Chapter 310: Chapter 275: Reconciliation

The thing that surprised Viscount Armin Campbell the most the moment he arrived at the Imperial Palace wasn’t its majesty, grandeur, or enormous size.

But rather the familiar face he saw the moment he was out of the portal.

“…What are you doing here?”

“That’s what I was going to ask you…”

Duke Tristan and Viscount Campbell exchanged glances as they blinked at each other, confused.

Considering their position, they should have no reason to meet each other at all, but they surprisingly had something in common.

“… Are you here because of Dowd?”

“I am, yes…”

Gideon let out a bitter smile as he approached Armin with clear footsteps.

Before the latter could say anything in response, Gideon had already grabbed him by the collar and pulled him roughly.

Fortunately for Armin, his action wasn’t motivated by any kind of malice.

Because in the very next second, a huge stone pillar collapsed on the exact spot Armin had been standing at, creating a loud rumbling noise.

If Gideon hadn’t pulled him, he would have been smashed by the pillar and died right there and then.

“You should keep your guard up. As you can see, this place isn’t in a normal condition.”

“…!”

Hearing those words, Armin opened his eyes wide—as if woken up from his stupor—and looked around.

The moment he came to his senses and examined the situation, he was finally able to notice that there was something strange going on in this place.

In a normal situation, the Imperial Palace would always be crowded with various people.

The people who worked here, the security forces, the visitors, whoever they were, all those people would wander around the place, doing their own things.

However, the Imperial Palace right now was…n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Dreary, to say the least. Let alone people, he couldn’t even see a single ant wandering around in the ground.

Not only that, various parts of the palace were collapsing, as if the place had just been bombarded by an air raid. There were cracks everywhere, and the ceilings had sunk quite a bit.

“What…is happening…?”

“Well, this is something that’s related to your son, as always.”

“…Dowd has something to do with this…?”

Armin asked that question, as if he couldn’t believe what he had just heard.

Of course, he was aware that his son wasn’t an ordinary kid—especially after seeing him involving himself with both Duke Tristan and Margrave Kendride at the same time.

But still, as his father, it was hard for him to believe that his son had caused an incident where everyone in the Imperial Palace had to be evacuated, and got the most important building in the empire to suffer such terrible damage.

“This place has turned into a battlefield, but fortunately, I still have time, I can keep you occupied for a while. Although, I’m going to get busy soon, so I suggest that you find somewhere to hide.”

“Duke… May I know what you are doing here…?”

“…”

Armin asked that question in a daze. Meanwhile Gideon swept down the corners of his mouth while letting out a chuckle.

“I’m on standby.”

“Sorry?”

“I’m playing the role of a ‘hidden card’. My task is to fight the real monster instead of the fake one over there.”

“…Sorry?”

Armin looked around in a hurry.

Fake monster…? Real monster…? Where…?

He asked such a thing in his mind.

“It’s right there.”

That question persisted until…

“See? That one hideous fellow.”

Horrible-looking pieces of ‘flesh’ appeared from all directions, accompanying Gideon’s words.

-…

-…

-…!!!!

One side of the walls of the Imperial Palace completely collapsed due to its onslaught.

After that…

Pieces of flesh kept coming out through the thin gaps of the broken ceilings and flooring.

The way they kept dilating rapidly like balloons that were filled with air looked extremely disgusting to a normal human’s eyes.

“A-Aaaargh!”

As Armin tried to back away while screaming, Gideon grabbed the back of his neck and dragged him to the place where the pieces of flesh couldn’t reach them.

While they were floating in the air, a bizarre thought came to Armin’s mind.

Could it be…?

No, there’s no way…

But still, aren’t those pieces of flesh…?

“They…look as if they’re trying to ‘kill and eat’ the entire building…”

“That’s probably it.”

Gideon let out a chuckle as he agreed with the words that Armin had said out loud unknowingly.

“That’s also probably why your son told me to evacuate everyone in the Imperial Palace in advance.”

“…?”

Armin looked back at Gideon with a stunned expression.

Dowd…knows ‘in advance’ that such a monster would appear…? And he instructed the duke to evacuate everyone…?

“Not really, I doubt that he knew that something like that monster would appear here. He just predicted that something big that could put the whole palace in a dire state would occur, and so he tried to come up with a plan to deal with it in advance.”

