Chapter 271: Miracle
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 271: Miracle
"Y-Young Miss...?!"
"Is everyone okay?!"
As I set Rubia down in the residential district of the estate, the residents began to emerge one by one. Contrary to what I had assumed, Rubia seemed to share a very close bond with her people.
"H-How did you return here, Young Miss...?"
"What kind of nonsense is that? Are you all eating?! Smethus! What on earth is going on here!"
An elderly man with thinning gray hair, whom Rubia called Smethus, slowly bowed his head to greet her. From the look of him, he seemed to be the village elder or a respected senior among the residents.
"The thing is..."
A terrible blight had struck the Spanya estate, once a magnificent granary region. Ordinarily, for residents to desert the estate was a serious crime met with harsh punishment. However, even the soldiers tasked with enforcing the law were starving, leaving them with no way to prevent the exodus.
Furthermore, a great commotion had broken out when graves in the northwestern outskirts—slightly removed from the southern residential cluster—were found dug up. At first, since the area was near the forest and lacked guards, they assumed wild beasts had done it.
"But no matter how we look at it, it seems to be the work of humans..."
"But why...? What is happening here?!"
Rubia scanned the village with a grim expression, cold sweat beading on her forehead. It seemed she couldn't sense the mana of death permeating the air. If even a Cobalt Grade like Rubia couldn't feel it, then it was safe to assume the commoners and others were equally oblivious.
"Alita!"
"Sister Rubia...?"
A young child, face gaunt from hunger, approached. There wasn't just one, but many. Seeing how naturally they called the lord's daughter "Sister," I could get a good sense of how Rubia was perceived here.
As Rubia’s sharp voice rang through the district, many residents who had been lying weak inside their homes crawled out to greet her.
"M-Miss...!"
"Oh, honestly! What is everyone doing?!"
Seeing Rubia huffing with rare indignation, the people lowered their heads and bit their lips in silence. For now...
"Rubia. Shall we feed them first?"
"F-Food! Right! But how do we...!"
There’s always a way. I had meat in abundance, and just in case, I had packed plenty of flour and milk in my storage artifact.
"Are the ovens in the village still functional?"
"The o-ovens? We have no firewood, so currently..."
"So the facilities exist."
"Yes..."
That was enough. I had a fire far more efficient than any wood-burning flame.
* * *
"H-How can so much food come out of such a small ring...?"
First, I fed the people who knew how to bake bread. Since I had plenty of edible meat, I had them lightly bake bread to serve with meat and milk. Once those people regained their strength, they headed back to the ovens to bake more for the rest of the village.
"T-Thank you, big brother..."
"Sure, eat up. You're a very pretty girl."
"Young Master, Young Miss. Thank you so much... We don't know how we can ever repay this..."
"Thank Rubica. Good deeds have a way of coming back around."
If it weren't for the ring Rubica gave me, I wouldn't have been able to carry this much food. Well, it would have been possible, but it would have been a hassle. It would have taken much longer, too.
"Y-Young Miss! How are you here!"
"Ah!! You jerk!!!"
The moment Rubia saw a man approaching from a distance, she threw her tiny frame into the air and delivered a flying kick.
—Crash!
"Gah!"
"Eikan! What have you been doing?! The village is a total mess!!"
"I-I'm sorry...! I have no excuse..."
The man was a soldier clad in metal plate armor and clutching a spear. Apparently, he had been a vice-commander before Rubica left home and was now serving as the commander.
"Rubia, where are the other soldiers?"
I couldn't smell much of death on Commander Eikan. According to what I heard from Rivier, the soldiers were all starving, so he likely hadn't been targeted by that concubine woman yet.
After feeding the horses—which were so thin their ribs were showing—I summoned all the soldiers stationed in the barracks near the Lord's Castle and brought them to the residential district.
Normally, deserting one's post during an operation is a capital offense, but there were no operations currently, and the Family Head, who was supposed to give orders, was in a daze. They weren't even patrolling the outskirts due to lack of strength. I didn't see any problem with feeding them.
"Y-You're saying this is a horse...?"
"It's wearing magic armor. Just get on and stop complaining."
Surprisingly, among the monsters I possessed, none were based on horses. I had roughly assembled bones to look like a horse and covered it in an exoskeleton, but it clearly didn't look much like a real horse to them.
