Chapter 572
Ellen had never imagined that her small and adorable cat could be considered as food by someone else.
She wasn't ignorant of the hunger issues in the refugee camp.
However, since the Gate incident, Ellen had been repeatedly deployed and returned from the battlefield through mass teleportation.
As a result, she had spent very little time in the Imperial Capital after the Gate incident.
Now, she was serving in the allied forces.
Judging by her expression, it was clear that today was her first time entering the refugee camp area.
Adults and children alike were starving, and she had seen for the first time the sight of corpses left behind not due to monster attacks, but because of starvation.
It wasn't that she was surprised because of it, but because seeing it with her own eyes was too overwhelming and shocking.
For a while, Ellen stood there, dazed, after seating me on the bed, seemingly lost in thought.
"I'll go alone."
After gently stroking my head, Ellen left the room.
Unlike Ellen, I had seen the situation in the refugee camp firsthand, but I could feel that the situation had worsened since then.
With the distribution of food to the camp decreasing to barely enough to feed the army, the hunger could only intensify.
I wondered if a contagious disease was spreading, as I occasionally saw people who seemed to be sick rather than starving.
At a time when the divine power of the Goddes of Purity, Tu'an, was desperately needed, the refugees harbored extreme hatred for both Tu'an and the Als’ Church.
The priests probably couldn't carry out their duties properly.
The problem of food, and now winter.
Countless people would starve to death, freeze to death, or die from illness.
The dense population of the Imperial Capital exceeded 100 million.
During the winter, the number of people who would die from starvation or freezing in the Imperial Capital would easily surpass ten million.
It was heartbreaking and desperate.
But it was a problem that I couldn't solve.
The population of the Imperial Capital alone was ten times that of the entire Edina Archipelago.
Edina had better food conditions than the Imperial Capital, but it wasn't abundant either.
Even if there was surplus food, it was the same.
There was no way to transport the food needed to save tens of millions of refugees from Edina to the Imperial Capital.
I couldn't solve the hunger problem here.
What I could do, or at least try, was to reach the end of the Gate incident.
I would have to think about what came next at that time.
Heinrich and Ellen, both on patrol, but the first to return to the dormitory was Heinrich.
-Meow
"Hmm?"
He tilted his head upon seeing the little one wandering alone without Ellen.
"… Did she plan to take you with her?"
Heinrich didn't seem injured. There wouldn't be many monsters near the Imperial Capital, and even if there were, they wouldn't pose a threat to Heinrich.
That's how it was.
If a single orc appeared on the outskirts of the Imperial Capital and started causing havoc, dozens of refugees would easily die, but Heinrich could take care of that orc with a simple gesture.
"Haah…"
Heinrich sighed while looking out the window.
He would have had to enter the refugee area to patrol the outskirts, and he must have seen the same things Ellen saw today.
It was no wonder his expression was like that.
About two hours after Heinrich returned.
Just as the evening was about to begin, Ellen finally returned to the dormitory.
Of course, her safe return was expected, but I couldn't help feeling relieved.
The evening banquet hall.
Although there were other students present, the four second-year students were Ellen, Heinrich, the returning Ludwig, and Dettomorian.
The three researchers rarely left their laboratories.
Dettomorian's complexion was naturally poor.
Ellen's complexion was poor due to the events of the day.
Heinrich's complexion was also poor, having witnessed a similar scene as Ellen.
Ludwig served in the guard, so naturally, his expression was not good, having witnessed even worse scenes or possibly having done something dreadful.
Thus, the dinner began with all four of them looking rather unwell.
My stomach churned.
Ellen hesitated as she tried to scoop some scrambled eggs onto my designated plate.
"..."
A visible wave of guilt swept across her face.
As if considering how extravagant it was to raise animals in a time of such famine.
I assumed Ellen couldn't help but have such thoughts.
Ellen looked down at me with a tearful expression.
