NOVEL NEXT Book 6: Chapter 1
Desert Town
The Royal Sorcery Academy was the place where the sons and daughters of important nobles in Claydale Kingdom were gathered. It should be a place with great security and safeness. And yet such place was attacked and Elena Claydale, the first princess ended up missing.
From the eyewitness testimony, the perpetrator was thought to be a part of the dark elves who were called as the evil race, people who were at war with human race more than fifty years ago, but they were defeated by the princess’s bodyguard and their body were left outside. When morning came, the sunlight turned those corpses into ash, so the royal sorcerers and palace doctors investigated the corpses that were left inside the building. The result showed that they were vampires.
Was it an act of terrorism by evil race, or an attack by monsters called vampire? Assumption that perhaps the princess had died was whispered among a part of the people who weren’t in the princess’s faction, but the heavily injured aide and servants of the princess were giving testimony that such wasn’t the case.
It came to light that the objective of the main culprit, the evil race was the abduction of Princess Elena.
To carry out that objective, the attackers used a [Gem] that was obtained from dungeon. They tried to use the [Teleport] sorcery that was sealed inside that Gem to whisk away the princess.
However, the moment the sorcery was activated, the baron daughter who was an adventurer serving as the princess’s personal bodyguard defeated the leader of the evil race attackers and successfully prevented the worst case of the princess’s abduction by the evil race.
But, the princess and her bodyguard the baron daughter were dragged into the already activated Teleport and vanished to the unknown.
According to the analysis of the elite royal sorcerers, the two were most likely somewhere between Claydale Kingdom and the Teleport’s destination……the distance would change depending on the amount of mana sealed inside the Gem, but they hypothesized that the two fell somewhere in the middle.
They also used sorcery to question the aide and bodyguard knights and investigate, but there was no discrepancy in their testimonies. Because of that the kingdom’s policy changed from investigating evil race to searching the princess.
Regardless of the situation, if it became known that the princess went missing, it was unknown how a part of the noble faction that was starting to leaning toward the royal faction would act. Fortunately the headmaster already gave the gag order inside the academy so that the information wouldn’t trickle down to the students. The king ordered the academy to give the students a vacation for three months to half a year in order to reinforce the academy’s security. The prime minister also ordered the investigation department that included the black ops to search for the princess inside and outside the country.
The princess was alive. Many people believed that. Even so they would only be able to stop the information of her disappearance to spread for three months. That would be the limit.
In case the princess’s safety was still unclear even after three months, the king decided that he would announce that the princess was in the middle of recuperation in order to avoid chaos, stop the behind the scene judging of the princess and the crown princess of who would be the most suitable for the throne, and half a year later he would arrange to make it looked like the princess died because of sickness, and at the same time officially announce the crown prince Ervan as the his successor to be the next king.
The time limit was half a year. During that time there were people who started taking action to do what they could.
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Inside an office in the palace, the prime minister, Margrave Belt Melrose ordered the black ops knights in charge of intelligence to search the princess. At the same time he started investigating the identity of noble who led the evil race into the country.
「Belt-sama, you are thinking that it was a noble house of this country that led the evil race inside?」
「That’s right. Even if there is a traitor, they won’t be able to know any information about the academy security unless they’re a noble. But that doesn’t mean that it’s definitely a noble. After all the older a noble is, the greater their resentment toward evil race.」
Belt was still a young man during the previous war, even so the evil race’s strength and their cruelness in fighting had been burned into his memory along with the feeling of terror.
The noble house heads and old people who lived in the previous era were still unable to forget it. And so the possibility was high that it wasn’t noble house but an individual who sheltered the evil race members inside this country. Furthermore that individual might be still young.
Belt’s personal butler Oz nodded quietly while listening to his master’s story. At the same time he was brewing a new pot of tea for his master.
