Ch.96Chapter 96. Let’s Go See the Children

Many things happened in the middle of the night.

First, Garin, Airan’s husband and the commander of the legion stationed in the Holy Nation, surrounded and annihilated the base of the Holy Knights who had robbed the warehouse and fled.

To be precise, it was an alliance between the Holy Knights and corrupt priests.

“Money and food—that’s all they had! There wasn’t much to begin with!”

It was much easier than expected, and the results were disappointingly meager.

Agreus and Castie must have poured everything into their operation, as what the Holy Knights had stolen amounted to just a few gold coins and less than a week’s worth of food.

No wonder these so-called knights looked so weak and emaciated.

The remnants of the Holy Knights were all killed except for two.

Meanwhile, Garin’s army had only one injured soldier.

And even that was someone who got excited during the charge, fell on his own, and sprained his ankle.

With no other choice, Garin made the two survivors confess all their misdeeds in front of the Holy Nation citizens before leaving them to the people’s judgment.

Unsurprisingly, they were beaten to death by the angry mob.

It wasn’t a bad choice from Garin and the Imperial Army’s perspective, as it allowed the Holy Nation citizens to vent their pent-up frustrations.

But the real problem lay elsewhere.

The survival of the slum children.

Naidrian left the camp again and returned with Ruben at dawn.

“Father! Are you alright?”

Rabin greeted him with concern, but Ruben didn’t look too bad.

“The food the porter gave us lasted quite well. However, we couldn’t use fire often for fear of being discovered, so mealtimes were irregular.”

“That’s a relief.”

Arsil, too, felt relieved as he overheard the conversation from a distance.

He had promised to teach the children how to fish next time they met…

But now, the thought of showing his pathetic self to those innocent children again felt like a terrible sin.

“I can send some troops to protect the children and priests. But food is another matter.”

Lin and Rabin brought the priest to Garin, but he expressed reluctance.

He also looked tired, having just returned from suppressing the remnants.

“The food we brought is barely enough. If we bring the children here to feed them, the people already here will become discontented.”

“They’re children. Can’t we make an exception?”

“Of course I want to help them. But Rabin, you should know better than anyone—people resent the slums just because they received aid from the Hero’s Party first. It’s irrational, but they’re angry instead of accepting their situation. Bringing them here or sharing food could create a volatile situation.”

“Then let’s do this.”

Rabin shared the idea he had discussed with the Holy Nation citizens.

Taking them to Valter Croix to settle.

This place had no advantages other than being Holy Nation territory.

The wealthy and even commoners wanted to relocate.

“If you exempt them from taxes for one year, Valter Croix will take care of all the settlement subsidies and other miscellaneous matters.”

Somewhere, the governing representative Jiyol could be heard wailing, but Rabin thought it was an auditory hallucination and ignored it.

“How much food is left?”

“Four days’ worth.”

“We’ll start teleporting people in two days. Once everyone is moved, let’s bring the children.”

“Agreed. This place will be used as Dekarune’s autonomous territory and military base anyway, so fewer people is better.”

Using Holy Nation territory—far from the demon front lines but close to the islands—as a military base.

It was a rather significant statement.

Lin noticed that Garin and Airan considered them implicit political allies.

Anyway, that concluded the discussion with the Dekarune side.

Protection was guaranteed, but there was no food for the children.

Food was always the problem, no matter where they went.

While Lin, Rabin, Tigria, and Luci were racking their brains, a welcome announcement caught Lin’s ear.

“Come on over! The Golden Carriage has everything except what it doesn’t! Food, daily necessities—all for sale if you have money! If you don’t have money, I can buy or exchange items…”

A familiar flashy carriage design.

A melodious voice.

It was the Golden Carriage World Postal Service they had seen in Gillesmen.

But he stopped his carriage upon seeing the Holy Nation, which had openly become a refugee feeding station.

“What the… The profitable Gillesmen went to ruin, so I bribed my way to change my assigned area, and this place is ruined too… I’m going crazy, I swear!”

The postal worker cried out to the heavens, not caring about people’s stares.

“Over here! Here! I have things to sell! And I want to buy things too!”

Lin frantically waved her hands and ran toward him.

—

“We really are~ necessary to each other, aren’t we~?”

Meeting this postal worker was fortunate and unfortunate at the same time.

“Should we just make an exclusive contract? Ah, this would be about 23 gold coins?”

This postal worker who miraculously appeared whenever money and goods were needed, and who miraculously slashed prices when it came time to trade.

As soon as she heard the price, Lin’s initial joy vanished, replaced by an urge to punch him in the face.

They had gathered as many parts as possible from the corpses of the monsters summoned by the enchantress Adora, but it was far from enough compared to the amount they had traded in Gillesmen.

Back then too, everything she sold was discounted by more than half, while everything she bought was outrageously overpriced.

