Chapter 279:  Extermination


    Rien Central Station.


    Even though it was winter, the square was crowded with people, so much so that the cold weather seemed irrelevant.


    This wasn’t because the weather was pleasant, but rather because people had gathered to bid farewell to the knights departing for the Arwen Hignds for the extermination festival.


    There were women sending off their lovers, wives sending off their husbands, elderly couples cheering on their granddaughters, and friends gathered to say goodbye to theirpanions.


    One such friend, despite going to the festival, kept sighing deeply, looking as if they were heading to their death.


    That friend was Maeve Butterfield, amoner girl who had entered the academy alongside Lucia and even attended herte graduation ceremony.


    “Why the long face? Huh? It’s not like you’re going off to war or anything.”


    Lucia patted her unusually gloomy friend on the shoulder.


    “It’s a festival, Maeve. Just go and enjoy it, will you?”“…A festival? The extermination festival is a festival?”


    Maeve red at Lucia with narrowed eyes.


    Though it had the appearance of a festival, the true nature of the extermination festival was a campaign to prevent the overflow of monsters. If you were a young person, full of vigor and eager to show off your abilities, maybe it would be exciting, but for someone who just wanted to live a quiet life, it was only natural to be worried.


    Especially for someone who had graduated from the academy and skipped over bing a knight.


    Standing next to her, Gracie also patted Maeve on the shoulder.


    “You got into the unit with your specialty in magic enhancement, so what are you so worried about?”


    “…Not because I’m friends with the lovely great-granddaughter of the Versailles family?”


    “There are ten other lovely great-granddaughters besides me, you know?”


    At their friendly bickering, Lucia burst into a bright smile. It had been a while since she had gone out and met her friends, so she was in a good mood.


    “Lucia, isn’t Sirieling?”


    “Huh? Oh, right…”


    Lucia scratched the back of her head, slightly embarrassed.


    “She’s on leave. Since she has some free time, she’s watching over an empty house.”


    “An empty house? Is she moving out? I thought she was engaged to your brother?”


    “…No, it’s nothing like that. My father is thinking of opening a bakery. It’s no big deal.”


    It was a lie she made up on the spot.


    Though it would be believable if it was Hugo, the idea of Glen opening a bakery wasughable. In Lucia’s mind, it was all too easy to picture a deserted shop once he opened it.


    The real reason she lied was that it was awkward to admit that Siriel had been avoiding hertely.


    “A bakery? Your father is opening a bakery?”


    “Wow~ Congrattions! When I get back, I’ll definitely stop by to help raise the sales.”


    “Thanks, girls. See youter.”


    Lucia waved at the two boarding the train. Soon, the sound of the train’s whistle echoed through the air, and with the cheers of the crowd, the train began to depart.


    ‘I can never tell them that things have be awkward with Siriel.’


    Lucia thought to herself with a smile as she watched the train pull away into the distance. Though her face was smiling, her heart was heavy with thoughts of what to do next.


    Lately, Siriel’s attitude toward her had changed.


    When she thought back on it, it started after they returned from the great ins… or to be more precise, after Glen Prient began staying at the mansion.


    ‘…The way she looks at me has definitely changed.’


    There were too many possible reasons to pinpoint just one.


    ‘Maybe she’s caught on to what happened between Shiron and me?’


    As Lucia recalled the past, she wondered when she might have been discovered.


    She was fully aware that her rtionship with Shiron was improper.


    He was a man already engaged, someone she had grown up with like a sibling. To have seduced him and shared intimacy with him—she knew, even by modern standards, it was a serious misstep.


    Of course, she had been careful immediately after their rtionship began, buttely, she realized she hadn’t been hiding her actions as much.


    For instance, when Siriel was busy at work with the knights, Lucia would sneak up and steal kisses from Shiron, or she’d deliberately join meals in the main house instead of the annex, even when Siriel was there.


    ‘Siriel’s sharp. Looking back, I can’t really me her for growing distant…’


    Lucia sighed,menting her ownplicated situation.


    It was a rtionship she could never be proud of, one that society would rightly call an affair. And as much as she feared her once-warm friendship with Siriel turning cold, she couldn’t bring herself to tell her the truth about Shiron.


    “Haah…”


    Lucia walked slowly in front of the station, her shoulders slumped.


    Perhaps for those who had just seen off loved ones, there were many street vendors selling food and trinkets like charms.


    Feeling suffocated, Lucia approached one of the stalls.


    “…Spiral potatoes?”


    5 shillings for one.


    Though it couldn’tpare to the delicacies she had in the mansion, perhaps due to her past life, Lucia had a fondness for junk food.


    “Wow, this is actually good?”


    After devouring the spiral potato in no time, Lucia turned her attention to another stall.


    “What’s this? ‘Magic corn’? What the… devil’s club? What’s this one? Cheese hotdog?”


    Before she knew it, she had visited dozens of stalls.


    “This is ridiculous…”


    It was when she reached thest stall selling herring sandwiches.


    [It’s unfortunate that the Grand Elder and the princess couldn’t join us on this glorious asion.]


    “…”


    An all-too-familiar phrase suddenly reached her ears.


    Lucia focused her attention in the direction the voice hade from.


    Even with thousands of people bustling around her, it was impossible for her to have misheard.


    ‘That’s not the imperialnguage, is it?’


    Though it wasn’t in the imperialnguage, she understood the meaning of the words.


    The reason she understood was because their conversation was in anguage she knew.


