After the Battle (1)
Once the battle had drawn to a close, we immediately set about dealing with the casualties.
When the tally of the dead and wounded was finally complete, the retainers who received the report, along with Alice, all wore faintly startled expressions.
Of course, I was every bit as shaken — no one ever really gets used to seeing people die like this.
But holding our ground against mid-rank demons was, in the end, a victory.
Mid-rank demons.
The ones roughly ranked between 50th and 31st in the hierarchy.
Monsters wielding an enormous breadth of authorities, capable of commanding greater and supreme demons without limitation.
Facing creatures like those, eleven hundred and fifty casualties out of a two-thousand-strong army was an extraordinarily good trade...
And yet my heart was anything but easy.
Still, I would have to adapt quickly.
After all... I would need to witness sights like this more times than I could count.
The number of casualties — a staggering 1,150 — showed just how devastating Asmodeus's war of attrition had been, an onslaught even an army of two thousand could not fully repel.
Five hundred soldiers had fallen in the mass ambush after we entered the forest.
Another five hundred had died during the retreat, fighting to the last as they covered our withdrawal.
Roughly a thousand lives had been lost in that forest on the retreat alone.
The remaining hundred and fifty were those killed or wounded in the great battle before the cave.
"Everyone, we return to the territory!"
As time slipped by, the order to return came down from Alice herself.
I was searching for Edgar's horse, intending to climb up behind him, when—
"Hyun, come here. I'll give you a ride."
Alice's voice drifted over from behind me.
No, come on. However you look at it, isn't it absurd for a retainer to ride with the lord of the territory..?
Then again, I supposed I would soon be receiving the treatment of a high-ranking noble myself.
If word got out that I intended to become a new retainer of House Cumul, the kingdom would probably trip over itself rushing to welcome me.
Ah, whatever.
With that thought, I climbed up onto her horse and successfully made the journey back to the territory at her side.
A few days later, the joint funeral was held.
Since I had no black clothes that fit my frame, the Cumul household offered to prepare them for me.
I had never been comfortable being waited on by maids in the first place, so I sent them all out and was buttoning myself into the black garments alone when I heard it — rain tapping against the window.
Tap. Tap-tap-tap! Tap-tap-tap-tap!
The sky had darkened, and the downpour was steadily gaining strength.
Shhhhaaaaaaa!
Of all days for it to rain... on the day of a joint funeral...
By the time I had finished preparing everything, I took the umbrella a maid handed me and made my way toward the grounds where the ceremony was being held.
Their bodies had been laid to rest elsewhere, but the funeral itself was held in the annex of the mansion.
Alice, the retainers, and — for the first time, permitted past the gates — the families of the fallen were spread across the grounds, paying their final respects.
I stood beside Alice and bowed my head, offering a silent prayer for their souls.
May you be reborn, in your next life, in a place without war and strife.
And so Alice and I stood there, heads bowed, letting the rain fall on us without ever opening the umbrellas that had been so carefully prepared for us.
The funeral lasted three days, and by Alice's order, everyone was permitted to pass through the mansion grounds for the duration — so the people of the territory came in a steady stream to mourn their family, friends, and neighbors.
Once all three days had passed, arrangements were made for the families to collect the personal effects of the fallen, and with that, the funeral came to a peaceful close.
A week after the battle, having finished my training in peace, I lay down on my bed to rest my weary, sweat-soaked body and wash away the fatigue.
"Ahh...! Nothing beats this feeling. Training, a bath, and then flopping onto the bed — this is paradise."
Just as I opened my status window to review the day's progress, I heard a knock at my door.
"Coming!"
I opened the door to find the maid who had knocked standing there.
"The head of the household requests your presence, Lord Hyun."
Figures... I knew she'd call for me eventually.
From her perspective, the story had to be absurd — a boy she'd picked up by chance in the forest, casually swinging the Sword of the Azure Sky and claiming to be the successor of the Divine Beasts.
But since all of it had actually happened to her, it was only natural she'd summon me out of sheer curiosity, if nothing else.
I was still agonizing over how I'd ever explain the whole "possessed in another world" thing when I realized the maid was leading me somewhere other than Alice's office.
Hm...? What's this? Well... if it's an emergency, I can just summon the Sword of the Azure Sky...
The weapons of the Divine Beasts answered their masters' call, able to be summoned anywhere, at any time.
The Sword of the Azure Sky, being not merely a divine beast's weapon but something close to an absolute, god-tier final weapon, naturally possessed the same mechanism.
So, keeping a wary eye on the maid, I arrived at a door that looked no different from the office.
The only difference? It smelled nicer than my own room.
"You may enter."
At the maid's instruction, I opened the door with my whole body coiled with wariness and tension — ready, if it came to it, to summon the Sword of the Azure Sky.
