Ch.25What happened?

Though it would take me two weeks on foot to reach the volcano where the dragon resided, Serena would undoubtedly make it in no more than three days.

Serena had first stopped by that city, partially demolished the lord’s mansion, and then headed toward me, so the gap in time would be at most four days.

A civil war broke out in that short span? Even though the place had been functioning reasonably well despite the ongoing tension caused by news of a dragon’s appearance?

“That doesn’t make sense.”

There was clearly an active police force, and if needed, knights from the lord’s mansion could be mobilized.

Except for a tiny minority of high-ranking adventurers like Ryan or Scarface, most adventurers’ combat abilities fell slightly short of knights.

Moreover, anyone who joined the anti-lord faction to start a civil war would surely know that if Charlotte heard about it, they’d be tortured until they begged for death.

Perhaps due to past trauma, Charlotte’s attitude toward such people bordered on hysteria.

Adventurers who defied nobles governing territories were crucified without exception.

A horrific punishment where they were nailed to crosses and eaten alive by insects.

Thanks to Charlotte’s magic, they remained alive even after their vital organs were devoured, until their brains were finally touched last.

Some nobles exploited Charlotte’s temperament to oppress their subjects, but most were simply fools who didn’t realize that Charlotte’s purges targeted both nobles and commoners alike.

“But that’s what the lord said. She lamented that a civil war suddenly broke out in the city after I left.”

“A civil war broke out after you left, Serena… I wonder if there was a separate catalyst that triggered it once you disappeared, or if your actions themselves were the catalyst.”

There were mainly two possibilities.

Either the seeds of civil war had been planted long ago and Serena’s actions caused them to erupt, or the civil war itself was spontaneously triggered by Serena’s actions.

However, the latter seemed unrealistic.

A civil war isn’t child’s play. Instigating one while fully aware of the consequences would be like betting one’s life on a rigged gambling table with zero chance of winning.

“If there was a civil war, sides must have formed. Did they explain who sided with the lord?”

“Some knights from the mansion, guards, and a minority of adventurers and citizens sided with the lord. All other adventurers joined the opposition against the lord.”

“Wait, that many?”

My head hurt. Even if you gathered all the knights and guards from the mansion, they would be vastly outnumbered by the adventurers and citizens.

Yet among them, some opposed the lord, and except for a minority of adventurers and citizens, everyone else was anti-lord?

At that scale, it wasn’t a civil war but essentially a rebellion.

I wasn’t sure if the lord had considered this possibility and was denying reality, or if she hadn’t even thought of it as a rebellion.

Given her timid nature, she was probably just blaming herself. Of course, it wasn’t the lord’s fault at all.

Having witnessed numerous nobles’ governing styles throughout my life, I could confidently say that this city’s lord was among those who managed their territory quite admirably.

Even though it was some time ago when nobles wielded tremendous power, and even now, there were countless individuals engaging in petty corruption.

In comparison, this lord didn’t exploit her citizens, didn’t create unnecessary rules based on pure ignorance that caused suffering, and didn’t abuse her position for self-preservation or to satisfy her sense of superiority.

She was an exceptionally ideal noble who diligently fulfilled her duties.

‘Well, conversely, her kindness was almost problematic.’

Her benevolence was so excessive that she nearly released things that shouldn’t have been released, only stopping after advice from relatively conscientious adventurers led by Ryan.

“I should hear everything before making a judgment. Tell me everything the lord said.”

Serena made a troubled expression at my words.

“What you just heard is almost everything. The lord herself knew very little.”

“The civil war broke out after you left, and sides were formed. Are these two things all the lord knows? Doesn’t she even know the exact time the civil war erupted?”

“She said she was unconscious the whole time…”

Ah.

“She said she was unconscious for a long time, and when she finally regained consciousness at dawn, her direct knight who had been waiting for her to wake up informed her about the civil war. So the information I’m providing is merely secondhand, passed from the knight to the lord and then to me. From what I heard, the direct knight commanded people until the lord regained consciousness, so if you want more accurate information, you should contact that knight.”

“Did you talk with that person?”

“No. Suddenly, there was a sensation of high-level magic in the middle of the city, causing everyone in the mansion to create a commotion, briefly interrupting our conversation. I immediately recognized it was magic used by you, my lord, but others didn’t.”

The high-level magic Serena referred to was undoubtedly the Purgatory I had activated using a scroll.

