Ch.962Aftermath

The monsters that had invaded inside the walls were completely eliminated in no time.

I didn’t even need to step in.

While I was hurriedly changing clothes and providing emergency treatment with healing miracles, all those creatures suddenly melted into black liquid masses.

I’m not sure why. Perhaps because the culprit who summoned those monster swarms had fled far away?

Well, anyway, it worked out well.

“Ugh… ptooey! What is this…?!”

“Blegh… what is this garbage smell…?”

It might have been unfortunate for the knights who were fighting well but ended up covered in or accidentally swallowing that sewage-smelling black liquid….

“Victory is ours! Raise your voices in triumph!”

Regardless, thanks to that, the expected casualties were somewhat reduced.

“…Ugh, this smell though.”

Seeing the female knight who had called for cheers now pinching her nose with a grimace, I wondered if this stench should be counted among the collateral damage.

“Hey, Janes. Do you have any perfume to spare? Let me borrow some if you do.”

“…I don’t have any.”

The female knight covering her nose turned to look at another female knight standing behind her.

“What do you mean you don’t have any? You’re always doused in perfume trying to catch men.”

“…That’s only when I’m off duty. Why would I carry something as expensive as perfume during combat? What if it breaks?”

Both were female knights of the Rose Cross Order. From their conversation, it seemed the one covering her nose was the senior and the one responding was the junior.

Since I don’t know all their faces and names, I wasn’t sure exactly who they were.

“Haaa… my nose feels like it’s rotting…”

“Ugh! Don’t sigh like that. It makes the sewer stench stronger.”

“…Would you like to taste some too? I could scoop some up for you myself.”

“I’ll report this to Commander Leonore. I’ll tell her I need to leave the order because of this harassment.”

It was rather amusing to eavesdrop from a distance. Enough to make me chuckle.

Leonore seems to be raising these kids with a loose hand. Is it because this is the female knight order she created herself during her princess days?

The hierarchy between senior and junior seemed nonexistent—they were practically performing a comedy routine, looking more like friends than superior and subordinate.

“My goodness… the knight order is turning upside down. When a junior threatens her senior. Back in my day, Janes—”

“You remember we only joined two months apart, right?”

“Two months is enough time to have two children, you know?”

“No, it’s not. We’re not rabbits.”

“Oh, are you saying I’m cute like a rabbit?”

“Are you insane? Let’s just get back to work.”

Ah, these people are really funny.

I was in the middle of smoking when I burst out laughing, causing the knights and officials standing guard around me to tilt their heads in confusion.

“Your Majesty? Is something troubling you…?”

“Ah, well… you see those blonde female knights over there? The one next to the brown-haired one.”

“Hmm… do you mean Lady Laine and Lady Janes?”

So her name was Laine.

Well, names don’t really matter anyway.

“Yes, send each of those female knights a set of perfumes from the palace. Tell them it’s a gift from me.”

“Perfume…? Ah, yes. Understood. Should I deliver it immediately?”

“No, wait until after we’ve sorted out the situation. Send it then. So, around noon tomorrow.”

When they receive the heap of perfumes sent in my name, they’ll realize I heard their entire comedy routine.

They’ll probably want to bury their heads in a mousehole from embarrassment.

I won’t be able to see their reactions directly, but just imagining it was amusing enough to make me smile.

—-

While knights and soldiers were busy sorting out the situation and running around breathlessly, I sat quietly on the wall, smoking to pass the time.

You might ask if I should be setting a better example as queen rather than slacking off?

Of course not. This was absolutely fulfilling my queenly duties.

I was recovering my physical and mental strength in case any enemies remained—a duty of the strong, you might say. A responsibility of the powerful.

Besides, there wasn’t much else I could do.

Was I supposed to clean the streets? Or treat the wounded?

Such tasks needed to be left to my subordinates. The latter was completely impossible for me anyway.

– Whoosh!

Putting out the fires still burning outside the walls was also beyond my capabilities.

The only way I could extinguish fires would be to blast the entire burning area off the face of the earth, and that could hardly be called “putting out a fire.”

The only ways to extinguish those flames were to wait for them to die naturally or mobilize numerous people for firefighting operations.

Honestly, this was overlooked only because the queen herself had started the fire. If anyone else had burned the area in front of the capital like this, they would have been punished despite winning the battle.