Still, I made sure every soldier was mounted. I left the creaking, rickety wagons behind and used a carriage made of bone and exoskeleton instead.
—Creeeak... Creeeak...
The carriage, carrying about seventy soldiers, rolled over the unpaved dirt road.
"How can a single horse have such strength...?"
"Is... is that really a horse...?"
"It's a horse."
"H-Heavens..."
Eventually, the soldiers who came down to the village were able to fill their starving bellies with bread and meat for the first time in ages.
'So it's here.'
Rubica and the knight were being held in the basement of the Lord's Castle. Although maids encroached by mana stood guard, it didn't look like an impenetrable defense.
As I secretly scanned the northwestern graves through the Evil Eye's vision, I saw someone who looked like a maid digging up a grave and dragging a corpse toward the castle.
"Rubia, I'm going to go rescue Rubica and the knight. What do you want to do?"
"Huh?! Already!?"
"What do you mean 'already'? We need to get them out and feed them."
Rubica’s complexion was definitely poor. It was no wonder; someone used to eating forty steaks at a time was now being fed pathetic grain porridge for every meal. She must be miserable.
The knight looked a bit better, but still.
"Actually, never mind. Just stay here."
Come to think of it, there was no need for me to move personally. And just in case, I should avoid killing anyone if possible.
'Horus, let's go.'
Behind a building where the villagers couldn't see, I created a humanoid knight monster equipped with Horus's brain and sent it to infiltrate the Lord's Castle. The objective: rescue Rubica and the senior knight without any killing.
* * *
Horus possessed not only exceptional combat intelligence but high general intelligence as well. Even with a bipedal human body, he had no trouble controlling his movements perfectly.
"Who are you—"
—Thwack!
With a light chop to the neck, the maid collapsed as if falling into a deep sleep. Horus skillfully searched her body, took the ring of keys from her waist, and headed for the basement.
—Creeeeeak...
With the chilling screech of rusted hinges, the door to the basement opened, and the cold air characteristic of stone structures leaked out.
After walking down for a while, two figures came into view. One was an elderly man bound by relatively strong restraints, and the other was a blonde woman with only her ankles shackled.
"W-Who are you...?"
Horus, cross-referencing the visual data received from his master, Yoo Eon, recognized the captive woman as Rubica and shoved the iron bars aside with one hand.
—Screeeeeech!
The metal bars crumpled as easily as if he were pulling back a silk curtain. Rubica trembled as she stared at the massive knight clad in pitch-black armor, his identity a complete mystery.
"W-What are you doing! Stay back!"
—Clang!
"Miss! Are you alright?! What's happening!"
"A-An unidentified intruder is—"
[Ah, can you hear me, Rubica?]
"That voice...?"
Strangely, the voice echoing from the knight's hand was the youthful voice of a young man that felt strangely familiar. Yoo Eon's voice flowed out from a set of imitation vocal cords, crafted from a precise combination of muscle fibers and a custom-made respiratory organ.
"Aven! Is that you?! How are you here?!"
[Sister! Can you hear me?! It's me! Rubia!]
"Rubia?! Why, no, how...?!"
Rubica listened to the explanation through the imitation vocal cords, which mimicked the voices of the two people with shifting forms.
"Y-You expect me to believe that...?"
But how could she believe it so easily? A monster-like intruder who didn't even look human had crushed the iron bars and was now speaking to her by mimicking the voices of people she knew.
Wouldn't it be weirder to believe it? In her memory, Yoo Eon still maintained a human form. She never could have imagined he was capable of such a feat.
[Oh, Sister! I'm telling you, it's me! Do you want me to tell everyone you're wearing your bear panties right now?!]
"R-Rubia! It really is Rubia!"
* * *
"Rubia!"
"Sister!!"
It was a tearful reunion between the two sisters. Following behind them was a gaunt-faced knight.
"This is..."
Roden, the senior knight of the Spanya family, slumped to the ground as he looked out at the village, which was now bustling with life.
"Thank goodness... thank goodness...!"
"Sir Knight, please stand up. Have something to eat first."
"No... no... It's more important that the residents eat well..."
"It's not that. You need to eat quickly because you have to get to work."
Knight Roden blinked blankly as he watched Yoo Eon, from whose fingertips flour was pouring out in heaps.
"A m-miracle..."