Chapter 139

(139)

How did I not realize how close they had gotten?

I drew ‘Black Tear’ with a sense of despair.

Ever since I returned, I had only fought Infiltrators, not monsters, so it seemed my body didn’t send warnings unless it sensed the presence of something ancient.

“Shiiik!”

It growled low from atop a garbage heap.

It looked to be about 2 meters tall, wearing rags, but I could catch glimpses of brown exoskeleton with a metallic texture between the rags.

It lifted something above its head.

I couldn’t quite grasp the body structure at that moment, but seeing the face with eight eyes and the pincers that emerged between the rags gave me an idea.

If a scorpion walked on two legs, it would probably look something like that.

“Sister!”

I stepped in front of Sererassie.

At the same time, the scorpion-like chimera flicked its tail.

Pschh! Pschh! Pschh!

A strange sound echoed.

It seemed it was shooting venomous stingers.

However, my skin was tough enough not to be pierced by ordinary blades, and my uniform was permeated with the liquid metal armor ‘Aquatech’.

A stinger about a hand’s length struck my chest and bounced off.

“Piercing flames that cut sharply!”

I chanted the spell simultaneously, and a flame, about the length of an arrow, flew through the air and pierced the chimera.

I confirmed it tumbled down into the garbage heap and turned to Sererassie.

“Are you okay?”

“Looks like we’re in big trouble.”

“Yeah. Good… What?”

Sererassie looked at her left hand’s knuckles with a troubled expression.

There, a stinger about a hand’s length had pierced through her hand and emerged from her palm.

“Your Highness!”

Lady Trentia rushed over to us in shock.

She had just finished off two chameleon crocodiles that were about to attack us.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t expect more of them to gather…”

“It’s not your fault. It’s been so long since I’ve seen one, I momentarily forgot that thing could shoot venom. How embarrassing.”

Somehow, Sererassie’s voice seemed a bit unsteady.

I carefully extracted the stinger first.

It had a slimy barb at the end, making it hard to pull out.

I had a strong feeling it was an artificially created creature.

“Can’t you pull it out a little more gently?”

Sererassie reproached me.

“Sister, why does your voice sound so weak? I can understand you just fine.”

“Bragging, huh… Ah, I see.”

She seemed to recall something and squeezed her eyes shut.

“That thing is likely poisonous.”

“What?”

“Don’t worry. Who’s worrying about whom? It’s a paralysis type, and we can suppress it with mana. How strong can this poison be compared to the one Bastatin made? So please don’t look at me as if I’m about to die.”

“From how your tongue is still working, you seem quite lively. Understood. I’ll be right here, so start with the antidote.”

Sererassie began to chant a spell.

At that moment, I noticed the boy from earlier loitering by my side.

“Do you have something to say?”

“Your Highness. That is…”

He seemed unaware of my noble status.

“Call me Duke Valencius.”

Upon hearing the name Valencius, the boy confirmed my hair and eye colors alternately, then bowed down before me with an expression full of despair.

It seemed my infamous reputation had reached even here.

“Get up. The floor is dirty.”

“P-Please forgive me. Just spare my life!”

“What are you asking for? You haven’t committed a capital offense, have you? Have you heard any strange rumors?”

It was half in jest.

The boy hesitated before answering.

“I heard you capture young men and women, behead them, and absorb their life force.”

…Oh dear.

It seemed rumors about me had spread, focusing on their brutality.

It would be nice if they were a bit lighter, but this type of rumor wasn’t necessarily bad.

“Speak what you intended to say before I cut off your head.”

The boy answered with a frightened look.

“T-The creatures move in groups. Typically, five or six move together. The knight just returned from the garbage pile…”

“That’s not something to worry about. Lady Trentia could avoid that kind of stinger even with her eyes closed.”

“And they don’t burn! We attacked them with fire along with the adults, and they just fainted for a moment and then came back to life.”

“What?”

I hadn’t used incantations recently.

The creature that had previously collapsed on the garbage pile stood back up.

I positioned myself in front of Sererassie again.

“Sister, duck.”

Pschh! Pschh! Pschh!

Then the scorpion-human’s stinger pierced the boy’s body.

* * *

Lady Trentia returned holding six tails of the creatures she had smashed.

I witnessed her taking on the last one. She dodged all its venomous stings and approached, drawing her pincers and bursting its head.

“Your Highness, I think I understand why rumors of Infiltrators are circulating.”

The chimeras wore rags but were adequately clothed and walked on two legs like humans.

The corrosion here was less severe than expected, but it was clear there were still those afflicted, making them seem adequately like their kind.

“I would have thought they were Infiltrators if it weren’t for what Sererassie said.”

“So I have a question. Princess Sererassie.”

Lady Trentia looked at Sererassie, her red eyes filled with a strange tension.

I desperately hoped nothing would happen.

“What is it?”

“Are these monsters chimeras created by the Ivory Tower?”

Indeed.

I had a feeling this would happen.

It was unreasonable to expect things to go as I wished.

“Lady Trentia.”

I tried to carefully dissuade her.

