I Alone Regress in a Hero Party That Was Annihilated - Chapter 54

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

#54. Lack of Communication (2)

 

— — —

 

Late at night.

 

Rorschach visited Featherback’s bedroom.

 

While it was common for her to come to Featherback for reports… today there was something a little different.

 

Rorschach, who was always expressionless and businesslike, was for some reason wearing a sulky expression today, as if she was upset about something.

 

Moreover, her outfit consisted of a frilled dress with stylish pointed shoes, and she had properly accessorized with a necklace, earrings, and bracelet.

 

Her facial makeup was also in a light and natural state that looked effortlessly done.

 

At a glance, it was clear she had dressed up with the help of the maids.

 

‘How unusual. I thought she had no interest in this sort of thing.’

 

When they first met face to face in the cave, she had been closer to a beast than a human.

 

Now that she was wearing makeup and properly dressed, she finally looked human.

 

Featherback got up from the bed.

 

Swoosh―

 

Since he was naked as he was about to go to sleep, he thought to put something on first.

 

“!”

 

Suddenly Rorschach averted her eyes.

 

This was also a changed attitude from before.

 

Featherback put on his robe with a puzzled attitude.

 

Then he sat down on the chair in front and crossed his legs.

 

“What report did you come to make? I should have answered most matters in writing.”

 

“There are things that need to be reported in person, not in writing. Matters that shouldn’t leave evidence like documents.”

 

“So then. What is it?”

 

“Before that, are you going to keep a lady standing here?”

 

“A lady wouldn’t barge into a man’s room at this hour. Just sit anywhere.”

 

Featherback gestured with his chin toward a suitable chair.

 

However.

 

Despite the chair in front of Featherback being empty, Rorschach deliberately passed by it.

 

Plop―

 

She sat down on the bed where Featherback had been lying just moments before.

 

“I saw you taking a walk with Lady Cardona earlier. You looked quite affectionate.”

 

“It’s good when siblings have a close bond.”

 

“You don’t even share blood.”

 

“…?”

 

When Featherback’s eyebrow twitched, Rorschach continued speaking.

 

“I heard from Lady Cardona. Actually, you and Lady Cardona are distant relatives, more distant than eighth cousins.”

 

“Did my older sister tell you that?”

 

“…There were circumstances. I became quite close with Lady Cardona while you were away on the expedition.”

 

“What are you trying to say?”

 

“Anyway. Given the relationship between you and Lady Cardona, marriage would be possible. Among nobles who value pure bloodlines, it wouldn’t be much of a problem.”

 

“What marriage between siblings all of a sudden. If you came here to talk nonsense, just go back.”

 

For some reason, Rorschach’s expression brightened a little at Featherback’s dismissive attitude as he waved his hand in annoyance.

 

“Ahem. Then I’ll give you my report.”

 

“…”

 

Featherback thought that Rorschach’s attitude had changed somewhat strangely while he was away on the expedition.

 

How should he put it, before she seemed like a machine, but now she seemed to have a somewhat human scent about her.

 

‘The way she dressed up and came here too.’

 

Her complexion was reddish, her ear tips were red, and sometimes she trembled her voice or avoided his gaze…

 

‘Hmm― Has she finally become a bit socialized?’

 

She was a girl born by Prisoners of Narok and raised by Prisoners of Narok.

 

Like a child raised by wolves, she lacked social skills, which had worried him a bit, but now it seemed he didn’t need to worry about that anymore.

 

Soon, Rorschach’s report continued.

 

“There have been successive assassination incidents in the Imperial Capital. High-ranking nobles have been killed one after another. Several exiled nobles who recently applied for asylum to Mörsolt Territory were also found dead.”

 

“Are you certain they were assassinated?”

 

“The victims had crescent moon scars left on their chests. I suspect it might be the assassination organization ‘Descendants of the Crescent’ that’s been rampaging in the Imperial Capital lately.”

 

“…!”

 

Featherback’s brow furrowed.

 

‘Descendants of the Crescent. Are those things already moving around?’

 

Descendants of the Crescent.

 

A famous assassin group from the past.

 

During the Demon Realm War, not all humans united just because they had to fight the Demon King.

 

The black-haired beasts who failed to realize the severity of the situation bared their teeth at each other as well, and those who schemed in the underworld at that time were precisely the ‘Descendants of the Crescent.’

 

They mainly took assassination contracts on high officials and nobles, taking huge rewards, but such greedy bastards weren’t much help when fighting the Demon King, so the Hero Party had little contact with them.

 

‘They were neither particularly beneficial nor harmful to me… but in this life, it might be good to try utilizing them once.’

 

Perhaps he could catch the tail of the enemies lurking far away in the Imperial Capital.

 

Featherback nodded.

 

“What’s the next report?”

 

“It’s about the order you gave before departing on the expedition. About the Magic Tower.”

 

The Magic Tower Mages.

 

Featherback had even sent donations to the Magic Tower to borrow them.

 

It was to bring the mages and reorganize the northern distribution network.

 

Mass distribution of military supplies.

 

By recapturing the Beauvoir Mining District this time, they had become able to produce tremendous quantities of mithril weapons.

 

Featherback planned to use them to arm the forces throughout various parts of his territory.

 

Lord of War.

