Ch.60Promoted to a City (5)

Outside the hall where the mage and administrator were talking.

Mirella leaned against the wall next to the hall’s door, her head hanging low.

After the Mountain Worm incident, Mirella had been holed up in her room, but when she heard that the evaluation committee from the royal castle had arrived, she came to the hall.

She figured the royal officials would come to the hall first, and she wanted to see if there was anything she could help with during the evaluation.

After spending several days thinking in bed, Mirella’s hurt feelings had mostly subsided.

There had been a spell that blew away the Mountain Worm and the entire mountain.

No one could explain what had happened, so her brother probably thought of Alreina.

Her brother had mentioned before that Alreina was a magic swordsman who could use magic. And that she was incredibly strong.

It seemed impossible, but her brother must have assumed that Alreina had appeared with magic to save them.

There was no other immediate explanation.

Above all, when her brother opened his eyes, the first thing he asked was if she was okay.

That was enough.

Besides, she didn’t need to feel hurt or tell her brother how to feel about Alreina.

Her brother had known Alreina before her, and he had given various things to Alreina out of sympathy for someone her age setting off on an adventure.

Her brother was simply worried about Alreina who had gone on a dangerous adventure, and Alreina was probably sending letters out of gratitude.

Mirella forcibly suppressed the memory of her brother sleep-talking Alreina’s name at night and tried to interpret the situation positively.

With that thought, Mirella got out of bed and headed to the hall.

Although Mirella had a fiery temper, she didn’t hold grudges. Once she convinced herself of something, that was the end of it.

So she went to the hall humming cheerfully, but then she overheard what the administrator was saying about her brother.

The village administrator liked her brother. No, beyond that, she was obsessively attached to and dependent on him.

Everyone in the village knew this. Some even said that it would be better for the village if her brother married the administrator.

The administrator was pretty, had a good figure, and was smart. She was the right age and surely had more money saved than Mirella.

Objectively speaking, if only her depression could be resolved, there would be no better wife for her brother than the administrator.

So Mirella fell into extreme frustration once again.

She had somehow gotten past Alreina, but it was too difficult to casually dismiss the administrator.

Alreina was a magic swordsman wandering in a distant foreign land she’d only heard about.

A magic swordsman she’d never heard of before, with no guarantee of when she would return—Alreina was practically a fantasy.

But the administrator was not. The administrator was reality.

Mirella sighed and left the hall.

She thought about going back to the shop but instead headed toward the mine.

If she went to the shop, she felt like she would just crawl back into bed and never come out.

The bustling, noisy mine would keep her from having strange thoughts.

As she walked toward the eastern entrance, she saw her brother in the distance leading several people.

She raised her hand to greet him, and her brother made eye contact with her.

However, without any particular reaction, he passed by her while enthusiastically explaining something.

Those people must be the evaluation committee from the royal castle. He was probably too busy guiding them, but for some reason, Mirella felt deeply hurt by his lack of response.

She passed through the eastern entrance and went up to the mine.

The mine’s facilities were almost complete, and the sound of digging echoed loudly.

As Mirella was about to enter the stockade surrounding the mine, she noticed something strange.

It was two people crouching at the corner of the stockade.

Adelheid and her eternal subordinate, the 2nd Division Commander.

What are those people doing here? They look extremely suspicious.

“Commander. Please reconsider,” she heard the 2nd Division Commander’s voice as she approached.

“How long are you going to stay here? You need to regroup the scattered men. This life here doesn’t suit you at all.”

Then he took out several stones from his pocket.

“I secretly took these from the mine earlier. It’s Gambrinite. Even this much is enough to raise sufficient funds. Commander, let’s leave. We can be ready even tonight.”

Adelheid shook her head as she looked at the minerals in the 2nd Division Commander’s hand.

“I’m not going.”

“What?! Commander! Surely you don’t intend to settle here permanently?!”

“Yes. I’m not leaving. If you want to go, go alone. You can become the new commander.”

“Commander!”

The 2nd Division Commander shouted.

“Don’t say that! How could I leave without you! Is it… because of that person?”

The 2nd Division Commander asked with great suspicion.

“Is it because of that potion maker that you can’t leave?”

“That’s right. Where Jack is, is where I belong.”

“Commander… Haven’t you already been deceived by him once? Do you intend to be manipulated again?”

“It doesn’t matter. Even if that’s the case.”

