Chapter 24

BOOOOOOOOM!!

At the same instant as the deafening blast, light and a shockwave erupted. Drawing on their previous experience, they had built walls of ice beforehand and appeared to have succeeded, for the moment, in directing the blast upward. But almost immediately, cracking and splintering sounds rang out as the ice walls began collapsing, their shattered fragments being swept high into the air along with the blast.

(As expected of a divine artifact. Something of this level cannot contain it.)

Just as before, Kaō raced diagonally upward through the sky, and Princess Kana watched from his back while shielding her eyes from the light with her sleeve.

By the time the light and wind finally subsided, the ice walls Kaō had built had vanished without a trace, and the magical beasts trapped within them had been reduced to shriveled corpses.

The place where the mana pool had been was now completely buried beneath masses of ice, while at its center, the Ame no Habaya remained embedded in the crumbling pot, giving off its final glow. Like the one at Clutchfield, this pot was quite large, but it looked as though it would soon crumble away entirely.

“It is less a hollow now than an ice pond, but I suppose it cannot be helped. It should melt before long.”

“Next time, I shall make it stronger…”

Kaō answered the princess somewhat ruefully, but she stroked his back as though telling him there was nothing to worry about.

(Now then, the rest are all comparatively small. Combining the mantra with fire should be the quickest way.)

Having decided that, the princess headed toward the defensive wall to ask Suō for his help. Fortunately, she spotted a fox-eared helmet darting about beside the trapdoor, so they were able to reunite without difficulty. The rest of the work proceeded quickly from there.

After thinning out the surrounding magical beasts with the Nine Cuts, they burned the rest away in one sweep. Once they had purified four mana pools in total, they headed back toward the defensive wall.

The sentries had evidently been watching the princess at work the entire time. They waved their arms broadly and shouted words of gratitude to the Saintess.

She waved back from above, then looked down to see what was happening inside. Burley and the others had apparently finished their extermination efforts as well, and were now distributing relief supplies and pitching tents.

As in the other towns she had seen, there was an open area near the center, and tents had been erected there. When she landed beside the largest tent, Burley came running over.

“Saintess-sama, excellent work!”

“I have returned. It seems matters here were resolved safely as well.”

As she replied and climbed down from Kaō’s back, the princess noticed a man who appeared to be around thirty standing beside Burley, an eyepatch covering his left eye.

He had long, reddish-brown hair tied back into a single tail, and the gaze of his lone blue eye was sharp. There was something about him that vaguely brought a bandit to mind, yet contrary to his appearance, his bearing was refined. When he approached the princess, he bowed formally. She had seen the same form of etiquette once before in Dawkins, but this man’s movements were vastly more elegant.

“Princess, a first-rate warrior wastes no movement in anything he does. Thus, when a man’s bearing is beautiful, you may assume his martial skill is likewise first-rate.” Recalling the words of an old man who had once lectured her at length about swordsmanship, she found herself thinking that it made perfect sense.

“My name is Clint Edgerton, and I have been entrusted with governing this land. I cannot thank you enough for everything you have done for us. As the one responsible for this territory, please accept my heartfelt gratitude.”

“I am Kana. Edgerton, there is no need to stand upon such ceremony. More importantly, I must tell you that the purification left a rather large depression behind.”

“Ah, that sound and light. I must admit, it nearly stopped my heart wondering what had happened.”

“The captain immediately informed me that it was the work of Saintess-sama, so fortunately I did not come rushing over in alarm,” he added with a laugh. Seeing his smile, Princess Kana thought that he might actually be younger than the thirty or so years she had first assumed.

“I purified several of the others with fire, but a number of smaller ones still remain.”

Even as she spoke, the princess turned a questioning gaze toward Edgerton, as though asking what he intended to do about them.

“After everything you have already done for us, I believe our soldiers and magicians can manage the rest. I would also like to inspect the curse pots myself, and we need to determine how effective our own magicians’ spells are against them.”

“If it proves impossible, we may have to ask for your assistance,” he added, though his expression showed absolute confidence that it would not come to that.

(Is he confident in his own abilities, or does he simply trust his subordinates…? Either way, there appears to be no cause for concern.)

“In that case, we shall depart tomorrow morning.”

With that decided, she headed toward Henry, who was distributing supplies. The slender magician was currently loading large sacks of grain onto wagons. Soldiers and townspeople alike were helping, and everyone wore a smile. That alone raised her opinion of the local lord.

“How fare things here?”

