Chapter 34 - Agitation

The engagement annulment ceremony was held in the center of the continent, not in the North.

In other words, this meant that the North, which was suffering from financial difficulties, had to continuously spend “enormous costs” while the engagement annulment ceremony was taking place.

For the North, which had already suffered massive financial damage due to the second invasion, the longer the engagement annulment ceremony lasted, the more burdensome the situation would inevitably be.

Therefore, Elisia's assigned task was to end the engagement annulment ceremony as quickly as possible and regain the warmth.

However, Damian's resistance was stronger than expected, and the first interview had broken down to an irreparable extent.

As a result, she was dragging out the engagement annulment ceremony longer than anticipated, and the North's leadership was putting considerable pressure on Elisia.

Produce results and return as soon as possible.

A message implying that they knew she had failed, so stop wasting time and just come back.

To be more specific, it meant “prepare to take responsibility.”

From Elisia's perspective, whether she returned now or held out until the limit, if she couldn't bring Damian back, it was clear she would have to take all the responsibility.

So it was more rational to drag out the time as much as possible and make Damian retract the engagement annulment.

...That had been the thinking until now.

But as days passed, the possibility of success rapidly decreased, and seeing that not only forgiveness but also killing intent was gradually intensifying, she had no choice but to consider the last resort.

...Taking away the ability.

Literally, taking away the ability to bring forth warmth and using it.

Of course, this was a last resort, so she didn't want to choose it if possible.

But if all methods failed, she had no choice but to choose this.

Whether it succeeds or fails, there will be massive problems.

Still, it was better than returning without regaining the warmth, so she decided to consider this method as a final struggle if she failed, and sighed.

As she was gathering her thoughts, Dale entered with an expressionless face.

It was strange because it was different from his usual expression.

For now, she pretended not to notice and greeted him, and he returned the greeting as usual.

"Good morning."

It was hard to express, but there was a strangely misaligned feeling.

Of course, it was literally a strange feeling, so it was difficult to express exactly what was misaligned.

Feeling that something had changed a little, she tried to probe him, but…

"No. Nothing happened."

Dale refused to answer, not wanting to tell her.

Suspicious of this response, she thought about digging deeper, but…

There's no need to dig deeply into what's just a card to be discarded, anyway.

There were more important matters, so she decided to end it with just some consolation and opened her mouth.

"If anything happens, please tell me. Even if I can't be of much help, I can listen."

At those words, Dale smirked and said to her, "Yes. Thank you."

"..."

It really felt different from usual.

Something was strangely irritating, but feeling that meddling might lead to troublesome matters, she forcibly ignored it and brought up the main point.

"Archbishop Mikhail has mentioned the content of the test in advance. It's about destroying a small rift that has appeared nearby. I'm sure you, Dale, who saved the North, can solve it without difficulty."

"Yes."

"Then I'll share the related information with you in the evening, so please rest in your lodgings."

Watching Dale leave, she pondered for a moment, then tried to shake off her suspicions and took a deep breath.

What was important now was to make Damian retract the engagement annulment, anyway.

So she decided to pull herself together, tidy herself up, and head towards Damian.

If you knock enough, it will open.

Thinking that since he had accepted the audience yesterday, there was a high possibility he would accept it today as well, she hurriedly moved her feet.

Like that, when she went to Damian's lodgings, the story she heard was…

"Damian is not currently in his lodgings."

…that Damian was not there.

***

Moving to the North wasn't that difficult.

Using the teleportation magic circle of the information guild that Liana had told me about, we could move in less than 10 seconds.

Of course, as we moved a long distance at once, nausea and headaches enveloped my body as a backlash.

But I wasn't entirely unhappy, feeling glad that we had moved such a distance at once.

I think I'll use this often in the future.

Thinking that I would use it frequently with this level of convenience, I stepped out through the illusion magic and saw

A snowstorm pouring down so heavily it was amazing that people could live here.

Looking at the snowstorm that filled my entire field of vision, I thought it seemed to be falling more than before, when suddenly, Siren hugged me tightly and said to me, shivering, "I, i-it's, it's not c-cold like t-this, r-right?"

It seemed she was having a hard time enduring the cold despite being dressed in many layers in preparation for the North's cold wave.

As I was patting Siren's head to calm her down, Liana gestured to us and said, "Then please follow me."

At those words, I nodded and slowly moved forward, and Liana looked at us and slowly opened her mouth, "Because the North is very closed off due to its characteristically harsh environment, when outsiders make a residence in the North, it's often because they've committed crimes or have secrets that must be hidden."

"That's right."

"So it's not particularly strange for black mages to build residences here, but... when the scale becomes large, things change a bit."

A large scale usually meant they were conducting “large-scale experiments”.

The fact that closed-off people came to a closed-off place to conduct experiments meant that there was a high possibility they were conducting experiments that absolutely must not be known to others, no matter what.

So Liana said we should approach carefully, and I expressed one doubt about Liana's words.

"Then do you know what kind of experiments they're conducting?"

"No, I tried to penetrate, but the security was too strong, so I couldn't find out what experiments they're conducting."

If even Liana couldn't find out, it must mean the security was unbelievably tight.

I nodded to show I understood, and Liana looked at me and added a few words, "However, judging by how they keep capturing humans and monsters and taking care of them inside, it's likely an experiment where the results need to be preserved intact."

"Intact?"

"Yes. For example, chimeras and such. But they wouldn't increase the scale to that extent just to make chimeras, so it's probably a higher-dimensional experiment in progress."

With those words, I looked at the small village Liana was pointing to and fell into thought.

If it was a place where people actually lived, traces of life that were too natural to have been artificially created were piled up here and there.

So it wasn't difficult to guess that this was a real village, but the problem was that a village of that size was abandoned for a long time like a scene from a post-apocalypse movie, and there was no one in the village.

Thinking it was strangely eerie, I was looking at it when Liana added a word while looking at me.

"All the people who lived in the village have been taken by the black mages. Black mages usually don't kidnap so blatantly, but after the second rift invasion, something changed in their mindset and they kidnapped everyone."

At the mention of black mages kidnapping, Siren looked down at the village with a sunken expression.

It seems the past events came to her mind.

I patted Siren, who was trembling slightly, whether from the cold or fear, and said we should go down soon.

The village wasn't very large.

It was a small village where only about 40-50 people lived.

So if we went in recklessly, the enemies would notice immediately, so Loraine said we should make a simple plan before entering.

"Liana? To make a plan, we need to know where the black mages' base is. Can you tell us the location?"

At those words, Liana nodded and pointed to the ground.

"It's in the underground cave below the village chief's house in the center."

"They really like caves. Is it because it's easy to hide?"

"That's part of it, but usually mana tends to be more abundant the deeper underground you go."

Is that why they deliberately dig underground?

Thinking I learned something interesting, Loraine looked at us and opened her mouth.

"So, Young Master, how do you want to do this? Infiltration? Or pretend to be lost people and act our way in?"

At those words, Liana, who was beside us, crossed her arms and added her opinion to Loraine's words, "I recommend infiltration. I brought invisibility potions, so if we use these to go inside, we should be able to enter without much difficulty."

Both weren’t bad options, but it was not the direction I wanted.

As I was pondering for a moment, Loraine and Liana looked at me and asked what I wanted to do.

I thought for a moment at those gazes and opened my mouth, "Then... shall we start by setting a fire first?"