Chapter 219

Chapter 219: Fried Egg

Fried Egg
Chapter 219. Fried Egg

Meanwhile, King Hudret occupied Duke Urey’s castle without any trouble.
The place was already an empty house where not even a filthy rat remained rummaging through the storehouses.
However, it was not as though there was nothing at all.
Valuables that could not be taken during the evacuation remained, and the soldiers who entered without bloodshed were collecting them all.
The Duke’s office had already been converted into King Hudret’s operational command post.
— How much in valuables?
At King Hudret’s question, a knight replied.
— The equivalent of three wagons, so it exceeds the astounding figure of 100,000 Gold.
With the castle and the buildings that did not need reconstruction, it was enough to settle the war debts and more.
— Duke Urey, my Lord, is truly generous. Handing over a castle like this to us so meekly.
— Most would destroy everything so as not to leave behind even a drop of soup before leaving.
— He must want to leave a foothold from which the humans fighting against the demons can resist.
— Even so, it is a bit disappointing. We won such a great victory, and there isn’t even a decent girl to embrace.
A commander smiled lewdly and subtly shifted his crotch, and another played along.
— We should have tried to persuade some of the pretty girls from the duchy.
— Oh?
King Hudret casually drove a dagger into the thigh of the commander who made the lewd remark.
— Ugh!
— You bastards did not shed a single drop of blood upon entering, and yet you covet such useless shit. Do you want to doom the kingdom to ruin by invoking the curses of those who became heroic spirits?
— N-no. S-sorry, Your Highness.
— Next time I will stab your tongue and your crotch. There will be no exceptions for anyone else either.
King Hudret was a pragmatic and rational human.
He knew that the curse of the heroic spirits was nothing more than a ghost story invented by humans.
Respect for the dead was merely an excuse; he simply made an example out of one to straighten out the discipline that was growing slack.
Thanks to that, there were no more lewd smiles.
— Issue promissory notes stating that the distribution of spoils will be paid after the war ends, and for now, gather everything in the castle warehouse and post sentries.
— Yes!
— When do the reinforcements arrive?
— By tomorrow, a total of 20,000 soldiers and laborers will arrive. They are rebuilding the formation based on the registered blueprints, so it will become a strategic stronghold within a week.
— Good.
King Hudret looked at the operational map, brooding over what to do next.
He had swallowed Duke Urey’s territory, and all that remained was the path toward the Kingdom of Heinkel.
Who would have thought it would go so well?
Originally, the plan was to prolong a war and make Urey impatient.
While keeping the Arken Empire, which coveted the spoils, at bay, he had attempted to obtain maximum profit.
If it goes so well, what is the next step?
«Advance on the capital.»
King Hudret’s greed was like the open mouth of a snake.
Once he began to put it in his mouth, he had to take it all the way to the end.
Given that he had seamlessly swallowed Duke Urey’s territory, King Hudret’s thought was that he also had to swallow the kingdom’s capital.
However, a factor about which he could not easily decide blocked him.
— Loyalty. The scouts who went to reconnoiter enemy territory have returned, it is reported.
At the sentry’s report, King Hudret asked him.
— Are they on their way to write the report?
— Yes, that is correct.
— Leave the report to the stenographer here, and bring the entire reconnaissance squad inside. I will hear it directly.
— Understood.
The guard soldier moved to deliver the message, and shortly after, the entire reconnaissance squad entered and bowed their heads.
— We present our respects to Your Highness. We did not have time to tidy our appearance, so please forgive us generously.
— Just report.
— First, it is certain that they are in collusion with demons, as the rumors say. Demons were detected inside the castle.
Unpleasant news.
Fights between humans are easy, but fights between humans and demons are more than just facing monsters.
— Infiltration into the inner castle?
— Do you mean infiltration into the inner castle?
— Can’t you even remember what I ordered?
At the incisive question, the scout replied.
