Chapter 93. The Festival (2)

Humans were simple.

At least, they were in the eyes of Hebrun, who had lived for hundreds of years.

For her, winning a person's heart, especially a man's, was not a very difficult task.

A youthful and beautiful appearance, unique to vampires.

A healthy complexion moderately enhanced with makeup.

Appropriate expressions of interest at the end of every sentence, along with a shy gesture of covering her mouth, and an occasional coy smile were enough to steal a man's heart.

“Oh my… so what did you do?”

Not even a few minutes had passed since they started chatting on the rocking boat, and she was able to quickly dig out the story of the man with the bandit beard.

“…So I told her honestly. Come to me! This older brother will take care of everything! She seemed happy too. She talked as if she would come running right away. We exchanged letters for quite a while. But….”

“Gasp! But then?”

“Suddenly, she stopped contacting me, can you believe it? So, surprised, I wrote a letter to a neighbor friend to see if anything was wrong, and what do you know, she was perfectly fine!”

It was a simple story.

A man who had achieved some success sends a letter to the woman he had a crush on in his hometown, and the woman, who had also been reminiscing about their childhood memories and exchanging letters, realizes the wall of reality, cuts off contact, and disappears.

However, it wouldn't be such a simple story for this man.

Even if the reality was simple, his feelings would be complex.

Digging into that contradiction was Hebrun's long-standing specialty.

She said in a coquettish voice, lightly tapping the man's forearm.

“My… that woman was mean.”

“Y-you think so?”

“Yes! How could she do that to such a dependable man? Well, she kicked away her own opportunity.”

“Ahem. No, well, that's not what's important. I was busy anyway, so I couldn't contact her often. By the way, is this your first time here?”

‘…Already?’

Honestly, she was surprised.

She had thought he would fall for it quickly, but.

She didn't expect him to tear the letter to shreds and throw it overboard so quickly.

‘Hmm…?’

This man is a greenhorn.

Hebrun was sure.

If so, there was just one more step left.

To handle a man, one must not become an easy woman.

Men tend to neglect the fish they've caught.

Therefore, after gaining his affection, it was necessary to stir up a little bit of competitiveness.

To make him want to grant her anything she desired.

“It's not my first time. I live nearby. I also have someone I can't reach. I heard he lives in this city, so I came to find him.”

It was surely not a mistake that a hint of vigilance, disappointment, and jealousy crossed the man's face.

“Someone you can't reach? Who might that be?”

“Oh, just someone I know. He's my father's benefactor.”

At the mention of her father's benefactor, the man would have thought that the unknown benefactor was likely a man like himself, a ‘competitor’.

“Hmph….”

“Excuse me, you know this city well, right? It's not my first time, but it's been a while, and the city has changed a lot….”

By taking another step closer here and giving him an opportunity as if asking for help, she could easily put a leash on any man.

“Hahaha! Well, that's right! To be honest, this is practically my territory. Do you know that the iron ore here is famous? My close subordinate manages that mine.”

“Oh my, really?”

The man shrugged his shoulders.

Hebrun covered her mouth and laughed.

Men were so easy.

She relaxed a little and leaned her head against the side of the boat.

Just then, the city came into view ahead.

It was the city ruled by the mercenary-turned-viscount whom that necromancer served, the one he planned to backstab and kill someday.

Was his name Ash?

Since he became a viscount, it would be Ash Wolfskrig now.

Her plan was simple.

Enter the city, avoid provoking that devilish necromancer as much as possible, and at the same time, catch his eye to subtly inform him that she needed to receive the rest of her payment.

“We're arriving at the pier soon! Everyone get up!”

As the city drew closer, the boatman rang a bell.

The greenhorn with the bandit beard approached Hebrun as she stretched and sat down with a plop.

“But didn't you say you lived nearby?”

“Yes, in the countryside.”

“Oh, then are we neighbors?”

“I… suppose so?”

“Nice to meet you! I must have been blind all this time. To think such a beautiful lady was my neighbor. I'm Company Commander Terren of the Viscount's army.”

“Uh… I'm Hebrun.”

