NOVEL WEB Chapter 75
The demon race is targeting Stella.
Then, was the attempted kidnapping incident before the entrance ceremony also ordered by the demon race?
That timing seems strange.
If they were targeting Stella, they should have started long before.
They should have aimed for her before even meeting me.
That foolish, naive, safety-blind girl has been wandering around Gebihenum for quite some time.
If they had targeted Stella back then, there wouldn’t have been any issues. So why now?
Stella hasn’t even come of age yet.
She may boast about being a genius, but her talent hasn’t fully blossomed yet.
Without a suitable master, she’s quite terrible.
It seems she has neither money nor a good grasp of common sense.
Do they see potential in her that I couldn’t find? What kind of madman would think that?
When I had Sara look into it separately, I heard that aside from Stella, there are many other direct descendants in Behrhaigen.
Three of them older than her.
Though there’s a big age gap, three siblings are exceptionally talented.
The eldest son of Behrhaigen became a grand mage at the age of 32 and reached the 7th circle.
The second daughter is 27 years old and is at the 6th circle as a mage.
The third son, who is the same age as the second daughter, is a knight of the 5th rank.
And the youngest, Stella, is a 3rd circle mage.
She is the least impressive of them all.
Of course, it’s said she’s the youngest 3rd circle mage and is about to reach the 4th circle, but—
She is not a genius that would shock the world.
Kaloso reached the 6th circle at 17.
So why are they targeting Stella?
Did I see some unknown potential in those mystifying mages?
Then… it might be related to Stella leaving her family and pretending to be a beggar.
Is her family actually trying to team up with the demon race to hand over Stella?
“…Don’t be so sure.”
Breaking the long thoughts, I closed the cover.
For now… I’ve stored the information on the legion commander in my mind.
Along with the notion that Stella is in danger, the suspicion that the Behrhaigen family might be collaborating with the demon race has grown stronger than before.
Yet, I don’t have time to dwell on one subject any longer.
I need to extract more information.
I quickly organized the swirling thoughts in my head and turned to the cover of the next book.
[The Return of the Fallen.]
It’s horrifically thick.
I wondered if it contains everything Arisa recorded after returning to the Empire.
It seems like Arisa herself must have agreed to have it documented.
If only I had a book like this…
Slurp— I licked my lips and read quickly.
As Fabiana told me, Arisa returned with all my weapons. However, there was a one-year gap after the demon king was sealed.
She probably didn’t spend that time where the World Tree is planted. According to Flora, she only stayed for a week.
Then, what did she do during that time?
Even if she walked, it wouldn’t take a year.
I flipped the page with questions swirling in my mind.
“…Hmm.”
It seems she did an enormous amount of work after returning.
She stayed at an inn in the archipelago we often visited, invaded the Imperial Palace to receive a duke title, and acquired the territory that is now the Eustetia Duchy.
And in the duchy, she built the Cheon-aeng Palace, slaughtered all the monsters nearby, and received new territory residents.
Furthermore, she sprinkled the remaining elixirs over the land to enrich it and planted cherry blossom trees.
Next, she returned to the archipelago, built an orphanage, and established a casino and library.
Cheon-aeng Palace, orphanage, casino, library.
At a glance, it looks random and thoughtless, but no.
Building a huge palace to live in was something Arisa had dreamt of doing.
The orphanage was Paulo’s idea.
The casino came from Luna.
The library was due to Kaloso.
All of it was accomplished by Arisa.
It wasn’t just brute force.
She used the position she had and contracts written as blank checks she received from the emperor each time she killed a legion commander.
It’s not exploitation, either.
If you read the process, she did politics remarkably well.
Arisa Eustetia… how did she manage to do this?
That girl’s mind is a garden of flowers.
It’s so innocent that it seems she’s lost her sanity.
But the fact that she was so attentive to political details and accomplished all that is hard to believe.
I don’t think Arisa faked being foolish. She was genuinely pure 100% foolish.
What the heck?
Why does she seem smarter than me…?
I’m nobility… Even learning work from the same duke’s family as Arisa is beyond me, yet how does she manage…?
Is this some messed-up fairy tale?
No, it’s not even close to being mixed. This could be a pure 100% fabrication.
The Arisa I know…
“Ugh…”
Still, she’s the type of girl who gets things done.
An unshakable sourness crept into my mouth as I thought of it.
The steps taken after the creations the comrades mentioned were truly an example of an outstanding duke.
Revitalizing the Empire’s economy, raising public sentiment, enhancing the royal family’s authority, and improving the Holy Kingdom’s image.
In a way, it seems she’s doing politics better than the emperor.
