Chapter 624 - 611: Fine after danger

[Realm: Álfheimr]

[Location: Heart Kingdom]

[Pulchritudo]

[Banquet]

Gretel took a slow breath as she stood near the remains of the estate’s vast entrance, watching the last of the nobles hurriedly make their way through the enormous gates. The gates themselves were still somewhat intact, though calling them intact was generous. Sections of the stonework had been broken, decorative portions had been broken away entirely, and the heavy doors had been left damaged from the violence that had swept through the estate.

Still, they stood.

Gretel watched as the final nobles were guided out, some stumbling beneath their own weight while others were supported by soldiers on either side. A few looked too shaken to even speak. Others kept glancing back toward the estate as though they could not quite convince themselves that they had actually survived what had happened inside.

There weren’t many vitalities; that was the word that kept returning to Gretel’s mind.

Not many.

But the fact that there were any at all left a bad taste in her mouth.

She knew she was not responsible for what had happened here. She had not caused the destruction, and she had not been the one who had unleashed the overwhelming force that had torn through the estate and surrounding grounds.

Knowing that did not make the sight any easier to stomach.

Responsibility and guilt were not always the same thing.

She could tell herself she had nothing to do with it, and logically she would be right. But standing there and watching injured people being carried away made logic feel rather distant.

With her enhanced body as a Nil, she had been able to help with the rescue.

She had moved faster than an ordinary person could have, carried people who otherwise would have needed several soldiers to move, and helped search through damaged portions of the estate where others could not safely reach.

But there were still many who were rather badly injured.

She looked toward another group being escorted through the gates, her eyes following them until they disappeared from the estate grounds.

"That’s the last of them."

A voice sounded behind her.

Gretel turned her head.

A flash of a familiar red hood caught her attention, and Paimon came into view as she approached, her expression considerably less energetic than usual. The red-hooded girl looked toward the damaged estate before turning her attention to Gretel.

"But still..." Paimon continued, her expression shifting as she looked around them. "It’s pretty bad."

Gretel stared at the estate for another moment.

"Tell me about it," she murmured under her breath. "It feels like every time we turn a corner, there’s just more of it. Another collapsed section, injured person, or part of the estate that looks like it was torn apart."

She glanced over the damaged grounds.

"And even when you think you’ve reached the worst of it, you find something else."

Paimon’s lips pursed.

Gretel glanced back at her.

There was something different about the girl’s expression; Paimon was clearly nervous about something. She shifted slightly beneath her red hood, seemingly unsure of how to approach whatever had been bothering her. Gretel watched her for a moment but did not press her.

"But, uhm..." Paimon began.

She hesitated.

"Sorry about earlier..." Her fingers fidgeted slightly. "For not helping with Iphigenia, I mean. I kind of froze up."

Paimon looked uncomfortable admitting it.

"I mean, it’s not that I’ve never been in a fight before. I’ve fought before, and I know what I’m capable of, so it’s not like I was completely helpless. I just... when it actually came down to attacking Iphigenia, I couldn’t make myself move."

Her voice trailed off, Gretel watched her quietly, and then she gave a small smile.

"It’s fine," Gretel said.

She did not sound angry.

"I already gathered you had your own reasons for being here. And attacking a princess would have done you no favors."

Her expression softened slightly.

"Whatever else was going on, you were smart enough to realize that crossing that line could have made everything considerably worse for you. I can’t really fault you for that."

She gave a small shrug.

"So don’t beat yourself up over it. It happens."

"Thanks..."

Paimon allowed herself a small, unsure smile; the tension in her face eased, if only slightly.

Her bright blue eyes eventually drifted back toward the estate. She stared at it for several seconds, taking in the broken structures and the soldiers still moving through the grounds.

"But did you and Ella get what you wanted?" Paimon glanced back toward Gretel. "I don’t see her around."

"Yes, we did," Gretel answered; she looked toward the road beyond the damaged gates. "And Mi-Ella already left. I think it’s about time we did too."

Gretel gestured toward the gates.

There was little reason for them to remain.

The people who could be rescued had been taken care of as much as they could be. The nobles were being escorted away. The soldiers had taken over what remained of the rescue operation, and whatever business Gretel and Ella had come here to accomplish was already finished.

Paimon nodded as they began making their way toward the gates together.

