A heavy silence descended upon the greenhouse.

No one dared to open their mouth recklessly.

Even Bellaruna, who normally lacked tact, instinctively realized that she must not utter anything in this situation.

For Ludger had lost his temper.

Not only those who knew Ludger only on the surface—

Even those who prided themselves on knowing him better than anyone would have been appalled at this sight.

Yet both the one who had lost his temper and the one who was the object of that anger simply stared at each other in silence.

Ludger frowned at Walter’s appearance.

At a glance, he seemed to show no emotional disturbance, but this man had already let go of and abandoned far too much.

Ludger clicked his tongue and released his grip on Walter’s collar.

“...If you want to be comforted by taking a punch from someone, then wander around some dark back alley.”

“How surprising. If it had been anyone else, they would have said I was a man without blood or tears.”

“Just by looking at the actions you’ve shown so far, that’s more than enough.”

Even if he claimed to regret and feel guilt over what he had done, the fact remained that he had committed those deeds.

Walter had been prepared to be struck by Ludger, to at least lessen this self-loathing.

But even that resolve, Ludger rejected mercilessly.

Yes.

Perhaps this was the most fitting treatment for someone like him.

Walter swallowed the bitter taste of his self-loathing.

Ludger glared at Walter, then turned his back.

“If you have nothing else to say, I’ll be going.”

“Are you going to save her?”

At Walter’s question, Ludger let out a sneer.

“If no one had called me here, I would already be on my way.”

“I will help.”

Ludger looked back at Walter with a gaze of surprise.

Walter’s face remained expressionless, yet strangely seemed to hold the faintest powerless smile.

“No matter how much it costs, I do not care. I will support you with everything the Roschen family’s wealth can provide. If it is not enough, I will even sell off shares to raise more.”

“......”

“Even if you find me detestable, that doesn’t matter. I will do what I can.”

Then why had he let go all this time?

Ludger could not press Walter with that question.

Walter could not have imagined that his daughter would truly be kidnapped like this.

To prevent it, he had deliberately kept his distance, treating her as if she were unrelated.

This child is not connected to me.

This child is not what you think.

He had tried to deceive everyone’s eyes that way.

But in the end, the very thing he feared came to pass.

It was Ludger who raged at Walter, yet it was Walter who would, more than anyone here, regret his past in this moment.

If I had known it would come to this, I should have treated her well.

The end is always an irretrievable regret.

That is the nature of regret.

Like fine grains of sand slipping through the gaps of one’s palm.

No matter how hard you try to hold on, it escapes.

Thus Walter did not rage or weep.

He knew well that displaying turbulent emotion only dulled reason and wasted time.

And so Walter suppressed every emotion, and offered Ludger a proposal—

That he would provide support with the Roschen family’s fortune.

“You are a rational man like myself, so you know this well. This matter cannot be resolved by mere bravado.”

Ludger silently gazed at Walter.

Anyone else facing that stare would have averted their eyes or lowered their head.

But Walter neither flinched nor fled.

He had already resolved himself.

He did not care if people judged him unfairly.

He did not mind being cursed at.

“Just promise me this one thing. That you will bring that child back safely.”

“You speak too easily about offering support. If I demanded the entirety of the Roschen family itself, would you still accept that?”

“Yes.”

Walter answered without hesitation.

“If only you bring back that child, I will give everything.”

Everything.

There were few here who did not understand the enormity of that single short word.

“Remember those words.”

Leaving that behind, Ludger walked straight out of the greenhouse.

Alex and Bellaruna quickly followed after him.

Only Vierno lingered, uncertain between the two sides.

“Professor Vierno. Please follow them. You must not get lost inside the estate.”

“Walter...”

“I will soon send someone to open the warehouse. Until then, I... would like to rest, if only for a moment.”

Walter’s voice was heavy with fatigue.

He was a man who could go nights without sleep without showing it.

That was how great a shock Sedina’s abduction had been for him.

“...Understood.”

Once even Vierno departed, Walter finally removed the mask he had been wearing on his face.

He let out a sigh and walked toward the snow-white chair placed in the center of the greenhouse.

Sitting there, Walter closed his eyes and felt the sunlight filtering in through the glass.

The warmth was there, yet he could not rid ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) himself of the thought that it all felt somehow cold.

* * *

Ludger, Alex, Bellaruna, and Vierno were led by the household’s butler to a certain place.

It was a warehouse so massive it could not be grasped at a glance.

The space was as large as an arena, filled with artifacts of all kinds that they had never seen before.

“This place is...”

“A warehouse. Or perhaps, more precisely, an exhibition hall.”

Ludger looked around inside.

Compared to the Imperial Vault its scale was humble, but the items stored here were not inferior.

Alex picked up a sword resting nearby and examined it carefully.

Even along the well-forged blade faint currents of mana flowed.

His sharp senses could feel it distinctly.

“It’s genuine. Then all of these here must be...”

“They are artifacts.”

It was Walter who answered.

Everyone turned back.

Walter was entering through the open doorway.

“Our Roschen family deals in all manner of artifacts connected to magic.”

Roschen was famous for having practically monopolized the magic trade.

Mana fluid mining rights, mana stone business, and even the artifacts crafted from those mana stones.

Compared to other great corporations, Roschen’s overall size was not the largest.

Yet it was still counted among the great enterprises precisely because of this magic business.

