Volume 3, Chapter 10 – Arriving at the Border

“Not only was I too eager for success, but I also nearly exposed Lord Thanatos’s identity. Death is a matter of course. Lord Thanatos has allowed me to disappear in such a gentle way; I should be grateful to him…”

On the steep cliff, Renee, her hands and feet bound by ropes, took a deep breath. Although her expression held a hint of cowardice, it was mostly filled with resolve.

What she didn’t know was that Fia was actually standing right beside her. It was only because of the Cloud Moon of the Illusory Sea’s camouflage that she thought Fia had already left.

Looking at her like this, she’ll definitely jump off the cliff without a second thought. Observing Renee’s every move, Fia thought to herself. After Renee had asked for punishment, Fia had gone along with it and suggested she atone with her life. This was Fia’s test for Renee. If Renee was unwilling to do it, then she was not a trustworthy person. But if Renee really went through with it, it would mean that she was indeed loyal.

To convince Renee that she would surely die if she jumped, Fia had first used [Food Creation] to secretly make a stone-like food, cut it into pill-sized pieces, and then gave it to Renee, lying that it was poison and making her swallow it. Afterwards, she brought Renee to this cliff with a drop of over a thousand meters and ordered her to jump on her own, while Fia left using [Flight], feigning her absence.

The bottomless, dark valley, coupled with the howling wind, would make anyone’s legs go weak. Without a doubt, jumping would result in being smashed to pieces.

If she passed even this, Renee would be a trustworthy person. Of course, not to the same extent as Anastasia. Trust was not something that could be built overnight; the length of time spent together was very important.

“Lord Thanatos, Lady Erin Slate, please forgive me.”

Under Fia’s breathless observation, the softly murmuring Renee took a leap and jumped off the cliff.

Fia immediately followed with [Flight] magic.

The wind howled past, but Renee did not use [Flight] magic. She didn’t even try to untie the ropes binding her hands and feet, letting her body free-fall. This posture did not change even as she was about to make intimate contact with the ground.

It’s about time I believe her.

Whether it’s the organization she mentioned or the name Thanatos, I can ask her clearly now.

[Telekinesis]

Countless Spatial Hands instantly extended, interweaving to form a dense, soft cushion. After catching Renee’s falling body, the cushion did not immediately pull her up but instead gradually slowed down with the momentum of the fall, allowing Renee to land steadily on the ground.

Fia also revealed herself at the right time, standing silently in front of Renee. First, she used a blade formed by [Telekinesis] to cut the ropes binding Renee, and then she forcibly fed Renee a piece of candy—this was to explain away the earlier “poison.”

Unsure of what had happened, Renee first opened her eyes in a daze. It wasn’t until she saw Fia that her eyes regained their spirit. Although in her mind, she was already dead, the long-ingrained habit still made her scramble up from the ground the moment she saw Fia.

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“L-Lord Thanatos?”

“The punishment ends here.”

This tone is really embarrassing, Fia couldn’t help but complain inwardly. She really didn’t know how the elf princess could endure the shame of using such a tone in her daily speech.

“…?”

Although not a word was said, Fia could see the confusion on Renee’s face. She didn’t understand why Fia had saved her.

Fia had already prepared her words for this.

“Being too eager for success was a mistake, but it’s not a crime punishable by death. Besides that, I have a more important mission for you, which will count as atonement. Go to the lair of those bandits from today and wipe out the remaining forces. Before those two black-robed men were knocked out, they said their leader hadn’t arrived yet. We must wipe out the enemy completely.”

“…Thank you, Lord Thanatos.”

Despite having escaped death, there was no relief in Renee’s expression. The enemy had captured her with just four Third Rank individuals. Now, receiving the mission to annihilate their lair, rushing in recklessly would surely result in her being captured again. This matter had to be planned carefully.

At the very least, she had to request reinforcements from the organization—even if requesting reinforcements when manpower was scarce was embarrassing, since it was Lord Thanatos’s command, Lady Erin Slate probably wouldn’t blame her… but Lord Thanatos said “atonement,” did that mean she had to go alone?

While Renee was struggling internally, Fia added coolly.

“With me.”

“Eh?”

The unexpected answer made Renee’s mouth and eyes widen, her face filled with disbelief.