“Are you trying to say that Dowd has a plan to go up against such a monster?”

“Of course, like he always does.”

As he replied in a flat tone, Gideon turned his gaze away.

“His plan probably involved those two women over there.”

Gideon said so. Armin followed his gaze and soon let out a horrified gasp.

At the end of his sight…

Were Dowd and two women—who seemed to be the same age as him—going through something horrible.

When he saw the taller woman, who was following behind the smaller woman, pushed the latter, and got her body pierced by the attack that was supposed to be taken in by the smaller woman, Armin freaked out and covered his mouth.

“…So that’s his plan?”

Meanwhile, beside him, Gideon said such a thing while slowly stroking his chin..

“Those things look like mere flesh, but their strength is stronger than even the rarest metal. They are also as quick as adult humans… I see, I can understand why that man is struggling even though he has achieved such a high level…”

“…I-Is this the time to say such things…?”

Armin asked with a dumbfounded voice.

“S-Someone just died!”

“Hm?”

Hearing his outburst, Gideon tilted his head in confusion..

Such a flat reaction from him prompted Armin to stare at him blankly. It was such an out of place reaction for such a horrible sight, even for Gideon. And, what he said next only confused Armin even more.

“…Ah, right, you can see the scene in that way too…”

“Sorry?”

“Hm… Let me explain…”

Gideon continued as he chuckled.

“That man isn’t someone who’d just let this kind of thing happen, especially not to someone he regards as an important person to him.”

“What does that—”

“Rather than worrying about the woman that got attacked, we should worry about the other one instead.”

Gideon said before turning his gaze on Victoria, who froze in place with wide eyes after seeing Seras receiving such a horrible attack.

“…I hope that won’t traumatize her.”

His voice as he said that was definitely filled with sympathy.

●

The sight that was unfolding before Victoria’s eyes felt like it was coming out of a fiction.

Her lips trembled as her sister’s whole body was pierced through, spewing out blood everywhere.

“…A…aa…h…”

Meaningless noise escaped her weakly opened mouth.

What should I say?

What should I do?

As such hollow questions constantly echoed in her head, a drop of Seras’ blood dropped on her forehead.

“…!”

Her face instantly went pale as she hurriedly covered her mouth to suppress the urge to throw up.

Chills ran through her whole body as her ears started to ring.

Not only that, her vision spun as if she was about to faint, and it only got worse by the minute.

Her memories came back rushing to her.

The dead bodies of her family that refused to leave the back of her mind ever since she first saw them when she was a child flashed in her mind repeatedly like a slideshow.

“…It’s okay.”

However…

Though Seras’ current condition reminded her of such a terrible scene, Seras still struggled to reassure her, prompting her body to stiffen up.

“I’m okay…”

“U-Unnie…”

Though that wasn’t the normal way she used to refer to her sister, she muttered as such without realizing it.

“Are you okay?”

“A-Ah, d-don’t talk… T-The b-blood…”

She traced her sister’s body with her trembling hand.

As an assassin who possessed a wide knowledge of the human’s body, she knew more than anyone how bad Seras’ injury was.

She already reached the point of no return. In fact, it was a miracle that she was still breathing right now.

“I’m sorry.”

Seras said such words to Victoria—who was still diagnosing her. In an instant, the latter’s body flinched, as if she was struck by electricity.

What is she sorry for…?

“N-No…”

Tears welled up in her eyes as she stammered.

She knew that deep inside her heart, she didn’t actually want her sister to apologize to her.

I-I just…

…Wanted to complain a little…

The truth of the matter was…

She never meant it when she said she would kill her sister and all that nonsense.

All she wanted was just for her sister to take care of her a little more.

And so, she put up thorns and started to behave childishly by doing ridiculous things on purpose.

Seras then continued…

“…The day the village was raided, I should’ve stayed by your side.”

“…”

“You were waiting for me…didn’t you?”

“…”

“I’m sorr—”

Before Seras could finish what she was saying, a lump of blood that had definitely come out of her esophagus fell on the ground.

However, even when she was in that kind of state, she continued…

“I told you that I’d definitely come back, didn’t I…?”

“…”

Upon hearing that…

An old scene, covered in dust, came to Victoria’s mind.

The traumatic memory of a child oftentimes wasn’t very complete.

Victoria’s memory wasn’t any different, and it was only after she saw Seras’ expression that her memory was finally complete.

