Chapter 83
Elisia lowered her expression as she looked at the rift that suddenly appeared in the center of the city.
A rift appearing from inside.
All the large and small rifts so far had occurred “outside”.
There had never been one occurring in the center of the city like this, so all sorts of questions arose.
But those questions didn't last long because the number of monsters bursting out of the rift was quite large.
"S-save me!"
"Run away right now!"
"Kyaaaah!"
...Screams and the sound of something being crushed heard from everywhere.
There was no time for extraneous thoughts at the cruel echoes reminiscent of hell.
She immediately gave orders to the knights and soldiers who had followed her, then looked around.
...How do I get rid of that?
Even the rift that appeared outside about a month ago hadn't been eliminated yet.
She had no idea how to eliminate this rift in front of her, when suddenly, the power of warmth rising from her hands caught her eye.
With this... couldn't I eliminate it?
The power of warmth, which she didn't know when she became able to use.
When using it, there was a side effect of intense headaches and terrible pain, but if she could just eliminate the rift in front of her, it wasn't a side effect that would be a big problem, so she took a stance and took a deep breath.
And above all, if I can just eliminate this rift with warmth.
It wouldn't be too bad since it would become the driving force to push out the eldest son's forces faster.
She advanced towards the rift, passing countless fleeing people.
"G-Grand Duchess, it's dangerous up ahead!"
Voices trying to dissuade her spread from all around, but she ignored them and continued moving forward.
As she got closer to the rift, emotions mixed with someone's screams, shouts, and anger rushed in.
Facing these emotions directly, she reached out her hand and drew up power to use the warmth to eliminate the rift.
Whoosh
The warmth rose intensely and slowly started burning the surrounding enemies.
Just as she was about to smile after confirming the possibility at this sight, intense headaches and side effects hit her body, and terrible pain that made it difficult to breathe arose all over her body.
Blood suddenly flowing out of her mouth and vision turning so red she could barely see.
She seriously considered stopping emitting warmth due to the much greater side effects than expected, but the moment the benefits she could gain if she succeeded came to mind, she couldn't stop using the power.
If I can somehow deal with this.
In addition to the fairly valuable commoners living in the center supporting her, she could deal a massive political blow by declaring the eldest son's incompetence.
And the fact that I can eliminate rifts will become my most powerful weapon.
If she demonstrated her worth by mentioning the point that rifts could appear at any time and the one rift still remaining, she wouldn't have to be swayed by others like before anymore.
The moment that judgment was made, she endured the pain and poured all her strength into eliminating the rift.
The rift burned intensely.
As she was smiling, slowly creating possibility and hope while watching the brilliantly shining flames…
"...?"
The intensely burning flames suddenly disappeared at the same time.
The warmth rising around her vanished as if it had never existed in the first place.
At that moment, heavy snow and cold air started rushing in.
In that unbearably harsh cold, her mind that had been burning with possibility returned, and the cruel reality began to strangle her body.
The warmth disappeared?
In other words... this meant everything she had built up until now became meaningless and worthless at the same time.
Despair hit her hard and she tried to somehow ignite the warmth again, but no matter what she tried, it was impossible to emit warmth like before.
What should I do?
She wasn't sure if it was right to call it fortunate, but she had made various preparations in case the warmth ability disappeared.
However, all these preparations were basically just for buying time temporarily, so they weren't fundamental solutions.
As that thought occurred to her, great exhaustion hit along with worries about what to do.
First, after spreading rumors to people that I somehow tried to block the rift.
She planned to wrap herself in the direction of a hero that the North loved so much.
If she did that, she would become an absolute good that shouldn't be touched for at least a few days.
During that time, she could struggle and cover things up with new achievements.
Looking at the blood miserably flowing down from her nose and mouth, she decided to use this.
She deliberately rubbed blood roughly on her face and showed her “sacrifice” to those around as widely as possible.
***
I was watching Elisia while eating snacks.
