LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 150
– 1 –
Elena returned to her room without a clue about how her last conversation with Adelaide ended.
“Haah…”
She bowed her head, clutching her hair.
Her actions were too unruly to be considered ladylike, but there was no one to point it out.
Even if there were, they wouldn’t dare speak up, knowing her situation.
“Why… why are you worried about me now…?”
She muttered as if posing a question, but the truth was, Elena already knew the answer.
Adelaide must have been worried all along.
She just hid that concern behind her cold facade.
“Could it be… a trick…?”
It wasn’t entirely impossible.
If Adelaide knew that her senses had improved significantly compared to before…
But she quickly dismissed that thought.
Training one’s senses wasn’t that easy.
While they naturally improve as one’s level rises, it doesn’t necessarily correlate directly.
“… Really, she was someone with feelings originally…”
If that’s the case, then…
“Why did she try to send me to the outskirts…? She must know it’s safer to keep me close.”
Elena mumbled, continuing to mess with her hair.
“You know the answer, don’t you? Elena.”
At that moment, Yuran appeared and started gently prying her fingers away from her hair.
“Yuran…?”
“If you’re there, at least you won’t be treated as a competitor and won’t die.”
It was a situation no one knew about until the monsters hid their ears and tails and infiltrated this inner castle, but it was obvious to Elena.
She had been the one to inform her master about the vulnerabilities in the castle’s security.
“Were you watching?”
“I planted my eyes in your shadow. Now, come here. Messing up your clothes and hair like this, you lack decorum as a servant of my lord.”
“I-I’m sorry…”
As Elena happened to meet Yuran’s eyes while murmuring her apologies, Lan smiled and began fixing Elena’s dress and hair.
The flow of magic emanating from her long fingers was just like what Libertus did when tending to someone’s appearance.
“So… what do you want to do?”
“Um…”
Elena couldn’t respond, swallowing back her words at Yuran’s question while she was brushing her hair.
With confused eyes, she only shook her head.
“I… I don’t know. What should I do…?”
“Shall I tell you the simplest answer? Elena.”
Looking down at her, Yuran made an alluring expression with narrowed eyes.
“What is it…?”
“If you want to act spoiled towards my lord, then do so. Your master will find a way for you.”
“Ah…”
Hearing those words, Elena nodded unconsciously.
– 2 –
“There are plenty of people who are clumsy in expressing themselves.”
– Fool?
“Yonsuk, don’t say bad things.”
– Each to their own.
My evaluation was quite calm.
It wasn’t because I thought the misfortune she suffered was lighter than mine.
Unless it’s an absolutely clear case, all misfortune is the most significant to the one experiencing it.
Comparing my case with Elena’s, one would say I was much more unfortunate, but I wouldn’t empathize with that.
At this very moment, I’m living fiercely, and I’m happy.
“Indeed. Who would have thought it would be discovered after 30 years of keeping it a secret?”
In that respect, Elena was in a pitiful situation compared to me.
Not feeling affection for her family and continuously misbehaving, her younger sibling who became a monster after falling into a Dungeon Lord’s trap.
Not knowing what her younger sibling went through in hiding her weakness as a successor, allowing her sister to approach me.
It was a tragic comedy.
“I should let her live.”
“Is that alright?”
“I think she would have wanted that question to be passed down, right?”
“She didn’t say it directly.”
Thinking about it, it was easy to guess why she hadn’t said so.
Elena likely still hadn’t accepted that her sister was such a person, whom she had resented her entire life.
I shook my head.
“Either way, it will take a while for her to become the Outskirts Duke. Let her think calmly.”
“What if you decide to kill her?”
“Then I can just do as I please.”
Lan smiled.
As if she knew what decision I would make.
Honestly, I think I wouldn’t simply eliminate her.
“Well then. I’ll be back.”
“Alright. Take a squad designated for Elena with you.”
My skeletons and Lan’s zombie army would attack the Outskirts Duke Territory while wearing the Alliance Kingdom’s uniforms.
There was no need for skirmishes or casualties.
If that happened, it would expose that the attackers were undead.
After launching the initial attacks a few times, the situation would naturally escalate due to the Outskirts Duke’s response.
That would become Elena’s sneaky achievement, known only to a few within her family.
As I finished my thoughts, I smiled at Lan, who was waiting for my farewell.
“Lan.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“I cherish you.”
“I hold you in reverence.”
“Take care. Have a safe journey.”
“Yes!”
With that, Lan once again left the dungeon.
– 3 –
The day after Libertus set the war policy, two Alraune left the dungeon.
They arrived at the contact point with Kamaya after a week had passed.
“Oh my! We were too late, weren’t we?”
Jade, the Alraune of Jade Vine, said this, but in reality, they were doing quite well timing-wise.
For Alraune, whose gigantic plant roots are embedded in the ground to travel long distances required magic to move their entire plant body.
This was certainly not a quick process.
The reason they could arrive in a week was that they could move in a straight line, ignoring the terrain, not because their speed was particularly fast.
“They’re coming now. Hurry and do what needs to be done.”
Knowing this, Kamaya expected quick execution rather than scolding them.
“Is this the child? Oh my! Look at her fair skin.”
“Indeed, human noble children look so… delicious… ♥”
“Um, um, who are you? Why do you look so strange…?”
Of course, the easygoing Alraune betrayed Kamaya’s expectations.
