Chapter 203
Three days since the catacombs collapsed.
Three days had passed.
Enough time for Emily, who had headed north, to return with the [Moss of the Holy Grace] for her father.
Yet even with that time passed, Kallias's figure could not be seen anywhere.
Most of the soldiers had volunteered for the catacombs and carried out restoration work, but the limits were clear, and as time passed, their hopes faded like a candle before the wind.
"Emily... how? The Count... sob, the Count...!"
Flora cried as she embraced Emily, and the knights of the north and his comrades.
Those who had ties with him all visited Kaladi's villa one by one, expressed their worry for Emily, and left.
It was a reaction appearing under the assumption that he had died.
"Your father was a great man. He was absolutely no mere rake!"
"If he were still alive... we would have had nothing to fear in this war either."
Emily watched in silence as they each muttered a word and left.
For while there were those who genuinely worried, there were also those who did not.
"Still, it's truly fortunate he met his end as a hero. Since he didn't die a rake, he spared the nation its shame."
"He cleaned up his own mess and died, so I suppose he's worthy of being called a hero."
Emily wrote each of their names in her notebook, one by one.
The names of those who grieved.
The names and words of those who felt satisfaction—she recorded them all without missing a single one.
This had happened before.
The Sunken Forest.
Kallias had gone missing there too, and in the end, led the war to victory.
Emily believed without a doubt.
Her father would definitely.
Appear when needed.
"You don't believe it, do you."
It was then.
As she gathered her thoughts, a familiar voice pierced her ear.
A woman with somehow sorrowful eyes.
It was Ailie.
"Yeah. There's no way my father is dead."
"...May I hear the reason?"
A generous tone, as if trying to soothe a child's denial. Different from usual, a tone as if trying to fulfill the duties of a saintess.
The voice that had always sounded gentle grated on Emily's nerves today.
"Saintess."
So Emily called her a saintess too.
Like everyone else.
"Yeah, Emily."
"If you meet me on the battlefield, what will you do then?"
Perhaps because she disliked that attitude.
Perhaps because her young heart was angered.
Emily quoted the words she had once overheard from her father.
"...I would fulfill the duties of a saintess. Because I am the empire's saintess."
Thump.
A feeling of something dropping.
A sensation of her entire body falling into the abyss.
But she doesn't show it.
Because she is Zerban.
Because she is a daughter of the north, the hero's daughter.
Because Emily held enough within her to swallow back even welling tears. Enough to not need a mother who suddenly appeared.
"As a saintess, I would not forsake courtesy toward the enemy either."
"You're saying you'll take me as a prisoner of war."
At Emily's cold voice, she gripped her skirt hem and struggled to speak.
"Because that's the best I can do."
The best.
The best she can do when meeting her daughter on the battlefield is taking her as a prisoner.
Emily suddenly felt angry.
But at the same time, she understood.
She had felt the difference in positions bone-deep since childhood.
When she was a rake's child.
When she received God's grace but her holy blood was blocked, unable to do anything properly.
She had felt it often.
She knows.
But that was precisely why she was angry.
"Then I cannot tell you."
"...Yeah. But Emily. Please know this at least."
Ailie tightly held Emily's hand.
"I will protect you. Even Kallias's share."
"...My father is not dead!!"
Clatter!
Thud.
A falling chair.
The gaze of a daughter who jumped up and stared with resentful eyes.
Calmly receiving that gaze, she speaks.
"I still don't have memories. But that doesn't mean there's no attraction between us, and the string of fate is surely connected. Because looking at you, who resembles me and him, my heart swells like this."
"But you're the enemy."
"That's right. But, no matter what anyone says, I am your mother. Even if I don't have memories."
Because I decided so.
"Soon, an envoy from the empire will come for me. When that happens, I'll leave Karpe. Emily. Will you come with me, with your mom?"
Startled eyes widen.
Tears well up in already large eyes.
"What about my father?"
"...Since your father isn't here. I think I should take responsibility for you. Even now."
"I am Zerban. I cannot go to the empire."
"I'm not telling you to naturalize. I want to let you see more, even if just for a little while. To deal with the empire, wouldn't you need to know it more deeply?"
Emily bit her lip hard and kicked her chair back.
"Emily..."
As Ailie stood up to follow, Emily, who had stopped walking, advised.
"My father is alive."
"But..."
Three days have passed. If he were alive, he was a man who would have announced his survival by any means.
But there is nothing.
Nothing at all can be sensed.
Even deploying a massive detection spell, there isn't a single ant underground.
It was also a provisional declaration of his death.
"No! He's alive!"
The reason the Schniff she rode hadn't disappeared was proof, and another was.
"I met a goblin recently."
Bang!
Watching Emily close the door and leave, Ailie savored her daughter's words.
"Goblin..."
The Leg of Meterigan.
"Haa..."
In the room left alone, the sound of relieved breathing could be heard for a long while.
* * *
Meanwhile.
The western edge of the continent.
A mountainous terrain that was essentially a fortress, at a relatively safe distance from the empire's maw.
A nation built there.
A nation that worships the God of Armor and simultaneously serves as the pillar of the national alliance against the empire—Lumpard.
The quiet nation of Lumpard had become uproarious.
"A demon! A demon has appeared!!"
It was because a lust demon that had suddenly appeared in the Lumpard queen's bathhouse had cut down all the soldiers and fled.
