Chapter 77
Chapter 77
Chapter 77
Elvin and Karen (1)
Feeling burdened by Luciella's strange pressure, Rudian hastily called for Elvin.
"Tch."
She openly showed her disappointment, pouting her lips, and Rudian tried his best to avoid her gaze.
"I trust you won't run away next time."
"...I'll try my best."
"Bring me results, not efforts."
"......"
Her attitude, transformed into that of a strict superior, was tormenting.
And it felt even more so because it seemed like some inexplicable karma coming back to haunt him.
Just when he thought he had escaped from Luciella's clutches, Rudian felt regret about whether he should have met with Elvin the moment he saw Elvin's face, who had requested the consultation.
"Why does your face look half-dead again, senior?"
"Well..."
"Even Maria wasn't as gaunt as you are, senior. What happened during this time?"
Hearing Rudian's words, Elvin let out a deep sigh.
Luciella, who had been about to leave to respect their privacy, naturally sat back down upon seeing Elvin's state.
...Surprisingly, she was the type who had great interest in other people's life stories.
"Well, it's nothing other than..."
Elvin unexpectedly glanced at Luciella rather than Rudian.
But eventually, as if making up his mind, he squeezed his eyes shut and opened his mouth.
"It's because of problems regarding Karen..."
"Karen senior? What happened?"
"What happened... Many things happened. And even more things were bound to happen to her."
Elvin continued speaking self-deprecatingly.
"You know that I recently became Kaitel's disciple, right?"
"Of course. Hasn't your skill improved dramatically since then?"
As evidence of the alliance pact between Delphione and Psychic Luminous, Elvin had entered as a disciple of the Sword Saint Kaitel and begun training.
Elvin clutched his head and let out a voice filled with self-loathing.
"But because of that, Karen suffered too great a loss."
"Ah...!"
"......"
Rudian grimaced as if realizing something, and Luciella also hardened her expression and pursed her lips.
"Karen's wandering was... Beyond my imagination. At first, she holed up in her room for several days without coming out, and after that, she apparently didn't attend classes properly and wandered around somewhere."
Still, compared to Elvin, who had the backing of Kepler, Karen was from a completely fallen noble family.
She would have devoted her entire life to the single position of being Kaitel's disciple for the sake of social advancement.
"But she was absurdly eliminated not because of her own abilities, but for the single reason of it being a transaction between families..."
"I... I was indifferent to her."
Luciella stood up, her face pale with shock.
This was because Luciella's intervention was included among the circumstances that led to Elvin becoming Kaitel's disciple.
"I should have at least provided her with another path that could compensate for the road she had walked so far...!"
"I also know that the Princess proposed Karen's entry into the Glory Knights. However, it seems Karen wasn't satisfied with that."
Naturally, with Karen's qualifications, she was more than capable of joining the Glory Knights, but compared to the title of the Sword master’s disciple, it was an absurdly low position.
"So what happened to Karen senior?"
Elvin continued gloomily.
"Now we get to the main point."
The period when Karen was wandering coincided with the time when Psychic Luminous was rampaging to unify the underworld.
At that time, Elvin was deployed at full capacity due to insufficient personnel, and afterward, he was so busy assisting Maria that he missed the timing to seek Karen's forgiveness.
"After that, when I finally had time and went to find Karen..."
However, the dormitory room where Karen had been staying was already empty, and all Elvin encountered there was the hate-filled gaze of Claudia Rage, who had been Karen's faction member and closest friend.
"She... She withdrew from school?"
"......!"
"Yes, she quietly withdrew after only informing her friends Oliver and Claudia. Adel, who was in the same faction but was an underclassman, didn't even know about it."
After that, Elvin searched for Karen like a madman.
He reduced his sleeping time and even cut back on his existing work, combing through the entire capital like hunting for lice.
"Why didn't you ask us for help?"
"...At that time, I thought I had to solve Karen's problem myself."
Until now, he hadn't shown any particular signs, so I thought there wouldn't be any major issues...
Rudian examined Elvin's face with a serious expression.
'He's driven by something. Something must have happened after that.'
This problem that led Karen astray couldn't be attributed to just one person's responsibility.
Elvin, Rudian, Luciella... They all bore some degree of responsibility.
Luciella asked urgently.
"So did you find her?"
"I found her. But I found her..."
The problem was that the place where Karen was found was not an ordinary location.
Luciella's eyes widened.
"The imperial palace?"
"I briefly stopped by the imperial palace to handle some matters with Kaitel, and I happened to see Karen wearing formal attire."
"...That means."
"Yes, she had become a member of the Imperial Guard."
"......"
Both Rudian and Luciella were speechless with shock.
Of course, joining the Imperial Guard was something to be celebrated, but how could she, who had suddenly disappeared without any backing, have entered the Imperial Guard?
Elvin revealed what he had investigated.
"Imperial Guard Captain Pruna Silent, she recommended Karen and had her selected as an official member of the Imperial Guard."
"Pruna Silent! That person?"
If she was an official knight, not just a trainee, it was naturally beyond question.
However, the problem was that the person who recommended Karen was Pruna, and the current situation was quite coincidental.
Elvin grabbed Rudian's shoulder with dead eyes.
