Chapter 34. A Lord’s Responsibilities and Duties (2)
The soldier had suddenly mentioned Adrian’s name.
“My brother?”
Seraphia instinctively tilted her head.
That was only natural, as Adrian was not currently in the County.
Adrian had organized a merchant company and departed from the County.
Of course, she knew that.
Furthermore, hardly any time had passed since his departure.
In other words, there had not been nearly enough time for him to complete the trading expedition and return.
Most importantly, the tremendous snowfall had completely severed the County’s contact with the outside world.
Even if he wanted to return, it should have been impossible.
Yet the soldier had mentioned Adrian.
Unless Adrian had been involved in some kind of accident—
“What happened to my brother?!”
Seraphia hurriedly questioned the soldier. However, perhaps the soldier could not find the proper words to explain it.
“Y-You should see it for yourself!!”
The soldier shouted urgently.
Seraphia was overcome by an inexplicable sense of unease.
Ominously—
The sky was covered in ashen clouds.
The ground had frozen solid beneath the cold.
It produced a crunching sound with every step she took. That only made Seraphia quicken her pace.
After walking for some time—
The first thing Seraphia saw was a distribution center sturdily constructed from tents.
“W-What is this...?”
“When did they build something like this...?”
Kai and Bernard, who had followed behind her, widened their eyes in surprise.
A long line of residents stretched out in front of the distribution center.
As they waited in the cold, the residents wrapped themselves in worn coats and fur clothing, enduring the weather while blowing warm air onto their hands.
Supplies were piled high inside the distribution center.
Large wooden crates and sacks were filled with dried meat, salted fish, processed grains, and warm fur clothing.
Food, clothing, firewood, medical supplies, and more.
The items the County needed most—the supplies capable of resolving the problems confronting it in a single stroke—were piled high before them.
Those who had already received their rations hurried back to their homes.
Their families, friends, and lovers were waiting at home, shivering from cold and hunger.
Yet smiles spread across their faces as they imagined how happy their loved ones would soon be.
Seraphia ventured farther inside the distribution center.
The soldiers who had accompanied Adrian were managing the distribution of supplies.
The season of cold was approaching.
The punishing chill naturally made everyone hunch their bodies, yet the soldiers seemed oblivious to the cold.
“Come now, we have plenty, so take as much as you need.”
“Don’t go hungry because you’re trying to save some for others.”
Maintaining strong postures and wearing highly spirited expressions, they distributed supplies to every household.
Adrian was no exception.
He moved throughout the distribution site, checking whether any supplies were missing and whether everyone was receiving their proper rations.
He personally inspected every detail.
The merchant company members followed Adrian around, densely recording and checking information on their documents.
Perhaps that was why—
It felt warm.
Even during the season of bitter cold, this place alone had not frozen over.
It overflowed with vitality.
The quiet voices of residents chatting around small campfires reached her ears.
Children were eating warm soup, while elderly residents received help from other soldiers in transporting their necessary supplies home.
The cries of children trembling from the cold occasionally mingled with the surrounding voices.
Several people teared up and began to cry upon hearing those children.
However, their emotions had not arisen from sorrow or fear.
Nor were they the result of hunger or cold.
“Thank you…. Thank you so much….”
“How could we ever repay this kindness...?”
Gratitude and appreciation.
The emotion blossoming across the residents’ faces was not despair.
It was….
Hope.
Seraphia’s red eyes trembled violently as she studied their faces one by one.
She did not understand.
She did not know how she was supposed to accept this situation. Nor did she know how she was supposed to understand it.
She simply could not comprehend it.
.......
Overwhelmed by a sudden surge of emotion, Seraphia bit her lip tightly.
Despite that, she could not restrain the feelings rising within her, and her lips began to tremble.
She forced herself to take a deep breath. She tightly clutched the hem of her clothes with both hands.
Even so, her shoulders continued to shake.
Kai, who had been watching her, asked worriedly,
“Are you all right?”
“I-I’m fine…. Please, just let me be alone….for a moment.”
Seraphia fled from the scene as though she were running away.
Kai attempted to follow her, but Bernard stopped him.
“I believe it would be best to leave her alone for now.”
Following Bernard’s gaze, Kai saw Seraphia staggering.
She looked remarkably fragile, like a thin flower petal fluttering in the wind.
In the end, however, Kai took a step back.
He sensed a heartrending desire within her to temporarily separate herself from the world and her emotions.
And Kai was not unaware of what had caused it.
* * *
Seraphia wandered aimlessly.
She gave no thought to how far she should walk or where she should go.
She simply walked, and walked, and continued walking.
Only after reaching a secluded alley where no one could see her and no one’s gaze could reach did she finally stop.
At some point, her long black eyelashes had grown damp and lowered over her eyes.
Tears welled within them.
They kept threatening to spill over.
She did not know why.
She was simply….
So overwhelmingly happy. She was happy at this very moment.
Yet she did not understand why she felt such happiness.
Perhaps that was the reason.
“....Hic.”
Perhaps that was why she could no longer suppress her sobs.
Perhaps that was why she could no longer contain the emotions swelling within her.
She could not do this.
She could not cry.
She could not allow herself to become weak.
She could not.
She absolutely could not.
She had to become stronger and stronger….
Before Seraphia realized it, all strength left her legs.
“Hic...!”
The sobs she had suppressed finally burst free.