“What? It doesn’t matter?”

“Miyumi. I think I understand a little now.”

“Understand what?”

“Sacrifice and devotion.”

The 2nd Division Commander Miyumi stared at Adelheid with her mouth half open.

“Even if Jack doesn’t accept me, it doesn’t matter. I can be satisfied just by being able to help him from the sidelines.”

“Commander… get a hold of yourself… isn’t that just… becoming a pushover…”

“A pushover. Perhaps so.”

Adelheid smiled bitterly and stroked Miyumi’s head.

“Go alone. Go and rebuild the mercenary group.”

With that, Adelheid took out a small seal from inside her clothes and held it out to Miyumi.

It was the official seal of the Remugen Mercenary Commander.

“With this, no one will question your authority.”

“I don’t need it!”

Miyumi angrily pushed away Adelheid’s hand.

“If you’re not there, I have no meaning at all!”

“Miyumi.”

“I’ll stay here too. Just as you’re becoming a pushover for that potion maker, I’ll become a pushover for you. So…”

The 2nd Division Commander Miyumi couldn’t continue and sobbed.

When Adelheid hugged her, Miyumi suddenly started crying loudly like a child.

Seeing this, Mirella sighed deeply again and turned away.

Adelheid, the irregular warfare instructor of the knights.

A woman whose exact origin and past history no one knew, but who was respected by the knights for her tremendous skills.

She genuinely likes my brother too…

“Hello.” “Hello, Mirella.”

After passing the knights guarding the stockade and entering, she saw Liberone.

“Mirella. What brings you here?”

“Just came to see. Wanted to check how things were going.”

“As you can see, mining has started very stably.”

Liberone pointed to the cross-section of the mountain range with her gauntleted hand.

Many people were busy digging the wall with pickaxes and breaking up the extracted stones.

“We’ll take what comes out of there to the village forge for refining. Items with commercial value will be traded, and iron ore and such will be used for village development.”

“I see. That’s good.”

“This is all thanks to the Guardian Angel. Without him, this would have been unimaginable.”

Mirella flinched at Liberone’s words.

“Sir Knight, what exactly is this Guardian Angel?”

“The destiny and ultimate destination of us Holy Knights. A parent, friend, lover, and spouse.”

“I don’t understand at all.”

“The Holy Knight and Guardian Angel are beings who will eventually become one and be together forever. Of course, it’s difficult for you to understand since you’re not a Holy Knight.”

“I-I see. But Sir Knight, what if my brother isn’t a Guardian Angel?”

Liberone stared down at Mirella. Mirella smiled awkwardly under that gaze.

“I’m sorry. I misspoke…”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“What?”

“Even if the Guardian Angel isn’t really my Guardian Angel, it doesn’t matter.”

“Why…?”

“Because he is already as good as my Guardian Angel.”

“I see…”

Mirella could somewhat understand Liberone’s cryptic words.

“Since you’re here, why don’t you help the people, Mirella? With your opener, you could do the work of ten people.”

“I will.”

With her mind in turmoil, Mirella decided to follow Liberone’s suggestion.

“Move aside, move!”

Pretending to be energetic, Mirella twirled Vint’s Opener above her head.

“If the cliff collapses and crushes you, don’t blame me!”

As the knights who already knew about Mirella’s power hurriedly backed away, she summoned her aura.

A red aura resembling Mirella’s hair wrapped around the opener and rose up.

“Heyaaarararah!”

With one strike of the aura-wrapped opener, a hole nearly twice as deep as what people had been digging appeared, and minerals poured out from inside.

People cheered and shouted Mirella’s name.

But Mirella didn’t feel any better.

After using the opener several times, Mirella returned to the village with an increasingly gloomy mood.

Alreina, the administrator, Adelheid, Liberone.

All of them were opponents far beyond Mirella’s league.

In every aspect, Mirella was inferior to them.

She grew up as a war orphan in the slums of Starting Village.

Without possessing anything, she was just arrogantly living in the potion shop thanks to her brother’s kindness.

I am nothing…

“Mirella, Mirella!”

Looking up, she saw Brasya splashing in the river with the pigs.

Had she wandered all the way here in her daze?

“Come in! It’s cool!”

Brasya cheerfully called out, her clothes soaked through, revealing her voluptuous curves without filter.

Even that half-goblin is better than me…

Mirella fell into complete despair.