◇

When the sun rose to the position representing noon, the air temperature had risen to a point that drained one’s motivation.

On the World Tree Continent, it was common knowledge that the further south one went, the hotter it got. Although the Alfrieg Kingdom was located in the center of the continent, because its northern territory was covered by desert for a long time, and the water vapor from the inland sea was blocked by mountains, the temperature was abnormally hot. It was now one in the afternoon, and the ground temperature was already close to seventy degrees. The steaming heat made it hard to keep one’s eyes open.

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However, in such a harsh environment, a line of people could be seen walking under the scorching sun, their hands tied with ropes. At the very front of this team of nearly thirty people was a luxurious and spacious carriage.

Needless to say, this group was composed of the captured bandits. According to Fia’s original idea, she had actually wanted to dig a pit and bury the bandits to save herself the trouble of dealing with them, as they would slow down the carriage’s progress. But for some reason, when Fia voiced this idea, both Liti and Anastasia had extremely strange expressions, as if they were looking at a demon, so Fia had changed her mind and said she would take the bandits to the next city.

It seemed even Anastasia could not accept burying people alive.

Claire was right; she seemed to lack an understanding of life—to be precise, an understanding of guilty lives. This was probably related to how the Human Alliance dealt with guilty individuals in its later stages. Although technology was advanced at that time, they had fallen into a predicament of resource scarcity. To save expenses, guilty lives would be directly eliminated.

“Renee’s assessment of the Barony of Khesa is ‘no value’?”

Inside the swaying carriage, Anastasia asked. The person driving the carriage now was Renee, while Anastasia went to the back of the line from time to time to check if anyone had escaped.

Fia nodded.

“Yes. First, although the Barony of Khesa borders Silvar, it is too far from the center of Silvar. Second, it has neither mineral deposits nor is it suitable for growing grain. In addition, transportation is inconvenient, and it borders five countries at the same time, making the security within the territory extremely chaotic. Rather than risking a war with the Alfrieg Kingdom to accept the Barony of Khesa, it would be better to let it remain in its current state where anyone can step on it. That is Renee’s view.”

“Indeed… if it has neither mineral deposits nor is suitable for growing grain, then it’s better to maintain the current state.”

“Do you know a person named Erin Slate, Anastasia?”

“L-Lady Erin Slate? Your Highness, do you remember her?”

Anastasia’s voice trembled, her lively blue eyes filled with uncertainty.

“No, I just happened to hear the name, so I wanted to ask who she is.”

“Happened to hear…”

For some reason, Anastasia looked relieved. She straightened her clothes and answered seriously.

“Lady Erin Slate is the captain of the First Division of the Royal Guard, and also the commander of the entire Royal Guard. Both Renee and I are her subordinates. Lady Erin Slate was originally the eldest daughter of Grand Duke Heller. However, because the Grand Duke’s brother-in-law chose the wrong side and attempted a rebellion, the Grand Duke was implicated after the coup failed. He was executed, and his family, including Lady Erin Slate, was exiled.”

“Lady Erin Slate is a person of noble and just character. When my father and I were exiled, she helped us a great deal along the way. Unfortunately, after arriving in the Land of Exile, something seemed to have happened to Lady Erin Slate. She gradually lost her sanity and became a madwoman I no longer recognized…

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But ever since you went to the Land of Exile and found me and her, her spirit has gradually recovered, and she soon became as respectable as before, and her strength also greatly improved.”

At this point, Anastasia leaned forward slightly, her usually serious face showing hesitation and contemplation.

“To this day, I still don’t know what you said to Lady Erin Slate. Neither you nor she is willing to tell me the answer. Your Highness just said you happened to hear her name. Was it from Renee?”

“Yes… something like that.”

After confirming last night that Renee was trustworthy, Fia had indirectly (for example, by calmly asking questions like “How is Erin Slate doing?” and “How are our people?”) gleaned a lot of useful information from her.

First, there was indeed an organization hidden in the shadows under the elf princess. The number of direct members of this organization was very small, only a dozen to a few dozen people, but these few dozen people directly or indirectly controlled many more.

