Arc 4 Side Story 2 : Toledo City

[Raul POV]

After Duke Alvaro's death, I had no choice but to deal with the affairs of our family's territory—the Duchy of Toledo. Alfred told me that Duke Alvaro's body was still in the Tsardom of Slavia and had yet to be brought home.

To be honest, I wanted to perform an autopsy on his corpse and look for anything suspicious. There was no doubt in my mind that this was nothing more than one of his schemes.

At present, I was in Duke Alvaro's study, reading reports concerning the territory and drafts for various projects that the family planned to undertake in the future.

The Tsardom Slavia Investment Project, the Grand Duchy Wienna Carriageway Project, and many other overseas projects currently being developed by the family.

I didn't have the time to deal with all of this.

Tok! Tok! Tok!

A knock echoed through the room.

"Come in."

The door opened, revealing an old man and a young girl with shoulder-length black hair.

They were Alfred—the head butler of this family—and Akane Ashina—the assassin from the Ashina Clan who had previously entered into a Blood Pact with me.

"Lord Raul, did you summon me?" Alfred asked.

"That's right, Alfred. I want you to find a Steward to manage this territory," I ordered him. "Do you have any good candidates in mind?"

"A Steward? Are you planning to travel to the Tsardom of Slavia yourself to bring Duke Alvaro's body home?" Alfred asked.

"Exactly. That's why I don't have the time to deal with these matters," I replied.

"In that case, there are three candidates whom I believe would be suitable for the position, Lord Raul," Alfred said before falling silent for a moment.

He then mentioned several names. The first was Deron de Alterna—the second son of Count Delamore de Alterna's family. The second was Alrena de Amber—the eldest daughter of Count Barengar de Amber. And the last was Countess Renata de Fortuna—the head of the Fortuna family.

Hearing these names made it difficult for me to choose. The reason was simple: none of these three had ever appeared in the game I created.

It was understandable, considering that we had created no more than two hundred NPCs for a continent that was likely home to a population of forty million people.

"Who would you recommend out of the three, Alfred?" I asked him.

"I believe Lady Alrena would be very suitable for this position, my lord," Alfred said as he stroked his beard. "She is currently nineteen years old, the same age as Lord Raul. Although she is still young, Lady Alrena has experience serving as a Regent while her father, Count Barengar, was seriously ill."

Hm... The same age as me?

I supposed I could give her a chance first. If I found her performance unsatisfactory, I could replace her whenever I wanted later.

"Very well. I'll follow your recommendation, Alfred."

"Thank you for placing your trust in this servant of yours, my lord," Alfred said as he bowed.

He then turned around and walked toward the door. However, he suddenly stopped, turned back, and approached me while taking out a sealed letter.

"My lord, His Majesty the Emperor has decreed that your oath of fealty ceremony will be held once you have graduated from the academy," Alfred said as he handed the letter to me.

I took the letter and opened it.

«Raul de Garcia,

In light of the death of Duke Alvaro—the former ruler of the Duchy of Toledo—I hereby command you to appear before the Imperial Palace to swear your oath of noble allegiance to this realm and to be officially appointed as the next Duke of the House Garcia—the ruler of the Duchy of Toledo.

Ruler of the Aragon Empire

Emperor Philip de Aragon»

I only had a few months left before graduating from the academy.

Normally, the heir of a noble family would swear fealty to their liege one month after the death of the previous noble heir. However, the Emperor had postponed my oath ceremony until after I graduated from the academy.

This meant that the Empire had also sensed something suspicious about Duke Alvaro's death.

I supposed they would conduct an investigation over the next few months to determine the truth behind the Duke's death.

"If there is nothing else I can assist you with, then this servant shall take his leave, Lord Raul," Alfred said before leaving the room and closing the door behind him.

Now, only Akane and I remained in the room.

She then looked at me with her blood-red eyes.

"I... don't have any clues regarding his death," Akane finally spoke after remaining silent until now. "My father, who went there as well, doesn't know anything either. At the time, he was guarding the Duke near the building where he was staying. However, he said that a Barrier suddenly appeared and enclosed the area around the building. When the Barrier disappeared, all he found were the two corpses of Duke Alvaro and Tsar Feodor."

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Hm... A Barrier?

I knew there was something suspicious about this incident.

I closed my eyes for a moment and began considering what steps I should take, as well as the possibilities that might unfold in the future following this event.

First, in the game, Duke Alvaro worked together with a Demon to open a massive dimensional Portal so that the Demon King's army could enter this world.

However, I didn't know who he had made that deal with.

The one I suspected was Lilith ur Liciferus.

She was the only member of the Demon King's family capable of entering this world without using a special Portal. She possessed the power to imitate both the appearance and abilities of creatures whose Racial Rank was lower than hers.

This allowed the Barrier created by Goddess Diana to be deceived by the Demon Princess.

In his plan to open the Dimensional Portal, Duke Alvaro sacrificed one million citizens of the Empire as offerings for a special ritual.

At least, that was what happened in the game.

However, because of my arrival in this world, the entire storyline of the game had begun to change.

This meant there was a possibility that Duke Alvaro had abandoned his plan to sacrifice one million Imperial citizens.

After the Survival Exam, Duke Alvaro suddenly arranged my engagement to Alisha Romanova—the Princess of the Slavia Tsardom in the north—in exchange for our family investing in the Tsardom of Slavia.

At the time, I wondered why he would do such a thing.

But then I remembered that a monster invasion disaster was taking place in that northern nation.