In the end, Ellen couldn't bear to starve me, and carefully stroked my head after serving me the scrambled eggs.
Her hand seemed to say it wasn't my fault.
Ellen didn't eat as much as when she had first returned.
Feeling guilty about providing food led to feeling guilty about eating as well.
She probably knew that eating well and resting were right for people.
It's just hard to accept.
"How was the patrol? I couldn't cover the entire area because it's too wide."
It was Heinrich's question.
"It wasn't a problem, maybe because I didn't go too far. How about you?"
"Same here. I felt a bit empty for not being able to do anything, but I guess it's rather fortunate."
"Yeah."
The two had been on the move to check the situation on the outskirts of the wasteland.
If the two of them had returned after slaying a bunch of monsters, there would be no reason to rejoice. That would mean the outskirts were teeming with danger.
Therefore, it was better to have no results.
"It seems we're not the only ones who thought of this."
"...?"
Ellen cocked her head at Heinrich's words.
"It looks like the empire wants to ensure the safety of the wasteland during the winter, given the favorable situation at the coalition army's base. They seem to be operating large-scale extermination squads."
"......That's fortunate."
Indeed.
The empire would undoubtedly have the same thoughts as these two.
While they couldn't save people from starvation, they could at least secure the nearby wasteland areas to eliminate the threat of monsters.
Ellen and Heinrich seemed to be considering volunteering for extermination squad missions, patrolling the outskirts of the wasteland and hunting down monsters.
Of course, Ellen shook her head after pondering, saying it didn't seem possible.
Bertus wanted Ellen to rest during the winter, and volunteering for an extermination squad would obviously not be permitted.
Heinrich also couldn't participate in the extermination squad for similar reasons, so both decided to move separately.
More help couldn't hurt.
If there were dangerous monsters roaming around, they could eliminate them, and if not, it would mean the wasteland was safe, which couldn't be a bad thing.
Both seemed intent on venturing further out tomorrow.
Why couldn't they just rest a bit?
Heinrich clicked his tongue briefly.
"The problem is the food supply."
Famine, not monsters, was now the imminent threat to the refugees.
While the appearance of a monster in a refugee camp would quickly kill hundreds of people, starvation would slowly kill millions.
Everyone knew what the real enemy was.
However, what cannot be defeated cannot be killed.
A monster could be killed, but there was no way to kill hunger.
"..."
In the silence, Ludwig struggled to eat with his left hand.
As the allied forces took a break, King Constantine von Schwarz of Kernstadt went out to inspect the situation.
However, what was important to the king was not the inspection but the whereabouts of his two missing princes.
Louise did not think lies would work on the king.
Even her close aides were suspicious about the princes' disappearance.
And King Constantine von Schwarz of Kernstadt had already received a report long ago.
He would have thought about it in his own way and tried to infer the truth.
In a situation where only Louise and Heinrich from the Schwarz family had survived, the king could well predict what the king would suspect.
Louise didn't make excuses. They wouldn't work.
She didn't say it couldn't be helped. It was an unjustifiable act.
So she said it directly.
"I killed them."
She told the king, who was trying to dig out the truth about the disappearance of the two princes, that she had killed them with her own hands.
And she said nothing else.
Louise was never talkative in the first place.
There was no reprimand, criticism, astonishment, or fear from the king.
King Constantine von Schwarz stared at his eldest daughter's face for a long time and uttered only one word.
"Is there anything else to say?"
An apology.
An excuse.
Tears.
Sorrow.
Guilt.
A plea or rage-filled rant for all these things.
To her father's question, Louise nodded her head.
"Yes, there's nothing more."
The daughter's reticence was similar to her father's.
"All right, I understand."
Just because the daughter didn't speak much didn't mean she didn't think, and just because the father didn't speak much didn't mean he didn't think either.
Louise and King Constantine von Schwarz both had many thoughts in their silence.
They were a father and daughter who only exchanged necessary conversations, like Louise and Heinrich now.
