TVHR - Chapter 92

"When will you arrive?"

"It will probably be here in three or four days."

"Is the damage from monsters serious?"

"There has been no direct damage, but I have heard that the contaminated area is expanding quite a bit."

The Priest's Healing Abyss acts as purification for monsters.

Therefore, dealing with the monster contamination was also the temple's duty, but she was a little surprised that the High Priest was mobilized for this.

'In the original world, a high priest came to visit.'

Even though they had dealt with the visible pollution there, the pollution grew thicker as time passed.

The Duchy of Bellion possesses vast lands and is rich in resources, but there is one thing: agriculture has not flourished.

It was partly because it was located on extremely barren land, but also because it bordered the monster forest.

Because that polluted energy had seeped into the ground for a long time, the crop harvest in the Duchy of Bellion was not very good.

Of course, the not-so-warm weather was also a factor.

The hard and dry land made it a difficult environment for crops to grow, and since it bordered Kaluta and was surrounded by mountains, mining was more developed than agriculture.

However, even in environments worse than that, Kaluta's crops had a good harvest.

Of course, it might also be due to the seeds we developed independently...

'So I brought the Kaluta people.'

In any case, it was impossible to craft an Abyss Weapon at the Duke's mansion in the capital.

The duchy was the best option if you wanted to try various challenges without letting information leak.

'Since they are passing on the technology, they won't be stingy with farming methods.'

Roselyn swept her hair back as she thought.

'And...'

There was one more reason why Roselyn followed us this far.

The Seven-Colored Stone is a bracelet consisting of a total of seven colors.

The seven colors refer to what the bridge of colorful light rising in the sky shows.

In other words, it means red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

'I've already used the red and orange stones.'

The yellow stone used on the Reaper has shrunk in size but is still usable, and the same goes for the blue stone.

There are still five usable stones.

And among them, the yellow stone symbolizes purification and healing, and the green stone symbolizes abundance. With this, Roselyn planned to make the Duchy a more prosperous land than any other territory in the Empire.

"That's good, High Priest."

"You may call me Irbon, Master."

"I will go to that subjugation too."

So that we can be self-sufficient even if the estate gates are locked.

***

"...It's a mess."

Uddangtangtang-!

The items that had been sitting neatly on the desk were all tossed across the floor by rough hands.

 The captain of the guard frowned. 

Both the planned work and the route that had been established were completely ruined.

None of the plans were put into practice, and their identity was also revealed.

A young girl was completely ruining his lifelong dream.

The Emperor's demeanor has also been subtle recently. Although she said she would not speak, the assumption that she did speak cannot be overlooked.

'I shouldn't have ignored her; I should have killed her.'

He never expected the Reaper he sent to be caught in such a ridiculous way.

The man gritted his teeth and scowled fiercely.

His usual calm and rigid demeanor was nowhere to be seen. With a distorted face, he vented his anger.

Makluxa was currently suffering from severe financial difficulties.

As if that weren't all, those in charge of quite important missions in the plan were disappearing one by one.

Ian Bellion, the second son of the Duke of Bellion, did so, and Reaper did not return either.

The woman from the Hypnosis Abyss who was at least somewhat useful died.

Both Maximus, who had caused the fire, and the one they had barely managed to persuade at the temple were either dead or imprisoned, making further activity impossible.

It is as if his limbs were almost severed.

And the captain of the Royal Guard also knew that it was Roselyn Bellion who had cut off those limbs one by one.

Whenever he tried to get involved in a decent business, perhaps due to bad luck, Marquis Garen Wilbreed interfered every single time.

Garen Wilbreed took over all the decent businesses and didn't even give him a chance to get involved.

Thanks to that, the plan was already half-ruined. There was also a strong possibility that information had leaked out.

Roselyn Bellion said she wouldn't speak because she didn't want to get involved in troublesome matters, but he wasn't stupid enough to believe such empty words.

"...It's the worst."

It's the worst.

He rubbed his face hard with his palm and muttered softly.

Then, he grabbed his hair as if to tear it out and gritted his teeth.

"...Does the Emperor know?"

Lately, the Emperor has been spending more time looking at him than usual.

It was exactly after Roselyn Bellion added a threatening remark to him and left.

The Emperor fell silent, as if deep in thought about something, and whenever he turned his back, his gaze would occasionally fall on him.

Originally, the Emperor was someone who didn't care much whether he was there or not, but recently that was not the case.

There are things you can only know because you have been together for decades.

He tried to act as usual, but it was different from usual.

Above all, it was the fact that she still kept him close but subtly did not let her guard down.

'...It is clear that he said it.'

Even if they didn't go into detail, they would have at least given a heads-up.

Otherwise, the Emperor would not have kept his distance from him like this.

"...How could it have come to this?"

He didn't plan to be ruined by just one woman.

He prepared calmly for a long time.

According to his plan, they should have already extracted the secrets of each family.

They should have been rolling in money, and the prominent noble families should have at least stumbled for a moment.

'In particular, I should have stolen the technology that Young Duke Bellion was secretly developing.'

If that had happened, the Duke's family would have suffered the biggest blow.

According to Carmel's report, he heard that the Duke's family poured quite a large sum of money into the development of that product.

The Duke put that much effort into it over such a long period of time.

If only they could have extracted that technology, if Carmel hadn't died, if Ian Bellion hadn't been taken away like that, if Aximus hadn't been captured so futilely.

There were so many things that could have been resolved if that hadn't happened.

And he couldn't believe that one person was responsible for everything that shouldn't have happened.

"...It's all because of that girl."

The middle-aged man, having finally reached a conclusion, muttered coldly.

Yes, it was all because that young princess, who hadn't even dried the blood on her head, interfered with him at every turn.

"...And after that, she fled to the Duchy."

He rubbed his face several times, then slowly raised his head.

Yes, she fled to the duchy.

She ruined his entire plan, yet she says she will save her own life.

"Haha.."

The captain of the guard burst into dry laughter.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying."

The middle-aged man slowly closed and opened his eyes.

"...It won’t end like this. It can’t end like this."

He muttered softly.

"You naive young girl. I will make sure you are well taught that there is hell in life." 

That day, an unprecedented murder occurred in the imperial city, and the captain of the Royal Guard disappeared.

***

"Ahem. You ungrateful little brother, you wouldn't let me see your face for so long, so what brings you all the way here?"

"I have a favor to ask."

For the first time in over a decade, Arma had truly come to find his older brother, the First Prince, of his own accord and was standing face-to-face with him. 

At Arma's words, the First Prince, Silvran Dianitas, widened his eyes slightly.

 This was because he had rarely heard the word "request" come from Arma's lips, neither when they were children nor now. 

"...A request?"

Silvran, forgetting his dignity, picked at his ear a few times with a look as if he had heard something wrong, then frowned.

"Did I just say it was a request?"

"Yes."

"...So, Arma, you mean to this brother?"

Arma saw Silvran's cheek twitch and nodded, rolling the corners of his mouth.

"Yes."

"...Hmm. You usually wouldn't even glance at me, but to come looking for me like this only when you need something—you have no shame."

Silbran twitched his cheek and snorted as if mocking.

"Well, if you ask politely while calling me 'Big Brother,' I might give it a positive thought."

“Brother.”

"...?"

Silvran, who was tilting his teacup while crossing his legs, paused.

Previous                    Next