Chapter 146

“Forget the greetings. Just explain.”

As Jeffrey said this while rubbing the corners of his eyes, Gedric, who had been standing as stiff as a student being punished, flapped his arms and began rattling off the explanation just as we had told him.

When Jeffrey heard that Robert had set out on a solo sortie, his expression turned odd.
When he heard that everyone in the fortress except for those right here had been completely wiped out, he covered his mouth.

Though his eyes were narrowed with a grim seriousness….

‘Surely he isn’t smiling, is he?’

I got the distinct feeling that behind the hands of this crazy psychopath, a hidden smile was lurking.

“Lord Jeffrey! It’s me, Villero! Lord Robert’s butler, Villero Gabre!”

Jeffrey rolled his eyes and looked down at the elderly man prostrated before him.

Though he looked pitifully unkempt, Jeffrey recognized his face and gave a curt nod, signaling him to continue.

“Please, save the Duke!”

“Oh, Villero. Do I look like a cold-blooded bastard who would run away and abandon his older brother in danger?”

“N-No! I have full faith in you!”

“There’s a problem, though. If it were just my own life on the line, I’d gladly do it, but…”

Glancing back toward the knights who had filed in behind him, Jeffrey continued.

“I can’t very well throw the young men of our ducal territory who generously answered the call for reinforcements straight into the meat grinder, can I?”

-My, what a noble character.

…Yeah, right.

Wasn’t the conclusion just that he didn’t want to go save him?

“B-But still…”

Catching the eyes of the rigidly stern-faced knights, Villero hurriedly dropped his gaze back to the floor.

“Might I be allowed to say a word?”

At that moment, Reina stepped forward.

“I am Reina Mel, commander of the 2nd Imperial Knights.”

To Reina, who had offered a light salute and self-introduction, Jeffrey replied with a smile instead of words.

“I, too, believe we must join up with the Duke. Even if communications have been cut for days, there is a very real possibility that the Duke is still alive. Just as we managed to hold out in this fortress. Besides, the absurdly high number of magical beasts has thinned out considerably by now. It’s possible the Duke’s strategy actually worked.”

Reina seemed keen on throwing her weight behind the option of going to rescue Robert.
To keep pushing for an advance even after her own knight order was practically wiped out. She really didn’t seem in her right mind, either.

‘Well, that judgment isn’t necessarily wrong.’

If Robert’s strategy had succeeded and the enemy’s attack had weakened, aiming to completely wipe out the remaining magical beasts alongside the reinforcements’ strength wouldn’t be a pipe dream.

The problem was that every single thing I said was a lie, and Robert hadn’t gone to the barrier at all, having fled to a safe place long ago.

-Do you think he escaped safely?

I could tell Robert and Darian survived by checking the affection window.

The two of them were completely fine.

“…Our strength is barely thirty percent of the main force. Heading to the barrier with this kind of force is practically suicide. And we had to punch through a massive army of magical beasts just to reach this fortress. Whatever my older brother’s strategy was, whether it actually succeeded or not… well… I for one can’t say for sure.”

“I-Is that so? However, those might just be remnants. The magical beasts that were being continuously funneled in from the Dark Forest might have stopped.”

“……”

The opinions of the two clashed fiercely. Amidst the tense, fragile atmosphere, Jeffrey let out a dry, scoffing laugh.

“So Commander Reina is suggesting we drive my knights into the jaws of death based on nothing more than a hunch like that?”

It was a very polite way of refusing, meaning he had zero intention of going.
Reina’s expression froze bitterly.

-Lord Jeffrey probably wants to head back and fortify our defenses. We don’t have enough troops to push toward the barrier anyway.

Belita was so innocent, too. To take Jeffrey’s words and excuses entirely at face value.

[ ‘No. He has no intention of going to the barrier.’ ]

-Huh?

[ ‘Jeffrey plans to leave the barrier to rot.’ ]

-N-No way….

He had been the same way in the 1st loop. Jeffrey went out of his way to avoid exposing himself at all costs.

That’s why he never managed to break out of being a third-rate villain and ultimately failed.