"Where is Heinrich?"
"...I sent him to the temple for a while."
The king would have understood what that meant.
Knowing that unnecessary trouble might arise, Louise had sent her son away for his safety.
King Constantine von Schwarz said nothing about his eldest daughter's actions, which had killed his two sons.
His daughter offered no excuses.
Only they could know what the other was thinking.
There were relationships that understood each other without conversation, and there were relationships that could not understand each other without conversation.
"The princes died because of Heinrich."
The two of them had the first kind of relationship.
Both had sons.
Both had mothers.
For Heinrich von Schwarz, four other princes had to die.
At those harsh words, Louise calmly said:
"If they hadn't all laid a hand on my son, they wouldn't have died."
A sharp response came back to the sharp words.
The two princes who tormented young Heinrich burned to death at the hands of Heinrich, who had awakened his supernatural powers.
The two brothers who tried to assassinate Heinrich died at the hands of Louise.
They should have left Heinrich alone.
As sharp words went back and forth, harsh words might follow, and eventually, something irreversible might be said.
But Louise had made up her mind.
No matter what she heard, she had decided to protect her son.
That's why Louise looked at the silent king.
"I thought you would know sooner."
"...Yes?"
Louise couldn't help but be taken aback by Constantine von Schwarz's words.
"I thought it would happen sooner."
"..."
"I thought you'd intervene with your siblings a bit earlier."
Louise had never considered that her father would think that way.
Constantine von Schwarz had always believed that it was bound to happen someday.
Children do not understand their parents.
Parents do not understand their children either.
But it is more common for parents to know their children slightly better than the other way around.
That's why Constantine von Schwarz considered it inevitable that this had to happen.
He couldn't accept it as natural, but he couldn't help but think it was unavoidable.
"You were either less wise than I thought, or you trusted your siblings more."
Even without Louise explaining, Constantine von Schwarz was already predicting what had happened within the alliance that led to this situation.
The ambitions of his children.
Jealousy and envy.
And their foolishness.
And Louise's guilt and love for her son.
It was bound to happen eventually because of all that.
"Did you love your siblings?"
"..."
Louise couldn't answer.
She couldn't say she loved them, nor could she say she didn't.
As she shed tears, mixed with unutterable sorrow, self-loathing, and guilt, without even making a sound.
Seeing her daughter, whose tears flowed down her cheeks but couldn't be wiped away.
Her daughter, who couldn't help but let the tears she had held back in front of her son flow in front of her father, clenching her teeth.
"Well... if that's the case... that's enough."
The father couldn't forgive his daughter for killing her siblings.
But he had no choice but to accept it as inevitable.
Regardless of the real reason, Louise assisted the King with the inspection of the Kernstadt Army, which was the original purpose.
They discussed the army's status, strength, and supply situation.
And after the report was over, Constantine von Schwarz said the same thing to Louise as she had said to Heinrich.
"Rest."
"...Pardon?"
"I'll take command of the army during the winter."
Just as the mother had ordered rest for her son, considering his long fatigue, the father ordered rest for his daughter, considering her long fatigue.
"I'll get permission from the Emperor. Since you wanted to go there so badly, spend the winter with Heinrich at the Temple."
An unexpected respite.
And the opportunity to spend time with her son in a place she had only dreamt of visiting.
She would now be able to visit the place where her son had grown up and lived, a place she hadn't even been allowed to observe from afar.
Upon hearing the news of the princes' disappearance, the king had come to terms with what he must endure and understand.
In the end, the throne is a cruel place.
Knowing that his daughter might do such a thing, he had no choice but to stand by, as she was to become the queen.
What mattered was the heir to the throne.
Now that the event he had anticipated but didn't know if it would occur had become reality, he must have thought that they should at least try to fix what was left.
There might be no reason for the remaining people to continue suffering, he might have thought.
The king's actions were not understanding, but resignation.
And knowing that, Louise couldn't help but feel even greater guilt.
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