"Find him! He must be a wicked man wielding demonic sorcery!"
"We must find the one who dishonored the queen and wash away this disgrace!!"
"He must be a demon of lust! He must be captured and executed by dismemberment!!"
The nobles, putting on their armor while chiming in as they watched the soldiers rushing out, all became bloodshot searching for him.
And the Lumpard prison.
Among the prisoners all wearing massive armor.
A man holding a single sword was walking across the iron bars.
Black hair that seemed to swallow light.
Calm gray eyes that seemed to have developed tolerance to any humiliation and disgrace.
Yet a face of perfect beauty as if sculpted by a god.
It was Kallias.
[Kyahaha! See this? Even without me, you're a body that has no choice but to live like this. Ah! If being handsome is a sin, the punishment you deserve would be death!]
"Shut up, you insect-like bitch."
Kallias dismissed the annoying voice ringing from the necklace and recalled the past.
He fought relentlessly in the catacombs and won.
But it was not a complete victory.
Perhaps because Rebecca filled the vacant seat of the undying Fall, she wouldn't die easily.
Her inherent ability was also quite bizarre; even with her soul shattered and her power stripped away, she survived like a leech.
He suspected it was related to parasitism, but there was no way to know for certain.
If they dragged it out like that, it would surely be Kallias's defeat.
He had the Leg of Meterigan, so he was confident he wouldn't die, but failing to kill Rebecca would mean his defeat, no different from having to sacrifice much.
But ultimately, he couldn't escape the delayed time and had no choice but to shatter the Leg of Meterigan he had received from the goblin.
In an instant, spacetime warped and his body transferred to a random location.
Of course, he didn't just take it lying down.
The necklace the queen had gifted was an artifact with sealing abilities.
Since it was a royal treasure, Kallias sealed the exhausted Rebecca at the very last moment.
"Even if I throw you into lava, no matter how strong you are, you'd have no choice but to die."
[Before that, it seems like you'll be caught and killed by the Lumpard folks first. A lust demon who violated the queen... How do you always get framed only for things like that, really.]
"Shut up."
Kallias felt wronged.
The place he transferred to was, of all things, the bathhouse where the queen was bathing.
The queen was thoroughly startled and shrieked, and Kallias, not knowing where or what this place was, had to run away for now.
[But why did you flee underground? Deceiving those guys' eyes is commendable, but if you get caught here, it's over.]
"I have no reason to answer the likes of you."
He too never intended to hide his body here.
But as he fled, he noticed the soldiers' armor was unusual, and seeing their tone and emblems, he immediately knew.
The nation of armor, Lumpard.
A nation that turns people into armor.
The center of the small nation alliance.
After realizing it was Lumpard.
[Emergency Quest!]
-Rescue the Karpe hostage captured in Lumpard.
-Reward [?]
It was because a quest had appeared.
It was surprising that Karpe's citizens were being held hostage in Lumpard, and since it could simultaneously divert their attention, he came to the prison.
"I don't know who is who."
But the Lumpard prison was quite peculiar.
Inside the iron bars, there weren't prisoners with bound hands and feet.
Rather, there were those armed with armor, but strangely, they were all sitting without being able to move an inch.
"Ugh! Mmm!!"
It seemed the reason for putting them in full armor was simply to suppress the prisoners.
Seeing that they couldn't even speak, the armor placed on the prisoners also appeared to be armor made of corpse.
[They put armor on the prisoners to prevent escape, I see. How peculiar. How did they even come up with this?]
It was amazing how she knew such things while trapped in the necklace.
He would probably need to devise a way to eliminate Rebecca soon.
"I don't know. I can't sense any divine power at all. Is it the armor's influence?"
It seemed to completely block divine power.
This made things complicated.
He didn't even know what the reward was, so he wondered if he had to go this far.
If he got discovered like this, wouldn't he be like a cornered rat?
Still, since they were said to be Karpe's citizens, the desire to rescue them was a bit stronger.
It also seemed to be because of the Noble's Duty in his characteristics.
'How annoying.'
His body that was still influenced by characteristics was cursed.
'Still, it's less than the saintesses.'
As Kallias stood idly between the iron bars for a moment, Rebecca's voice bored into his head.
[Ah! I got it. You're planning to release all of them to disperse their attention and escape, right? As expected, you're smart!!]
Flinch.
Kallias nodded his head.
"You figured it out well."
Kallias drew his sword.
Immediately, all the iron bars were cut, and the armor suppressing the prisoners shattered.
One by one, cutting the armor, and when he freed the prisoners down to the very last one.
A familiar face appeared.
"K-Kallias?!"
"Why are you here?"
She was hurt here and there, but it was unmistakable.
With that red hair and captivating eyes, he couldn't not recognize her.
"Helena."
The eldest daughter of the Bolibian family and one of the Five Stars.
It was Helena de Bolibian.
"Why are you here? Were you captured too?!"
"Like that would happen. Don't lump me with a guy like Brans."
"T-That's right!"
"Let's escape for now."
As he helped Helena up at the same time.
"The demon of lust!! You've come into the prison yourself to pay for the crime of insulting the queen!!"
"You shameless lust demon!!"
At Helena's widened eyes.
Kallias dodged and drew his sword.
"I am not."
"...I didn't say anything."
"Anyway, I am not."
His unjustified sword spilled blood.