Chapter 78

There were shadows circling around the desolate castle of the Margrave where no one came.

One of them touched the wall as if in distress and shouted.

"I n-need to get inside! Please help me!"

"Wouldn't that be the Duke's fate? There's nothing mere human strength can do about it."

"Forget fate or whatever, A-Arndt specifically asked me to take good care of His Grace!"

Amelia cried out, almost wailing.

But no amount of crying would make a non-existent door magically appear.

The last place the two had seen the Duke was in the castle.

A monster had suddenly appeared in the hall filled with stones, and in the chaotic situation, only the two of them had been able to escape.

No, to be precise, three people could have truly escaped.

However, when Leandros saw that the Duke had not managed to cross over and was trapped in the castle, he unhesitatingly broke through the collapsed entrance and went back in.

In the end, only the two of them were left outside the castle.

"W-what do we do now!"

"All these trials are God's will."

A situation where they couldn't readily enter because of the monster inside, nor could they leave and abandon everything.

Amelia stamped her feet impatiently.

Her mind was filled with only one thought: 'I must bring the Duke back.'

There was only one reason.

It was because Arndt wanted it.

Although it was her duty to assist Arenheit, the Duke, what was more important was Arndt's happiness.

She wanted him to be happy, and she wanted it to be because of her.

She had occasionally had such thoughts since meeting him, but it was from that moment that she felt such an intense emotion.

The pair of giant stars she had seen with Arenheit.

The shock and fear that felt like her entire body was being turned inside out.

She wanted to die or run away somewhere.

Run away? Where to?

There was only one place she could go.

The Hartmann ducal residence where Arndt was.

If she could just go there, if she could see her small and precious love again.

She was prepared to pay anything.

And now she was on the verge of madness because of that determination.

"G-god or whatever, stop saying nice things and c-come up with a solution!"

"But how could a mere human understand the providence of the great God?"

What a completely unhelpful fellow.

Amelia nibbled on her lips as she touched the icy castle wall.

She and the Duke were bound by the same fate.

If the Duke was in there, she couldn't return to the ducal residence either.

So she had to get the Duke out somehow.

How could she kill that monster?

She looked up at the tall wall.

Could she ambush it from another location?

If she could climb this wall, if she could reach the top of that visible tower.

"Ah."

Amelia suddenly thought of someone.

When she turned around, she saw him standing with Russel, who was kneeling in reverence.

* * *

"Did you say exploit?"

"Exploit in the standard sense of the word. So you don't have to act like you've heard a foreign language."

He was trying to reassure Leandros, but honestly, even he wouldn't say "that's a good idea" if someone said "let's exploit Yurik."

Exploiting Yurik was similar to trying to light a cigarette with a torch.

Lighting it was possible.

A torch is a fire with strong heat, after all.

But there was also the risk of putting on an unwanted fire show to great acclaim.

The difference between a torch and Yurik was that a torch would at most burn your bangs, but Yurik could burn your entire body.

"What exactly do you mean by exploit? It's difficult to judge whether a place like this has any value worth exploiting in the first place."

"Why? There's a mithril vein. We absolutely need that."

"As Your Grace knows, that's a mineral resource monopolized by the north. If we were to meddle, we couldn't avoid conflict."

"I know that too. Who holds the rights to that precious monopolized mineral?"

"Well, the Margrave..."

Leandros stopped his answer.

After thinking for a moment, he opened his mouth.

"If it's announced that the Margrave has disappeared, wouldn't the northern mines revert to the royal family?"

"I suppose so. Until now, no one has been able to go to the north, and no one has returned, so that fact hasn't been revealed. Only Yurik knows."

The fact that not only the Margrave but the north itself had fallen into his hands.

He must be leaving it alone for now because he could use it whenever needed.

A frozen land that no one but Yurik could use, and no one else dared to attempt.

But if he joined in, the story would change.

The combination of a regression returner who comes back even after death and a protagonist.

Doesn't it sound like a high winning percentage just by hearing it?

"So we need to take advantage when he's off guard."

"Does Your Grace have a suitable plan?"

"Well, I need to think more about it, but roughly..."

Leandros answered while putting dried leaves, said to have a painkilling effect, in his mouth.

"If Hartmann absorbs the ownerless north, wouldn't there be a significant backlash from other nobles?"

"That's a possibility. The emerging noble forces haven't stabilized yet, and they'll be sensitive to the movements of the ducal family."

"Then perhaps you should reconsider this matter."

"But don't worry."

He answered while chewing on the leaves that had a bitter and unpleasant aroma.