“Saintess-sama, well done. It seems they have enough supplies for the time being, but it would probably be wise to return once more before the weather turns cold. Apparently there was almost no harvest this year, and their livestock losses were severe as well. It seems they managed until now because the lord released his stored provisions in a planned manner.”

Hearing that caused Princess Kana’s opinion of Edgerton to rise even further.

“As for the wounded, the temple here was open, and the priests were treating them, so their condition was not nearly as dire as elsewhere.”

“Oh? So unlike certain other places, the priests here do not demand coin for their services?”

Having known no temples or priests in this world apart from those in Clutchfield, Princess Kana found that somewhat strange. She initially assumed they were simply treating people without payment because of the emergency, but apparently the reality was a little different.

“…It seems the lord here is quite a shrewd operator.”

Henry explained, sounding slightly reluctant to say it aloud.

“Apparently, immediately after the magical beast trouble began, both wells belonging to the two temples somehow became unusable. After that, I am told the lord and the temples negotiated a contract under which one bucket of water would be exchanged for treating one injured person. So the priests have effectively been forced to provide healing every day if they want drinking water.”

“That is certainly rather…”

An image surfaced in the princess’s mind of the lord she had just met negotiating with the priests while wearing a wicked grin. For a moment she thought “shrewd” might be putting it mildly and that the man was somewhat underhanded, but in the end she decided to regard it as yet another form of wisdom used to protect his people.

Ashton, eldest son of House Owsley, walked with his younger sister Audra toward the bedchamber of Callahan, the head of the family and their father, while the two discussed how they should explain what had happened.

Unbelievably, both of their half-siblings had managed to incur the Saintess’s displeasure at the same time. Despite that, their stepmother had pleaded with them, saying, “They have both reflected sufficiently on what they did, so please tell the count as little as possible about what happened today.” Her reasoning had been, “His health is already poor enough as it is. I do not want to burden him with any further distress.”

Yet they could not simply tell him nothing at all, leaving both siblings struggling over what to do.

“I feel bad for Stepmother, but I still think we should tell Father everything honestly. She says she is worried about his health, but I think learning the truth afterward would only cause him even more pain.”

At Audra’s solemn words, Ashton nodded as well.

“Indeed. And the next time the extermination force comes through, Father will likely meet both the captain and Saintess-sama himself. If our stories fail to match then, our entire house could end up incurring their displeasure.”

Besides, both older siblings shared the same opinion: “I cannot imagine those two genuinely reflecting on anything.”

The news brought by an express rider from the royal family two days earlier had thrown the entire estate into chaos.

The deaths of His Majesty the King, the royal consort, and the Second Prince, along with the news of the First Prince’s accession and coronation, would already have been shocking enough. But they had also learned that the mana pools and magical beast incidents plaguing the kingdom for the past two years had been caused by a duke who had joined forces with the empire, so the turmoil was hardly surprising.

Furthermore, it had been discovered that the mana pools were caused by cursed pots, and that purifying those pots could prevent the pools from forming again.

Ashton already had mountains of work to handle, including hurriedly preparing to attend the official ceremonies, meeting with the territorial soldiers and magicians, and arranging for his duties to be handed over while he was away. And now this has happened on top of everything else.

Their stepmother had insisted that Bryne had merely wanted to accomplish something before the coronation so he could appear before His Majesty with an achievement to his name, and that since he had meant no harm, it should not be such a serious matter. But whether he had harbored malice was beside the point. The important fact was that he had incurred the Saintess’s displeasure. No matter how many times they explained that to their stepmother, she simply did not understand.

Their stepmother, who herself came from a count’s family, and the twins who were her children had always tended to look down on Ashton and Audra because their own mother had been born to a viscount’s family. It had not been especially noticeable when the twins were very young, but after they passed the age of ten, the tendency had become increasingly pronounced.

Fortunately, the count had declared early on that Ashton would be his heir, so it had never caused any serious practical difficulty. Even so, their stepmother and the servants she had brought with her from her birth family pampered and praised the twins as though they themselves were somehow the rightful heirs. Ashton could only see this latest disaster as the inevitable consequence of that treatment.

“Besides, Captain Burley promised to purify the mana pools on his return journey. Even if he cannot purify all of them, we should still be grateful.”

At his sister’s words, Ashton returned his attention from his thoughts to their conversation.

“How many have been confirmed at present?”

“Ten locations. Three are fairly large, while the others are comparatively small. We can deal with those ourselves later. If they could purify even two of the three larger ones, I believe there would be little cause for concern while you are away, Brother.”

