke carefully.
"I'm sorry. Since both of you seemed to need rest, I couldn't tell you about Lady Sylvia's disappearance."
"No, it's fine. It's not your fault, Dahlia. It's all Lucas's fault."
Cordelia ground her teeth and clenched her fist again, as if reigniting her fighting spirit.
But Yuder couldn't join Cordelia in that.
'I'll have to stop her at the right time.'
Because Lucas's help was absolutely necessary to go north.
The plan Yuder had devised was as follows.
Lucas’s family, the Count Hraesvelgr Household, held the frontier position and was based near Thunderdoom Fortress on the northern front, bordering the Wild Lands—the same region where the Count Bayel Household had once been stationed.
'And there, there's the Sunflower Herb, which contains extreme yang energy.'
It was one of several means to cure the Nine Yin Meridian Blockage.
Yuder had already obtained the Sun's Necklace and was treating his Nine Yin Meridian Blockage, but he was not fully cured.
'I'll head north under the pretext of obtaining the Sunflower Herb to hasten the treatment of my Nine Yin Meridian Blockage!'
And to do that, he had to naturally convey the story of the Sunflower Herb to Lucas and, at the same time, draw out an invitation to the north.
"Wait, hey, wait."
Back at the lodging, Cordelia, who had been listening to Yuder's explanation, furrowed her brow.
Setting aside the mission of drawing the desired story out of Lucas, or the Nine Yin Meridian Blockage that was evolving into some kind of all-purpose thing day by day, one important part was missing from Yuder's story right now.
"Then what about me?"
Fine, Yuder was going north to treat his illness, but under what pretext was Cordelia going north?
At Cordelia's question, Yuder coughed once, then turned his head as if avoiding her gaze and said.
"Well."
"Well?"
"Come on, you know."
The plan for Cordelia to follow Yuder.
Cordelia's face instantly crumpled, and she let out a long sigh before raising her middle finger at Yuder.
* * *
"I want to go with my beloved Lord Yuder! I-I can’t be apart from him!"