Chapter 27

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Chapter 27 – A Stepping Stone To Take Care Of That Day (3)

The silence between them was brief. It was because of Etrada’s muttering while sighing.

“You have become a scary fellow.”

“What?”

As she rose from her seat, Cesar’s gaze followed.

“No, nothing. Your life is yours to live.” She interlocked her hands behind her head and continued her speech. “It’s so boring here. I don’t have anything to do for the time being, so I can just wander around, right?”

“…Yeah, you can rest as long as you want for the time being.”

Cesar meekly accepted Etrada’s suggestion. Soon, the Hereos Empire will disappear, and the lines between borders and territories will be redrawn. At the time he proclaims a new Empire, the Lords who refuse to accept him as the new ruler will start to protest in earnest. It wasn’t a problem for Etrada to rest until the full-scale civil war began.

Shortly after Cesar lightly allowed her to rest she spoke again.

“And there is no contract renewal.” As she was about to receive a County, Etrada emphasized their mercenary-employer relationship. “I will leave when the remaining period is over.”

“…Even if I say I’ll make you enjoy wealth and honor?”

“The money is already overflowing.” As she added “Thanks to someone who raised the advance payment,” Etrada completely turned around. She had reached the level of a senior knight and signed a contract with Cesar.

‘Well, if I had known the current situation in advance, I would not have signed a contract.’ Etrada looked back just before leaving Cesar’s office. He had taken his eyes off her and was buried in a pile of documents.

‘I can’t believe you’re happy spending your whole life here.’ Etrada glanced at Cesar with a new perspective.

‘Is power that good? Is the Emperor’s seat worth all of that?’ When she didn’t have anything, Etrada was like that too. She had believed that if she had power, she would be able to live differently from the difficult and shabby past. But now, it was questionable.

‘Does power really guarantee one’s happiness?’ Whenever she thought of what she had lost to get here, a negative answer filled her mind. ‘Someone will continue to die in the future to protect that position…’ Unable to hide her gloomy outlook, Etrada let out a sigh.

At the time of signing the contract, she felt out of place in Cesar’s faction. Even before she reached the age of twenty, she became a senior knight, but the gazes of interest on her were cold. Regardless of her skills, the label ‘lowly mercenary’ followed her. Of course, it was a problem that was resolved over time. Now she had been recognized by Cesar’s servants, she became a reliable comrade. When she was recognized for the first time, she was obviously delighted. Having lived a life of being wielded by others all her life, she longed for the power to wield others. So she could not hide her pride whenever her position was strengthened. But now that she had the power that everyone used to talk about, all she had left was disappointment and disillusionment. She realized that in order to seize power, she had to let go of what was originally in her hands.

‘If I had known about this, I wouldn’t have been greedy…’

The world was overflowing with things that one cannot have because they have power. In the past year, the world she watched from Cesar’s side was bleak. As she gained the power that Cesar bestowed upon her, not only the people passing her but also the flowers blooming in the fields and the clouds floating in the sky were shattered. It was a power that instilled sharp vigilance and suspicion in place of warmth. It wasn’t just that. Since gaining power, she had been only restrained. Don’t be like this, don’t be like that, you have to save face, show the dignity of a superior…

A life of not being able to lie comfortably in the pretty fields she found along the way was not what Etrada had hoped for. She hated those people who smiled brightly on the outside with contempt inside, and her heart ached when she remembered those who died to seize power. Over time, the deaths of the knights who recognized her and she considered close friends, became a burden she could not bear in a lifetime.

The world Etrada gained in exchange for power was strenuous and difficult. She longed for a world where she could roam freely after she left the orphanage. The beautiful scenery, the mysterious beasts, and the simple people. That was why Etrada brought up the termination of her contract with Cesar. Because she chose to return to being a mercenary rather than be bound by the title he mentioned. The period specified in the contract was four years, and already a year and a half had passed.

‘When the remaining contract period is over, I can leave this stuffy and desolate place. Why is it so beautiful on the outside, while so terrible inside?’ Blood and bitter death were all that was contained inside this dazzlingly beautiful box.

Etrada turned away from Cesar and ran out of the office.

As she rode from the castle on her horse, the rain soaked her clothes quickly. But she didn’t feel the cold because her inner thoughts were complicated. Cesar succeeded in beheading the Emperor and now was about to swallow the entire Hereos Empire. Whenever she thought of him, those thoughts were always in conflict.

‘Was he like that when we first met…?’ He was just a boy with a little bit of a cheeky side, but he knew how to laugh and joke around. But Cesar now seemed like a completely different person. Was it because she had kept her childhood memories? She felt complicated. Etrada urged the horse out of frustration. She ran through the main square and the empty streets, thinking it would cool her head a little bit.

‘It has been a while since I wandered the streets of Vetern like an aimless boy.’ Etrada stopped her thoughts for a moment.

“It smells like blood…”

Accustomed to blood even before she reached adulthood, her intuition alerted her. It was not blood shed by one or two people.

