CH 45.2

Viktor strains his ears as he looks toward Clermont. The sounds reaching outside the city walls have gradually died down.

‘Is the battle over?’

They’ve already received reports that the leading soldiers have reached the castle. He wonders if the king has been captured and the Commune soldiers have ceased their resistance.

After a short time, a messenger came to report the status of the front lines.

“Report! Princess Roseline is in protective custody inside Clermont Castle! Lady Alexia is currently bringing her here to headquarters.”

“The princess is in custody? Not the king, but the princess?”

“Yes, sire!”

After receiving the messenger’s report, Viktor quietly contemplates this.

‘If Alexia is protecting the princess, then the princess isn’t a vampire. If the princess isn’t a vampire, then as we suspected, there is a high chance that the vampire messenger was part of a plan to cause both countries to fall. It seems that Alexia, who was suspicious of the messenger, has acted according to her own judgment. Though, I did order her to focus on taking control of the city and rescuing the citizens after attacking the city gates. I suppose taking possession of Clermont would be asking too much.’

If possible, he wanted to pin the blame on the vampires and have Commune’s royal family killed, but perhaps he was setting his hopes too high, Viktor thinks in self-derision.

“Notify all units to cease combat. We will give Princess Roseline a courteous greeting.”

“Yes, sire. In addition…” the messenger says, hesitating as he chooses his words.

“I don’t mind. Speak.”

“While taking the princess into custody, Lady Alexia fought with an enemy mage and lost, it seems.”

“What? Is this true? Is Alexia safe?”

“I’m told she is safe and uninjured. But word has spread of Lady Alexia’s defeat, and it has caused some of the soldiers to panic.”

Viktor clicks his tongue internally. It is through leading soldiers that Alexia shows her true abilities, but she is capable enough to fight alone. On top of that, she has Irene at her side. The two of them are not easy to defeat. In fact, until coming here to Clermont, they’ve won against every enemy they’ve gone up against, and this invincibility has made them the spiritual backbone of the army. This is surely the reason why the soldiers have begun to panic upon learning of Alexia’s defeat. Even Viktor could not have anticipated that there would be anyone capable of defeating Alexia.

“It’s good that she’s safe. However, do you know the name of the mage who defeated Alexia?”

“I don’t know the details, but I do know his name. If I remember correctly, he’s the mage who calls himself Chaos.”

“Chaos. Oh, Chaos, is it?”

Viktor recognizes the name Chaos. He heard that name when he investigated Castal Kingdom after they suggested an alliance.

Chaos. That’s the young mage who defeated the Elder Treant, the servant of the evil god who controlled the orcs that attacked the Castal Kingdom. He disappeared as if into thin air, his whereabouts unknown. Apparently, even the Adventurer’s Guild was searching for him for a time. Although, the search could not continue for long, since they had to stop after imposters began to appear. Because of that, the name Chaos is not well known in the Weichsel Empire. It is said that he is also the one who spread the recipe for the highest level potions and the miracle medicine known as the elixir.

It seems that that man is here. If he’s as skilled as they claim, it would be no surprise if he was as strong as Alexia.

“Keep Alexia’s defeat a secret, and spread word that she is in good health. With the soldiers dispersed into the city, we must prevent any further chaos.”

“Understood.”

Watching as the messenger hurries away, Viktor mutters, “How troublesome.”

The saint’s defeat. This defeat is incredibly significant. The reason Alexia is called a saint is because the church has acknowledged that Alexia received a divine revelation at the temples of Brandenburg.

In other words, if it becomes known that the saint, an exceptional being who received a revelation from the gods, suffered a defeat by a mage who has not received a divine revelation, regardless of the fact that he defeated a servant of the evil god, the legitimacy of the gods as well as the saint herself will be called into question. Consequently, the authority of the church will be undermined.

Although, Viktor does not believe in the existence of gods he has never seen. However, the church’s authority and the saint are still useful to him. His sole saving grace is that only a portion of the soldiers have been informed of the saint’s defeat. He must conceal this fact at all costs. While waiting for the arrival of the Allied Commune’s Princess Roseline, Viktor considered how to proceed with post-war measures.

