I Wish It Would Appear Soon
I wish it would appear soon…
After presenting the scones she had made with the maids to Margrave Ivan Cloers, Aria returned to her room.
The moment she stepped inside, a sigh escaped her of its own accord.
“…I’m tired.”
She hadn’t done anything particularly impressive, yet she felt strangely exhausted.
She had originally planned to read once the baking was finished, but perhaps because of the fatigue, her hands simply refused to reach for a book.
In the end, instead of stretching toward the volumes on the shelf, she chose to lie down on the bed.
“…Haa.”
Sighs kept slipping out for some reason.
After letting out one more, her fingers unconsciously drifted to the place Margrave Ivan had stroked.
It was the first time.
The first time anyone had ever patted her like that.
It felt strange.
Strange… but not bad.
“…Did he like them?”
He had seemed to be eating them with real enjoyment…
If he truly had found them delicious and liked them… she thought she might feel a little proud.
Until now she had only ever received Margrave Ivan’s kindness. This was the first time she had given him something in return.
Just thinking that made a small warmth bloom in one corner of her chest.
At the same time, though, she felt a twinge of regret.
Every ingredient had been prepared by the maids, and she had received so much help while baking that if someone asked whether she could confidently say she had made them herself, she wasn’t sure she could answer easily.
That was what left her unsatisfied.
She didn’t want to be someone who only ever received.
She wanted to become someone who could repay even a little of what she was given.
That felt right to her.
And… only then, she thought, would she be able to feel even a little more at ease.
Yes. That was it.
……Really?
Was that truly all?
“…I’m going crazy.”
The very next morning after sensing his father’s heart, the worst possible report arrived the moment he woke.
An Ancient Monster had possibly slipped through the surveillance net.
“…Any chance it’s a false alarm?”
“We found traces. The possibility of a mistake is… nearly zero.”
He was beginning to understand, with painful clarity, why department heads in dramas hurled documents at their subordinates while screaming obscenities.
So that was how they vented, or else the stress would have crushed them…
This wasn’t a joke. Right now his chest felt tight, his head pounded, the back of his neck was locking up, and he genuinely thought he might lose his mind.
He wanted to roar, ‘If it was a mistake that would be the end of it?! You incompetent bastards!!!’ but somehow managed to swallow the words before they left his mouth.
…Alright. Calm down. Yelling won’t change a thing.
Whether there had been a problem with the surveillance net could be investigated after this was over.
Right now the absolute priority was containing the situation.
“Have we located it?”
“…Not yet.”
His expression hardened the instant he heard that.
He had asked assuming the location would already be known.
An Ancient Monster entering the territory meant it had stepped onto their home ground.
Heavy casualties would have to be expected, of course… but at the very least, pinpointing its position should have become far easier.
And they still hadn’t found it?
Even if he assumed the knight order had grown completely incompetent… this went beyond mere incompetence.
“Have there been similar cases in the past?”
“There have been a few instances of monsters breaching the net and entering the territory, but…”
“Meaning there has never been a case where one entered the territory and still could not be located.”
…Why did this thing have to show up after he became Ivan Cloers?
If he was going to transmigrate as Ivan Cloers, it would have been so much better if the creature had already been dealt with first.
He allowed himself that useless thought for only a moment. This was not the time.
He had to act like a competent Margrave.
“…Have every force within the territory ready for combat immediately. Pull every surveillance unit except the bare minimum back inside the territory so we can locate the Ancient Monster as quickly as possible. From this moment, all movement into and out of the territory is fully restricted. Road controls begin at once.”
Financial losses would have to be accepted to some degree… but if they optimistically assumed everything would be fine and only locked down the roads later, the damage would grow exponentially.
No matter how he looked at it, this was a situation that demanded control.
“Understood, Your Excellency.”
“And make sure information is controlled as well, so panic doesn’t spread more than necessary.”
…That should be enough for now.
Still, if it was already inside the territory… there was a real chance he would have to step in personally.
He had originally planned to shine on the front lines, and the way things had twisted left him with mixed feelings… but for the sake of ending this as fast as possible, him taking the field was the better option.
Of course there would be people who wanted to stop the Margrave from throwing himself into danger when there was still no heir.
