Chapter 291

Serena’s turn ended quickly.

She went back.

To the place where she ought to be, to the place that desires to welcome Shion.

We often call such a place home. One who has finished their share is bound to return home.

Leniar looked at the spot where Serena de Verchello had been.

Serena was here but is now gone.

Recalling the raspberry-colored eyes that called her sister, Leniar slowly turned her head.

“Velgil.”

“Yes.”

Velgil was a lanky man resembling a reindeer. His eyes were large and eyelashes long.

On the other hand, his long limbs bore many traces of training. In his hand was Amethus’s double-edged sword. Inside the sword handle was a letter to be delivered to Shion.

“You must go alone.”

“I know.”

Leniar faced Velgil as if looking into his large eyes.

“It is highly likely that seeing your face now is the last time.”

“It is an honor.”

“Still, it would be good to see you again.”

“In that case, I will try my best.”

Velgil answered vigorously.

Faced with the man’s firm loyalty, Leniar did not feel like adding more words.

Therefore, she smiled, and therefore, she gently gestured.

“Go.”

***

As soon as the words ended, Velgil bowed his head, and soon ran out with a bounding gait.

Even though it was a sandy desert where feet would sink deep, he ran as if flying.

Kateka Keshulei spoke quietly.

“…He is a reliable man.”

“He is too precious to be consumed like this.”

Kateka felt a slight sadness in Leniar’s voice.

Perhaps a part of that sadness was self-reproach.

“Sister… what will you do?”

“I must stay here until the work is finished.”

Leniar swept back her hair as she said that.

She had sent away two of the strongest men she brought.

One was Rene Haider, sent as Serena’s escort.

One was Velgil, given a heavy mission and sent to Kosavagarobira.

“…Attempting to contact Zionis itself is practically treason against the Emperor. Since the Duchy of Volmark is strictly a vassal state of Cordis.”

“…We must not leave evidence of involvement….”

“It is about making excuses. Even if a problem arises, I did not know, I was in Horm at that time, it is Velgil’s sole doing…. Preparations to brazenly spit out excuses that no one will believe….”

Leniar smiled bitterly.

“Isn’t it truly despicable? Telling subordinates to offer up their lives.”

“…I do not think so.”

“Thank you. But my despicableness is an unavoidable fact.”

“…….”

The silver-haired Grand Duchess seemed to have no intention of listening to others.

Therefore, Kateka also decided to quit with the clumsy consolation.

“I heard you became the Governor-General of the Horm Conquered Territory, Kateka?”

“…Yes. It was the position Secundus hyung-nim was supposed to take.”

“You too eventually came to a ruling position.”

“Though I did not want it.”

Leniar turned her eyes away.

“Know this, Kateka. Exemption and survival are sometimes the most important virtues for a leader.”

“…That is a very controversial statement.”

“One must take responsibility for what needs to be taken. But if it is a responsibility one cannot bear, it is rather better to brazenly run away. Then to embrace a responsibility one cannot handle and go bankrupt together with the country….”

It did not mean it was good.

It meant it was less bad.

The ruling position is such a thing.

It is a rule where one must shoulder a weight one cannot put down, even while knowing that one is barely choosing the lesser evil rather than the best, and merely enduring day by day.

“You had better decide too. Where you will become despicable…. Where you absolutely cannot become despicable…. Otherwise, you will soon be unable to protect anything….”

“…I am trying.”

“I suppose so.”

They are siblings.

Their mothers are different, but their father was the same.

Their father is Continua Great Emperor, a great being and at the same time a god who is not human.

However, they do not know that the Continua Great Emperor is not human.

Therefore, they exerted themselves to be people.

Though they could not be sure if that effort would bear fruit.

“…Will he succeed…?”

“Well. I do not know.”

The half-siblings looked north.

“It would depend on the content of that letter, which had to be delivered to Zionis.”

***

Velgil was a blunt man.

He ran all the way to Kosavagarobira for over ten days without saying a word, yet felt no frustration.

His appearance resembled a reindeer and was lanky, and the way he ran was also like a reindeer.

When he bounded with his long legs, he flew swiftly over trees.

Added with the blessing of the cold wind, a chill shimmered every time he passed.

Surprisingly, he could also change into the form of a reindeer.

It was not an Ars but an innate bloodline.

In the Duchy of Volmark, there were those who could change into the form of a beast.

It is said to be due to something that happened in the ancient times, but since there is no one who remembers now, the exact reason cannot be known.

‘Soon Kosavagarobira. Ten days and three, I came quickly.’

So he changed his appearance to the form of a reindeer only after the north got close.

The first reason was that guards started to be visible as Kosavagarobira got closer, and the second reason was that a reindeer running around in the south would inevitably stand out no matter what.

‘Since a reindeer is an animal that lives in cold places.’

Velgil became the form of a reindeer and neatly put down all clothes and weapons.

It meant he effectively became naked, but it was a strange feeling even though thick fur covered his whole body.

He swallowed all the luggage he was holding at once and hid it in his stomach.

This was his Ars.

The swallowed weapons and clothes included Amethus’s double-edged sword, and also the large axe Yosef Haider used to favor.

Velgil, who became a plain reindeer (actually he was three times larger than other reindeer so he did stand out) without any clothes or weapons, continued to run. He was even quicker than before.