The flames were so fierce that such thoughts came naturally. How long would it take to restore everything to its original state?

I don’t know. Perhaps it would be better to give up on restoration entirely and cultivate new fields in the burned area instead.

Anyway, for these reasons, I focused on recovering my strength while waiting quietly on the wall.

I wasn’t just resting without purpose. Really.

Oh, by the way, Demian was fine.

When I asked the paladins who came looking for me, they said he suddenly appeared in mid-air with a flash of light, then fell and lost consciousness.

I understood roughly what had happened.

In that extreme situation where he could have been reduced to ashes, his survival instinct erupted like a volcano, awakening his latent potential.

Thanks to that, his Tale of Heros, which had previously been little more than flying ability, blossomed into coordinate teleportation. Just as I had explained before.

In other words, facing death, he awakened something like a blink ability.

It was good that he awakened it, but spatial transfer through coordinate teleportation is such an advanced ability that he must have depleted his Karma immediately after using it and fallen.

He’s quite something.

Well, anyway, he seems to have gotten stronger, so I don’t plan to scold him. Holding his own against three Deathknights was quite an achievement in itself.

Honestly, it was amazing how he managed to hold out at all.

The old man’s dark energy could be countered with the holy power in his sacred sword, but the red-haired spearman’s acceleration ability would be difficult even for me to handle without Defying Fate.

I realized anew that Demian had indeed grown much stronger.

And now that he seems to have awakened coordinate teleportation, he’ll be even stronger once he recovers. That was good news.

I can probably double the intensity of his training from now on.

He’ll complain, but I think he’ll follow along well enough anyway.

Demian is like steel—the more you hammer him, the stronger he becomes. That belief was gradually turning into certainty.

—-

“I was wondering where you were and what you were doing, but here you are slacking off.”

As I was slacking off—no, recovering my energy—for quite some time, Frider van Faelrun, who had been at the bottom of the wall, climbed up and spoke to me.

She was soaking wet, as if she had thrown herself into a stream to wash off the sewage-smelling black liquid.

“What do you mean slacking off? Do you know what I’ve been through today? I did the work of a hundred Friders all by myself.”

I waved my hand lightly, inviting her to sit beside me.

“Oh, really? You must have unified the continent or something.”

Frider sat down next to me with a chuckle.

Up close, I could see that the coat she wore in place of armor was torn in various places, revealing broken chain links underneath.

She must have fought hard too.

Though she looked fine now, probably having received treatment, judging by the state of her clothes, she must have been covered in wounds until just recently.

“By the way, why are you suddenly wearing a knight’s uniform? What happened to your usual armor?”

Frider looked me up and down, asking why I was wearing the Rose Cross Order uniform instead of my winter armor.

My usual armor… well, about that…

“It burned up…”

I pointed to the leather scraps on the ground with a sigh, like a construction foreman whose project had completely failed.

It had been burned repeatedly until it shrank like a motel towel, but I thought it would return to normal over time thanks to its auto-repair ability…

But it didn’t.

Whether because of the fire damage or because the regenerative power itself had limits, the shrunken fur didn’t return to its original state.

It was time to say goodbye to the warm-hearted beast-man Rurik who had kept me warm all this time.

Of course, since all the Ka’har members were wearing clothes made from Rurik’s skin, I could just take theirs back and make new armor…

‘…That’s a bit…’

There are things a person just shouldn’t do. Taking back what you’ve given is too petty. My dignity wouldn’t allow it.

Of course, since their winter armor still retained regenerative properties, I could cut off parts of the fur to use as material if absolutely necessary.

But the problem is that the cut pieces wouldn’t retain the regenerative power, making them one-time-use armor at best.

Sigh… the Werebeast king’s skin… it was such a good material, but there’s no way to get more. I’ve used up all the remaining supply.

That useless beast Rurik. If he was going to leave his skin behind, he should have left enough for a hundred sets.

Really, should I cross the Sky Mountains to attack Baryachrus, where Oleg is sitting, and skin him alive?

Sending an expeditionary force to that freezing land would be impossible, but if Demian and I launched a surprise attack, we might actually have a chance.

Like those fairy attackers, we could fly to his palace, kill Oleg, and flee immediately.

…If we weren’t in a state of war, I would have tried it. It was frustrating that we couldn’t.

Really, if it weren’t for Alvheim…