Afterwards, Roseline du Commune of the Allied Commune and Wilhelm Viktor von Weichsel of the Weichsel Empire held peace talks and ended the war. Thus concluded the Commune Liberation Battle.

The Commune Liberation Battle was a war between human nations which had not occurred for over a hundred years, and this fact shook the world. It is also considered a tragedy that occured due to a vampire plot, the result of which caused the Allied Commune considerable losses.

However, due to the efforts of Saint Alexia, who despised sacrifice, and Chaos the Mage, the war’s swift resolution led to fewer losses than was anticipated.

In addition, although it was publicly announced at the time that Chaos’s efforts played a key role in ending the war, some of the facts were distorted in the process. It is said that Chaos fought an evenly-matched battle with Saint Alexia, and, although he was injured, he explained that this series of disasters was caused by a vampire plot. After Alexia learned the truth, she and Chaos ended the war together.

Although part of the truth was distorted, the name of Chaos the Mage, who saved the Allied Commune from crisis several times and fought on equal footing with Saint Alexia who played an active role in the Battle for Brandenburg, became known even to people beyond the two countries’ borders.

The hero Chaos’s achievements:

“Aww, and it was going really well so far too,” Carmilla sighs as she watches Clermont through the crystal.

It was delightful watching vampires trick the humans into killing each other, but unexpectedly, the war came to an end without progressing any further, resulting in an imperfect outcome. Carmilla is left extremely unsatisfied.

“The outcome wasn’t worth all the time and effort that was put into it. Even if there were some results, it’s a failure. Ahh, how will I explain this to Master?”

Carmilla led this operation herself, so just the thought of it ending in failure is unbearable to her. As she thinks about how to smooth things over in her next report to her master, Carmilla becomes depressed.

Although, her master probably won’t care much. Her master has a plan of his own in the works. As long as it doesn’t interfere with that plan, his subordinates are allowed to do as they please. His subordinates are granted that much discretion. This broad-mindedness is also one of the reasons Carmilla admires her master.

“I had fun, so I guess it’s okay.”

As she remembers it, Carmilla’s expression softens. It was fun. Trampling the humans begging for their lives. Destroying towns and villages for fun, turning the lords into her underlings and imposing heavy taxes on the citizens, then torturing and killing the ones who didn’t obey. Maybe it was so fun that she was only focusing on hunting people. Maybe she enjoyed herself a little too much, she thinks as she sticks her tongue out.

Carmilla’s eyes are drawn to the three people displayed in the crystal. A boy wearing a robe, standing between two girls. Carmilla’s expression darkens.

“The saint, huh? If it weren’t for her, it probably would have gone a bit better.”

The speed of the Weichsel Empire’s invasion was unexpected even to Carmilla. She also witnessed the saint’s actions in Brandenburg, but when it came to war, her existence as one who fought by strengthening soldiers was more of an eyesore than Carmilla anticipated. She had a huge influence in the Weichsel Empire’s invasion speed being faster than expected.

Since her original goal was to make the humans fight each other and exhaust the resources of both the Weichsel Empire and the Allied Commune, she accomplished her goal to some extent, but the Weichsel Empire didn’t take as many losses as she anticipated.

“Getting to the bottom of all of it, that boy is probably the cause of this,” she says, tracing her finger across the face of the boy displayed in the crystal.

An irregularity of this world. The visitor from ‘the other world’. When she learned that there was a visitor from ‘the other world’ aside from her master, Carmilla was delighted. She thought that maybe he would save monsters just like her master.

But the reality was different. The effect he’s had on this world has already made a large impact and interfered with the plans and strategies the monsters have made.

Both the incident in Weichsel as well as this incident might have gone more smoothly if he hadn’t trained the saint. After some investigating, she discovered that this boy was also the one who defeated the Elder Treant in the Castal Kingdom.

A coincidence…? No, she can’t disregard it as such. If he thwarted them three times, it’s obvious that he’s actively attempting to stop the monster’s plans. In other words, there is a possibility that this boy will interfere with her master’s plan.

She pokes the face of the boy displayed in the crystal with her nail.

‘Perhaps I should eliminate this boy after all,’ Carmilla thinks. She should act quickly before he hinders their next plan.

“It looks like I’ll have to make you disappear, visitor from the same world as Master.”