Chapter 241
After comforting Neilla for a while, Roina faced Mana, who had been watching from not far away.
“…Thank you.”
It was Mana who spoke. Roina, slightly puzzled, tilted her head as she looked at him. Mana lowered his lightly colored eyelashes and wore a somewhat wistful expression.
“What are you thanking me for?”
“For treating Neilla-yang kindly.”
Mana let out the words like a sigh and then offered a brief prayer to the gods. The surrounding branches swayed gently, as if responding to him.
“It was only natural. Neilla-yang is still young. She looked only about 17 years old…”
“By the standards of the Castrello Kingdom, she is an adult. She will be 18 this year. However, I didn’t want her to experience pain she didn’t want.”
Mana’s voice trembled slightly as he said that. Roina narrowed her eyes as she looked at him. Was it really just an act of simple sympathy?
“Do most of the women who come here have similar stories?”
“Some do, and some don’t. There are even those who were captured by the Count and then rescued.”
“The Count…”
Come to think of it, Aljan suspected Count Icardo. Mana seemed to think of him as just someone who followed his orders. Roina tapped her lips slightly.
“Are there many people who have been captured by Count Icardo?”
Mana nodded silently. His expression was somewhat painful.
“Many sisters have already been captured. Aljan probably had that kind of background in mind when he rushed to push for his daughter’s marriage.”
“Then, what are you going to do now?”
At Roina’s words, Mana paused, stopping his movements.
“You have a reason to drive out Count Icardo now. Even if Castrello restores its original monarchy, the Kailum Empire will no longer send troops. Now is the time to act.”
“But, we still don’t have enough strength…”
“You probably feel that way. But that’s why we came.”
Roina looked at Ethan, who had been listening quietly beside her. He nodded heavily.
“We also have someone with tradition here.”
“……”
Ethan seemed to have something to say, but he felt it wasn’t the time, so he remained silent. Roina continued the conversation for now.
“Priest. Can you help us?”
Mana smiled brightly at those words.
“What?”
Yoseph looked at his aide in confusion. He was one of the officials who had been working day and night, practically living together, for administrative tasks since the revolution. The aide, at a loss, repeated what he had just said.
“…The deposed Crown Prince has disappeared.”
Yoseph closed his eyes, which had dark circles under them, pressed hard between his eyebrows, and looked up at the sky. Then, he covered his head with his hands and lowered his head.
“How do you think he got out?”
“Well… it was a solitary cell with magical sealing measures in place, but the spell vanished as if it had been completely eaten away from the inside. It should have been impossible to generate magical power or manipulate mana spells from within… Even the affiliated magicians can’t quite figure out what happened.”
“Traces as if it had been completely eaten away…”
Yoseph repeated his words quietly, as if muttering to himself. I’ve seen something like this somewhere, what is it? He tapped his chin once and continued.
“I’ll have to see it myself… This is really troublesome. For now, investigate this matter in secret. It could give the Crown Prince faction remnants an excuse.”
“Yes, I’ve already thoroughly silenced everyone involved.”
“Haa…”
Yoseph sighed and messed up his hair. His once straight blond hair became tangled and scattered messily in his hands.
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