“How much for the food items on this list?”

“Let’s see… Well, this isn’t a wasteland like Gillesmen, so about this much?”

The number written on the list was 22.

22 gold coins.

The remaining 1 gold coin wasn’t enough even for regular express mail, let alone investment funds for Naidrian.

“Alright. Let’s do this.”

But there was no other choice.

The children needed to be fed.

Lin sighed as she took out the monster parts from Cosmos.

She had deliberately taken the postal worker aside for the transaction to avoid unnecessary suspicion, but someone was secretly watching the scene.

‘Finally caught you in the act of embezzlement!’

Spoils of war originally belonged to the country.

Therefore, the Hero Party’s spoils, unless they were direct gifts, should first be offered to the Empire.

But Lin was disposing of those spoils at her discretion to fund her private assets.

‘With this, we elves will receive the promised forest.’

The excited Naidrian began writing a report to send to the Shield Knight.

She detailed which spoils were traded and how much was received. When the archer looked up, Lin had already disappeared, and only the World Postal worker remained, organizing his carriage.

“Well, even though it’s less than I expected, selling these will still turn a profit.”

“Excuse me…”

“Hmm? A customer?”

The shy Naidrian called out to the postal worker in a whisper.

After calling several times, the postal worker turned around, and she timidly held out a sealed letter.

“Hmm? A love letter?”

“No! I want to use your postal service!”

“Ah, I see. Regular express or super express?”

“Um… how much are they?”

“Regular express is 8 gold coins, super express is 12 gold coins.”

Shocked by the outrageous amounts, Naidrian frantically waved her hands.

“Just regular fast mail!”

“Alright, that’s 1 gold coin.”

“Wait a moment, oh…”

Rummaging through her wallet, the archer found only silver and copper coins, not a single gold coin, and broke into a sweat.

She had spent all 100 gold coins she had received from Investor Lee on research expenses, leaving her with no money.

“Um… I’m sorry, but I don’t have money… What’s your cheapest service?”

“No money? Hmm. The cheapest postal service is ‘When Convenient, Along the Way.'”

“H-how much is that?”

“50 silver coins.”

Still expensive.

Naidrian reluctantly scraped together her remaining money and handed it to the postal worker.

“I can’t tell you when this will arrive.”

“But it will get there, right?”

“That much I can guarantee.”

His lackluster response wasn’t very reassuring, but being broke was her own fault.

She had plenty of letters to send to Investor Lee as well, but the disheartened Naidrian trudged back toward the Hero’s Party.

Just then, Lin and Luci were looking at the devastated lands with serious expressions.

“Archer, could you please examine the soil condition? To see if cultivation is possible…”

The Holy Nation lands had suffered years of poor harvests due to the goddess’s punishment.

Lin wondered if the curse might have been lifted now that the Pope had been purified.

But Naidrian only gave her a contemptuous look without answering.

“Hey, what’s with that face? Got a problem? Speak up.”

Luci stepped in for the bewildered Lin.

She quickly reached out and grabbed Naidrian’s cheek, making the archer swat her hand away and stammer a response.

“Ack! The… the soil fertility is… minimal… and there’s… bad energy…”

“Now that Arsil has quieted down, you’re causing trouble? Let’s get along nicely, okay?”

Naidrian was angered by Luci’s gangster-like behavior.

“Excuse me, Luciena!”

“What? If you’re apologizing for blowing off my arm, I won’t accept it.”

“…”

Surprisingly, Luci’s words carried weight.

The archer, caught in an awkward position, glanced around and slowly backed away.

But Lin had no intention of letting her go.

“Um, Archer, if you don’t mind, could you spare me a moment?”

After the Arsil incident, Lin realized that the game she had played was a limited edition of “Demon God” and decided she could no longer afford to be complacent.

Though it was a bit early, she needed to reveal to Naidrian that she was Investor Lee.

Unlike Arsil, Naidrian was discreet, so there was no harm in telling her in advance.

“No.”

The elf flatly refused.

It was clear that Naidrian had been unfriendly toward her lately.

All the more reason to clear up any misunderstandings and reveal her identity.

“Please, it will only take a moment…”

“Naidrian!”

Lin’s persistent request was interrupted by someone else.

An elderly man was running toward them, desperately sweating.

His ears were pointed.

“Elder?!”

“Naidrian! It’s a fraud, this is fraud!”

“What are you talking about? And how did you get here…?”

“That forest the Empire promised us! It’s not land where elves can live at all. It’s barren, and worse, the entire forest is filled with the resentment of the dead! How did you accept such land? Didn’t you check it properly?!”

“That can’t be…”

The elder who appeared, panting heavily, bizarrely blamed Naidrian.

He was so agitated that he spoke about confidential matters of state trade as if Lin and Luci weren’t even there.