“Hebrun! A beautiful name. If it's not too rude, may I ask what your father does?”

“He just manages people, something like that….”

“A lord?! Then, Miss, did you come on an errand for your father?”

“Uh, he didn't ask me to, but it's similar, right? I did come because of my dad….”

For some reason, the more they talked, the more it felt like she was revealing her hand, a strange sense of unease creeping in.

She decided to let it slide.

He was a man who had likely lived by the sword his whole life, a foolish bandit-like man with a strong body and nothing more.

A guy like this wouldn't be able to deceive her.

It was just an attempt by a greenhorn, inept with women, to somehow continue the conversation with a barrage of useless questions.

All just to spend even a single night with her in his entire life.

“Excuse me, then, would you be my escort for today?”

“Oh! It would be an honor. It's the festival period, you see. Today is the third day! I will create a perfect day for you, Miss!”

…Right.

What could a mere human possibly do?

***

“I'm bored.”

Ella Siollus, a member of the Imperial Secret Knight Order, let out an annoyed sigh.

It had already been three days.

Three days of dawdling at this damn festival.

Honestly, she had been a little excited at first.

Since it was a festival, she had expected something like an heretic-burning ceremony or a bare-knuckle fighting tournament like in those northern frontier cities.

It wasn't.

It was just an ordinary festival.

There was food and drink, people caroused and danced, and only common, boring events like arm-wrestling competitions and cooking contests were held.

If it were up to her, she would have packed her bags and left right away, but she couldn't.

The reason she was here in the first place was because of the Emperor's command.

“Karok, today's the last day, right?”

“Correct. Today, third day. Infiltration and investigation mission is until third day.”

The Emperor's command was simple.

Investigate the development level of the frontier city of Wolfskrig for three days.

The problem was the condition.

This investigation mission came with the condition of infiltration.

Do not stand out, no matter what.

Under no circumstances reveal your identity or draw the attention of the masses.

Even if something happens, do not escalate the situation and run away.

‘With a guy like this who stands out just by existing?’

Siollus couldn't understand.

Even more so since the companion attached to her was a giant over 2 meters tall.

Karok, who was deployed on the mission with her, was close to the strongest in the secret knight order in terms of simple strength, a half-blood rumored to have giant's blood mixed in.

Because of his size, it was natural for him to stand out wherever he went.

“His Majesty does some incomprehensible things sometimes. At the very least, he could have sent me with Barum, that unlucky bastard.”

“Barum. Busy, he said. Investigating Ratmen, he said. Ratmen are dangerous.”

“Shut up and just walk.”

Anyway, today was the last day.

She had already completed the report on the first day.

Wolfskrig was developing rapidly.

To the point where she suspected that Viscount Ash Wolfskrig was actually a strategist who had graduated from the Imperial University, not a war hero from a mercenary background.

First of all, the rice farming, which was said to have had a poor harvest last season, had the most abundant harvest in the entire southern region.

She found out it was because hundreds of priests had been purifying and blessing the entire territory for months.

It was absurd.

Hundreds of priests in a frontier city like this.

Was it because of the reputation of being the lord's honorary paladin?

Or did he make some kind of deal with an archbishop or a priest of equivalent rank?

‘…The mine is the same.’

Three hundred years.

It was an abandoned mine that had been left for a whopping three hundred years.

Let's say it's possible to find and redevelop a mine by digging through old documents.

But she didn't know how he did it, but iron ore was pouring out endlessly every day from the mine that hadn't even been in development for a few months.

According to her prior investigation, it didn't produce this much even three hundred years ago.

As a result, the blacksmith district in the western part of the city, led by craftsmen from the Count Maenenwood family, was churning out steel and weapons nonstop.

To the extent that the price of steel in the southern region plummeted in an instant.

“Tonight. Sleep here?”

“Huh?”

“Plaza is pretty. Shines at night. Can see if sleep tonight too. Sleep here. Karok wants to do that.”

“I told you to shut up. People are staring.”

Finally, the plaza.

The lights of the plaza, which had completely captivated her colleague's heart, were on everyone's lips throughout the festival.

