181. The Witch, and the Hero (2)
181. The Witch, and the Hero (2)
- 1 -
Feeling her master's gentle touch brush against her brow, Elena let her furrowed forehead relax as if by instinct and closed her eyes for a moment.
"Your epic has only just begun."
Libertas's gentle yet firm words seeped deep into her very core.
The power she had prepared sank into Elena's heart as well.
'You will become the hero I create.'
At the words she had heard moments before, Elena thought back to her past self.
The insignificant and worthless 'Elias Ironfield' whom no one paid any attention to.
But her present self had grown incomparably stronger than back then. And at the center of all that change stood her master, Libertas.
Opening her eyes, Elena met the gaze of her master, who was looking down at her fondly.
A hint of a pout slipped into her voice.
"Still... returning Cheoks. I truly don't believe it will be easy."
Regret and tension colored her tone.
Regret over the command to return the territory just as she was beginning to taste the fruits of victory.
And tension over whether this small defiance might provoke her master's wrath.
But Libertas only offered her ever-benevolent smile, the same as always.
"What matters to you is Ironfield, not this occupied territory. The title of Margrave of Cheoks means nothing to you."
"That is... true."
Though it was hard to accept the title of Margrave being dismissed so lightly, Elena nodded with effort.
Her master's words were practically truth to her.
"And..."
Her master was also the prophet who always convinced those she led.
"Returning Cheoks Castle alone will be sufficient."
"What do you mean by that?"
At Elena's question, Libertas's eyes glimmered with light.
The sight of a purple flame leaving a trail before vanishing reminded one of how dangerous she could be.
At the same time, it gave a sense of security to those who served her.
"Messengers have likely already been dispatched to the capital and the margraviate in your name. To receive administrative orders regarding the disposition of the occupied territory."
This essentially meant her name had been used without permission, yet only a smile played on Elena's lips.
"Indeed. We merely need to return the 'Margraviate of Cheoks.'"
She was now grasping her master's meaning instinctively.
Though she served as a knight, her original talent was that of an administrator.
"How clever you are, as expected."
As her master's slender fingers brushed through her hair, Elena closed her eyes again.
This action was tantamount to proving all her abilities.
Military, administration, diplomacy, intrigue. Everything.
Libertas truly intended to make her a hero.
"Haisen will not simply permit the land you conquered to remain under your control, or Ironfield's."
"That means..."
"They will try to seize it by any means available."
In feudalism, king and lord existed in a relationship of both cooperation and competition.
The Kingdom of Haisen would not wish for the margrave's territory to expand further, so they were highly likely to attempt to bring the newly acquired land under their own influence.
"This shall become the stepping stone of your fate."
But Libertas saw that very thing as an opportunity.
An opportunity to widen the rift between Haisen and Ironfield, and overturn the succession structure of House Ironfield.
"It shall be as my master says."
Elena bowed her head.
The questions within her heart had already subsided.
To her, her master was the shepherd, and Elena was merely a sheep following Libertas's path.
"I shall follow your orders."
She would become a hero.
Even if that meant being Libertas's puppet.
For that was the path she desired.
For that was what her master desired.
- 2 -
Immediately after their conversation about the trajectory of the future concluded, the focus shifted to the reward Libertas would bestow upon Elena.
"How is your relationship with Adelaide?"
Libertas asked about Elena's older sister.
Yuran had already spoken with her but had reported that Adelaide was not receptive.
It was not a matter that could be easily resolved, and there had also been affairs requiring immediate attention.
War was not so simple an affair.
Ultimately, it was something her master Libertas had to address personally.
"I have not yet been able to speak properly with my sister."
"I suppose that must be the case. You likely couldn't have had a proper conversation before going to request her cooperation."
Elena quietly lowered her gaze and bowed her head.
Blended with the banshee's unique aura, one could sense a certain melancholy, but in truth, it was simply a naivety born of not knowing what to say.
The love she had experienced in the past was nothing like this sincere affection.
Libertas gently took her hand and continued.
"Noble family relationships often differ from those of ordinary people. It is an environment where familial affection is hard to feel, so one can easily be blinded by whatever shines within it."
Elena gave a tiny nod, and Libertas, watching her, drew a deeper smile.
A lack of affection could sometimes straighten a person's heart and will, but in most cases, it merely twisted them beyond repair.
Libertas had already witnessed and felt this many times.
Therefore, she knew well that it was better to properly tend a wound before the heart rotted from the pus oozing out of it.
This included her own case.
"I saw that you wished for revenge against those who hurt you. But it seems there was an exception."
Amidst a crowd of those who ignored her, a single person who hid her true face, wanting to offer even a little affection.
Upon glimpsing that true face, it would draw in the beholder's heart, like a rainbow shining amidst the gray, or a morning star in the darkness.
Adelaide was such a figure to Elena.
"That feeling has not changed even now."
Elena answered heavily.
"For the sake of my loyalty to my master, even if you ordered me to kill my entire family... all of them, I could obey. Including Adelaide."
"There is no need for that."
Libertas denied her words.
Softly, but firmly.
In her eyes, she could see the psychological inertia pushing Elena forward.
Words spoken about oneself sometimes became chains that bound the self.
The only one who could break those chains, holding higher authority within Elena's heart over herself than Elena did, was her master, Libertas.
"Fate does not naturally go as one wills. That is what makes it interesting."
"Fate..."
"Look directly upon what you desire. You are already doing an excellent job."
Telling her to protect her one and only heart as a reward for Elena was too small a thing to ask.
Some might call it a twisted heart, but even a twisted heart is still a heart.
