73 - CHAPTER XVI -- TREATMENT OF AFTER

Out of breath, an elf runs through the forest.

He was one of the members of the Noblewood Council of Elders.

He was the second in command of the Fairy Dragons after the Grand Elder and the Acting Chief Hunter, and he was afraid to even look back to see if his pursuers were coming, so he just kept on moving his feet.

More than fifteen minutes had already passed since the battle between the sky and the ground had been settled, but there was no sign of his companions around him. This is not surprising, since he himself is not even sure how and where he escaped from. However, the voice of reason, which told him that he would have to die if he stayed where he was, made him and the other elders and priests choose to flee.

The only one who did not flee was the Grand Elder.

However, he remained there not because of his pride or his sense of responsibility as a representative of his country. It may have been because he could not accept what he saw with his own eyes, or because he had accepted that everything was over. The Elder did not react to anything anyone around him said, and had become like a puppet.

He, the shell of the Elder, will probably stay that way until the moment his heart stops beating. Is it a happy ending, in a sense, to sever oneself from the inconvenient outside world and to meet one's end while shut up inside oneself?

"No. ......!　No, no, no!　That's not true!　Definitely not!!!!"

As I wade through the bushes, I deny the sweet fantasies that have been floating around in my mind.

Do not accept it. We must not accept it at all costs. For if I allow it even for a moment, my legs will be immobilized. And it will meet a cruel end at the hands of the enemy soldiers who have gained momentum after defeating the hunter and his men.

Just as we did to the half-elves three months ago.

No, no, no, no!　This can't be, there must be some mistake. How could such a nightmare happen in reality?

That's right. That's right. Because we are the Noblewoods, a noble family. We are the descendants of the High Elves, blessed by the tree of the gods.

There is no way that their glorious history can end here. And I am one of the elders at the top of the Noblewood. That is why I must survive no matter what the cost. As long as we survive this place, surely there will be some path left for us...

"No, this is not the end. This is where your dreams end. A cul-de-sac closed off on all sides.

A woman's voice suddenly arose in my ear.

"............?

The elder stopped in a panic. Immediately after he tried to look around as quickly as possible, his whole body stiffened without warning.

It was as if his body was bound by invisible chains. He could not move his arms, legs, or even turn his head. At the bottom edge of my fixed vision, a transparent white arm sprouted from behind me.

--There is someone behind me.

"What ...... are you?"

"Huh. That's another one of your non sequitur questions. If you claim to be an elder, you ought to speak more elegantly.

You see?　she whispered in a sweet tone of voice.

An arm reaches out behind her back and touches her neck as if to entangle it, and a shiver runs down the elder's spine when he feels her supple fingertips press up against his chin.

Perhaps somewhat satisfied with this reaction, the woman removes her entwined arms and moves around from behind to the front, to the center of his field of vision, with a leisurely step.

The woman whom I saw directly for the first time had a distinctive appearance that I would never forget once I saw her.

Eyes red like fresh blood. Purple hair with a bewitching hue. Her voluptuous body was wrapped in an open-breasted costume, revealing her deep cleavage and porcelain-white skin.

She was too voluptuous for Elvish standards, but to the human eye she would have been an undeniably beautiful princess.

...... is she the running dog of the Unsullied?　Death has finally caught up with me ......?"

"Kuh--kuh-huh-huh!　Running dog, you call me a running dog!　Well, you can do it, can't you? The second part of the sentence is too poetic, and I enjoyed it very much.

What's funny is that the woman laughs.

It was an ominous laugh that disturbed the hearts of those who saw it, despite its elegant gesture.

But the dog is more like Liewe. Of course, if you want me to howl, I will howl with pleasure, but if you compare me to a beast, well..."

A raven, for short," the woman boasted.

The elder could not understand what she was saying. But he could understand that the woman was an enemy. Then, realizing that he had been captured by his pursuers, the elder stopped struggling and looked down at the ground with a slumped body.

"Hmm?　......What's the matter, you don't resist?　If you break free of my restraints, perhaps you will survive?"

