Chapter 81
The "bait collection" Liana spoke of meant detonating the bombs planted in the North.
This also meant the bombs planted under the rift, and…
It also means the bomb planted in Elisia.
Realizing it was about time to end this, I looked down at the documents.
The many events that occurred while I was in the training ground.
Reading through them one by one, I fell into thought about how to act.
As I was reading the text for a long time like that,
Liana looked at me and made one suggestion, "For now, it doesn't seem bad to go as a guest."
"A guest?"
I couldn't hide my puzzlement at that suggestion.
If I had parted normally with the North it would be one thing, but after completely messing things up and ending it, going back as a guest didn't seem to make sense.
Not understanding at all, I asked about this point and Liana nodded and explained the possible reason.
"Yes. Normally that would be impossible, but... now the North has suffered considerable damage due to the rift, and Elisia has used this to seize control of the North side more than expected."
So she said there wouldn't be much problem going as a guest and told me, "Above all, it's a chance to see up close the North that tormented you being miserably destroyed. Are you going to miss this?"
"Let's go right now."
\
"Good."
I subtly gave Liana a thumbs up and expressed my thanks.
Seeing my reaction, Liana raised the corners of her mouth and said to us, "Then we'll depart right away, so please everyone get ready."
At those words, I nodded.
***
Elisia looked down at the knight commander collapsed on the floor, then wiped the blood on her hands with a handkerchief and said, "Let's go back."
"Well, alright. Let's do that."
Even though she wiped the blood with a handkerchief, it only spread rather than being properly erased.
Her entire palm was strangely dyed red, but she felt somewhat proud, to the point of wanting to use this as a badge of honor, so she spread her hand and said, "Thanks to Lady Dasoon, I was able to finish the job quite smoothly. I'd like to express my gratitude once again."
"..."
Lady Dasoon didn't seem to like this situation, as she looked at her expressionlessly with her arms crossed.
Smiling slightly at that expression, she slowly moved forward, looking at the countless dead core figures of the North.
"With this, the North will become safer and return to normal. It's a good thing."
Trampling on the corpses of those who had tried to drive her out, she ironically arrived at the office.
Originally it was a place she hated so much due to hallucinations and auditory hallucinations, but…
After the hallucinations and auditory hallucinations disappeared, it became one of the places she was rather attached to.
Entering that office, she saw countless piled up documents.
The many tasks she had desperately worked on for a long time, sacrificing so many things.
Normally, when doing something for such a long time, there should be at least some change, but…
The reason nothing changed at all.
Was because she found out that all of these were “lies” created by the core figures of the eldest son's faction.
Everything was full of lies.
The hallucinations and auditory hallucinations that had tormented her for a long time were also lies.
The commoner man's confession that triggered this and the woman who burst into where she was were all lies.
Come to think of it, it didn't make sense.
Not just an ordinary noble family, but in a space where she enjoyed absolute power as the Grand Duchess in the closed-off North, breaking through the numerous knights, butlers, and maids to come in... no, actually it didn’t make sense, but even if we give them the benefit of the doubt up to this point, one repeatedly came to find her and told her about her recent situation.
One said exactly the same thing about what happened in the past at the exact moment she was walking in the main building.
Thinking about it now, things that shouldn't have happened kept happening beyond just not making sense.
These stories aren't that important now that everything is over, but…
Still, the more she recalled, the more ridiculous she thought it was as she sat on the desk and placed the handkerchief on it.
The desk stained with blood.
Looking at that, she subdued her expression and recalled past events.
Damian.
The only one who had expressed goodwill towards her in a place fabricated with false negatives, starting from her trauma.
At the time, she had coldly pushed him away because she was aiming for the position of head of the North.
Thinking about it now, she somewhat regretted it.
If only I had warmth towards Damian from the beginning.
Thinking she might have been able to choose a way to reconcile with him, she was looking at the handkerchief when Dasoon brought up one thing to her.
"So what are you going to do now?"
"Well. I want to rest for now."