"What the— this is a bedroom?"
And when I opened the door, what greeted me was indeed a bedroom.
A woman's bedroom, at that.
"?!"
These people!
I'm still a minor!
Granted, on the inside I'm a precocious old fogey, but still!
Just as I opened the door and turned to retreat, Alice appeared — dressed far more casually than usual.
"Oh. There you are."
Her tone had changed — the lord mode was evidently switched off.
"Welcome, Hyun."
I decided to ask, warily, why she had summoned me.
"Why did you call me? Don't tell me—"
She tilted her head so far that I could practically see a question mark floating above it, and for some reason she looked almost... cute doing it.
Then she seemed to grasp what I'd actually meant, and began loudly and vehemently denying it.
"No, no! That's not why I called you!!"
"Right... well... your face is bright red, so I think I can guess."
"Honestly... are you really fifteen? What kind of fifteen-year-old teases a nineteen-year-old?!"
I'm not, actually.
I wasn't fifteen, contrary to what she believed, but I just smiled and let it slide.
Alice put on a huffy expression, then calmed herself and slowly told me why she had brought me here.
"Phew... The reason I called you here is that I wanted to thank you. Personally."
"Thank me?"
"Yes."
"??? I haven't done anything that deserves gratitude from the head of the household."
"Yes, you have. Remember what you said back then? Before I touched that sword."
"Ah."
Only then did it come back to me.
Before I touched the Sword of the Azure Sky, I had shoved her — nearly to the point of violence — and talked her out of it.
"You told me. I'm the head of House Cumul, so I of all people must cherish my own life."
"Yes, I did."
"It's because I exist that this territory functions at all."
I still believe that.
Every land needs a ruler.
Only then can wealth be distributed fairly, and conflicts resolved peacefully by someone entrusted with that authority.
In exchange, that person receives greater decision-making power and greater wealth — a mark of respect for the burden they carry.
Of course, there are always those wretches who can't keep their beaks out of the granary, who twist that authority and abuse it like rabid dogs — and that's precisely why we've come to view power itself with such suspicion.
"Thank you. Those words helped me more than you know."
"As the successor of the Divine Beasts, it's the least I can do. Especially for the head of the house that serves the Azure Dragon."
"Hahaha! Right. That's actually why I called you here — to tell you a new story. My own story, one I've never told anyone."
"Of course. I'm listening."
At her words, I walked over and sat down in the chair placed beside her bed.
The moment I sat, Alice began to tell me about her past.
"I was the daughter of House Cumul, a house no one dared to challenge."
"Heir to a family that served the Divine Beasts — but even I lacked something. My mother."
"When I was only three, my mother's health, weakened after bearing me, gave out entirely. She couldn't overcome even a simple illness, and she passed away."
Alice's mother — Aegis Cumul.
Bearing the name of the goddess of wisdom, she had been a brilliant, beautiful woman.
It would be no exaggeration to say that Alice's gift for command and her looks were both inherited directly from her.
"Even as she was dying, my mother stroked my hair and smiled for me. But in the end, she was gone. Perhaps because of the grief of losing her, my father threw himself into his duties and had little time for me."
"And yet, I was happy. When my father would occasionally tell me stories of his past with my mother, it felt like reading a fairy tale."
"But when I was fifteen, a campaign against a Great Demon was called — and word came that my father had fallen in that war."
For the first time, she showed me her tears as she slowly continued.
Fifteen.
In Earth terms — an eighth grader.
At that age, she had lost both her mother and her father, and ascended to the crushing seat of head of the household.
"Still... I had to endure. I couldn't betray this territory, built by my father and our ancestors, not while I still drew breath. I resolved to protect the last legacy my father and mother left behind — to the very end."
"After I became head of the house, the people around me did nothing but wear masks — scanning me head to toe, eyeing my wealth and influence."
"And beyond the walls, the demons kept pressing in, coveting my body and my territory... It was terrifying. I spent my days in tears."
Alice had... a terribly painful childhood.
Just as she said, she had retainers at her side — but even they couldn't manage and watch over every great and small affair of a vast territory like Cumul.
In the end, Alice's heart reached its breaking point, and she severed every outside connection, refusing all aid and all supplies.
"But... it was too frightening...! I felt like... there was no one I could trust...! And just as I was crumbling, piece by piece — he appeared."
Asmodeus.
He had gone on a rampage through the Cumul Territory, screaming for Alice to be handed over.
Because her territory mattered to her, Alice marched out to face him — and fell straight into his trap.
"So when I realized I'd been caught in his trap... with the last of my resolve, I decided to raise the Sword of the Azure Sky."
"Even knowing I might die for it."
"The moment I reached for that sword, responsibility be damned—"
"You appeared."
Alice looked at me with eyes still wet and glistening, and pointed at me.
