Chapter 5
Ch. 2 The Northern Vertus Territory
Fwoosh—plop!
“Wow.”
It’s shaped like a footprint!
I stared excitedly at the sticker that had fallen into my hand.
[illu003]
The sparkling sticker soon pop! vanished into my sticker book.
I got a footprint sticker because I arrived in the North!
Up until now, they had all been thumbs-up stickers!
Is it because the requester was the God of Travel……?
Maybe the shape of the stickers changed depending on which god sent me on the errand.
The holy power contained inside them was the same, though.
Hmm. When I was studying the scriptures, I learned that the ‘Goddess of Fate,’ the Absolute God, had many gods serving beneath her.
It was too difficult for the Goddess to manage the complicated human world all by herself, so she split off twelve portions of her power and created subordinate gods to govern the laws of the world.
Of course, the main god of the temple was the Goddess I had met in heaven.
Whoever you are, please keep giving Hani lots and lots of holy power from now on! Thank you in advance!
Prayer complete!
Then, at this point…….
I rummaged through my bag and pulled out a piece of paper.
Shall we learn a little about my new home, the North?
~Today’s frontier, tomorrow’s center! Your new life begins in NEW VERTUS!~
I sat in the public carriage with my nose buried in the North migration brochure.
□ Blessed by nature! A nature-friendly healing spot untouched by human hands for 500 years.
(*Monsters have touched it, though.)
□ Unprecedented development potential! Fishing available, mining available, quarrying available!
(*Pollution purification required.)
□ A super-premium transportation hub! One minute to the Imperial Capital, thirty seconds to the Northern Crystal Warp Portal!
(*For 9th-Circle mages.)
□ A family-like territory! Community facilities fully equipped, and a ♡WELCOME KIT♡ provided upon moving in.
(*This one is for real.)
Hmm…… I feel like the tiny print is a little hard to read.
Well, it probably won’t be a big problem!
The Grand Duchy of Vertus.
It had long been the land of demons, but people had begun moving there about two years ago.
Because……
Two years ago, Grand Duke Vasily defeated the 500-year-old ore dragon in the northern Kartus region!
The Emperor had been overjoyed.
He even held a grand victory banquet, proclaiming that the “Lost North” had finally been reclaimed after five hundred years.
Kartus was reborn under the new name Vertus, and Vasily was appointed its lord.
Along with the title of Grand Duke.
“Let the hero Vasily take the name of Vertus and assume responsibility for the North. The rise and fall of the northern territory shall rest in your hands.”
Vasily’s response had apparently been something like this:
“Fucking hell……”
Hmm, what did he say after that?
Daddy told me about it, but I don’t really remember the exact dialogue.
“You’re handing me land I spent two years tearing apart with my own hands while ripping the dragon’s head off? Land that’s still crawling with monsters and hasn’t even been fully purified yet?”
“H-Haha…… It seems the Grand Duke has been possessed by the ghost of the ore dragon! Exorcise it!”
“Grand Duke this, grand duke that. Give me the gold and treasure you promised! Give me some decent land, damn it…… Argh!”
In the end, Vasily was imprisoned for a month on charges of insulting the Imperial Family.
He received leniency thanks to a medical certificate stating that traces of the ore dragon’s demonic energy still remained in his body, causing heightened aggression and unstable mental faculties.
But that got him classified as a Level 0 dangerous individual because of his high risk of going berserk…….
Although, honestly, the person in this Empire with the highest risk of going berserk is my daddy…….
Anyway, that was how Vasily became the lord of the North.
And they even recruited residents for the territory.
As you can see, though—
It was a complete disaster.
Why?
I stared intently at one line on the brochure while Uncle Paul dozed beside me, mumbling in his sleep.
□ Unprecedented development potential! Fishing available, mining available, quarrying available!
No matter how I looked at it—
“There’s nothing about farming……”
The foundation of the Empire was agriculture.
Yet even this suspicious brochure had enough conscience to leave farming completely out of it.
Naturally.
Why?
Because it was the North.
It’s cold!!
Actually, the pollution and all that came second.
You can’t grow crops if it’s cold!
Or only an extremely limited selection of crops could survive.
I had lived as a noble lady in my previous life, after all, and even then, I had never heard of crops produced in Vertus.
There had been 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 wanted to be able to produce enough food for three meals a day.
“To do that……”
I neatly folded up the brochure.
Well, there are ways to deal with it!
They say that even when the sky falls, there’s always a hole to escape through.
And there had to be a hole somewhere for the North to escape through, too.
I knew exactly where it was.
But first, don’t stick your neck out. Let’s get a feel for the atmosphere!
The first virtue of independent living.
