150. Outbreak of War (1) (Map)
150. Outbreak of War (1) (Map)
*** If you saw Chapter 148 posted on November 6th, please re-read it to understand this chapter and the previous one...
*** If you haven't read that chapter, please pretend you don't know...! For the sake of future readers!
- 1 -
Elena returned to her room, not even remembering how she had ended her final conversation with Adelaide.
"Haa..."
She buried her head in her hands.
She sat with her legs splayed wide, clutching her hair wildly.
It was far too crass an action to be called ladylike, but there was no one around to point it out at the moment.
Even if there were, anyone who knew her situation would not have had the heart to open their mouth.
"Why... why are you worrying about me now...?"
She muttered as if posing a question, but in truth, Elena already knew the answer.
Adelaide had likely always been worried.
She had merely hidden those feelings behind a cold mask.
"No way. Could it be deception...?"
It wasn't entirely out of the question.
If Adelaide knew that Elena's senses had become vastly superior to before....
But she quickly dismissed the thought.
Sense training wasn't so simple. While heightened alertness could sharpen the senses naturally, the two didn't always correlate perfectly.
"... So she really was someone who had affection, originally..."
If so, if so.
"Why did she try to send me to the outskirts...? There's no way she wouldn't know that keeping me close is safer."
Elena continued to mumble like that, tormenting her own hair.
"You know the answer, don't you? Elena."
Until Yuran, who had appeared at some point, approached and gently pried away each of her fingers clutching her hair.
"Lady Yuran...?"
"At the very least, if you were there, you wouldn't be considered a rival and killed."
It was a situation no one would have foreseen until the moment a demonic beast hid its ears and tail and infiltrated this inner sanctum—but to Elena, it was only natural.
After all, she had been the one to inform her master of the inner sanctum's security vulnerabilities.
"You were watching?"
"I planted an eye in your shadow. Now, come here. Handling your clothes and hair so roughly like this. As a subordinate of my husband, you lack refinement, Elena."
"I, I'm sorry..."
Meeting the eyes of Elena as she uttered her apology, Ran smiled once before straightening Elena's dress and hair.
The movement of mana that occurred at her long fingertips was exactly the same as what Libertas did when fixing someone else's appearance.
"So... what do you want to do?"
"Um..."
At Yuran's question while fixing her hair, Elena swallowed a groan and could not answer.
She merely shook her head, her eyes full of confusion.
"I... I don't know. What I should do..."
"Shall I tell you the simplest answer? Elena."
Looking down at her, Yuran narrowed her eyes into a seductive expression and spoke.
"What is it...?"
"If you want to vent your frustrations on your master, go ahead. Your master will know and pave the way for you."
"Ah..."
Hearing that, Elena involuntarily nodded her head.
- 2 -
"There are plenty of people who are just clumsy with expressing themselves."
- Are you an idiot?
"You little rascal. Don't say bad things."
- Scratch that, I take it back.
My assessment was very calm.
Not because I thought the misfortune she suffered was lighter than mine.
Unless it's a very clear case, every misfortune is the greatest to the person experiencing it.
If one were to compare my situation and Elena's, nine times out of ten I would be considered more unfortunate, but I don't sympathize with that view.
At this very moment, I was fiercely living my life, and I was happy.
"That is true, indeed. Who would have thought that something hidden from everyone for 30 years would be discovered in such a way, my lord."
In that respect, Elena's current situation was more pitiable than mine.
A younger sister who felt no attachment to her family, repeatedly misbehaved, and ended up caught by a Dungeon Lord, turning into a demonic beast.
An older sister who, trying to hide her weakness as a successor, allowed that younger sister to approach her without knowing what had happened to her.
It was a tragic comedy.
"I suppose I should let her live."
"Are you sure about that?"
"I assume she asked you to relay that question?"
"She did not say it directly."
Thinking about it, I quickly guessed why she hadn't said it.
Elena herself likely hadn't accepted yet that the older sister she'd resented her whole life was that kind of person.
I shook my head.
"Besides, it will be quite some time before she can become the border count. It's fine to let her sort out her thoughts."
"What if you decide to kill her?"
"Then, I'll just do as I please."
Ran smiled.
As if she knew what my decision would be.
Honestly, even from my perspective, I didn't think I would simply kill her and be done with it.
"Well then. I shall return."
"Yes. Take the platoon assigned to Elena."
My Skeletons and Ran's Jiangshi army assigned to Elena were to don the United Kingdom's attire and raid the border count's territory.
There was no need to deliberately engage in combat to produce a scapegoat.
If we did, it would be discovered that the attackers were undead.
After a few initial attacks like that, the situation would naturally escalate due to the border count's response.
It would become Elena's dark, secret achievement, known only to a few within the family.
If she repeated it several times, whittling down the power of her rivals, she would be able to establish herself as one of the heirs to the border count.
Having concluded my thoughts, I smiled at Ran, who was waiting for my farewell.
"Ran."
"Yes, my husband."
"I cherish you."
"I adore you, my husband."
"Take care of yourself. Have a safe trip."
"Yes!"
And so, once again, Ran departed from the dungeon.
- 3 -
The very next day after Libertas established a policy regarding the war, the two Alraune left the dungeon.
It was a week later, in the morning, when they arrived at the rendezvous point with Kamaya.
"Oh my. Are we much too late?"
Jade, the Jade Vine Alraune, said this, but in truth, they were quite fast.
For an Alraune who had rooted the massive plant body into the ground, moving long distances required magic that could move the entire plant body.
This could never be a fast process.
The reason they could arrive in a single week was not because they were fast, but because they could move in a straight line, ignoring the terrain.
"You're here now. Hurry up and do what must be done."
Knowing this, Kamaya expected them to quickly fulfill their role rather than scolding them.
