Ending Maker Chapter 50
Ending Maker Chapter 50
Chapter 14 - The Fantasy Couple
After defeating Sisiot, the story proceeded just as Yuder had expected.
First, the reason the Guardians of the Holy Cross and the Count Hraesvelgr Household were here.
The Guardians of the Holy Cross had detected the demon's awakening and dispatched troops in haste, and the Count Hraesvelgr Household's forces were the second wave, sent after the first wave of rangers had been annihilated, just as Yuder had predicted.
"We entered Frost Anvil to obtain the Sunflower Herb and were attacked by the Devil's Hand. And from those bastards, we were able to obtain the demon's true name and the binding ritual. They were things those bastards possessed for controlling demons."
Yuder answered Joan's question about how he knew the true name and binding spell without missing a beat, and he did not forget House Hraesvelgr either.
"I am deeply sorry for causing the Count Hraesvelgr Household so much trouble in various ways. Since I obtained the Sunflower Herb and my illness has improved, I intend to visit the Count Hraesvelgr Household in person to explain what has happened and ask for forgiveness."
Once again, Phil Reiner simply nodded at the eloquent speech.
Because there was nothing in particular for him to say.
'The knights who had originally been searching for me and Cordelia were probably different people anyway.'
From Phil's perspective, Yuder and Cordelia were benefactors who had suddenly popped out of nowhere and saved them. He was grateful, if anything, and had no particular grievance.
So Phil only intended to wrap things up and return to Thunderdoom. He had no particular desire to take action against Yuder.
But Joan seemed to have a different idea.
"Lord Yuder, won't you come with us?"
An invitation to the Guardians of the Holy Cross.
It was an event that occurred in the original work as well after getting involved with the Guardians of the Holy Cross a few times, but Yuder shook his head for now.
'The Guardians of the Holy Cross are fine and all, but I have to deal with the northern barbarian event first.'
He also had to save Lena.
"I think I must visit the Count Hraesvelgr Household first. I will hand over the binding ritual I obtained, so I would like to postpone my visit to the Guardians of the Holy Cross to a later date."
"......Understood. We will contact you from our side."
With Joan clearly disappointed, the matter was mostly settled.
"Then I will go tend to my fiancée, Lady Cordelia. You said departure is the morning after next, correct?"
"Yes, that is the plan. There are already things you have told us, but...... we still need to investigate them ourselves."
"I understand. Then I shall take my leave. I wish you all a good night."
Yuder finished speaking with a soft smile and left Phil's barracks.
'Hmm...... the morning after next, huh.'
It wasn't bad. No, it could even be called perfect timing.
Yuder nodded to himself and looked around the inside of the camp for a moment.
Several large tents that had been set up before, plus one newly added tent.
'Still, it's a relief.'
Because there were no dead among the soldiers.
Although the Guardians of the Holy Cross had suffered casualties, objectively speaking they had done remarkably well.
Of course, from what he had heard, the sacrifices were already considerable.
Especially in the case of the Guardians of the Holy Cross, many had died even while sealing Sisiot's initial movements, so looking at the results alone, six out of nine had died and only three had survived.
But still, he could not help but say it was a relief.
In the original, when Sisiot rampaged, dozens of Guardians of the Holy Cross and nearly a hundred soldiers had died.
"Phew."
But counting human lives in numbers was still a bitter thing.
Briefly remembering the past, Yuder let out a sigh and headed toward the tent where Cordelia was waiting.
"Daddy, are you here?"
As soon as he entered the tent, Cordelia's cute voice reached him.
She was lying on a cot, with bandages wrapped around her eyes.
Yuder reflexively looked around and then spoke in a small voice.
"Hey, hey, what would you have done if it wasn't me?"
"What do you mean, what would I have done? I'd get a reputation as a pervert who makes his fiancée call him daddy."
"Hey, for the sake of both our reputations, wouldn't that be bad?"
"It's a joke, a joke. I did it knowing it was you."
"How?"
"Uh...... just a feeling?"
"That's so comforting."
When Yuder spoke with a sulky face, Cordelia let out a giggle.
"Anyway, did the talk go well?"
"It went well. More importantly, are you really okay?"
"I'm okay. I'll be okay. The Guardians of the Holy Cross checked on me earlier too, and they said it's just because I overexerted myself."
The white serpent's Evil Eye.
The power Cordelia had newly acquired in Frost Anvil.
Even if Sisiot was only a lower-ranking demon, the ability had been powerful enough to subdue it while it was rampaging.
'But still......'
Later on, when Cordelia's mana grew stronger, she would be able to use it without difficulty, but for now it was too much.
And because the technique strained her eyes of all things, Yuder could not help worrying.
"Don't overuse it."
