Chapter 290

Leniar de Volmark.

The eldest daughter of Great Emperor Continua.

Seven years ago, she was the First Princess, and now she is the most troublesome rival to Emperor Ferbias.

Renowned for her statecraft surpassing even Ferbias’s, she became the first female ruler of the Duchy of Volmark, the largest vassal state of the Empire.

“…Uh, um….”

Serena couldn’t speak easily.

Because Leniar’s silver hair was too brilliant, because she was her husband’s eldest half-sister, and because the person before her was the current Archduke of Volmark.

“…Greetings to Your Highness the Archduke…?”

“Be at ease.”

Leniar waved her hand.

She was dressed lightly, unbefitting her status. Unlike Volmark, this place, Horm, was hot and dry.

“I have no intention of enforcing etiquette on my brother’s wife.”

“…Then, Sister-in-law?”

“Call me Sister. Sister Leniar is fine.”

Leniar laughed softly.

“I always missed having a younger sister.”

“…By the way, Elder Sister….”

Kateka interrupted.

“…Did you know? They say Elder Sister Santia is alive….”

“…Santia is?”

“…Yes.”

“We lost contact after she married into the West? Then the war broke out, so I naturally thought….”

“…I thought so too, but I heard the news this time….”

Santia Hostanio. Serena reacted to the familiar name and smiled brightly.

“That’s right. Ms. Santia is doing well, Sister Leniar.”

“…Serena, do you know Santia?”

“Of course. We lived together for a while. Do you know how good her relationship with Duke Gwaemos is?”

“…To think Santia is alive….”

Leniar raised her eyebrows in surprise.

Just by thinking briefly, she could predict how things had unfolded.

She covered her mouth and laughed.

“…Zionis, that commendable little brat!”

It must all be Shion’s doing. Santia losing contact, and her being hidden away, all of it! Leniar recalled the old image of Shion when he was a little kid.

“Good, Serena. You have brought me very welcome news.”

“Then that is a relief.”

“You said you are going to Kosavagarobira?”

Leniar abruptly changed the subject.

She was the ruler of the Duchy of Volmark, and she had no such thing as spare time.

Her personal visit to Horm would have been entirely impossible if she hadn’t taken advantage of a national event.

“What are you going to do there? Are you going to rescue Zionis or something?”

“…Is that impossible, Sister Leniar?”

“It is impossible. It isn’t called the continent’s worst prison for nothing.”

“I have something to say. Also, an item to deliver….”

Serena spoke resolutely.

But Leniar retorted coldly.

“How do you intend to deliver it?”

“…….”

“Do you know what kind of place Kosavagarobira is, what kind of prison it is?”

“…I don’t.”

“It’s not a place where you can send a letter by paying money like a normal prison.”

“…Sister Leniar, you also….”

Serena’s voice was cautious.

“I heard you have business in Kosavagarobira.”

“I do.”

Leniar was confident.

“I have something to deliver to someone inside.”

“…I wrote a letter. Can you not deliver mine as well?”

“It is a very difficult task, but it’s not impossible.”

“In that case….”

“However.”

Her tone was firm.

“Why should I do that?”

***

“…….”

Leniar de Volmark was majestic, as if proving she was the eldest daughter of Great Emperor Continua.

Since she gave no room to speak, Serena dared not interrupt.

“Do you have any idea how much the Duchy of Volmark is investing and how big a risk we are taking just to deliver one item to Kosavagarobira?”

“…I….”

Serena bit her lip and spoke.

“…Wouldn’t know.”

“Then know it now.”

Leniar’s eyes were silver, and very cold.

“400 years ago, when the First Mage Sen Sorti left the Empire, he left behind three calamities. Do you know this?”

“…It’s my first time hearing it.”

“You don’t even know this? True, since you are a person from the West.”

She held up three fingers.

“One is the fog of the Sobel Mountain Range that scatters all mysteries. Another is the sandstorm of the Obet Wasteland that prevents any liquid from flowing. And the last is… the fire pit of Lake Yechern that never extinguishes.”

