MHHC Chapter 148

Something Terrible

The atmosphere inside the castle was not as it should have been.

The soldiers' expressions were uniformly grim, and the knights gathered in clusters to whisper among themselves—then snapped their mouths shut the moment she drew near.

'What on earth has happened?'

It felt precisely as though something terrible had come to pass.

Walking behind Donovan, she had already witnessed several times over the sight of knights' squires tending to armor and weapons.

Sparks flying where blades struck whetstones. The acrid stench of oil worked into armor plates. Fine polishing powder drifting through the air like black mist.

All of it was generating a taut, straining tension.

'Surely not. Had orders come down to leave the castle and join the subjugation force?'

Having considered it briefly, Adelheid shook her head. That couldn't be it.

This castle held hundreds upon hundreds of wounded soldiers with limited mobility. An order to abandon them all could not have come.

'Then has something gone wrong at the front lines?'

Please, don't assume the worst, stay calm. She clasped her hands together desperately, but once her heart had begun to stir, it refused to settle.

"This way."

Donovan, who had been walking ahead, stopped before a large wooden door. It was the central reception room that had served as the headquarters' meeting chamber these past several months.

Far too grand a place for a mere healer to pass through. Though perhaps not for the Grand Duchess of Ansgar.

So it truly was news from the front. Adelheid swallowed the anxiety rising like nausea and asked.

"Why here of all places——"

"I'll explain the details once we're inside."

Donovan threw the door open and answered with a hardened face.

His usual thoughtful manner had vanished entirely; he was behaving as though her anxiety were invisible to him.

Adelheid cast an uneasy glance at him and stepped briskly past the door he was holding, into the room.

Knights who had been leaning over the round table in discussion straightened when they saw her enter.

At the far end stood Count Qüehiller, appointed as the overall commander of Nassau Castle.

"Your Grace, the Grand Duchess of Ansgar."

"Your Grace."

As Adelheid moved along the length of the great round table, the greetings rippled after her like a slow round—each voice taking up the refrain as she passed.

Your Grace. Your Grace——having spent these past weeks being called simply 'Adele,' such formality felt nothing but strange. She was guided directly to the far end of the room.

Adelheid exhaled a tense breath and raised her head.

She was doing her best to appear composed, but the situation—every man in the room watching her—was uncomfortable to the point of being unbearable.

As Adelheid drew close, the young head of House Qüehiller extended his hand.

When she placed her hand in his, he brought it lightly to his forehead in a gesture of respect.

"It has been some time since I could greet you properly like this."

"Was it you who summoned me, Count?"

"Yes. I should have inquired after you more regularly, but I was occupied and thoughtless in that regard. Have your accommodations at the castle been to your satisfaction?"

"They have."

Adelheid answered with a brief shake of her head. Count Qüehiller released her hand and smiled.

"I'm glad to hear it. You look cold—would you care for a warm cup of tea?"

"I'm fine, thank you. Please tell me your purpose in summoning me."

Adelheid requested it with a directness that bordered on curtness.

There were matters more pressing and more urgent on her mind, and all the ceremonial courtesies in the world could not change that. The noble habit of speaking in circles felt stifling.

"Hmm. Well then, shall we proceed?"

The Count wrinkled the bridge of his nose with an expression of difficulty.

"My reason for asking Your Grace here today is that news has arrived which you ought to know. Hmm——"

The Count's words trailed away as though he could not determine where to begin. His concern that she might faint upon hearing what he had to say was written plainly on his face.

"Just a moment ago, that is to say——"

"A messenger arrived an hour ago from the front lines."

Adelheid snapped her head toward the voice.

It was Donovan. His face was the palest she had ever seen it.

Anxiety and unease were carved deep into his brow like furrows that had not been there before.

Adelheid felt her own unease rise in answer to his and asked with a troubled expression.

"An hour ago? What has happened?"

Count Qüehiller, as though grateful for the intervention, promptly handed his command baton to Donovan.

Donovan accepted it with a respectful bow, then located Nassau Castle precisely on the map spread wide across the round table.

"It has now been three weeks since the subjugation force entered full combat engagement. They have been advancing in a curved arc along the old abandoned roads."

His voice had trembled at first, but steadied gradually as he continued.

Donovan lifted three markers representing each regiment, placed them at Nassau Castle's position, and pushed them along the faintly drawn roads marked on the map.

The markers stopped their advance at the Tesca Plains.

The vast wasteland.