"Oh my, are you worried about me?"
"I am worried."
When Yuder's voice turned serious, Cordelia momentarily pursed her lips, then soon snorted.
"Hmph, the sun will rise in the west tomorrow."
"Hey, your face is red right now, you know?"
"No, it's not. It's not red at all."
Even as she said that, Cordelia subtly touched her own cheek.
Yuder chuckled quietly again and approached Cordelia's side. Then Cordelia, sensing his presence, suddenly sat up and groped at the empty air as she spoke.
"Hey, Yuder."
"Yeah?"
"Come over here and hold my hand."
"Your hand?"
"Yeah, my hand."
What was this about all of a sudden?
But Cordelia's expression was quite serious, so Yuder approached without a word and took Cordelia's hand.
"I've got it."
"Yeah, you've got it. You little—"
Cordelia suddenly raised her voice, pulled Yuder's hand toward her, and began hitting him wildly with her free left hand.
"Hey, hey! That hurts! That hurts!"
"I'm hitting you so it hurts, you know? Hey, did you think I wouldn't know? You took the last hit, didn't you? Huh?"
"N-no, I didn't!"
"Didn't, my ass!"
Even though she could not see, her combat instincts were still intact; Cordelia kept striking the exact same spots over and over.
"H-how?"
"The feeling was ambiguous."
"Feeling?"
"Yeah, when you land the last hit, there's a distinctive feel to it. That wasn't there."
At Cordelia's words, Yuder's face went blank.
A feeling, she said.
She noticed because the distinctive feel of landing the last hit wasn't there.
"Cordelia, you."
"Me what."
"You're a beast, right? Not a person, right?"
"Woof woof!"
Cordelia made a dog barking sound and hit Yuder even more, and Yuder was certain. Whatever else, when it came to instinct alone, Cordelia was truly at the level of a beast.
"Haa, anyway. There's one thing I want to say."
Cordelia, who seemed to have gotten tired after hitting him for a while, let her shoulders droop slightly and released Yuder's hand as she spoke.
Yuder reflexively pulled his hand away quickly and asked.
"What is it?"
"Don't do that from now on. And don't even think about yielding the last hit."
"Cordelia?"
"Because it's a real fight with lives on the line. Taking down the enemy for certain is what matters most. Got it?"
"......Yeah, I got it."
Surprised by that unexpected maturity, Yuder nodded, and Cordelia smiled again.
"Of course, that doesn't mean I have any intention of letting the last hit be taken from me. I'll claim it with my own hands."
The sight of her grinning and clenching her fist was incredibly charming.
As Yuder stared blankly without realizing it, Cordelia, as if she had noticed with that peculiar instinct of hers again, spoke with a smug look.
"Why? Are you falling for me all over again?"
"No, I've never fallen for you in the first place."
"Yes, Daddy. I'm sure you haven't."
Cordelia giggled, lay back down as she was, and continued speaking.
"Anyway, how did things go over there?"
"They said we depart the morning after next."
"Then we'll have to slip away by tomorrow night at the latest, right?"
"Exactly."
Yuder had fed Phil a smooth story, but they could not return to House Hraesvelgr right now.
'The great invasion of the northern barbarians......'
There were still about two months left until the start of Yuder's main scenario, but waiting until then would be too late.
Because Yuder and Cordelia intended to upend Yuder's main scenario, the great invasion of the northern barbarians, from its very roots.
'We can do it.'
At this point in time, intervention was still possible.
The original story's development was as follows.
The Wild Lands beyond the border guarded by the ravens.
The barbarian tribes settled there were far from a single unified people.
They were divided into dozens of tribes large and small, and among them was the Angry Rhino Tribe.
A tribe with a force that was neither particularly weak nor particularly strong, but right in the middle.
On a day when a blizzard was raging, a prophet clad in rags visited the Angry Rhino Tribe and said:
"A great king shall emerge from the Angry Rhino. O one who shall become king, receive the power of the great one and sweep across the world."
The chieftain of the Angry Rhino Tribe, who deemed the words of the prophet with mysterious power to be true, prepared the ritual as the prophet demanded and received the power of the great one.
"So the story was that the Angry Rhino Tribe, having grown strong like that, unified the barbarian tribes and then pushed down south, right?"
"Right. The prophet was a demon worshipper, and starting with the Angry Rhino Tribe, all the northern tribes were corrupted by demonic power... that was the story."
It was an extremely important event even when looking at Hero Legend 2 as a whole.
Because of this invasion, Saelun's northern border collapsed and countless people died, while demon worshippers sprang up all over the world.
"The Devil's Eye."
The group of demon worshippers backing the prophet.