Even though it was a weaker version, it had enough power to vaporize all nearby houses, so they must have seen that red sphere from the mansion. Naturally, they would have panicked wondering what it was.

“That’s because you’re abnormal, Serena. This place rarely sees or uses magic of such high rank, so that reaction is normal for ordinary people. I trust you handled it somehow. It would be problematic if even those on the lord’s side became anxious in this situation.”

“Yes. I conveyed that it was nothing to worry about. Though the lord seemed to interpret it differently. She appeared somewhat relieved.”

I could guess how she had interpreted those words differently.

Serena probably couldn’t reveal that I was the one who cast magic in the middle of the city, so she vaguely said it was nothing to worry about. But from the lord’s perspective, she might have understood it as meaning it was nothing compared to Serena herself.

Honestly, that misunderstanding was more convenient.

It would be more psychologically stabilizing to trust Serena completely rather than having lingering anxiety from a vague answer.

And Serena certainly had the ability to live up to that trust.

“What happened after that? There’s quite a gap between the Purgatory magic being activated and me calling you.”

Mostly because I was busy getting beaten up while setting traps to extract information from Scarface.

I couldn’t measure the exact time because I was frantically getting hit, exploding, being torn apart, and recovering, but it must have been over 30 minutes.

“I walked around the mansion and its surroundings with the lord. She said it was to calm the people who still followed her. She asked for my help, saying that just knowing I was on her side would greatly boost morale.”

“That was a good choice. If only she could do something about that timid nature, she could have been a much more excellent lord.”

“Then I heard you calling me, my lord, and after rushing to you, I believe you know what happened without me explaining.”

“Right, you don’t need to explain that. I’m asking just in case, but the other people near you couldn’t hear me calling you, right?”

“That’s correct. When I told them I heard your voice and had something to do, they seemed confused.”

“That’s fine then. I couldn’t have infused mana into my voice anyway, so naturally they wouldn’t have heard. I was just asking to be sure.”

Since we hadn’t moved a step from where we were when I first heard about the civil war, our position remained the same.

The surroundings were quiet, and there was still no sense of human presence. The occasional sound of wind added to the desolation. Something scattered nearby trembled with the breeze.

I pondered the question that had been circling in my mind since hearing Serena’s explanation. A clue seemed just within reach. I organized the information I had received.

The lord, who had fainted after Serena split the mansion in half with Sky Slash right before her eyes, woke up at dawn and received a report from her direct knight that a civil war had broken out in the city.

When checking how the sides were divided, a minority of knights, guards, adventurers, and citizens remained loyal to the lord, while everyone else joined the anti-lord faction.

So they were holed up in the already half-destroyed mansion, unable to do anything, until Serena returned, at which point the lord suppressed her fear and explained the situation.

On the surface, there didn’t seem to be any issues. But something kept bothering me.

Suddenly, my gaze turned to the ground. The main street was still clean, except for scattered debris and papers blowing in the wind.

I looked back at Serena. In her hands were a right arm dripping with blood and the head of a monster whose eyes were still rolling. Blood dripped from the cut surfaces, staining the ground.

Yes, that was the problem.

“Serena. May I ask one more thing?”

“Ask anything you wish.”

“Why do you think I asked if people around you, not around me, heard me calling you?”

“…”

At my question, Serena’s eyebrows drew slightly together toward the center of her forehead. She seemed to be carefully considering her answer.

I didn’t rush her for a quick response, patiently waiting. After contemplating with furrowed brows for a while, Serena cautiously spoke.

“Because there was no one near you to hear that call…?”

“That’s correct. Then, why were there no people around here?”

Serena pondered for a long time again. But this time, her answer was slightly different from before. Her shoulders dropped slightly.

“I don’t know. I’m sorry, my lord.”

“Hm? No, there’s no need to apologize. I’m not entirely certain about it either. I just wanted to hear your thoughts. Let me change the question. You said a civil war broke out in this city, right?”

“Yes.”

“If the situation was severe enough to be called a civil war, there must have been fighting.”

“I believe so.”

“Then, why aren’t there any bloodstains in this city?”

At my words, Serena’s face hardened as she looked around. The main street was still clean. More precisely, only bloodstains were nowhere to be seen.

The doors of nearby houses were all smashed, windows were completely shattered, and the interiors looked devastated as if looted, yet there wasn’t a single bloodstain to be found.

