Chapter 5
Ch. 2 Northern Vertus Territory
Swoosh- Plop!
“Wow.”
‘It’s shaped like a footprint!’
I excitedly stared at the sticker that had fallen into my hand.
The sparkling sticker soon went poof and disappeared into my sticker book.
‘They gave me a footprint sticker when I arrived in the north!’
Until now, they’d all been thumbs-up stickers!
‘Is it because the requester is the God of Travel…?’
Maybe the shape of the sticker changes depending on which god sends the errand. The divine power inside them is the same, though.
‘Hmm, when I studied the scriptures, I learned that the ‘Goddess of Fate,’ the absolute god, has several gods under her.’
It was too difficult for the goddess to manage the complicated human world alone, so she split her power into twelve parts and created subordinate gods to oversee the laws of the world.
Of course, the main god of the temple was the goddess I met in heaven.
‘Whichever one you are, please keep giving Hani lots and lots of divine power! Thank you in advance!’
Prayer over!
‘Then, now that that’s settled…’
I rustled around in my bag and pulled out a piece of paper.
Shall I learn a little about my new home, the north?
~The frontier today, the center of tomorrow! Your new life begins in NEW Vertus!~
I sat in the public carriage with my nose buried in the northern relocation brochure.
□ Unparalleled natural environment! A nature-friendly healing spot untouched by human hands for 500 years (*Monsters have touched it, though)
□ The greatest development opportunities ever! Fishing available, mining available, resource gathering available! (*Contamination purification required)
□ A super-convenient transportation hub! One minute to the capital, 30 seconds to the Northern Crystal Warp Portal! (*Based on a 9th Circle mage)
□ A family-like territory! Community facilities fully equipped, ♡welcome kit♡ provided upon moving in (*This one’s for real)
‘Hmm… I feel like the tiny print is a little hard to read.’
Well, it probably wasn’t anything important!
Grand Duke Vertus’s Territory.
It had been the land of demons for a long time, but people had started relocating there about two years ago.
Because…
‘Two years ago, Grand Duke Vasily defeated the 500-year-old mad dragon in the northern Cartus region!’
The emperor was overjoyed.
He even held a grand victory banquet, declaring that the ‘lost north’ had finally been reclaimed after 500 years.
Cartus was reborn under the new name ‘Vertus,’ and Vasily was appointed as its lord.
Along with the title of grand duke.
“Hero Vasily, take the name Vertus and assume responsibility for the north. The rise and fall of the northern territory rests in your hands.”
This was Vasily’s reaction.
“F*ck…”
‘Hmm, what did he say?’
Dad told me about it, but I don’t remember the exact details.
“For two years, I’ve been ripping dragon heads off and turning this land into a wasteland with my own hands, and now you’re dumping it on me? A land still crawling with monsters and not even fully purified yet?”
“H-ha ha… It seems the mad dragon’s spirit has possessed His Grace! Exorcise it!”
“Grand duke this and grand duke that, just give me the gold and treasures you promised. Give me some decent land… Agh!”
In the end, Vasily was imprisoned for a month for insulting the imperial family.
He was shown leniency thanks to a medical certificate stating that the mad dragon’s demonic energy still remained in his body, making him highly aggressive and mentally unstable.
‘But that got him designated as a Class 0 dangerous individual. Because he’s at high risk of going berserk…’
Actually, the person with the highest risk of going berserk in this empire is my dad…
Anyway, that’s how Vasily became the lord of the north.
‘And they recruited territory residents, too.’
As you can see, it was a complete disaster.
‘Because…’
I stared hard at one of the phrases on the brochure. Beside me, Mister Paul mumbled sleepily in his sleep.
□ The greatest development opportunities ever! Fishing available, mining available, resource gathering available!
No matter how I looked at it.
“There’s nothing about farming…”
The foundation of the empire was agriculture.
And apparently, even this suspicious brochure had a shred of conscience, because it conveniently left out anything about farming.
Of course.
Why?
Because it’s the north.
‘Because it’s cold!!’
Actually, the contamination and all that came second.
‘You can’t grow crops if it’s cold!’
Or only a very limited selection of crops could grow.
I had lived as a noble lady in my previous life, too, but even then, I’d never heard of crops grown in Vertus.
There was a reason this territory had a 0% occupancy rate and a 100% vacancy rate…
‘Hmph. I don’t want to go hungry anymore.’
At the very least, I hoped I’d be able to grow enough food to eat three bread meals a day.
“To do that…”
I neatly folded the brochure.
‘Well, there are ways around it!’
They say there’s a way out even when the sky falls, and there was a way out of the north, too. I knew where it was.
