Chapter 65: Whose Fault Is It?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 65: Whose Fault Is It?
“It’s the footprints of Mirei’s party! They went this way!”
“Catch them! Kill them!”
“You idiot, she said it’s a public execution! We have to show them to Lord Alto to earn our forgiveness!”
Taking advantage of the chaos caused by the explosion at the northern border of Lukart, Mirei’s party had fled.
Their destination was the Magic Tower located near the Duchy, but the journey was anything but easy.
After Yobeste was executed and Levantello and Count Dakuus returned to their respective positions, Yarismal did not leave the adventurers who were present alone.
After summarily executing the women from Claude’s and Gerend’s parties one by one, Yarismal gave a thin smile.
“You’ve committed an irreversible sin, haven’t you? You stood by while Alto Bertrand’s women cheated on him, and you despised Lord Alto both to his face and behind his back. I came here knowing everything. That’s why I was dispatched from headquarters as an auditor.”
Lifting her blood-stained knuckles, Yarismal slowly scanned the crowd as if choosing her next victim.
“The Kingdom has branded your city, Lukart, as a City of Sin. Therefore, the Adventurer Guild headquarters has decided to give you a quest to redeem yourselves.”
The content of that quest was to immediately pursue Mirei’s party and capture them alive.
It was a means to show the unfaithful women to Alto Bertrand and punish them in order to change his mind.
“If you return empty-handed, you will all be slaughtered along with Lukart.”
She then chased down an adventurer who was trying to sneak away, folded him in half by the waist, and shook him in front of everyone’s eyes.
“Don’t even think about running. You insulted Alto Bertrand, the No. 1 National Merit Recipient and the man who defeated the Four Heavenly Kings single-handedly. The Kingdom intends to find every last one of you, even if they have to cooperate with the Duchy. Go ahead and see if they can actually find you or not. You’ll find out soon enough with your own bodies.”
Without a hint of lingering regret, Yarismal returned to Lukart, flanking the Branch Manager and the Carriage Station Manager.
What followed in Lukart was the public execution of the Branch Manager and the branding of the city as a place of sin.
The adventurers at the border had instinctively pursued Mirei’s party, but after two days, they began to feel skeptical.
However, when the residents and other adventurers who had remained in Lukart arrived as reinforcements—bloodshot eyes wide as they rambled incoherently about the public executions and the fates of Claude’s and Gerend’s parties—they gritted their teeth and became obsessed with the capture.
* * *
“Resin! Those bitches are catching up!”
“Damn it, Mirei! Your armor is so heavy that footprints remain even when I cast weight reduction!”
“You should have increased the intensity of the magic to make me lighter!”
“What?!”
An endless run.
There was no rest.
Having been startled by the swarming adventurers while they were walking leisurely at the start, Mirei’s party was now sprinting blindly in the opposite direction.
“This is all because you, the party leader, couldn’t even recognize a war veteran and fell for that bastard Claude.”
“Excuse me?”
The moment she found out Alto was the hero of Bertrand, Resin had immediately dropped any honorifics for Claude.
Mirei was more flabbergasted by the sudden shift in blame than the rapid change in attitude.
“You were the one who said your dream was to adventure with or marry a war veteran, yet you were the one rubbing lips and fucking Claude just because he had a pretty face.”
“You were the same! Weren’t you the one looking down on Alto, saying you didn’t even feel any desire because he was ugly?!”
“It’s Lord Alto to you!”
Fuming with rage, Mirei grabbed Resin by the throat.
Though not as strong as Airune, Mirei was quite powerful in her own right, and lifting Resin was no difficult task.
“Gack…! Cough!”
“Keep talking. You were all ‘Lord Claude’ this and ‘Lord Claude’ that, but now that you know Alto is a war veteran, it’s ‘Lord Alto’? You two-faced bitch…!”
“You… bitch…! Kill me! Just kill me, you cunt!”
“Mirei, the adventurers are tracking us! Please let go of Resin!”
