<447 - Desperate Time>
Southern Sacred City-State Federation.
Some call this land, where demigods fight over a mere inch of ground, the land of the losers.
A crowd of minor deities that cannot even dare to claim vast imperial lands due to the pressure of the one true god, Sofemia of the Sun.
“Isn’t that a bit true, though~?”
“Miss, please maintain some decorum. Just because you have a professor father from the Empire doesn’t mean you can insult another country in public; you’re bound to get stabbed at night.”
“Tch. It’s not like there’s anywhere to go in this rural place at night. I don’t understand why they’re so obsessed with that taboo experiment. Ah~ I wanted to make my debut in high society.”
Instead of dancing with handsome men at the imperial ball at her young age, the beautiful girl, Havi, found herself growing herbs in a cultivation facility plastered with treatment notices.
She naturally had many complaints.
“Is getting into the Gift Academy such a big deal?”
“It’s the world’s number one educational institution. The professor surely wishes for you to receive an excellent education and hopes you get in through special admission with some achievements.”
“Who knows who Hans serves? Could it be my father?”
“I’m just the servant of the one paying me.”
“Worst~.”
It’s a lie.
No matter how much money is offered, the status of a servant in the Empire is completely different from that of a servant in the borderlands.
As they say, servants do well only in prosperous imperial households— the power they enjoy and how others treat them is worlds apart.
Finding a marriage partner, achieving the dream of owning a home—if one is in the imperial capital, life’s difficulty level drops significantly.
Changing one’s family or who to pledge loyalty to is easy.
Yet, this loyal servant, Hans, followed her down to this barren place out of attachment.
“I feel sorry for Hans, but succeeding in growing these demon realm tulips won’t get me into the academy at all.”
While staying in the Empire, she had the chance to meet a student on winter break from the academy.
– How many meals can you skip?
– Can you twist cute little rabbit necks?
– If a bandit appears, how many can you subdue alone without assistance from servants or guards?
She realized, just from these questions, that she lacked the qualities of a researcher and an aristocrat that the academy demanded.
Surely her professor father couldn’t be unaware.
“I’ve been brought here under the pretense of my future, but it was all just an excuse. Only my father benefits from the success of this research. I’m merely a pawn to be hidden away from competitors trying to kidnap me for their gain.”
She could guess the reason for being kept from debuting in society.
Once he succeeded in his research and Havi’s father’s name regained its prestige in the Empire, he would marry her off to someone much more powerful than her current status, riding on that fame.
A classic case of adult affairs.
“Maybe I should have just acted out like a brat and stayed in the capital.”
The father’s thirst for power is no different from the many researchers whose names barely made it into history.
Obtaining excess power by sheer luck and, once revealed, being chased from their positions, unable to accept reality, struggling through addiction to the poison called power.
“I really wish a prince from a fairy tale would show up.”
“Well then, what about a man like me?”
“…Who are you?”
“I’m a merchant here to negotiate with Havi’s father.”
“Go back. That demon realm tulip has no great effects. Even though it’s been made harmless by improved soil quality, that’s all there is.”
“That’s why it’s even better.”
Humanity conquered the flowers of the demon realm.
These tulips, which were merely symbols of triumph, are now the reason Havi’s father was raised to professor and then ousted.
“What’s for sale is revolution. It can’t be as pointless as the tulips from miss Havi’s father.”
Even the Emperor, border kings, and numerous mayors in the Sacred City-State Federation have given up on these rare tulips, but the Revolutionary Army plans to adopt them as a symbol of revolution.
To regard it as a luxury of a peculiar person would be an understatement given the massive scale of the Revolutionary Army.
“What prince? You are quite the terrible villain. How many people died because of that revolution in the capital?”
“I won’t say it was a necessary sacrifice. All I can tell you is that unlike the Empire, I did not force death upon anyone.”
The Demon Lord Kingdom gains power by selling fear.
The Holy Central Empire gains power by selling death.
In a world where such factions dominate, what’s the significance of a revolutionary army that gains power by selling revolutions?
The disdain directed towards him gradually faded.
Reluctantly inheriting her father’s keen wisdom, Havi began to understand the position of the man, the revolutionary.
“A hyena pushed to a cliff.”
The instant the flame of revolution dwindles, it fails.
The moment the barrier of humanity surrounding him gets even slightly thinner, the Empire will snuff him out.
Yet there is only one reason he is still alive.
Because everyone who believes the Empire is wrong supports and aids the revolutionary.
“Miss, let’s run away.”
“Hans?”
“Your father has crossed the line. Making deals with the Revolutionary Army is a shortcut to becoming the Empire’s enemy. I can’t let you be sacrificed to your father’s ambition.”
Despite Hans’s suggestion to escape, Havi smiled sadly.
