A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special - Chapter 54

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 54. Ebernaton (6)

* * *

-Vagrant. (Progress Rate 1%)
The number of vagrants has far exceeded what the territory’s security forces can manage. Serious crimes—robbery, murder—occur daily.
The residents live in terror of these unknown intruders. Merchants refuse to approach the territory anymore. The local economy has contracted sharply.

A chill hung in the air of the Conference Room.
The key figures of Ebernaton Territory had gathered in one place: Lord Wilhelm Ebernaton, Knight Commander Azest, Strategist Dezir Armang, and Knight Eyuran, who had been forcefully advocating for the expulsion of the vagrants.
The meeting had been called to discuss the vagrant problem.
“There are far too many vagrants, my lord.”
Eyuran spoke toward Wilhelm.
“What’s more, they have already begun to treat our goodwill as if it were their right.”
She was seething with indignation.
The vagrants felt no gratitude toward Ebernaton Territory. If anything, they seemed to regard their entry into the territory as utterly natural and expected.
“The most pressing issue is the grain supply. If this continues, our territory cannot survive the winter. We must expel the vagrants at once!”
“That cannot be allowed!”
Dezir, who had been listening to the back-and-forth, objected immediately.
“Why did you accept the vagrants in the first place, my lord? Calling for their expulsion is tantamount to asking you to abandon your convictions.”
“You speak without understanding what those convictions are! My lord’s ideals are meant to protect not only the vagrants but our own people as well. Yet you would impose sacrifice upon them for the sake of outsiders? Should the many suffer so that the few may live?”
Her voice carried the weight of escalating emotion with every word. She pressed on.
“Think about it. The vagrants are strangers whose faces we barely know, yet they accept our kindness as if it were their due—showing shameless ingratitude! Whose welfare should weigh more in the lord’s decision: those who have called this territory home and trusted us for years, or these newcomers we’ve only just met?”
“But there must be another way besides expulsion—a way to save both. To abandon one side when we have the means to save both would be wrong.”
Dezir continued the debate without yielding an inch. It was not merely for the sake of the Quest.
The relationship between Beta and Alpha within Hebrion Academy.
Here in this Shadow World, Dezir could not help but be reminded of it again and again.
It was the same conviction he had voiced when he first formed his party after his return. Therefore, Dezir could never back down.
He spoke of Wilhelm’s ideals, but they were also his own.
“Means? Our citizens are paralyzed by fear from the instability. The grain supplies are finite—there is no way to procure more! Stop ignoring reality and face the truth!”
“Rather than only considering expulsion, we must explore other measures. Why do you speak as though expulsion is the only option? Why won’t you even attempt to consider alternatives?”
“Then present one. Can you? Will you calm those vagrants stampeding about like thunder-mad beasts, and make them stop needing food?”
Their argument had devolved into an emotional clash from the start. No solutions emerged—only heated passion clashing against heated passion.
It was Wilhelm who broke the deadlock.
“That’s enough.”
“My lord!”
“I thought I could save everyone. I have believed that for a very long time. But it seems that was merely my delusion. A part of my old conviction, now faded into the past, yet one I have clung to in error.”
Wilhelm looked toward Dezir.
“I am grateful that you have striven to uphold my ideals. But the time has come to accept that the situation no longer permits me to cling stubbornly to them. You are sufficiently wise to understand this already, are you not?”
……
“Idealism and Reality. It is time to bring this matter to a close.”
A cold sharper than winter settles in. A dream of sweetness shatters into waking.
“Saving everyone was impossible from the start. I can no longer bear the weight.”
Wilhelm exhaled slowly.
“Tell the vagrants that Ebernaton Territory regrets it can no longer be their sanctuary.”
“Understood, my lord!”
Eyuran’s voice rang out with barely concealed triumph.
The expulsion of the vagrants was now as good as decided.
……
In that moment, Azest watched their exchange in silence.
Correcting Wilhelm Ebernaton’s misguided choice—that was the method to Clear this Shadow World. If things proceeded as they were now, he would repeat the same history, and the Quest would fail.
But Azest could say nothing. She found herself thinking that, had she stood in his position, she would have made the same choice.
While Azest remained lost in thought, Dezir approached Wilhelm.
And he knelt before him.
It was a moment no one had anticipated.
Dezir opened his mouth to speak.
“Two days.”
He could bear to be called craven. There had been a time when he pursued his ideals without fearing anyone’s gaze, yet now he found himself chasing those same ideals out of fear of a single person’s judgment—and to preserve that conviction firmly within himself, he cast aside his pride.
Dezir spoke with urgency and earnestness.
“Please, grant me just two more days. I will find a way, no matter what it takes.”
Two days.
Merely two days.
Everyone held their breath in silence, waiting for the lord’s decision.
“Very well. I will grant you two days’ reprieve.”

