novelraw Chapter 213 : Chapter 213
Chapter 213 : Chapter 213
Chapter 213: Folly (4)
Ellen's breakfast time was fixed.
Shura was the standard.
When Shura shook off sleep, Kubel had set a table too lavish to call breakfast.
It was fitting for Kubel's size, but Ellen was an even bigger reason. Ellen ate a lot at any time.
Perhaps even more than Harad thought.
"......What are you doing?"
"Eating breakfast, aren't we?"
The menu was meat, as always.
Benus watched Ellen eat from across the table with a pleased expression.
"Do you want to eat too? There's still plenty."
Ellen was right. The table was lavish.
"I'll just take the thought. I just woke up."
"Doesn't that make you want to eat more?"
Since you couldn't eat while sleeping.
Ellen muttered and finished eating.
"Do you have a separate schedule today?"
"Why suddenly?"
"You're eating breakfast early."
Harad pointed at the meat.
"You usually ate together at Kubel's Annex."
"Ah. I'm going to eat again after this."
"......?"
"I always did that. You didn't know?"
He didn't know she ate this well.
"What, do I look like a pig again?"
Ellen's eyes narrowed.
When he turned his head slightly, Benus's eyes were even narrower. How dare you? That kind of look.
"No. I told you, I like people who eat a lot."
Though she really does eat a lot.
Harad counted the plates Ellen had emptied only in his mind.
'She eats like that and doesn't gain weight.'
Whether it was effort or natural disposition.
"More...... No. I ate well."
Ellen, who had cleaned the table, raised her hand then lowered it.
She seemed to want to eat more but was being considerate.
Normally it would be fine, but there were two people waiting for her meal to end.
"You can eat more, dear."
Benus said.
She seemed to like watching Ellen eat heartily.
"No. I can eat more later."
Ellen, who had just finished her meal, salivated.
She must be looking forward to Kubel's breakfast. Kubel was good at cooking.
"Then let's go."
"Where?"
Benus, who had stood up, lightly touched her index and middle fingers to her lips then removed them.
It meant let's go smoke tobacco.
"Don't you smoke? I heard you started as soon as you became an adult."
Benus wanted to smoke tobacco with Ellen.
She truly was an impulsive woman.
"How does Mom know that?"
"I'm the Intelligence Bureau Director."
Benus urged with hand gestures to go.
Then Harad's eyes met Ellen's. She shook her head.
"I quit."
"Why?"
"It smells. Especially from the mouth."
Ellen said, licking her lips with her finger.
"I hate the taste of tobacco."
Tobacco has a taste.
Those were words Ellen had said once in Alfenor.
Harad at the time hadn't understood.
But now he knows.
Tobacco tastes unfamiliar, bitter, and harsh.
Elaine from the previous life had taught him with her lips.
It wasn't a taste he particularly disliked.
"I hate it."
Ellen suddenly frowned.
"Really?"
Benus looked disappointed.
'Shouldn't she be glad?'
Her child quit something bad for the body.
"Did you learn tobacco from the Intelligence Bureau Director?"
Does Mom smoke too?
Ellen didn't ask that question.
It meant she knew of course that she smoked.
"She didn't teach me. I followed on my own."
"Alcohol too?"
"Yes."
Grand Duke Aratus didn't do alcohol or tobacco.
So that's where Elaine learned those things.
'She really did learn all the bad things.'
Harad clicked his tongue quietly.
"As expected of my daughter."
Benus was pleased as if she had never been disappointed.
"Shouldn't you be stopping her?"
"Why should I?"
Benus looked serious.
It was a familiar shamelessness.
"She's your daughter. When she's doing something bad......"
"Bad? That trivial thing."
"......"
It wasn't exactly wrong.
That trivial tobacco and alcohol, no matter how much she consumed, Ellen's body wouldn't be harmed. She had that kind of talent.
But those habits would carry over to Elaine as well.
'She said she had to be perfect.'
It seemed the perfection Benus wanted and the perfection Harad thought of were different.
