Chapter 51

Evernatten (3)

TL: Neria

RW: Wynn

KOR Check: Billy Stevens

Even in the winter, many residents roamed the streets, basking in the sun . Ajest walked towards a street filled with vendors, stopping in front of a particular stall . As she approached, the surprised stall owner warmly greeted her . “Oh my! Isn’t that our captain? Welcome!”

“I’ve told you many times . No need to be so formal . ”

“Shh… and you don’t need to be so modest . Thank you for keeping our streets safe . ” The stall owner handed Ajest some of the cookies from her shop . Ajest tried to pay her for the treats, but the stall owner politely declined .

“How could I accept money from our protector?” Realizing that she couldn’t reject her goodwill, Ajest gladly accepted the cookies and thanked her for the trouble . The stall owner turned and called out to Desir, who was standing quite a ways behind Ajest . “And here are some for Mr . Boyfriend . ”

Desir sputtered out “B-Boyfriend?” before the shop owner had some choice words to say to him .

“At your age, it’s all over your face,” she snickered . “Please take care of our captain . She’s a kind-hearted person . ”

Desir raised his half and was ready to deny it . “Ah, I—“

“Thank you for looking after my lover . ” Ajest quickly cut in and gave the stall owner a simple thanks .

“Hah! Captain, you are more of a man than he is!” She giggled to herself as the unlikely pair departed from her stall .

“Ajest, what are you saying?!” Desir’s face was flush from embarrassment .

“I’m not heartless enough to reject their good intentions . ” As Desir opened his mouth to speak again, he was swiftly silenced by Ajest . “There’s no need to waste time explaining every little thing . ” She took off; in her mind, it was a sign that the conversation was over . She bit into the cookie and snapped it in half, offering the remaining portion to ‘her significant other’ .

The cookie itself wasn’t sweet; it tasted like baked flour . It was most likely because it was hard to find sugar . Even so, it wasn’t that bad at all . As they continued down the street, they attracted attention everywhere they went . Gifts of food piled up and soon enough, it was starting to be difficult to carry it all . “Let’s take a short break,” suggested Desir .

In the central plaza, a statue of a stallion reared its head in a regal fashion . Desir and Ajest sat down on a set of benches to catch their breath . The skies were clear and the two of them glanced at each other before averting their gaze . With a bit of hesitation, Ajest asked him a question . “Desir . What is your impression of the streets?”

“It’s a good place . The people are nice and lively . ”

“That’s good to hear . ” Her golden locks framed her light red cheeks as she let out a sigh of relief . Desir thought to himself that Ajest was becoming more expressive . She turned over to meet his eyes and creases appeared on her forehead . “You asked me how the quest was progressing, right?” Desir nodded in response . “I mainly focused on resolving the issue of public safety . As you know, the vagrants were causing a lot of trouble . Due to the influx of vagrants, the morale was low . ”

“Splitting the territory into districts, I have divvied out the knights to each district to maintain order . Severe crimes were punished on the spot, while lesser criminals were transferred to a holding cell . ” Desir marveled at what Ajest managed to achieve in a short time . Her strategy was superb . With this method, each district could be policed and managed appropriately .

“But alas, I could not get to the heart of the problem . ” Ajest gazed off at the people in the streets . Evernatten residents taking a stroll through the town centre . Children having a snowball fight in the snow banks . The atmosphere was warm, and there was a thrum of life filling the air .

“While moderate crimes declined sharply, it has been difficult to prevent numerous petty crimes, such as robbery and pick-pocketing . ” Ajest directed her eyes towards a back alley, there were vagrants skulking about . “The overall progression has stalled at 30% . Even if public order improved, the quest wouldn’t proceed any further from here on out . ”

In the back alley, a vagrant man had his eyes intensely focused on a woman, marking her with his eyes . Holding his breath and blending in with the alley, he ambushed her and tried to steal her bag . The woman cried out in panic, but she couldn’t chase the young man who was already several paces away . Ajest, catching a wind of the robbery, pointed towards the youth’s foot and cast magic .

[Ice]

A coat of ice formed instantaneously, and the young man lost his balance . Windmilling his arms to maintain balance, he found it all to be futile as he slipped and dropped the woman’s bag . Moments later, knights arrived at the scene of the crime to prevent him from running away . Ajest, seeing that the criminal had been properly dealt with, turned to leave .

“If I find some clues, I’ll come to visit you again,” said Desir .

“I’ll be waiting . ” As she left him with her parting words, she descended into the dark alley and headed straight towards the vagrant that was being beaten to the floor . After confirming his arrest, Desir headed back toward the castle .

What’s is the Shadow World?

The Shadow World is a fragment of history .

Meaning, it will repeat once again what has happened in the past .

