Heroes and Machine Girls Looking at Profiles

17 – Luciana

The Duke of Valery has a deep history in the Halfas Empire.

In fact, the Valery family had existed before the establishment of the Halfas Empire.

Regardless of the country to which they belonged, they have a history as a family that is nearly a thousand years old, and it is no exaggeration to say so.

Naturally, Luciana Ruth Valery, having been born as the eldest daughter of such a prestigious family, had strived tirelessly to become a person worthy of her lineage.

She studied hard, learned politics, and even achieved a certain degree of competence in martial arts, handling mediocrity with her hands.

Moreover, she was incredibly beautiful since childhood. It was only natural that her beauty attracted attention in social circles.

The emperor of the Halfas Empire had two sons.

The eldest son, Floyd – the crown prince of Halfas.

The younger son, Jayden – prince of Halfas.

Indeed, the eldest son, Floyd, was designated as the successor, but there was a powerful faction that preferred the more talented and thoughtful Jayden as the successor.

Both factions were desperate to secure the support of the Duke of Valery due to their extensive history and enormous wealth.

A prime example of this was when Prince Floyd chose Luciana as his crown princess.

Despite being somewhat forceful, the Duke of Valery maintained a neutral stance and refused to align with Prince Floyd.

Separately from this, Luciana, whether as a wife to the Crown Prince or the Prince, strived to evolve into a person fitting for her status.

As a woman of Valery, she had further motivation to become someone fitting for the position she would ostensibly occupy.

However, that situation came to an end one day.

For a long period, the demon king’s army, a threat to the continent, was exterminated due to the hero party’s efforts.

Peace returned to the continent, and the people of the empire danced with joy.

However, an unexpected situation occurred in the power struggle within the upper echelon of the empire.

The hero was dead, but the remaining members of the hero’s party.

Crown Prince Floyd intended to make them all his wives.

The members of the hero’s party, who saved the world, become the wives of Crown Prince Floyd.

What is noteworthy is that they don’t hail from humble backgrounds at all.

The first princess of the Kingdom of Cloeti, the saint of the church, the next leader of Matop.

Through marrying these three, the crown prince would gain even more power.

But there was a problem before that.

Luciana Ruth Valier was already chosen as the prince’s future wife, she is the eldest daughter of a duke.

To marry the three, Luciana had to somehow be out of the picture.

If Luciana is kept as the official wife and the rest are treated as concubines.

Even then, if Agnes, the foreign princess, is downgraded lower than Luciana, who is a Duke’s daughter, Cloeti’s subjects may have issues with it.

Downgrading Luciana or completely breaking the engagement would be problematic, as the Valier’s may abandon neutrality and join the Emperor Jade party.

Even if they could gain the support of those three powers, the enormous wealth of the Valier’s could pose a threat.

Naturally, if that were the case, the Valier’s would maintain their neutral stance after breaking the engagement, but Crown Prince Freud and his faction, who didn’t even want to risk the slightest chance of potential unrest, took action.

“Duke of Valier! I shall arrest you on charges of conspiracy and sedition!”

If you’re anxious, get rid of it.

With the current emperor seriously ill and bedridden, Crown Prince Freud seized the opportunity and gathered his nobles.

Investing all their effort in fabricating crimes, the inspectors and judges were all in the palm of Crown Prince Freud.

Evidence unheard of and unseen were fabricated, and the Valier’s were branded as rebels against the empire in no time.

Naturally, a crime of treason would mean death penalty for the entire clan.

All of the Valier’s, regardless of age, were straightaway led to the gallows.

All the enormous wealth that the Valier’s had accumulated was taken away under the name of recovery by the royal family and landed in the hands of Crown Prince Freud.

But fortunately, at that time, Luciana had been receiving training under the queen at the imperial palace.

With the help of the queen and her close associates, Luciana managed to escape the palace.

“Lady Luciana, this way.”

With the help of the queen’s associates, Luciana left the imperial city and was able to flee the capital.

The sight that met her fleeing eyes was her parents and younger brother, dangling from nooses in the Justice Square.

“……!!”

Suppressing her immediate urge to scream and burst into tears, Luciana fled from the imperial city.

Luciana was left alone with various property prepared hurriedly by the queen.

The queen was intending to attach her close associates to Luciana to help her escape, but Luciana refused.

If Luciana disappeared and the queen’s associates were not visible, there was a chance the queen would be suspected.

