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Volume 7 Chapter 2 Part 6

She seemed to understand the situation right away, and the two of them happily shared that moment of happiness without needing to say anything using actual words. When they were done, Colleen gave her friends a short nod, pulled her hood over her head again, and returns to the Werewolves.

「Helga-senpai… 」

「I know. 」

Helga nodded back at Siluca.

「Thank you for coming. 」

Another person who came to Siluca was Deadri, the wife of the late Baron Eugen Niklae.

Siluca saw her and burst into tears.

「It’s been a long time since I’ve last seen you, but I’m so glad to see that you’re safe! 」

Siluca took Deadri’s face into both her hands and kissed both of her cheeks time and time again.

「Of course I’m safe. After all, I can’t allow myself to die just yet. Not while I’m carrying my husband’s child inside of me. 」

Deirdre said as she placed her hand on the lower part of her abdomen.

「You’re pregnant… with Baron Eugen’s child? 」

Siluca became surprised, because that was actually the first time she heard that Deadri was expecting Baron Eugen’s child.
However, since Deadri was not only Baron Eugen Niklae’s contracted Mage, but also his wife, then it would stand to reason that something like that was bound to happen sooner or later.

「Deadri-senpai… now that it has come to this, could you consider making a contract with Lord Theo? Please, you have to make sure that you’re going to safely give birth to your child in peace. 」

Now that Eugen is dead, Deadri has an obligation to either return to Elam and continue working for the Mages Association, or try her luck and see if she could make a decent living outside of the Association’s sphere of influence, but in her current state, both of these options would be difficult for her to pursue, so making a contract with Theo seemed like the best possible thing to do here.

or find out about Shachi’s good fortune and put money into the association. However, both were supposed to be difficult. In that case, he thought of having Theo sign a contract with him.

「Are you taking my word for it?「Are you really going to be fine with having someone like me around? 」

「Of course! 」

As Deadri spoke in a hesitant manner, Siluca strained her voice, assuring her that they’d gladly have someone like her.

「I… I don’t want to leave Artuk, so… so please, let me stay here. 」

「Of course we will. However, this place might become a battlefield real soon, so… 」

「But Theo Cornero is not planning to lose this battle, right? 」

「… Yes, of course he’s not going to lose. 」

Siluca nodded because she understood Deadri’s feelings.

「In that case, I’ll ask you to help me, Deadri-senpai. For now, we’ve obtained two other Mages as Lord Theo’s contracted Mages, so I’d like you to show them the ropes and teach them how to properly carry out their duties as contracted Mages.

Then he called out the names of the Mages he was speaking about.

「Repart Aias! Jeremy Howl! 」

In response to the call, a young man and woman dressed in robes with the same color scheme as Siluca came forward.

They are both seventeen years old. In the future, both of them planned to study at different faculties at the Magic University, but at Siluca’s request, Headmaster Sembros forced them to graduate early and start serving as Theo’s contracted Mages.

Repart was dissatisfied with the whole situation, but Siluca heard that Jeremy was enthusiastic about it. Both of them are multi-talented individuals, so Siluca was planning to think about what she would do with them to utilize those talents of theirs to the fullest.

「Deadri here is a well-known contracted Mage in Artuk who served Baron Eugen Niklae for quite a while, so she’ll be able to guide you in your new duties thanks to her amassed experience. 」

「Nice to meet the two of you. I hope orur cooperation is going to be a fruitful one. 」

Deirdre smiled at the two of them.

「L-Likewise, thank you. 」

The two of them responded, although with a dose of resignation in their voices.

Within the ranks of the Mages association, position is always given the top priority, but the relationship between seniors and juniors is also quite strong. Not to mention lately the lineage that one was hailing from has also started to be less and less important.

Repart and Jeremy were not very powerful or prestigious Mage families, so in order to make up for that, they had to make sure that they’d sent out many of their members into the world to act as contracted Mages for the Lords around the continent. In other words, they’re in deep conflict with the Mages Association.

「Now then… 」

Siluca changed her tone and moved all the contracted Mages to a room on the second floor of the castle. This was her personal room in the castle, as well as the one she was using as her office to perform her official duties as Theo’s contracted Mage.

「Sefaud Latkins is going to be serving as a Diplomatic Mage here in Elam in Lord Theo’s name, then we have Saturnus and the contracted Mages of Lord Theo’s subordinate Lords, and you’re going to form the branch of Lord Theo’s contracted Mages that’s going to be responsible for operating in Sistina. 」

To be perfectly honest, they’d need even more people to properly cover all the territories that Theo was responsible for, but right now, there was no more individuals that Siluca was personally interested in. She was already quite lucky that she managed to make the deals with Mages like Sefaud or Helga, and that Repard and Jeremy were successfully intimidated into agreeing to work for Theo as well.

「You’ll be informed about the exact scope of your duties later. You are probably already aware of the situation we are in, but for a while we will have to fight alone against the Dartanian army. In order to overcome this difficult situation, it is imperative that we Lord Theo’s contracted Mages must give it everything we have and cooperate with the soldiers as much as possible… 」

「But there’s a limit to even what our wisdom can achieve! Right now, there is 10,000 soldiers of Dartanian army stationed in Artuk, while Lord Theo’s army has only 2000 soldiers! No matter how you might look at it, we’re simply no match for them…! 」

Repart let out a cry of resignation.

「As a contracted Mage, that is something that you’re only allowed to say after you have used your entire wisdom and exhausted all the other options available to you. 」

「If the Lord whom you’re serving was not Theo Cornero, but Lord Villar Constance, the late Earl of Artuk instead, then you’d be judged as incompetent and incapable of fulfilling your duties properly and sent out to one of his subordinate Lords for service for what you just said. 」

Deadri was all too familiar with that.

「If the Dartanian army decides to invade us here, the difference in numbers won’t be a problem. We have the geographical advantage on our side, and all the soldiers are familiar with the forest’s terrain at this point. 」

Siluca told that to Repart to inform him that not everything was as hopeless as he thought.

That was the plan that Siluca had in mind. If they’re going fight Dartania in The Forest of Eternal Darkness, then they should be able to take on even an army that is much larger than their own and nullify its advantage, which is battling its enemies in open fields.

「There’s no way they’re going to attack us here. They must be aware that its going to be disadvantageous for them. 」

「Normally that would indeed be the case. 」

Siluca nodded to Repart. It was not a correct answer per se, but the point itself was correct.

「Because of what we’re being taught at the Magic University, we usually try to avoid fighting in disadvantageous conditions as much as possible. However, Milza, the Viceroy of Dartania, doesn’t share the same mindset as us. 」

「 He doesn’t? I wonder why. 」

Jeremy asked while taking out a pen and paper and making notes.

「Because that’s the kind of personality he has. 」

Siluca answered with a straight face.

「Is that the only reason? Is that really all there is to it? 」

Jeremy made an angry face and twirled the pen in his hand like a rope.

「Because if so…」

「Then that makes the battles between Lords surprisingly easy. After all, Lord Theo also fought when it was appropriate to fight, regardless of the situation… 」