She added that it was quite a sight to see a lake on fire that hasn’t gone out for 400 years. Serena couldn’t even imagine what a lake on fire would look like.

“Kosavagarobira is beneath the fire pit of Lake Yechern. The fire that hasn’t gone out for 400 years is their jailer and gatekeeper.”

“……Shion is in such a place…….”

“Velgil.”

Leniar jerked her chin towards the back.

A neat-looking young man walked out.

Even though the sun was bright, a shivering chill was felt as the young man approached.

“Velgil is the most elite warrior of the Duchy of Volmark. Protected by the cold wind, ordinary flames cannot even come near him. I am certain that with a little more experience, he will become one of the Volmark Six Warriors.”

You praise me too much. Velgil bowed his head deeply. Leniar’s eyes remained cold.

“I am going to sacrifice him.”

Even at Leniar’s words, Velgil’s eyes did not waver.

It was because he had already sworn firm loyalty.

“I will make him jump into the fire pit with the item to be delivered swallowed inside him. Even then, I cannot be sure if he will reach the bottom.”

“…….”

“Should I add risk to an already perilous attempt? With what shame do you make such a request of me, Serena?”

“…I have no shame.”

Serena did not back down.

“But I have no choice but to ask.”

“As expected, you have no intention of giving up.”

More precisely, it was that she could not back down.

Her raspberry-colored eyes were as unwavering as Velgil’s. It was thanks to having already hardened her heart.

“Zionis that brat was stubborn too.”

Leniar turned her head.

“Velgil, the number of items you must carry has increased. Can you deliver it to the bottom of Kosavagarobira?”

“Your Highness needs only command.”

Velgil bowed his head.

“Your warrior will accomplish it.”

“You are reliable. I feel sorry towards you.”

“It is my joy.”

Leniar looked at her warrior with commendable eyes.

Then she held out her hand to Serena.

“Now. Give me the item to deliver.”

“…Here it is, Sister Leniar.”

Serena felt the title ‘Sister Leniar’ awkward anew.

But she couldn’t not call her that either.

Serena put her hand into the leather pouch and took out a double-edged sword from there.

“…I put the letter inside the sword. I will take out just the letter and give it to you.”

“No. You don’t have to. Velgil is also a mage of the two stars, so he can swallow and store items larger than his own body. But….”

Leniar furrowed her brow.

“…This sword is….”

It was a very ordinary Imperial-style double-edged sword.

It looked like a high-quality item, but the handle was very polished as if used for at least 10 years.

I’ve seen this sword somewhere.

Leniar muttered and reached for the sword.

Soon the blade was revealed.

The edge was surprisingly sharp.

The sharpness was enough to make one’s hair stand on end for a moment.

It was an ordinary and old double-edged sword, but the blade alone flashed strangely.

It seemed to have a peculiar jade tint.

“…….”

On the side of the blade, there was an inscription.

It seemed someone had rubbed it thousands of times to erase it, but failed to remove it completely.

Leniar read the inscription inwardly.

[I, the future Emperor Ferbias Caseptus, bestow this upon my close friend and future General of the Empire, Amethus Aretion.]

“……I remember, Serena.”

Leniar slowly lifted her head.

“Seven years ago, that damned… Brother Ferbias had a henchman. One with jade eyes and very excellent swordsmanship…. This sword is that henchman’s sword.”

“That’s right.”

“Why do you have this sword?”

“It is Mr. Amethus’s keepsake. Because he is Shion’s most loyal subordinate.”

“…Was he with Zionis?”

Leniar looked at Kateka as if to confirm.

Kateka nodded slightly in affirmation.

I guess I was the only one late on the news.

Leniar muttered.

“…I see. The letter is inside the sword handle?”

“Yes.”

“Velgil, can you swallow it?”

Of course. Velgil answered immediately.

Leniar put Amethus’s double-edged sword into its scabbard and handed it to Velgil.