-Hide here. I’ll be back for you, I promise!

Because Seras’ current expression now was the exact same as the expression as the one that she made ‘back then’.

That day, it was her sister who had hidden her in the hideout.

-Here! Fucking bastards of the empire—! This way—!

It was also her sister who had sacrificed herself to get the empire’s ‘hunting group’ away from her.

She didn’t leave her because she wanted to abandon her.

Instead, she sacrificed herself to protect her until the very end.

Victoria’s voice began to tremble desperately.

“D-Don’t die…”

The tears that had welled up flowed down from her eyes.

She couldn’t hold them back anymore.

“U-Unnie, d-don’t leave me… S-Sorry… I-I’m sorry, I-I… I won’t behave like a spoiled child aga—”

She spoke in a trembling voice as her head dropped.

Regret, remorse, lament…

Despair…

Such emotions…

Were eating her up from the bottom.

Please…

She prayed as she wept.

Please—

Anyone…

Save us…

As her mind had turned into a mess…

That was the only thing that came to her mind.

“—Seriously…”

And for sure…

There was a bastard who loved to ruin the mood in this kind of situation.

“You kept saying that you hate her over and over again, but look at you having a mental breakdown like this the moment something happened to her. Can’t you just be more honest with yourself? Jeez…”

A leisurely voice that didn’t fit the situation at all entered her ears.

It came from beside Victoria, whose body was still trembling as she held her head.

“…?”

When she raised her head in a daze.

In front of her was…

Dowd Campbell, holding a sword in his arm. She didn’t know when he did it, but there were remains of the tentacles that had been cut by his sword scattered around him.

Then she noticed something else; Seras, who was trying to get up with clumsy movements despite the tentacles still penetrating her body.

“…??”

What?

How is she still able to move…?

“…???”

What??

What’s going on??

“Anyway.”

As such thoughts passed Victoria’s mind in a hurry…

Dowd stared at Seras, who was scratching her cheek while letting out an awkward smile.

“Lucky for you, your sister won’t be dying anytime soon. You can stop crying now.”

“…How…?”

“Because of this.”

When she asked as such in a daze, Dowd just pointed at his wrist indifferently. To be exact, at the amulet that he was wearing.

Soul Linker. The artifact that had the ability to share one’s buffs with others.

What he did was share the ‘Iron Man’ Mastery’s buff—the same mastery that let him recover after being split in half—with Seras.

While Victoria might not know such detailed knowledge on what he had done.

She knew one thing for sure.

The fact that she…

Was fooled by these two.

“…”

Which meant…

She had cried her eyes out, pitifully begged her sister to not leave her, said all those cringy scenes, and made such a big scene in front of them…

“…”

As Victoria’s face reddened, Dowd just continued indifferently, as if her embarrassment didn’t matter at all to him.

“Anyway, that’s what she said, Seras.”

“…”

“You heard everything right? She apologized already, and from now on, she won’t say things like she wants to kill you and all that stuff ever again.”

“…”

“She actually likes you so much, she just had been acting like a teenager going through puberty because she was upset.”

“…”

“In any case, you two should be able to reconcile after this, right?”

As Victoria could only stare at this scene with red face and mouth agape, Seras put her hands together in front of her.

A gesture that suggested she was asking for her little sister’s forgiveness.

“U-Um… M-Mr. Dowd said that we would be able to reconcile if I were to do all that…”

“…”

“I-I’m sorry for lying to you! I-I’ll make up for this later—”

Before Seras could even finish her words, Victoria’s fist already struck her chin in full force.

“…Wow.”

Dowd let out a sigh of awe when he saw that.

“…Y-You, you… S-Seriously…”

Victoria approached her sister, one step at a time, while shedding tears.

If earlier she was crying because she was unable to hold back her tears, this time, it was different.

This time, she couldn’t hold her emotions together.

“…Look, Victoria, I get that you’re angry, but the situation is urgent. I’ll let you hit me all you want, but for now, you and your unnie—”

“Diiiiiiiiiieeeeeee—!!!”

What would happen if one were to receive a high-jump kick with a genuine killing intent behind it? What if the one who delivered such a kick was a professional in killing other people?

The answer to those questions were… Well… The kick definitely left a huge impression on Dowd Campbell, even compared to the countless blows that he had received so far.