「The one who invited them in and the one who sheltered them also might not be the same person. I will notify the investigators about that possibility too. Also, about the search for her highness, what should we do about the search abroad? I believe that the possibility is higher that they are outside this country if they got dragged into Teleport.」
「The head of royal sorcerer believe that such possibility is indeed high. We can’t publicly search in other countries but, her highness is a capable person. Besides she also has that person with her. Most likely they’ll be attempting to make their way here. It’s fine even if it’s just a rumor, investigate everything without leaving any stone unturned.」
「……As you command.」
Oz guessed a certain thought that his master Belt was having and bowed his head. And then he immediately left the office.
.
「…………」
Belt leaned deeply on the back of his chair. There was a small creaking sound while he let out a small sigh and looked up to empty air. He recalled the figure of a girl.
His thought was turned toward the memento of his departed daughter. Not the girl who was found several years ago and introduced herself as his granddaughter, but the adventurer girl who went missing together with the princess.
Even after she became an adopted daughter of Sera who was a black ops knight, the princess’s restriction over her was strict that any noble who wasn’t a staff of the academy couldn’t approach the girl, but Belt managed to catch a glimpse of that girl just once when she was accompanying the princess as her bodyguard. Even now her image was strongly burned into Belt’s eyes.
Blonde hair with pinkish tinge that looked like it was shining. That color and also her expression that she showed just for an instant were enough for him to see the shade of his dead daughter in her.
Her age also matched. She also had the look. But there was no proof. Unlike that girl who only had circumstantial evidence as his granddaughter, there was no circumstantial evidence at all to support his belief that the princess’s bodyguard was his granddaughter.
He wondered how much hardship she had gone through to obtain such strength in that age. But, that girl at present became the princess’s bodyguard solely due to her strength. If Belt carelessly tried something with her, there was even a possibility that the girl who was an adventurer would easily vanish to somewhere.
The disappearance of that girl together with the princess was fanning his anxiety. Until now he was planning to gather evidence before the two girls became of age, but perhaps by any chance he wouldn’t be able to meet that girl anymore just like what happened with his departed daughter.
(……No, that girl is alive.)
The princess also had luck on her side, but they should also be able to survive even in foreign country considering the strength of that girl.
He would find that girl along with the princess no matter what. And then this time for sure he wouldn’t make the same mistake like what he did with his departed daughter. He decided that he would even use his personal wealth for the search so he could meet again with the girl who might be his actual granddaughter.
.
And then a certain girls started moving when she received a report that the princess went missing together with her bodyguard.
Lady Clara Dandall, the daughter of Margrave Dandall. The main fiancée of crown prince Ervan, a noble daughter whose health was failing after obtaining the Gift of dungeon for the sake of the royal family.
「Er-sama……」
But, when was the last time her fiancée came to visit her?
Ervan was a kind young man due to his weakness of not possessing a cold-heartedness befitting as a member of a royal family. It was that kindness that touched Clara’s heart. It made her loved him not only as a capture target from the otome game, but also as a man. But Clara’s complexion was bad right now wasn’t solely caused by Ervan’s heart becoming progressively distant from her. The disappearance of Princess Elena also played a part in it.
The one who led the evil race into the kingdom was Carla, the same like in the otome game’s scenario, but it was Grave who gave them a base after Carla abandoned them, while Clara was the one providing them with information and fund.
Even without any contact with Grave, Clara was able to predict the objective of the evil race to a certain degree using her future calculation that was based on her knowledge of the game script and her Gift.
Attack to the royal family and the decline of the kingdom because of that. The attack toward the crown prince Ervan and princess Elena.
But it was something that should happen quite far in the future. The event of evil race’s attack should only be triggered when the positivity levels of multiple capture targets toward the heroine were crossing a certain amount. Clara too thought that the evil race’s attack would happen at the second year or later.
Even then Clara gave support to the evil race was to start a special event that could occur in the second year.
The kidnapping of the heroine by the evil race──.