Velgil immediately swallowed it whole. It looked like a magic trick.

“Good.”

Leniar opened her mouth.

“Then go back now, Serena.”

She spoke as if declaring.

“You’ve done enough, haven’t you? Go back to your place and wait. Don’t you know that is for Zionis’s sake?”

“……That’s right.”

Serena nodded slowly.

She realized anew that she had come from the West to the East, to the opposite side of the continent.

Even though it was a distance that would take a month one way, how did it feel like she arrived in an instant?

“…Coming this far was also greed.”

“You know it.”

Leniar jerked her chin towards the back again.

“Rene!”

“Yes. Rene Haider is here.”

Another warrior appeared from beside Velgil.

His name is Rene Haider.

A henchman who has served Leniar de Volmark since the Succession War seven years ago.

“You said so from long ago. That you really wanted to visit the Hanchamus Islands once.”

“…Did I?”

“Take responsibility and escort Serena to the Hanchamus Islands and come back.”

“…It will take four months round trip, though?”

“I will give you six months.”

Leniar jerked her chin.

“You can rest there for two months before coming back.”

“I receive your command, Your Highness the Archduke.”

Rene Haider approached Serena.

Serena nodded her head in greeting.

Rene laughed loudly, saying she didn’t need to be too polite to him.

Serena realized her turn was over.

She had finished everything she had to do, and now she had to go back.

But why did her heart feel so regretful?

It was hard to take a step.

“What are you doing? Not going back quickly.”

“…Thank you, Sister Leniar.”

Serena tried to smile broadly.

“Please make sure to deliver the sword to Shion.”

“I will take care of that.”

“I beg of you.”

***

Serena left immediately.

It was because Leniar urged her to leave quickly.

She got into the carriage leaving the Horm conquered territory under the escort of Rene Haider.

Watching the dust raised by the carriage, Leniar shook her head.

“Acting the picky sister-in-law is something I can’t do often, Kateka.”

“…You did well, Sister Leniar.”

“She really has some nerve. Didn’t you say she was a person from the West?”

“…Yes, I heard she is a native of the Bururade Peninsula.”

“And yet she came all the way here?”

Leniar felt like clicking her tongue.

She was sure that she herself was quite an eccentric.

But Serena seemed to be worse than her.

“From the West to Horm, it’s no exaggeration to say she crossed the continent.”

“…If you hadn’t sent her back, Sister, she probably would have gone all the way into Kosavagarobira.”

“It looked that way.”

That brat Zionis, finding a woman exactly like himself from somewhere…. Leniar muttered.

“Actually. If it weren’t for Serena, I wouldn’t have sent Velgil down to Kosavagarobira.”

“…I know.”

“Although he… Yosef is at the bottom of Kosavagarobira, he earnestly requested not to sacrifice other warriors because of his old self.”

“…….”

Kateka glanced sideways.

In other words, Leniar meant she was sacrificing one of her most elite warriors because of the request of Serena, whose face she didn’t even know.

“…Sister, you didn’t even have a close relationship with that brat Zionis.”

“That was so.”

“Then, why…?”

“Well.”

She swallowed the words ‘I have a debt’.

Leniar has a hidden younger brother, Etsi.

Thanks to Shion, she received the Great Witch’s medicine and could cure his illness.

That debt of the heart was the biggest reason.

However, she couldn’t tell Kateka this.

“Because I want to see.”

Leniar stated the second reason.

Although not the first, this was also sincere.

“That brat who acted like he didn’t need anyone’s help, like he would shoulder the whole world alone… I became curious how flustered he would be when he survived with our help.”

“…Truly, Sister, you also have quite a personality….”

“Aren’t you curious, Kateka?”

“I am curious…. So we must rescue him.”

Kateka and Leniar looked at each other.

Even though they were half-siblings, they thought anew that they really didn’t look alike.

“…Will we be able to save him….”

“We must try.”

Leniar’s eyes settled into a silver hue.

“…Because we can’t just let him go without doing anything like we did with Secundus.”

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