— No. Infiltrating the inner castle is difficult, so I hesitated for fear of disappointing you. The inner castle is impossible, but we barely managed to scout the interior of the outer castle.
— Is that so? How was the interior?
— Deadly silent.
— Does that mean everyone is dead?
— No. There were humans inside, but they do not move at all.
— They do not move at all?
— They breathe as little as possible, minimize movement, and lie in a state. As if everything…
He took a deep breath and replied.
— It had the appearance of reducing all energy like hibernating beasts.
— Hibernating humans…
— That King of Heinkel is surely using black magic to do something using his people as collateral.
— Demons and black magic too… corrupted to the very core.
King Hudret smiled and spoke to the reconnaissance captain.
— Good work. I would like to reward you if I could.
— Not at all.
— By the way, I never ordered the scouts to infiltrate the inner castle.
— Huh? What do you mea—.
Slash!
The reconnaissance captain’s head flew from his torso.
The escort knight standing behind him had confirmed King Hudret’s signal and severed it in a single strike.
— I pressed him just in case, and they fell for it wonderfully. You swindling lackeys of demons.
— S-shit!
The reconnaissance members belatedly drew their swords to respond, but the knights who were already waiting had already subdued them.
King Hudret clicked his tongue looking at the corpses.
He lifted the head before him and examined the cross-section of the neck.
— These demons are called Dopplers, right?
— That is correct.
— Strange. They say demons have organs different from those of humans, but the shape is very similar to a human neck. As rumors say, they are superior to Doppelgangers. Their transformation ability is outstanding, but they can’t even absorb the target’s knowledge?
He dropped the head to the ground.
It rolled toward the soldiers collecting the bodies.
— Knowledge has increased. Thanks to this, we know more about demons than other armies do, isn’t that right?
— That is correct.
The knights spat upon the Dopplers’ corpses.
— We almost believed the nonsense these filthy bastards spouted.
— What do you mean? What these bastards said is surely true.
King Hudret said as if amused.
— To spy, one must first earn trust. To earn trust, one must appear competent. If a spy bastard becomes a scout, wouldn’t he throw out the best information first?
— Indeed…
The knights truly could not contain their admiration.
He lied blatantly to lure the demon, obtained information, and eliminated it cleanly as well.
Whether planned or improvised, it amazed them all equally.
King Hudret brooded over their information in his head.
Collusion with demons.
A king who wields black magic.
People as if hibernating.
‘That black magic surely utilizes the lives of the people, and it must be magic that grants tremendous power.’
The ultimate magic that could take that King of Heinkel into the realm of superhumans.
An object that a king pursuing absolute power could not help but covet.

The bedroom of Valdrova Castle.
Even as the night deepened, Ferda could not easily fall asleep.
A word had become stuck in Ferda’s mind, refusing to leave.
‘She is weakening…’
He could not understand what ‘weakening’ meant.
In Ferda’s eyes, her battles were always the same.
Even analyzing the data, there was no great difference between when he first met her and now.
‘If it is about the first vision, that incredibly bright flame, like a jewel.’
That flame was incredibly beautiful and intense.
It was enough to melt Frontenium, which could only be melted in the Primordial Forge.
On the other hand, that fact was puzzling.
‘Why didn’t she display that flame when I tried to kill her?’
He remembers the fight with Valdrova.
Ferda barely defeated her, and if she had not surrendered her life at the end, he would have met death alongside her.
If she had unleashed that flame at Ferda, the battle would have been even more in her favor.
‘Yet, she did not bring it out.’
It could mean that the fight itself was not earnest for her.
However, there was another possibility.
‘That she is truly weakening.’
Frontesis said so.
A firepower strong enough to melt Frontenium, but a flame that did not reach its peak.
The assumption that Frontesis gave erroneous information could not be ruled out either.
The two had chatted quite familiarly, but since the Dragon-Demon War, they had not met even once, and Ferda did not know what intentions he harbored.
