Several days had passed since I, Hal Harem Von Raymond, arrived in the former Yangus Kingdom territory, Liliana’s homeland.
My intention was for Liliana to ascend to the throne as the Queen of the New Yangus Kingdom at the appropriate time.
However, due to the invasion by the Espana Imperial Army, most of the prominent vassals had perished, making it an urgent task to find subordinates to support Liliana.
The first to pledge allegiance was Safiya, Safiya Brilia Von Collanda, the beloved daughter of the governor who was temporarily ruling this land.
And with that, Astarotte, the former succubus princess, was also close to checkmate.
Astarotte was a maiden who dreamed, an unlikely trait for someone who was once a low-ranking demon.
Moreover, she had a gentle personality, and I considered her a real treasure.
As such unique individuals kept coming, I decided to anew search for those born in the old Yangus Kingdom.
Although the high-ranking officials had become guests in the next world, I believed that promising young individuals must have survived.
The invasion by the Espana Imperial Kingdom was brutal, but its objective was to bring the subjects of the Yangus Kingdom under its rule, so attacks and plundering against ordinary citizens were refrained from.
From among them, the women belonging to the “Knights of the Azure Moon” were chosen.
It is said that they were survivors of the female knights who originally protected the Yangus Kingdom.
Currently, they seem to be secretly operating in Schwerin, the former royal capital, as one of the advance units of the anti-Espana forces led by Yuliana, Liliana’s half-sister.
There are reports of their sightings, but they are elusive, and their whereabouts are unknown.
It is likely due to their familiarity with the land.
I decided to divide “Princess Harem” into three teams to search for them and make contact with the members of the “Knights of the Azure Moon.”
The first team, led by Vice-Captain Elise, is to gather information at the Adventurer Guild.
The second team, led by Ly, will meticulously search the former royal capital Schwerin.
And the third team, at Eria’s suggestion, will gather information from prostitutes in the entertainment district, and I was participating in this team.
After many twists and turns, we finally reached Noella Sante, who was recuperating at “Lily’s Embrace,” an affiliated clinic of the Asgard Holy Church.
She herself was formerly a knight-in-training of the Yangus Kingdom and had apparently been invited to join the “Knights of the Azure Moon.”
However, Noella’s current condition is severe, and she is bedridden.
We walked through the dimly lit corridor of the clinic, heading to the second-floor sickroom. Accompanying us were Party Members of “Princess Harem”—myself, Eria, and senior sister Shera—as well as the clinic’s person in charge, Father Harris, and a pest named one-eyed Adams.
One-eyed Adams was the person to whom the naive Noella Sante owed money, and he was a vulgar bastard who had been leeching off her.
“Father Harris, what is Noella’s condition?”
“To be honest, it’s not good. Her condition is…”
According to Father Harris’s explanation, she was emaciated from malnutrition, covered in bruises, fractures, and lacerations from being lynched.
Furthermore, there were rashes around her lower abdomen, and she was in the worst possible state, likely infected with a venereal disease.
She was conscious but bedridden and would likely pass away soon.
Incidentally, Father Harris is not a wielder of healing magic but merely an apothecary.
Healing magic users are rare, so it cannot be helped.
Still, I felt saddened listening to Father Harris’s words.
At that moment, Holy Spirit Serena’s presence weakened.
A reason for the scarcity of healing magic users in this world is the scarcity of Holy Element Spirits.
If Holy Spirit Serena were to be strangled and dispersed back into a swarm of Holy Element Spirits, the rarity of healing magic users could be alleviated.
However, even as a swarm of Holy Element Spirits, she still has consciousness as Holy Spirit Serena, so she would probably dislike being strangled.
At the same time, anger towards one-eyed Adams, who preyed on Noella, boiled within me, but this was not the time to act.
And the person involved, that bastard, was following us with a nonchalant attitude.
In his eyes, Noella on her sickbed was no longer a golden goose, so he seemed to view us, who were trying to obtain information from her, as his last source of money.
“This girl is Miss Noella Sante.”
