Chapter 449: Chapter 449

I most likely succeeded in deceiving Father.

The proof was etched into his utterly contorted expression. Now, I had become the primary culprit behind Laura de Farnese’s collapse and the one who had given rise to the decisive pretext for the death of Demon Lord Paimon. I had planted a perfect illusion within Father’s mind…….

Father, trembling with rage, asked.

“What are you scheming?”

“Is waiting in anticipation not another spice that sweetens the romantic life you so cherish, Father?”

I lifted my skirt and offered Father a courteous bow.

There was no longer time for hesitation. I gazed upon Father one last time. It would be a while before I could see him again. I committed his image firmly to memory, as clearly as I could.

Until the day we meet again—please, stay safe.

I took Barbatos hostage and made a bold leap forward.

I landed lightly in the center of the plaza. Luke had already stirred up a violent commotion. At the sudden outbreak of bloodshed, the spectators screamed, plunging the square into disorder. I tossed Barbatos to my brother.

“We need to get out of here in under a minute.”

Barbatos had passed out from the pain and blood loss.

My brother firmly secured her limbless body onto his back. It was a savage method for abducting a princess, but perhaps that was the nature of a kidnapping to begin with.

“Seize them! Capture the traitors!”

“Don’t let a single one escape!”

Demon soldiers came charging in from all sides.

The encirclement had long since been completed. But with the spectators fleeing in panic, the soldiers had yet to get into a proper formation. That was the weakness I was aiming for. We siblings each drew a two-handed sword and stared silently ahead.

The surroundings fell into stillness.

All stray thoughts vanished from my mind. The screams of the crowd, the shouts of Father and Marbas from afar, the snarling cries of the soldiers like a pack of wolves—all of it faded like shadows. What remained in my sight were the slow arcs of enemy swords and spears closing in with murderous intent.

Two on our side.Approximately two thousand enemies.The power ratio was exactly 1:1000.

In other words, we have an overwhelming advantage.

“I’ll take the right and above.”

“Got it. I’ll handle the left and the rear.”

That concluded our sibling strategy meeting.

We quietly stepped forward without needing to shout a battle cry.

A gust of wind swept across the plaza.

As I closed the distance of several dozen meters in the blink of an eye, the orc soldier’s face slowly twisted in horror. I blankly watched the creasing of one of their features as I lightly brought my greatsword down. The orc soldier died with his contorted expression still frozen on his face.

I swung the greatsword in a wide arc. Crimson blood splattered through the air. Though we hadn’t discussed it beforehand, my brother and I mirrored each other’s motions perfectly as we butchered the soldiers on either side. In the next moment, thirteen soldiers collapsed with their chests hacked open.

We stepped forward again.

“Th-they’re coming this way!”

The soldiers scrambled as they saw us charging. An elf who seemed to be the commander opened his mouth wide, trying to shout something, but couldn’t utter another word. We had already closed in on the soldiers. It took no more than a single breath to massacre the squad of a dozen or so.

I took the right, and my brother took the left. When the two of us struck, it didn’t matter what stood in the way, whether it was shields or spear shafts, our greatswords sliced clean through the soldiers’ bodies. Once again, a large spray of blood burst into the air.

The elven commander clutched his stomach. In disbelief at how his unit had been wiped out in just two seconds, he stared blankly with eyes full of shock. He muttered softly.

“Monsters…… the both of them…….”

The elf commander’s abdomen burst open, and his intestines spilled out.

Perhaps because of how close I was, a few drops of blood splattered onto my clothes. The maid uniform gifted to me by Father was now soiled. He had designed it himself and had a craftsman custom-make it. In objective terms, it was likely worth as much as a national treasure. I felt slightly annoyed that such a priceless item had been defiled.

In the distance, some of the demon soldiers who met my eyes visibly flinched. The momentum had clearly shifted in our favor. If they were properly arrayed in formation, things might have been different, but with so many citizens frantically fleeing in all directions, the plaza was in complete disarray. It was a terrible environment for troops to maneuver in formation.

Of course. They might have prepared for an intrusion from the outside, but they never would have imagined a scenario where someone would escape from the inside out. My brother and I gave them no room to breathe as we broke through relentlessly.

Just as we had predicted, it took us less than a minute to clear the plaza. We raced through the twisting alleys of Niflheim with practiced ease, and finally, we escaped beyond the city walls.

The moment we emerged from the maze-like streets of the city, wyverns swooped down from above as if they’d been lying in wait. They must have been the elite wyvern unit commanded by Demon Lord Gamigin. Unable to operate inside the city with its many rooftops, they had only now begun their assault.

I pulled a teleportation spellbook from my cloak.

A glowing white magic circle formed on the ground beneath us, erupting with radiant light. In an instant, my brother and I were enveloped in its glow. Just before dozens of wyverns could tear into us with their razor-sharp talons, we escaped from Niflheim.

The scenery changed in an instant.

From the dark and arid wasteland of the demon realm to the human world, where endless green foliage stretched out before us. The frantic chase we had just fled from now felt like a lie with this peaceful scenery lying before us. Though maybe our timing was bad.

A farmer stood there, staring at us blankly.

He must have come to gather some lumber for his fieldwork. I had deliberately chosen a secluded forest edge as our teleportation destination, but unfortunately, someone had witnessed our arrival.

