[Vol. 7] Chapter 96: The Meaning of Loyalty
"Oh? ‘No comment,’ huh?"
Even though Marcelo was refusing to talk, Violet didn’t seem the least bit upset. Instead, she let out a soft, knowing chuckle. Almost as if his reaction had confirmed something for her. Then, right in front of him, she casually pulled a document out of her “backpack” and tossed it onto his chest.
"Marcelo, I know exactly what you’re trying to hide, but it’s pointless. I already told you, I know far more than you think… That wasn’t just empty talk."
Marcelo hesitated for a moment before finally, with some difficulty, raising his hand to open the document.
"?!?!"
As soon as he took a closer look, his expression completely changed. The confusion in his lone eye turned to shock, then horror.
For the first time, he lost his usual composure.
"This… this is impossible! How could this end up in the hands of an adventurer like you?! This is… this is—!"
Violet smirked, though it was hard to tell whether she was mocking him or someone else. She lazily lifted a finger, and the document flew back into her hand with a flick of magic. Then, crouching down, she looked Marcelo straight in the eye.
"Do you get it now? There’s no such thing as a perfect secret. The thing you’re willing to die to protect? To some people, it’s nothing more than a bargaining chip."
"This was just an experiment from the start. If it succeeded, great. If it failed? They’d cut their losses in an instant, throwing you and the others away like worthless pawns, making you take the blame, squeezing every last drop of use out of you before erasing all traces."
"Your beliefs, your principles, your loyalty… They were never worth a damn, soldier."
Marcelo’s single eye burned with fury. His scarred face twisted violently, his ragged breaths sounding more like the last desperate gasps of a dying beast.
"What do you know?! I am a soldier! A soldier’s duty is—!"
Before he could finish, Violet waved him off impatiently.
"Yeah, yeah, I don’t get it. I’m just some shallow little girl, right? Fine, whatever. Honestly, I don’t care who you choose to fight for."
"I’m not here to lecture you on loyalty. I was just curious about how you’d react. Just confirming my theory, that’s all. Looking at you now, I guess that answers my question."
"What? You…!"
Marcelo froze for a moment, as if all the strength he had gathered for a final, desperate strike had landed on thin air. Then, just as quickly, he let out a bitter sigh and completely slumped in defeat.
"Fine, fine, I lost. So… now that you know the secret, what are you planning to do? Expose the truth?"
"Expose it? Hahahahaha~"
As if she'd just heard the funniest joke in the world, the black-haired girl covered her mouth, unable to hold back her laughter.
"Oh wow, you’re very naive, old man. No wonder you got used and didn’t even realize it. Tell me, who exactly would I report this to? The Austre Empire’s royal family? Your so-called prosecutors? Or maybe the 'public'?"
"This is the Austre Empire, where the monarchy reigns supreme. Don't even mention that I only have these incomplete pieces of evidence, which are fundamentally incapable of completing any accusations against certain individuals. Even if the evidence were truly complete, the outcome would simply be turning big issues into small ones, and small issues into nothing. Even if it were exposed, at most, they'd just grab some insignificant people to sacrifice."
"Did you really think something this big could be hidden from those at the top?"
Marcelo’s sharp, determined eyes flickered slightly. He understood exactly what she was implying.
"You're saying that… No! That’s nonsense! The royal family would never—"
"Oh, don’t get so worked up." The girl waved him off lazily.
"I’m just following simple logic here. Even if they weren’t directly involved, they’re at the very least turning a blind eye to it. Otherwise, how could things escalate this far, this quickly? You seriously underestimate how tightly the Empire controls its own territory."
"Even that newly crowned queen could handle things better than this. And she’s barely gotten started. Now compare that to an empire that’s had centuries to solidify its power."
With that, she dusted off her pristine white robe, straightened her posture, and returned to her usual calm and collected demeanor.
"Alright, enough chit-chat. There’s just one last question I need to ask you."
She lowered her gaze slightly, her tone turning just a touch colder.
"Let me remind you. Answer honestly, or I’ll have to resort to… other methods~"
……………………………………
By the time Enrique and the others had taken care of the remaining enemies in the village and arrived with Sophie and the reinforcements, Marcelo was already lying unconscious in a pit. Completely defeated, like a fish flipped on its back. Meanwhile, a certain black-haired girl stood by a tree, completely unharmed and looking rather bored, gazing up at the starry night sky as if deep in thought.
“Oh, you’re finally here. How’s the situation?”
Hearing the group approach from the village, Violet turned around, smiling casually as if nothing had happened.
“The whole village fell into chaos. The villagers were heavily corrupted by that strange power… but we’ve managed to subdue them all. For now, things should be under control.”
Enrique gave a brief but serious summary of the situation, though his eyes kept drifting toward the unconscious half-bear man. He glanced around cautiously, as if looking for something.
“Miss Violet, um… where’s that canine elder?”
“Canine elder?”
Violet tilted her head in thought before quickly realizing what he meant.
“Oh, you mean Little Fang? Since the fight was over, I told it to go back. Why? Were you looking for it?”
“Uh… Little Fang? No, not really. I was just… curious, that’s all.”
After hesitating for a moment, [Tree Bow] decided against asking questions like, “Is that your contracted beast?” or “What species is it, exactly?”, questions that might come off as rude. Instead, after exchanging glances with his sister and the others, he moved the conversation back on track.
“Now that we’ve found some of the missing people and captured an important suspect, what do you think we should do next, Miss Violet? We still need to search for and rescue Miss Light, but things here aren’t looking great either. The villagers… they might need urgent medical attention.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. Just leave them be.”
“…Huh?”
The adventurers blinked, momentarily stunned by how indifferent she sounded. But Violet didn’t seem to care about their reactions and continued explaining at her own pace.
“Relax. They won’t die anytime soon. I already got the information out of Marcelo. This village is part of a large-scale ritual spell. It’s one of the key foundation points keeping it in place.”
“You’ve seen what they look like now. It’s just like how vampires in legends can’t be exposed to sunlight. After transforming into this state, these people have become semi-transformed beings that are more attuned to the [Shadow Realm]. If we forcibly break the surrounding space and return to reality, that would actually kill them for real.”
Sophie, gripping her massive wooden shield, frowned. She seemed to recall the eerie sight of the villagers’ bodies dissolving into mist. After a moment of silence, she spoke in a serious tone.
“Then what do we do? We can’t just leave things like this forever. Maybe we should return to the real world and report this to the Adventurers’ Guild and the authorities in Adelaide City. They could send reinforcements to help.”
“No. We can’t reveal this just yet. That would only make them act sooner.”
Violet shut down the suggestion without hesitation, causing Hongyan to raise an eyebrow.
“Miss Violet, are you saying that there are people working with them inside the city…?”
“Isn’t that obvious?”
Violet shrugged, completely unconcerned.
“So the best course of action right now is to do nothing. We just need to make sure Marcelo stays under control, let the [Shadow Realm] here keep running its cycle, and head straight to the cult’s headquarters to destroy their ritual.”
“Once the ritual’s core is destroyed, these scattered energy nodes will naturally collapse. Without their connection to the source of the mutation, the villagers will gradually return to normal.”
“…”
Enrique fell silent, lost in thought as he weighed the risks and feasibility of Violet’s plan.
“It’s bold, but… no, actually, under these circumstances, this might be the most efficient approach. But, Miss Violet, the biggest problem now is… how do we find the core of the ritual?”
Violet simply chuckled, her smile carrying a deeper meaning.
“Haven’t we… already been heading there this whole time?”