 

The picture he had spoken of before was being drawn step by step.

 

The problem was.

 

“The Magic Tower said they would consider it positively. However, it seems it will take quite a long time. Most of the mages are absorbed in their research and don’t have time available…”

 

“So. Did it fail?”

 

“I don’t bring back results of failure. I’ve found an alternative.”

 

Rorschach pulled out several documents.

 

It was about a wandering mage who lived in the ‘Frozen Forest’ near Baikal City.

 

“I arranged to make a service contract with that mage. However, at the final stage of negotiations, they suddenly sent a letter with strange contents…”

 

“Strange contents?”

 

Featherback flipped through the documents.

 

On the back page was enclosed the original text of the letter the mage had sent.

 

【Two shall meet. Must possess qualification.】

 

Mages are inherently eccentric.

 

They observe the laws of the world, study them, sometimes twist them, and sometimes defy them.

 

As a result, many among them pursue extreme efficiency and practicality.

 

‘…Meaning they only say what they want to say.’

 

The moment Featherback read the letter.

 

Whoosh—

 

Suddenly the letter burst into flames.

 

At the same time, light born from the flames drew a long straight trajectory toward the window.

 

…Flash!

 

The pillar of light was pointing to a specific location like a compass needle.

 

Rorschach’s eyes widened.

 

“This didn’t happen when I touched it!”

 

“It wouldn’t have. Qualification… it seems to only react to people with a certain level of mana or higher.”

 

Featherback shifted his gaze to the window.

 

The cluster of light that started from the letter was heading toward somewhere far on the horizon.

 

That place was located dozens of kilometers northwest of Mörsolt Mansion.

 

Rorschach’s expression hardened as he hurriedly looked at the map.

 

“…Nightmare-Eating Tree Spirit.”

 

“Hmm. A Forbidden Zone.”

 

Nightmare-Eating Tree Spirit.

 

That place was a vast forest located not too far from the Northern Region.

 

And everyone born and raised in the Northern Region receives education about this forest from childhood.

 

‘A place you must never enter’.

 

An ominous and cursed place that had created countless missing persons, a cursed land where only those seeking death would take their feeble steps.

 

That was the ‘Nightmare-Eating Tree Spirit’.

 

It felt very different from the ‘Beauvoir Abandoned Mine Zone’, which had once bustled with human footsteps but became a Human Survival Impossible Zone due to the appearance of Ice Dragon Adara.

 

If the Beauvoir Abandoned Mine Zone had become a cursed land relatively recently, this place had been cursed for a very long time—since the grandparents’ grandparents of the oldest elder in Mörsolt Territory were infants.

 

Rorschach muttered while looking at the map.

 

“Nightmare-Eating Tree Spirit… I’ve only heard it’s a forest that devours those who enter. They say it has swallowed countless Lords over the past hundreds of years.”

 

“He wants to meet there, right? This so-called Mage.”

 

“I think it would be better not to go. This forest is ominous. Let’s find another Mage.”

 

At Rorschach’s words, Featherback shook his head decisively.

 

“Human Territory doesn’t need such unsettling land. I’ll subjugate it while I’m at it.”

 

“You really love subjugation. What if you get cursed?”

 

“What curse? Just burn it all down and bulldoze it.”

 

Featherback preferred the laws of physics over the laws of Magic.

 

* * *

 

A few days later, Cardona departed toward the Boboire Mining District leading a large force.

 

Knights, Soldiers, and Miners.

 

Since even their Families had packed their belongings, the number of people moving approached nearly a thousand.

 

Cardona, mounted on a white horse, looked around her surroundings.

 

And soon.

 

“!”

 

She made eye contact with someone poking their head out of the window of that high Castle Tower.

 

Featherback.

 

Her non-blood-related Younger Brother.

 

He rested his arms on the windowsill and looked this way with his characteristic indifferent expression.

 

“…”

 

Cardona watched Featherback like that without saying a word.

 

And soon turned her head away.

 

‘When I go and come back, everything will be cleanly sorted out. My thoughts, my heart, everything.’

 

Cardona acknowledged it.

 

That lately, when she looked at Featherback, she couldn’t treat him the same way as before.

 

And that she didn’t know whether this was due to fondness for her younger brother who had grown so much, or something else entirely.

 

Could this heart that worried, longed to see him, and constantly wanted to take care of him really be the heart of an older sister toward her younger brother?

 

She had written letters to the Noble Ladies of her age who had studied together at the Academy, asking how ordinary older sisters treated their younger brothers, but the responses that came back were generally similar.

 

Of course, in their cases they were blood siblings who shared blood, while Cardona and Featherback were step-siblings who didn’t share blood… but even dwelling on that fact felt somehow sinful.

 

As time passed, or more precisely, the longer Featherback’s expedition went on, the more Cardona became afraid of discovering her true feelings about worrying for Featherback.

 

That’s partly why she had volunteered for this assignment to the Boboire Mining District, as if running away.

 

‘This actually worked out well. I’ll go to a cold place to cool my head and hone my swordsmanship. Beauvoir Mine is a place that someone needs to take charge of developing anyway.’

 

Cardona spurred her horse forward toward the Northern Region.

 

Hoping that when she returned someday, she would be able to clearly define her complicated inner feelings.

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