If he harbored malice, he could have said that to burden Ferda with worry.
‘What on earth is the Twilight of the Dragons?’
Twilight usually signifies death.
For those called immortals who have reigned for eras, predicting their own death is a fatal blasphemy, an insult that must not be uttered.
‘He said he himself is weakening, and Valdrova too.’
Are the other dragons the same?
In the end, does the flow of time sweep away even the existences called immortal?
Believing is entirely Ferda’s freedom.
However, complete freedom is nothing more than an empty definition, and that is why Ferda is trapped by those words.
Ferda’s desire yearned to somehow understand and resolve these things.
How can he help her?
In the end, he stayed awake all night and saw the sunrise.
Ruri entered.
She brought a cart with food, looked at Ferda’s complexion, and asked.
— Did you have a sleepless night?
Not knowing what he would hear if he said he was worried about Valdrova, Ferda replied vaguely.
— I couldn’t sleep.
— I will prepare tea good for drowsiness. This is today’s breakfast.
The breakfast Ruri prepared was simple.
Good morning salad and bread, butter, and black tea.
The side dish was always the same.
The main dish was the only thing that changed, and wondering what it would be today, he looked at the food placed in the center.
The main dish she prepared today was truly astounding.
So astounding that Ferda could momentarily shake off his worry.
— …?
He looked at the main dish she prepared.
Judging by the shape, it was undoubtedly the dish called fried egg, where an egg is cracked and fried in a pan.
However, the object Ferda is seeing right now does not consist of two colors, white and yellow, but is colorful beyond all description.
Seeing that incomprehensible thing, he asked Ruri.
— …Can you tell me what I did wrong?
— What do you mean?
— If I did something wrong, I will apologize.
— Ferda-nim did nothing wrong. At least not right now.
— Then, why are you protesting with food?
When Ferda asked, Ruri immediately grew angry.
— You are truly too much. To speak like that about the object that Master-nim made with so much effort.
— Master-nim?
Ruri’s Master-nim is only one person.
And someone Ferda also knows well.
— It is an object that Valdrova-nim made directly.
— Valdrova…
With those words, the object before Ferda began to look different.
This is a fried egg cooked by the lovely hands of my fiancée.
— My fiancée… seems to have an outstanding talent in alchemy.
Yet it was something miserable beyond what love could cover.
Ruri also calls it an object, not food, until the end.
— …Have you ever tasted it?
— One knows whether it is shit or soybean paste without tasting it, so why would I eat it?
— What about Her Highness?
— Naturally, she does not know. She doesn’t even know the concept of tasting.
— It means I am the only one who suffers.
— Everyone is happy.
Is that fortunate?
Ferda poked the fried egg.
When he popped the yolk that was trembling fluorescently (or what used to be one), the aroma contained within spilled out.
What permeated this was a warm heart thinking of Ferda.
And Ruri’s shout.
— Hold the pan correctly. If you hold it like that, the force is not properly supported.
— Put oil in it. Just a little… just a little more… no, not that much… at this rate, let’s serve deep-fried egg instead of fried egg.
— Sprinkle just a tiny bit of salt. A pinch… no, if you pour that much… it’s fine. Anyway, it’s not like I’m going to eat it.
— Master-nim! Do you know how many eggs you used? A whole hundred! If we sent just one letter of condolence per hen saying their children were sacrificed in vain, the treasury would hit rock bottom!
No, the last part is a bit exaggerated.
A bastard like Penelope would say it like that.
— If you do not want to eat, it is fine not to do so.
Ferda looked at Ruri with a face that caught a ray of light.
Before he could even ask if that was alright, she gestured with her eyes toward somewhere.
Following that gaze, there was a door, and some cute creature with terrifying horns was crouched there staring intently.
The emotion contained beyond that mask resonated with his heart.
No, is this emotion?
It was difficult to judge, as it was roughly similar to the tension of facing an assassin.