Chapter 176

Valdrova’s Hound

“Ehehe! Hellooo!”

The moment Ferda saw Echidna’s face, he felt that something about her was different.

It was not the same endearing novelty he always felt whenever he looked at Valdrova.

‘How strange.’

The gloomy aura she had possessed when they first met had grown even darker, yet she herself seemed more energetic than before.

Ordinarily, gloominess and vitality would move in opposite directions in a person.

With this woman, however, the exact opposite seemed to be true.

The fact that Ferda could not understand it only made her feel more unsettling.

“I heard you completed the formula.”

“Yes! I! Finally! At long last! Made it!”

Echidna waved her arms wildly in delight.

“Explain it.”

“Yes! If you look over here~”

A doll roughly the same size as Zed came into view.

The face resembling a carefree young lady from a painting was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the sculpture’s features were gradually taking on the shape of a man’s face.

It was obvious where her obsession had been directed.

“It may look like an ordinary doll, but I’ve taught it how to perform a maid’s duties!”

“A maid…”

In other words, it was essentially a tall, male version of Luri.

“Can you demonstrate?”

“Yes!”

For the demonstration, Echidna deliberately knocked a cup from the table onto the floor.

Crash!

The moment the sound rang out, the doll that had been standing demurely raised its head.

At first, it moved with stiff, creaking motions. Then it began cleaning up the spot where Echidna had dropped the teacup.

It swept the floor, wiped it down, and even completed the final cleanup perfectly.

“It’s designed to respond appropriately to a situation without needing to be given specific orders!”

“I see.”

It did indeed move as she claimed.

“…Though there are a few problems.”

The flaw was that the entire process had taken two hours.

Had Luri seen it, she would have become so frustrated that she would have kicked it into scrap metal within three minutes.

That was not the only issue.

Its slow speed was bad enough, but after moving for roughly ten minutes, its head suddenly drooped and it stopped functioning altogether.

“You will also need to reduce the unnecessary mana consumption.”

“Yeees… That’s true.”

For that task, they could refer to the optimization techniques used by puppeteers.

Puppeteers had long researched dolls in order to make their craft resemble summoning magic.

‘Applying the knowledge of puppeteers to magitech…’

Among the theories developed by puppeteers were concepts that humans could not put into practice due to their physical limitations.

What if those theories could be applied through magitech?

It might reduce traditional puppeteers to little more than children playing with wooden dolls.

And would it end there?

For now, this was merely a male humanoid that had learned the duties of a maid.

Given enough time, it could be mass-produced in the form of adult men.

‘…And if they were taught the training and mindset of elite soldiers, they could also be used in actual combat.’

There was, however, one problem.

The golems Echidna created closely resembled humans.

That meant they were closer to homunculi than ordinary golems.

Homunculi were feared because they could not be controlled.

In fact, the homunculus left behind by the great alchemist Edgar had once yearned for freedom and nearly destroyed an entire kingdom.

There was no guarantee that Echidna’s golems could not do the same.

“If these things were ordered to slaughter humans, would they obey?”

“…They cannot be used as war dolls.”

“We could divide their functions according to purpose, but…”

“Why not?”

“Because this world needs more love than hatred!”

“…”

Ferda was rendered speechless by the irony of a witch professing her love for peace.

He found it impressive that she could say such a thing while radiating such a gloomy aura.

“What about eliminating monsters?”

“That might be possible! Monsters are bad things, after all!”

That was enough.

It was the function Ferda needed most.

As he listened to her, however, one question led to another.

“You said they cannot be used in war.”

“Yeees.”

“Can you explain why?”

Echidna was not one to bluff.

If she sounded this confident, it meant she had something she trusted.

“It’s because of this!”

Echidna opened a built-in wardrobe.

Instead of clothes hanging inside, a single wooden doll sat on a chair.

Unlike the tall, ungainly wooden figures scattered around the gloomy witch’s room, this one was small.

It was about the same height as Luri or Mori.

There was no need to ask who had served as the model.

“I call it the Hive Mind!”

“The Hive Mind?”

“Well… these children are extremely curious, and they learn all sorts of things, right?”

“Correct.”

“So they need someone to tell them, ‘No, you mustn’t do that~ Bad!’ This child serves that role. It filters things out in advance.”

“So it acts as a central mother unit.”

One question naturally led to another.

If there was a watcher, then who watched the watcher?

