95 – Luden(2)

Due to the influence of the letter from Luden, we headed to Luden earlier than we first thought.

Even so, it was only a week earlier that I had decided to go three weeks in advance, but if it hadn’t been for the work given to me as Sogaju, I might have left earlier.

I hope I will feel grateful for the many things I have to do. It is also not known how a person’s life will turn out.

When there was not much time left before going to Luden, my heart was much better than when I first received the letter. Maybe it was because he received the letter and saw Elena he liked. I changed my mind to put my mind at ease about this matter.

That doesn’t mean you won’t be nervous, but it means that you don’t have to be too conscious of it and make your heart heavy.

One of my chronic problems is that I always think of the negative side when encountering a new job, which is my biggest strength, but in this case, I needed to act differently. It is also a way to relax your mind a little and turn your thoughts in a positive direction.

If you only think about the bad side, you might make a mistake by paying attention to it when you meet your eyes.

In that respect, finishing work before leaving was a useful time for catching up.

It wasn’t a task that required a lot of thought, and it was just organizing the contents of the work to my father who would fill my vacant position, so this kind of nonsense was not allowed.

“Hyung-nim! That… can I follow you too?”

“what?”

“No, it’s nothing else… I’m going to go to the academy when I get older too, so I thought it might be a good idea to follow along as a preparation for preparation! I don’t think it would be bad.”

If it was something that could be called a little happening in that short period of time, it would have been that Alphonse said he would follow it when it was not long before they headed to Luden.

I knew why Alphonse was saying this even if I didn’t have to hear it.

I’ve heard a lot about being insensitive, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t notice at all. This time, the number of people going to Luden included not only me and Elena, but also Hailey.

In the original work, as far as I know, I remember that Hailey followed Elena to the academy, but now, unlike the original, it was Hailey who went to the Faculty of Engineering, not the Normal Faculty. Because her constitution had been improved by Elena and her aura had been awakened, she had no reason to give up her dreams any longer.

Since Hailey had spent a long time as Elena’s maid, it was inevitable that she would train her body before entering the academy, but Alphonse was the closest person in the process.

The two people, who were known to meet and train together at dawn, naturally came out together at the gymnasium where the sun rose and continued training.

As Alphonse was the first person to learn Haley’s secret, the relationship between the two seemed particularly close.

It was a bit disappointing at the time, but now that I think about it, it’s not something I can’t understand.

If you ask me to choose who to hang out with, my older sister next door or my older brother, the result is obvious.

Considering that Alphonse, who only asked me for a request related to a sword, had all other requests related to Hailey, I can see how much Alphonse likes her.

Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be able to do that request this time.

As a result, it was impossible for Alphonse to follow us to Luden. It was nothing else, because my father, the final decision maker in our family, did not allow it.

That too, with a good reason.

“There are three reasons for not sending Alphonse to Luden.”

“Three?”

“Yes. First of all, Alphonse is too young to go to Luden. It is impossible to send a child who has just started outside the walls of the lord’s castle that far. I know that Alphonse is quick to learn and clever compared to other children his age, but that’s not the case. That doesn’t change the fact that he’s not even ten yet. There’s still a lot to learn and it’s time to grow up protected inside rather than going outside to gain experience.”

“Still, I think it’s safer than sending it out to subdue monsters in winter…”

“Is Alphonse like you? This winter, he only let us see from afar, but didn’t we send him directly to the subjugation? And most of all, it’s too dangerous to send the heirs of the family out at once. Even during the last hunting competition, the two heirs of the imperial family were killed at once. I almost lost it. It ended well, but it’s just as unsettling. I don’t want to take that risk and I don’t want to think of such a case.”

It all makes sense.

Alphonse was so smart and brilliant, but that didn’t change the most basic fact. That this child is still a child who needs to be protected by his parents.

Well, there may be other reasons for that.

“So what about the last one?”

