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Volume 4 Chapter 1 Part 6

That is to say, their current relationship is based on them standing on equal footing as they were cooperating in hopes of reaching the same goal that they were pursuing, and apparently it was the kind of relationship between a Lord and a Contracted Mage that was close to the one that was the most prevalent during the Restoration War.

Siluca’s ideal Lord is said to be Leon, the Founding Lord.

He is a legendary hero who was always described like a person taken straight out of a fairy tale during Siluca’s days spent at the Magic Academy. Most of the students there had a crush on Leon at one point or another, but as they went on to college and learned about the truth behind Leon’s legend, their feelings of admiration gradually began to fade.

However, Siluca despised all Lords as a whole, so therefore, even though she belonged to the Meletes family, she probably did not aspire to become a contracted Mage at any point in her life.

(Unfortunately, she is still pretty much a child.)

When Siluca joined Artuk’s Magic Division, she was repeatedly warned by the Head Mage that she should not be as impudent as she tended to be, but much to everyone’s surprise she was usually surprisingly obedient. It took a while, but eventually her collegues from the Magic Division began to adore her and even rely on her, and recently they all started thinking about her as their cute junior. However, when a switch is turned on in her, she instantly transforms into a Witch with excellent ingenuity.

While she was thinking about such things, Laura arrived at the office. She looked at Siluca’s desk and saw that she has already put away her belongings and that everything else on it has has been carefully cleaned.

「Probably her Chamberlain’s doing. 」

Laura frowned her eyebrows.

Siluca has an extremely talented Chamberlain working under her. She could not help it but admire his dexterity and skillfulness, but knowing that someone like him was around somehow did not feel good.

「Siluca may never come back here again. 」

Colleen said while looking at Siluca’s desk with sad eyes.

「It might actually be better for her to stay in The Forest of Eternal Darkness for a while. She is going to be safer there. 」

Helga returned to her desk and looked through the stack of documents while speaking in a tone that sounded as if she was just making some small talk.

「If something happens to Villar, his subordinate Lords will become independent. Lord Theo is not originally from this country, so he is free to abandon his territory and leave should anything like that happens. 」

「Lord Vilar is a kind ruler, so he might have ordered them to return to their territory ahead of time to make sure that nothing will happen to them. 」

Colleen nodded in agreement.

「Well, since we have no freedom to go anywhere we want, we might as well try to put our wits together and try to come up with some way of making sure that Artuk survives. 」

Laura called out to Helga and Colleen.

「I agree. 」

「That sounds like trouble… but I will do my best. 」

They answered, but the conversation did not continue any further than that.

(That was to be expected…)

Even though she said something like that, Laura herself did not have any ideas on what they could possibly do.

Just like Siluca advised Vilar earlier, responding to the King of Stark’s request for help and confronting the Factory Alliance and defeating them was their best way out of this situation, but Vilar had already refused to go down that route. Perhaps his peculiar aesthetics did not allow him to do it.

It seemed to Laura that the Earl had already decided to surrender himself to fate.

If you compared Artuk’s current situation to a game of cards, then the Earl’s turn was over, and now it was Marine Kraische’s turn, so they are simply going to have to wait and see exactly what kind of move she decides to make.

* * *

June 1, 2013 of the Continental Calendar

Theo and Siluca have returned from Castle Unicorn to their castle in the Forest of Eternal Darkness.

「Sl~lu~ka~! 」

Aishela rushes out of the castle with her face all smiley and she hugged Siluca as soon as she saw her. Siluca simply accepted the hug and combed her ruffled hair.

Aishela did not accompany Theo and the others to Halusia after the conquest of Clovis and Falvis was over. Instead, she returned to Theo’s castle in The Forest of Eternal Darkness in order to take care of it and the things around the territory while Theo and Siluca were away.

「I was starving for this loveliness of yours! 」

Aishela said with a rough snort.

「You are always hungry for many things, are you not? 」

Siluca felt as if she was healed by Aishela’s lovely innocence, and she began to laugh, and did not stop for a long time.

After the Fantasia Union’s Lord’s Conference was over, her every day was filled with despondency and anguish, and she thought that the grim expression she had on her face stuck to her like a mask.

「I am a greedy person after all~~ 」

Aishela puffed out her chest with pride and said.

(I envy that about you. Also…)

Seeing her bountiful breasts pushing up against her scale armor, Siluca felt a slight throb o jealousy in her mind.

「Were there any problems while we were away? 」

「Nothing in particular. I have been patrolling the forest and hunting down dangerous monsters, and I have also found several places that have turned into demonic domains due to the heightened concentration of Chaos. I also went around the villages in the forest to conduct a population survey among the villagers, but it looks like it is going to take quite a few days to complete. 」

Aishela said while she was folding her fingers one after another to count the things that she managed to accomplish during Siluca’s absence.

「Looks like you managed to get quite a lot of things done. 」

Theo was genuinely impressed with Aishela’s efforts.

「I did not do it all for you! 」

Aishela returned her cold gaze to Theo. Of course, she was not saying that because she wanted to be modest about her accomplishments. She genuinely meant what she said. Every last word of it.

「I know, I know… 」

Theo nodded with a wry smile.

「But I wanted to thank you for it anyway. 」

「You have no idea how helpful you have been, Aishela. I have been so busy with work at Castle Unicorn that I have put off managing our own territory for far too long. But from now on, I can concentrate on the territory, so it is going to… going to be o… okay… 」

Siluca began with a smile, but by the end she was in tears.

「H-How is it going to be okay?! What in the hell happened?! 」

Aishela hugged Siluca again, and this time she was the one to gently comb her hair.

「A, A lot has happened, actually… 」

Siluca continued to sob while Aishela was cradling her in her arms.

「We will talk about everything properly once we are inside, okay? 」

At the castle, Irvin, dressed as a Chamberlain, was already preparing tea without fail. Emma and Luna, both dressed as maids, baked a large amount of pies according to the recipies that have been handed down to them from their mother and were bringing them over once they cooled down a bit. Even the Cait Sith from the World of Tir na Nog, His Highness Balgary came out of Siluca’s shadow, presumably because he was lured in by the delicious scent of the pies.

「Lord Theo, welcome home! 」

Priscilla, the female priestess from the Order of the Crest also entered the room, and just like that everyone was gathered in a single place for a first time in quite a while.

Then Theo talked about the whole story of what happened at Halusia and what happened after they returned to Castle Unicorn.

「…In other words, the foolish Lord of Halusia wants to reunite with his estranged lover, so he ignores the situation and he wants to try to make peace with the Factory Alliance no matter what? 」

Aishela summed it up shortly and decisively.

「Lord Alexis is a good person. He even called me his friend. 」

Theo explained the situation with the Marquis Halusia.

「It should be no surprise, since it is said that birds of a feather tend to flock together. 」

Aishela agreed with Theo and nodded her head strongly.