“Where would we run to?”
“Let’s leave for the Western Three Kingdoms. That place, with its strong royal power, is beyond the Empire’s revolutionary reach. Using the wedding funds I’ve gathered, we can sufficiently support ourselves to relocate.”
“I could leave physically, but my heart is different. No matter how trashy a country is, I can’t easily abandon the hometown where I was born and raised.”
Havi realized.
The reason she had to come down to this desolate countryside.
It was for this moment.
“I’ll swap out the tulips that my father is selling. With completely harmless tulips that can’t harm the Empire.”
Havi couldn’t stand idle as her father moved to weaponize plants and the Revolutionary Army.
“Must you really do that? No one will acknowledge your efforts.”
“A proud childhood friend will understand. The world’s greatest thief, a reliable comrade of the Warrior Party, the Destroyer.”
Hans couldn’t help but shed tears, feeling wronged and aggrieved.
“Even after ten years of serving you since childhood, I can’t surpass the precious memories I share with the Destroyer.”
“Isn’t it admirable? In a world like this, I have such a pure-hearted childhood friend. In reality, I can’t even find a marriage path or have romantic relationships because of my father’s greed, but. Hehe.”
“…Do I truly have no opportunity?”
“I’m sorry, Hans. I understand your feelings, but I wish you would leave.”
“Is it because I revealed my feelings? If that’s the case, I will never again show these wretched feelings to you, Miss! I shall bury this heart in my grave!”
“It’s not that.”
Havi gazed at the glowing tulips as memories flooded back.
The time spent with Hans was peaceful but joyous.
“It’s because I care for you just as you care for me. There’s no need for you to stay in such a dangerous place. This is all my wedding savings, right? It would be awful if you were to die without even using it.”
“Miss…”
“Quickly go. Before my father catches on. If you say you were sent on an errand, you can buy yourself at least ten days. In that time, you must leave as far away as possible. Got it?”
Havi gently patted Hans’s head, who shed tears of a different kind than before.
“Just don’t forget me forever and write me letters sometimes, okay? The Kingdom of Florence is famous for its beauties, so if you get married, tell me about your wife.”
Hans eventually left the tulip farm.
Havi turned to the tulips swaying in the wind and spoke.
“Thank you for letting Hans go.”
“I don’t quite understand what you mean.”
“If it weren’t for the Revolutionary Army’s blind eye, Hans would never have been able to leave. It’s nearly impossible to get away in this barren countryside without being spotted by the people my father has planted.”
“It was just a shallow calculation. I thought helping you might earn me some points with you, Miss Havi.”
The tulip wave, a grand incident that was about to shock the Empire, occurred merely six months later.
*
The Destroyer paused the story and unfolded the mana board.
“Midterm exam, question two. What do you think happened to Hans after he left the tulip farm?”
Knowing of the disasters to come, Ishtar dared not express an optimistic outlook.
“I think he was killed. I don’t believe a revolutionary would keep a promise honestly.”
“10 points. Your stubborn bias shows no signs of improving, just like my past self.”
“…”
Next, the stoic Hestia, the Berserker, spoke.
“I think he lived a new life as you wish, then heard about the later incident and committed suicide.”
“Why’s that?”
“I see even retired mercenaries make extreme choices upon hearing their comrades’ tragedies, so a pampered servant from an aristocratic family wouldn’t be able to bear a tragedy tied to the woman of his pure feelings.”
“50 points. You’re not wrong in thinking it was a matter that would overwhelm Hans.”
Lastly, Oknodie raised their hand.
“Correct! If Havi is the childhood friend of the Destroyer professor, then Hans must also be from the same region!”
“Correct.”
“Then I think The Destroyer professor, the only one who could gather enough funds to save Havi, would have set out to find her!”
“You’ve opened your eyes to the human heart a little. 100 points.”
“Wow! I got a hundred!”
“…”
So I can’t even understand the human heart as well as the Dark Princess from the Foundation?
Ishtar bit her lip.
“Hans eventually tracked me down. His obsession to find me reached me, even with all the money he gathered.”
“It was nothing less than a miracle that the entire wealth he gathered over ten years reached me, especially when even a king of a nation cannot borrow a minute’s time if I do not wish it.”
“Thanks to that, I realized the danger facing Havi.”
The Destroyer professor showed as much deep regret as Ishtar.
“But it’s too late. By the time I realized, it was already too late. When I stood before her again, it was after everything had happened.”
The Destroyer’s childhood friend, a collaborator with the Three Great Evils.
He could hear what had happened in the six months since Hans left through the mouth of his childhood friend.
What happened during that time we…
“Let’s take a break.”
‘…At this timing?!’
Ten minutes later, he could hear it all.
