)“I am very sorry, Sir.”
In a tent at the corner of the Imperial Knight Order main campground, Jade van Cliffdorf sifted through paperwork. Upon hearing a familiar voice behind him, he looked up.
The owner of the voice was the middle-aged knight who had been a close confidant of the Cliffdorf Marquisate. He should have been carrying out a top-secret mission.
“Claus. Did something happen?”
The sky was growing dark.
The knights and soldiers were busy with preparations for the next day’s expedition and the night watch.
The aged knight — Claus was given a separate mission because it would have been risky if anybody had questioned him. However, if he had returned to the camp, a problem must have come up.
“I am very sorry. I have lost all of the knights Your Lordship had entrusted to me with.”
Upon hearing Claus’s apology, Jade’s face hardened for a moment.
“What happened?”
“Mavis the Brave Count Elstead’s militia got in the way. The prisoners have also been freed.”
“What a failure.”
“I can only apologize. I deserve to be punished.”
“We will get back at them next time. Did you make sure it was actually the Brave?”
“Yes.”
“Then that is fine. Did they discover the origin of the dead knights?”
“Their ident.i.ties are impossible to establish.”
“Erase all those who have been captured. Seal the lips of anybody who could shed information on the knights’ origins. Use any means necessary.”
Claus’s presence melted away.
Jade tossed the doc.u.ments he had been reading onto his desk.
‘I had heard that Mavis the Brave and Prince Alfred had a marriage interview at the royal villa, but this must mean that there is a connection between Count Elstead and Prince Alfred.’
General Feyl and the other top officers leading the advance party were expendables to the Cliffdorf Faction.
Most of the knights weren’t even in the employ of the Cliffdorfs.
A small player in the Cliffdorf Faction, General Feyl happily moved according to Jade’s wishes.
He did not even suspect that he was being fed false information, and attacked an army of three thousand Petersian soldiers.
He was outnumbered six to one.
The advance party would fight in vain, then be annihilated before the main army arrived.
Feyl retreated, and had barely set foot into the main army’s camp before being apprehended.
Feyl was to take responsibility for the crushing defeat the army suffered.
`Royce van Elstead, and Kelvin Warner…`
They had both been Commander Zaunas’s aides.
Jade’s father, Welt van Cliffdorf, was on the verge of consolidating his power over the army when Zaunas disturbed his plan.
Through their significant achievements during the war against the Demon Lord, they had been promoted to the rank of General. However, it was only nominal, and they were left to stagnate in managerial positions. Then, when the coup occurred, they were both demoted to the rank of Lieutenant.
Furthermore, he had actually placed them in the advance party to eliminate them.
‘No way, could they have made use of his demotion?’
They must have been acting as the proxies of Prince Alfred, who was skilled in bureaucratic politics.
It was unlikely that W
ynn Byrd became Royce’s subordinate by chance.
Escorting the civilians in the rear of the army was the perfect justification to avoid fighting the enemy.
Royce had summoned his territory’s knights without permission, but he could just insist that he was protecting his territory to avoid any repercussions. Due to Elstead’s army acting as a diversion, the Petersian army would be unable to destroy the advance party.
‘I must rely on Father to act.’
He had tried to prevent Royce from acting in his territory by occupying him with a meaningless bureaucratic job, but Royce immediately became a threat once he left the Capital.
Jade took a pen and began writing a letter to his father at the Imperial Knight Order Headquarters.
An incident arose from that single adventurer’s report.
The Kingdom of Petersia denied the Remulshil Empire’s claims that Petersian soldiers were invading the empire while disguised as bandits, and instead claimed that Imperial Soldiers had ambushed their army while their army was carrying out military exercises.
Those who knew the truth kept their mouths shut, and the tensions between the Remulshil Empire and Petersia Kingdom increased.
A few days had pa.s.sed since the battle at Doria Village.
Wynn and the others escorted the girl, who had ended up as the only surviving villager, to Torc village.
Torc Village was in ruins.
Many buildings had been burnt down.
Not a single building remained intact.
Remains could be seen all over the village.
A rotten stench filled the air.
The bodies bore no marks of being disturbed by stray dogs, rats, or monsters but they did suffer from insects and some of the bones were exposed.
Sherry gaped at the sight of the ruined village, which had become unrecognizable. She took one step into the village, then fell to the floor, vomiting.
Reeno supported Sherry, and brought her to a nearby tree with fresher air.
Wynn, Locke, and Wedge, had led the soldiers from Nest Town here. The soldiers began gathering the bodies in one place.
Acting on Sherry’s testimony, the soldiers had searched the highway between Nest Town and Torc village.
If the bodies were just left there, it could cause a plague to spread.
“Riggs…”
Wynn spotted somebody he knew from the remains.
When Wynn became an adventurer, Riggs had helped him out in many ways.
Wynn lifted up Riggs’s cold, lifeless body.
Tears started dripping down his cheeks.
Suddenly coming back to her senses, Sherry went to help the soldiers gather the corpses. She had to be feeling much more grief that he was, but she remained stoic.
Reeno accompanied Sherry as she worked.
The soldiers piled up the remains along with any usable wood from the ruins of the buildings, and set it all on fire.
If it were possible, they would have buried each body one at a time and mourned each one individually.
However, since there would be n.o.body to maintain a graveyard there, their remains could end up being unearthed by wild dogs, or end up turning into undead from all the negative energy and miasma.
The scarlet flames illuminated Sherry’s face as she prayed for the villager’s peaceful rest.
