“Are you okay?”
Katarina asked, kicking the door open as if to break it. I, who had been sleeping like the dead in bed, got up with a groaning moan.
“……Yes, except for the ringing in my head from that noise just now.”
“If you’re complaining and grumbling, you must be fine. Eat.”
A al was served with words that were either tough or inconsiderate. It was a neat one-person al. The appetizing sll naturally made hungry.
“It seems the reconstruction of the family is going smoothly.”
It had been quite so ti since I had started recuperating in Morheim. Unlike my initial plan to head to Brahms, I had gone through all sorts of hardships after setting foot in the city.
I wanted to leave Brahms and return to Gellerg City right away, but my body was in a ss. I hadn’t been seriously injured, but the ntal and physical burden was great. Well, I had fought a series of battles with the Mad House without even resting after defeating the head of the Frederic family.
It was normal for my body to be worn out. So I had rested well in Morheim and had been served als, and surprisingly, the nu changed every day. Not in a bad way, but in a good way.
It was a subtle change, so I thought it was just my imagination, but comparing it over such a long period of ti, I could clearly see that it was improving.
“I know, right? I thought we’d have to crawl up from the very bottom, but surprisingly, the situation seems to be good.”
She dragged a chair over and sat down, starting her explanation.
“The city is in chaos. Personally, I think it’s even worse than when the atmosphere was tense due to the civil war between the families.”
The scars left by the Mad House in Brahms were grueso. The central square of the public district was a ss, and countless knights, the main power of the city, had lost their lives.
The families, who should have cooperated in cleaning up the chaos, could not overco their distrust of each other and moved passively. Above all, the king had passed away.
Even the Royal Knights had been disbanded. The royal family was as good as fallen. And the cause of that was, although it was the notorious Mad House, it had originated from the sche of a single person.
Brahms was a ss in a different sense from the civil war that had been going on until now.
“It’s not a good ti for other lower noble families to get greedy, taking advantage of our fall, and there’s also the perception that we’re the wronged victims. We’ve benefited from that. There are many nobles who are bowing down to us. Darian says that the family is being rewarded for the grace it has shown in the past, but that’s how I analyze it.”
It was a very cool-headed analysis. But whatever the reason, it seed to be true that Morheim’s situation was not bad.
“I have a lot to say about how Darian is doing as the head of the family, how he will overco the absence of the royal family, but honestly, you’re not very interested, are you?”
I nodded. Although I had been deeply involved in the affairs of the city by chance, I was essentially an outsider. The complicated post-war asures were the responsibility of the people of this city and the nobles who ruled them.
After having such a hard ti this ti, I probably wouldn’t even co to Brahms again. Katarina, who was in a similar position to despite being a direct descendant of Morheim, sympathized with my feelings.
“If it’s news that you would be curious about… right, the date for the airship operation has been set.”
The reason I couldn’t return to Gellerg City right away was not only because of my physical condition, but also because of the operation of the airship. The city was in a ss due to the war, so where was the ti to worry about trivial matters like the operation of the airship?
In fact, the operation of the airship in Brahms had been suspended, and I had to wait for Gellerg City to send an airship. Even so, the number of passengers had dropped drastically, and they had even been attacked near Brahms, so it was uncertain whether the regular operation would proceed as planned.
It was a situation where I might have had to decide to cross the borderland with my bare body, so it was good news like rain in a drought.
“It’s a bit uncomfortable that it’s a forced schedule, though.”
“Forced?”
“Everyone knows that you're still in this city. A contractor who killed a family head and even dealt with the Mad House… it’s awkward to touch him, but it’s also burdenso to leave him in the city. You may not want to get involved in the political structure of Brahms anymore, but how can other people trust that and let it go?”
Katarina glanced at . In a way, I had saved the city that might have collapsed. She seed to be concerned that they were treating like so kind of plague after benefiting from it.
“I don’t care what their ulterior motives are for deciding to operate the airship. I wasn’t going to ask for any compensation anyway.”
It was just that the result of my personal actions had returned as a benefit to the city. It wasn’t that I didn’t feel resentful, but it was minimal.
The joy of finally being able to return to Gellerg City was greater.
“Then that’s a relief. Oh, here.”
Katarina took sothing out of her neatly wrapped pocket.
“It’s the fragnt of the spirit’s cocoon that was seized from Frederic.”
It wasn’t the first ti I had recovered a fragnt of the spirit’s cocoon, but it felt new. Because of this one thing, I had done things I hadn’t planned in Brahms and had even fought the Mad House.
The feeling was different.
“And this is a gift.”
As I was touching the fragnt of the spirit’s cocoon, Katarina added one more thing. It was a complete spirit’s cocoon.
“There was one more in Brahms. It was tight just to secure one, so I couldn’t even think of recovering that one, but I thought it was a good opportunity, so I smuggled it out.”
“Where was it…?”
“The royal family’s treasury.”
“……”
There, even Katarina, a direct descendant of a noble family, would not have dared. But as soon as the royal family collapsed, she had smuggled it out. It was certain that Katarina was a big shot.
She also had a personality that was not suitable for remaining as the head of a family.
“Lastly, about our Greenwood.”
She hesitated for a mont, as if choosing her words carefully, and then said.
“Now that I’ve found a druid, it’s right to introduce you to the princess right away.”