This opened up the possibility that Duke Alvaro had moved his plan to harvest one million human souls from the territory of the Empire to the Tsardom of Slavia instead.

That meant the agreement was nothing more than a cover, allowing Duke Alvaro to harvest human souls from the victims of the monster attacks in that country without arousing suspicion from the Tsardom of Slavia.

But the victims of the monster invasion should not have been enough to provide the sacrifices necessary to open a Dimensional Portal.

That meant they needed more deaths in that country.

The royal family currently ruling the Tsardom of Slavia consisted only of Alisha and her younger sister after Tsar Feodor's death.

As for Alisha... she didn't have much time left to live and was merely waiting for her death.

If that happened, only her younger sister would remain from the Romanova family to rule the northern nation.

Anastasia Romanova was a gentle woman who was unsuited to ruling a nation. On top of that, as the only remaining member of the Romanova family, other nobles would undoubtedly compete to marry members of their own families to Anastasia.

However, if Anastasia were also killed amid the chaos, a power vacuum would emerge in the country.

That could lead to a civil war if the nobles failed to reach an agreement on which family should become the new rulers of the nation.

If war broke out, countless lives would be lost.

And if that scenario came to pass, Duke Alvaro and Princess Lilith's plan would succeed.

That meant...

I had two objectives in going to that country.

First, I had to ensure that the Romanova family remained in power until the turmoil engulfing the nation had come to an end.

Second, I had to investigate what had happened during this shocking incident.

Fortunately, I had a card that I could use to accomplish this plan with relative ease.

However, I wouldn't use it unless that woman was honest with me about this false agreement.

I suppose it was time to meet those three elf children again.

After arranging the strategy in my head, I opened my eyes once more and looked at Akane, who had been watching me all this time.

"Ah, I thought you had fallen asleep just now," Akane said to me.

"No. I was just thinking about a plan," I replied with a smile. "Akane, come with me to the Tsardom of Slavia."

All right.

Let's do this perfectly.

Duke Alvaro...

Did you really think you could deceive me with the schemes you devised?

Then I'll show you a reality in which a creation can never outwit its Creator.

---

[Egwyn POV]

I don't know how long we had been away from home.

Back then, we deeply regretted playing on the beach so often without the adults' knowledge. Even though they had forbidden us from going there, we still wanted to play on the beach because staying in the forest all day was boring.

But that was when we were kidnapped by a group of humans.

They took us to places we didn't recognize. I could sense the greed in the way they looked at the three of us.

In the end, someone suddenly came to us.

He was a black-haired man.

The way he looked at us was different from the other humans. There was no greed or any particular desire in his eyes when he looked at us.

Airyn, Cait, and I eventually followed that man.

We were now in a place where the humans were working on something.

I didn't know what they were making, but judging by the Rune attached to the object, they were definitely working on an Artifact.

"Olen! Olen! What are you working on?" Airyn asked a male human.

We knew his name was Olen because Raul—the black-haired man who had brought us here—had told us.

"Hmmm... You three came here again, apparently. I'm working on Boss Raul's request," Olen said in a language I didn't understand.

None of the three of us could speak the human language yet. Airyn and I simply nodded while he continued working.

Brak!

Suddenly, I heard the door to the room open.

I turned around and saw a black-haired human entering the room.

It was the man who had brought us here.

"Olen, how is the progress of your work?" the man asked Olen.

"It's going pretty well. I think it will be finished within two months," Olen replied in the human language.

"All right, then."

Raul then turned his attention toward the three of us after speaking with Olen.

"Egwyn, Airyn, Cait, let's talk outside for a while."

The three of us nodded.

Lately, Raul had become increasingly fluent in the Elven language, even though we had only taught him for a short time.

However, he said that the concept of time was different for humans and elves.

That was because elves lived much longer than humans.

Honestly, I didn't really understand what Raul meant by that.

We then left Olen Musk's room.

There were many humans working throughout the area.

Not long after, we arrived at a forest filled with trees.

Raul sat down and leaned against one of the trees before taking out a piece of chocolate.

"Sit down and eat this chocolate here," Raul said to the three of us.

Airyn quickly took the chocolate and sat down, leaning against Raul's thigh.

"It's delicious... I hope we can still eat this chocolate when we get home!" Airyn said, her mouth now covered in chocolate.

"Hm, hm. Caitlin agrees... Chocolate is very delicious and sweet..." The Dark Elf sucked on the chocolate Raul had given her.

I also took one of the chocolates from him and began tasting the sweetness of the food.

"If you like it, then I'll bring some to your home," Raul said as he gently stroked Airyn's head. "However, the elves in your home will probably refuse my gift."

"Huh? Why? Wouldn't they be happy if Big Brother Raul shared delicious food with them?" Airyn asked innocently.

This child... Did she forget that we had once been kidnapped by humans?

"Big Brother Raul, don't worry! The three of us will tell them that you were the one who saved us!" I tried to reassure him.

"All right, then. I plan to take you home soon."

Hearing Raul's words made the three of us happy.

To be honest, it had been a long time since we had been away from home.

I was beginning to miss my mother and Big Sister Arwen—Cait's older sister, who had always looked after us back then.

"That's good. I hope you enjoy the journey home," Raul said to us. "However, you must promise me that you won't leave the carriage without my permission while we're traveling. Understand?"

Hearing Raul's words, the three of us nodded simultaneously.

I knew why he had said that.

Not every human was as kind as him.

There could be humans among those we encountered who would have evil intentions and try to kidnap us again.