Elena lifted her head and looked at Libertas. Confusion and conflict crossed her eyes.
"I... do not know. This is so different from what I had thought..."
The resentment nurtured from the past, and the special affection she held now.
Having returned to her family for revenge, she was now unable to decide between these two hearts.
All of it was something that needed to be properly sorted before Libertas could seriously mold her into a power and a hero.
"My sister... What do you intend to do with Adelaide?"
"Only two paths lie ahead of her. Do you not know this?"
"..."
Elena squeezed her eyes shut.
Adelaide's fate was twofold.
To die as a member of Ironfield, or to survive as a person necessary to Elena.
It was the same trial all nobles faced during the transitional phase of power.
"Acknowledge what has taken root in your heart. It is nothing to fear."
Listening to Libertas's words, her lips trembled, and finally, Elena confessed a part of her desire.
"I... when I can stand at my master's side, bearing a sword... I would like it if my sister were within my sight."
Libertas whispered.
"How? Simply as a sister?"
And once the dam had broken, it was not difficult to spill everything it held.
"As my... consort."
Libertas smiled.
"It shall be so. Elena."
- 3 -
After finishing the conversation with Elena, I spent some time alone with Ran.
The office of the lord and margrave of Cheoks was now practically my private room.
"My lord husband..."
"Yes. Ran."
She had no intention of separating from me, having met me after several days apart.
In the end, I decided to postpone my original plan to inspect even the outer walls of Cheoks today and focus on her instead.
"Did your talk with Elena go well?"
But she seemed to have difficulty focusing solely on our time together.
In her eyes as she asked, there lingered a curiosity about another person, something I rarely saw from her.
I answered lightly.
"In its own way. At least enough for her to recognize the reward she's receiving as a reward."
Ordinarily, it would be something difficult to speak of carelessly to others, but she and I were not 'others' to each other.
At that, she showed a rather pleased expression.
Probably joy at both the good news for Elena and at me speaking of that 'secret' to her so casually.
"That is good to hear."
"You seem to have gotten quite close to Elena. To think you'd bring up someone else at a time like this."
"That is not the case at all. I was merely curious because that crybaby's expression had changed."
At my laughing retort, Yuran put on a slightly sulky expression.
As if that hadn't been her intention at all.
"Crybaby?"
At my question, the Black Fox wore a mischievous expression this time.
"Does she not always give off the air of one about to weep?"
"Oh dear. The banshees would hate to hear that."
"Let them hate it if they will. I have only my lord husband."
"I see. So that's how it is."
Right after those words, we spent a long while holding each other in silence.
Ordinarily, a time of silence is one shared between boredom and tranquility.
However, what existed between the two of us was only tranquility and a slight excitement; there was no boredom.
Because whenever my eyes met hers, she rejoiced sincerely and silently nestled closer, and I too loved those gestures of hers.
Then, a question occurred to me. It was while stroking her tail wrapped around my waist.
"Now that I think of it. Ran."
"Ask me anything."
"Do you not have family?"
All dungeon lords that occurred naturally were originally children of the demon realm.
Whether nobility, commoner, even a great duke's illegitimate child or an alleyway orphan.
In this era, most of them would have faded away without ever getting the chance to know who their parents were.
Since this was an era where humans had accumulated the know-how to farm dungeon lords.
"But this life is not your first."
Therefore, it was possible that she knew about her own family.
'I have changed indeed.'
This was a topic I had never asked about because until now, I had avoided thoughts of family.
Though my situation had improved somewhat, it was still enough to make me uncomfortable.
But that discomfort could not suppress my curiosity about her.
And I also felt it was only proper that I be curious and know about it.
"To think my master would ask me that question so soon... This humble one is endlessly glad."
It seemed she had been aware of my state.
Saying she was truly happy with the slightest hint of tears in her voice, she smiled and clung to me even more tightly as she answered.
"But it is fine. This humble one has no family."
"Do you truly have none? Or do you simply regard it as so?"
A topic that could perhaps be very sensitive.
However, Yuran's attitude in answering it was effortless and light the entire time.
Pulling my hand up to her waist, Yuran brought her lips to my ear and whispered the answer.
"I regard it as so."
"Why?"
"Because someday, when the time comes... I intend to kill them all with my own hands."
Words infused with an endlessly bleak feeling, though the tone remained gentle.
"I do not know the circumstances, but..."
I whispered back to her, matching her tone.
"When that time comes, I would like to see those faces at least once."
"Why would that be?"
Ran asked back, her eyes round.
This must have been something the past me had not said to her.
Feeling strangely pleased by that, I smiled even more deeply and whispered.
"Wouldn't it be proper to have a formal meeting with your family?"
And at my answer, Ran beamed even brighter and clung closer.
"It would be the greatest wedding gift this humble one could receive. My lord husband."
"I look forward to the time when you tell me everything."
"It is not a distant matter."
- Hihihing - !
From beyond the window where we were whispering, the sound of horses pulling a carriage could be heard.
Looking down, I saw a carriage bearing the flag of the Duke of Driaz.
"They have come."
"Elena will handle it well."
"She likely will. But I should send Sonia as well."
For a cherished subordinate, a device was necessary to let them know I was always supporting them from the side.
Sometimes that device could be a person.
Fwoosh!
- Ooh!
Yuran burned a talisman at the tip of her tail, summoning a purple flame, then shaped it into the form of a fox and sent it flying out the window.
It was a spell containing a message for Sonia.
"Was that well done?"
"Yes."
We continued to spend our time alone together.
Until the messenger of Driaz received Elena's answer and departed.