Some were connected by family ties, while others used relationships of interest to develop their network. The identities of these dozens of people were absolutely secret. Besides Erin Slate and Fia, no one knew exactly how many people were in the organization or who they were.

Take Renee for example. The only people she currently knew who belonged to the organization were four: herself, Fia, Erin Slate, and the person who had scouted her in the past, the third daughter of the Reinhardt family. She knew nothing about anyone else, nor was she allowed to ask.

Second was the purpose of this organization.

The fundamental purpose of this organization was not, as Renee had said last night, to fight the Darkborn and the Chaos. To be precise, it was an organization centered around Dofilia, like death warriors cultivated by nobles. Everyone’s existence was for Dofilia; they would do whatever the elf princess told them to do.

Fighting the Darkborn and the Chaos was just the current mission. According to the mission Renee had learned about from Erin Slate, everyone’s main tasks at present were only two: one was to lie dormant in the shadows and wait for the moment the elf princess became queen, and the other was to search for information about the Darkborn as much as possible.

As for why they had to search for information about the Darkborn, all Renee knew was that “the gods are dead,” the Darkborn and the Chaos were about to unite, and the apocalypse would come. She knew nothing else. Renee had met with the elf princess formally very few times. In most cases, she could only report information to Erin Slate, who would then report it to Fia. Therefore, Renee did not know more specific details.

Finally, as to why Renee was so devoted to Fia, her answer was that Fia was the benefactor who had saved her from the lowest point in her life. According to Renee, the vast majority of people in the organization suffered from the Darkborn disease. If Fia hadn’t instructed the third daughter of the Reinhardt family to find Renee back then, Renee would have faced the tragic fate of being eliminated by her family.

Only Fia could control the outbreak of the Darkborn disease in their bodies and teach them how to use those patterns to strengthen themselves.

Of course, besides being controlled by the Darkborn disease, what was more important was that everyone in the organization had witnessed Fia’s wisdom and prophetic foresight, and was captivated by her personal charm. The being known as Thanatos was not fond of talking, but was omnipotent. Coupled with Erin Slate’s iron-fisted rule, no one could escape from Thanatos’s grasp.

At first, Fia had thought the organization Renee spoke of was just a gathering of paranoid schizophrenics, but after hearing the full description, she couldn’t help but feel that she had underestimated the elf princess.

As far as things stood, the elf princess had spies planted among all the important nobles in Silvar. The every move of these nobles was under her control. At the same time, the actions of the spies were consciously controlled by the elf princess; she had been secretly planning something—only by asking Erin Slate after returning could she possibly find out. Renee did not have the clearance to know about this matter.

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The elf princess had left a huge mess for her. Erin Slate sounded like an extremely tricky person. After returning to the Elf Kingdom, there would inevitably be a lot of trouble.

I hope it can be a peaceful handover, or that she’s an easy-going woman… If she listens to whatever I say like Renee, that would be for the best.

Fia couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.

She just wanted to be with Claire; why did so many troublesome things have to pop up on their own?

As for what Fia had told Renee last night about annihilating the bandits, due to time constraints, Fia had not dealt with it that night. She planned to go tonight.

“That woman may be annoying, but she at least understands the difference in status.”

Liti’s murmur pulled Fia back to reality. Liti was probably talking about Renee driving the carriage. This morning, Fia had ordered Renee to drive the carriage in her capacity as the elf princess (not as Thanatos). Renee had just snorted coldly and sat in the driver’s seat.

It should be said that Renee’s cold snort was merely to suit her mission. In reality, she was terrified when she said those things. She had confirmed with Erin Slate multiple times whether Erin Slate would chop off her head for speaking ill of Fia.

Now aware of the inside story, Fia couldn’t help but smile wryly.

“When we reach the next city, Renee will part ways with us. Anastasia, where are we?”

“We’ve reached the largest city in the Barony of Khesa. Once we pass this city, we’ll be able to see the border of Silvar.”

“I can already see the light of the Holy Tree~ It feels like seeing my mother.”

The Holy Tree?

Fia followed Liti’s words and looked out the window.

At the very end of the distant horizon, an immense, transparent tree that radiated a faint golden light stood upon the earth, its trunk shooting straight into the sky.

Even Fia couldn’t help but feel a sense of familiarity and warmth.