The Spoils of Victory
Not that I had any intention of seeing them off, but the Duke of Yellow Embers ultimately accepted every one of my proposals and withdrew. Nea, the Imperial Saintess, protested to the very end, wailing about heresy — but the moment he shot her a sidelong glare, she promptly lowered her head.
That girl's habits will need correcting too, sooner or later.
I promised we'd meet again before long and sent them on their way, and with that, the Empire's sudden invasion came to an end.
It took five hours after the opening horn before the turbulent third Siege Warfare finally returned to normal. A siege ran for nine hours in total, which left only four, and the guilds that scrambled back to regroup threw themselves into the fight — some following their original plans, some drafting new ones on the spot.
And so, four hours later.
Siege Warfare has concluded!
The winning team is...
"...So, who ended up winning?"
"The Angel Guild, obviously. With Lily on their side?"
It was the guild that had seized the most castles and, in the remaining four hours, pushed on to conquer other guilds' fortresses as well. The Angel Guild, having pacified the entire northern region outright, became the champion of the third Siege Warfare — and just as inevitably, Lily was named the MVP.
By contrast, Leo's Imperium II, which had fought valiantly throughout, took second place. Apparently first place came with prize money and, since the siege was an official in-game event, a hefty haul of experience and special rewards on top of it...
"I'm jealouuus."
Leo sat down beside Arne with a face that was only slightly wistful, and took a long sip of her green juice.
"Phew... I'm just glad everything worked out in the end. The Grand Demon Duke is done for, and the conquest of the continent failed — but honestly, the results aren't bad, are they?"
"...No. Karia has, been brought to that state."
Karia had not died.
She had lost her sense of self, and the greater part of her power along with it. The Saintess Nea had tried everything in her power to heal her, but it had all been for nothing.
Even so, Karia remained one of the Empire's great Three Dukes. Reduced to an idiot or not, her talent alone was still exceptional — under the Duke of Yellow Embers, she would cultivate her abilities anew.
Leo giggled, then glanced at her teacher.
Her expression isn't so good.
"What's wrong? Everything wrapped up nicely, didn't it~"
Everything had gone exactly as Arne had planned. They had even tracked down Kasar, the Duke of Battle Blood, who had been drifting aimlessly since the siege, and quietly tripped him up along the way. Headless as he now was, Kasar would inevitably come to Arne's side before long.
Leo looked up at her with bright, searching eyes.
Arne regarded the girl for a moment with faintly troubled eyes, then turned her gaze toward somewhere far away.
Toward the place where Karia was, most likely.
"...Attachment is a frightening thing. I wanted it so badly — and yet when it actually came to pass, I found I could barely breathe."
Arne had seen it with her own eyes.
Karia, who had cursed her and reviled her, reduced to an idiot crawling across the dirt. The fallen Spirit King who had moved to kill her. And then the Duke of Yellow Embers, Nea, and Lily who arrived in the aftermath — all of it.
"It was a satisfying outcome, and she deserved to die. But watching that scene with my own eyes... I found myself rooting for the Duke of Yellow Embers. Not the Spirit King. Not Lily."
Isn't this much enough?
Was there really any need to kill her outright?
The person called 'Karia' was already as good as dead.
Arne smiled, a little bitterly.
"A rather laughable confession, isn't it? If Naphras ever found out, I imagine she'd be quite disappointed in me."
"...Hmm. No!"
"Pardon?"
Leo sprang to her feet. Then she pressed a small hand against her chest and thumped it — thud!
No, "patted" would be more accurate than "thumped."
"You can't help the feelings you can't quite hate! How is any person supposed to move and think like a machine!"
"But I—"
"You didn't step in."
Arne had not intervened. Not even when Karia stood on the very brink of death — and even if Karia had died completely, she would not have stepped in then either. This whole affair had been Arne's to lead, and she was not the sort of person to ruin the work for the sake of a personal whim.
"...I suppose that's true."
"It is! So on a happy day like this, smile a little! I'm going to invite Lily over soon, too!"
When Leo planted both hands on her hips and declared it with utter seriousness, Arne let out a soft laugh.
"Here."
"...Huh?"
"These were originally sent to me, but I'm giving them to my one and only disciple. Take them."
What Arne held out were two green leaves.
Leaves Leo knew very well. She had handled them any number of times, and even put them to use on a few occasions.