The second floor of the clinic was divided into a large ward and a partitioned section that seemed to be private rooms.
Naturally, Noella, who had been abandoned penniless, was lying on a dirty bed in a corner of the large ward.
Other beds were occupied by patients with similar symptoms, embodying the dark side of the entertainment district.
Eria’s eyes darted around at this deplorable sight.
Eria could have ended up in a place like this if one wrong step had been taken, so she probably felt it was not unrelated to her.
“Is this girl Noella Sante…?”
Her once flaxen hair was dull, and her emaciated, gaunt face was bony.
She was a young girl of similar age to us, but she had withered away to such an extent and her complexion was so poor that she looked nothing like it.
Even with the thin porridge served at the clinic, she probably could no longer stomach anything substantial like meat.
However, if she were left to sleep outdoors in this condition, she would likely be found cold the next day.
She had managed to survive until today thanks to the diligent care of Father Harris and the nun Maria.
I secretly thanked them both.
“This girl, it’s pitiful, but… she already has the look of someone about to die.”
Eria peeked in from beside me, her face filled with sorrow.
Eria had also worked as a high-class prostitute in the entertainment district, so she could sense the death throes of a prostitute instinctively.
Then, Eria looked at me with pleading eyes, so I nodded to reassure her.
For my part, I wanted to save this girl too.
“The end for prostitutes is always pitiful… I’m never leaving Master Hal’s side!”
Senior sister Shera, peeking in from the other side, also seemed deeply moved.
As proof of this, her proud fox tail was drooping.
Likewise, her fox ears, which usually stood at attention, were also limp.
Come to think of it, Fox Beastkin are unexpectedly expressive of their emotions.
There are few who would dare to embrace Shera, who had a muscular physique like a construction worker, but when she dispels her beastification, Shera is like a cute little fox, and she has a high chance of being violated out of sadistic impulse.
However, someone was not reading the somber atmosphere we were in.
“Hey! Sante, customers have arrived, so wake up!!”
*Slap, slap*
“Don’t be dazed! Get up and entertain the customer!!”
“Hey, you! Stop with the rough treatment.”
As we were inquiring about Noella’s condition, the one-eyed Adams casually approached her bedside and roughly tried to wake her up.
Furthermore, when Noella didn’t respond to his calls, he suddenly slapped her cheek and started yelling.
For the moment, Father Harris intervened, so I decided to observe.
However, that Adams guy is truly a piece of scum.
“……Hic! A-Adams-san… the money… please wait a little longer… I promise I will repay the 5 gold coins… I owe you…”
Noella, who had been asleep until now, seemed to wake up after Adams slapped her cheek.
However, upon realizing that the person who woke her was one-eyed Adams, she pleaded with a frightened expression for him to wait for the repayment of her debt.
But in her current state, I couldn’t imagine her being able to repay any debt…
And when Noella woke up, Adams had a lecherous smile, like a predator eyeing its prey.
“Nice to meet you, Noella Sante. My name is Hal Raymond. I’ve come to ask you something, so I hope you don’t mind the intrusion.”
I deliberately smiled as I greeted her.
“Hey, Sante, answer them properly.”
Meanwhile, one-eyed Adams adopted an arrogant demeanor, like a slave master.
“What could a lowly… prostitute from the backstreets… possibly be asked…?”
Noella, though her words were broken, was trying to answer my question.
“I heard that you had contact with the ‘Knights of the Azure Moon’…”
“I-I… I don’t know anything! Even if I did… I would rather die than tell you!! My loyalty is to Princess Yuliana!!”
When I mentioned the name “Knights of the Azure Moon,” Noella’s expression tensed up, and she started saying she knew nothing.
It seems she couldn’t bring herself to sell out her former comrades.
This is a problem, though…
It appears that Noella’s current anchor is Yuliana, the leader of the resistance forces and Liliana’s half-sister.
*WHACK, WHACK, WHACK, WHACK*
“You little brat! You’re getting bold because I’m being patient!! You have to answer the customer’s questions!”
The one-eyed Adams, having flown into a rage again, delivered a true slap to Noella’s cheek.