"And what I heard from you was nothing like what I'd heard from all those people who spent their days flattering me and currying favor."
"You told me — you, who'd barely known me...! You told me to cherish my own life. That the territory exists only because I do."
"You can't imagine how happy that made me. Thank you, Hyun...!"
I knew.
I knew the loneliness and the hunger for love that lived inside her.
The emotions she had endured were not so different from the ones I would have felt in her place.
Losing my entire family in a single night to a fire I never started — and losing my parents slowly, to sickness and to war.
Both.
And so, only I could truly empathize with her.
Certainly, others could offer comfort.
Of course they could.
But comfort was all it could ever be — anything more would ring hollow.
Anything beyond that would feel like deception.
When someone who never experienced a loss forces sympathy for it, people naturally recoil.
So in this moment, only someone bearing the same wounds — only I — could truly understand her.
Perhaps it was presumptuous of me, but I gently drew her into my arms.
"Hic...! Huaaahh!!!"
And the tears she had been holding back came pouring out without end.
Everything she had bottled up over the years was emptied out, here and now.
"My lady..."
When I called to her, she wept on and buried herself deeper into my chest.
My body was still small, without much flesh to it — but if this warmth could reach her...
Thinking that, I held her until her tears finally ran dry.
"Hic...! Sniff...! Sniff...!"
As her sobs began to subside, Alice — perhaps out of embarrassment — showed no intention of leaving my arms.
Her ears had gone red, so her face was probably scarlet as well.
Having wept and clung to a boy younger than herself — that could well become a black mark in her personal history.
I spoke to her quietly.
"You've worked so hard, my lady. And I know you'll keep doing wonderfully."
The moment those words left my mouth, Alice pulled back from my chest.
"Where... are you going?"
"I'm sorry, what?"
Where would I go, all of a sudden? If I leave here, I have nowhere to sleep.
"Don't go. You can stay in the mansion. Stay by my side."
"?!"
What an astonishingly shameless thing for the head of a household to say.
Not that leaving would do me any good — I'd be in for a world of suffering out there.
Even if the Holy Empire acknowledged my claim, the attestation ritual had to be completed before the Emperor himself before anything became official.
Until then, I was essentially a vagrant with no guaranteed status.
Which meant, in the end, that I had no real choice in the matter.
"Fine. Sure. Why not."
"Good. And one more thing."
"Yes?"
Two favors now?
Seeing my expression sour slightly, Alice opened her mouth again.
"I granted you two requests when you first arrived here, didn't I? It's only fair you grant me two."
"Ah."
She had a point.
Resigned, I nodded and agreed to hear her second request.
"Don't call me 'my lady.' Call me your sister."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"You said you'd do it!"
Where had the nineteen-year-old precocious elder gone, and when did she turn into a whining child?
And I'm the one who's supposed to be fifteen here...
"Understood. I'll do it. My lady."
"Ahem."
The word my lady had stuck to my tongue, and when I called her that again, Alice barked at me.
"All right. Sister."
"There we go."
"But only in private. In formal settings, you'll address me as 'my lady,' just as before."
"Understood."
"Good. And since you're the successor of the Azure Dragon, you'll need to receive attestation before the retainers. Can you manage that?"
I nodded toward her.
After all, I'd already performed the attestation once in front of Edgar — I knew how the process went, and it was one of the essential steps to winning the support of the retainers.
"That much... I can handle."
"Excellent. I'll arrange the ceremony in a week. I'm counting on you."
"Yes."
I felt the weariness from training wash over me in a slow sweep.
Yawwwn...
The yawn escaped me before I knew it, and I rose from the chair to head back to my room.
"I'll be going. All that training has me getting sleepy."
But another trial awaited me.
"No. Sleep here."
Um, no? Please.
"Sister, this really isn't right...!"
"What isn't?"
"What gender do you see me as?"
"A boy."
"And your own gender?"
"A girl, obviously."
Well then, there's our answer.
"What, are you saying you're going to devour your own sister?"
"Why does the conversation keep going in THAT direction...? I was escorted here by a maid until just now, you know? What if she or someone else gets the wrong idea?"
"Let them get the wrong idea. I'm the lord of this territory."
Alice, utterly unrepentant.
How on earth had she been hiding a personality like this all this time?
In the end, I raised the white flag and slowly sat back down, lowering my head in defeat.
"Don't sleep there — sleep here."
Where Alice was pointing was the left side of her own bed.
"Ugh, you are unbelievable, sis!"
"I'm... lonely..."
Deliberately putting on that trembling, dewy-eyed look of "I'm so sad~" — against that, I never stood a chance.
Utterly surrendered, I laid myself down beside her on the bed.
"Goodnight, Hyun."
"Yes, sis..."
And so the night, weary enough that sleep felt like a foregone conclusion, slowly slipped away.