People like the Butler, for example. Or the Butler. Or the Butler…
Sorry, Butler…
But what choice did he have? Leaving a combat asset of his caliber sitting on the sidelines simply wasn’t an option.
“Where the hell are you, you Ancient Monster bastard.”
I wish it would appear soon…
Something felt off.
Lately the atmosphere inside the castle had grown strangely restless.
…Should I ask the animals to gather information?
The only problem was that requesting help from the animals left her excessively drained.
In the past she had tried not to ask too much of them for that very reason… but recently she wondered whether she had been relying on them too often.
“…If the atmosphere gets any stranger, maybe then?”
The debate continued.
Ask, or don’t ask.
Little by little her heart began tipping toward asking.
She disliked the exhaustion… but unlike her days at the Duchy, it was alright to be tired now.
In the end she called the animals so she could entrust them with the request once more.
“…Huh?”
The animals… were frightened?
What on earth—
KUUUUUUUUUUUUUNG———!!!!!
The castle shook.
She left her room at once and ran to the window facing the direction of the roar.
Margrave Ivan was confronting a beast she had never seen before.
She had never seen it, yet she knew what it was from knowledge alone.
“…A monster?”
“Young miss, it’s dangerous. You must return to your room at once.”
A maid’s worried voice reached her, but her feet refused to move.
“Is it a monster? Why is a monster here…?!”
“That isn’t an ordinary monster. It’s an Ancient Monster. It’s truly dangerous, so please go inside.”
“Th-then the Margrave…? Isn’t the Margrave in danger too?”
That was when the Butler spoke.
“You need not worry about His Excellency the Margrave.”
“I needn’t…?”
“Because His Excellency the Margrave is…”
In that instant—
“the strongest person in this entire territory.”
KUUUUUUUUUUUUUNG———!!!!!
The castle shook once more.
He let out a sigh.
He had never imagined an Ancient Monster would simply appear right in front of the castle.
By now the knight order must be in full funeral mode.
Not only had they lost track of an Ancient Monster, they hadn’t even noticed until it was standing at the castle gates? Once this was over, they were guaranteed a thorough thrashing.
Well, that was that… From his perspective the absolute worst-case scenario would have been the creature rampaging through the territory, racking up civilian casualties. At least they had avoided that nightmare, so he could call it fortunate.
“So it can convert the nature of mana and freely manipulate it.”
It had cloaked itself in altered mana and slipped past the surveillance net that way.
And just now it had blocked his attack with the same converted mana.
An ability useful not only for stealth but for combat as well. Extremely versatile.
If the creature hadn’t shown itself here and had instead used that stealth and combat power to tear through the territory… the damage would have been beyond imagination.
It truly lived up to the name Ancient Monster. Who would have thought it could wield something so close to an all-purpose ability?
But…
“All-purpose doesn’t mean invincible.”
In the end, even a near-omnipotent ability could be crushed under raw output.
Common sense said no single individual could overwhelm an Ancient Monster with pure power… but he could. Ivan Cloers could.
He converted the mana inside his body into Aura.
Then he loaded that Aura onto his sword—and swung.
Another thunderous impact rolled out.
…The feedback felt off.
He had landed a clean hit, yet the wound was barely there.
“…It canceled it out with mana that repels Aura.”
In that moment he knocked aside a blast of incoming mana with his blade.
…Heavy.
It really was close to all-purpose.
Even so… he didn’t feel like he would lose.
The matchup was just awkward enough that it would take a little longer.
If he held it here until the knight order arrived so it couldn’t escape, they could finish it for certain… but what to do? Should he push a little harder and take it down with his own hands?
He was considering that, preparing to draw up his Aura again, when—
“Your Excellency.”
“…Return to your post at once. Was your duty not to guard the castle gate?”
Why was a knight who should be holding the gate suddenly talking to him?
This was interrupting the fight—
“It’s just that… the Butler said the young miss might have some sort of method…”
……Shit. He should ignore it.
Headpat-novel protagonist or whatever the hell, this was an extremely dangerous situation.
A child needed to be kept far away from danger…
“He also asked me to convey that he earnestly begged you to trust her just this once.”
“…Hah.”
Could he do it?
Against that Ancient Monster, could he truly guarantee Aria’s safety?
He—