Meanwhile, Noella’s lip was bleeding, as if she had cut the inside of her mouth.
The surrounding people were unable to intervene due to this momentary act of violence.
What could he be doing to Noella, who was so weak?
The one-eyed Adams was undoubtedly a beastly scoundrel.
Glancing around, Eria and senior sister Shera were looking at me, asking if they could dispose of Adams.
“You! I will not permit any further violence!!”
*THUMP*
“Shut up, old man, and stay quiet!”
“…Ugh, ugh…”
Father Harris sternly warned against the one-eyed Adams’s continued violence, but he was kicked in the back with a spinning kick and sent flying backward, losing consciousness.
Perhaps a rib or two might have been broken.
Eria and senior sister Shera had also completely lost their tempers at this atrocity.
As for myself, my insides were boiling, so I had no intention of stopping them any further.
“Sleeping Mist.”
With Eria’s cool voice, a magical mist enveloped the surroundings.
This mist was Eria’s water magic, and it had the effect of putting those around to sleep.
If she had used something like “Water Cutter,” one-eyed Adams would have likely lost his head or been cut in half, spilling his innards.
“Wh-what!? What is this mist…? Ugh, GYAAAAAAAH—”
*THUMP, THUD*
Swiftly, senior sister Shera closed in on one-eyed Adams and struck his abdomen with her bare hands.
Adams, sent flying more violently than Father Harris had been, crashed into the wall and lost consciousness.
Meanwhile, due to the effect of “Sleeping Mist,” the patients, including Noella, fell asleep.
“I… I ended up doing it.”
“I couldn’t forgive that piece of scum either!”
When the series of events ended, only I, Eria, and senior sister Shera were awake.
Father Harris and one-eyed Adams were unconscious, and the patients in their beds were soundly asleep due to Eria’s “Sleeping Mist.”
“Master Hal, what should we do next?”
“I don’t regret it. He was an enemy that needed to be taken down.”
Eria, who had already regained her composure, asked for my instructions with a slightly pale face, while senior sister Shera was focused on her own self-preservation.
However, judging by the sway of her fox tail, she seemed exhilarated.
“Let’s see… I shall take advantage of this situation. Senior sister Shera, as punishment for her violence, please carry Noella and bring her with us. In this state, Noella won’t say anything. Let’s move to the designated location.”
“Got it, Master Hal.”
Waiting for senior sister Shera, who had loaded Noella onto her back according to my instructions, I then examined Father Harris, who was lying on an empty bed; he had several fractures, so I healed them with “Healing Magic.”
One-eyed Adams, who had assaulted this honest and upright old priest, was an unforgivable piece of scum.
However, the piece of scum was unconscious against the wall, so I had no intention of doing anything further to him.
“Serena, are you there?”
“…Yes, Master.”
“Could you cast ‘Healing Magic’ on the patients lying in their beds?”
“Understood, Master.”
Then, Holy Spirit Serena, dispelling her invisibility, flew around the sickroom, flapping her two pairs of wings and showering them with mystical, rainbow-colored light orbs.
However, Holy Spirit Serena was careful to ensure the light orbs did not reach one-eyed Adams.
He had been blown away by Shera’s punch and collided with the wall, so he should have been injured, yet he seemed to have been abandoned even by Holy Spirit Serena.
“Father Harris, we will be taking Noella Sante. Please include compensation for the trouble within the 5 gold coins.”
I said this to Father Harris, who was sleeping soundly on the bed, and left the place.
“Master Hal, I’ve retrieved it.”
As we were about to leave the sickroom, senior sister Shera rummaged through one-eyed Adams’s pockets, retrieved the 1 gold coin I had given him earlier as information fee, and found Noella’s debt acknowledgment. She then burned it with fire magic.
According to the document, the original debt was for a small sum, less than one gold coin, but he had bound her with ruthless usury.
Thank you for reading.
Episode 37-10: The Reason for the Masterful Artifact (and the Last Bind) ① has been pre-scheduled for release at 00:00 on October 19th.