As Ashton nodded at Audra’s words, he once again felt anger rising over what his younger brother had done. The soldiers and magicians who had accompanied Bryne when he incurred the Saintess’s displeasure were currently completely useless.

(At a time when we need every available hand! And if I leave now, there is no telling what those two under confinement might do. In that case…)

“No. I shall remain here this time. You will go in my place.”

“What? But… and there is Father’s care as well…”

“We shall ask Stepmother to handle that. It was her responsibility to begin with.”

Ever since the mana pools first appeared two years earlier, the count had always taken the lead in setting out to fight the magical beasts, but after being wounded a year ago, his health had remained poor.

Fortunately, priests had healed the wound itself, but treatment had taken some time. They had warned that the magical beast’s poison might have spread through his body in the meantime, and regrettably, that appeared to have been exactly what happened. Ever since, the count had alternated between periods of being bedridden and briefly recovering enough to rise.

By the time they finished discussing that, they had reached the door to their father’s bedchamber.

“Then we shall tell Father everything, and you will go to the royal capital. Understood?”

“…Yes.”

Watching his sister nod reluctantly, Ashton knocked on the door.

“Excuse us, Father. There is something urgent we must report…”

(How did things ever turn out like this…?)

Confined to her room by her elder brother Ashton, Bernetta watched the maids gathering up and cleaning away the scattered feathers as she brooded.

She had already ruined two cushions by swinging them around in anger, yet the irritation in her chest remained firmly lodged there and showed no sign of fading.

That morning, Bryne had said he was going to purify a newly formed mana pool, and Bernetta, thinking it sounded vaguely entertaining, had gone along with her guards and nursemaid. But the situation had apparently been far more serious than she had imagined, so she had reluctantly followed her guards’ instructions and evacuated to the mayor’s house.

Fortunately, an extermination force happened to pass through and defeated the magical beasts, bringing the situation under control without any serious damage. Then Bernetta heard that the Saintess was traveling with them and decided it was an opportunity she simply could not afford to miss.

If she could make the Saintess recognize her as a kindhearted young lady, Bernetta thought, then even attracting the attention of the future king might no longer be merely a dream. Naturally, she had immediately acted on that idea.

(I hated getting my dress dirty, but I knelt down and begged her—me! And yet that woman… Just remembering it makes me furious!)

But events did not unfold as Bernetta had envisioned. The Saintess in her strange attire merely called her “greedy” and “shameless,” and in the end treated her as though she were useless.

Worse still, because the Saintess had ordered them not to bring Bernetta anywhere she might see her, Ashton had canceled the twins’ attendance at the coronation. Not only that, he had even announced that both the Countess—their mother—and Ashton himself would stay behind as well, to make certain the twins could not simply follow on their own.

Only the previous night, they had decided that the four of them would attend the royal funeral and coronation while their father and elder sister remained behind. Bernetta had immediately gathered her maids, ordered them to alter her dresses so she would look as attractive as possible, and had them frantically preparing for departure.

(And now Elder Sister gets to go all by herself instead. This is completely unfair.)

The Countess, who was the twins’ mother, had objected as well, but once she was told that the decision had been reached between Ashton and the count, there was nothing she could do.

To make matters worse, afterward Bernetta had heard the people of the territory saying things like, “Audra-sama really is the one we can rely on after all.” In the end, all Bernetta had accomplished was dirtying her dress without gaining anything whatsoever.

(Elder Sister only stands there ordering everyone around, telling them to do this and that. So why am I the only one who has to be called useless?!)

STOMP!! She slammed her foot down hard and grabbed the newly placed cushion.

(I truly hate this place. It is the countryside, I cannot even get fashionable dresses, and worst of all, nobody understands my worth!!)

Bam, bam! She struck the cushion in both hands against a chair and the desk. More feathers scattered through the room, but she paid them no mind.

(My golden hair, my pale-blue eyes inherited from Mother, and this face should all be worth far more than this!)

But because of the recent magical beast crisis, there had been virtually no proper social gatherings in the territory for the past two years. And even though she was the daughter of a count, the marriage proposals brought to Bernetta, the youngest child, came only from viscount and baron families.

(I would sooner die than marry into a family beneath ours!)

Above all, Prince William, who was about to become king, still had no fiancée. Bernetta’s father was merely a count, placing her rank right at the lower limit for becoming a prince’s betrothed, but that did not mean she had no chance at all.

Yet because of the Saintess, even the opportunity to meet him had been taken away from her.

(There will probably be countless young ladies at this coronation harboring the very same ambition. I have to attend, no matter what!! What can I do? What can I possibly do…)