Chapter 227

As winter deepened, that day finally arrived.

It was vacation time.

Truth is, I’ve never been the studious type, and my grades aren’t exactly game-changers for future prospects, so this break doesn’t hold much meaning for me.

But vacations are important days.

Because it’s when Victoria goes home.

Of course, not back to Bern City.

That place isn’t normal anymore. It’s become an extremely closed-off land where wounded souls reside, and people don’t dare approach it.

What was once a cutting-edge city is now just a broken ruin. And with weakened defenses, monsters have even started creeping into the city. So areas with few people are practically wildlands now.

To deal with these places, someone has to go in and clean them up—but remember how I said it was super closed off?

The ones who could handle it can’t get in.

Empty spaces stretch wide, devoid of people.

Harvesting systems?

They’re weak. Surprisingly, even the psychic ability users are weak because they don’t really understand monsters and overestimate their own strength.

You’ve got pyromancers shooting flames, hydrokinetics controlling water, cryomancers flinging ice—but monsters aren’t just powerful beasts. There are also weird supernatural creatures like ghosts or yokai.

These kinds of things were common in the First World and I encountered them directly in the Second World.

Here, though, they’re just considered ordinary monsters.

Before you can even shoot fire or water, they get killed through some bureaucratic nonsense. It’s seriously bizarre.

Like scissors flying out of nowhere to slice open their stomachs and pull out their guts—or mechanical devices without any power source moving at impossible angles to grab victims and crush them in shredders.

And here’s the kicker—it’s not brute force making these things move but curses manifesting. So if you’ve got something to protect yourself from curses, even without physical strength, you can repel them automatically.

From what I recall in memories from the Third World, there are items that prevent such things from appearing, and specialized companies that deal with them.

But those prevention items would likely be destroyed by contaminated magic power due to energy sources.

Even if specialized companies remain, their infrastructure is wrecked, so all they can do is patch things up temporarily.

Plus, even if you clear out one monster, another similar one will show up soon. All you need is a small mechanical device, but these are all corporate property.

You can’t use them in Bern City.

There’s no one left in the big cities who knows the old monster extermination methods, and the mechanical devices aren’t usable either—so we’re stuck in a vicious cycle.

Sure, smaller towns still have some knowledge, but this new isolation policy screws everything up.

They distrust outsiders and turn them away.

Let’s face it: Bern City has completely fallen. It’s become a closed-off city full of wounded, broken humans.

A city like that always turns rotten. Without fresh blood, decay starts from within. It’s happened before.

A class-based society centered around powerful psychic harvesters.

And guess what? It’s going to happen again.

Except this time, since I can use magic, it’s not just about psychic harvesters—it’s about anyone strong enough rising to the top.

By the way, here’s something interesting:

The remaining army led by Richard Gaston relocated to Nantes Port. Most of the soldiers and their families began rebuilding a city centered around Nantes Port.

What does that mean?

The army stopped protecting Bern City. Bern City and the forces that once defended it are now independent entities.

More specifically, Marquis Gaston’s territory has shrunk to Nantes Port, leaving Bern City as an abandoned land.

Technically, it’s still nominally part of Marquis Gaston’s territory, but Richard Gaston effectively abandoned Bern City after taking over from the late Marquis Gaston.

There are a few reasons for this:

First, they had killed each other too much already. They didn’t get along, so they decided to relocate across the river.

In simpler terms: “If you might try to kill me in my sleep, let’s just stay far apart.”

In short, it’s distrust.

Second, the economic downturn hit here hard—actually, this place was Ground Zero.

Most production came from mechanical devices, but all that was discarded in an instant. And since relations deteriorated rapidly, it didn’t end with large-scale unemployment like in the capital.

Nope.

Society regressed entirely.

And third, there’s the succession issue with Richard Gaston. While he’s known as a harvester, Richard Gaston is practically a bastard child. He’s the current lord’s younger brother, and since the lord has no kids, Richard Gaston seemed like the natural successor.

But the lord’s wife contested it.

Complicated noble politics beyond Richard Gaston’s understanding meant he had nothing to work with except the army under his command.

