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Chapter 103.

Hillis stood in front of the tightly closed door and knocked carefully. "Unni, can I come in?”

Despite Hillis’s words, there was no sound from inside the room. It was unimaginably disrespectful not to answer the saintess’s question in the temple, but the owner of this room was Hillis’s biological older sister.

"I’m going to come in?” Hillis gave a unilateral warning and carefully opened the door, entering the room. When she saw the empty eyes of her older sister Vibrio, her heart felt like it was being torn.

Under Vibrio’s eyes were dark circles, and the veins of her eyes were clearly visible as if her eyes were dry. The target of her empty gaze was not looking at Hillis. It was as if her soul had been sucked out.

Hillis approached Vibrio without saying a word and hugged her. In this Vibrio, she couldn’t find any semblance of the old Vibrio, who was full of vigor, charismatic laughter, and who would pester Hillis.

After Hillis had become the saintess, if anyone gave her trouble, even her own parents, Vibrio was the one who had been the most tender to her. Yet, this Vibrio was not her. She was just a young maiden who had been scarred deeply due to losing half of her beloved soul.

After repeatedly crying and falling asleep from exhaustion, Vibrio’s eyes had no more tears left, and her soul felt like a dried-up desert.

Hillis held Vibrio tightly, tears falling from her eyes, "I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to be by your side."

When Vibrio’s chest became wet with Hillis’s tears, Vibrio stroked her head slowly with great difficulty.

"No,” Vibrio spoke in a dry, cracking voice as she closed her eyes.

No more tears came out now.

"It’s all my fault."

She was losing consciousness when her lover’s heart was destroyed by an ominous red flash of light. At first, she resented her lover for failing to keep their promise to come back. It did not take long before she despaired God for failing to protect her lover.

Then, the despair had turned into hatred for her sister, who had made the miracle that failed to prevent her lover’s death. However, seeing her younger sister crying in her arms, she realized that everything was due to her powerlessness.

"I wish I had strength.”

Hillis laid in her arms, her body warm.

"The power to stop those who are evil.”

But the warmth could not reach Vibrio’s heart, which had turned cold. Vibrio slowly opened her eyes, but they were still empty.

* * *

Why was I assigned to serve as staff for the martial arts competition when there were so many other New Year’s Festival events? If you asked someone working next to you this question, they’d answer, "It’s because the martial arts competition is the most labor-intensive event."

Most trainees were sent to the ceremony department, and of those training at the ceremony department, it was safe to assume that more than half were assigned to the martial arts competition.

"What happened with the stages for the preliminary rounds we asked the knight school about?"

When a civil servant from the ceremony department asked, I checked the documents and answered, "I received a reply saying that we can rent five from the low-rank knight school and three from the middle-rank knight school."

The civil servant frowned. "That’s less than usual. What happened?"

Excuse me, I’m just a trainee being used as a temporary labor force, so I don’t know how it was last year?

"Are we also sending an official letter of cooperation to the mercenary alliance and adventurers’ guild?"

The civil servant nodded. "While you are at it, please ask the knight school again."

"Okay, I will do that."

I filled in the empty official document with information about the cooperation and the location before getting up. All right. Let’s play hooky with the excuse of going out to distribute the official document.

Originally, the ceremony department was one of the departments known among the trainees for having a lot of free time, but it was almost as busy as a war zone right now.

I had to deal with cooperation with the location, dispatch of personnel, safety control, securing supplies, and checking the route. I was so busy to the point that I had my hands in everything. This was like doing a year’s worth of work at the end of the year.

Considering the national festivals, the Founding Day Festival, or the emperor’s birthday, it seemed like they worked three times as much as other departments. Moreover, since small ceremonial events couldn’t be omitted, the department was complete hell.

In reality, civil servant trainees from the first half of the year were assigned to the Founding Day Festival. The trainees from the second half of the year were recruited for New Year’s Festival, allowing the department to function normally.

I’m going to escape from this hell!

"I’ll be right back."

In my previous life, there were many methods such as a phone call, e-mail, fax, etc., but this world was not as developed. I had no choice but to go in person, deliver the official letter, and get a reply.

"Okay, I’m busy, so come back as soon as possible." The civil servant was so busy that he said this without even looking up to see me leave.

"Okay,” I said as I left, but I had no intention of going back quickly.

If I wanted to, I could move fast enough to traverse from one end of the capital to the other end in a short amount of time, but I planned on going at a pace of not too slow and not too fast. I intended to procrastinate as much as possible while simultaneously staying within the evaluator’s tolerance.

Shall I go to the mercenary alliance first?

* * *

Zantes stood alone in the middle of the market without any attendants, massaging his chin as he said, "Mmm, where am I?"

Zantes looked at his surroundings and thought about his current situation cool-headedly. He had become a lost child. It was funny to see that a fully grown adult in his 20s was lost, but it also couldn’t be helped. Since he always rode in a large carriage, there was no way he would know the roads properly.