This was an event that could only occur in the second playthrough after clearing the main scenario once. The heroine who had cleared the darkness inside the hearts of the capture targets got captured by evil race so that the capture targets would feel unrest.
But, the capture targets who had high positivity level toward the heroine and had grown up mentally would head to the evil race country, where they would combine their strength and took back the heroine.
That was why Clara tried to start that event forcefully.
Even if the positivity levels of the capture targets toward the heroine had become high, the kidnapping of just a single low rank noble daughter wouldn’t cause the kingdom to take serious action. Ervan and the other capture targets also wouldn’t be able to move because in reality they didn’t have any strength that would enable them to do anything by themselves. In the end it would only be their positivity levels that were high, but in realityit would be impossible for them to go rescue the heroine from enemy country on their own.
But, that event had started now, in the first year.
Furthermore, it wasn’t the crown prince Ervan or the heroine that the evil race regarded as danger, but Princess Elena who was starting to show her true capability that she was originally hiding.
Elena made a wish to a dungeon’s spirit to heal her body and then she began to show her talent. It caused the evil race to regard her as more dangerous than the crown prince Ervan or the heroine.
When Clara was still a child who hadn’t remembered her previous life……she thought of Elena as her real sister. When she recalled that feeling, the fact that she was the cause of Elena almost losing her life made her felt like vomiting.
But, the current situation was the perfect chance for Clara.
The academy students were getting sent home, but a part of the influential nobles and powerful noble houses that knew the truth were remaining inside the academy. If it was just the high class noble houses and their staffs, the royal guards would be able to give them protection when they were gathered in one spot. That would be safer rather than carelessly travelling back to their territory. The royal family notified the high class nobles in the royal family of such option and they chose to remain in the academy. There was also suggestion that at least the royalties and the fiancées should stay in the palace, but Clara and Carla wished to stay in the academy so that talk wasn’t brought up anymore.
With Elena and that terrifying girl gone, even Clara who was mentally tormented by their existence would become able to move freely.
Clara swore to herself that she would take back Ervan’s heart even if she had to use her [Gift] to peek at all the available choices for the future.
Until now she had relied on other people without doing anything herself even though she was cursing the heroine’s existence.
That was why this time for sure──
「I’ll get rid of the heroine.」
.
While a girl was making such decision, Alicia……the girl who called herself Alicia was enjoying tea with three males elegantly.
「You’re really kind Licia. You’re concerned not only for Elena, but even for that kind of boorish person……」
「How can that be……it’s Amor-sama who is kind. You’re concerned even for someone like me.」
Licia’s cheeks reddened as she smiled sweetly toward the words of the king’s brother Amor. Then the boy who was sitting at the opposite side of Amor leaned forward to draw Licia’s attention.
「That bodyguard was a savage girl. The princess was also a cold person, but it was because that girl was someone who took other people’s life so easily that she met that kind of experience.」
「Please don’t say something like that, Nathanital. Not everyone can have a beautiful heart like you.」
「I-is that so? I’m sorry, Licia.」
Nathanital smiled shyly. Alicia smiled brightly at him like a child. The two who were used to the fake smile of noble daughters felt that such smile was fresh. To them she looked like the symbol of purity.
The two had their original sense of value destroyed by the pink haired girl, even so their stubborn mind couldn’t accept it. But then the two traumatized males met Alicia who completely accepted and approved of them as they were.
She wouldn’t get too close but also not too far away from them. She would gently hold their hand when they needed it. They also didn’t harbor any wariness toward her due to her childish look. And so Alicia’s existence was driven into their heart like a stake by her complete acceptance of them.
「…………」
Ervan was watching the two of them who were like that with a conflicted expression.
He was worried for Elena, her sister from a different mother who went missing. Elena had grown distant from him as they grew older, but for him who only had the way of thinking like a middle ranked noble, Elena was just his cute little sister no matter what. He was unable to change his feeling for her easily like Amor and Nathanital.