Instead of settling for meager successes, sometimes you have to make bold moves to reap big rewards.

If you want to snuff out someone else’s life, you have to be willing to shoulder an equivalent risk yourself.

If Jeffrey couldn’t cross that final hurdle, whatever his goal might be, he was bound to be stopped dead by the protagonist.

“I understand the situation is urgent, but we’re pretty shaken up, too. First, I need to let our knights rest up a bit after rushing all the way here.”

“Ah. My apologies. Then, I will bring up the proposal again tomorrow.”

“Do whatever.”

Looking thoroughly fed up with Reina’s persistence, Jeffrey walked past me and headed up the stairs.

Judging by his unhesitating stride, Jeffrey must have visited this fortress before.

‘He seems to be heading toward Robert’s room….’

Going by the direction, that appeared to be the case.

“Alright, alright, everyone head on inside!”

The moment Gedric issued his command, the knights who had been standing about awkwardly started filing into the fortress in an orderly fashion as if they had been waiting for it.

“Drott! You, go guide them around!”

“Ah, Gedric. You grabbed me by the scruff of the neck again, argh!”

Dragged away by the back of his collar by Gedric, Drott was hauled off. Saying she wanted to help as well, Reina followed along with Leonard, and the fortress, which had been filled with nothing but the scent of blood, finally started drawing in the warmth of human life.

“What are we supposed to do now? Big Sis….”

We were the only ones left standing blankly in the chaotic fortress.

Frightened of being shoved around by unfamiliar strangers, Luca whimpered and tugged at my sleeve.

“We should go join up with the servants from over there, too.”

Noah spoke, supporting Villero who was still slumped on the floor.

And so, we decided to seek out the butler from the other side and get assigned our duties.

And directly…

The place we were promptly assigned to was the 2nd floor, where the food pantry and dining hall used to be.

“To think I’d end up coming back here….”

Noah muttered hollowly.

I also looked out over the dining hall, which was utter chaos and tangled with the corpses of humans and magical beasts, and thought:

‘This is a bit much.’

Making the victims of a disaster handle the cleanup. No matter how short-staffed they were, it showed a complete lack of consideration.

I had assumed it was just me failing to understand medieval sensitivities, but seeing Luca’s hands trembling as she wiped away the blood from the floor made me realize that wasn’t it at all.

Telling her to rest because I’d take care of it, I snatched the wet towel right out of Luca’s hands.

“Th-Thank you, Big Sis….”

Confirming a rather high favorability score of thirty, I put some muscle into the towel and scrubbed down the wall.

-Everyone looks miserable.

Observing my surroundings at Belita’s words, I saw Noah, who had some muscle on him, restacking collapsed bricks.

Despite the freezing weather, sweat drenched the faces of the hard-working servants and knights.

Above all, the most agonizing sight was the knights carrying corpses out in cloth bundles.

-Still, since it’s winter, it only ended up like this.

Decomposition hadn’t set in yet, but bodies with missing pieces were piled up irregularly.

Here a head, there an arm, and even a torso with spilled entrails.

Just looking at it was enough to drain my mental strength, naturally.

Tring! Tring!

Struggling not to look and focusing instead on wiping the floor with the rag, a noisy notification sound battered my ears.

It wasn’t a broadcast notification; it was Mo Je-won.

[ Mo Je-won: When on earth are you going to get in touch? ]

Right now was not the time to be having leisurely chats. To be precise, I had zero peace of mind.

Between Luca, Noah, Drott, and even Belita inside my head, I simply had way too many conversational partners to deal with.

Unlike those sharing the same situation, Mo Je-won, who required everything to be explained to him from scratch, was also the most bothersome.

[ Mo Je-won: You’re seriously acting too much. No matter how busy you are, can’t you at least drop a short update? You said this was just a message sent straight through your brain, didn’t you? Is that really so hard? ]

I could feel the pent-up frustration of Mo Je-won, pushed all the way down the priority list. I replied offhandedly.