Krima tried to intervene from the side, but Mirei didn’t budge.
“If only Alto had revealed he was a war veteran, it wouldn’t have come to this. Do you think we would have dared to look elsewhere? Do you think we would have strayed if we knew he was Alto Bertrand?! I would have loved him and never even looked at someone like Claude. I really would have! I would have gone to his bed every single night!”
“Bull… shit… You, the one who kept singing about war veterans… couldn’t even recognize… the best one right beside you… and Claude… isn’t even a veteran, so why did you… follow him…? Guh!”
“Keep talking. Go ahead, keep talking. I’ll twist your neck right here and throw you to those women. You said her name was Yarismal Bichante? Mirachi’s daughter? For a woman like her, bringing you back to life just to kill you again would be child’s play.”
“Heh… hehehe…!”
“You’re laughing?”
Suddenly, light began to radiate from Resin’s body.
It was faint at first, but as it grew brighter, Mirei and Krima became flustered.
“Go ahead… let’s die together… You think I’m dying alone?”
“Resin, calm down! Are you trying to reveal our location?!”
“Why… ugh…! She said she’s going to kill me…!”
As the light grew blindingly bright, Mirei reluctantly threw Resin to the ground.
“You fucking bitch…”
“Cough, gack! Wheeze!”
Resin, spitting out coughs, still had the nerve to snap back despite having been strangled.
“I’m obviously not saying we aren’t at fault. But the biggest cause of this situation is you, Mirei. You, the party leader, were the first one to fall for another man. You should have recognized Lord Alto! You should have at least stopped me and the other members from being bewitched by pathetic losers like Claude and Gerend!”
“You shouldn’t have done it either! When there was already a man in the party!”
“It was the same for you! Damn it! Don’t you get the point? I’m saying this whole mess exploded because you acted in a way that didn’t match your position as leader or the things you always blabbered about!”
“Oh, really? Is that so? I should have stayed by his side and loved him even if I didn’t recognize him, right? Fine, I’m the one who messed up. I should have loved Alto regardless of whether you bitches were spreading your legs and moaning like sluts, right? You goddamn pieces of shit!”
“Shut the hell up. You were the one moaning for that bastard Claude, trying to make your whimpers sound pretty.”
“You son of a bitch…!”
“Do it! Come on! Let’s die together!”
They were at a breaking point, swords and staves pointed at each other.
Krima felt a wave of terror.
Everyone was at fault, and the situation was irreversible, yet they were just sitting there arguing over who was more to blame.
They hadn’t even reached the Magic Tower yet, and the party was already fracturing.
And in the worst possible way.
Should she abandon them and find her own way to survive?
But Krima was far too dependent for that.
It had been Alto’s role to encourage and lead her when she lacked confidence.
With him gone, Krima had long since become a fool who did nothing but blame others.
“Lower your voices. We’ll be discovered by the adventurers at this rate.”
“Shut up, Krima. Part of the reason things got this bad is because Alto went 40 million Dalk into debt because of you.”
“Mirei! You were the one who scolded me for not being able to buy luxury goods for Lord Claude!”
“Krima, stop putting ‘Lord’ in front of Claude’s name!”
“Whether it’s ‘Lord Claude’ or ‘that bastard Claude,’ there’s no one else here to hear us anyway, Resin!”
“That rotten attitude is exactly what made Lord Alto turn his back on us. If you had shown gratitude and respect normally…!”
“Shut up! Shut up! Everyone just shut up! Don’t open your mouths when you’re all just as guilty!”
Unable to bear the mental pressure and the selfishness, Krima screamed and collapsed to the ground.
Mirei and Resin were dumbfounded that the priestess, of all people, was the one making the biggest scene.
“Aaaaah! Shut up! Aaaaaaaaah!”
“You’re the one who needs to shut up! You’re being the loudest!”
“Mirei, just cover her mouth! No, just hit her!”
Slap!
Krima’s head snapped to the side.
Clutching her red, swollen cheek, Krima looked at Mirei with eyes full of disbelief.
