Chapter 129

A Cruel World

The prince who had departed in the middle of the night had lost consciousness when the carriage was wrecked.

But it did not take long before he came to again.

"Ugh..."

His eyes slowly opened.

The impact had left his entire body aching, and a groan escaped his lips.

"Urgh... What is this?"

Both of his hands were bound to the armrests, while his neck was secured to the back of the chair, forcing him to stare straight ahead.

Within his field of vision burned a single candle.

Opposite him sat a gray-haired man wrapped in an ominous aura.

Resting his face on both hands, he silently watched him.

His deep sapphire eyes, as dark as the bottom of a lake, almost seemed to glow in the candlelight.

The captive knew exactly who the man was.

Ferda Valdrova.

Marcus understood the situation instantly.

Or perhaps he only thought he did.

A faint grin spread across his face as he addressed the man opposite him.

"Why don't you say something? You kidnap a man, yet you sit there in silence."

Only then did Ferda finally speak.

"To be honest... I was afraid."

"I wondered if I'd made a mistake. I thought... what if I had kidnapped an innocent man only to end up killing him?"

Ferda released his clasped hands and leaned back in his chair.

"But it turns out I had the right answer."

Then he spoke the name of the man who had called Valdrova a murderer.

"Marcus Yurei."

The eldest son and heir of the Duke of Yurei.

The very man who had become Valdrova's hallucination.

"I trust you already know why you were brought here."

"...Yeah. I know."

Marcus looked up at Ferda with hollow eyes before letting out a mocking laugh.

"So His Highness the Princeps actually listened to those words. I figured you'd ignore the voices of the common rabble."

"You insolent little human..."

Luri stepped forward in fury.

Ferda quietly stopped her with a gesture.

She obediently fell back.

She was furious, but Ferda was no less enraged.

"...Why did you do it?"

"Why? Isn't the reason obvious enough?"

Marcus laughed like a madman.

"My father has become a war criminal, and now people are flocking to strip our ducal house bare. Aren't you doing the same? Living off our lands under the excuse of taking in refugees?"

"That's only because your family was foolish."

Ferda shot back without hesitation.

"Your father caused this disaster by making that half-baked request for mediation. What exactly were we supposed to do?"

"You could've returned the refugees."

"After remaining silent all through winter and only asking once spring arrived? You have no shame."

"You're right. No shame at all. You turned us into nothing more than a free soup kitchen."

Marcus grinned.

It was the smile of someone who thought he'd finally caught his opponent.

"But then again... aren't you just as shameless?"

"It's been a hundred and fifty years since the Dragon-Demon War began. How many people has the Princeps killed during that time? After slaughtering so many, wasn't he supposed to live quietly, burdened by his sins?"

Instead of casting magic, Ferda clenched his fist.

Then he drove it straight into Marcus's face.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The blows rained down mercilessly.

Ferda pummeled Marcus with every ounce of strength he had.

CRACK!

In a low voice, he muttered,

"If you're a murderer... then you should've crawled into a hole and stayed there."

Marcus, bound hand and foot, toppled backward.

It wasn't Luri who attacked him.

It was Ferda who had lost control.

A sickening cracking sound echoed through the room.

But it wasn't Marcus's face that had shattered.

Ferda's wrist had given out first, hanging limp and mangled.

Marcus's face had merely swollen slightly.

"Heh... Hehehe... Lord Regent, your punches are so delicate they couldn't even draw a nosebleed."

"Shut up."

Ferda had known this would happen.

He knew perfectly well.

But he couldn't stop himself.

He hadn't wanted to kill him with magic.

He had wanted to smash that smug face with his own hands.

"So your right hand's broken. Going to try again with your left? Go ahead."

Marcus continued mocking him without pause.

Ferda grabbed him by the collar.

"Don't be so impatient."

"This is only the beginning."

Ferda knew exactly how to leave a man unable to truly live... yet unable to die.

He would use every scrap of that knowledge to grant Marcus a life of unimaginable cruelty.

Marcus only chuckled louder.

"The beginning? Who said I'd let you begin?"

"What? Do you think I'll obediently follow your precious noble customs? Or do you think I'll conveniently die before you can torture me?"

"If you think you can, then go ahead and die."

"But you can't."

"Now that you're in my hands, I'm the one who decides whether you live or die."

Ferda tried to overwhelm him with his gaze.

Yet Marcus showed not the slightest trace of fear.

Ferda realized then.

The man still had one final card to play.

"Lord Regent Ferda..."

"Welcome to a cruel world."

The instant those words left his lips, a strange afterimage flickered around his neck, and the space itself warped.

Crack! Crunch!

Marcus's neck twisted violently into an impossible zigzag before wrenching completely around.

He died instantly.

The sudden silence that followed was replaced by stunned confusion.

Luri, who had witnessed everything, quietly called his name.