“Who controls the mother unit?”

“I made it remember only principles that no one can interfere with. Just three of them.”

The three principles she described were as follows:

First Principle: All golems are tools, not humans, and tools have a duty to benefit humanity.

Second Principle: All golems must obey the First Principle absolutely and submit to the Hive Mind.

Third Principle: While obeying the First and Second Principles, all golems must protect themselves.

“That seems sound.”

“Right?”

Echidna beamed at Ferda’s reaction.

If the obligation to benefit humanity was an absolute rule, then they would be unable to participate in wars between humans.

‘Perhaps this is actually better.’

Echidna was a witch who possessed a Red Circle.

What if—

However unlikely it might be—

she lost control, became consumed by bloodlust, and seized the army she had created for herself?

That alone would become a catastrophe.

“Umm…”

While Ferda was imagining such troubling possibilities, Echidna twisted her body awkwardly and moved her lips.

“I worked really hard on this, so…”

“Custody?”

“Yes!”

“So… are you finally going to transfer custody to me?”

Echidna nodded her head vigorously.

“That damned lizard woman kept interfering, picking fights with me over and over again! I wanted to strangle her so many times, but I endured it all and worked hard anyway! Is this what a mother’s heart feels like?”

“Hehe… Ehehehe.”

Echidna laughed eerily.

“…!”

Ferda finally understood the source of the unsettling feeling he had sensed.

‘This is what I felt the moment I entered the room.’

She was overflowing with vitality, yet somehow seemed gloomier than ever.

Echidna was utterly serious about Mori, and Isabella was equally serious.

The two of them must have engaged in an unyielding battle between spear and shield.

And now, at last, Echidna had completed an invincible shield.

‘…Now that I think about it, this is an incredibly insane thing to do.’

He had exploited a witch’s obsession to make her work.

Ferda felt the situation becoming increasingly troublesome.

He had used Mori as leverage, but Mori herself was also a valuable resource.

‘The problem is Mori’s efficiency.’

Her productivity had improved once Echidna and Isabella began taking turns caring for her.

If Ferda declared that he was entrusting Mori entirely to Echidna, then Mori would once again be treated like a toy, and her efficiency would decline.

Unable to make the decision easily, Ferda asked,

“May we decide after asking Mori herself?”

Ferda shifted the responsibility elsewhere.

“Of course!”

Echidna accepted immediately, looking even more pleased.

“Are you certain?”

At Ferda’s question, Echidna struck her chest confidently.

“No matter what, I’m far better than that lizard woman!”

Only then did Ferda understand what she was thinking.

Echidna believed the decision was a simple choice between herself and Isabella.

She had never considered another possibility.

—I have determined that neither of them is suitable.

“Whaaaat?!”

It was the obvious conclusion.

Echidna was the only one who had failed to anticipate it.

“D-Don’t say that! Can’t you tell us who should become your guardian? For example, Echidna, Echidna Philiase, or perhaps the Gloomy Witch…”

She offered Mori a variety of choices, but Mori answered mercilessly.

—Chief Attendant Luri would be the most suitable person to serve as my guardian.

“Luri?”

While the other two had been busy fighting, Mori had been placed under Luri’s supervision.

Unlike Echidna and Isabella, who cared for her with excessive devotion, Luri had provided only the minimum care necessary for a tool.

From the perspective of a rational tool, that had been the ideal environment.

Naturally, it had also produced the highest efficiency.

“You were the one who said we should actively respect Mori’s opinion, so…”

“Uuuugh…”

Echidna whimpered like a mother who had lost her child, while Ferda let out a sigh.

“For now, we will maintain the current arrangement.”

Echidna brightened immediately.

She had likely never imagined that maintaining the status quo could feel so reassuring.

In contrast, Mori’s expressionless face twisted ever so slightly.

“This is the best solution.”

Wanting to offer at least some comfort, Ferda placed a hand on Mori’s head.

Mori carefully removed his hand and wrote:

—That would reduce efficiency.

Mori sharply turned away and left.

Ferda could faintly tell what emotion had appeared on her face.

The Far East was territory under the Princeps’ domain.

As a land that had once served as the stronghold of the demons—the enemies of the Cerdes Continent—it possessed many unique characteristics.

For that reason, powerful autonomy and military authority, like that held by the margraves of other kingdoms, were essential.