“Should I check…?”

Although she had already decided to leave, she was still tied by a contract with Cesar. Having agreed to help him, she wasn’t irresponsible enough to let problems arise in the Vetern they had subdued.

The monthly price for her hire, as she was originally a gold mercenary, was five hundred Hertz. Etrada wasn’t incompetent enough to neglect what she had to do.

Eventually, she turned her head and began to search for the source of smell. When she entered a narrow alleyway, she gave up on her horse and stepped on the ground directly. However, it was difficult for her to specify the direction in the tangled alleys. Etrada glanced around her, clicking her tongue briefly. At the same time, she heard a crackling sound. She immediately lowered her body. Although she was wary of her surroundings, her footsteps hastened as she ran through the rain.

At first, she wanted to look around just in case, but things changed.

‘It’s the sound of an explosion magic tool.’ She was certain because she had been using the same tool over and over again against the forces of the Emperor who were stationed in the vicinity of Vetern.

‘I should definitely check it out.’ A person with the ability to equip explosive magic tools was not a small fry. Cesar was only now consolidating the central region of Hereos. He was still at war, and he had to go through a war with the Lords who resisted his reign over Hereos, as well as the task of searching for those loyal to the late Emperor within Vetern. If an enemy was hiding in Vetern, they should be eliminated. Continuing noise made it easier to find directions. Thanks to this, she was able to reach her destination soon.

Red traces were dissolving in the stagnant rainwater, pouring down from all directions. Etrada muted her presence and cautiously approached the place where a voice was heard. Hiding herself in the alley, she found the bodies that had been killed by the explosive magic tools.

“Should I save you?”

As Etrada looked at the corpses lying all over the alley. Behind the neat and calm woman’s voice, a man’s hoarse reply followed.

“Save me.”

Etrada overheard their conversation, keeping her body close to the wall. It was certain that a battle happened, but what happened after that was not clear. Now that she couldn’t understand the circumstances, revealing herself was not a good option.

“Your feet, I’ll lick them, if you tell me to.”

After that, the unknown man’s voice wasn’t heard anymore.

“Take him.”

It was the voice of the woman she had heard before.

“What about the physician?”

“He’s waiting with the clinic closed.”

“You can take him and treat him, and when he wakes up, bring him to me.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Only then did Etrada sneak out and check the situation beyond the alley. Three people were alive and unwounded. A man in a hoodie lifted the two bloodied men and took them away.

‘It seems to be a separate force from the force that caused the conflict…’ If it wasn’t, the conversation about saving him wouldn’t make sense. There were three unidentified forces; she didn’t know who was behind them. Etrada identified the masked men who were already dead, the two men carried away covered in blood, and the three people in hoods as different forces. And she gazed at the woman who remained.

‘Is she the one in charge…’ Although taller than average, given her voice and physique, she was clearly a woman.

“When you’re done, wait at the inn. It’ll be busy from now on.”

“Yes.”

Etrada’s time to examine the woman was short. It wasn’t long before she left, leaving another man there. The man who was left began to drag the corpses to one place. She kept an eye on the situation as she shifted her position to not be noticed by him. The man, who covered his face with a hood, held out a box the size of a fist in his arms. As soon as it was thrown into a pile of corpses, a fire broke out. Even though it was raining hard enough to blur the surroundings, the fire on the pile of corpses burned hot. The flames swaying in the rain were quite a sight.

‘Ignition- magic tools…?’ It wasn’t as good as the explosive magic tool, but it was also a magic tool that was traded at a fairly high price. It was usually used for water-soluble purposes, but it was not easy to extinguish the ignited flame due to the magic treatment. Etrada frowned. If all the corpses are incinerated like this, the evidence and traces will disappear.

‘Should I knock him down? Or just kill him at once?’ She thought for a moment while fiddling with the sword at her waist. Fortunately for Etrada, the man who threw the third magic tool into the flames left. When his presence had gone far enough, she hurried to the pile of corpses. There, she was able to find a dead body with a dagger stuck in his forehead.

‘This…’

Etrada recognized the engraved pattern on the handle of the dagger and clicked her tongue.

“It’s the Agramento family…” Shortly after she signed the contract with Cesar, she was provided information regarding the major nobles. Thanks to this, she was familiar with the family crest used by high-ranking households.

‘This is the one he told me not to touch first,’ Etrada recalled Cesar’s instructions.

“We must not intervene in disputes between them in the first place.” It meant to let them focus on their own war instead of focusing their attention on Cesar. He also added that if anyone tried to make contact with her, she had to report it… but there was no permission to intervene in this kind of struggle.

‘Human trafficking, drugs… I heard all dirty things are within their reach.’ In all honesty, she was reluctant to leave it alone. However, it was not possible to disobey an order just because of her personal feelings. Finally giving up on any further investigation and tracking them, she sighed and got up.

After she threw the dagger and corpse into the still-living flames, she turned her back without regret.

She was unaware there were eyes on her, staring at her all the time.

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