“Father… mother… Ryan…”

Remembering her family members lying, lifeless in the square, Luciana fled from the capital.

From then on, Luciana survived on her own.

It was not long after the war, so she was able to settle in a small town in the republic, hiding her identity and acting as a refugee.

There were no hunters as she had worried.

Regardless, there won’t be much from a single duke’s daughter going missing to do.

Regrettably, that was a correct assumption.

In her new life in the small town, Luciana lived quietly, digging and selling medicinal herbs.

But deep in her heart, she gritted her teeth reliving the hate-filled face of Crown Prince Freud, her family’s enemy.

Then one day, a rumor that rekindled Luciana’s revengeful spirit reached her.

“I never thought Queen Hwangbi would end up like this.”

“Even Prince Hwang Taeja, resorted to doing such a horrible thing to his own parents.”

Luciana, who had heard these stories from several mercenaries who had been active in the empire and who had come to the village where she lived.

Apparently, Prince Freud had completely won the succession race by acquiring the wealth that Duke Balliere’s family had and the support of his newly wedded wives.

As a result, he sent his younger brother, Jaden, straight off to a princess in a foreign land as a groom.

Not only that, he exiled his mother, Queen Hwangbi, who was rebelling against his treatment of his own brother, to a separate palace.

Stricken by what her own son had done, the Queen fell seriously ill and died not even two months later.

Even despite his mother’s death, it was said that Prince Freud held a modest funeral and didn’t even attend the funeral himself.

How shocking must the rumors have been for them to already have spread widely among the mercenaries.

“Queen Hwangbi…”

Luciana pictured Queen Hwangbi’s face in her mind.

The queen, who had been strict but loving, treating Luciana as if she were family.

Her face, filled with guilt and affection, as she let Luciana go on the day Luciana fled the capital.

Even she had left the world now.

Luciana had truly become alone in every sense of the word.

“How…how could he…? How could he do this to his own mother…?!”

Anger burned high in Luciana’s heart.

The anger she had tried to forget, burying it deep inside her heart, was now flaring up fiercely, almost impossible to put out.

But Luciana had no power to act.

Even though she had honed her martial skills, deemed talentless, with an effort tens of times that of others, she was no more than a well-trained knight at most.

Brains? Politics? She had no foundation and nothing she could do against the empire.

Luciana had no power at all.

However, something came to Luciana’s mind.

It was a story her father told her and her younger brother Ryan when they were young.

“Our ancestors, in a great war of the past, left the story of a terrifying weapon of destruction.”

“It shook the earth, changed the atmosphere, and overturned the environment with its horrifying power… Although this power has been sealed, its existence has always been handed down in our family.”

“If I die, its existence must now be passed down to you.”

“Destructive weapon…”

If she could awaken that existence, that had been hidden in the Duke of Ballière’s house since the ancient times,

If she could awaken it to take on Prince Freud…

The conspirators who drove their family to death…

Those who threw stones at the bodies of her parents and younger brother…

The empire…

Using faint memories from her childhood as a guide, Luciana left the village.

Entering the southern forest with a status card under a pseudonym issued by the Duchy, Luciana felt a sense of anticipation.

From there, she entered a swamp where even walking was laborious and sweat drenched her body.

Avoiding monsters roaming the swamp, Luciana diligently searched the marsh, but it was incredibly wide and its environment harsh.

Her body continued to excrete water, and there was no water to drink in the swamp except for the water she brought with her.

Even though I brought enough water to last a week in a normal area, all the water I had ran out after just 3 days.

Now, the only available water to drink was from the muddy swamp.

But if I was unlucky with drinking the muddy water, I might actually get an upset stomach, which could potentially cause my already low hydration to decrease even faster.

‘Just a little… just a little rest…’

I wanted to get out of this swamp as soon as possible, but I was already at my physical limit.

I leaned against a tree that was drying up nearby.

My throat was parched, my mind became foggy.

‘I can’t… I have to avenge my enemy…’

I desperately tried to hold onto my consciousness, but gradually, my eyes closed.

If I was to die here, what would my parents say next to the goddess?

Would they scold me, or praise me for trying hard?

Either way, wouldn’t it be nice to meet my parents, as I lost consciousness thinking this.

However, waiting for Luciana when she opened her eyes next were.

“Are you conscious?”

“Kyah!?”

A black-haired man in a mask, and a silent, gray-haired girl intensely staring at her.