Of course, he had brought his entourage to meet the Crow Tribe envoys who were staying at Bloody’s residence. Then, thinking that he was safe with the Crows, he sent the entourage back first. Zantes’s entourage couldn’t disobey the crown prince’s orders, so they had no choice but to head back.

Zantes asked the Crow envoys to help create a bridge between him and the saintess, and they agreed to his request. Then he smiled playfully and energetically asked if they doubted whether a grown man could get home by himself or not.

Zantes’s entourage naturally thought that even with this statement, the Crows would still escort him back to the palace. However, unfortunately for the entourage, the only Crow with enough common sense to handle the situation was not present. Lancelot was visiting Count Druval for business, so he was completely unaware of Zantes’s visit.

Since they lacked common sense in the world outside of their village, Mac and Leisha did not see anything wrong with letting Zantes travel by himself. As such, when Zantes announced that he would go back alone, Mac and Leisha accompanied Zantes up to the exterior of their residence without feeling that anything was strange. And so, Zantes arrived at the current situation.

"Hahaha, things have become a little difficult." Despite saying this, the lost Zantes’s face was not a worried one.

Zantes wandered around the market with an interested look. He had always wanted this kind of freedom; he was envious of the bustling liveliness of the market. In front of him, everyone became polite and solemn.

As his friends grew older, they began to speak respectfully instead of casually to each other. And unlike the old days when they smiled when their eyes met, now they bowed their waist and heads and did not dare to raise their faces.

Zantes thought it was beyond his control as the next ruler of the Empire. He also didn’t believe it was bad to learn about government affairs for the Empire. But still, he wanted to catch his breath from time to time in places like this where no one would recognize him.

Come to think of it; it seemed his younger sister, Arelia, made an excellent choice. In return for serving as bait once, she would be able to enjoy this kind of freedom until she graduated from the magic school.

While he was touring the market, Zantes suddenly felt thirsty. Although he was not tired due to his regular physical training, he seemed to have inhaled some dry dust from walking along an unfamiliar road.

Just as it so happens, Zantes saw a cafe. Thinking that it was good to see a small cafe, Zantes entered. After going inside the cafe, he stood in front of the menu. He thought about what to order before searching for his wallet.

"Huh?" Where is it? Zantes searched everywhere but couldn’t find his wallet.

Then he heard a voice from behind him, "Are you looking for this?”

When Zantes turned around, there was a young boy with dark brown hair holding the wallet and looking at him like he was pathetic.

"Ah! That’s right. That wallet belongs to me. Thank you. I must have dropped it by mistake.” Zantes spoke to the boy naturally while receiving his wallet. Then as he was looking at the boy, he noticed that there was a civil servant ID hanging on his neck.

"Is your name Den? I’ll give you a reward for picking up my wallet."

The civil servant ID said Den von Mark.

* * *

I was on my way to the adventurers’ guild after distributing the official letters to the mercenary alliance and receiving confirmation on renting two locations. I hid in a cafe that was a little less crowded to play hooky and decided to spend an appropriate amount of time at the cafe before leaving.

Sitting in a corner with the coffee I ordered, I felt a strange pleasure in not working when others were working. Did I have an affinity for being unemployed by any chance? No, this was the pleasure that came from cutting work when a job was given.

Phrasing it like that made me feel like I was acting like trash. However, when the mercenary alliance had only offered one location, I managed to get two places by eloquently pressuring them. So, this much luxury could be given as a reward to me.

Even if I were to go back now, all that would happen would be a "Good job," so I had to take care of my own reward. At the same time, I would get point deductions for having taken my time, so it was killing two birds with one stone.

Mmm~ For a cafe in a corner, the smell of the coffee was good.

While I was in the midst of enjoying my freedom, a handsome blonde young man came into the cafe. The reason why my gaze instantly landed on the newly-arrived blonde young man instead of the customers was that he didn’t fit in with this cafe at all.

As if the young man was asserting that he was of high nobility, even at a glance, one could tell that he was wearing a coat made of high-quality material. The shoulders had an epaulet embroidered with threads that seemed to be made of genuine gold, and the buttons on the sleeves looked like they were made of real silver. In addition, the scarf wrapped around his neck like a tie was clearly made of high-quality silk.

I don’t know why a young noble who seemed to lack knowledge of the real world came all the way to a corner cafe, but let’s try to remain uninvolved as much as possible.

As soon as I was about to remove my attention from him, a stupid little boy carefully approached the young man without any fear. Then, he took the wallet out of the young man’s pocket as he was engrossed in the menu, put it in his pocket, and tried to leave while pretending nothing happened.

I got up from my seat, clicking my tongue inside. The little boy seemed to have no eye for people because he was still young, but no matter how you looked at that young man, he was the kind of person who shouldn’t be touched.

There was no way to know the personality that the young man had, and it wasn’t my business, but just by looking at the way he held himself, his position and power were not low. To be exact, even if I didn’t know, I would eventually find out as a civil servant trainee.

With his status, even if the young man tried to overlook the boy, the people around him would cut off the boy’s hand.