Chapter 198

Chapter 198

The Beginning and End of the Story

Quite some time had passed since the unprecedented incident. The streets of Yggdrasil had grown quiet and empty compared to the days of old. Many people chose to avoid lingering any longer than absolutely necessary in the ruins of the invasion, but those who were too wounded to make the long treks to their homelands had no choice but to begrudgingly extend their stays at Yggdrasil castle.

Doctors from other lands also rushed to the neutral territory in order to tend to the countless victims. Aside from those who volunteered to stay behind to help look after the injured, the various clan members made quick work of leaving the blood-drenched castle without so much as a parting glance.

Noel Vertium was one of the many who was too incapacitated to move and thus was forced to stay. It especially didn’t help that he was in the worst condition out of all the survivors. But the even greater issue was that he was surrounded by those who felt a bitter sense of resentment toward him for being the mastermind behind the massacre.

Many basked in the sweet irony that he had been the only individual exposed to such danger even after the invasion had been suppressed. Thus, one of the other reasons so many of the clan members had been rushed out of the castle was to minimize the number of those who might potentially attempt to rise up and attack him. It was fortunate that not a single one of the knights who had joined the search to destroy the remaining puppets was killed during the expedition.

Although a few were injured, none returned with critical wounds. Had so much as one more dead body been left behind by one of the Gold clan’s warrior dolls, rioters would have stormed into his recovery ward and killed the Gold Master on the spot.

Upon their return, the knights confirmed that the blond puppet who had served as the eccentric clan leader’s primary motive for having orchestrated the invasion had been found dead. They had come upon his lifeless corpse buried under a mound of demon monsters.

His body had already been severely damaged to begin with, but whatever had befallen him had viciously destroyed his face to the point that it was impossible for them to identify him properly. However, they concluded the prized puppet was indeed dead once they noticed that his tracks came to an end at that very spot. On top of that, the fact that they hadn’t found any additional puppets in that general vicinity suggested it was him through the process of elimination.

The final confirmation was reached after the remains were examined by the Vertium leader once he had regained consciousness, the puppet’s former sister Roxana, and anyone who was familiar with Nix’s physical characteristics. Many predicted that the doll had been attacked by the very monsters his corpse had been found under while trying to flee Yggdrasil for good.

Then after the recovery of his remains, five chaotic days passed at the castle.

* * *

“The preparations are complete.”

“Very well. I’ll be there soon.”

Once the servant left, Pandora turned her head to gaze up at the building behind her for the last time. Her face was overcast by darkness. She was set to depart from Yggdrasil soon, after having stayed behind while the other White clan members had already fled the neutral territory days prior.

Per usual, the reason for her extended stay was to look after her impulsive, younger cousin Orka. He had remained unconscious since the day of the incident. Although his skin was radiating from a high fever, his breath seeped out of his lips at a seemingly ice-cold temperature. He would also often mutter incoherently as though he was arguing with some sort of delusion.

The doctors who tended to him all shook their heads in confusion as they were unable to pinpoint the exact reason for his condition. They suspected he had been poisoned, but not one of them could be certain. According to them, a poison that could cause such symptoms did not exist in their world.

Thus, the physicians concluded that it was perhaps a side effect of summoning the demon monster from within Yggdrasil only to have his contract stone with the beast removed forcefully. Pandora could not do much for him, especially since the White Master Hiakin had completely cut ties with his nephew. To her relief, the White Demon Tamer did finally manage to regain consciousness the prior evening. As she grappled between still loving him and outright hating him, she rushed to her cousin’s side when she heard the news.

“That bi... Where is she?! I swear I will make her pay!”

The first words Orka spoke upon awakening were filled with malice and contempt toward Roxana. His injured tongue prevented him from speaking properly, but Pandora managed to understand him after hearing him repeat the same few lines over and over again. Despite her choice to look after him, she couldn’t help feeling disgusted with him.

“Is that all you have to say?! Do you have any idea the sort of predicament you’re in?!”

Pandora’s voice had been filled with disappointment, anger, and frustration from the helplessness of the situation. Due to Orka’s inclination toward tunnel vision whenever he found a new obsession, her cousin was unaware of his current plight.

“Roxana Agrece... I swear...”

The White Demon Tamer barked out at the delusion of the Agrece woman almost without end. For a split-second, Pandora suspected that his current state was the doing of the blond in question, but decided that it was still more likely that her cousin was merely lashing out due to his inability to have his way with her.

After all, wasn’t Orka the one who went after with ill intentions? It had been highly suspicious of him to follow after the Agrece in secret in the middle of such a dire situation for all those at Yggdrasil castle. To make matters worse, Pandora herself had been among those who had discovered Orka pinning the woman to the wall while her body was covered in slimy fluid that could only have come from his swamp demon monster.

Thus, many were of the opinion that he deserved to be in the state he was currently in. Pandora had worried about her cousin’s condition, but seeing the way he lashed out at the mere thought of his target from the moment he woke up, she felt assured that he would at least not die any time soon. Thus she had spoken to him the previous night with a cold, withered glare.

“Everyone in Yggdrasil knows now that you tried to force yourself on a woman from another clan during the invasion. If you have any ounce of sanity left in you, I suggest you start thinking of how to explain your actions. If it was all just a misunderstanding, then say that.”

The greatest problem he had to face now that he had escaped death was the fact that he had lost his title as their clan’s heir. The best he could hope for would be to prove his supposed innocence to his people and pray that his uncle Hiakin would eventually forgive him. If there was a misunderstanding, they could eventually find a resolution. However, if everything he was suspected of was proven true...