'Alcohol and tobacco. They certainly suit a tyrant.'
Elaine was known to the continent as the next tyrant.
To Benus, the perfect Grand Duke seemed to have that kind of image.
'Or does she like alcohol and tobacco because she's an impulsive person?'
Either way, Benus was quite far from normal.
'She doesn't do drugs too, does she?'
Harad glanced at Benus.
She was chewing on the tobacco in her mouth.
"Then I'll go alone."
"Okay."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"......"
Benus left alone.
Her retreating figure looked somehow pitiful.
* * *
"The sea?"
Ellen asked back as if wondering what that sudden talk was about.
Harad nodded.
"I don't mind, but our sea won't be much to look at, will it?"
"You don't like the northern sea?"
"Of course I like it."
Some northerners called snow garbage, but Ellen loved everything about the North.
The adjacent sea was included.
"But I think it would be nothing special to your eyes."
However, she seemed a bit awkward to boast about it.
Because in the North, the sea was not a route they used much. Huge ice floated around in that cold place.
"How about we go to the continent instead? I heard the sea gets prettier the farther south you go."
Harad shook his head.
Elaine from the previous life had liked the southwestern coastline of the continent.
"Let's go there later too. You'll like it."
"......Have you been there?"
"It's a secret."
"You have been there, haven't you?"
Ellen became sulky.
Lately it felt like she was catching on more often.
"So why do you want to go to the sea?"
Instead of pressing further, Ellen asked the reason.
It was the power of the word "secret." Ellen was generally understanding.
"There's an asylum route in the western sea."
Balbebron carried Alena on his shoulders and swam to asylum.
Originally it was a smuggling route used by secret ships.
"Are you trying to turn the asylum route toward the North?"
Ellen seemed to be thinking of the Liberation Faction that had migrated.
"That would be good, but it's impossible for now."
The Grand Duke of Serzila was still Aratus.
To bring in Mages, he needed to achieve merit.
"The asylum route isn't the only thing in that sea. There's also the Otherworld's path."
The Otherworld often used the western sea when traveling to and from the continent.
"There are various other routes, but the western sea is the safest path."
The Otherworld's infiltration routes were diverse.
However, only the western sea and Digger guaranteed safety.
Now that Digger was blocked, the western sea was almost the only passage.
"Large and small fires will return. Moon said so. They'll probably return through the western sea."
The reason for returning was obvious.
Because they would know that a Star of the Red Tower had appeared at the Barrier.
If they found the Star, they could get closer to the King as well.
"I wanted to see those things called Dreamers once. It'll be easier to find them at sea than at the Barrier."
"What if it's a trap?"
If it's a trap set by Moon.
It was a valid point.
"Then from now on, no matter what Moon says, we'll have to ignore it. Because it would mean she has no use value at all."
"Good."
Ellen nodded quickly.
She seemed satisfied with the answer.
"But what will you do after meeting those Mages called Dreamers?"
"Well, we'll kill them as much as possible, won't we?"
Harad shrugged as he spoke.
They're fire, they're an odd bunch, but they're still Otherworld, aren't they?
This time Ellen nodded slowly.
A strange expression mixed with affirmation, negation, and ambiguity.
"Then let's go, us."
Unlike when Benus offered tobacco, Ellen stood up abruptly.
"Just the two of us are going, right?"
Actually, the reason didn't seem to matter.
"I was planning to, but it seems we'll need more people."
"Why?"
"It could be a trap. As you said."
"......"
"Should we take Kubel?"
Fire had good compatibility with smoke.
Of course, that would be the same from the Dreamers' perspective, but the initiative with smoke was on this side anyway.
"Then who will watch Shura?"
"Cassion is here."
Cassion was surprisingly good with children.
"It's bad for Shura's emotions."
"Mm. It might be better to take Cassion instead. Since it's not the Barrier."
Magic was restricted outside.
It might be better to bring a knight rather than a Mage.
"How can the 2nd Knights Commander go on external duty?"