As Wynn watched the sparks float up into the night sky, he thought that they looked like souls ascending into the heavens.
“Now what do we do, I wonder?”
After cremating the villagers, Wynn and the others returned to Simurgh.
“Do you have anybody you could live with?”
Sherry shook her head.
“Mother never left Torc village. And since my father was an elf, I guess I would have some relatives on that side of the family, but…”
Sherry brought her hand to her ears, which were covered by a hood. She made a troubled smile.
“I see… It’s because you’re a half elf…”
Reeno nodded in understanding.
Elves loathed anybody who had both elven and another race’s blood in their veins.
They possessed longevity, so they tended to look down on other races, seeing their short lives as a defect.
They would never accept Sherry, who would be considered to have tainted blood.
Wynn and Locke understood exactly how they had treated her in the elven village.
“That’s why, I want to find work somewhere in the capital.”
“You do know that the Capital isn’t the best place to be, right? Due to the tensions between the Empire and Petersia, the people have been uneasy. Refugees like them are flooding into cities like the Capital and Clennad, which is causing some disturbances.”
As a merchant’s son, Locke knew the situation well.
Scores of refugees crowded around the city walls.
The slums grew, as the refugees constructed crude huts.
The public order deteriorated, despite the efforts of the empire’s guards and knights.
Not all those trying to enter the city were refugees. Some had properly paid the entry tax and were trying to start a new life in the city.
Those people needed work, but due to the rapid influx of new residents, there was a labor surplus.
The young and able-bodied could enlist in the army as a soldier, but a young woman like her only had so many options.
As a half-elf, those options were even more limited.
As they were cleaning up Torc Village, Sherry had sold the belongings she had with her to pay the entry tax and enter the Capital.
The little money she had left would have to support her until she found work.
“I know, if you are fine with it, I know a good place.”
Wynn wanted to refer her to the place that had supported him: The Wandering Bird’s Roost.
“Eh? A good place?”
Locke tilted his head.
He had seen Wynn work, and didn’t think that the hard work and low wages made it good work.
“The wages are low, but if you consider that meals are included, it’s not bad.”
“But, Wynn. What will you do? If Sherry works there, then won’t you lose your job?”
“It seems like that a war is brewing, so I don’t think I’ll be able to work at the inn for a while. So instead of having to look for a replacement, if I refer Sherry, isn’t it a win-win situation?”
“I am fine with any work I can get.”
With that, it was decided, and they all headed towards the Wandering Bird’s Roost.
The peak lunchtime hours had pa.s.sed, but that didn’t mean that there were no more customers. Mark was able to take all the orders himself, as Randell and Hanna listened to Wynn and Locke explain Sherry’s circ.u.mstances.
They explained how she was the sole survivor of a village razed by enemy soldiers.
Without any relatives, and as a half-elf, she had no other alternatives other than to come to the Capital looking for work and a place to live.
Wynn told them that due to the increased tensions with Petersia, Wynn would have to take part in military activities and would have little time to work at the inn.
“I see. What can you do?”
After listening to their explanation, Randell asked Sherry a question.
“I can cook, do the laundry, or clean the inn pretty well. I can also read, write, count, and use some magic…”
“Magic is not needed. But it’s good that you can read and write.”
“Since Wynn won’t be here, we would have to hire another person anyways. If you can read and do calculations, then that is enough. I don’t have a problem with it.”
The inn’s main guests were travellers like merchants and adventurers.
Randell and Hanna wouldn’t have any prejudice towards her being a half-elf.
The discussion ended smoothly, and Sherry would begin working the next day.
“It’s a bit cramped, and there are various things in here, but you’ll grow to like it.”
Wynn was showing Sherry the shed behind the inn.
After losing his parents, Wynn had lived there for many years. It was filled with memories.
Since Wynn now stayed at the Knight Academy’s lodgings, Sherry would be able to live here.
Sherry timidly followed Wynn into the shed and looked around.
“It’s a bit run down, so you’ll have to do some repairs, though. Sorry about how cramped it is.”
“It’s fine. I’m good at fixing things.”
Sherry smiled at the apologetic-looking Wynn.
She didn’t really mind it.
She had heard that servants rarely even get a room like this.
They would either stay in an attic, or share a room with another person.
The room would barely be able to fit four adults, but it was relatively s.p.a.cious for a personal room.
The shed smelled slightly musty from disuse, but it would go away once she cleaned it up.
As for preventing burglary, it would need a bit of work.
Wynn was gathering the few belongings that still remained in the shed, when he heard a chant.
“I command the power of the world, return to your origin!”
After the chant was completed, the small shed became bathed in light.
“W-What?”
Surprised, Wynn ran outside.
He saw his friends standing stiffly outside.
He followed their gazes and saw a woman casting a spell. Her eyes were closed in concentration.
Waves of light emanated from her right hand, and the sc.r.a.ps of wood that made up the walls and the roof underwent a change. Soon, the shed looked as if it had been built just the day before.
The light gradually faded away.
The run-down shed looked as if it were brand-new.
The holes that Wynn had worked arduously to cover for years were no more.
The woman took a deep breath, then wordlessly turned towards her dumbfounded spectators.
She had deep blue eyes, immaculate white skin, and green hair.
But her most distinct characteristic was her long ears.
“Great Sage Tiara…”
“I need to talk with you. Please come with me to the Knight Order Headquarters.”
The Great Sage, Princess of the Elves, Tiara Sciurus Belfa stared straight into Wynn’s eyes.