"I won't be at the forefront of this. Not this time."

"Then who will you entrust it to? Arndt?"

"Arndt is too busy. He has to manage the ducal residence too. I can't burden him any further. For a matter like this, there's another suitable candidate."

"You don't mean..."

A faint anxiety settled in the end of Leandros's words.

At the moment he was about to say something more.

A long, resounding, and at the same time spine-chilling horse's neigh was heard.

-Neigh!

The black horse, as if tearing through shadows, ran from the void and landed on the ground.

On its back were piled struggling people.

"M-move aside! With that body of yours, are y-you trying to crush someone?"

"If you hadn't been so stubborn in the first place, we wouldn't have had to ride this horse! Besides, this horse doesn't listen to anything we say!"

"Are y-you done talking!? It's a m-magical horse! How do you know whether this horse will take us to His Grace or not!"

These two are loud from the moment they meet.

Sleipnir elegantly shook its head and body, dropping the two people.

With a short shriek, the two tumbled to the floor and raised their heads.

Amelia's face brightened.

"W-when did you get here... Y-Your Grace! You're safe!"

Did he look safe in this condition?

But he didn't bother to point that out.

As long as he was alive, that was all that mattered.

Seeing the two still intimately entangled, he felt relieved that he could trust them with future tasks.

"I'm glad to see you're both healthy too. They say speak of the devil and he appears, and that's certainly true. This is perfect as I had something I wanted you to do."

"What?"

"What task do you have for us?"

Question marks appeared on the faces of the two.

Leandros muttered quietly beside him.

"I have a feeling this won't go well from the start."

"Come on, that can't be."

On behalf of Leandros, who wore a bleak expression, he kindly addressed the two.

"Has anyone ever dreamed of being a figurehead?"

"What's a f-figurehead?"

"Something similar to a front person. I need a front person for the north."

"But t-the north?"

"Your Grace, did you not see the giant divine creature that was roaming the north? The north is holy land! It's land close to God! The north is no longer within the reach of human principles. It should be left to flow according to God's will!"

"But there are no more people in the north."

"That too is providence. Only those who offer sincere faith and prayers will survive."

"You're implying there were no such people in the north..."

"Even if no one lives in the north anymore, we can't interfere. That would be against God's will."

No, this world was created by his brother!

Regardless of God's will or whatever, his brother wants to see the ending!

He's the elder brother of God, damn it!

His blood was boiling because the conversation wasn't getting through, but he managed to calm down.

No, let's think carefully.

How could he solve this?

How should he approach this to make the quasi-madman listen eagerly to his story!

"Russel, there's something I haven't told you."

"Yes?"

"When we were here, I explored the castle. According to the information I discovered, it's true that the north collapsed because there was no faith."

"I knew it would be so. It's divine punishment."

"There's no temple here, and no wandering Holy Knight Order has visited. But there was only one person who believed in God, the Margrave of the north..."

"What?"

Russel's eyes, filled with contempt for non-believers, widened.

"The Margrave... you say?"

"But as you said, because non-believers were overwhelmingly numerous, the plan to build a temple and evangelize widely failed. And then, as you saw, a tragic event occurred."

"Such. Such a thing."

"After reading the Margrave's tearful memoir, I decided. For the sake of the Margrave who had become a monster, I would honor his will."

"Your Grace...!"

Despite being a complete stranger, someone he had never met and a mob who had almost burst his intestines as soon as he turned into a monster, only to be dispatched by Leandros, so someone he would probably never see again.

His eyes teared up naturally when he put strength in them and pinched his thigh, which had been bruised.

"Won't you help just once, for the sake of the devout Margrave who has passed away?"

"Well, that..."

"He might have tried to save at least one person until the moment of his death. Don't you feel a sense of responsibility as a member of the Holy Knight Order?"

"Of course I understand he was an excellent person, but, no, still."

Good emotional line.

And that flustered face was good too.

The Margrave, whose past had suddenly been fabricated, might be writhing in heaven, but that wasn't his concern.

The dead cannot speak, after all.

Russel was in a dilemma, faced with conflicting conclusions stemming from his obsession with "faith."

Watching this, he delivered the final clincher.

"Of course, I'm not trying to burden you alone. I need to make efforts too. For example, I could help build a grand temple that would become the center of the northern jurisdiction."

"A grand temple!"

Russel let out a short cry.

His face was instantly ecstatic.

If one had to describe it, it was the expression of a zealot who had seen the clouds part and a beam of light descend from heaven.

And a few days later.

Russel left the northern territory alone, riding Sleipnir.