The Ivory Tower was a sensitive memory for Sererassie, and she was currently tense for some reason.

This was the first time she had shown such a defensive reaction since the time of being an illegitimate child, indicating that she must have thought this incident could impact her as severely as back then.

“Please answer, Your Highness. Did the Ivory Tower lose control of the test subjects and cause this disaster?”

Pressing someone anxious to the limit elicits one of two responses.

They either evade or confront.

“Lady Trentia, be quiet. I won’t forgive you for insulting my homeland.”

Sererassie was clearly the latter.

“Your Highness!”

“Lady, have you forgotten why we’re here? We came to confirm that this isn’t an Infiltrator problem. Now that we’ve confirmed it’s not, what’s the issue?”

“People are dying. They are still dying now. I am a knight, and I have an obligation to protect the weak.”

Sererassie had been hit by a stinger far from her heart, and although she didn’t know how to reinforce her body with mana, she was a wizard with considerable mana.

However, the boy had been struck by three stingers in his torso, and his physical condition wasn’t good.

Regardless of status, it was natural to want to save someone dying right before you; however, before Sererassie and I could do anything, the boy stiffened and died.

I burned him completely, ensuring there wouldn’t even be a skeleton left in case he might rise as a skeleton.

“Swearing loyalty to your lord comes first. I’ll say this as a Duke of the Empire—stop it.”

“Your Highness! I am not saying I’ll charge into the Ivory Tower. If chimeras have spilled this far, the wizards of the Ivory Tower are at risk too. We must inform them of the situation.”

Lady Trentia was unaware that the words ‘Ivory Tower’ were Sererassie’s Achilles’ heel, and Sererassie didn’t know that Lady Trentia was fed up with her ‘turning a blind eye’ because of me.

“Are you trying to cover up an incident that happened at the Ivory Tower?”

“I would rather raze this land with my own hands than see you turn my homeland into a wasteland because of these refugees.”

“Duke Valencius, you should say something. Didn’t you promise to resolve this as a knight?”

“Little sister, tell your escort to shut up. The mission is complete, yet you’re torturing me without thinking of going back.”

In the end, both turned their arrows toward me.

“…Hmm.”

I carefully chose my words.

Honestly, I was emotionally on Lady Trentia’s side.

I was neither some mad politician nor a court noble spouting ‘All lowly people should die!’ It was unnecessary to investigate the situation while the refugees became chimeras.

However, that didn’t mean I could touch Sererassie and her Achilles’ heel, the Ivory Tower.

I needed Sererassie, and I needed the Ivory Tower.

I could easily disregard my emotions.

Hadn’t I told Lancia that night in the underground waterway too?

To give meaning to things that change day by day, instead of relying on emotions.

However, I couldn’t break my promise to Lady Trentia less than an hour after making it.

I had disappointed her too much just a few days ago.

How could I, as a Duke, sit drinking with a mere manager of a red-light district casino, who I wouldn’t even deign to call a bourgeois, and then knock down a holy knight of the Radiant Church?

If I planned to enlist Lady Trentia’s power going forward, I had to respect the values she pursued.

I looked back and forth between the two and said, “I have a good idea.”

There are two ways to resolve such a problem.

“Let’s send all the refugees north.”

Either listen to both of their opinions or present a suggestion that would surprise both of them.

“Excuse me? What does that mean…?”

“What did you just say?”

* * *

That evening, I went to Jeilliris’ office to report.

All the paperwork that had piled up like a mountain in the morning had either been approved or rejected without leaving a single one.

“Your Majesty.”

An administrative officer approached me timidly.

The Emperor pointed to the grandfather clock and spoke in a weary voice.

“I mentioned this before, didn’t I? From now on, unless it concerns matters of war, I will not accept any new documentation after four. You should prepare to leave too. If you’re here, all the officials under you will be here as well, right?”

“It’s a matter related to the war.”

“…Leave it here.”

People think the Emperor gives orders, but it seems orders are exchanged back and forth between above and below.

The higher-ups ultimately react based on the information brought up by the lower officials because the higher-ups only consist of one person while the lower consist of many.

It may seem like the higher-ups are giving orders…

“Duke Valencius. Were there Infiltrators?”

Lost in thought, Jeilliris asked in a languid voice.

Stretching her wings while yawning, she looked both tired and excited.

“There were none. Actually…”

I slowly filed my report, pretending to finish it with a recommendation.

“The repatriation of the refugees…”

“If you send them north now, they will arrive just when the summer harvest is busy! Slavery work on the canal will need hands all year round.”

“Good. I will send a missive to Duke Seberic. You write a letter too. Prepare the refugees to leave as soon as the reply comes.”

“Thank you.”

Jeilliris then continued, “By the way, what do you think about Duke Sorelazie? I feel like squeezing the Ivory Tower a bit more this time.”

Fortunately, I had an answer prepared.

“I submit that it is an honor, but Duke Sorelazie is working hard to prevent you from doing so, Your Majesty.”

“And you?”

I hesitated momentarily, and Jeilliris smiled.

“Then, I will look forward to it again. Feel free to devise a plan that satisfies everyone.”