“We must go check it immediately and formally protest to the Empire!”

“But I’m on a mission with the Hero’s Party…”

“You’re just regrouping anyway! With teleportation, it will only take a few days!”

“…Alright.”

The archer reluctantly nodded.

For her, the survival of her race took priority.

Everything happened so quickly.

Even for an Elven Council of Elders, it seemed outrageous to take a Hero’s Party member away at their whim.

Lin tried to intervene on behalf of the frowning Luci, but it was futile.

Throughout all this, Naidrian didn’t even glance at Lin.

“Luciena, I’ll be back soon. This concerns the fate of my race.”

After making this one-sided announcement even to Luci, Naidrian left with the elder.

‘This is bad.’

Lin had a strong feeling that she shouldn’t let Naidrian go like this.

But since Naidrian wouldn’t even speak to her, Lin had no good options.

Still, she couldn’t just stand by and do nothing.

Taking out parchment and a pen from Cosmos, Lin quickly wrote a letter on the spot.

Addressed to Naidrian, from Investor Lee.

The letter contained words of encouragement and support for Naidrian, as well as a confession revealing her identity.

[Porter of the Hero’s Party, Lee Lin. That is the full name and identity of me, Investor Lee.]

Before the ink could even dry, she rushed to where the Golden Carriage had been.

“I need postal service for this!”

“Didn’t you only have 1 gold coin earlier? The cheapest service is all I can offer.”

“What’s the cheapest one?”

“‘When Convenient, Along the Way’ for 50 silver coins.”

“But it will get there, right?”

“That much I can guarantee.”

“Here.”

“…Since you’ve done business with me before, I’ll try to deliver it quickly when convenient.”

“Thank you.”

Having completed his transactions with Garin’s army as well, the World Postal worker headed out of the Holy Nation with his Golden Carriage.

Lin prayed the letter would reach its destination in time.

“Phew…”

Having run frantically, she finally sat down to catch her breath.

Nothing was ever easy.

As she wiped her sweat with a soft cloth, Arsil approached her unsteadily.

“Lin…”

He had been crying again, it seemed, having been missing since morning.

With tear stains still on his face, Arsil approached and asked while avoiding her gaze.

“Can I… look at your arm?”

“…”

That was Arsil’s answer after crying and wracking his brain as much as possible.

And that answer was clearly wrong, thoroughly irritating Lin.

“It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine…! The tips of your fingers are already turning black. If we leave it like this, the corruption could spread faster.”

“No, it’s fine. It doesn’t even hurt.”

In the DLC, after the Holy Nation episode ends, Arsil’s holy power increases exponentially.

In his past life, Lee thought it was some kind of bug, but since the total amount had increased, he carelessly squandered the saint’s holy power.

Then, before the final boss, the holy power dropped to 0 and couldn’t be recovered with any items, forcing him to reload from the Holy Nation episode.

That day, Lee kicked and dented his PC case in frustration.

It wasn’t a bug.

It was Arsil’s remaining holy power.

Not infinite, but finite.

Currently, Lin’s arm was like a hippo devouring holy power.

It wouldn’t heal, only delay the inevitable.

Rather than waste it on something meaningless, it was better to save it for the final battle.

“No, let me look at it. Please let me help. Please… please…! I was wrong—”

Arsil quickly covered his mouth, stopping himself from saying he was wrong.

He remembered Lin’s words from the previous night about being sick of it all.

“I’m scared, Lin… I’m scared of losing you like this… I’m scared of you being angry now too… You were always such a warm person.”

“I hadn’t changed much when we met again.”

In the distance, Rabin could be seen approaching.

His expression was unreadable—angry, sad, or something else.

“But you disliked me even though I was the same as always.”

“That’s because I didn’t know it was you…”

“You didn’t even accept me as a comrade.”

“That’s because I really didn’t know it was Lin…”

“Arsil.”

In the end, Lin spoke harshly once more.

“If you were going to look at my arm, you should have done it the moment you grabbed the Demon King’s horn.”

“…!”

His hands withdrew, trembling.

His shoulders hunched.

His face crumpled as if he was the one who had been hurt.

Lin was irritated by everything.

“What should I do? I’m… just a fool who only knows how to fight, so unless you tell me, I don’t know…”

Despite saying that, he couldn’t look her in the eye properly as tears streamed down his face, making her feel sorry for him.

“I’m sorry for being stupid… I really don’t know what to do… I feel so frustrated and pathetic… *sob*!”

What could be done with this child in an adult’s body?

“Arsil.”

The solution was offered by Rabin.

Putting his arm around Arsil’s shoulders, Rabin spoke calmly.

“Let’s go see the kids.”

“Kids…?”

“Yes, kids. Jack and Lapham, and all the others too.”

Rabin gave a bitter smile.

“They’re all sleeping there.”