Serena’s gaze naturally turned to the head and right arm in her hands.

From where this monster had been cut up to our current location, blood drops had fallen regularly, creating a long dotted line.

The problem was that this was all there was.

“…I don’t know.”

Serena shook her head. But her shoulders, which had drooped slightly earlier, now had strength in them again. She seemed to sense that something was amiss.

“Let me propose a hypothesis. Earlier, the lord, or rather, her direct knight reported to the lord that a civil war had broken out, right?”

“Yes.”

“Why do you think they used the term ‘civil war’?”

“…?”

“The people still on the lord’s side are probably just those in the mansion. Meanwhile, let’s just call the others the anti-lord faction. I hesitate to definitively call them rebels. Anyway, the people who stood against the lord were essentially everyone else in the city.”

Although this city was located at the practical edge of the continent, it was conversely a place frequented by many adventurers.

Beyond here lies territory teeming with monsters. It’s inevitable that where monsters gather, adventurers who hunt them for materials will also gather.

“The power difference is too great.”

If they explicitly used the term “minority,” the disparity was clear. At least 5 to 1, if not more.

“And, Serena, do you see those completely destroyed shops over there?”

As my finger pointed around, Serena surveyed the surrounding buildings and nodded slowly.

Until now, she probably hadn’t paid much attention. The buildings, with only traces of devastation remaining, clearly showed that looting had occurred there recently.

“It’s called something as grand as a civil war, yet while the anti-lord faction, comprising most of the city’s residents, was looting like this, the lord’s mansion remained intact and there are no bloodstains. Does this make any sense? Did all those people just take goods and leave without shedding blood?”

“But there are many ways to kill people without drawing blood.”

“True. Using blunt weapons to concuss the brain, or breaking necks.”

I knew very well how people could die. I had tried most methods, and they had all failed on me.

I recalled the broken tile pieces I had suspected were Scarface’s doing when entering the city.

I had suspected Scarface because the tiles on the main street were smashed as if from intense fighting, yet there were no bloodstains, as if only bones had been broken.

“But you know, Serena, I don’t really trust people.”

Perhaps this is just me nitpicking words.

In such a chaotic situation, they might have used any term that came to mind, and it happened to be “civil war,” or this could be close to a paranoid speculation.

And, frankly, I hoped it was simply that.

“Are you telling me that among all those people fighting over possessions, not a single accidental killing occurred? Moreover, they looted the city, which guarantees execution if caught. Or did killings occur but were all handled in ways that didn’t spill blood?”

“…”

“And the bigger issue: where did all those people go?”

The door to the Adventurers’ Guild building was locked. Windows blocked with wooden planks from the inside clearly intended to keep outside things from coming in.

But if Scarface had used his full strength, those wooden planks would have shattered like reeds. They weren’t specially treated planks either.

The door, built with monster invasions in mind, was sturdy enough to withstand a dozen or so adventurers, but due to resource limitations, it was just a slightly more robust door.

Even that would have been no match for Scarface if he had been determined to break it.

At first, I thought the Adventurers’ Guild building had simply withstood because it was sturdier. But after taking a few hits from Scarface, my thinking changed.

That level of sturdiness simply couldn’t withstand him. Moreover, when I first entered here, his gang clearly implied that “there are still some wandering outside.”

The implication that some were still wandering outside conversely meant that there were people holed up inside buildings, but it bothered me that buildings, both homes and shops alike, were all destroyed.

I questioned whether anyone would hide in such buildings that were little more than ruins. And if they weren’t hiding in buildings, what distinguished the “inside” from the “outside” that those guys were talking about?

At first, I thought the city was simply in chaos, but the more I dug, the more contradictions emerged.

“So then…?”

Serena was about to question further when she suddenly clicked her tongue. Wondering what it was, I turned my head. A group of people was approaching from a distance.

It was quite an unexpected face. I thought they would have stayed at the mansion, but they came all the way here.

There were four people approaching. Leading them was a woman. Her long orange hair flowed behind her back, and despite her somewhat gaunt face, her beauty still stood out.

Having just regained consciousness and received shocking news one after another, she was dressed in light casual clothes.

Beside her was a large man who must have been at least 190cm tall. With hair close to bright yellow, he carried a massive greatsword and was heavily armored.

The other knights also followed behind, fully equipped in armor.

It was this city’s lord, Cartina, and her direct knight, Elliot.