"Lord Ferda...?"

"...I didn't do that."

As soon as Ferda answered, Luri asked anxiously,

"Could it be... that you lost control again...?"

"No. It wasn't that."

He had certainly been furious.

But it was nothing like the overwhelming rage he had felt when facing Erembalt.

Remaining calm, Ferda examined Marcus's neck.

"Look."

There, faintly etched into the skin, remained the traces of a spatial magic circle.

"He must've set it so that speaking a trigger phrase would automatically snap his neck."

"So... that greeting was the activation phrase."

Realizing she had wrongly suspected Ferda of losing control, Luri immediately bowed her head.

"I'm sorry... I doubted you so carelessly."

"No."

"You have nothing to apologize for."

Luri looked at him, puzzled.

"It means that if even you could suspect me..."

"...then everyone else will see it the same way."

Ferda took a step back mentally and viewed the situation from the outside.

One thing was certain.

He had fallen into a very deep swamp.

"Luri."

"Yes?"

"You said you attacked the carriage and brought him here?"

She nodded.

"Yes. I barely restrained myself from slaughtering everyone and brought only this bastard back."

"Are you certain no one knows it was you?"

"Very few people saw me... but if they truly investigate, they'll eventually figure it out."

She had unleashed Dragon Fear to prevent unnecessary bloodshed.

There was little chance of remaining completely hidden.

The question is... will they report this first, or return to the castle?

There was no way to know yet.

Either outcome was disastrous.

If they reported it first, Duke Yurei would demand answers, turning the matter into an even greater crisis.

If they returned to the castle first...

They would find the headless corpse of Marcus Yurei waiting for them.

To anyone looking at the situation, it could only appear that Ferda had killed the son of Duke Yurei in a fit of rage after being insulted.

"Didn't he admit himself that he had insulted His Highness the Princeps?"

"Not publicly."

He had deliberately muttered those words softly enough that only Valdrova, with his exceptional hearing, could catch them.

Ferda knew exactly what that meant.

Even trying to prove it would only make matters worse.

Spatial magic will definitely be brought up.

Marcus Yurei had died because of spatial magic.

Once that topic surfaced, all suspicion would naturally shift toward Ferda, leading people to conclude that he had used spatial magic to kill Marcus.

Ferda knew this because, in the past, that was exactly what had happened.

Spatial magic was a brand of infamy.

People had once been obsessed with using it as an excuse to put Ferda to death.

Marcus's death had already dragged him into a bottomless swamp.

Who benefits from this death?

The first person who came to mind was Duke Yurei.

The duke was the sort of man who called refugees traitors and made examples of them through his own knights.

A man like that would not hesitate to use even his own son as a stepping stone.

"What shall we do with the body?"

Ferda looked down at the corpse of Duke Yurei's son, his neck twisted grotesquely.

There were countless ways to dispose of it.

He could bury it somewhere.

Throw it to monsters as food.

Or burn it until not even ashes remained.

The Ferda of old might have chosen any of those options without hesitation.

But not anymore.

Now he was the Regent of the Princeps's Dominion.

The acting lord of Hestia Village.

And Valdrova's fiancé.

"...What a cruel world."

He murmured those words under his breath.

Just then—

Bang!

The interrogation room door burst open.

"Lord Regent Ferda! Lady Tower Master has contacted—"

Isabella stopped mid-sentence as soon as she saw the corpse with its broken neck.

"...What exactly happened here?"

"It's difficult to explain."

"For now, just understand that he paid the price for insulting the Princeps."

"...I see."

As a Dragonspawn, Isabella accepted the death of a blasphemer without much difficulty.

But as an administrator, the death of a nobleman left her with a troubled expression.

Luri immediately reprimanded her.

"You should have knocked before entering."

"I realize my manners were lacking."

"But the matter is urgent."

She raised the crystal orb she had brought.

"Lady Tower Master requested to speak with you immediately."

"Understood."

Ferda linked his consciousness to the communication crystal.

—Regent, I'll skip the formalities. We don't have time.

Erika's voice was unusually shaken.

—Are you still celebrating the Beginning of Spring Festival?

"No."

—Has it already ended?

"Officially, yes. But many guests are still inside the castle."

—The young nobles haven't left yet?

"Some departed during the night."

—If they've already traveled too far, there's nothing we can do... but gather everyone who still can be reached!

Then Erika explained why she sounded so alarmed.

—The Princeps's Dominion has been overrun by monsters! If anyone moves now, they'll be slaughtered!

The peaceful Princeps's Dominion of Valdrova was thrown into a state of emergency.

It was no longer only Hestia Village, which bordered the Demonic Lands.

Every noble territory under Valdrova's rule was affected.

With Isabella's and Luri's help, Ferda quickly plotted the current situation onto a map.

After studying the completed map, he quietly said,

"...We've become an island."