The woman asks in the tone of a cat that is shaking a mouse.

The elder responds with a nod and silence.

He was practical enough to realize that there was no point in lashing out, but most of all, he did not want to expose himself to any more misery at this point in time.

They have given their all for the cause, they have fought to avenge their shame, and until recently, they have been running for their survival. We have done what we had to do as elders and as a living being. And now that the results are in, any further struggle is a matter of honor for Noblewood. This thought gave the elder the two words of resignation.

"That's very graceful of you. It is hard to believe that this is the deed of a man who has slaughtered his own people, let alone those of his neighbors with whom he had long been on friendly terms."

"......ッ"

But the elder reacted sharply to the woman's words. The woman's contemptuous words contained something he could not tolerate.

Even if I die here, and even if the destruction of my beloved homeland is inevitable, the history of Noblewood on the continent must be written correctly. It must be written that all the people of Noblewood, regardless of their rank and file, willingly turned themselves into the flesh and blood of the fairy dragon for the sake of the noble crusade.

This sense of mission made the elder, who was on the verge of breaking down, speak out in rebuttal.

No, that is not true. When we heard the news of the annihilation of the advance troops, we immediately held a council of elders and chose the path of battle as the consensus of our clan. It is an honor to be turned into the flesh and blood of a fairy dragon, and it is the result of the people's own will. It was never a massacre of the people who were willing to die. ......!"

"Hoho?　< the consensus. If you knew your shame, you would know better than to say such a thing. Your audacity is such that even I, a concubine, can't help but feel a sense of fear."

Call it what you will," the elder muttered to himself.

The lowly alien race does not understand. They are only a part of the "defilement". They will never understand our noble thoughts. --The Elder stares at the mocking woman, holding on to his hardened thoughts.

As the elder looks at the woman, the woman suddenly speaks up and asks a simple question as if she were talking about something else.

"But it's all a bit strange, isn't it?　How can you so easily believe the news that the most elite of the elite have been selected and that the advance team, which included a fairy dragon as part of its forces, has been wiped out without a trace?

"...... What are you talking about? What's so strange about that? The one who brought the news was a scout who had reached the rank of a hunter, a trusted soldier who has long been in our service. That is why the information that the advance party was wiped out is unquestionably a ...... fact ...... and ......... ..."

--And...

The elder's words, which should have continued there, stopped.

He stopped because he felt a tremendous sense of discomfort with what he had said.

It was as if I had been made aware that I had overlooked something fatal--as if the very foundation on which I stood had been shaken from the ground up.

"----"

About two weeks earlier, the elders had learned the truth about the annihilation of the advance party. This information was brought to them by a who had discovered the truth and had detected the false heart-story. I can still vividly recall the indignation I felt when I realized that I had been deceived.

But even though his resurrection was incomplete, he was still the guardian of the elves, the one whom the gods had bequeathed to us.

A fairy dragon with such a mighty power that even the Count of the Holy Sword, one of the strongest among mortals, would never be able to defeat him in a one-on-one fight.

Why did we accept such a ridiculous story as true when we were told that a mere traveler had killed it?

"----,a,"

I touched something I shouldn't have.

In an instant, the certainty of this touched his whole body, making the elder stiffen in a way that had nothing to do with the binding techniques that bound him. Unknown emotions crawled through his brain and his vision became distorted.

...... is right. There is something else wrong if you think about it. Amidst the whirlwind of discomforts and contradictions, large and small, the most important one that emerges is that of the unsealing of the fairy mother dragon (Mother).

It is true that it took them a hundred years to construct and complete the formula for unsealing. And after releasing the first fairy dragon, the other six dragons sealed in the same hierarchical area were also ready to be released at any time according to the amount of food harvested in the latestone woods. That is why, when the false news was discovered and the council of elders resolved to take revenge by fully reviving the fairy dragons, they were able to perform the unsealing ceremony without much difficulty.

However, the fairy mother dragon was sealed in the innermost part of the temple. Even the chief priests who had done the most to plan the liberation of the fairy dragon were unable to handle the complicated and mysterious sealing technique. How could such a miracle have been performed in the blink of an eye, and without the chief priest, after 100 years of trying to figure it out?

