Ch.124Victory Conditions (7)

# Victory Condition (7)

Fellheim Senova was a soldier.

That was a self-evident proposition that occupied most of her life.

By the time she came of age, she had already volunteered for the military and steadily rose through the ranks.

Even when all her peers chose to be discharged one by one from the harsh environment, she remained a soldier.

Was it because her will was exceptional?

Did she have some noble purpose?

No, she had none of that back then. She simply didn’t know how to do anything else.

“They’re running bakeries and flower shops, damn them. That’s only possible for people who had those interests.”

She volunteered for the military to survive, and because of that, she knew no other life.

She never looked elsewhere. She just wanted to survive.

All she knew was how to grip a spear and sword and pierce the enemy’s heart.

Now that life had become familiar, to the point where she couldn’t imagine any other.

And so Fellheim Senova gradually rose in rank.

A mere sacrificial lamb from the boy soldiers had now become an officer.

And by then, she began to have some breathing room. She also had more things to care about.

She was no longer just someone who followed orders but someone who gave them.

Gradually, she expanded her way of life, and in the process, she fell in love.

She formed a family and began to grasp a purpose in life.

“I was just someone who only cared about myself, but when I came to my senses, I found I had developed something like a plausible belief.”

She became a soldier just to survive.

But as time passed, her skeletal sense of justice became genuine, and her purpose gradually gained substance.

“People like me shouldn’t exist.”

The purpose she came to hold:

To change the world so that people like her wouldn’t come into being.

Of course, her efforts alone wouldn’t change anything.

But someday, when the war ended and peace arrived, even if it was false.

“At least there will come a day when child soldiers are deemed unnecessary.”

Wouldn’t there be fewer fools who recklessly volunteered for the military because they didn’t know how to do anything else, like her?

She didn’t hope for peace. She had no such grand cause.

She just wanted idiots like herself not to waste their lives.

Even though she herself was still in the military despite thinking this way.

What could she do? Her second goal was to ensure her family could live a life that lacked nothing.

This was all she knew how to do.

Still, she wanted her family to live well, at least as much as she had suffered.

It would be perfect if they could live lavishly like other nobles.

“I guess that was greed.”

Yes, perhaps they didn’t like that she, a mere beggar by origin, had accumulated such wealth and power.

“You know what? Commoners are livestock.”

They should just live like dogs and pigs.

If you don’t know your place and try to live like a human outside the fence, you get hit on the back of the head like this.

“That’s the damn world we live in.”

Fellheim Senova extinguished the tobacco she had been smoking steadily.

She had accumulated too much wealth and power.

Yes, to the point of being a nuisance.

To the point where the empire’s great nobles considered her a threat.

It was power built through strength.

So the justification was simple.

“I’ve lived my whole life for the empire, yet now they call it treason. Isn’t that funny? Treason from someone like me who’s only ever seen the sight of exchanging spears and swords with the likes of you in this border region. Heh heh.”

Rumors spread that Fellheim Senova was plotting treason.

And those rumors grew flesh and became fact before Fellheim Senova even noticed.

And she didn’t know about it.

It was absurd. By the time the rumors that started in the center of the empire reached her ears, they had already become fact.

Before she could even make excuses, the empire had made Fellheim Senova a traitor, and her family was beheaded.

And now only she remains.

Just as the rumors had only now reached her ears, the troops sent to strike her would have only just departed.

Yes, there wasn’t much time.

She would soon be killed by troops under the emperor’s orders.

“Tell me. How will you persuade someone like me who’s in such a shitty situation?”

“It’s truly…”

Fellheim Senova asked the monster who had come before her.

A monster that was clearly ominous, with black energy swirling around it.

A former archmage, a lich.

There’s no need to explain why Fellheim Senova was having a private audience with a monster that normally wouldn’t even be worth talking to.

“…a regrettable situation.”

“Heh heh heh!”

It would be too frustrating to just take it lying down, wouldn’t it?

“I will help you. Please let me help you.”

“Spare me the flattery. Just tell me what you want and what you can do.”

“What I desire is only one thing. For you and I to become friends.”

“You’re trying hard to dress it up, but your conclusion is that I should hand over this fortress city to the demon faction, isn’t it?”

The fortress city lives up to its reputation with absolute defensive capabilities.

This natural fortress, created through the cooperation of all eight magic towers, can block nearly 99% of external attacks.

And that figure is fully reflected in the magic barrier as well.

In other words, even if the opponent pours in considerable high-level magic, our side can firmly withstand it just by setting up a new mana barrier.

A natural fortress. Humanity’s last bastion.