I had taken away her power, curious what actions Elisia without the artificial sun would take, but admiring how she was dealing with it better than expected, I said to Liana, "What will happen if it becomes like that?"
At that question, Liana looked at Elisia subtly staining her clothes with blood from below and said, "Public opinion mixed with sympathy and gratitude will arise, so it will be fine for a while. However, given the North's characteristics, there's a tendency to think it's natural to discard inefficient people, so I'm not sure how long that gratitude will last."
It was quite an interesting conclusion.
To put it another way, it meant that even though she sacrificed herself by putting her life on the line, she would be instantly discarded because she wasn't helpful.
At those words, I thought of Elisia's past actions towards me and looked down at this.
What emotions will she feel?
Thinking I'd like her to share them if possible, I said to Siren, "Give Elisia her power back when she returns home."
"Okay."
"And try repeatedly giving and taking away power irregularly."
Thinking that instilling fear that it could disappear someday would have quite a big mental impact, I raised my shadow mace.
"Then I'll go destroy that now, so use some perception interference magic."
"Okay. Got it."
Siren waved her hand and scattered mana around.
Seeing that, I filled the shadow mace with mana and Daisy's power and strongly struck the rift.
With a huge explosion sound, the rift burned intensely.
Seeing this, I was thinking it was about time to go do something else when,
"Hey."
Dasoon's voice came from nearby with her arms crossed.
"Long time no see?"
"Yeah."
Dasoon still grumbled as she looked at me, then put her hands in her pockets and stared at me intently as she spoke.
"So are you going to detonate it now?"
At that question, feeling the need to convey information to Dasoon, I calmly said, "Not yet. I'll explain the details later, so come find me when you have time."
"Where should I go?"
"Talk to the shadow saying you want to meet me."
"... Huh? Shadow? Have you finally gone crazy?"
Dasoon looked at me like I was a strange person, then shook her head and said, "Anyway, I got it, so get lost already."
Instead of answering, I gave her the middle finger, then said to Liana, "Then now it would be good to gather the black mage guys and church guys here."
"How are you going to gather them?"
At those words, I pointed at Elisia returning home supported by a knight and said, "We should mention the artificial sun."
"Ah, that would work."
In Dasoon's past hero appointment ceremony speech to people, there was no mention of the “artificial sun”.
To be more precise, she only talked about the rift to focus attention solely on Elisia.
Recalling that she didn't say a word about the artificial sun, which was the real essential content, I continued speaking, "I'm not sure exactly what the artificial sun means to black mages, but one thing for certain is that it's definitely an element they can't easily give up from their perspective."
So black mages would have no choice but to come to the North whether they liked it or not.
"And in addition to this, if we make Dasoon temporarily return to being Dale, then spread rumors that Dale is in the North…"
From the church's perspective, they couldn't leave this alone, so there was a high chance they would rush here to catch Dale.
"But this alone seems a bit lacking, so it would be good to raise the stakes."
"By stakes, what do you mean?"
At those words, I glanced down at Dasoon leaving and said, "The fact that God no longer exists. If we raise this information as stakes, then deliver it to the church... wouldn't that be good?"
"..."
"Of course, if we or Dasoon do this, it would be extremely dangerous, so..."
I pointed at the former black mage woman who had tormented Ruen and was now trembling in fear, and said, "It would be good to use this one."
Hearing those words, Liana smiled and said to me, "That sounds fun."
"...?"
I was bewildered seeing Liana smiling when I thought she would naturally stop me, when
Siren beside us shook her head and said, "Liana caught it from Damian."
Caught it…
I looked at Siren with a hurt expression at that tone as if she had caught a contagious disease, but
Siren didn't seem to want to change her words and turned her head away.
"Well anyway, let's do that. Anyway, um, I don't know what your name is, but please take care of things from now on?"
"P-please save me. I'll give you anything, my body or whatever, so please."
"I said I'll spare you if you just do as you're told, right? Why are you so scared? What did I do?"
I shrugged my shoulders, thinking I really couldn't understand as I looked at the trembling person in front of me.