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Volume 7 Chapter 1 Part 5

「Do you remember when you tried to give those kids sweets out the window and father got really mad at us? 」

After Aishela looked through the window, she called out to me.

「Yes, he said that we shouldn’t be giving them sweets, money or any other things, and then he had us throw the sweets we had in our hands into the trash. 」

She didn’t really understand it when she was a kid, but now she thinks she knows exactly what her father meant by that and what kind of lesson he was trying to teach them back then.

Rather than relying on the charity and goodwill of others, you should focus on getting honest work to earn enough money to buy whatever you might need yourself. And once you get enough money to enjoy a stable lifestyle, the you can start thinking about changing your job to a more enjoyable one. According to Aubest himself, some of the people who actually followed that advice of his ended up becoming wealthy through the businesses that they’ve established.

「Those kids look like children of illegal immigrants. 」

Instead of picking up trash left by others, they have no choice but to ask the residents to do it for them, hoping that they’re going to show them even the slightest bit of compassion. Or perhaps some cunning person is using these children as slaves to collect garbage.

「Judging from the color of her hair and skin, they seems to be of northern descent. It seems like there is a lot of fighting in the northern part of the continent, so maybe that’s why… 」

Apparently, now that the front of the Great War has shifted more towards the northern and central parts of the continent, countries such as Vanberg and Sandromere have found themselves in especially tough positions, so it wasn’t all that surprising that the people of these countries were trying to come to Elam to escape the fires of war and constant battles between Marine Kraische of Waldrind and the groups of mercenaries such as Garrus and his Shameful Band.

「There are tens of thousands of mercenaries gathered together in the northern regions, right? I think things are probably going to be even more terrible than they are now soon. 」

Aishela’s expression became distorted.

「Are things that much out of control? 」

「Probably. The reason I pretended to be a Warrior Maiden Valkyrie was to protect myself. 」

「Protect yourself… 」

Siluca also knew what she meant by that.

Aishela was unable to become a proper Mage and attend the Magic University, so instead, she became an Agent of a secret agency within the ranks of the Mages Association that specialized countermeasures against Chaos Disasters, but even so, she was not an officially employed worker for them, but just a mercenary hired to do their dirty work.

Her job often required her to work with mercenaries, detect Chaos, and diffuse it if necessary. It was a dangerous job, but precisely because it was so dangerous and detached from the typical mercenary work, there was not a lot of people who could do it or who were willing to do it, which is why the duty of doing it fell onto her.

Although it was such a thankless job, Aishela chose that job of her own volition. One of the reasons behind that decision was that this job was giving her relative freedom. Thanks to that, she used to jokingly say that whenever she needed help, she would always run to Siluca, and if Siluca ever needed her help, she’d be there for her in a flash.

「I didn’t wanted to just be pawned to some man that I wouldn’t even like, so I became the woman of the mercenary captain I liked, and while he protected me from Chaos, he also taught me every fighting technique that he knew. Then, after following his teachings for a while, I finally managed to obtain my very first Chaos Core all on my own, and I used it to carve my very first Art onto my body. By that time, I’ve already decided that I was going to become a Valkyrie. In order for a young woman like me to have an equal relationship with the rest of the mercenaries, the first step was to have them worship me as their Goddess. That’s why I became fast. That’s why I say such crass lines all the time while fighting, and that’s why I dance on the battlefield. Thanks to that, I’ve been able to stand on equal footing with everyone else and team up with pretty much anyone, and still be the one who’s going to come out on top. It’s all because of my strength and my beauty. 」

Aishela combed her hair and let her feminine charm sway.

Siluca has known for a long time that she is attractive. When she was at the Magic Academy, there were many boys who had their hearts fluttering because of her.

「Mercenaries who only do things because of the money are often of sub-par quality. 」

Aishela muttered to herself.

「I guess so… 」

Siluca started feeling gloomy when that conversation between them ended.

Thanks to the Earl of Leclerc fighting hard against the Factory Alliance on the north side of the continent, Veltava was saved from a lot of trouble and was spared the Factory Alliance’s all-out attack. But when she heard what she did just now, she couldn’t help but be unhappy.

(That kind of fighting style turns the people into enemies. The longer the fight goes on, the more difficult it becomes.)

Although Theo was inferior to many of his adversaries in terms of military power, he was always able to win until now because the people were always on his side and supported him. Thanks to that, he not only had a steady stream of people who wanted to act as militiamen for him, but he also had constant access to information, supplies, and food.

(We need to put an end to all this fighting as soon as possible.)

Siluca thought about it to herself once more.

「By the way, are the kids from earlier still following us? 」

「They are, but at the very least they had enough decency to not frighten the horses. 」

Siluca flashed her a wry smile, and then she took out a pen and a piece of paper and drew a simple map. Then she took out her magic wand and manipulated the Chaos.

「Go to this mansion and meet a man named Irvin. 」

Siluca spoke to the paper. Then she folded it in quarters and dropped it out the window. The kids picked it up right away.

「You know that they’re probably going to think that it’s just trash, right? 」

「The rest is up to those kids’ quick thinking and luck. 」

The paper had a magic spell imbued into it that makes Siluca’s voice play out once it is opened. Since the kids started following them almost immediately after they left the mansion, then that probably means that they’re living somewhere nearby. And if they’re really looking for something that they could sell for some coin, they’d definitely open the paper up, even if he or she couldn’t read at all, and when they’d do it, they’d look at the map and listen to Siluca’s voice. After that, what they’re going to do next and how they’re going to act will be entirely up to them.

「I think it’s important to be fair to everyone, and although my adoptive father might get angry at me, it’s also important to extend a helping hand to anyone in your surroundings who looks like they might need it without expecting to get anything from them in return. 」

That’s what Theo taught her.

「I feel the same way. 」

Aishela happily hugged Siluca and kissed her on the cheek.

「People are connected through their hearts. But when it comes to your father, he can’t even interact with people normally unless he kills his heart first. 」

「On the contrary, I think he might be putting too much of his heart into his interactions with people, and that’s why he needs to act so emotionless all the time. The same can be said about you.」

Even Siluca thought that sometimes Aishela could be going more than a little over the top with her displays of affection. It is precisely because of them that His Highness Balgary doesn’t like Aishela or being anywhere near her, because she always tries to pet the living hell out of him.

「I’ve always allowed my fate to decide everything for me and carry me through life, but if I have to go with the flow instead of trying to go against it, then at the very least I want to remain true to myself while doing it. 」