    Themonnguage of the continent was the imperialnguage, and the neighboring countries used anguage rooted in the empire’s influence.


    But this conversation was different.


    There was something distinctly foreign about it… something unmistakably different.


    Thenguage of Silleya.


    Hastily stuffing the rest of her sandwich into her mouth, Lucia turned to look toward where the voice hade from.


    [But what can we do? Even though they bear the title of ‘the greatest of our people,’ for some reason, they didn’t show up.]


    [I heard rumors that… they were injured and couldn’t make it.]


    [Come on, don’t say something so unlucky when we’re about to embark on a grand cause.]


    A secluded alleyway, with no visible signs of anyone around. The voices must being from a building further inside.


    “Wait, wait a second!”


    Lucia pushed through the crowd, moving in the direction of the voices she had heard.


    “Excuse me! Let me through, please!”


    It wasn’t just the fact that the Silleyanguage was being spoken in the heart of the empire that made her act.


    After all, in her previous life, wasn’t Lucia once Kyrie, an orphan from Silleya?


    The empire had a deeply rooted disdain for barbarians, and after the recent terrorist incident, hatred towards them had be normalized. However, Lucia could not bring herself to hate them all.


    She could hate the terrorists, but she didn’t want to harbor hatred for the entire people.


    “Who stepped on my foot!?”


    “I-I’m sorry!”


    Lucia’s reason for pushing through the crowd was simple—she was worried about them.


    How could they be so careless? If the crowd discovered who they were, a greatmotion would surely erupt.


    ‘At the very least, they should be speaking in the imperialnguage. To be so careless in such dangerous times…’


    It was just her meddling.


    Driven by a sense of justice, she wanted to prevent any potential chaos.


    Feeling a mix of emotions, Lucia exhaled sharply. She was someone who felt satisfaction when doing good deeds and often enjoyed the sense of fulfillment her actions would bring.


    At least, until the next words came.


    [Warrior, may your ancestors bless your final journey.]


    [Glory to Silleya.]


    [Glory!]


    “…What are they talking about?”


    Glory? Ancestors? Were they here to perform some kind of ritual?


    …What does ‘final journey’ mean?


    For about three seconds, Lucia stood there with a dumbfounded expression. Then, she realized what they were discussing.


    “Terrorism!!”


    Her eyes wide in shock, Lucia quickened her pace. The considerate steps she had taken before were now reced with urgency, her legs moving without hesitation.


    She had to reach them, no matter what. And once she did, she would personally end their lives!


    No matter if they were her people—evil was evil.


    Lucia began emanating a fierce killing intent, heating her core with the energy of her intent. The crowd started parting as Lucia advanced.


    Finally, she arrived at the alley where the voices hade from.


    Though she could no longer hear the Silleyanguage, she could sense the presence of others with the same murderous intent as her.


    ng!


    Swick!


    The sound of something being cut suggested that a fight had already begun.


    ‘This is the ce!’


    Praying that she wasn’t toote, Lucia sprinted forward. With all her strength, she kicked at the wooden boards blocking the window.


    Crash! The boards shattered into sawdust as they were blown away by the gust, and Lucia rolled into the room, quickly lifting her head.


    “…Who are you?”


    A woman in a ck suit addressed Lucia. In her hand was a bloodstained dagger, and at her feety the bodies of severalrge men.


    Lucia didn’t think she was toote. The bodies at the woman’s feet were dressed simrly to the traditional attire of Silleya, which Lucia recognized.


    It seemed that this woman had dealt with them before Lucia arrived. Assessing the situation quickly, Lucia lowered herbat stance.


    “Did you kill them?”


    “And if I did?”


    “I just want to thank you. These people were about to cause a huge incident. Thank you for dealing with them first.”


    Lucia bowed deeply as she spoke.


    Though it was her first time meeting the woman, she was taller than Lucia, and her voice was mature, so Lucia instinctively showed respect.


    “…No need for thanks. If I had left them alone, I would’ve been the one in trouble.”


    With that, Yoru wiped the blood off her de. Though the sword was sheathed in an instant, Lucia managed to follow its trajectory with her eyes.


    Then, she caught a scent lingering in the room. Beneath the thick smell of blood was the subtle scent of the woman.


    “In trouble? Why?”


    “…These guys followed my father, who had lost his mind. If I hadn’t taken care of them, they would’ve caused a meaningless massacre… Ugh, why am I even telling you this?”


    Yoru sighed, pressing her fingers to her forehead. Was she just mentally exhausted? Here she was, rambling on about her problems to a child.


    “Get out. This isn’t something a kid should be seeing.”


    Yoru turned her back on Lucia and began stripping the clothes off the corpses.


    Though the bodies would be difficult to dispose of, it would be easy to conceal where they hade from.


    No matter how safe the empire was, a stabbing incident like this wouldn’t even register as a major crime.


    “Hey.”


    “I said get out.”


    Yoru snapped at Lucia, who had slowly started approaching again. Due to Lucia’s small stature and high-pitched voice, Yoru assumed she was just an overly righteous child. So…


    “Haven’t we met somewhere before?”


    “What are you—”


    Crack!


    Boom!


    The next moment was a blur.


    Lucia couldn’t even recall how she ended up mmed into the wall.


    “You blocked that.”


    What was this? What just happened?


    The shock was immense. On instinct, she had angled her sword to deflect the blow, but she hadn’t fully absorbed the impact. Pain surged through her arm and shoulder, making her heart tremble.


    “Then let’s see if you can block this too.”


    A golden lightning bolt shed through the darkness.