Chapter 26
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: A Mother Bird Feeding Her Young
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We gathered up the documents and made our way to Grandfather's office.
When we arrived, Edward—the commander and vice-commander of the battle mage unit—stood there waiting.
His short-cropped white hair and the massive muscles bulging even through his clothes gave him away, along with his cynical face and pitch-black eyes. He was in the middle of giving his report to Grandfather.
Spotting us, Edward offered a curt greeting.
"I've heard the story, Your Highness."
His icy tone made it hard to tell if he was pleased or not, but under the circumstances, he probably wasn't thrilled.
"Hello, Edward. I know you just arrived, but there's more work to be done."
"Understood."
He accepted the request readily, even though it wasn't a direct order from his superior.
I nodded back and spread the documents out on the desk.
"We brought three years' worth of dungeon entry logs and casualty lists from the Adventurer's Guild. If you look here, this is a roster of survivors from parties that suffered fatalities. Narrowing it down, the most common links were two Mage Tower wizards and four adventurers. The guildmaster has the adventurers in custody and will hand them over to the tower, so Grandfather, could you please interrogate these two?"
Grandfather narrowed his eyes and replied that he understood.
"Edward, how long has it been since we deployed the operation?"
"Sixteen hours."
"The heretics might report back to their people inside the dungeon anywhere from eight to thirty-two hours from now, at shortest or longest. There are two remaining heretic hideouts—take one of them."
"...Tight timeline. Mark it for me; we'll head out immediately."
"Jenia."
As Edward unrolled the map, Jenia grabbed a pen from the desk and circled the spot.
"Which of the three sites was it?"
"This one."
The location Edward pointed to was southwest of the dungeon, cutting across marquisate territory—one of the three spots.
Jenia marked the northern one and continued the explanation.
"Send seventy percent of available personnel there, and position the remaining thirty percent at the dungeon entrance without being detected."
Edward glanced at Grandfather, who nodded, and with that, he confirmed deployment and left the office.
"Your Highness, Lady Jenia, I'll head straight to the dungeon once these mages are secured."
"Yes, Grandfather. We won't need to do any more searching, so it shouldn't take long. The inquisitors from the temple should arrive soon—link up with them and seal the dungeon."
Grandfather gave a wry look as he replied.
"Your Highness, don't let hatred consume you."
His eyes brimmed with concern and worry.
For some reason, I felt a pang of guilt and scratched my head.
"I'll keep it in check."
"It's just an old man's sentimentality, seeing how mature you've become at such a young age. Pay it no mind."
We nodded, checked that the antidote and potions were stocked in our small subspatial bags, and set off.
We borrowed three horses from the stables and mounted up.
Jenia mentioned she'd once gained her riding skill after sneaking out at night to steal a horse and practice riding.
I seated Veronica in front of me, but she took a deep whiff of me in a most undignified way, so I flicked her hard on the forehead. With that, we galloped off.
Lancelot rode alongside me and asked,
"Hey, can't you just teleport us? The imperial mages do it all the time."
I sighed and answered,
"I'd love to, but it's not just me—teleporting a group like this ramps up the difficulty exponentially. And if we hit a trap mid-teleport, it's not just me who dies."
Plus, my skill still wasn't quite there for teleporting...
Oblivious to my concerns, Lancelot kept blabbering.
"Think about it—popping out of thin air and landing with a dramatic thud. Wouldn't that be cool?"
"It'd look awesome if you did it, Your Apostleship!"
Ignoring their hero-movie nonsense—the pinnacle of inefficiency—we urged our horses faster.
About two hours of riding later, we spotted a dilapidated outer wall woven from trees in the distance.
"Everyone, put on your robes. I'll do the checking."
With that, the other three donned hoods—all but me.
"Hoo... haa..."
I encouraged Jenia as she took a deep breath, tied the horses in the nearby woods, and approached the wall.
I strode forward, changed my hair color with magic, clasped my hands behind my back, and played the part of a spoiled young noble.
"Hey! Is no one here?!"
-Slurrrp! Who goes there?!
At my call, a scruffy mountain folk who looked like he was dozing on a rickety watchtower that might collapse any second scrambled down the ladder.
Upon reaching the ground and seeing us, the squatter flinched.
"Uh... milord? What brings you here?"
I clicked my tongue and scowled.
"Tch. I'm Ian Kakura, third son of Baron Kakura from a collateral branch of the Marquis of Florence's house. Father sent me personally to collect taxes or conscript from you tax-dodging squatters."
I jiggled my leg and spat on the ground.
"How many squatters are here right now?"
"About twenty..."
"One silver and seventeen coppers per head. Fail to pay, and the men get conscripted while the women and kids do menial labor for the barony."
"Oh no! Right away, sir!"
At my words, he scurried off, whispered through a door crack to someone inside, and returned with a pouch.
