Chapter 34

A Lord’s Responsibilities and Duties (2)

The name the soldier had suddenly mentioned was Adrian.

“Brother?”

Seraphia tilted her head in bewilderment.

Understandably so, since Adrian was not in the county at the moment. He had put together a trading company and left. Of course she knew that. Nor had much time passed since then—nowhere near enough for him to leave on a trading expedition and return.

Above all, the tremendous snowfall had cut the county off from the outside world entirely. He could not return even if he wanted to.

So why mention Adrian?

Unless something had happened to him—

“What’s happened to my brother?!”

Seraphia questioned the soldier urgently. But perhaps he could not find the words to explain.

“I-I think you need to see for yourself!!”

The soldier shouted urgently, and an inexplicable unease swept over Seraphia.

* * *

Ominously, ash-gray clouds blanketed the sky. The ground, frozen by the cold, crunched beneath each footstep. With every crunch, Seraphia quickened her pace.

How long had she walked?

The first thing she saw was a distribution station built from sturdy tents.

“Wh-what...?”

“When did they put all this...?”

Kai and Bernard, who had caught up with her, stared wide-eyed in astonishment.

Residents filled the area in front of the station, forming long lines. Wrapped in worn coats and fur clothing, they endured the cold as they waited, blowing on their hands for warmth.

Inside the station, supplies lay in great heaps. Large wooden crates and sacks were packed with dried meat, salted fish, processed grains, and warm fur clothing. Food, clothing, firewood, medical supplies, and more—the things the county needed most, supplies that could solve its immediate problems in a single stroke, were piled high.

Those who had already received their supplies hurried home. Their families, friends, and loved ones would be shivering and hungry there. Yet smiles spread across their faces as they imagined how happy those people would soon be.

Seraphia ventured farther into the station. The soldiers who had accompanied Adrian on his trip were handling all the distribution.

The season of bitter cold was approaching. The harsh chill made her hunch instinctively, yet did the soldiers not feel it at all?

“Come on, there’s plenty to go around. Take as much as you need.”

“Don’t go hungry just to leave more for someone else.”

Standing firm, their faces brimming with excitement, they handed out supplies to each household.

Adrian was no exception. He moved around the distribution site, checking every last detail to ensure no supplies were missing and everyone was receiving their proper share. The company’s staff members followed him, filling pages with notes and checking things off.

Was that why?

It was... warm.

Even in the season of bitter cold, this place alone had not frozen over. It overflowed with life.

She could hear residents conversing quietly around small fires they had lit. Children ate warm soup, while elderly residents transported the supplies they needed home with help from other soldiers. Now and then, the cries of children shivering in the cold mingled with those sounds.

At those cries, some people’s eyes welled up, spilling tears. But those emotions sprang neither from sorrow nor fear. Nor were they the result of hunger and cold.

“Thank you... Thank you so much...”

“How can we ever repay this kindness...?”

Thankfulness and gratitude.

What bloomed on the residents’ faces was not despair.

It was... hope.

As Seraphia studied their faces one by one, her crimson eyes trembled.

... She did not know.

How to accept this situation. How to even understand it.

She simply did not know.

“...”

Seraphia bit down hard on her lip at the sudden surge of emotion. Even so, she could not contain what welled up inside her, and her lips began to tremble. She forced herself to take a deep breath and clutched her clothes tightly in both hands.

Still, her shoulders shook.

Watching her, Kai asked anxiously, “Are you all right?”

“I-I’m fine... Just a moment. I’d like... a moment alone.”

Seraphia left as though fleeing. Kai tried to follow, but Bernard stepped in his way.

“I believe it would be best to leave her alone for now.”

At Bernard’s words, Kai turned his gaze back to Seraphia and saw her stagger. She looked terribly fragile, like a thin flower petal fluttering in the wind.

In the end, however, he took a step back. He could sense her poignant desire to shut out the world and her emotions for a little while.

And he was not unaware... of what lay behind it.

* * *

Seraphia walked aimlessly. She had no thought of how far she should walk or where she should go. She simply walked, and walked, and walked.

Only when she reached a secluded alley, where she could see no one and no one could see her, did she finally stop.

At some point, her long black lashes had grown damp, veiling her eyes. Tears brimmed beneath them. They kept welling up, and she did not know why.

She was just... just so happy.

In this very moment.

Yet she did not know why she felt such happiness. Perhaps that was the reason.

“... Hic.”

The reason she could not hold back the sobs bursting out of her. The reason she could not contain the feelings swelling inside her.

She shouldn’t be doing this. She shouldn’t cry.

She couldn’t let herself grow weak. She couldn’t, couldn’t do that.

She had to be strong, and grow stronger still...

Before she knew it, her legs gave way.

“Hic...!”

The sobs she had held back finally burst free.

She did not... know why. All she could think was that she had grown weak.

Her face was drenched in tears. If she looked in a mirror, she imagined she would look utterly hideous.