Amor should be an uncle who was cherishing Elena before this, but did he have no more familial love for her like Ervan? Nathanital was a boy who was faithful to the teaching of god and hated murder to that degree, and yet to Ervan now he looked like he was rejoicing from other people’s misfortune.
Nobody gave any rebuke to them. And there was a single girl who was giving her approval to their feeling.
Was it really fine for them to be like this? Was Alicia……Licia really correct?
It seemed that Elena wasn’t thinking well about Licia. Clara too was telling him that she was dangerous.
(……I haven’t seen Clara lately. Since when……? I want to take just a bit of distance from her because she was gradually tying me down……but, Clara did that for my sake……I too……)
「──Er-sama?」
「Licia……」
Alicia’s voice called out while Ervan was deep in thought. She gently wrapped his hand in her hand under the table. Her warmth pulled him back into reality.
「Don’t force yourself……Er-sama isn’t wrong. You’re just a little bit tired, so surely things will go well after you rest for a bit.」
「Yeah. You……are right.」
He didn’t agree. But her words gave a pleasant “escape” to him who was suffering from the crown prince responsibility and problem. Ervan gently held her hand back.
「Fufu」
Licia was displaying the most perfect adorable sile to the men who harbored darkness in their heart.
She loved everything they were. But that love was nothing more than the other side of her self-love just so she was loved. That was exactly why the men felt she loved them in particular more than anyone else.
Licia’s purpose was “to be loved”.
Only being loved by everyone could satisfy the “hunger” of her heart. If it was for the sake to be loved, she could even do this tightrope performance that was just a hair’s breadth shy of being lese majeste. Even if it would cost her life…….
If it could satisfy this “hunger”, she would pay even if the cost was this country’s destruction.
Her growing environment when she was little with nobody loving her where she had nothing and lived in loneliness and terror, was changing a mere girl that had no power at all into a country toppling seductress.
Today too the girl who called herself Licia was wearing a wide smile that only loved herself from her heart.
.
There was a girl who was genuinely having fun watching those four.
The daughter of the head of the royal sorcerers, Carla woke up two days after the princess went missing. When she heard about the situation from her servant, she rolled on the floor laughing so hard that her stamina got halved.
「……You’re really entertaining, Aria. But come back quickly okay. If you don’t return, I’ll burn him, her, everyone.」
It wasn’t just the academy and nobility that acted. The adventurer party Rainbow Sword including the healed Viro accepted a quest from the prime minister once more to search the princess and their comrade and started moving. For the sake of the girl who was its partner, the mythical beast Coeurl, Nero was sprinting toward the place where the girl’s master was living. It knew the location because it had went there once with the girl.
The princess was alive. The closer someone was to the princess, the more they believed that. That was because they knew that girl……Aria was with her.
***
At the southwest region of Thurs continent, there was a land of sand that rejected any living creature called the desert of death, and a huge ancient ruins located adjacent to it.
There was no one who knew in which era that ruins came from. It was considered as a remain of an ethnic group that preceded even the Cruz people who were the indigenous people of this continent. It was a ruins of a city that was as big as a small country. The sandstorm made the city looked misty, so that ancient ruins city became called as [Resvel].
There was no human in that ancient ruins city. That was because that ruins was overflowing with shelled insect monsters that lived in the desert, and undead monsters like lich or skeleton.
But, where there were monsters there were materials and magic stone that could be collected. Adventurers would gather if those things could be obtained.
There were also people coming for excavation because they were dreaming to find treasures that were remaining in the ruins. If such people gathered, merchants who sniffed the smell of money would also gather. Those people then gradually formed a settlement.
“People” lived in place that had greed.
There was a town in the middle of the desert. That town was located at half a day of walking from the outer circumference of the ancient ruins Resvel. People from various races were crowding that town.
Human, beastman, dwarf, elf. Adventurer, grave robber, criminal, wanted man……their past had no meaning. Anyone strong had the qualification to live in this town. The weak would become corpse inside the dry sand of the desert.