So rather than saying he gave up, it’s more like he couldn’t do anything.

To sum it up:

Bern City is finished.

Even Beatrice’s replies to Victoria come from another city now—a rural area far from Bern City.

On the evening of the day graduation ceremonies were held,

Victoria was packing her bags in the dormitory, so I went to her room.

“Are you going home?”

“Bell?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

Victoria paused packing to look at me. Her room behind her was already mostly cleaned out. She was ready to head home with her luggage.

“Yeah, I’m going to see my parents.”

After saying that, Victoria stared at me intently.

Then she spoke calmly.

“It’s been half a year since we met.”

“Yes, it has.”

We met around the start of summer vacation, and now it’s winter break—exactly that long.

“When we first met, I was shocked. You were a monster over 25 feet tall! And then suddenly, you turned into this cute girl.”

Victoria reminisced.

“And then, when I went home, dangerous incidents started happening in Bern City. Suddenly, you were healing people. You even met His Majesty and somehow ended up attending the Royal Academy, which should’ve been impossible.”

With that, Victoria shoved her last belongings into her bag, closed it, and locked it.

Click.

“Then there was fighting witches, my parents suddenly moving, letters not arriving, and when I rushed over, everyone in Bern City was acting crazy.”

She grabbed her bag from the bed and stood up.

“And it wasn’t just Bern City. People in the capital went insane too, destroying my old school and killing teachers and classmates.”

Her final words dripped with unshakable hatred.

“So much has happened. It’s been so incredibly tough. That’s why… I’m going home now.”

Victoria said this…

Like she was utterly exhausted.

And like she was saying goodbye to me.

“You’ve been amazing, Bell. Truly radiant.”

Then she walked past me.

Yeah.

So I followed her. Straight ahead wherever she went.

But when she boarded the carriage, I couldn’t follow because I lacked money. Victoria looked at me with a melancholic smile, waved, and rode off.

The carriage moved farther and farther away.

I just stood there staring until eventually, I decided to head back to the dorm.

But my legs wouldn’t move.

Something felt wrong with my body. No matter how much I tried to flex my muscles, my legs refused to budge.

Huh? Am I broken?

Nothing physically seemed wrong with me. The sky was darkening into night, and if I didn’t return soon, the staff at the dorm would have problems.

Ah.

My legs moved.

I took a step forward and stopped.

Hmm… Right.

I took another step and headed toward the dorm.

Since Victoria’s carriage hadn’t gone too far, I reached the dorm quickly.

Standing at the entrance, I rang the bell, and a butler appeared.

“I’m going to visit a friend.”

The butler looked surprised.

“At this hour?”

“It’s an important friend. I feel like if I don’t go now, I might never see her again.”

He stared at me intensely and instead of saying anything, asked:

“You’re heading to Victoria Bet, correct?”

Yeah. He knows her well.

Even though we haven’t talked much, given his connection to the royal family, he probably knows all about my life.

Would the royal family lock me up?

The royal family sold the function I created as a harvester to other countries. If they can’t use it when needed, this country would face criticism.

Oh. They might imprison me if things go south.

“What do you require?”

Huh?

Looking at the butler’s face, he’s genuinely asking—if I need anything, he’ll provide it.

“I want to follow her.”

“I’ll prepare immediately. Please wait inside.”

With that, the middle-aged man opened the door.

“While you wait, we’ll change your outfit to something more suitable for going out.”

Even though I almost questioned whether this was okay coming from someone connected to the royal family, I managed to hold my tongue.

I nodded and entered.

Inside, maids helped me change from my usual dress into practical clothing with pants. While sipping tea, the butler called me over.

Outside, a sturdy-looking vehicle awaited.

As I climbed in, the butlers and maids who’d taken care of me for half a year lined up at the gate. Wondering what was going on, I looked at them—and they bowed.

“Lady Bell, we hope to see you again.”

Seriously? Are they treating this like a permanent farewell?

“To whoever this concerns, I’ll be back.”

The butler smiled and closed the door.

The car drove off.

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