Still, her tears did not stop. She did not even try to stop them.

And so Seraphia sank to the ground right there.

“Sob...! Hic...!”

Perhaps she cried for hours on end.

* * *

There were other free cities on the continent besides Frecce. Such cities had formed around the development of particular industries, such as mining, farming, or livestock raising. Frecce was a city where commerce had flourished.

And there was a city that had developed around cultural pursuits such as art and scholarship—

Orpheum, the city of culture.

The city stood surrounded by lofty mountain ranges and blue-green rivers. Built in harmony with nature’s beauty, Orpheum had taken shape as lovers of art and scholarship gathered there. Over time, it had gradually become a center for scholarly debate and artistic collaboration. Today, it was an established meeting place where artists and scholars from many nations exchanged ideas and engaged in discussion.

Beside Orpheum’s grand plaza stood an enormous bookstore reminiscent of a library. Stepping through its entrance, one found a soaring ceiling and seemingly endless bookshelves, like a temple of knowledge. The shelves were neatly organized by genre and subject.

A spiral staircase at the center of the bookstore connected its several floors. Movable ladders stood on each floor and in each section.

“Heave-ho!”

A young-looking woman was busily climbing up and down one of them.

She wore an elegant robe that blended blue and silver. Her long, pale sky-blue hair shone like silk, and her blue eyes held the deep, tranquil hue of the sky. She had a slender nose and rather thin lips. Her delicate, sculpted beauty and clear skin harmonized perfectly with her features.

The petite woman descended the ladder precariously with an armful of heavy books. Then, whimpering with effort like an anxious puppy, she piled the books neatly on the counter one by one.

[Everything About Every Monster], [Advanced Magical Studies], [An In-Depth Analysis of Alchemy], [Introduction to Curses], [Transformation Magic], [A History of Classical Magic], [Evolutionary Biology]...

In an instant, the books formed a mountain.

As the bookseller watched, his glasses slipped down his nose. His gaze lowered with them.

The small woman, all shades of blue, popped her head up and called out with sparkling eyes.

“Th-these! I’d like to buy all of them!”

“All of these?”

“Yes!”

“Didn’t you buy a whole stack just a couple of months ago? Surely you haven’t finished them already?”

“They were so much fun that I kept reading all night...”

“Fun...?”

Those stuffy, complicated books, packed with headache-inducing terminology and knowledge, each easily over a thousand pages long?

“Yes! They’re incredibly fun!”

“Iliana, you must be the only person on this continent who finds that sort of thing fun.”

With a look that said he should have expected as much, the bookseller sorted through the mountain of books one by one. Iliana, the little woman in blue, watched him for a moment before asking,

“By the way, sir, the whole city seems especially lively today. Is something going on?”

“Hmm? Oh, that must be because of the ‘monster meat’ that’s recently arrived from the commercial city.”

“... What? Monster meat?”

“Someone was selling monster meat a little while ago. They say the Madness has been removed—”

“That’s impossible!!”

Iliana slammed her hand on the counter and shouted.

BANG!

“You can’t remove Madness factors imprinted at the genetic level!”

“Well, I...”

“Even if you target the genetic sequence for Madness, its intrinsic energy is part of the genes’ own core code. You can’t sever that connection!”

“What I’m saying—”

“So even if you target those genes and cast a gene-removal spell, you can’t erase the residual energy! Unless you negate or delete the very existence of those genes, it’s absolutely, absolutely impossible!”

Her small lips were pressed tightly together, both fists clenched. The blue eyes sparkling beneath her long lashes were utterly unyielding.

“Well... Iliana? You can explain it with all those complicated words, but I’m just a shopkeeper. I can’t understand any of it.”

“B-but...! It’s a scam!”

“Putting all that complicated magical knowledge aside, one thing is certain: people didn’t go mad after eating monster meat.”

“Wh-what...? How could that be? A-are you sure you didn’t see wrong?”

“It’s true. People ate monster meat and didn’t go mad.”

“Th-that’s impossible...!!”

Iliana’s blue eyes trembled violently.

“Who on earth was it? Who was selling monster meat...?”

“A trading company called Predator.”

“Predator... a trading company?”

Not a mage or a scholar of magic?

In other words, not a mage tower?

Iliana sank deep into thought, searching her memory. But no matter how hard she tried, she could recall nothing about Predator Merchant Company.

Though she had learned it all from books, she had memorized the place names, noble houses, and trading companies of nearly every kingdom on the continent. If nothing came to mind despite that, there was only one possible explanation.

“It’s a newly established company.”

“Oh...”

No wonder she hadn’t been able to place it, no matter how hard she searched her memory.

“Apparently, it’s run out of Whitewolf county.”

“Whitewolf county...?”

Iliana sank into thought again. Unlike before, however, she did not have to think long.

A memory flashed through her mind. If this was the same Whitewolf county she remembered...

“Surely you don’t mean the territory at the northernmost tip of the continent?!”