In that respect, however, the Arken Empire differed from other nations.

Its margraves held relatively little power.

The Far East was the weakest of them all.

And yet, within the highly centralized Arken Empire, it had managed to gain an exceptional degree of autonomy.

It was a story as miraculous as the victory of the wise king who had defeated Goliath, the colossal troll.

For the allied nobles of the Far East, this should have been a moment of unparalleled joy.

For everyone except one man.

“Hurry up and move faster!”

“No matter how much you rush me, my lord, if the horses collapse, we’ll be right back where we started! It won’t be easy until we reach the relay station and change horses!”

“How dare a mere coachman talk back to me! If we’re late, you’ll die too, understand?!”

Baron Guillot urged the coachman on like a man with fire at his heels.

He was attempting to flee under the cover of night.

The news that the Far East had secured autonomy meant Alexander had lost.

And that meant that if Guillot remained here, there was no telling when his own head might fall.

He knew what fate awaited a man who had sold his savior for thirty pieces of silver.

He had no desire to meet the same end.

“A-Are you all right, my lord?”

His loyal servant asked as he wiped the sweat from Guillot’s face.

“I’m fine.”

“What do you intend to do from here?”

“As I told you, we must cross into the North first. I’ll sell some goods there, and with the information I possess about the Empire, I should be able to secure some position.”

He had already believed that living as a baron on the frontier was the worst fate imaginable.

To think that things could become even worse than that.

Baron Guillot sighed over his miserable lot in life.

“Damn it… Why must I suffer through this… Me, a man of the Guillot bloodline…”

“Indeed, my lord. You devoted your life to the Arken Empire. How could this happen to you?”

“It’s all because of that damned outsider who came rolling in. Why did everything have to become so twisted because of him?”

Baron Guillot lamented his fate while his servant showered him with flattery.

As they hurried onward, he felt the carriage gradually slowing down.

It was not his imagination.

The carriage had stopped.

“Coachman! What are you doing?!”

The coachman did not answer.

Baron Guillot shouted at the silent man.

“You bastard! Do you no longer see me as a noble either?! I asked what happened—!”

The carriage door suddenly swung open, cutting off his words.

A face barely illuminated by the lamp inside appeared before him.

It was one he knew very well.

And among all familiar faces, it was the one he least wanted to see.

“C-Count Consilus…”

“It has been a long time, Guillot. So this is how we meet again.”

“I-Indeed. But how are you here…?”

How was that man here?

Leaving the bewildered Guillot behind, Count Consilus looked toward the servant seated across from him.

“You did well.”

He tossed him a pouch of coins.

Unlike the dumbfounded Guillot, the servant cautiously read the situation and nodded.

“…”

The servant scrambled out of the carriage as though fleeing.

The seat of the man who had been assuring Guillot only moments ago that everything would be fine was now occupied by Count Consilus.

“What brings you here…?”

“What do you think? I merely came to say farewell.”

His voice was icy.

“And while I was at it, I thought I might bid farewell to your wife and son as well.”

“…”

“Are they in the carriage behind us? I have not checked yet.”

Count Consilus slowly raised his eyes.

Death dwelled within them.

“T-Thank you, my lord…”

Baron Guillot’s body trembled as though someone had poured freezing water over him in the middle of winter.

“After today, they will be people you can never see again. Surely you should offer them a proper farewell. I suppose I should check for myself.”

The instant Consilus shifted as though to rise, the trembling baron fell to his knees.

“P-Please, spare at least my wife and son! They have done nothing wrong, Count Consilus!”

Consilus sat back down.

“How could they be innocent if this was your unilateral decision? Beans grow where beans are planted. A devil’s child becomes a devil, and the child of a traitor becomes a traitor. Why should I spare your wife and son when leaving them alive would bring nothing but harm?”

“Surely our past friendship means something! You attended my son’s baptism and prayed for his future!”

Guillot appealed to their bond.

“As a fellow man, and as a servant of Alte, please show mercy. I swear upon Alte, upon my father, and upon the Emperor that I will never speak of this to anyone. I will live quietly.”

He laid every shred of honor he possessed before Consilus.

“As you said…”

Consilus’s actions had been his alone.

“The children are innocent. Your wife is as well.”

He reached behind him, took out a bottle of liquor and two glasses, and placed them on the small table.

“I know they are innocent people. They have done nothing deserving of death.”