‘Even Luk Corporation had coveted those mana fluid rights.’

Just taking a tenth of the mana stones distributed within the Empire yielded an astronomical fortune.

It was no wonder other companies coveted it.

Yet few corporations achieved clear success in the magic item business.

There was only one reason.

Roschen continued to produce overwhelming results in the market.

Especially, they had profound skill in the creation of magical artifacts.

The same product, but of superior quality and performance.

Even the protective artifacts used by the military and knightly orders were all Roschen’s—proof enough in itself.

“The items here are not only those traded at high price in the market. Many have not even been released to the public yet.”

“Damn. You mean these are upcoming models?”

Alex gaped, unable to close his mouth.

Even newly released products were so scarce that people paid premiums to obtain them.

And here were not only new items, but those not yet even scheduled for release.

Just smuggling out one artifact from this warehouse would grant a common family enough money to live comfortably for life.

“You may take as many as you wish.”

At Walter’s words, everyone except Ludger widened their eyes.

Vierno stepped forward as their representative.

“Do you truly mean that?”

“Did I not say so already? That I will spare no support. The place you must go is the elven kingdom. Not this city of steel, but a land of primeval forest. The only thing I can do is provide such immense support.”

“If we are to take them... how much should we take?”

“That is not mine to suggest.”

Walter confined himself to offering support.

No more, no less.

Those at the scene knew best what they required.

“Do you not find it wasteful? If information about these artifacts leaks outside, Roschen will suffer great losses.”

Vierno understood better than anyone the value of the artifacts crowding this place.

Even he, who had lived long, felt his hands tremble at the excellence of the products before him.

How much time, effort, and money had gone into producing even a single one?

And yet Walter offered them freely.

“This is no time for hoarding.”

Those few words contained great meaning.

Above all, it revealed Walter’s resolve.

Ludger glanced around the interior of the warehouse.

The artifacts on display here were the kind rarely seen even in the Imperial Vault.

Even though Ludger had obtained fine things in the Vault, here was a different level—

Because here he could take as many as he wished.

‘That is how dangerous this task is.’

They had to rescue Sedina, who had been kidnapped.

The culprits already had her in their grasp.

And with the secret aid of the Lumenis Church, they could well have already slipped out of Rederbelk.

‘We must go to the elves’ kingdom. That is where Sedina must be rescued.’

They had not killed Sedina immediately.

That meant there was still a window of time.

“Professor Vierno. I must ask you one thing.”

“Yes, please speak.”

“Whose side are you on?”

Ludger thought it necessary to make this clear here and now.

At that question, Vierno’s expression stiffened.

Not because it was rude—

But because he immediately understood why Ludger asked it.

“From now, we are going to storm the elves’ kingdom of Renar Tyrone. The ones who kidnapped Sedina are the radical elves led by the Lifret family. Yet that does not mean the moderate elves will be friendly to us.”

In effect, Ludger’s opponent could be considered the entire elven kingdom.

“This is not an official matter. It is a covert rescue operation.”

The kidnapping of an imperial citizen by elves deserved condemnation, but pursuing it officially was impossible.

It would consume too much time.

And if the Lifret family used Sedina in the meantime to seize full authority over the World Tree—

Then the result would be irreparable.

Therefore, this operation had to be carried out secretly, with a small force.

No reinforcements, no external support.

In an unknown land where everyone might be an enemy.

Could Vierno accept such a mission?

He was, after all, the head of one of the seven houses comprising the elven kingdom.

His participation would be nothing less than betrayal against his homeland.

“You may withdraw.”

“Because I am an elf?”

“Professor Vierno, there is no need for you to become a traitor. That you learned of this is unavoidable, but even if you stop here, none would condemn you.”

Anyone would agree.

No matter how wrong or criminal, they were still his kin and homeland.

To ask an elf like Vierno to stand against elves and aid humans was an act of cruelty.

That was why Vierno was grateful for Ludger’s consideration.

“Even so, I cannot.”

Vierno gave a faint smile and shook his head.

“The truth is, I have always known. That we elves are not the purely mysterious and wise race we are said to be. My people call humans greedy, beastkin savage, and dwarves simple for handling iron. All the while, we imply that we ourselves are the noblest. But I have thought... perhaps we are in truth the ugliest of all.”

The elves’ anger at humans may have been justified.

The atrocities committed by humans against elves during the racial wars had left bitter resentment.

But Vierno knew.

For the elder elves and nobles, their anger was not truly about those atrocities.

It was less about innocent lives taken—

And more about fury that an inferior race had dared to defy their superiority.

“I found it repulsive. That is why I did not strongly support their will. I used harmony as an excuse, roamed outside the forest, sought to face the wider world. In truth, I was just turning away from reality. I should not have done so.”

His voice trembled with regret.

“In the end, it was selfish self-satisfaction. I told myself: I did not agree with them. I am different from them. And so I condoned everything. Even now, when a student has been kidnapped, I hesitate. It is truly shameful.”

“Anyone would feel that way.”

“I know anyone would. But Professor Ludger— we are teachers.”

Vierno fixed his eyes on Ludger.

“At the very least, those who teach must not be like that, must they?”

Surely you know that.

The expression on Vierno’s face as he asked seemed oddly relieved.

“Therefore, I will also join. Not as an elf of House Dentis—

But as Vierno of Seorn, a teacher.”