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Volume 3 Chapter 3 Part 1

Chapter 3: Resolutions

May 2, 2013 of the Continental Calendar

A group of Lords hailing from the eastern part of the Fantasia Union, including Vilar Constance, the Earl of Artuk was headin west along the road that was situated along the South Sea, and soon they have arrived at the city of Halusia, after which they did not waste any time and made their way straight towards the castle that was own by Alexis Ducet, the Marquis of Halusia.

Most of the Lords who belonged to the Fantasia Union have already arrived by the time they got there, and gorgeous banquets were already being held every single day in the castle’s main hall, where the specialty dishes from all over the entire continent were being lined up on the long tables, and many servants were also coming and going from one guest to another while offering various kinds of cups and glasses that contained all kinds of exotic alcohols. A large orchestral band was playing music all through the day without stopping, and various dances were also performed.

「I feel so out of place here. 」

Theo, who has already changed into his formal attire and arrived in the main hall of the castle as a servant of Vilar, but the moment he walked through the door, he started feeling dizzy from the sheer extravagance around him.

「You can say that again for the people in the back. 」

Siluca, who was also wearing her best formal dress nodded her head. In order to clearly indicate that she was a Mage who was accompanying her contracted Lord, she has attached a rainbow-colored ribbon onto her clothes, while Theo had a red medal with a green stripe running through the middle of it to indicate his rank of a Knight serving the Earl.

「Now, which one of the Lords is Lord Alexis? I wonder if I could have a dance with him? 」

Laura, the newly-appointed Head Mage of Vilar was busy twisting her neck from one corner of the hall to the other as she was looking for Alexis. That kind of behavior was very unusual for her, since when they were still in Artuk, she was always trying to act as gracefully as possible at all times.

「You are going to meet him sooner or later, even without you acting so childishly. But if you do end up dancing with him, then please make sure not to do anything that could be considered rude or disrespectful. 」

After he reprimanded Laura, Vilar then glanced at Siluca.

「I expect you to do the same. 」

「I understand. 」

Siluca replied softly.

「Come to think of it, you should already be well acquainted with Lord Alexis, considering that you saved his and Marine Kraische’s lives during 「The Tragedy of the Grand Cathedral」. 」

「Yes. Lord Alexis has fainted on the spot when he witnessed the Demon Lord beheading the two Archdukes, but after he regained consciousness he sought me out and thanked me for saving his life. 」

When she heard those words, Laura’s eyes became widely opened with jealousy.

(Laura-senpai has become such a maiden…)

Siluca muttered to herself, amused at the hidden side of her senior that she has never shown back in Artuk.

「After the incident happened, the entire Mages Association has gone through some especially tough times. We did not know who was the culprit responsible for the summoning of the Demon Lord, and all the master-servant relationships that the two Archdukes have build based on their Crests have been lost beyond the point of recovery, so the Lords from both the Fantasia Union and the Factory Alliance have fled back to their own territories as fast as they could. 」

It has been a while since 「The Tragedy of the Grand Cathedral」, but even so, it could be argued that the Chaos that followed this incident has continued on to the present day despite the valiant efforts to suppress it. And at this point, it was still too early to say clearly if the confusion that followed that event will slowly subside or only grow stronger with the passage of time.

「The Factory Alliance is using the Mages specialized in diplomacy to communicate about the latest political happenings, but the Fantasia Union does not rely on such a system. This Lord’s Conference is going to be the first gathering where decisions will be made since 「The Tragedy of the Grand Cathedral」took place, but I am sure that there must have already been a number of secret talks taking place behind the scenes even before the decision to organize this meeting was made. 」

Vilar smiled wryly and wanted to continue, but then…

「Well, well, well, if it is not the Earl of Artuk! 」

… one of the Lords shouted joyfully and approached Vilar. He was dressed in green, which indicated that he was himself an Earl.

「This is Earl of Leclerc, Kurt Gallas. 」

Vilar whispered to Siluca.

(This person is…)

The Gallas family was an influential member of the Fantasia Union that occupied the fortified city of Leclerc in the northern part of Aronne and its surroundings and whose previous head was always preaching about how dangerous the Factory Alliance was from the moment it was established and who was always advocating strengthening the bonds between the members of the Fantasia Union in order to neutralize the threat that the Alliance possessed.

Back when the Factory Alliance and the Fantasia Union were first established, he was always taking the initiative to fight against the forces of the Alliance, and in what was supposed to have been the decisive battle over 30 years ago, while all of his allies were collapsing one after another, he managed to hold out until the very end, but ended up dying a gruesome death in combat as a result. Kurt, who has inherited the title and the responsibilities of a Lord at a very young age vowed to one day avenge the regrets of his father with his sword that has been recovered and passed on to him. And now the Earl of Leclerc, who is alco known under the names such as The Earl of Remnant Sword or The Earl of Covenant summoned a bright smile on his tanned face as he and Vilar hugged each other, celebrating their reunion.

「You have arrived so late that I was beginning to get worried, but then I heard that before you came here you managed to conquer all of the territories belonging to Clovis and Falvis, and so you did not take the route through the sea. 」

「That is because the road was blocked , so we needed to do something about it. 」

Vilar explained calmly.

「And you definitely did something, trust me. With that, Artuk has become a sharp dagger at the throat of the Factory Alliance, both the proverbial one and in reality. 」

Kurt praised Vilar with genuine admiration in his voice.

(It looks like this person is not an enemy of Lord Vilar.)

Siluca concluded as such based on the interaction that the two men had just now. He was probably one of Vilar’s allies, but Siluca’s adoptive father has taught her that she should not be too hasty in trusting or distrusting people unless she was absolutely sure of the other’s intentions. Siluca has always made sure to adhere to her adoptive father’s teachings, but since Aishela hated Aubest Meletes with a burning passion, she always made sure to do the exact reverse of what he was saying, so for her, the first impressions were always the determining factor in whether she ended up liking any given person or not. However, despite all that, one of Aishela’s undisputedly good qualities was the fact that even if she did not like someone, she always treated them just like everyone else, without exceptions.

「Originally, our plan was to celebrate the arrival of the hero along with everyone else. 」

「Maybe so, but now it certainly does not look that way. 」

Vilar remarked as he glanced around the hall. Until just a few moments ago the atmosphere was a merry and festive one, but when Vilar arrived with the others, it became somewhat tense.

「Yes, about that… as you can probably imagine, some of the Lords do not firnd your recent activities to be particularly… appealing. 」

「And by 「Some of the Lords」, you wanted to say… Lord Alexis, for example? 」

Vilar asked Kurt.

「He is a gentleman whose heart is entirely devoted to Lady Marine. Even now, all that he thinks about is reconciling with the Factory Alliance so that he could marry her, but he does not seem to have anything in particular against you at all, Lord Vilar. On the contrary, he was overjoyed to hear that you managed to get here safely. 」