***
***
Amarion looked at the girl in surprise.
Since subjugation ended, Mary had not worked as a healer at all. Although she read more often than before, she was the same maid as before. But she must have been thinking about this. Was she really going to quit her job and become a scholar?
Mary saw Amarion’s expression and quickly added.
“Of course, I will continue to work as a maid. Life in the castle is really fun. But when I went out for subjugation, I realized that I like to help people.”
Mary smiled shyly.
“I want to continue to help people in the future, and I want to put my knowledge to good use.”
“Mary…”
“So, with what my parents taught me, I want to do something that they can be proud of. After all, everything I know came from them.”
The girl smiled brightly.
Amarion blinked in surprise. Mary, who had always acted young, looked like a mature lady. She admired and envied her.
Everyone was clearly planning their future. She was still clumsy and unfamiliar with many things. Neither what she inherited nor her newly acquired life were perfect…
Catalina spoke as if she read her mind.
“Amarion, how about you?”
Amarion thought for a moment, then answered slowly.
“…As you know, I was born a Count. So the reason for all my choices was my homeland. Even coming here and marrying Victor.”
“…”
“But thanks to that, I was able to fulfill my duty there.”
The dowry paid by the Grand Duke was 500 gold coins. It was a huge amount of money anywhere. If used wisely, the whole estate could survive for over 10 years.
It would last a long time even if the wall surrounding Amari was rebuilt.
If they could build a safe and high wall like Fidelburg, monsters would not be able to enter the village and the number of people injured would be reduced. Then the villagers would be able to farm and mine more safely.
They desperately needed that money, and her marriage to Victor made it possible.
She smiled brightly.
“My land must be safe now, so I’m going to live here as the Grand Duke’s wife.”
Mary and Julianna nodded at her words.
They would always be by her side in Morte. Though Catalina would travel all over the continent, she’d be able to visit Morte often. Amarion smiled and looked back at her first friend.
But…
“…Catalina?”
“Ah, yes.”
Catalina suddenly came to her senses.
Her expression was very strange. It looked as if something was stuck in her chest.
“Are you okay?”
“…Yes. It’s nothing. Just…”
After closing her eyes for a moment, she raised her head again.
Suddenly, her face became determined. With a hardened tone, Catalina said.
“Amarion, could you spare some time for me? I have something to tell you.”
Amarion nodded with wide eyes.
＊ ＊ ＊
Amarion followed Catalina’s words and went out to the terrace. It was a secluded place used for secret conversations.
‘Why did she call me to this place?’
Amarion stood anxiously and waited. Shortly thereafter, Catalina came in with Sir Carlz.
“Sir Carlz?”
‘Why is he here?’
Amarion couldn’t understand.
Although she did think Catalina was behaving a little weird, she thought it might be because of her workload.
Did she fall in love with Carlz? Did she come here to let her know?
Amarion shook her head. Catalina wasn’t the type of person to be bothered by things like that.
“What’s the matter?”
The two quickly exchanged glances. Carlz, with a dark expression, opened his mouth first.
“I hesitated a lot whether or not to tell you.”
“I didn’t want to make you worry for nothing, when you had just returned from a mission.”
“You two are making me scared.”
Amarion gripped her skirt. Anxiety crept in.
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Catalina, biting her lip, slowly opened her mouth.
“…As you may know, Amarion, we conducted an investigation throughout Morte. Not only did we find things that could sell well, we also investigated the trends of monsters and the situation in neighboring countries.”
She nodded. If she was a merchant and had suffered a serious injury, it would have been natural for her to do so.
Catalina sighed.
“A week ago, mercenaries dispatched to the border brought back a strange report. The kingdom is overflowing with monsters, and it’s spilling over to the Empire. And rumor has it that the cause…”
She swallowed her dry saliva.
“…Is because the Northern Guard fell.”
“Northern?”
“Yes.”
Catalina looked straight at Amarion.
“Amari, Mule, Siland. There are rumors that those areas have collapsed.”
“…!”
Amarion lost strength in her legs for a moment. Carlz quickly grabbed her as she stumbled forward.
“Madame, are you okay?”
“Yes… yes.”
Amarion instinctively answered. But the truth was, she wasn’t okay at all. Her heart was beating like crazy.
Amari.
It was a place she was destined to protect from the moment she was born. It was her life’s goal and the reason she had been living up to this point. The reason she could laugh now was because she believed that the people of Amari were safe.
She felt as if she had suddenly fallen into the middle of the battlefield. Carlz distorted his face.
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
Amarion moved away from him, her mind going round and round.
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘Really, after only three seasons, Amari was destroyed by monsters?’
‘No, maybe the monsters who couldn’t attack Morte came down…?’
‘Are the rumors even true in the first place?’
Carlz and Catalina gave Amarion a moment, as she was confused. Catalina comforted her.
“Calm down, Amarion. It’s still just a rumor, it’s not fact yet.”
“But there’s no way it could have just been rumors.”
“…That’s right. In fact, it’s a pretty credible story.”
Carlz sighed briefly. His blue eyes stared straight at Amarion.
“Recently, monsters have infested the Empire’s border, so the Emperor ordered the border to be closed.”
Amarion shook her head in confusion.
She entered the Empire in the spring and spent all her time in the Capital and Morte, so she didn’t know anything about the outside world. Even during subjugation, she was busy moving around, so she only knew about the situation in Morte.
“This is a policy that has been in effect for some time. It made it quite difficult for me to research, and I was curious about something while reading the report of the subjugation army. So I asked Catalina if I could go with her. The monsters’ behavior is so strange.”
Amarion frowned.
Of course, the monsters were strange. But it was because a menacing Basilisk was located at the eastern end of Morte. So, after killing the Basilisk, almost all anomalies disappeared.
“But the reason the monsters increased so much was because they felt threatened, and the abnormal behavior was resolved when the Basilisk died, right?”
“Yes. But I was curious about something else. What type of monsters did you encounter during subjugation? Did you see Sphinxes, Salamanders, and Sunflower Draca?”
“Yes.”
Carlz calmly explained.
“The Sphinx is a monster that only lives in the desert areas of the Eastern Kingdom. Salamanders only live on the Southern tip of the continent. Sunflower Draca have never been seen outside the South. It wasn’t born near Morte in the first place, so it has nothing to do with the Basilisk.”
If monsters drifted North, there was only one reason.
“My only conclusion is that they are ‘prototypes’ born in the Black Mountains.”
‘Ah.’
Amarion bit her lip until it bled. Knowledge that had been forgotten was brought back in an instant.
All monsters were born in the Black Mountains. The monsters born in this way traveled across the continent to find a favorable climate to live in.
Rugged and tougher monsters stayed in the North, and relatively weaker demons in the South. After descending from the mountain, they settled down somewhere and reproduced.
So monsters never went extinct. Even after decades of killing ice wolves in the Amari, they did not completely disappear due to constant rebirth in the Black Mountains. This was the basic ecology of continental monsters.
And, in order to hunt down those ‘prototypes’ that came down from the Black Mountains, she and her people were forced to fight in the harsh cold.
Amarion closed her eyes and asked.
“So you are guessing that the ‘prototypes’ appeared here because something strange happened in the Black Mountains and the North.”
“That’s right. At first, I thought that they were monsters that flowed from the kingdom, but it wasn’t just the kingdom. When Lady Catalina looked into it, the main source of the monsters was the North.”
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The Chief of Staff of the Grand Duke let out a short sigh.
“So we decided it was a pretty credible rumor.”
***
New Kofi shop updated till chapter 93.