* * *

The immediate crisis brought on by the influx of Vagrants was food rationing.
As a result, the meals provided to soldiers within the castle walls became sparse. There was considerable resistance, but Wilhelm managed to quell the discontent by setting an example—dining with the soldiers in the same mess hall.
And so time continued its passage.
Two days.
The time granted to Dezir. When those two days elapsed, the Vagrants would be expelled, and the Quest would fail.
Dezir racked his brains desperately, struggling to devise a solution within the narrow window he had managed to secure.
Yet no matter how hard he thought, he could conceive of no remedy beyond “drive the Vagrants out.”
For instance, among his initial ideas had been a plan to cultivate talented Vagrants.
To nurture Vagrants with skills, and sell the goods they produced through merchants visiting the territory.
But that was far too long-term a scheme.
Training them individually, establishing a sales system, moving the goods to market—even at the most conservative estimate, it would consume months.
It could not address the crisis at hand.
‘And yet… I have to think of something. I must.’
The streets were occupied by Vagrants. With their sudden numbers swelling, the territory’s residents had ceased to enjoy their leisurely strolls.
In the Ebernaton Territory, where only a cold wind blew, the former vibrant atmosphere could not be felt anywhere.
Dezir trudged forward, crunching through the accumulating snow beneath his feet.
Only when he reached the Vagrant Settlement, having left the residential district behind, did he sense traces of human presence—though it was a presence far removed from joy or vitality.
“Do not break ranks!”
“If you cut in line, you will receive no ration!”
The soldiers’ voices rang out.
Before them stretched a long queue of Vagrants.
Dezir shifted his steps toward them. As he approached, the soldiers saluted.
“Do not concern yourselves. Continue with your duties.”
“Understood.”
The Vagrants rubbed their hands together, trying to thaw frozen fingers, waiting eagerly for their turn. Yet even after such waiting, the food they received was meager.
For a moment, Dezir stood gazing at the long line, lost in thought. Then someone called his name.
“Dezir!”
Turning around, he saw Lirika waving from beside Azest.
Lirika too was a Vagrant in the Settlement. Given the atmosphere of extreme distrust, despite her tender years, she had been driven back to the Vagrant Settlement along with the others.
She held a rye bread the size of a fist in her hand—her ration.
Dezir walked toward her.
“Were you bored waiting?”
Lirika shook her head vigorously.
“No! Azest stayed in line with me, so it wasn’t boring at all!”
Azest stood beside Lirika in her Plate Armor, overseeing the ration distribution while also watching over the girl.
“I’m truly sorry things turned out this way, Lirika.”
“Why are you sorry? You were always kind to me. Ha-ha, I wish I could still be with you and Jepran, but…”
“…”
“But I don’t understand why I was sent away. Jepran won’t say a word either… Did I do something wrong? Did I make a mistake?”
“That’s absolutely not it.”
“Then what is it?”
Dezir pressed his lips together.
How could he explain? To tell this girl the plain truth would be terribly cruel.
“You’ll be able to come back someday.”
“Until then, will you take good care of Carlos for me?”
“Carlos?”
“The snowman I made.”
“…Yes, I’ll take good care of him.”
After saying farewell, Lirika disappeared among the Vagrants.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————