"Here you are."
I snatched the pouch with a thwack and counted the coins.
The worn pouch held the exact amount.
'A squatter doing three-digit multiplication on the fly?'
To confirm my suspicions, I circulated a bit of mana and bound the squatter's mouth and feet with telekinesis.
"Now that I get a good look, you have a punchable face. For violating Article 1, Section 18 of the Kakura family special code—'crime of annoying me'—you're sentenced to death."
"Mmph... ptoo! You crazy little shit!"
As the squatter resisted the telekinesis, a foul aura began emanating from his body.
I signaled Lancelot, who drew his sword and severed the man's neck in one stroke.
The head tumbled, unaware it was dead, and as the body collapsed in a spray of blood soaking the earth, Veronica averted her eyes demurely.
"Eek... Lucky."
Jenia's expression soured at her words.
"Looks like this is the place. Assume about twenty inside. Kill them all on sight—they're heretics anyway. The real squatters are probably locked up somewhere."
Everyone nodded at my words.
Suddenly, Lancelot grinned.
"Liam, wanna bet on who bags more?"
As if this were some hunting contest, complete with psychopath stakes, I replied,
"You're on."
"Me too! Include me, Your Apostleship!"
Jenia looked like she wondered if this was okay, but pulled her weapon from her subspatial pouch anyway.
At the same time, Veronica beamed and drew her mace. I telekinetically lifted everyone over the gate carefully.
Just then, a chubby heretic startled and opened his mouth to shout...
"Wha—"
-Slash!
Lancelot struck his throat swiftly.
"One!"
At Lancelot's shout, heretics poured out.
"Tch. Since it's come to this, no injuries—safety first, safety first, safety first!"
"Safety first, safety first, safety first!"
As those two charged in laughing, the heretics recoiled and began unleashing their energies.
"What the hell are these kids?!"
"Blasphemers! Intruders!"
-Crunch!
"Repent!"
Lancelot carved through the heretics with elegant swordplay, while Veronica cackled maniacally beside him, smashing limbs with her blunt weapon.
I dragged one heretic mid-fight over, finished him off, and laid him before Jenia.
"Jenia, you're ready—give it a try."
She nodded, hoisted her greatsword high, and brought it down.
Staring at the heretic's severed head and neck, Jenia closed her eyes, twitched her brows, then took a deep breath.
"Hoo... I'm okay."
"Experience?"
"Just a sec... It went up!"
Only then did Jenia's expression soften a bit.
I chuckled and joined the fray.
"Four!"
"Three, counting disables!"
"Keep pushing forward."
As we advanced toward the village center bit by bit, a horrific ritual was underway.
An open pit held an ebony inverted cross, blood pooling and dripping from it. Lines connected to the cross wrapped around the necks of men, women, and children alike, draining their blood.
Veins writhed along the lines like living things, and the fully drained corpses lay mummified in agonized poses.
Everyone's eyes turned ice-cold at the gruesome sight, fury boiling over—then four robed dark mages emerged, led by one clutching a black scripture in the center.
"Well now, brats interrupting such a sacred..."
-Zing!
I blasted out both eyes of the prattling heretic mage with magic.
"Gaaahhh!"
Sorry, but I had no intention of wasting time on small fry.
"We're in a hurry—make it quick."
-Ziiing!
Firing magic from my fingers and swinging my arm, the panicked heretics' feet severed from their legs.
Ignoring their screams as they crawled about, I turned to Jenia.
"See for yourself now? I told you it's not murder."
This was pure quarantine. Quarantine.
I dragged the dark mage who'd been yapping in front of nodding Jenia.
"Veronica, play with this one. I need the rest intact."
"Heavens! Even vermin have uses in Your Apostleship's eyes!"
"Sigh... What am I, your babysitter?"
Veronica skipped off in admiration, pulling out the new portable torture kit I'd bought her from her subspatial pouch and gleefully extracting repentance.
"Jenia, experiment time. Remember that experience gain?"
"Yes, I do."
"This one's stronger-looking, so check if it gives more."
At my words, Jenia nodded and gazed down at the heretic with cold eyes, slowly pressing her greatsword to vertically split his skull.
"Gaaaaahhh!"
-Splurt! Crunch! Thud!
The greatsword cleaved the cranium leisurely before hitting the ground.
Jenia looked down at the heretic with contempt, swung her sword through the air a few times, then brightened up and chattered excitedly.
"Your Highness! More experience this time! I leveled up already! This is killing two birds with one stone!"
Grinning at her words, I processed the heretics one by one.
To some I gave limbless torsos, to others just arms and legs removed, delivering them intact in order of freshness—Jenia whooped with joy at another level-up, jumping around.
Watching her, I felt oddly full, like a mother bird who'd fed her chick.