She did not know why. She merely thought that her heart had grown weak.
Her face was covered in tears.
If she looked into a mirror, she would probably find herself completely hideous.
Even so, her tears did not stop. Nor did she attempt to stop them.
And so—
Seraphia collapsed to the ground.
“Ugh...! Sob...!”
She must have cried there for hours.
* * *
Several other Free Cities besides Freche existed on the continent.
Each Free City had developed around a particular industry, such as mining, agriculture, or livestock farming, while Freche was a city where “commerce” had flourished.
There was also a city that had developed around cultural pursuits such as art and scholarship—
The City of Culture, Orpheum.
The city was surrounded by towering mountains and verdant rivers.
Constructed in harmony with the beauty of nature, Orpheum had been formed by people who loved scholarship and art.
As time passed, it gradually became a center of academic debate and artistic collaboration.
It was now established as a city where various artists and scholars from different nations gathered, interacted, and debated with one another.
Beside Orpheum Grand Plaza stood an enormous bookstore resembling a library.
Upon entering, one would be greeted by a lofty ceiling and seemingly endless bookshelves, making the building resemble a sacred temple of knowledge.
The shelves were neatly categorized according to different genres and subjects.
A spiral staircase stood at the bookstore’s center, allowing customers to travel between its many floors.
Movable ladders were also provided throughout every floor and section.
“Heave-ho!”
She possessed a slender nose and rather thin lips.
Her delicately sculpted, flawless skin perfectly complemented her facial features.
A remarkably petite woman descended precariously from a ladder while carrying an armful of heavy books.
She then whimpered like an anxious puppy as she carefully stacked the books on the counter one by one.
[Everything About Every Monster], [Advanced Arcane Studies], [An In-Depth Analysis of Alchemy], [Introduction to Curse Studies], [The Study of Transformation Magic], [The Evolution of Classical Magic], [Evolutionary Biology].
The youthful-looking woman busily climbed up and down the ladders.
She wore an elegant robe combining blue and silver.
Her long, pale sky-blue hair shone like silk, while her blue eyes possessed the deep, tranquil color of the sky.
A mountain of books formed in an instant.
The bookstore owner’s glasses slipped noticeably down his nose as he stared at it.
His gaze lowered.
The small, blue-haired woman suddenly poked her head out and exclaimed with sparkling eyes,
“P-Please ring up all of these!”
“All of them?”
“Yes!”
“Didn’t you buy an entire pile of books just two months ago? Don’t tell me you’ve already finished reading them.”
“They were so interesting that I stayed up all night reading them....”
“Interesting….?”
Those tedious and complicated books, filled with headache-inducing terminology and knowledge, each of which was at least one thousand pages long?
“Yes! They were incredibly interesting!”
“You’re probably the only person on this continent who finds those things interesting, Iliana.”
Wearing an expression that suggested he had expected nothing less, the bookstore owner began sorting through the mountain of books one by one.
Iliana, the petite blue-haired woman, watched him silently before asking,
“By the way, mister, the entire city seems unusually noisy today. Did something happen?”
“Hmm? Ah, that is probably because something called ‘monster meat’ recently arrived from the Commercial City.”
“....What? Monster meat?”
“Someone began selling monster meat a short while ago. They claim it is monster meat from which the madness has been removed—”
“That’s impossible!!”
Bang!
Iliana struck the counter and shouted.
“It is impossible to remove an element of madness that has been imprinted at the genetic level!”
“No, well....”
“Even if you target the genetic sequence responsible for the madness, its essential energy is connected to the genes’ fundamental code! You cannot sever that connection!”
“What I’m trying to say is—”
“Therefore, even if you target it and cast a Genetic Removal Spell, you still cannot erase its energetic traces! Unless you deny or erase the very existence of the genes themselves, it is absolutely—absolutely impossible!”
Her small lips were pressed tightly together, and both her fists were clenched.
The blue eyes glittering beneath her long eyelashes held the most stubborn expression imaginable.
“Um….Iliana? Even if you explain it using such difficult language, I am merely a merchant. I cannot understand any of it.”
“B-But...! It has to be a fraud!”
“Setting aside all that complicated magical knowledge, it is certain that the people who ate the monster meat did not go mad.”
“W-What...? That can’t be true. A-Are you certain you didn’t misunderstand what you saw?”
“It is true. People ate the monster meat, yet none of them went mad.”
“Th-That’s impossible...!!”
Iliana’s blue eyes trembled violently.
“Who was it? Who sold the monster meat...?”
“A merchant company named Predator.”
“Predator…. A ‘merchant company’?”
Not a mage or an Arcane Scholar?
A merchant company rather than a Mage Tower?
Iliana sank deep into thought and searched her memories.
However, no matter how hard she thought, she could not recall anything related to the Predator Merchant Company.
Although she had learned everything from books, Iliana had memorized the names of nearly every location, noble family, and merchant company throughout the continent’s kingdoms.
If she still could not remember anything, there was only one possible explanation.
“It is a newly established merchant company.”
“Ah….”
No wonder she had been unable to recall anything about it, regardless of how thoroughly she searched her memory.
“I heard it is operated by White Wolf County.”
“White Wolf County....”
Iliana once again sank deep into thought.
Unlike before, however, she did not have to think for long. A particular memory flashed through her mind.
If this was the same White Wolf County she remembered—
“Could you possibly mean the territory situated at the northernmost end of the continent?!”
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