There were multiple ways to clear a quest in the Shadow World . One was to correct the wrong decisions made by the pivotal figures in the story line . They could clear the quest by leading history through its proper path . The pivotal figure in this Shadow World was Wilhelm Evernatten . He must have spent years searching for a solution to the current problems in his territory, but history proved that the end results had left something to be desired . He needed to obtain more information, and the first step was to gain a better understanding of Wilhelm himself . Not the superficial features, but the private matters that spurred him into action . Thankfully for him, he knew a person who was very familiar with Wilhelm .

That night, Desir knocked on the kitchen door . He sneaked inside and got in touch with his old master, Jefran . “Want me to tell you about the lord? Why are you asking me that?” A thunderous chop landed on the cutting board as the chef cleanly chopped large chunks of meat . Desir’s eyes grew wide with fascination at Jefran’s knife skills . They were fast and precise, slicing the pieces to the perfect size .

“I want to know more about the lord from another perspective . Please don’t play dumb with me, Jefran . ”

The head chef tried to play it off, but the moment he barged into the lord’s room resonated in his mind . “You little twerp . You should really forget about petty things like that . ” Jefran cursed under his breath at his protege’s persistence .

“Mister Jefran, the onions are done!” Lilica stood with her arms crossed triumphantly and awaited further instructions from Jefran .

Jefran smiled cheekily at Lilica’s cheerful personality . “Okay, you can leave them there . Good job!”

“Brother Desir, help me move this pot over there,” asked Lilica . Desir moved the pot filled to the brim with sauce over to where Lilica directed .

“Eugh… it’s not really something I want to talk about, but I guess it’s fine…” Jefran mumbled under his breath . “Lilica! Desir will take care of the cooking for tonight . Go get a good night’s rest . ”

“Yes, Chef!” Lilica saluted at Jefran and thanked Desir, before skipping out of the kitchen with a cheerful smile on her face . Desir had his jaw dropped at the entire exchange .

“Heh . You thought it was free? Now boy . Start stirring that soup . ”

‘D-damn it . ’ With a deep sigh, Desir began to follow Jefran’s orders . As usual, it was exhausting .

Jefran started seasoning the meat, and slowly lapsed into his story . “I’ve known Wilhelm for years; we’d first met in the Holy City . During that time, he was a cardinal . ”

Desir’s eyes bulged . “A cardinal?”

The head chef reminisced and his eyes glazed over . “Well — back then, I was running a small restaurant . After tasting my dish, Wilhelm asked me if I wanted to be his exclusive chef . What with the little money I had to spare, I immediately accepted his offer . Little did I know, I would have the same look that you’ve got on your face when I finally heard about it as well . Hey, can you go stir the soup?”

“Yes, Chef . ” Desir rolled up his sleeves and started stirring the soup . “Was he always so cold and aloof?”

“Nope . Wilhelm had a bright personality . By the time the night rolled around, he would go to the bar and drink to his heart’s content . Most people could hardly believe he was a cardinal . ” Jefran took a sip of his tea . “I can see the look on your face . You don’t believe it either, right? But I’m telling the truth . He was a very lively person who loved to drink and play . On the nicer days, you could see him practicing swordsmanship with his knights . ”

With each word that spilled out of Jefran’s mouth, you could hear regret and sorrow fill his voice . “Wilhelm’s talents extended past his knighthood, being a great leader to his men . Leading his knights, he actively fought against the Judgement . ”

Judgement . At the time, the Holy Nation referred to the Shadow Worlds as Judgement .

“Those were the golden days . He never lose a single battle, and thanks to him, the Holy Nation was able to stave off Goddess Artemis’ Judgement . ”

Unlike the modern era, who had years of history to build the foundation for fighting the Shadow Worlds, this era was forced to build their foundation from scratch . Successfully clearing a Shadow World was an amazing feat . A unique individual whose heroics staved off the Shadow World’s erosion .

“For the record, over half of the knights in the territory followed him here from the Holy City . Even after he was dismissed, their loyalty led them to follow him here . ”

“No wonder the knights are so talented… but why was his dismissed with his accolades?”

“He found himself at odds with the newly appointed royalty . ” Desir could tell from the trembling in Jefran’s voice that this is around when everything began to change . “His Majesty wanted to accept the Judgement . If you read the original text from the Church of Artemis, ‘It is proper to accept the Judgement rather than stop it . The Judgement exists due to our wrongdoing . The Goddess is in the right to punish us for our sins . ’”

“To accept it… did they mean to completely destroy the Holy Nation?”

“If that is what the Goddess desires,” lamented Jefran . Desir became stiff . He couldn’t understand how they could resign themselves to such a fate . “Of course, Wilhelm opposed the idea . He always, always, put the people first . You can tell by how he accepts the vagrants . Until the very end, Wilhelm argued that we owe it to the people to fight against the Judgement— and trust me, that ended poorly . He was stripped of his achievements and ousted from his title . His unit disbanded and he was banished from the capital . Isn’t it a strange fate?” Jefran let out a shallow laugh .

“Take good care of the lord, Desir . ”