Greenwood had made it their top priority to search for a druid. I had also co to find Katarina with the desire to know the true nature of Greenwood, so a eting with the elf princess was sothing I had hoped for.
“But as you said, I can’t get in touch with the princess at all right now. It seems that sothing really has happened. In the first place, she’s an elf princess who belongs to the highest class of Gellerg City. I was skeptical about how long she could secretly run an organization.”
“Then how about introducing to another mber?”
“Well, I don’t think it would be much different from . But just in case, I’ll introduce you.”
Katarina told the personal details of the mbers who were active in Gellerg City. A question suddenly ca to mind.
“Aren’t you going back with ?”
“I’m the only direct blood relative left, so I have to do my job. I’ll just clean up the ss, and I won’t be loyal beyond that. Fortunately, the family is not in the worst situation, so that should be enough.”
Since she said so, I didn’t say anything else. In the first place, if she had been only cold-hearted, she wouldn’t have helped in the resistance, which had no chance of winning, even if it was her own family’s business.
It was a sha, but I had secured the personal details of the Greenwood mbers. I could just go through them to recover the rest of the spirit’s cocoons or contact the elf princess.
As I thought that I had finished all my business in Brahms, my mind naturally drifted to the scenery beyond the window. Gellerg City, although I had more mories of hardship than good ones, had I grown fond of it?
At least it seed better than Brahms. I was also curious about how much the vegetable garden had changed in the anti, and whether Bell had managed it well. At so point, the scenery of Brahms outside the window overlapped with the scenery of Gellerg City in my mory.
***
“Hmm.”
Bianca was in a cetery. The fact that the civil war in Brahms was Mirei’s sche was not revealed to the public. Although the Mad House was a group of outlaws notorious throughout the continent, this case was excessive.
The problem was that it had almost succeeded. What would have happened if Allen hadn’t intervened? Perhaps the king and the heads of the ten families would have all fallen into Mirei’s hands.
A single person had toyed with a city. It was a sha that had to be thoroughly hidden. And so, many were buried in a hastily made cetery.
The knights of the Royal Knights, and even Mirei, the culprit who had started the civil war.
“A surprising result.”
Honestly, Bianca had bet on Mirei’s victory if Allen and Mirei were to fight. It was hard for a loser who had lost to Allen to judge, but she had highly evaluated Mirei’s preparations.
She had the royal family in her hands. In Gellerg City terms, she had a gacorp in the palm of her hand. Although Allen’s growth was great, she had judged that he would be at a disadvantage in Mirei’s prepared ho ground.
But the revealed result was Mirei’s defeat. She knew that Allen’s growth was fast, but she didn’t know it was this much.
“Why did you have to be so greedy?”
Mirei’s goal and Allen’s goal did not overlap. The conflict between the two was sothing that Mirei could have avoided if she had wanted to.
“Well, if you weren’t a greedy person, you wouldn’t have belonged to the Mad House.”
It was just a hypothesis. Whether it was curiosity, greed, or a simple desire to win. For a mber of the Mad House, there was no choice but to fight when faced with a skilled person like Allen.
“Our young lady, although she was a person I liked, I won’t take revenge. You didn’t expect it either, did you, young lady?”
It wasn’t a relationship to be so concerned about. The mbers of the Mad House were just sharing a roof called the Mad House, and it was a thorough business relationship. The relationship between Mirei and Bianca was also like that.
The other mbers would probably just say ‘oh well’ when they heard the news of Mirei. It was a relief if they didn’t mock her. So troubleso things like revenge were out of her interest.
“The other guys won’t talk about revenge either… but what about the boss?”
Recently, he had been taking a course of action that was contrary to the direction and philosophy he had run the organization with so far, which was to expand the organization’s external influence. He was definitely a similar type to them, but at so point, he had changed.
“If he talks about revenge, I’ll really have to leave.”
Bianca could shake off the title of the Mad House at any ti. The other mbers would probably do the sa. The external people who had a strange admiration for the Mad House would be disappointed, but it was originally such a ss of an organization.
So Bianca could not understand the people who acted as if the Mad House was their life’s goal and responded to the recruitnt offer, and the boss who had started to expand the size of the organization explosively.
“He must have so purpose.”
Does she have to know? It wasn’t that she wasn’t curious, but there was a saying that you get hurt if you know. Bianca was satisfied as long as the Mad House did not interfere with her activities.
“Ah.”
Co to think of it, she had to report Mirei’s death. She had already reported it once, so that was the end of it. She wondered if she had to tell him again, but it was a good excuse.
“I don’t have to get deeply involved, but shall I just sound him out?”
Whether the Mad House was an organization worth sticking with. Bianca slowly sank into the shadows.
***
“Hmm.”
I had finally returned to Gellerg City. Gellerg City is a city that is constantly changing. I had only been to Brahms for a short, not-so-long ti, but many things had changed.
Restaurants, companies, shopping malls, offices… Even if it was familiar, if it felt sowhat unfamiliar, it had changed into a different space in the anti. But my house, at least, would welco as it was.
Sage was also quite excited, and her steps were bouncy. Co to think of it, she had left for Brahms with as soon as she ca to Gellerg City. She must be feeling like she was finally returning ho.
And when I turned at the familiar alley. I witnessed it.
“……”
My house, which had been turned into a ss.
(End of Chapter)
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