"That's true too."
The 2nd Knights was on rest, but that didn't mean freedom.
Knights had to be ready to rush to the wall at any time.
'Unless they take time off completely.'
Of course, a Knights Commander had no such thing as time off.
"What about the knights who failed the Magical Examination? If you say there might be a fight, they'd follow right away."
Most would readily take time off.
Harad was already in that position.
"That's a nuisance. Let's just go by ourselves."
"I don't think it would be a nuisance."
"I said it's a nuisance."
Ellen was firm.
Benus, who had looked serious earlier, came to mind.
"Just the two of us."
"Mm."
"Answer me."
"Let's do that."
When she says so, you have to do it.
"Kuk."
Benus, who had returned at some point, laughed very pleasantly.
"Ah, but we have to bring Jis."
"......"
"I really need him."
"Only up to Jis."
"I'll leave Fireball alone in the basement of the Annex."
"......Only up to Fireball."
Because if necessary, she could just tell him to stay away for a bit.
Ellen muttered quietly.
"Tsk."
Benus's face twisted slightly.
* * *
The North was vast, but ultimately not larger than the continent.
It was harsh, but compared to the Barrier it was close to heaven. There was no need to be cautious with every step.
So this journey wouldn't be as long as the last one.
That was the reason for the brief farewell. Kubel and Shura were disappointed, but they didn't well up with tears like last time.
Not because they had experienced separation, but because they believed they would return again.
What mattered most to Kubel and Shura was a sense of stability.
"Where are you going?"
Gullen, who had been receiving Magical lessons from Kubel, asked.
'She said he's handsome?'
Thick, and his hair is short like a broom.
'Is a broom her type? Because she's a maid?'
He'd be good for cleaning.
Like a knight, Gullen's hair was also stiff.
"Are you going somewhere strange?"
"Going for a walk."
"But why are you looking at me like that?"
"My eyes are originally like this."
"......?"
Star.
Gullen grumbled quietly and shifted his gaze.
It was knowledge of the Tower of Storms that Harad had written sometime ago, but looking closely, it seemed part of it had been copied separately.
Kubel's explanations were added throughout.
"That magic, no, is it the Origin you don't understand?"
"I understood it."
"Then?"
"The Commander didn't understand."
"Can't you explain it to him?"
"He says he can't understand my explanation."
So he came down from the wall to ask Kubel.
"When she says so, you have to do it, what can you do?"
Knights were certainly excellent at obeying.
"Or is what I understood wrong?"
Gullen explained.
It was a poor explanation, but Harad understood sufficiently.
Because he knew the previous life.
Gullen tended to interpret things his own way.
However, there were no wrong answers.
Gullen was that kind of knight.
"That's also correct. Vagueness remains vague even when interpreted."
"......?"
"It's an answer unique to you."
As long as it could be interpreted and wielded, that was enough.
To Gullen from the previous life, understanding was that kind of thing. With just that rough estimation, he had become a Great Warrior.
"So do it as it is. If Commander Toremot said to do it, keep doing it."
Gullen wrinkled his face but focused on the knowledge.
Even if he disliked it, if it was Harad's words he'd believe first, and if Toremot ordered it he'd do it first.
"Then I'll be going."
"Where are you walking to?"
"Going to Roichte."
Roichte was a port city in the west of the North.
"What? Why that ruined place...... No, take me with you."
Now that he looked, his sense for smelling blood was also excellent.
"It's already too late."
Harad and Ellen plunged into the shadows.
Gullen, who had stood up abruptly, suddenly glanced at Shura.
"Hey!"
He shouted in such a sanitized way.
"Harad is going to play alone!"
The knights studying while lying in the yard of Kubel's Annex jerked their heads up.
All had the expected reaction.
"I don't see him?"
They couldn't even find Jis's shadow.
* * *
"......?"
"What?"
"But he's a Mage?"
Harad blinked his eyes.
There was a Mage.
Right in front of Roichte's gate, openly.