“I swear... I will kill... that wench...!”

“Ugh, you’re hopeless!”

While he continued to mutter to himself, Pandora was forced to accept that her words would likely never reach him. He eventually lost consciousness again and fell back to sleep. Her mind, however, was riddled with distress as she was unable to comprehend just how and why things had turned out the way they had.

A few days prior, Hiakin had officially announced that he no longer acknowledged his heir and that the seat would remain vacant until he was no longer master of the White Fipellion. Having heard this, the other Fipellions realized that the rumor that had spread throughout Yggdrasil regarding the former White Heir must be based in truth.

Orka did not have many close acquaintances within his clan to begin with since he was often off on expeditions far from their lands. Thus, his current branding as the one who not only abandoned them when he could have summoned a beast to protect them—and that he had also been abandoned by his own uncle for his despicable behavior—told the members of White Fipellion everything they needed to know.

It would come as no surprise to his cousin that no one among their clan members would look upon Orka favorably once they returned. Pandora had chosen to stay behind for old times’ sake, but the most recent incident had made even her lose what little sympathy she had left for him. Even so, the day had finally come when she could return to Fipellion with Orka.

Although he continued to frantically prattle on about his hatred toward Roxana Agrece whenever he awoke, his bedridden condition prevented him from causing any further trouble.

“How is he?”

“Still unconscious, my lady.”

The blue-haired woman stared at the carriage in which her cousin had been placed. Her expression had darkened even more since she first stepped out of the castle.

“Are you heading back to Fipellion?” A male’s voice sounded from behind her. She couldn’t help but shiver slightly upon realizing who it belonged to.

“Black Master.”

Jeremy Agrece was one of the few guests who still remained at the castle. “I see you’re taking Orka Fipellion with you.”

“Yes...”

Jeremy Agrece approached the carriage casually, then lingered in front of it for a moment before kicking in its door.

Has he come to pick a fight?

However, the young Agrece leader soon stopped and turned back to her as if nothing had happened.

“Well, I just happened to be passing by and wanted to say that... I hope you have a safe journey to your homeland.”

“I see. Thank y—”

“Oh, and once that filth inside wakes up, please be sure to tell him to watch his back until the day he draws his last breath.”

Pandora gave no answer. Jeremy smiled at the Fipellion’s stunned figure. It was of course an empty smile, which she almost immediately recognized, but she still forced her own lips to curve upward as well.

After a moment of hesitating, she parted her lips slightly. “Um... How is Miss Agre—?”

“My sister is no concern of yours.”

The Black Master was quick to cut her off as he had ultimately lumped her and Orka together under the same umbrella. After taking note of this, even she had to admit that doing so was understandable since the Fipellions had never truly gotten along with the Agreces. Their initial confrontation on the way to the gathering hadn’t helped that fact either. Then the final incident between his sister and her cousin had only served to drive the wedge between the two clans apart for good. Even so, Pandora couldn’t shake the feeling that the Black Master was treating her somewhat unfairly.

Sure, she had experienced her own childish disagreement with Roxana back in Pedelian, and there still remained the fact that she had trespassed into the ruins of the Agrece compound that past winter in order to scavenge through their monster hutches only to end up attacking Jeremy in the process, but...

“I’m well aware of the rather large rift that has formed between the Black and White clans, but...” But her heart had felt continuously uneasy due to a slight sense of guilt over the culmination of everything. “I’m certain an opportunity will arise for our clans to make amends at some point in the future.”

It was, of course, merely wishful thinking on her part. The young leader looked at her flabbergast. Even at that moment he was only barely managing to contain his urge to drag the White Demon Tamer out by his blue hair and beat him to within an inch of his life.

Had it not been for his sister speaking up, he would have most certainly taken Orka Fipellion’s life already. Jeremy couldn’t help mentally patting himself on the back for having resisted such an impulse up until then.

He was also well aware of the fact that Pandora had grown considerably fond of Roxana. Although the incident involving her cousin and his sister had not escalated into an even greater issue due to both clans making a silent agreement, Jeremy could tell that the Fipellion woman felt an immense sense of remorse regarding the entire matter.

In truth, he despised the fact that some random woman was asking after his beloved sister, and even trying to get close to her under the pretense of being friendly. Even so, the fact that she had so readily joined him in looking for Roxana despite all the chaos from the puppet invasion didn’t leave as bad of an impression on him as the rest of her clan members had. Then again, her ongoing denial of assaulting him with her oversized bird demon irritated him to no end.

“Yes, well... I suppose there isn’t any way for us to know what may happen in the next 500 years.”

As Jeremy had essentially lost interest in continuing to speak to her, his answer was noticeably dry. He then left without another word of farewell. Pandora watched his shrinking back somewhat regretfully as he moved further and further away. With the gathering officially over, there was no reason for her to stay at the castle any longer.

The chances of her attending any future ones were also slim to none since she also shared Orka’s preference of going on extended excursions into monster habitats for most of the year. Not to mention, there was no way of knowing when Yggdrasil castle, or the neutral territory for that matter, would even be able to host another assembly again.

Although Pandora had never enjoyed the few she had attended in the past, she felt a small pang in the depths of her heart at the thought that the current one had ended in such a chaotic and abrupt way. Nevertheless, she disregarded her conflicted heart before stepping into a carriage bound for her homeland.

Before long, the small Fipellion procession both she and her cousin would travel with departed from the castle grounds in near silence. For some reason, Pandora felt an ominous air hanging over them that gave her the impression that she would never again get the opportunity to walk those grounds alongside her troublesome cousin in this lifetime.