If the Devil's Hand served Asmodeus, the Infernal Lord of Lust, then the Devil's Eye served Belial, the Infernal Lord of Corruption.
"I've thought this for a while, but don't you think they named these organizations way too carelessly?"
"There is something to that, I'll admit."
Because it wasn't just the Devil's Hand and the Devil's Eye.
Among the demon-worshipping groups that would appear later were the Devil's Mouth and the Devil's Horn.
"Anyway, the best method is to prevent the invasion itself. In other words—"
"Prevent the barbarian tribes from unifying in the first place?"
"Right, exactly."
Because the invasion could only happen after the barbarian tribes were unified.
And the method to prevent the barbarian invasion was simple.
"We create a rival to oppose the Angry Rhino Tribe."
"As if that would be simple."
"Well, if we had to start completely from scratch, even attempting it would be difficult. But you know there is a tragic hero we can use, right?"
"Red Wind's father."
Red Wind, a Playable Character from the Wild Lands.
Red Gale, Red Wind's father and the chieftain of the Great Storm Tribe, was an outstanding hero who never succumbed to demonic temptation.
He, who met a tragic death in the original work, was still alive.
So they would keep him alive.
They would make him rise as a hero of the tribes against the corrupted barbarians.
"If we succeed, we can greatly change the flow of the original story."
"This is exciting."
It was a delightful thing just to imagine.
More importantly, this time they had a far more urgent reason.
'If things go as in the original, both my father and her father will meet their deaths during the great invasion.'
Count Bayel and Count Chase.
Yuder, who briefly recalled the faces of the two men—especially Count Chase—clenched his fist tightly.
"We have to save them."
"Right, we have to save them. We'll be able to save them."
When Cordelia nodded with a bright face, Yuder suddenly took Cordelia's hand again.
"For that, there's something absolutely necessary."
"W-what is it. Is it something that requires holding hands?"
"No, not that."
Yuder released her hand again and, as if to compensate, leaned his face closer as he spoke.
"To save Red Gale, we have to cross the border and go into the barbarians' land."
"I know. And to do that, we have to meet Red Wind, who secretly came down south to find medicine for Red Gale's illness."
When Cordelia answered while subtly pulling her head back, Yuder immediately continued speaking.
"Right, and to do that, we first have to get out of here."
By this point, Cordelia could not help but catch on.
What Yuder was trying to say.
No, what Yuder was claiming to be necessary right now.
"Wait, wait wait wait wait."
"Yeah, wait."
"You're saying we need a letter right now, right?"
"We can't just vanish without a word, can we? We should at least leave a note saying I found the Sunflower Herb and got healthier."
"Okay, fine. I understand up to there. But then this time, there's no need for me to be the one to leave it, right?"
"Well, that's......"
"If you say 'like last time' or whatever, you're dead?"
"Ahem, as my lady commands."
As Cordelia said, there was no need for Cordelia specifically to leave the letter.
"It's already practically been cemented as an established fact anyway."
"Huh? What has?"
"No, nothing."
Yuder gave an easygoing smile and spoke to the puzzled Cordelia.
"Anyway, so should I write it this time?"
"Yeah, you write it. You absolutely have to write it. Got it?"
"Well...... if that's how it is. This time, I shall write it."
"Hehe, this is exciting."
Now it's your turn to suffer.
Cordelia smiled brilliantly, while Yuder merely shrugged with an unreadable expression.
And then, at dawn the day after next.
The two, who had slipped out of the Count Hraesvelgr Household's camp as planned, stopped for a moment on the deserted snowfield.
"Good, good. Now, in a little while, people will find the letter, right?"
"They will."
The letter Yuder had written.
Its contents were as follows.
"Dear Lord Lucas, I shall continue my honeymoon trip with Lady Cordelia, whom I love more than life itself, just a little longer. I have also regained my health after eating the Sunflower Herb, so please do not worry too much. I am truly sorry for causing trouble to the Count Hraesvelgr Household with my willful behavior. P.S. I am truly happy right now."
As Yuder recited the contents of the letter with a devastated face, Cordelia bounced up and down on the spot.
"I love it so much, I love it so much I could die."
"You like it that much?"
"I like it that much!"
"Hmm, I didn't know you liked me that mu......"
"What the hell is this crazy bastard talking about?"
"Well, anyway. If my lady is satisfied, then this humble servant is simply delighted. The road ahead is long, so let us hurry."
Having said that much, Yuder even struck a theatrical, elegant bow and then began to lead the way.
And Cordelia, watching Yuder's back as he went, thought:
"Somehow this isn't it."
What Cordelia herself had expected was.
"Aren't you coming?"
"I'm going!"
Cordelia shouted at Yuder, who had already gone far ahead, pouted her lips once, and then hurried her steps.