Their footsteps carried them across the damaged grounds and past debris that had been pushed aside during the rescue. Soldiers continued moving around them, some carrying injured nobles while others searched the remaining sections of the estate for anyone who might have been missed.

Eventually, they passed through the gates.

The moment they stepped beyond the estate grounds, they were greeted by a different scene.

Nobles were being helped along the streets by Diamond-ranked Heart Kingdom soldiers. Some were wrapped in makeshift bandages, others leaned heavily against the soldiers supporting them, and a few simply sat nearby while being examined.

The soldiers were busy; there were enough injured people that they barely seemed to have a moment to themselves.

Gretel glanced around.

With all the soldiers occupied, the two of them could slip onto the streets of Pulchritudo without much trouble.

They moved away from the estate, and while some of the buildings around them had suffered damage, the destruction here was nowhere near as excessive. A few exterior walls were cracked. Some windows had been shattered, leaving broken glass scattered around their frames. There were occasional signs that the force that had struck the estate had reached the surrounding streets, but the damage became noticeably lighter the farther they moved away.

Gretel looked back toward the estate, then toward the city around them.

It seemed the estate and its warding had absorbed most of the force. That did little to make the estate itself look any better.

But at least Pulchritudo had been spared the worst of it.

"But I’m still lost on what caused those two big explosions," Paimon suddenly spoke up, keeping pace as she walked beside Gretel. Her voice carried confusion now that they had put some distance between themselves and the estate. "I keep thinking about it, and I still can’t figure out what could have caused something that powerful. Was it some kind of weapon?"

Gretel’s steps continued at the same steady pace.

"I’m... not sure," she said.

The hesitation was small, but it was there.

Of course she had an idea, a fairly obvious one, actually.

Earlier, Iphigenia had stated that Trismegistus was not capable of producing that kind of power output. That had narrowed the possibilities considerably, and once Gretel thought about who else had been present, Mikoto became the obvious suspect.

She did not like that conclusion.

Not because it was difficult to believe that Mikoto possessed the power. That part was hardly in question anymore; it was the other part that bothered her.

Gretel considered Mikoto a friend.

Whatever else could be said about him—his attitude, the strange decisions he made, and the fact that he could be frustratingly difficult to understand—she did not believe him to be someone so careless or merciless that he would casually unleash that kind of power without considering what might happen to everyone around him.

Especially not in a populated area and especially not when there were people nearby who had nothing to do with whatever conflict had caused it. So she did not want to believe it had been intentional; perhaps it had simply been a mistake.

That was the explanation she found herself returning to.

Maybe Mikoto had misjudged the amount of force he was using. Maybe something had gone wrong during the fight. Maybe the destruction had spread farther than he had expected.

There were possibilities, but none of them changed what had happened. Even if it had been an accident, people had died because of it; there was no denying that much.

That made the thought so uncomfortable.

Intent mattered, at least to Gretel.

But consequences mattered too.

She could tell herself Mikoto had not meant for anyone to die. She could tell herself that he would never deliberately target innocent people. She could even convince herself that there had to be some explanation she did not yet understand.

But none of that brought the dead back.

Gretel shook her head slightly, almost as though she could physically dislodge the thought.

She would rather not think about it; there was already too much happening in her head without adding that to it. She continued walking, her attention shifting toward the streets ahead as she tried to put the estate behind her.

But another thought surfaced.

("Still, we’ve completed our goal in getting what Goiim wanted.") The thought was much more idle than the others.

They had done what they came here to do, and all that was left was to collect the information regarding the dragons. Once they had that information, they would probably be on their way once more.

It should have been simple.

One objective completed and one remaining.

Gretel had lived most of her life with goals like that. Things to obtain, places to reach, and people to find. She was something of a courier prior to meeting Mikoto. She always had objectives that gave her somewhere to move toward when standing still meant having to think too much.

But the thought did not bring her the sense of satisfaction it should have.

("And I will be part of this goal that isn’t truly mine.")

Gretel frowned.

That was another question she had been trying not to examine; she still had questions, but they had nothing to do with the disaster of today.

They were questions directed entirely at her.

What exactly was she doing?

Why was she still following this path?

She had accomplished what she had set out to accomplish, yet somehow that did not make her feel finished. Instead, she found herself moving forward with another person’s goal, preparing to become part of something that, at its core, was not truly hers.

Gretel kept walking, her expression remained thoughtful, her frown refusing to disappear.