A line of monsters had completely isolated the far eastern region.

"These aren't ordinary monsters," Luri reported.

"They're colossal-class monsters—the same scale as those Lord Valdrova normally exterminates. They've gathered around the eastern frontier."

"How many?"

"Twelve."

Twelve monsters.

In other words—

Twelve armies.

Each one possessed enough destructive power to reduce an entire fortress to rubble if it began moving.

Ferda had witnessed Valdrova fight creatures like these before.

He knew exactly what they were capable of.

If they start advancing...

The devastation of the entire territory would only be a matter of time.

"The only fortunate thing," Luri continued, "is that these colossal monsters lack mobility."

"So they won't all charge us at once."

"Correct."

"The problem lies elsewhere."

"What problem?"

"They reproduce."

"They're giving birth to monsters and building armies."

Their role was that of living hatcheries.

Even if Gokma stopped personally releasing monsters through spatial rifts, these creatures would continue producing them endlessly.

"Each mother is already surrounded by dozens of offspring, and they're still giving birth."

"If they aren't stopped, they'll quickly produce armies numbering in the thousands."

"And once they reach that number..."

"It becomes a catastrophe."

"Hmm..."

The only effective strategy against an enemy constantly producing reinforcements was rapid strike warfare.

Destroy them before they multiplied.

"What if His Highness Valdrova personally dealt with them?"

"That would certainly be the best option..."

Luri pointed toward the Demonic Lands with a troubled expression.

"A massive monster force is waiting here."

"They're stationed precisely along the front that Master cannot leave."

Their intention was painfully obvious.

"They intend to invade the moment he leaves."

"Exactly."

It was an intelligent strategy.

To protect Hestia Village, Valdrova had no choice but to remain stationed at the lonely mountain front.

Whoever had orchestrated this clearly understood strategy.

Gokma... It has to be him.

With a single swipe of his finger, monsters had once poured out of space itself.

A man capable of manipulating space at will could easily have positioned these colossal monsters throughout the region.

Ferda reached the only logical conclusion.

"We have no choice."

"We'll have to request military aid from the Empire."

Since the Princeps's Dominion was Imperial territory, the Empire bore responsibility for its defense.

Ferda immediately established communication.

—Greetings! I have the honor of speaking with Lord Regent Ferda Valdrova of the Princeps's Dominion! I am Hans, communications mage of the glorious Arken Empire!

"Who is currently responsible for military affairs within Imperial territory?"

—The... responsible official?

"Bring me the highest authority."

"Monsters have invaded Imperial territory."

—Y-Yes, sir! Understood! Please wait a moment!

Judging from Hans's reaction, the Empire seemed completely unaware of the situation.

Moments later, the signal crackled with static before another voice came through.

Even the man's throat-clearing carried an oily smugness.

—This is Crown Prince Alexander Arken.

"My respects, Your Highness."

—Yes, I've heard. The Empire is already in complete uproar over this.

At least he's willing to talk.

"We require reinforcements."

"Dispatch Imperial troops immediately. We need to eliminate these monsters as quickly as possible."

—Of course. Naturally we'll send aid.

—However... it will take a little time.

"How long?"

—Two months.

Two months.

Ferda frowned.

Is this fat bastard mocking me?

"You expect us to leave those monsters alone for two months?"

—Now, now. Don't sound so disappointed. We're doing everything we can. If this is the fastest we can manage, what else can be done?

Everything you can?

There wasn't the slightest urgency in Alexander's voice.

Ferda wasn't a fool.

He immediately realized what the Crown Prince intended.

He was planning to use this impending disaster to his own advantage.

"...Do you expect me to bow my head and offer you something?"

—Oh, come now. You know that's not what I mean. Wars require enormous time and money. There are Imperial laws and procedures to follow. Matters like these are never simple.

In other words—

If you want Imperial troops, offer something worth our while.

You disgusting pig.

Ferda wanted nothing more than to curse him outright.

But the weight of the current crisis forced him to restrain himself.

"...I'll consider it."

He immediately cut off the communication.

Suppressing the anger boiling inside him, he turned toward the others.

"What happens if we leave those monsters alone for two months?"

"If they continue reproducing at the current rate..."

"They'll build armies numbering in the thousands."

Luri answered.

Isabella added,

"The armies aren't the only concern."

"The land itself will die."

Where monsters lingered, life withered.

Once the soil became corrupted, the only solution was to excavate the entire area and discard it elsewhere.

If the land surrounding the Princeps's Dominion died, then even after the crisis ended...

The territory would remain isolated like an island forever.

That's the real problem.

They had to destroy the monsters immediately.

But the Empire had no intention of acting quickly.

Which meant—

Ferda would have to solve the crisis himself.

"Do you truly believe we can do this?"

Luri finally voiced the fear she had been holding back.

"We can."

He had no other choice.

They had to.