Magical lanterns, the likes of which she had never seen anywhere in the Empire, illuminated the entire plaza every night.

As someone with a great interest in ancient ruins, she knew where those came from.

‘Lumer Civilization's Luminescent Stone.’

An ancient empire that had conquered more than half of the continent long ago, but ultimately fell for unknown reasons.

Now it has become a nation of the undead, a power that is barely maintaining only its capital in the far south….

There are their ruins scattered throughout the Empire, but it's not easy to even approach the ruins, let alone study them.

By what means did he think of detaching that and studying it?

Is Viscount Ash a madman obsessed with magitech?

“Ah, why did you suddenly stop? Karok!”

Her colleague, who had stopped abruptly, broke her train of thought.

He was staring blankly at the plaza.

In the plaza, the preliminary round of the cooking contest was in full swing.

The final, which would be held this afternoon, was said to be the grand finale of the harvest festival.

“Karok, it's not time for the lights to come on yet. What are you doing….”

“Look at that.”

“What?”

“Black hair. Woman cutting sausage.”

“Huh?”

Following her colleague's words, Siollus looked at the plaza and froze.

The face of one of the cooking contest participants was familiar.

“Huh…?”

No, it wasn't just familiar.

How could she forget.

Back when the secret knight order had just been created.

The face of the powerful necromancer who had subdued half of the knight order members at the time in the Vampire Archduchy.

“Princess of Blood……”

She had dyed her hair black, but it was definitely her.

It was the Vampire Duke's only daughter, Hebrun von Zarhill.

That raised a question.

She was the second most powerful necromancer in the Vampire Archduchy after the Duke.

She was also the one who had blown away the entire lord's castle of Gunterburk not long ago.

Why would such a powerful mage come here?

And not even to launch a surprise attack, but to participate in a mere cooking contest.

“Heeh….”

Siollus cupped her cheek with her palm.

She could feel a faint heat.

Ella Siollus liked this kind of thing.

A strange place.

An unexpected encounter.

An unknown conclusion.

The flame-like tension and excitement that bloomed within it.

When was the last time she felt this way?

Ah, right.

It was when she met that nameless masked mage in the basement of Berenburg.

Feeling her heart pound lightly, she grabbed her colleague's forearm.

“Karok, are you good at cooking?”

“Huh?”

The last day of the infiltration mission.

Finally, an interesting lead worth investigating had appeared.

There was only one way to investigate without drawing attention or revealing her identity.

***

Personally, I'm not one to believe in gods.

Well, it's not that I thought a transcendent being didn't exist at all.

Rather than thinking that all things came to be by chance, breaking through the infinitely converging probability of zero by multiplying coincidence with coincidence, the scenario where someone created them was personally a much more convincing one.

Perhaps it was the influence of going to church as a child with my parents.

Anyway, it's the same in this world.

In this world, gods are real.

However, existence and faith are separate.

Even while cosplaying as a paladin of the Luark Church, I never particularly believed in or prayed to Luark.

“…Lord.”

And today.

For the first time, I felt like praying to that god.

“Now then, from this moment on, the finale of the 1st Wolfskrig Harvest Festival! The cooking contest finals will now begin!”

I am looking down at the plaza.

Sitting in the judge's seat for the cooking contest that will mark the grand finale of the festival.

In front of me, four finalists are waiting at their respective cooking stations with various cooking utensils and ingredients laid out.

As it was a contest open to everyone attending the festival, the probability of all four of them being faces I know would be extremely rare.

Let alone.

“First, I will introduce the contestants. The first contestant is a beauty from a country village, a master of traditional black pudding dishes, Hebrun!”

“Next up, the second contestant is the scion of a fallen noble family with impressive purple hair, a steak expert from the Imperial Capital, Ella!”

What would be the probability that two of those four are an 8th-tier vampire necromancer and a crazy mage from the Imperial Secret Knight Order?

‘Kkumteuli.’

‘…….’

‘Let me ask you one thing.’

‘Speak, master.’

‘Why are those two here?’

‘I don't know either. I have certainly been with countless worlds through their rise and fall, but this is the first time I've seen something like this…….’

What in the world is this situation?