"I too had no choice but to try to persuade Karen, knowing that fact. But she was already too deeply fallen under Pruna's influence. She was clinging to Pruna with blind devotion."
And the anger and vengeful spirit that Karen showed toward Elvin was something he had never encountered before.
"Karen said that the day would soon come when she and I would cross swords in a life-or-death battle, and told me to practice a lot until then. I tried to persuade her somehow, but with Pruna's intervention and Master Kaitel blocking me, I had no choice but to withdraw."
If she spoke so readily of killing, that resentment must be unimaginably great.
From that moment on, the problem regarding Karen exceeded what Elvin could handle alone.
Elvin bowed his head deeply to Rudian.
"I know it's shameful and embarrassing to ask such a consultation from you, my junior. But I thought if it were you, you might somehow provide a solution, so I came here shamelessly."
"This isn't just your problem, senior. Of course I should help."
Rudian nodded heavily.
***
"We need to somehow get senior to withdraw from the Imperial Guard. No, even if we don't make her withdraw, we at least need to separate her from Pruna's side."
"Do you think that will be easy? There's a very high possibility they'll be together all day."
"Even if it's difficult, we have to do it. Both Pruna's purge and persuading Karen senior."
The difficulty felt like it had doubled, but somehow it had to be accomplished.
Then Luciella raised an opinion with a serious expression.
"But recklessly separating her and eliminating Captain Pruna will cause even greater wounds to Karen's heart."
In the worst case, there was a possibility that her heart would completely shatter.
That was the worst ending he didn't even want to think about.
Luciella raised her voice.
"To bring her back, two things are needed. First is material and spiritual compensation that will give her confidence that the path she has walked so far was not wrong. Second is an intimate and close person who can persuade her to accept that."
Frankly, from Kaitel's perspective, he simply wanted to accept a better person, and there was no reason to necessarily limit his disciples to just one.
If Luciella, his beloved niece, persuaded him, Kaitel would gladly accept a second disciple.
As for material compensation, Delphione had sufficient resources to grant a title along with a territory under their control.
"But if we approach recklessly like that, we'll face her tremendous backlash. We need someone who can turn her heart even slightly."
Luciella sent a subtle glance toward Elvin.
Rudian also looked at Elvin with the same gaze.
However, faced with such looks from the two, Elvin became restless and began saying strange things.
"Then... We would definitely need to persuade either Oliver or Claudia! Though I doubt they'd listen to what I have to say... Why are you two looking at me like that?"
"......"
Elvin was confused by Rudian and Luciella's suddenly cold stares.
"Senior."
"Uh, yes?"
"Are you perhaps an idiot?"
Elvin couldn't understand for a while why Rudian had hurled such harsh insults at him.
The sight of Luciella vigorously nodding in agreement beside him was also...
***
CLANG! CLANG!
Sparks flew as blade met blade violently.
"Die!"
The bald man, his upper body muscles fully exposed, wielded scimitars—weapons considered rare in the Empire—in both hands, fighting with flashy movements.
However, the man's advance was futilely deflected, unable to penetrate the defense of the violet-haired woman facing him.
"...Ugh!"
As the fallen opponent's stance crumbled for a moment, the woman didn't miss the opportunity and thrust her sword, piercing through the opponent's shoulder blade.
"Kraaaah!"
Splendid skill that precisely exploited the opening to neutralize the opponent.
The woman looked down indifferently at the opponent who had collapsed in pain, then turned to leave the training ground.
"Hehehe, aren't you going to finish him off?"
"......!"
At the low laughter coming from outside, the woman's expressionless face immediately brightened.
"Captain Pruna!"
"Yes, Karen."
Karen Leticia ran toward Pruna, who appeared between the torches.
"That fellow was a gladiator slave who made quite a name for himself in the East, but he was no match for you after all."
"He was at a level where he could enhance his body with magic, but he wasn't really an opponent who gave me any sense of satisfaction."
Despite the opponent being skilled enough to be knighted, Karen gave a harsh evaluation without hesitation.
Pruna smiled contentedly and patted Karen's head.
"Yes, if you're an Imperial Guard, you should naturally have that degree of arrogance."
"Th-thank you!"
"So, won't you finish him off? There are plenty of replacement gladiator slaves."
"That, that's..."
Karen hesitated and trailed off.
At her attitude, Pruna's expression became slightly stern.
"You still have hesitation in your heart."
"That's, that's not it..."
SWOOSH!
At that moment, the head of the gladiator slave behind Karen immediately flew into the air.
A life was taken with a single gesture from Pruna, who had reached the level of Sword Master.
"Didn't I tell you repeatedly not to show mercy to enemies? In war, such soft-heartedness is directly connected to death."
"I'm, I'm sorry, Pruna."
Karen bowed her head deeply in shame.
Pruna's teaching was certainly correct.
As a knight and as a warrior, Pruna was certainly giving Karen the right guidance.
But if asked whether she gave such guidance with pure intentions, that was absolutely not the case.
"Hmm, if this continues, cutting off that lingering attachment you speak of will be a distant matter."
"......"
Pruna smiled subtly at the silent Karen.
"Yes, what was his name... Elvin? That lingering attachment of yours."
FLINCH!
Karen's body trembled greatly for a moment.