Chapter 126
Chapter 126
Right now, I’m being pulled along by unexpected incidents and accidents with no way to control them.
Even though I knew this path would only lead to exhaustion and unresolved problems, the urgency of the moment forced my hand.
It would be good if the imperial court functioned properly, but unfortunately, the imperial court was only concerned with protecting Jedo, not the empire.
The moment a family’s head was sent to the border and no message followed, it was clear from the start what kind of turmoil gripped the imperial court.
“House Lemiere maintained that balance, but looking at the current situation says it all.”
House Lemiere pulled out all their military personnel just before their central city was half-destroyed and returned to their family.
Seiren had been staying between Lemiere’s Jedo mansion and Luwin’s mansion under Isiel’s protection, but with this opportunity, she returned to her family.
According to the news, Lemiere seemed to be stably fending off demonic beasts.
From the beginning, being so close to the capital, they were well-supplied with resources.
I found myself the only one in motion, compelled by the thought that, having been chosen by the god and thrown into this game, I had to save the empire from destruction.
Well, while I was running around frantically handling matters, people I had been friendly with would appear and help.
“But something’s wrong.”
I muttered.
When I slightly removed the handkerchief pressed under my nose, I could see that the bleeding had decreased much more than before.
It seems the nosebleed is finally stopping.
“Everything seems wrong…”
It was true that I was moving so diligently with the thought that I needed to do my best to save the empire.
Some people look at me and ask why a young woman from a declining count’s family in the south, who has just started making a name for herself in Jedo, is working so hard.
But knowing the existence of the system and having received the quest to protect the empire, it didn’t matter what social role I had here.
I just felt that if it wasn’t me, it wouldn’t be resolved.
But it didn’t seem like the foreseen destruction of the empire wouldn’t come just because I was living by wearing out my body so diligently.
“I need to change the game.”
Right now, I was dancing on a board that someone, probably Leilyranda Jackmüller, had set up.
The demonic beasts, arriving far ahead of schedule thanks to Leilyranda, appeared exclusively in locations that were logistically difficult for emergency teams to reach.
“How should I change it?”
Just as I was trying to figure out a method on my own, the door burst open, and there stood Yen with a pale face and Luka who also looked very tired.
Luka…
Luka?
Come to think of it, when demonic beasts first appeared, didn’t Luka and Seiren research together?
And what I learned at that time was that Luka is quite an extraordinary scholar. Though I only used this knowledge when I cut my finger with a knife and went to him crying, “Waahhh. I cut my hand with a knife. Waaahhh.”
It would be good to share with Luka that Leilyranda had transformed into a demonic beast and then returned to human form, and to ask for related research.
“…I rushed here when I heard that Irina had collapsed while bleeding profusely, but you seem fine?”
“…”
At Luka’s words, Yen visibly flinched and scurried over to hide behind me.
Despite his mountain-like size, he looked quite pathetic hiding behind me.
Luka rarely moved personally if he could avoid it. Despite being employed by Luwin, he was an impudent healer who didn’t even move when Luwin’s master asked him to.
Still, because his abilities were so outstanding, everyone tended to follow him without complaint. Also, despite pretending otherwise, he always did his best when healing.
That’s why he, who was reluctant to leave the north, was living between Luwin’s territory and Jedo, following me or Cassis.
I turned my head and looked once at Yen, who was watching nervously, and once at Luka, who was slightly annoyed, then slumped onto the desk with a groan.
“Oh my, Luka. The bleeding won’t stop. I think I need treatment.”
* * *
“Luka, you’re considered quite the expert in demonic beast research.”
“No. My specialty is healing arts.”
“But I heard that since obtaining demonic beast samples, you’ve been analyzing demonic beasts faster and more accurately than anyone else.”
Luka examined my body thoroughly with magic circles, then clicked his tongue and frowned at the resulting figures, filling a paper with various notes.
I watched him and slipped in my personal request, as I had been planning to visit him soon anyway.
“May I ask you something about demonic beasts?”
“…”
“Actually, it’s not so much a question as a request.”
I had originally planned to go to him right after meeting Leilyranda, but the situation had become complicated in various ways, so I couldn’t.
“People who died from demonic beasts are waking up again as demonic beasts. And those who wake up as demonic beasts cannot function as people. They have no self-awareness or will, and become a monster.”
“That’s right.”
“If… could there be a demonic beast with human self-awareness?”
“I haven’t seen such a case yet.”
“…”
But I had seen it. Princess Leilyranda was like that.
She transformed into a demonic beast in front of me and instantly returned to human form.
It was a tremendous shock to see her face change into that of a hideous, monstrous demonic beast.
I wondered if she could change between human and demonic beast at will.
“Have you seen it?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“…At the imperial court.”
Luka frowned at my words but then made a sound close to a sigh, “Ah.”