“Thirdly, if Alphonse goes to Luden, won’t I be left alone here? Are you going to leave this father alone here? At least one person should remain here. Even if it’s not, if Elena follows you out of the castle, the castle will be quiet for a while. It’s going to end, but how can I endure this because I’m lonely?”

“Wow, I can’t say anything because all of the above is valid. Then I’ll tell Alphonse no.”

“Don’t just tell them that the villa is under renovation, so tell them no. Alphonse will know that it’s rude to leave both of your children in the care of your wife’s family, so even if you tell me this much, I’ll give up. Then tell me to have dinner and come to the gymnasium at the main building later. Where will you go? I don’t know if I told you, but it would be better if I taught you properly.”

“…Please tell me your last words after dinner.”

Oddly enough, you’re very shy.

Afterwards, contrary to his father’s expectations, Alphonse got really upset when he heard that he couldn’t go to Luden. It was one of the things I didn’t tell my father until the day I left Sarham that I only accepted it after talking to Haley separately later.

***

Luden, which is called the safest city in the world, lives up to its reputation and has very strong barriers created by the Holy Law installed throughout the castle walls surrounding the imperial capital.

There would have been an advantage of being the center of the empire as it had never allowed outside invasion, but the fundamental reason was that there was no way to break through that divine barrier.

Of course, the divine barrier protecting Luden was created by none other than Altair, the main god. It’s not for nothing that Luden is called a sacred place along with the imperial capital. It is said to be a place where God himself wrote his hand.

Anyway, because the divine barrier covers the entire ecliptic, unlike other territories, Luden does not have a teleport gate installed inside.

Although it appears to be in the same place on the outside, it is actually a space that is completely isolated from the outside, so even if teleportation is possible within Luden, movement to the outside is impossible. The same goes for outside. Is the barrier just a barrier? I have never heard of a successful teleport from the outside to the inside of Luden.

This was the reason Luden, which could be said to be the most prosperous place on the continent, did not have a teleport gate installed one by one in most large cities.

Well, if you hear it like this, you might think it’s a completely isolated place, but it’s not particularly true that there are priests who manage access to Luden at the end of the barrier, so if your status is clear, you can enter and exit freely.

If you know that transportation is more difficult than other places, there are teleport gates installed in the territory located around Luden for the convenience of transportation. Me and Elena used it to move to Luden.

It’s a defense facility that can’t be penetrated even if you try to pierce it from the outside…

In the first place, since divine power is not something that can be handled simply by having faith in God, it would not be wrong to say that the city of Luden, which is protected by a strong divine barrier, is a place protected by God.

Although I do think that it would have been better not to have left an element of anxiety in the world from the beginning to protect it like this.

“Certainly, it feels like it’s the place where His Majesty the Emperor resides, so it feels different from other cities. Are they all huge? Elena. Don’t you think the clock tower you can see over there is half the size of the mage tower?”

“Really. Maybe it’s because the other buildings around it are tall, so you can see the time when you build them that high. Seeing that there are many shops around the clock tower, let’s go take a look later.”

“great!”

Hailey, who has gone from Elena’s maid to the Hartman family’s eldest daughter, no longer uses respect in her conversations with Elena. This conversation now feels more friendly than before, so I raised the corners of my mouth while turning my face to the window so that they wouldn’t be noticed.

As Hailey said, the buildings in Luden that can be seen outside the window are significantly different in size from those I have seen in other estates so far. It was like a city made entirely of downtown streets from beginning to end.

Looking at the residential buildings built along the main street, starting from the entrance of the city, they generally have a very modern atmosphere, unlike the outside that reminds me of Europe in the Middle Ages. To put it a little exaggeratedly, only this place seems to have turned the time differently.

Another curious thing is that I can’t see the poor, who are bound to exist in any city.

Nothing caught my eye while looking around the inside of the city, at least from the moment I entered through the entrance. Even the alleys, which seemed to be sparsely populated, looked clean, probably because they were being maintained from time to time, and only the uniformed people I saw when I first entered Luden were patrolling.