The farmer was clearly stunned. The hand axe he had been holding in his right hand slipped from his grasp and clattered to the ground. No doubt it was his first time seeing a teleportation spell in his entire life. His face bore the marks of an honest life, lived simply and humbly.

I let out a quiet sigh.

“May I ask your name, sir?”

“Yes. There’s no one else here, is there?”

The farmer stammered as he spoke. He used the Habsburgian language, but his thick western dialect was unmistakable. In contrast, I had learned imperial-accented Habsburgian directly from Father. To his ears, my version of the language might have sounded almost foreign. Fresh chapters posted on NoveIＦire.net

“M-my name is Prosch, milady.”

“Prosch. Do you have a wife and children?”

“Y-yes, milady. I’m not much, but I have three sons.”

The farmer shrank back, bowing deeply. He had recognized me as a noblewoman. In truth, I was the only heir to Father, the duke of the Teuton Kingdom, so indeed, I held quite a noble standing.

“I understand. I’m sorry, Prosch. I must kill you.”

“We are being pursued by someone. Even the slightest of loose ends must be eliminated. Therefore, we cannot allow a witness to live. That is the reason I am killing you.”

Prosch opened his mouth to say something.

But by then, my greatsword had already cleaved through his chest. The simple farmer didn’t even have time to scream before his body split in two and collapsed limply. Blood flowed into the green grass.

Luke murmured quietly beside me.

“……Did we really have to kill him?”

“From now on, we’re going to be up against Father. If we leave even the slightest risk behind, Father will surely pick up the scent and come after us.”

I stared silently at Luke. His expression was gloomy.

“Luke. Do you think Father’s skills are so poor that we could defeat him even with our guard down?”

“……No. Absolutely not.”

“Father won’t let his guard down either. He’ll come charging at us, ready to tear us apart. That means we can’t afford to relax for even a second. Bury your guilt, your hesitation—bury it deep at the bottom of your heart. Feelings like those are nothing but luxuries for us now.”

That’s right. We didn’t turn just anyone into our enemy—we turned Father into our enemy.

There had been countless people who made Father their enemy. And they had all shared one thing in common: every single one of them lost their head after underestimating or disregarding him. I had not the slightest intention of repeating their mistakes.

Luke gave a subdued nod. I could sense that he understood completely. That was all I needed.

We used up dozens of teleportation spellbooks, jumping from place to place. It was all to mislead any mage battalions that might try to pursue us. We roamed in every direction—Habsburg, Frank, Sardinia, Helvetica. The excessive loss of mana in such a short time made me feel nauseous, but it was still bearable.

When I finally felt it was enough, we came to a stop at our final destination.

Night had already fallen.

Under the pale moonlight, a fairly large city wall stood before us. Flickers of light glinted atop the wall from time to time—it was the torches held by the patrolling guards.

Without exchanging any particular words, we siblings trudged toward it in silence.

“Your Excellency, my apologies for disturbing you at this hour.”

Kurtz Schleiermacher entered the consul’s office. It was a time when most people were fast asleep, but Consul Elisabeth—who didn’t sleep much—was still working. She removed her monocle, which she was wearing since her eyesight had slightly worsened as of late, and looked up at Kurtz.

“It’s not very wise for a man to enter a lady’s chambers at this hour, General Schleiermacher.”

“I wanted to avoid coming here as well.”

“Oh my. Should I take that as an insult to myself?”

Consul Elisabeth smiled. She wore a flowing nightgown. It was so that when drowsiness inevitably overtook her as she worked, she could simply doze off right at her desk. She even kept a soft pillow on her lap in preparation.

Kurtz Schleiermacher gave a wry smile. If the citizens of the republic knew that their dignified consul hugged a pillow and passed out at her desk every night…… no, perhaps they would actually find it endearing.

“I am ready to be reprimanded at any time, Your Excellency. However, there’s been a bit of a situation with the castle guards. Two well-dressed attendants showed up at the outer gate and, in an instant, took the guard captain hostage and demanded an audience with you.”

“Is it time to replace the guard captain?”

“I’ll submit a list of new candidates tomorrow.”

Consul Elisabeth gave a nod. She looked back down at her documents and resumed writing with her quill.

“If the guard captain was taken hostage, that’s inexcusable. Ignore them and shoot. Someone like that would better serve the republic’s people as fertilizer for the soil.”

“That’s what I intended to do as well, however—”

At Kurtz’s next words, Consul Elisabeth’s quill came to a sudden stop.

“Those attendants…… they claim to have served Demon Lord Dantalian. Their descriptions match the profiles our intelligence bureau holds. I believe it would be best if you met them yourself, Your Excellency.”

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. I had this chapter ready for like the past 2 days and completely forgot about it… I unno, I think I’m in that period where I’m just sort of desperately looking for things to do that I genuinely enjoy. Like, I used to really love FFXIV, but it’s just such a stale experience right now. It’s going through the classic Japanese dev nonsense, where they refuse to do anything new and everything they add is just a reskin of existing content. Housing is the only saving grace it has, but even that has been treated so poorly by the devs it’s frustrating…

Ugh, I’ll stop my rant there. I’ll see you guys in the .