“Get a grip, unless you want to die.”
“Get a grip…? Ha, do you know something?”
“What?”
“Have you seen Diane even once since we left the border?”
Mirei and Resin felt a shock as if they’d been hit in the back of the head.
“Don’t tell me she was caught?”
“It’s highly likely. Diane is the stupidest one, after all.”
Resin spoke as if she were being cold and rational, but perhaps the one with the worst judgment in Mirei’s party was Resin herself.
Though they were all much the same, Diane was at least the most decent person among them.
Strictly speaking, within the context of Mirei’s party.
Resin muttered as she stowed her staff.
“From what I heard those adventurer bastards saying, they did some public executions in Lukart, including the Branch Manager. She was probably among them. Stupid bitch, lived stupidly until the very end.”
“Resin.”
“What?”
“Isn’t it too quiet right now?”
A chill ran down their spines.
Between Mirei and Resin’s fighting and their outbursts, they had done more than enough to draw attention.
On top of that, Krima had screamed at the top of her lungs during her breakdown.
Despite all that, the surroundings were quiet.
Deathly quiet.
Just moments ago, those people were gnashing their teeth, swearing to catch them.
Even the slow-witted Krima realized the situation was ominous and slowly stood up.
Mirei’s eyes darted around frantically.
Then, she spotted a familiar colored cloth in the nearby bushes.
“Hey, come out.”
“……”
“Banan, I can see your panties. Mint green again today? You vulgar bitch, look at how you spread your legs every time you sit down.”
“You crazy bitch! Because of you, people keep looking between my legs every time I sit!”
A woman in light armor stood up from the bushes.
Mirei’s party took a combat stance and provoked the adventurer, who held a gauntlet and a saber.
“You want to go? Alone?”
“Haha… I can’t do it alone.”
“Leave while I’m still being nice.”
“Mirei, that’s my line.”
Silently, dozens of adventurers emerged from their ambush around Mirei’s party.
“Mirei’s party, you absolute bitches. Do you have any idea what kind of hell we’re going through because of you? Just get caught quietly and die. Okay? Go to the afterlife peacefully so we can offer you as sacrifices to Lord Alto.”
“Don’t make me laugh! As if I’d die here!”
Flash!
“Fuck, my eyes!”
Resin, screaming hysterically, cast her light magic once more.
Mirei, who had been prepared, covered her face with her arm and charged forward, slashing at Banan who was directly in front of her.
“Run! Just run!”
“Wait for me!”
However, Krima hadn’t expected Resin’s magic at all.
Because of that, she was blinded by the brilliant light along with the other adventurers and couldn’t find her bearings.
“Take me with you!”
“Rangers, chase those two! The rest of you, grab the Krima bitch!”
“Aack!”
Krima, who tried to run late, was grabbed by her brown hair and slammed headfirst into the ground.
“Got her! I got the priestess!”
“Pin her down! Pin her down!”
“What do you mean pin her down? Just stomp on her! Stomp on her until she can’t move!”
“Save me…! Aack! Ah! Ah!”
The sound of a pure, one-sided beating echoed out, like the screams of a child.
“Please don’t hit me…! I was wrong…!”
“We’re all going to die because of you, and you’re telling us not to hit you?!”
“AAAAAAAAAGH!!!!”
Amidst the countless blows, Krima unconsciously thought of only one thing until she became numb to the pain.
If only Alto were here…
If only she had shown him interest and been kind to him sooner…
There was no man as kind as him…
How did it end up like this?
‘Krima, let’s ask Alto for forgiveness.’
Before her consciousness faded, why of all things…
Why did Diane’s earnest plea have to come to mind now?
“Alto…”
The night he left, she should have just confessed everything and begged for forgiveness.
“I was… wrong…!”
“So damn noisy. Smash this bitch’s mouth too.”
“Move aside, I’m gonna line up a kick, okay?”
The last thing Krima saw was a woman’s boot flying toward her mouth.
Crunch—!