[ Me: It’s because explaining is complicated. I’ll let you know the details later. ]
[ Mo Je-won: Hey! ]
[ Me: I’ll message you when I have some breathing room, so don’t worry. ]

For some reason, the conversation with Mo Je-won was starting to feel bizarrely like a heartless son ignoring his parents’ welfare check-ins.

‘Let’s just get to work.’

At this rate, my brain was going to overload.

Deciding to clear my head, I focused back on cleaning.

“Hey, you there. You said you were a survivor, right?”

Just as I was about to stretch, celebrating the wiping away of the thick pools of blood in the dining hall, a knight approached and spoke to me.

Wasn’t there even a moment to catch my breath? Harboring a gloomy premonition, I gave a hesitant nod, only to be told to follow along for a moment.

Despairing inwardly, I trailed after the knight, arriving at the basement storage room where the water tanks were kept.

Pointing at the first three rows of water jugs, the knight asked:

“Were those always fine? Commander Reina explicitly said there wouldn’t be any potable water left.”

“…I’m not too sure either. Might there have been some kind of misunderstanding?”

“Really? I suppose so. Understandable, given how frantic the situation was, the commander could easily have been mistaken.”

As if that were possible. The water tanks in the front row were the ones I had purified in advance.

Though the reinforcements had reportedly brought water along, I’d done it just in case.
Since I’d prepared them just in case, there shouldn’t be any problems supplying drinking water to the people inside the fortress for the time being.

“With even the plumbing contaminated, water is precious right now, so this is a huge relief.”

“Is there no water among the supplies you brought?”

“There is, but since we don’t know how things will turn out going forward, it’s best to conserve as much as possible.”

“I see.”

“Everyone come on in and carry these out one by one!”

The knights began pulling uncontaminated water bottles out of the storage room and hauling them away.

They probably felt squeamish about keeping them in the same place as the contaminated water.

That seemed to be all the knight wanted with me, as he gestured for me to be on my way.

Anyway, isn’t it time yet?

Feels like about the right moment.

-They’ve probably seen it by now.

[ ‘Right?’ ]

“Everyone!”

Speak of the devil, a knight came panting down the stairs.

“Lord Jeffrey’s orders! Everyone gather around!”

Looks like he’s finally made up his mind.

Wearing a triumphant smile, I followed after the knights rushing out of the storage room.

The room used by Robert, one that only the master of the fortress could enter, was kept as clean as a whistle, without a single speck of dust, as if completely untouched by the fortress’s tragedy. Jeffrey furrowed his brow at the incongruous atmosphere.

“Lord Jeffrey. If you’ll wait just a moment, we’ll have it tidied up right away….”

“Never mind. It already looks clean enough.”

“Then I shall assist you with changing.”

The servant said this as he accepted Jeffrey’s outer garment. Just as Jeffrey was about to tell him to go ahead, he spotted something and paused.

“Wait. What is that?”

“Pardon?”

“That. On the desk.”

“Ah, looks like a letter, shall I clear it away?”

Wasn’t it something the servant had brought?

Rolling his eyes, Jeffrey dismissed the servant, telling him changing could wait and to get out.

Left all alone in the room like that, Jeffrey picked up the envelope on the table.

Stamped on the envelope was a slightly modified version of the Rubel family crest belonging to Robert, sealed securely with wax.

‘Did older brother write this?’

What intention could he possibly have had in leaving behind a letter with no recipient specified?

There was no need to rack his brain trying to guess. He’d find out as soon as he looked.
Draping himself over the desk, Jeffrey snapped the sealed wax and examined the contents.

Rustle. Rustle.

‘It’s definitely his handwriting.’

Whether written in a rush due to the emergency situation, the letters were scrawled haphazardly, but still legible enough.

Jeffrey calmly began reading through the contents.

And then…

“Cyril!”

Cyril Jace, the bodyguard waiting outside the door, responded instantly and stepped inside.

“You called for me?”

“Bring me Gedric and Miel.”

“At once!”

Watching the fast-disappearing back of Cyril as he vanished in a hurry, Jeffrey curved the corners of his lips meaningfully.

At the same time, the sheet of paper in his hand crumpled minutely.