‘It is the guards.’

The number was six.

It seemed they were on patrol.

It was not to a strict degree.

Indeed, even if Kosavagarobira is the Empire’s worst prison, since it is beneath a fire pit, there was no reason for guards to be needed.

Velgil jumped in among the Imperial soldiers without hesitation.

“Uwat!”

“What is it?”

The soldiers grasped their weapons seeing Velgil who suddenly jumped in.

However, they soon put down their weapons and sighed.

“…Isn’t it a reindeer? Anyway, the north is strange. It is damn huge.”

“How on earth do the Volmark Duchy guys live?”

“Get lost, dude, get lost!”

One soldier gestured with the back of a long spear and threatened him to get lost quickly.

Velgil pretended to be scared by that and slinked back.

It was the behavior of a plain beast no matter who looked.

“Uh. It is going.”

“Still, that size is fascinating. Should we try catching it?”

“Try doing that and break the spear shaft. Decurion Elses will probably pull out your leg bone and use it as a spear shaft.”

“That is true.”

The soldiers exchanged silly remarks.

“Go, reindeer!”

“By the way, why is that thing going that way?”

“Huh? That’s right. What is it?”

They noticed that Velgil was heading toward Lake Yechern.

It is a lake where an inextinguishable fire pit exists.

They had the duty to stop everyone approaching that lake.

“…Do we have to stop it?”

“For now, it seems we should….”

“Why bother stopping it?”

One of the soldiers raised his voice. The bulbous nose was impressive.

“The beast is probably going to drink water at the lake.”

“…At that fire pit lake?”

“Or maybe it is a reindeer with depression! Even if we bother reporting, only work increases. What are you doing?”

Is that so? Maybe so.

The soldiers tilted their heads but let Velgil slip away.

They were low-ranking soldiers, and it was just after they were drafted to the very frontier for Kosavagarobira security.

Even without that, it was an environment sufficient for meager loyalty to run out.

“Leave it, just! Just one reindeer!”

Velgil had a very grateful heart.

He inwardly blessed the bulbous-nosed soldier and dashed (The Duchy of Volmark still has a culture of believing in gods. Though they could not officially acknowledge it).

Soon it was the lake, and the fire pit was vivid.

He jumped into the fire without hesitation.

***

Velgil fell.

He jumped high toward the beautiful Lake Yechern, and the fire pit above it, and soon sank deep.

Inside the fire pit, a hole leading downward continued long. The more he fell, the fiercer the flames became.

It was a path that seemed to lead to hell.

No, it might have been hell.

This flame, which Sen Sorti created 400 years ago, was not satisfied with piercing the lake and was continuing to melt the ground.

The cavern created by the world’s bottom melting like that was the continent’s worst prison, Kosavagarobira.

Naturally, flames seethed on every path leading there.

At first, it was bearable.

Since Velgil was born with the blessing of the cold wind, he always held a violent chill.

However, the flames became fiercer and penetrated the blessing of the cold wind.

Velgil ruminated and took out one of the objects hidden in his stomach.

It was a small bead.

From what he heard, he heard it was a magic tool Leniar obtained from the Silver Dragon Magic Kingdom ahead of this task.

He did not know the details.

He only knew that if he broke and swallowed it, immense coldness would wrap around him.

As he broke and swallowed the bead, coldness wrapped around him as heard.

The flames leading to Kosavagarobira also could not harm him.

The silver chill is probably the Great Witch of the Silver Dragon Magic Kingdom’s.

It was unknown why she was cooperating in this task.

Velgil endured like that.

Sweating profusely, he fell inside the flames that seemed like they would never end.

Not knowing how he was falling, holding only onto the edge of his consciousness, he waited.

Finally, he collided with the ground.

“…Ugh….”

The shock of the collision was formidable.

Still, since Velgil is a prominent warrior in Volmark, he could overcome it somehow.

Though his skin was all cooked and his joints were all shaken.

Arriving at the ground, he returned to a human appearance from the reindeer’s form.

He did not forget to vomit out clothes to cover his naked body.

“…Here is….”

There is no sky. It is all just earth.

Below, to the side, above, it is all just soil and stones.

In the deep darkness of the underground, the only thing worthy of being called light is the flames blazing from above.

The present world is more like hell than hell.

A pit where the most dangerous and vicious, humans who are utterly not like humans in the entire continent, are locked up.

“…Kosavagarobira…!”

***

“There was a sound.”

“What sound?”

“Sounds like a new guy falling.”

Velgil heard voices.

Several voices were getting closer in the darkness.

He knew his body condition was not normal.

Because of coming through those flames, he felt like collapsing right now.

The man resembling a reindeer stepped backward.

There were things stepped on by his feet.

It was bones.

Not a beast.

It was a human’s.

It was too cleanly just bones to say it rotted and was revealed.

It was as if someone had torn off everything while eating a meal.

“Is it a feast again?”

“Would it be big enough to throw a feast?”

“Oh. It is quite big?”

Snickering sounds.

A few men appeared in the darkness.

Velgil recognized that every single one of them was formidable.

Enough that it would be hard to determine the victor even if his body was fine.

“It would be quite a meal.”

“I’ll take the thigh.”

“Then I’ll take the neck.”

“Where shall I take it?”

Cold sweat flowed on Velgil’s forehead.

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