.
*Zari……*
Leather boot made a slight sound on the stone floor that was covered with sand.
The location wasn’t even inside the town. It was the slum that was outside the wall……there was a ramshackle bar in a corner of such place. Men with blackish skin were drinking alcohol on a stone table while the day was still bright. They turned a dangerous gaze toward a duo that stepped inside the bar.
It wasn’t rare for someone to wear a cloak in this area because of the strong sunlight, but the men saw through the cover that they were young women from their body built and gait. They sported a slightly vulgar smile.
While the men were unreservedly staring, the two women walked until the counter where the bar owner was standing. Then the taller woman placed several small silver coins on the counter.
「Two meals and drinks without alcohol.」
The voice wasn’t high or low pitched, but the youngness in it surprised the bar owner. He frowned just a little seeing the silver coins on the counter.
「Which country’s currency are these? Don’t show this kinda thing at the open.」
「It’s unusable?」
「That ain’t it……. Listen lass.」
The bar owner stroked his stubble with an annoyed look, then he put his elbow on the counter, leaned forward, and lowered his voice.
「You two are foreigners right? D’you think young woman from outside can stay safe in this kinda place? There ain’t anything fancy like town guard in this town. You better beat it──」
「Oi oi, don’t run off your mouth like that.」
Someone interrupted them. The four men who were drinking alcohol inside the bar were standing behind the women with vulgar smile.
「To go outside the wall like this, you traveler? Or a merchant who only came here recently? Anyone familiar with this town ain’t gonna bring young woman here, and none’ll dare to go outside the wall y’know.」
「You two are in luck. Anyone other than us will already strip off everything you got and turn you into pig food the next day yeah?」
「Though it’ll depend on your look whether anyone will buy you even if you’re a woman!」
The drunk men were prattling worthless things while cackling.
Blackish skin……they were Cruz people who lived in the desert. Most likely they were residents of the town.
「……Is this something usual around this area?」
This time it wasn’t the woman who put down money, but the shorter woman who asked the bar owner. The clearly girl’s voice was light and her way of speaking was graceful. The men whistled teasingly when they heard that, while the frown of the bar owner deepened even more.
「You guys, don’t make a ruckus inside! ……Lasses, a bit of warning. If you two don’t resist, then even this bunch ain’t gonna go as far as taking your life. That’s why……」
「That’s the works. You too, don’t run off your mouth okay? There ain’t any guarantee that you’ll keep your life the next time.」
「Kuh……」
The bar owner gritted his teeth when the man told him that. One of the men moved his hand toward the cloak of the shorter woman, then──.
*Gagonn!*
「──aga?」
The other cloaked woman slammed her palm on the man’s jaw from the side. The man’s head twisted to the side until even his own neck broke. Just how much strength was needed to cause something like that? The man didn’t even realize that his neck broke as his eyes rolled back and he collapsed.
「──Wha-!?」
「You, what……」
The men didn’t understand what just happened. They only understood that they got “attacked” and hurriedly move their attention to their waist to draw out their weapon. The moment their focus shifted, the woman’s cloak fluttered and two white arms flashed out from there. They snapped the necks of two more men like dry twigs.
「W-what the helll!」
The last man drew out a curved sword and swung it down with a bewildered face. But a glove wearing hand softly traced the side of the blade to divert it away. The man lost his balance and stumbled forward where the woman’s palm smashed his jaw so hard from below that his head snapped backward.
The collapsing man’s hand grabbed the woman’s cloak and exposed the face of the girl who slaughtered everyone in the blink of eye without drawing any blood.
Glossy and tight white skin along with pink blond hair. The bar owner unconsciously gulped seeing the girl’s gruesome beauty and the difference in “status” that was displayed just now. The shorter woman slightly lifted up her hood and stared appraisingly at him with blue eyes that were surrounded by white skin.
「For the time being, can you please provide us with meals……and tell us more about this town?」