"-No, indeed. The reason we were able to successfully lift the seal of the deep realm is because of ......."

"No, it's no big reason. I had some free time while you were busy feeding the fairy dragon. I was investigating the technique and lent you a hand while I was at it."

She cowered her shoulders and said, "You've started messing with your own people's grass anyway.

The woman's words and actions were matter-of-fact and contained nothing of the sort. At least to the elder's ears, it sounded like she was just stating a simple fact.

"In addition, it is not good to leave relics like that behind. Especially if it is the mother of a dragon species that only accepts the flesh and blood of the elves. If they are nothing but harm to everyone, it would be better to wipe them out here.

The elders froze before the woman who was boasting, "The pus has to be drained out.

It was as if an icicle had been inserted into his spine.

His breathing became labored and his heart beat fast.

"No, no, wait! No, it can't be! I myself was present at the unsealing of the seal in the deeper realms. The only people present were the priests who performed the ritual and a few elders, including myself. ......

Desperately scrambling for memories. I utter words of disproof.

But the more words I piled up, the more I was struck by the sensation that something was cracking.

The inevitable end was approaching before my eyes.

"There were others, weren't there?　There are those who are well versed in the art of witchcraft and its applications. One of the elders asked for help in unsealing a seal, and a female sorceress personally led him to the innermost part of the temple.

"............ not here. There was no such person.

"No, no, no, remember. Since the mistress herself has revealed this much information, her evil eye has already lost its effect. Now that you're free from all mental control, there's nothing that can block your recollection.

"Shut up!　There is no such thing!　There was no such person!

The elder's eyes run bloodshot and he cries out. He screamed, his eyes bloodshot, because that was the only possible resistance he could make since his body was sealed off.

But every time he uttered a word of denial, an empty wind blew in his chest.

Enough of admitting it. I should have realized it already. There I am, muttering to myself in disgust.

"Oh, yes, I haven't thanked you for that time yet. Thanks to the kind Elder who was in charge of the rituals in place of the chief priest, I was able to reach the innermost part of the temple without much trouble. Thanks to him, my work became much easier. Let me express my heartfelt thanks to you after all this time.

Do not listen. Do not listen. Above all, do not understand.

Because every word she speaks is poison. They are nothing but lethal poison that rots the ears, corrodes the brain, and brings ruin.

And yet, she adds more poison, as if she were familiar with it, without mercy.

"Rest assured. Let's forget about the last battle, but let's make sure this one is etched in the history of this world. The end of a pathetic and ridiculous nation that, out of spite, clung to relics of the past, sacrificed not only its friends but even its own people in order to take revenge on humans, and in the process was defeated and destroyed by half-elves?"

The woman whispered quietly, her voice tinged with tenderness.

Her beauty is tinged with a wry smile.

Her crimson eyes told me that this was the end of a clown.

"Aa----aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

--That was the limit.

The cause that I was willing to sacrifice my pride, my life, and the country of Noblewood itself for.

When the truth that all of this was nothing more than a clown show was exposed, and even the history he had tried to protect at the end of his life was now known to be used against him, the Elder finally went insane in the truest sense of the word.

"Oops. I don't want it to break completely.

Saying this, the woman, Camilla, thrust her arm into the chest of the screaming elder.

Her right hand, which had penetrated inside without a scratch, wriggled as if groping for something, and grabbed the formless something that was lurking deep inside. The elder's body twitched and sagged like a mute doll.

"Hmmm... I guess it will be easier for me to control it if I lose my mental balance. Is this no different from the known demons ......?"

A mass of darkness suddenly arose beside Camilla, who expressed her impressions without hesitation. The spherical darkness transformed into a human-like shape, and soon took the form of a demon with twisted horns.

It is the Invisible Demon, a stealthy demon tribe belonging to the Sixth Legion.

"Camilla-sama. I've come to report on the battle situation in various areas.

"Tell me."