At this point, I didn’t want to read anymore…
I don’t want to see any more writing that praises Arisa. That’s enough for a damn fairy tale.
I just flipped through the pages quickly, taking in what didn’t catch my attention.
And then.
A word I was searching for caught my eye.
[Arisa Eustetia took on disciples.]
[The identity and appearance of the girl who became her disciple could not be identified even in the Empire, but.]
[Rumors said she resembled Arisa Eustetia.]
[They said she had pink hair.]
“…Disciple.”
Veiled identity and appearance.
Pink hair.
The holes that had been sporadically opened were all filled.
A disciple with pink hair.
After taking on that disciple, Arisa vanished.
And—
The shift of generations.
The emperor, the nobility, and Eustetia.
After Arisa disappeared, they all underwent changes.
Since then, those damn fairy tale books and novels have been published, Arisa’s play was created, and countless bards sang tales of Arisa.
“…Hah.”
I stared at the pink hair I spotted in a corner of my vision. It’s the color of beautifully blooming cherry blossoms.
The color symbolizing spring, and the color of cherry blossoms that girl claimed to love.
I touched, rubbed, and squeezed the color with my fingers.
Though it’s the same color, it’s different.
It’s not Arisa’s color.
I am.
We are not descendants of Arisa Eustetia.
The current Eustetia has not a drop of her blood flowing through.
The worried expression of my father came to mind.
The words my father said before I came to the Academy flashed in my mind.
His habitual words echoed in my head.
“Ellie, you are the cherry blossom of Eustetia.”
“You are Eustetia.”
“No matter what others say, you are Eustetia.”
Every time he said that, the expression he made appeared in my mind.
A smile that seemed apologetic, painful.
My father already knew.
Then, what was the reason for hiding it?
Was it to prevent me from getting hurt? To keep me from losing my spirit?
“…So annoying.”
How much do you care for me?
A bitter smile appeared.
Perhaps this smile was similar to the one my father had.
Snicker— I turned to the last page.
There was nothing but a short sentence written there.
[With that, Arisa Eustetia left the Empire and set off on her journey.]
[The exact destination was unknown, but before she left, she left ambiguous words.]
[She said she was going to fulfill a promise.]
I closed the book.
I briefly closed my eyes and recalled Arisa.
What kind of face did she make while building Cheon-aeng Palace, how did she feel while building the orphanage, what thoughts did she have while creating the casino, and what emotions did she experience while opening the library?
“…She probably didn’t smile.”
A descendant with no blood relation.
A child bound by a priest’s bond.
What was the purpose behind such actions?
In such a bizarre relationship, why was I born?
It’s surely not coincidence.
Paulo, Luna, Arisa, Kaloso.
Those four, along with Yurpia… or the Demon King.
Whoever the counterpart was, my comrades may have made some kind of contract.
Was it a peace treaty with the Demon King?
Bullshit.
Anyone who has met the Demon King knows that it’s a load of crap.
The Demon King is not the kind of being who would agree to a peace treaty.
So this is… a contract.
A contract established with something as a condition.
…Wishing for a clue to that contract.
I turned the cover of [Seal of the Demon King].
This was closer to a document than a book in thickness.
Of course, it had a thick cover for protection, but the content written inside was incredibly short.
About ten pages or so.
Even that wasn’t densely written, but spaced out for readability in handwriting.
From the first sentence, it seemed to contain content after I died.
And—
The handwriting is one I recognize.
[Ronan is dead.]
[Ronan died while protecting Arisa.]
Luna.
Luna Sacred Pranecia.
She herself had handwritten this document.
[Yet, we could not stand still.]
[We must kill the Demon King.]
[This is why we came here, and this is why Ronan sacrificed himself; this is why we have been piling up the corpses of people.]
[Thus, we moved forward.]
[Creating a grave for Ronan was postponed until after we killed the Demon King.]
[Sorry, but that moron Ronan can manage without it.]
[If he’s mad, let him die on his own.]
[And Ronan would clearly hate the fact that he’s buried here.]
[He would surely hate it to the point of escaping his grave if he found out it was in the Demon Realm.]
[So, shall we create his grave in front of the Demon King’s castle?]
“…Huh.”
She mixed her thoughts into an informative document.
However… something feels awkward.
There are gaps between pieces of information.
It’s not because they were spaced out for readability, but intentionally deleted.
The erased parts concern Kaloso.
All information regarding Kaloso has been erased.
Who erased it? Was it Arisa who brought this to the Empire?
Why?
Even before I could come up with an answer to that—
The sentences on the next page wiped all distractions from my mind.
[We have lost.]