“Hmm…”
As veins began to sprout on Kamaya’s forehead, the two Alraune unintentionally ignored her and began examining the young noble girl.
The only reason Kamaya hadn’t gotten angry yet was that the Alraune were direct subordinates of Nirvana.
It was a minimum respect towards her fellow queen.
“It’s alright, sweetie. These sisters have come to play with you.”
“Hurry and do it. Alraune sisters, or else Mommy will really get mad.”
Among them, two women stepped forward.
Former noble slave Josephine, who had come to help Kamaya from the dungeon, and Kamaya’s small daughter, Serha.
“Oh my, oh my… That’s right.”
“We must quickly report to the Grandmaster. Understood?”
Fortunately, the Alraune knew there were things they had to consider ahead of their preferences.
If they lazed around or went against the orders of the Grandmaster, Kamaya and Nirvana would tear their roots apart.
“Now, sweetie… come here?”
“Um…?”
Of course, there was a reason for their leisure.
No matter how much a noble grew under magic and potions, this girl was far too young.
She lacked the strength to resist the alluring magic emanating from the Alraune.
“Alright. Now report and receive the next instruction.”
Following Kamaya’s words, everyone bowed down.
“Phew…”
“Thank you, Aunt Josephine. For helping me.”
“Not at all. It’s only natural. Lady Serha.”
“Hehe. You’re braver than you look.”
Josephine and Serha, who had just regained their peace, breathed sighs of relief.
– 4 –
In the Damalon Territory, the conference room of the lord’s castle.
The regular meeting held on the 1st of every month was interrupted, and tension filled the air.
“What in the world is happening…?”
Dorian Aisaaf, who should have been presiding over the meeting, couldn’t collect his thoughts.
“Ahh. Viola…! Viola!”
The name he called was not his wife or his lover but his youngest daughter.
A late-born daughter obtained in his fifties.
“What on earth is going on…? Ahh. Viola…!”
Indeed.
His most cherished youngest daughter had now vanished.
A daughter born after time passed with many sons, who was a precious and beloved child, born many years apart from her brothers.
“Who dares… who dares to do this…!”
Kidnapped during an outing.
However, he couldn’t find any trace of the culprit.
As the best trackers all shook their heads, Dorian’s despair grew with each passing moment.
“What should I do…?”
“Someone speak up. If we don’t prepare for the upcoming war…!”
“You speak! You were so quick to boast of being the lord! Yet in a situation like this, you lack courage…!”
“What?!”
Even though Dorian was clutching his head and losing his composure, his vassals and subordinates did not step forward to snap him back to his senses.
Of course.
They had no intention of provoking his anger by suggesting they prepare for the impending war under such circumstances.
“Urgent news!”
“What is it?!”
As the atmosphere in the room was drenched in despair, a messenger burst in.
“Your Excellency! This!”
“T-This is…?”
Dorian’s hands began to tremble violently as he checked what the messenger had brought.
“T-That… it can’t be…”
Some vassals who recognized what was in Dorian’s hands were also taken aback.
“What is it?!”
“It’s Lady Viola’s head dress!”
What Dorian held was Viola’s head dress.
Dorian had bragged so often about his daughter that his vassals were well aware of what that head dress meant.
It was a beautiful ornament ordered from a renowned craftsman in the capital of the Alliance Kingdom, given in commemoration of the first embroidery she made.
It was stained with Viola’s blood.
“Th-this…!!”
Dorian’s eyes gradually reddened, and blood tears began to flow from the burst vessels in his eyes.
The signs of intense rage and madness were evident to anyone looking.
As his vassals shrank back, Dorian’s emotions burst forth.
“Where is it!! Where did you find this?!”
“Cough… cough! Well…”
His expression of emotion was far more intense than his usual wisdom.
So furious was he that he nearly leaped from his throne and grabbed the messenger by the collar.
Though his strength wasn’t great, being noble, the soldier couldn’t shake off his grip without suffocating.
“C-Calm down! Your Excellency! You need to hear what the soldier has to say!”
“I’ll die, Your Excellency!”
Fortunately for him, it was only because his vassals acted just before he choked to death that he managed to avoid an empty demise.
“Hurry and speak! Quickly! There’s no time to catch your breath! You might truly die!”
“W-Well…”
Under the prompting of one of Dorian’s knights, the soldier eventually revealed everything.
About where the head dress was found.
“M-Mathefit! It was found near the Arilite Principality!”
Only then did all the vassals realize why the soldier had hesitated so long.
It was a signal that shot forth the opening salvo of war.
“Dare… dare…!”
Even in his madness, Dorian thought.
He knew they wouldn’t cooperate properly because of this incident.
He had provoked Mathefit using the death of one of the territory’s citizens as a pretext, leading them to declare war.
It was highly emotional reasoning, yet he had no time to contemplate that now.
“Oh, dear…”
“Damn it.”
“Is this an opportunity…?”
The shrewd vassals all sensed it.
What should have been a small war starting from the provocation of the opponent, ending with simple concessions.
They all realized that this war would not come to an easy resolution.
“Immediately! Declare war on the hounds of Mathefit!!”
“Y-Your Excellency?”
“Hurry… hurry…!!”
“Your Excellency!”
Thus, the war began alongside the fainting of Count Aisaaf, unable to control his rage.