"Ha. The main force of Noblewood led by the acting chief hunter has been completely destroyed. A small number of other units that were dispersed in various directions and planning to raid the city were also defeated by a detachment of LATESTWOOD warriors that had also been deployed. We have already confirmed that there have been no omissions."

"Yes. Then I guess this means that the war is over.

All the fighting, both in the air and on the ground, is over. Now it is time to talk about the aftermath, such as cleaning up the battlefield and manipulating information to bring it back to the border cities.

As Camilla pondered this lightly, the demon under her command shifted his gaze to the remains of the elder, who was drooping helplessly.

"By the way, Camilla-sama, what is that individual there?

"One of Noblewood's most senior leaders, a member of the Council of Elders. He tried to flee the country after he had led his people into battle, and was personally punished by my mistress."

"...... I believe that our king said that we need not pursue enemy soldiers who have lost the will to fight."

The advice he uttered was a reference to a royal decree issued before the war began.

It is enough if the threat of Noblewood is eliminated. We do not need to go after every single one of the defeated soldiers and civilians who have lost the will to fight. --That is what Helian had told the Sixth Corps led by Camilla.

But..,

"Yes, my lord, you certainly said so. --But I do not say that you shall not shoot at them. Since it is not explicitly forbidden to do so, this is not a violation of my command. ...... is it not?"

"...... ha."

The demon bowed his head solemnly in response to the question that demanded no other answer than "Yes.

Camilla nodded her head in satisfaction, and with a cold look in her eyes, she gave her instructions.

"And there is no need to include this in the report. You are still sick, my dear. There's no need to add more reports for you to look over, even if it's only a small amount of work.

"I'm afraid you're right, sir."

Then this is the end of the story. You will secure the others as soon as possible. <

"Ha. Yes, sir.

With these words of acceptance, he transformed once again into an ill-defined darkness and left.

Camilla looked at the soul still gripped in her right hand and muttered casually.

"...... hmm. I thought there would only be a few left from the collateral damage of the battle, but it looks like we're going to get more than we expected. I guess there were more cowards than expected, despite all the talk of noble sacrifices. If possible, I would like to keep them in the facilities in their home country. ......

In the capital city of Agartha, the home country of Alkimaira, there is a special facility for the Sixth Legion that does not allow light or sound to leak out. This facility is also useful for extracting information from captured spies and scouts, and the total number of from the Elders and Priests is expected to be quite large.

If all of them are transported to the home country, there is no denying the possibility that they will be noticed by their masters.

Considering the background of the current situation where we are being told that there is no need to pursue the situation, the result will not be very pleasant. We need to take all possible measures for transportation. In some cases, we may have to consider secretly constructing a facility for this purpose in a corner of the sea of trees.

Camilla lowers her eyebrows, smiles a troubled smile, and reflects on these thoughts.

"You are very kind, my dear. ......"

My dear, that is the only and greatest flaw of the perfect king.

The king is too kind.

So much so that, at times, even his enemies have too much mercy on him.

And that's why we need people like you, Camilla thinks.

Because I am the ear that hears the end in place of the Unsullied King. All the blackness to be loathed, all the vindictiveness that cannot be heard, it is my body that must bear it all.

I cannot entrust this to any of the leaders of the eight great legions. This is a role that not even the king's closest advisor, Lieve-Frechwels, in whom the king places his greatest trust, can fulfill.

The fact that only she alone could fulfill this role - that she, and no one else, was indispensable for the king to follow the right path as king - made Camilla feel a pleasant emotion.

"Mmmm..." she said. Mmmmmmmmmmmm..."

With his arm still thrust into the elder's torso, he smiled charmingly, as if he could not bear to lose his patience.

It was the smile of a horrifyingly beautiful woman, as pure as a maiden in love and as lewd as a whore.

--Camilla Vanadees, Commander of the Sixth Legion.

She is the "Nightmare Empress" and the ear of Alkimaira.

She is the master of the Soul Magic and the ruler of many demons.

She is the only one among the eight great legionnaires to be appointed as legionnaire despite her evil tendencies, and is a fearless yet beautiful empress.