‘But for now, don’t make a fuss. Let’s get a feel for the place first!’
The first virtue of an independent person.
Be friendly with the neighbors when you move somewhere new!
Don’t stick your neck out and get targeted by hostile locals. The best thing is to quietly blend in like you were never there! (…or so Mister Paul said.)
Let’s go!
‘Are we almost there?’
I peeked out the carriage window.
Just then.
“Huh? Huhhhhh?”
The horses let out a loud neigh, and the carriage jolted to a stop! People began murmuring.
“W-what’s going on? Are we there already?”
Mister Paul rubbed his eyes and immediately made sure I was okay.
Then, my eyes widened as I looked out the window.
“Huh? What’s that…”
Mister Paul’s horrified voice followed.
“Hani! Kiddo-!!!”
My body floated into the air.
…
Huh?
Why… am I flying through the sky?
* * *
The north, Grand Duke Vertus’s Territory.
Inside a dark room.
The man looked perfectly at home with his legs sprawled out.
So did the way he toyed with a finely sharpened dagger as if it were a mere plaything.
Pitch-black hair. Blood-red eyes.
His body, honed through years of battle, radiated an overwhelming sense of intimidation all on its own.
Whoosh, whoosh. Tossing the gleaming dagger into the air and catching it, the man spoke ominously.
“Again.”
“Huh?”
“Read it again.”
The lord of this land, Vasily Vertus.
His deep voice shook the silence of the snowy day.
“…For the aforementioned reasons, we are searching for a fugitive and request permission to conduct a search of the north. Respectfully, Dantalion Klein, Captain of the Second Holy Knights.”
“What a damn load of crap…”
“How should I reply?”
“Give it here. I’ll write it myself.”
The man abruptly stood up. Then he picked up a pen and elegantly scribbled.
Fuck off
“Oh my.”
The butler held his forehead.
“It’s certainly a very direct and straightforward response. But you’re not a mercenary anymore, so please write something longer and more dignified. Like a noble.”
Vasily raised an eyebrow.
“Easy.”
Fuck off and die
“…”
“Want it longer?”
Fuck off and stay the hell out of here unless you’re going to purify the contamination of my land, Dantalion
The butler shrugged.
“Looks like there’ll be one more person believing the rumor that the grand duke of the north has gone mad. I’d recommend simply ignoring him.”
“Whatever.”
Vasily answered indifferently.
It was practically a closed-off land anyway. It had already been two years since the grand duke had secluded himself.
There shouldn’t be any problem if he didn’t reply to one letter.
“Where are you going?”
“Going to twist a chicken’s head off.”
Vasily casually picked up his large coat and sword. The butler’s eyes lit up.
“Are there… chickens left?”
“There are plenty in the Mistlands.”
“Oh. Then just say you’re going to hunt monsters. I got a little excited there…”
He casually waved a hand to Camilla, his former mercenary companion, before heading outside.
Cold.
The blizzard had calmed down a little, but the air was still bitterly cold.
He strode forward and gazed at the snowy mountains in the distance.
One dark-red peak rose conspicuously above the others. It jutted out strangely, like a lump or growth.
“You’re always getting in my way.”
Vasily growled viciously before mounting his horse and heading toward the Mistlands in the south of the territory.
The Mistlands were the starting point of the northern Vertus Territory.
The demonic energy hadn’t completely dissipated yet, so monsters still appeared everywhere except along the few passages purified by priests.
‘There’s only so much money I can make by running mercenary groups and selling monster by-products…’
It was cold and filled with contamination, making it impossible for ordinary living creatures to survive properly.
It had been two years since he settled here.
There had been no territory residents to begin with, and the only humans were his fellow mercenaries who had settled here with him, along with vagrants, the sick, fugitives, and other scraps of society who had been cast aside by the world.
A few people had moved there in the early days of settlement, but as poverty became more severe, they all eventually left.
‘At this rate, we’ll either all die together or have no choice but to abandon this land.’
Well, the emperor probably knew that too, which was why he’d thrown him into this garbage dump.
Slowly, quietly, and thoroughly, until he rotted away.
It had probably happened in an instant, the moment the weapon he’d used however he pleased came to look like a blade aimed at his own throat.
Just then.
“…?”
His smooth chin tilted to one side.
What was that? Had some mutant appeared?
“I’ve never seen a monster shaped like this before.”
A round, silver-colored head.
Stubby limbs sprawled out in an X on the ground.
“Vrrrrrmm…”
A new baby monster?
It was just about bite-sized.
Vasily picked up the unconscious child by the scruff and narrowed his eyes.
A sticker that had been stuck to the child’s forehead slipped off limply.