But leaves that could no longer be obtained anywhere, not at any price—
"The World Tree will reveal itself before long. Go and find it then."
The leaves of the World Tree slipped neatly into Leo's hand.
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Incidentally, there are two, so you may bring someone else along."
"Oh — then what about you, Arne—"
"I'm busy. I need to absorb what Karia left behind quickly, before the Duke of Yellow Embers makes his move."
Sad feelings were only ever sad feelings.
As one of the Empire's Three Dukes — no, Two Dukes now — Arne had to fold Karia's remaining factions into her own, one by one. From here on, she would be the only one who could stand shoulder to shoulder with the imperial throne.
"Hmmmm... All right then. I'll go on my own way, then."
"Very good."
Leo nodded.
Now — who should I take along?
The day after the siege ended.
Having ended the broadcast with the battle against the Duke of Yellow Embers as the finale, I went to bed early and slept without dreams. The next day, after announcing the Angel Guild's victory and my MVP award with a few brief words on the official broadcast, I returned to my personal stream.
By now, I was probably being discussed on every major network and relay broadcast out there.
"Ta-dah."
I showed off the MVP ring I'd just received, angling it toward the camera.
A ring set with a gem that swirled blue and red together. To the eye it looked like nothing more than a lavish trinket, but it was, in fact, a ring bearing a Unique trait and Mythic grade.
Its effect was the simple Purification of Status Ailments — an ability that dispelled every status condition afflicting the wearer. For a Mythic-grade item it sounded underwhelming, until you learned that it also blocked status ailments of the same Mythic tier.
Though I doubt it could stop something a demonkin inflicted.
Still, better to have it than not.
I twirled the ring idly as I fielded the flood of questions pouring into the chat.
"The Angel Guild — I only joined up for the siege. We just took a single territory, that's all. Yes? Ah, I'm feeling fine. Why did I smash the castle? Hmm..."
I did reduce Castle Marzelfeed to rubble...
Under normal circumstances, Karia — a mage who had stepped beyond the pinnacle of the Grand Sorcerer's path — could have restored it with a day or so of effort. With her collapsed as she was now, it wouldn't have been strange for the reconstruction to drag on for months.
"Well. The owner wouldn't come out, so I smashed it."
All I'd done was lightly ring the doorbell.
"You all saw the reason I fought her, didn't you? She was experimenting on the Spirit King."
Karia's atrocities had already been laid bare through countless relay broadcasts — above all, the fact that Nord had smashed his way out of her laboratory while she lay unconscious. Afterward, crowds had flocked to the place believed to be where the Earth Spirit King had emerged.
The laboratory still contained protective wards that hadn't been completely destroyed. Ordinary people couldn't have gotten past them — but they could not stop a Ranker.
Needless to say, the laboratory's interior had leaked out through everyone's personal streams...
"I simply couldn't stand it. What she was doing to them."
"Ah... you mean this?"
I leaned back and let the camera catch a sidelong glance of the room. Behind me, the ornate interior of the magistrate's office filled the frame, and beyond the tall glass window, the grounds of the ducal house stretched into view.
The Duchy of Ronhadia.
The territory and family name I had claimed for myself.
Not anymore, technically.
This place had become my own duchy, severed from the Empire — the golden banner of Imperium could no longer be found anywhere within it. The new flag rising in its place bore pure white, crossed by a single blue spear through its center.
"I hadn't planned on it at first, but thinking it over, it seemed like it might be useful."
Since I was starting something new anyway.
Why not turn a duchy into 'content' while I'm at it?
"We'll see... I'll give it some thought."
I had only just taken over, and most of the duchy's people had only just heard — or not yet even heard — that their rulers had changed. The war had already thrown everything into chaos; I had no wish to pile more confusion on top of it.
So saying, I turned my eyes to the towering stack of magically-processed documents spread across the office desk.
Takes me back.
Back then, too, I had sat in an office just like this one, seeing to official duties.
Of course.
Knock, knock.
Not that I had any intention of reminiscing.
"Come in."
The door swung open by magic, and a young noble with silver hair entered, trembling from head to toe.
The original master of this place — though no longer.
"B-Besk Lonhadia... has arrived... no — I am..."
"Welcome, Marquis Besk."
My slave — my administrator, rather — who would be handling the work in my stead from here on out.