It might be somewhere else, inconspicuous as it is such a large city, but at least in the place where ordinary people live, security doesn’t seem to be a concern.

As long as it’s a city with all kinds of rhetoric attached, it’s said that it’s worth the name. Indeed, Orcus was so confident that he deserved it.

‘It’s really ironic that a place like this is the center of so many incidents.’

I’m sorry for Orcus, but since the extensive cleaning was done, it may not be as much as I knew, but since Elena came here, I’m guessing that the incident will happen with a higher probability than saving it. Even if she doesn’t intend such a situation, just like the main characters in other novels, the main characters always drive accidents even if it is not their will.

Even if only in the original work right now, the clock tower that just became the topic of conversation between Hailey and Elena.

The fact that the Alchemy Society’s largest workshop and one of the most well-preserved places in Luden collapsed suddenly was enough to say that.

Who would have known that the academy located within the imperial castle, the center of Luden, would have events such as the assassination of the princess or the invasion of pagans when the defenses were well-prepared? Now, thanks to the previous incidents, it’s a big deal, so if it wasn’t, I might have more things to do here.

If you think about it, is it because I am Damian?

When I think about the past, it feels like a huge story has begun to flow with the meeting between Elena and me. Still, it was a series of quiet lives until now, but after meeting Elena, a lot of changes have occurred.

It may not be because Elena is the main character, but it was a clear fact that, starting from the meeting between me and Elena, a lot of things began to happen in this superficially quiet world. The introduction was different, but the bookshelves continued to be turned over anyway.

In such a situation, if I had more prior information than others, if I had to do it, it would be about trying to change the outcome of what will happen from the bad side to the good side like the last time.

The letter he had exchanged with Orcus was one of those efforts.

The reason he and I exchanged letters wasn’t just to ask each other’s well-being.

Personally, I can be confident that many of the events that Elena should have gone through have been excluded from Luden now.

If you knew in advance what was going to happen and you had a year or so, it wasn’t too difficult to eliminate a few things in advance that would lead to troublesome, if not completely, incidents.

Above all, because the prince is a useful helper. Accidents that happen in Luden are not very good even from the point of view of the imperial family, so we have no choice but to actively move to solve these problems. The contents I wrote down also fit together, so there was no need to hesitate when Orcus moved.

‘I hope that an accident like the last time won’t happen if possible.’

If I was by Elena’s side, being involved in all sorts of incidents like her was a predestined fate, but I prayed that such a thing would not happen.

I wish I could be given at least as much reward as I tried, but it’s really mean that the results can only be known after time passes.

The sound of Hailey and Elena’s conversation fills the carriage.

Everyone seems to be excited a few days before coming to Luden, but if you think about it, it’s me who is living a second life. I haven’t lived a very long life, but I’m well aware of how much of a part my school days are in my life.

Looking at the two people having a pleasant conversation with a lot of anticipation, strangely, rather than worrying about the future, it seemed that I had a sense of duty to protect the current situation.

“Looks like we’ve arrived.”

Just as I was making up my mind, Elena’s voice coming right next to me made me turn my eyes to reality.

At the end of her words, the slowing speed of the carriage informs me that we are almost at our destination.

When I saw the symbol of the Edelweiss family engraved on the gate of the mansion, it was as if someone had spilled cold water on my head, and the thoughts I had been thinking until earlier seemed to fly away. The thoughts I was thinking until now are crumbling and flowing down in an instant like a sandcastle built on the shore.

oh my god

Have I been too relaxed all this time?

I had been resting my mind on the fact that if I cared about this, I would rather be nervous, but this time, as soon as I faced reality, my body froze. Apparently, even when I first got on the carriage, I was maintaining some tension, but I forgot one of the most important facts, maybe it was a problem that I had lost my thoughts for a while.

I was going to see my mother-in-law right now, right?