Chapter 86

No matter what war it is, the end will come. No matter how long the night, the morning will come. No matter what disaster, the end will surely arrive.

Missing children: 402

Surviving children: 220

Confirmed deceased children: 101

Missing children: 81 (estimated, including those with no known relatives)

Parents were seen crying, clutching their children. Children with no one to welcome them were led by knights to the orphanage. Parents collapsed upon hearing the news of their missing children. How worried must they be? How much do they resent the knights who failed to protect their children, or themselves for being home while their children disappeared? I have no way of knowing. Though I once had a friend who thought of this as something like family… parents and siblings were words far removed from me.

There were also those clutching the corpses of their dead children, screaming. They yelled at the knights who took their taxes, demanding to know what they had done, demanding their children back. Their calloused, scarred hands struck the knights. The ground they struck in their wailing was where their children should have been buried, but they couldn’t even bring themselves to step on it.

“Bring my son back! You bastards who take taxes and claim to protect us! What is this! Bring my son back!”

“Where’s the culprit! Tell us where they are! You can at least tell us that!”

“If you let my child die, you should die too! If you let our daughter die, you should die too!”

“My poor daughter… If I had known, I would have bought her the pretty clothes she liked… Oh, my poor daughter… How sorry I am, my dear…”

Friend, did your parents mourn like that for you in the afterlife? If all those children had parents, could their deaths have been washed away with tears like that? I don’t know. There’s nothing as meaningless as a hypothetical. I can only hope that the tears of those who don’t even exist can wash away that death.

“Step back. The bodies will be confirmed by the imperial family, and the state will take measures. Compensation and announcements regarding this incident will follow.”

“What compensation? We don’t need money, just bring our son back!”

The angry woman struck the knight’s chest.

The knights stood stoically, enduring the anger of those who had lost their children. They had undergone harsh training, so the weak strikes of commoners wouldn’t hurt them. But even so, being cursed at and slapped would still feel bad.

But they were also hurting. They didn’t feel bad, though. The guilt of failing their duty, leading to the deaths of so many children, gripped their hearts. And because they too had families, they understood the anger.

But they could do nothing. As Ricardo said, knights couldn’t bring people back to life. All they could do now was silently endure the people’s anger.

“Step back. The bodies will be confirmed by the imperial family, and the state will take measures. Regarding this incident…”

“This is difficult. Please return home and await further detailed reports…”

They mechanically relayed the instructions from above, knowing full well it wouldn’t quell the sorrow and anger. Knowing this, they silently endured the people’s rage and resentment. They couldn’t say anything beyond what they were told, but at least they knew everyone there was feeling heavy-hearted. They just couldn’t accept it.

Who are the most pitiful today? The parents who heard their children were missing? Or the parents who heard their children were dead and found their battered bodies? They too are overflowing with misfortune and pity, but…

“Excuse me, I need to pass.”

“Ah, Lord Werner, these bodies are of children with no known relatives…”

“I know, so move aside.”

The most pitiful today are the children for whom no one will cry. The poor children with no parents or siblings to mourn them. The poor children for whom no missing reports were filed.

When I removed the cloth covering the body, I saw the face of the kid who had tried to steal my wallet. His face was bruised, his body thin and young, with old, small scars.

I placed the knife he had been holding back in his right hand.

“I’m sorry, kid. I couldn’t kill them all… I promised to kill them all for you…”

This is why I’d be kicked out of that industry. Reporting mission failures to clients always made my flesh tremble. But now, it wasn’t my flesh—it was my arm trembling. The kid in front of me reminded me of that child.

I placed a wallet full of silver coins in his left hand.

“Instead of stealing wallets with fairy tales in them, in your next life, be born with these silver coins and live reading fairy tales.”

I held the child’s hand. A death no one mourns is sad… At least I should cry for them.

“Werner, are you okay?”

Camelia, forcing herself to compose herself, asked me. I wiped the hot something flowing down my cheek and answered.

“Sis, lend me some money.”

“What?”

“Sis, it’ll cost a lot to bury these kids properly. My account’s still frozen, and it’ll take time to reopen.”

“…I’ll cover half.”

Camelia quietly clasped her hands and prayed for the children’s souls.

“But sis, are you okay?”

“I’m fine now. I was just startled for a moment… I’m fine now…”

“Who was that person that startled you so much?”

“That person is my…”

Before Camelia could finish, something outside caught my ear.

“Move aside, shoo, shoo.”

A frivolous, undignified voice, the kind that kills your appetite just by hearing it.

Outside, I saw a neatly dressed man with a mustache. He was in Werner’s memory—the guy who made an orphan joke to Werner and ended up with his clothes burned and hung on the castle wall. He must have been the Empress’s relative or something.

He approached Ricardo, clasped his hands, and said:

“Ah, Sir Ricardo, you’ve worked so hard.”

“Lloyd, I don’t recall summoning you.”

“Ah~ I’m the head of this facility, so I had to come out.”

Was that bastard the head of this sewage facility?

“If there’s anything you don’t know about the management of this sewage facility in this incident, it would be strange. We’ll send investigators later, so please cooperate…”

“Ah, you must be tired, let’s have a drink with the underlings…”

“I don’t accept bribes. And those who follow me are all official knights. Please refrain from using derogatory terms like ‘underlings.'”

Melchior’s description of Ricardo’s rigid, by-the-book nature was showing. His stiff, businesslike attitude made Lloyd scratch his head awkwardly.

“Ahaha… Well, at least it’s good that the situation ended peacefully.”

“Lloyd, did you just say ‘peacefully’? Do you know how many people died?”

“Well, I heard a few died.”

“A few?”

Hearing that, I reached out toward that bastard. It wasn’t a thought-out action—it came from emotion and instinct.

“Steel fangs, pierce that…”

Before I could finish the incantation, Camelia covered my mouth.

“I understand how you feel, but calm down. If you kill him now, the situation will spiral out of control.”

She was right. If I, who had just become an imperial sorcerer, killed the Empress’s relative, things would get noisy. But I still didn’t want to let that bastard go.

Ricardo’s voice carried a hint of anger.

“Nearly 200 children are dead or missing. And yet you use words like ‘a few’ and ‘peacefully’?”

“Well, at least there were no noble young ladies or sons among the victims, right? That would have made things even noisier.”

“‘At least,’ you say?”

“Most of them would have grown up to be thugs or pickpockets anyway, right? Let’s say we filtered out the sewage. You know how it is. Let’s not make things difficult for each other or trouble His Majesty. Let’s just quietly move on. Isn’t that what a loyal subject does?”

Even as that bastard Lloyd spouted such nonsense, Ricardo’s voice only carried a hint of anger. He remained stiff and businesslike.

“Sis, let go. I’m going to kill that bastard today. If there’s trouble, I’ll just go to prison, damn it.”

“Endure it.”

Ricardo clenched his fist and continued the conversation.

“As the head of this sewage facility, you couldn’t have been unaware of this. And there have been reports of you purchasing multiple villas recently, despite your finances not matching. We’ve held off on punishment due to lack of evidence, but…”

“Haha, Sir Ricardo, calm down and listen to me…”

“Shut your mouth, you damn bastard.”

A dull thud echoed as a blow landed on his face.

Camelia calmly said to me:

“That’s why I told you to hold back.”

Looks like that guy’s teeth are all gone, huh?