"Is this the child? Oh my. Look at her fair skin."
"As expected, the children of human nobles really do... look so delicious...♥"
"Uh, uh, who are you sisters...? Why do you look so strange...?"
Of course, the naturally easygoing Alraune lightly betrayed Kamaya's expectations.
"Hmm...."
While veins slowly bulged on Kamaya's forehead, the two Alraune unintentionally ignored her and began examining the young noble girl here and there.
The only reason Kamaya didn't get angry yet was purely because the Alraune were Nirvana's direct subordinates.
It was the bare minimum of respect for a fellow queen.
"It's okay. Little one. These sisters came to play with you."
"You need to hurry up. Alraune sisters. Or else, mom is going to be really angry."
Stepping forward between them were two women.
The former noble slave Josephine, who had volunteered from the dungeon to help Kamaya, and Kamaya's little daughter, Serha.
"Oh dear, oh dear... Right, that's right."
"We need to quickly go and report to the Great Master. I understand."
Fortunately, the Alraune also knew well that there were things they had to prioritize over their tastes.
Because if they disobeyed or were idle regarding the Great Master's orders, Kamaya and Nirvana might just tear their very roots to shreds on the spot.
"Now, little one... come here?"
"Huh...?"
Of course, their relaxed attitude had a reason.
No matter how much a noble grew up being tempered with mana and elixirs, this girl was still too young.
She had no power to resist the seductive magic the Alraune emitted.
"It's done. Now, let us report and receive our next orders."
At Kamaya's words, finally freed from her displeasure, everyone present bowed their heads.
"Phew..."
"Thank you. Mrs. Josephine. For helping."
"Think nothing of it. It was only natural. Lady Serha."
"Hehe. You're braver than you look."
It went without saying that Josephine and Serha, having barely regained peace, breathed a sigh of relief.
- 4 -
Damamollon County, the lord's castle conference room.
The regular monthly meeting scheduled for the 1st was suspended, and tension hung thickly in the air.
"What in the world is the meaning of this..."
It was because Count Dorian Eisaph, who was supposed to preside over the meeting, had lost his senses.
"Aah. Viola...! Viola!"
The name he cried out was not that of his wife or his lover, but that of his youngest daughter.
A late-born daughter he had fathered in his late 50s.
"What on earth is going on here. Aah. Viola...!"
That was it.
The whereabouts of his cherished youngest daughter—born after a long string of sons and a huge age gap from them—had now vanished.
"Who dares... who dares do such a thing...!"
A kidnapping carried out during an outing.
But neither the identity of the culprit nor any trace could be found.
While all the best trackers shook their heads, the despair of the count who heard the news only deepened.
"What should I do...?"
"Someone say something. If we do not first prepare for the impending war..."
"You say it! Usually you strut around claiming to be the lord's steward. Do you not have the courage now...!"
"What did you say?!"
Even though the count had lost his usual intelligence and was only clutching his head, none of his vassals and subordinates stepped forward to awaken his spirit.
It was obvious.
No one wanted to incur his wrath in this situation by suggesting they prepare for the coming war.
"Urgent news!"
"What is it?!"
Cutting through the desperate atmosphere of the room, a messenger rushed in.
"S-Sir! This!"
"T-This is..."
The count's hand, which had confirmed the item the messenger brought, began to tremble violently.
"T-That... No way."
Some vassals who recognized what the count was holding also fell into astonishment.
"What is it that you react so?"
"It is Lady Viola's headdress...!"
What the count held in his hand was Viola's headdress.
Because the count had boasted about his daughter so much, the vassals also knew well what that headdress signified.
A splendid ornament specially ordered by the count from a master artisan in the capital of the United Kingdom to commemorate receiving his daughter's first embroidered gift.
And there was Viola's hair stuck to it. Covered in blood.
"This... this...!!"
The count's eyes began to gradually burn red, and the blood vessels in the corners of his eyes burst, causing bloody tears to flow.
A foreshadowing of intense rage and frenzy that anyone could see.
As the vassals flinched and stepped back from the messenger, the count's emotions violently erupted.
"Where!! Where was this found!!"
"Cough... hack! That is!"
His emotional display was much more violent in contrast to his usual wisdom.
He was so angry that he practically rolled down from his throne, rushing to grab the messenger by the collar.
The force wasn't great, but as a soldier who could not lay a hand on a noble's body and couldn't shake off the grip, he could only endure it even as he suffocated.
"C-Calm down! Sir! You must listen to the soldier's words!"
"He'll die at this rate. Sir!"
Fortunately for him, thanks to the vassals moving just before he lost consciousness, he was able to avoid a meaningless death.
"Speak, quickly! Hurry! There's no time to catch your breath! Otherwise, you will really die!"
"W-Well, that is..."
At the urging of one of the count's guard knights who approached, the soldier finally revealed the whole truth.
Regarding the place where the headdress had been found.
"M-Mathepit! It was found near the Aryllit Duchy border!"
And only then did all the vassals properly realize why the soldier had hesitated so much.
It was a signal flare that fired the starting shot for war.
"They dare... they dare...!"
Even in his madness, Dorian thought.
There was no way they would offer proper cooperation in this matter.
Because he himself had provoked Mathepit using the death of his own people as a pretext, and was maneuvering to induce them into declaring war.
It was an extremely emotionally charged thought, but in his current state, he had no capacity to judge it.
"Oh. My..."
"Damnation."
"Is this an opportunity...?"
The more astute vassals all had a premonition.
A small war that should have originally started with the other side's provocation and ended simply with minor concessions would never end easily.
"Immediately! Send a declaration of war to that bastard hound of Mathepit!!"
"S-Sir?"
"Now... now...!!"
"Sir!"
The war began with the loss of reason of Count Dorian Eisaph, who could not contain his fury.