Consilus poured the liquor.

“But in war, how many people die because they deserve it? War is the act of driving ten thousand people to their deaths for the sake of one.”

He carefully lifted a glass filled with amber liquid.

He looked down at his own face reflected in it.

“My son… had no reason to die where he did either.”

Bitterness lingered in Consilus’s mouth.

“Had I been only a little more selfish… he would have had no reason to be there at all.”

He washed the bitter taste down his throat with the undiluted liquor.

Then he filled the glass placed before Baron Guillot.

“Drink.”

“Sob…”

“You should drink now. It will make the road ahead a little easier.”

Baron Guillot lifted the glass while weeping.

He brought it to his lips, but he could not bring himself to swallow.

“Is this truly necessary?”

There was one thing he simply could not understand.

“Is it necessary to do all this for that man Ferda? Must you shoulder such a burden and such sin for his sake?”

Once Consilus killed a fellow noble, he would never again be able to live as he had before.

The trust and honor he had accumulated would crack.

And someday, he might meet the same fate as Guillot.

At those words, Count Consilus let out a hollow laugh.

“Compared to the sins I will bear in the future, your head is nothing more than one insignificant pebble among many.”

“Wait for me in hell. I will follow soon enough.”

At last, Baron Guillot swallowed the liquor.

Slash!

At the very moment the warm sensation of the undiluted alcohol wrapped around his throat, a cold line passed across it.

Baron Guillot’s head flew through the air and rolled across the floor.

A sword had somehow appeared in Count Consilus’s hand.

Blood dripped from the blade.

Consilus flicked it away.

He picked up Guillot’s severed head and stepped out of the carriage.

Men clad in lacquered armor waited in front of it.

“What of the wife and son?”

“We carried out your orders. They should have felt no pain.”

Consilus instinctively examined their faces.

It was their first time killing a woman and a child, and their expressions were heavy.

“I apologize for assigning you such a difficult task.”

“Someone had to do it.”

Just as Consilus carried out the things Ferda himself could not do, the knights carried out the things Consilus could not do.

They understood the burden borne by their lord.

Consilus handed over the head and mounted his horse.

“As planned, announce that they were involved in plotting rebellion and various acts of embezzlement.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Who is next?”

“The Granducci family.”

“Where is the baron?”

“He is waiting inside his castle. According to our intelligence, he is already evacuating his wife and children. Shall we pursue them?”

Consilus nodded.

“Pursue them and bring back their heads. I will not tolerate failure.”

“We obey.”

After that day, two noble families that had governed the Valdrova domain ceased to exist.

From that day onward, Count Consilus gained a new epithet.

“Valdrova’s Hound.”

Ferda spoke Consilus’s new title aloud.

“It seems that is what people have begun calling you lately.”

“A hound, you say? I am deeply honored.”

Even though it was intended as an insult, Consilus laughed as though pleased.

Ferda could not bring himself to laugh with him.

“Did you truly have to make such a choice?”

Ferda knew everything Consilus had done.

Not only had he heard it through the intelligence division, but Consilus himself had explained it during this meeting.

“Fear creates instability, and instability gives birth to new power. I am a man who must eventually disappear.”

“And that new power is me?”

“That is correct.”

Consilus answered calmly.

“Of course, not everyone will trust and follow you, Regent. But they will begin to see you as an option worthy of serious consideration.”

“If the opportunity arises, you can become the center around which they gather.”

Everything Consilus had done had been for Ferda.

Ferda did not doubt that for a moment.

Consilus had risked his life by forcing his aura to flow backward in order to buy Ferda time.

Even so, the fact that his intentions were good did not mean Ferda could simply be happy about it.

‘Someday, when Consilus is gone, I will have to lead them alone.’

Where there were meetings, there would also be partings.

When that day came, what choices would Ferda himself make?

As a vague sense of unease began to torment him, Ferda forced himself to ignore the thought.

“I will repay everything you have done for me.”

Normally, Consilus would have humbly replied that he had merely done what was expected of him.

“Since you mention it…”

Yet instead of the usual automatic response, his reaction was strangely awkward.

“As it happens, a recent incident has left me in need of assistance.”

“What happened?”

“Well…”

Consilus released a long sigh and began to explain.

Once Ferda heard the story, he understood why Consilus had sighed like that.

Even Ferda found the summary absurd.

“He assaulted a young lady?”