A place where the evidence of past burning remained in the parched earth, where black weeds grew overgrown in the absence of any hand to clear them, where nothing living could survive.

And perhaps——

The thought that was stretching beyond the vision of that wasteland blooming before her eyes like a hallucination—it was Donovan's voice that arrested it.

"Since the force is continuously moving, precise estimation is difficult, but the main body is likely passing through this point by now. According to the messenger, temporary strongholds have been established here, and here, and here."

Adelheid realized that the front line against the monsters was closer than she had thought.

And that the reality on the ground was considerably less optimistic than the news reaching the castle had suggested.

She had suspected it was closer than imagined, given that wounded soldiers could be transported by carriage, but——

She tore her eyes away from the map with effort. This was not what mattered right now.

"Please continue."

"The number of monsters has always exceeded our estimates, but it is reported that several days ago they began exhibiting a particularly unusual pattern."

"An unusual pattern?"

"It is said they pursued His Grace with a tenacity suggesting they somehow knew he was the linchpin of the subjugation force. In truth, attempts to isolate him had already been made several times prior to this……"

Adelheid was engulfed in a shock like a blow to the head. Ongoing attempts—all this time?

"……The severity of those attempts escalated beginning two weeks ago, it seems. And then—two days ago—a report came that he was separated from the main force in the vicinity of the watchtower."

"……"

"Commander Günter, along with the knights who had been attending His Grace in close proximity, have also disappeared without a trace."

Something vast seemed to press down on her heart with crushing weight.

Her face had grown as pale as Donovan's by now.

Adelheid clasped her trembling hands together.

"Then what you are saying is——"

Her heart seemed to be beating very fast.

"If I understand correctly, then right now—my husband is missing?"

She looked at Count Qüehiller with imploring eyes.

She wanted anyone to deny it. That she had misunderstood. That she was mistaken.

But Count Qüehiller averted his gaze rather than answering immediately. When he finally opened his mouth, the words came with great effort.

"The last point at which he was sighted is said to be near the watchtower. Many witnesses report having seen the monsters surrounding His Grace."

"……That alone, merely having such sightings, is not……"

"The area around there is open flatland all the way to the entrance of the ruins. The only thing that could obstruct sightlines is the watchtower itself. If fortune favored him, he would have taken refuge inside the watchtower to escape the monsters, but if fortune did not—then perhaps he has already——"

"That cannot be."

Adelheid denied it immediately.

The gazes that followed were those one directs at a widow unable to accept her husband's death—she recognized them and did not flinch. Because this was not mere denial of reality. It was conviction.

If he had disappeared—if he had met his death—she couldn't know for certain, but the world simply could not be this intact.

His existence was said to be the force sustaining the world itself……

'Unless the world has already absorbed enough of his power to sustain itself alone.'

Adelheid bit her lip. Such thoughts were entirely unhelpful now. She looked around the room and raised her voice.

"Is it not possible that someone else was mistaken for my husband? Perhaps this is not a disappearance at all but a form of strategy. From what I have heard before, the Grand Duke has faced danger alone on more than one or two occasions——"

At her question, Donovan called to someone with an expression of barely-contained anguish.

Only then did Adelheid notice a disheveled messenger resting against the shadowed wall, nearly invisible in the dimness.

At Donovan's gesture, the boy shuffled hesitantly toward the table.

Adelheid realized that what the messenger was clutching to his chest with both arms was a banner—sodden with blood, reduced to rags.

The dark blue cloth, torn to ribbons. The wolf's head embroidered upon it was unmistakably the emblem of Ansgar.

She reached out and traced the threads with her fingertips. They were so filthy the original color was unrecognizable.

When she scraped the dried blood away, silver thread appeared beneath.

It was the banner issued only to the knights who attended the Grand Duke in closest proximity. There was no mistaking it.

"……Investigation has confirmed it belongs to Commander Günter."

Her body trembled beyond her power to govern—a shaking so violent and sourceless she could not stop it. She felt profound exhaustion and vertigo wash over her as she collapsed forward onto the banner.

Donovan and Count Qüehiller's voices poured down over her from above, saying something—words of comfort, perhaps.

"……Death has not been confirmed…… and so there remains hope, but……"

"His Grace left orders that should anything happen to him…… your safety was to be the foremost priority……"

"……It is not that, but given how matters now stand, the Grand Duchess should make preparations to return to Ansgar Territory with all haste……"

"……We will conduct the search with every means at our disposal……"

Within the buzzing noise that closed around her, only a single word came through clearly.

"A search?"