The reason why humans, who are much weaker than the demon race, can block and hold the exit through which they emerge.

“So if I hand this place over, what can you give me?”

“Youth, and family.”

“…”

“Fellheim Senova. I know you were quite strong in your prime. Aging is a sad thing. It’s the unfortunate limitation of humans. I overcame it through death and transcendence, but yours will be a bit different.”

“Different how?”

“As I am now, I can restore you to your younger self. Of course…”

“There’s a price, I assume.”

“Yes.”

Six nodded while rubbing his hands. He had no intention of deceiving her. Rather, he intended to be honest.

“If you receive this procedure, you’ll only be able to live for about a month.”

“Ha! You’re a complete bandit.”

“But isn’t a month enough for what you need?”

A month.

Enough time to take revenge on the nobles and the empire that cast her out.

Six knew Fellheim Senova all too well.

That she wouldn’t give up like this, but she had no attachment to life.

So she would vent her anger to her heart’s content and then die gloriously in battle.

He knew that was the most fitting end for Fellheim Senova.

“And the latter?”

“It’s simple. Necromancy.”

“Necromancy…”

“Wouldn’t it be nice to at least say a final farewell to your children?”

“…”

Fellheim Senova once again took out tobacco from her bosom and put it in her mouth.

The family she loved.

She learned too late even the fact that they had died.

She didn’t know what their last words might have been, whether they were resentful or worried. She just came to her senses and found things this way.

That was so regrettable.

More than anything else, it made her feel so guilty.

“…I accept your proposal.”

The long-standing hero of humanity decided to join hands with the evil black mage.

***

Esmeralda gathered everyone.

No, not exactly everyone. Millia was nowhere to be seen. Esmeralda didn’t know where she was wandering off to, but she had no intention of delaying any further.

“Eirene, please use holy magic to prevent sound from escaping.”

“Looks like something’s happened again.”

Eirene followed Esmeralda’s words without expressing any doubt.

She was used to it by now.

How terrible the trials that accompany the hero’s party can be.

“First, let’s share the information Garnet told me. There’s a high probability that Legion Commander Six is with Legion Commander Nine.”

“Legion Commander Nine… Wasn’t he a Death Knight? Since they’re both undead, certainly… No, perhaps there’s a chance that Legion Commander Nine is an undead raised by Six…”

“…”

Esmeralda glanced sideways at Eirene, who could derive answers with just a bit of information, and shuddered.

She couldn’t have imagined this until she heard everything from Garnet.

Indeed, the one hiding the most insidious thoughts in the hero’s party.

She couldn’t let her guard down.

“And the most important part is that signs of betrayal by Lord Fellheim Senova have been detected.”

“Eh? That, that old lady?”

The one most surprised by Esmeralda’s somber voice was none other than Tina.

Eirene was always the type to imagine such things, so that was separate.

Garnet and Extra couldn’t discuss it because they didn’t even know what kind of person Fellheim Senova was in the first place.

In contrast, Tina had a good first impression of Fellheim Senova.

“The peppermint candy she gave me was delicious.”

The image of her soothing Tina with candy when she was afraid.

Tina felt an immediate sense of familiarity because she sensed sincerity there.

While everyone, including Esmeralda, Eirene, and Lug, was plotting their own schemes beneath the surface, the innocent Tina didn’t know that.

Esmeralda looked at Tina with an incredulous gaze but then sighed deeply and shook her head.

She liked Tina this way.

She’d prefer if she remained untainted like that.

“So who’s going to tell Millia? More importantly, where did she go… She usually doesn’t budge from her room, but today of all days…”

Esmeralda was grumbling but suddenly became cold. If Fellheim Senova was an enemy, she shouldn’t think of behavior different from usual.

“Could she have been kidnapped?”

“Millia?!”

“Eirene, why do you look happy?”

“Hmm, hmm… must be my imagination.”

***

At the time when Esmeralda was worrying whether Millia had been kidnapped,

Millia was doing something that would make Esmeralda grab the back of her neck in worry rather than concern.

“Ah, it’s been a while. How are your recent achievements?”

Yes, she had deceived the eyes of the hero’s party and was in contact with someone.

“…So-so? I’m fine.”

“Hoho, despite saying that, the flow of your mana is not harmonious. It’s evidence that you’ve been working hard consistently.”

Millia nodded as she looked up at the person who was patting her head as if pleased.

Bony fingers.

A hand without warmth.

She knew this hand.

Legion Commander Six, the former master of the Cadaver Tower, Despair Undertaker.

Yes, he was…

“Yes, Master.”

The archmage who first discovered the raw gem that was Millia.