Since she had only framed and killed one of the core figures, there were still too many to deal with.
For example, her brother and eldest son, Pelia Wintreaven.
In the North, bloodline was valued... no, to be precise, to continue this closed group, bloodline that was different from others but that others could never imitate was considered very important.
Because of that, if she killed all the bloodlines, her father Lakerik Wintreaven would have no choice but to pass the position of family head to her.
Well anyway, what's important is not this, but how to deal with Pelia Wintreaven.
While pondering what would be good, a loud alarm rang out from outside.
It seemed monsters were pouring out of the rift again.
The moment she heard that, she smiled calmly and said to Dasoon, "Shall we depart then?"
"Do as you like."
Seeing her still drawing a line and grumbling, she smiled slightly then moved out of the office that had confined her for a long time.
An indescribable sense of liberation and tingling.
Feeling this, she slowly moved her feet towards the rift.
***
I was in the North with my companions.
By the way, since we had smashed the Information Guild the day before, judging it would be unreasonable to use the Information Guild's teleportation device, we had flown directly to the North using Siren's teleportation ability.
To be precise, I put everyone except Siren in the shadow city and came with Siren, but…
This wasn't a very important factor, so I roughly let it pass through my mind and looked ahead.
Heavy snow was still falling, but thanks to the artificial sun I had planted in Elisia, I saw that all the snow had melted in part of the North, as if that area alone was excluded from the heavy snowfall.
As I was watching that beautiful yet strange sight, Siren subtly grabbed my hand and said, "It's cold, so hold my hand tightly."
Then she put my hand in her pocket with a proud expression.
The problem was that because Siren was shorter than me, my waist bent the moment she tried to put it in her pocket.
This wasn't a very important problem, so I smiled awkwardly and roughly passed over it.
"Then please follow me. There's a passage I made long ago."
Following those words and Liana, some quite interesting sights came into view.
It seems the North is being revitalized again.
I laughed hollowly seeing numerous merchants flocking to the North.
Well, it's strange that it hasn't been active until now when there's a magic stone mine.
With that thought, I entered the inner city using the secret passage Liana had made.
Seeing the North's scenery full of hope unlike before, I was thinking I wanted to lightly use a point explosion when Siren looked down at the ground with an expressionless face and said, "...It seems the mana contained in the artificial sun is very unstable, perhaps from overuse."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I think it will either go out or explode soon."
At those words, I silently looked towards where Elisia might be.
Just as I was thinking I looked forward to seeing what kind of reaction she would show upon seeing me, loud bell sounds rang out everywhere.
"It seems monsters have burst out of the rift."
Thinking an interesting situation had occurred, I calmly pondered then said, "So about that, let's first..."
"No."
I was blocked before I could even say anything.
I looked at Liana with a very wronged expression, but Liana didn't even look at me and said briefly, "It's obvious you were going to say let's start by blowing things up. Do you think I'd allow that?"
I stared blankly at Liana whose perception had become too quick, then turned my gaze.
As I was thinking it was frustrating but true, Ruen beside me looked around somewhat curiously and said to me, "...By the way, this is strange. Usually when such a huge warning sound is heard, everyone gets scared, but everyone looks very used to it."
Used to it…
At those words, past events suddenly came to mind.
Even though I had brought warmth and instilled hope in them, the memory of that day when they couldn't accept me, an outsider, and spread false rumors that I had brought all the calamities, throwing things like stones at me.
As I was recalling that, Liana made a suggestion to me, "Then let's head straight to where Elisia is. Normally we'd be rejected at the entrance, but... now a big problem has occurred in the Wintreaven family..."
I stopped Liana from speaking and said briefly, "As long as I don't blow things up, it's fine, right?"
"...What?"
Liana seemed to sense something ominous and tried to say something, but before that, I raised the corners of my mouth and said to Siren, "Siren, can you cause a 'rift' in the center of the city?"
"Yeah."
Now that I thought about it, I smiled thinking the people of the North seemed to judge people quite well.