Make friends with your neighbors when you move somewhere new!
Don’t make yourself a target for hostility. Keep a low profile, blend in quietly, and gradually become part of the community!
(……That’s what Uncle Paul said.)
You can do it!
Are we almost there?
I peeked out the carriage window.
That was when—
“Huh? Wh-Whaaaaaat?”
The horse suddenly let out a loud neigh, and the carriage came to a jolt! before stopping.
People began murmuring.
“W-What is it? Have we arrived?”
Uncle Paul rubbed his eyes and immediately checked on me.
At that moment, my eyes widened as I looked out the window.
“Huh? What’s that……?”
Then Uncle Paul’s horrified scream followed.
“Hani! Sweetie—!!!”
My body lifted into the air.
……
Huh?
Why am I flying?
The North, Grand Duchy of Vertus.
Inside a dark room.
The man looked perfectly at home sitting there in a sprawling posture.
Even the way he casually played with a well-honed dagger, flipping it around as though it were a toy, suited him.
Jet-black hair.
Eyes as red as though stained with blood.
His body, honed through years of battle, radiated an overwhelming presence all on its own.
Whirl, whirl—tap!
After tossing the blue-steel dagger into the air and catching it, the man spoke ominously.
“Again.”
“Pardon?”
“Read it again.”
The lord of this land, Vasily Vertus.
His deep, low voice disturbed the silence of the snowy day.
“……For the reasons stated above, we are searching for a fugitive and respectfully request permission to conduct a search of the northern territory. Commander of the Second Holy Knight Order, Dantellion Klein.”
“Fucking ridiculous…….”
“How shall I reply?”
“Give it here. I’ll write it.”
The man abruptly stood.
Then he picked up a pen and elegantly scrawled across the paper.
Fuck off.
“My goodness.”
The butler put a hand to his forehead.
“It is certainly a very direct and straightforward response. However, you are no longer a mercenary, so perhaps you could write something a little longer and more dignified. Something befitting a nobleman.”
Vasily raised one thick eyebrow.
“Easy.”
Fuck off.
“…….”
“Want it longer?”
Fuck off, Dantellion, unless you plan on purifying the pollution in my land.
The butler shrugged.
“Well, that should add one more person to the list of those who believe the Grand Duke of the North has gone mad. I recommend simply ignoring the letter.”
“Fine.”
Vasily replied indifferently.
The territory was practically closed off anyway.
It had already been two years since the Grand Duke had secluded himself here.
There shouldn’t be any particular problem if he simply didn’t reply to one letter.
“Where are you going?”
“To twist a chicken’s head off.”
Vasily casually spoke as he picked up a large coat and his sword.
The butler’s eyes lit up.
“Are there chickens left?”
“There are plenty in the Foglands.”
“Oh. Then just say you’re going to hunt monsters. I got my hopes up for nothing…….”
He casually waved a hand at his former mercenary companion, Camilla, before stepping outside.
Cold.
The blizzard had calmed down somewhat, but the air was still bitterly cold.
He strode forward and gazed at the snow-covered mountains in the distance.
One dark-red peak rose particularly high.
It jutted out so strangely that it looked almost like a giant lump.
“Always getting in my way.”
Vasily muttered viciously before riding toward the Foglands south of the territory.
The Foglands were the starting point of the northern Vertus territory.
The demonic energy had not yet completely dissipated, so monsters still appeared there outside of the few roads that had been purified by priests.
There’s only so much money we can make by sending mercenary groups out for bounties or selling monster parts…….
It was a place so cold and polluted that ordinary living creatures could barely survive.
It had been two years since he settled here.
There had never been any proper residents to begin with.
The only humans were the mercenary comrades who had settled here alongside him, as well as the dregs cast aside by society—vagabonds, the sick, fugitives, and the like.
A few people had moved here during the early days of settlement, but as poverty became increasingly severe, they had all eventually left.
At this rate, we’ll either all die or have no choice but to abandon this land.
Well, the Emperor probably knew that too.
That was likely why he had thrown Vasily into this garbage dump.
Die slowly, nicely, and thoroughly.
The moment the weapon he had once used however he pleased began to look like a blade aimed at his own throat, it probably happened in an instant.
That was when—
“……?”
Vasily tilted his smooth chin to the side.
What’s that? Did some mutant appear?
“I’ve never seen a monster that looks like this before.”
A round silver head.
Short, stubby arms and legs sprawled out in a starfish-like position on the ground.
“Phooong…….”
A new baby monster?
It’s only about one bite-sized.
Vasily picked up the unconscious child by the scruff of her clothes and narrowed his eyes.
A sticker attached to the child’s forehead fluttered weakly before falling away.
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