“Is it Princess Leilyranda?”
“How did you know?”
“…Lord Cassis asked me to pay attention to Princess Leilyranda. Said she was strange.”
Even if he didn’t show it, it felt like Cassis had been quietly keeping an eye on what lay ahead all along.
“Rumor has it that some kind of demonic beast residue has been steadily discharged from the princess’s palace, though nothing’s been made official.”
“…”
“And Lady Seiren Lemiere also said that demonic energy seemed to be getting denser in the imperial court.”
Luka spoke faster and more, perhaps a bit excited.
“So at that time, I separately got measurements of the demonic energy near the imperial court through my father, and it was strange because the figures kept jumping around no matter how I looked at it.”
He said he sought help from his original family since formally requesting the temple would be too risky.
Though he was a half-runaway youngest son, his family still responded well to such requests.
Surprisingly, the demonic energy measurements he received repeatedly increased and decreased irregularly.
“Based on the figures alone, it looked like a high-rank demonic beast would appear and disappear. Because of that, I thought they might be putting a demonic beast in the basement and taking it out, or that the demonic energy might thin out whenever the saint visited the princess’s palace.”
But he said he couldn’t find a correlation between the saint’s visit records and the demonic energy.
Luka said he also investigated the underground prison near the princess’s palace, but found nothing unusual.
“Anyway, I was certain that there was a demonic beast in the princess’s palace.”
“How much does Lord Cassis know?”
“He knows all of this content now.”
So Cassis already knew a lot.
I had been telling him all along to be careful of Leilyranda, and while he didn’t show it much, it seemed he had been paying attention to everything I said behind the scenes.
“…For now, as you mentioned earlier, I would be grateful if you could deliver a copy of the demonic energy measurement data separately later.”
“I will do so.”
Luka usually frowned first when asked for something, but this time he nodded with sparkling eyes.
“In this situation, since Irina herself has seen Princess Leilyranda transform into a demonic beast, I need to refocus my research.”
Whether it’s true or not, Luka added.
“For now, I’ll send your medicine through the gate.”
“Yes.”
“And regarding demonic beasts… I will research again. Whether humans can indeed transform into demonic beasts and whether demonic beasts can transform into humans.”
“…Yes. I’ve only seen Princess Leilyranda transform once, but I think I’ve occasionally seen her eye color change.”
Leilyranda Jackmüller’s original eye color is green, but I had occasionally seen her eyes with a reddish or purplish tint.
Until now, I had thought it was due to lighting, or that I might be mistaken.
But considering what was happening, I couldn’t help but think those eye changes might indicate the early stages of a demonic beast transformation.
Luka softly repeated my words to himself and nodded.
“I understand.”
After he left, I took a deep breath.
For now, there’s nothing I can immediately do about Leilyranda and demonic beasts. I can’t do the research myself, and trying to provoke Leilyranda seems pointless as she was too far away.
So in the current situation, what I can do regarding Leilyranda and demonic beasts is to inform an expert and assign a new task.
Now that I’ve come this far…
What I need to do now is to devise a more intensive method to overturn the game.
If I could catch decisive evidence about the relationship between Princess Leilyranda and demonic beasts, I might be able to turn the tables, but it was impossible for now.
What I needed was to devise a plan on how to immediately shift this situation to a new phase.
“Yen, is there a way to overturn the game?”
“For example?”
“We’re just getting dragged along by the demonic beasts, aren’t we? When they appear in Vecte, nearby armies rush over, and when they run low on supplies, we scramble to gather food from the surrounding areas and send it over.”
“That’s right.”
Since Yen’s main job was to manage such logistical flows comprehensively, he understood the situation well.
That’s why he had been telling me all along that the entire empire was frantically dealing with demonic beasts without a proper system.
“Don’t you think it’s important to properly wipe out the erupting demonic beasts in at least one place?”
“Do you think so?”
“Yes, by doing that, we can reassign troops and staff from there to where they’re needed more. We just don’t have enough people.”
“Yeah, you’re absolutely right.”
I picked up the documents that Isolini had thrown at me to read.
Kamun, Ester, Rik, Estizen. On the map, these small cities in the south are neighbors, and strangely, demonic beasts appeared in quick succession, jumping from one to another.
That’s why they were places with severe damage and without proper support.
The report was saying that the demonic beasts in these cities had been exterminated one by one in order.
[Some people claim there was a ‘holy light’ covering the source just before all the demonic beasts were eliminated.]
[However, most say they didn’t see such a thing.]
[There are people in each city who consistently claim to have seen a ‘holy light’.]
[Tracking specific individuals is difficult due to the significant number of transient people.]
After quietly examining the report, I quietly called Yen.
“Yen, could you find out about Lord Sian Terezia’s whereabouts?”
