Elijah, having parted ways with Lennox, Axion, and Yusar, boarded the public carriage bound for the Treingen Barony.
As the sun approached, I finally reached the barony.
"I had returned!" Elia shouted loudly as she entered the palace.
When the Baron and Baroness saw her, they ran to greet her barefoot.
"Elijah!
What is this?!"
“I got a vacation!”
“Have you been okay this whole time?”
"naturally."
Elia answered with a wide, confident smile, her voice full of confidence, as she looked at the faces of the Baron and Baroness.
It had been a little over a month since they had parted, but their faces looked even older than they did before.
This must have happened because of the extreme psychological suffering they had gone through after sending their little daughter out in this way.
After they finished hugging, they headed to the reception room of the palace.
“I'll bring you tea.”
The Baroness left, and Elia turned to peer inside the Baron's palace.
A sad expression appeared on her face.
The dilapidated scene, from the tattered sofa to the tattered curtains with holes in them, was not much different from what it had been just before she left.
It is clear that the conscription bounty had been used entirely to pay off the enormous debts which burdened the barony.
How much her parents suffered all this time.
But now, this life will end.
“Dad, take this.”
"What is this?"
Elia held out a bundle of checks to the Baron.
The Baron's eyes widened when he saw the amount written on the package of checks.
“Elijah, what is all this money?
Like, how the heck…?” The Baron could not finish his words properly when he saw the huge amount written on the checks.
Elia answered, feeling proud and satisfied:
“It's the money you've collected all this time.
Please use it to rebuild the barony.”
His eyes shook.
After a while, the Baron opened his mouth as he looked at her.
“Elijah, first of all, I have to thank you.
Thank you very much indeed.”
“You're welcome.
I'm glad I could help.” Elia smiled brightly as she looked at her father.
But the Baron, unlike her, could not smile comfortably.
Although Elijah's recruitment reward had somehow solved the pressing problems in the fiefdom, he and the Baroness could not sleep peacefully for a single night due to their worry for Elijah.
He looked calmly at his daughter standing in front of him.
Her long, lush hair was cut short like a man's, and she wore a faded military uniform.
Her skin was still bright white, but it was noticeably rougher than it was before.
Wasn't this the time when young women from other families, her age, would wear fancy dresses and attend debut parties, showing off their youthful youth?
When he saw Illya shouldering the burden in his place after the destruction of the fiefdom, he felt both regret and guilt.
“Elijah, my daughter.” The Baron sighed and continued speaking.
“Sorry, but I don't think we can use this money.”
“What?
Dad, why the heck…?” When Elia asked, looking confused, the Baron continued.
“We believe that you have fully fulfilled your duty by enlisting, risking your life to save the fiefdom.
Indeed, you have done much more than that.”
There was an apologetic look in the Baron's eyes.
But he said in a calm and firm voice:
“The responsibility of the fiefdom lies with me, the lord, not with you.
So, I don’t want to burden you anymore.”
“Dad...”
“Furthermore, if I accept this money, I may find myself involuntarily dependent on you.”
Elijah's eyes twitched when he heard those words.
“I don't want that to happen.
So, keep this money for yourself.”
Now, the Baron has returned the checks I gave him.
“But, Father, the status of the fiefdom now...”
Then, the Baroness appeared carrying a tray, and entered, smiling from the side.
“Elijah.
After you enlisted, your father and I couldn’t sit idly by.”
"What?"
"We first renovated the black crystal mine and restarted the crystal processing project.
It's not as big as before, but we've started making a little money recently."
The Baroness looked around the dilapidated drawing-room and continued her speech.
“Of course, because we use everything we earn to rebuild the fiefdom, our house is still like this… but it will definitely improve by the time you are discharged and come back.”
After she finished speaking, the Baroness opened the perforated curtains wide.
“Oh, the sunset today is really beautiful.”
The sunset-colored rays of sunlight came through the window and warmed the dilapidated drawing room.
So then.
The Baron and Baroness were also working harder than anyone else here to save the fiefdom.
Because they did not want to make their daughter, alone, suffer.
In an instant, the useless images of her family from her previous life passed before her eyes.
“Is that all for this month?
Even when you work part-time jobs?
“Other people’s children are boarding planes and being sent on foreign trips, so why are you like this?”
No, let me not think about it anymore.
Because my real family are these people.
Regardless of anything else, I was filled with deep feelings because, in this life, I had truly met my real parents.
“Mom, Dad…”
She pulled up the sleeve of her uniform and quickly wiped away her tears.
“Elijah, come here.”
The Baron and Baroness approached Elia as she was crying and hugged her tightly.
The bright, warm sunset light bathed the family of three in warmth.
•
In the end, she decided to spend some of her money on herself and her family during the vacation.
Illya planned to have a good time for two days, wandering around the fiefdom with her parents.
Certainly, thanks to the compensation she received and the project her parents restarted to process crystals, the situation of the fiefdom was much better than it was before.
The Baron showed her the wall that was built on the borders of the fiefdom and explained to her.
“It was built to combat attacks from demonic creatures.
Several facilities were created there as well.”
“You did really well.”
Elia praised the Baron's keen insight.
This was because, when she remembered this field training, she felt anxious that the demonic creatures might appear again.
Near the border area, traces of the destruction left by the demonic creatures were still evident.
“Dad, but I have one question I would like to ask.”
“What is it?
Please tell me.”
“When our fiefdom was attacked by demonic creatures a few months ago, why didn’t those around us offer help?”
Illya knew, even just before she was recruited, that the neighboring fiefdoms did not offer help because she did not believe that the demonic creatures, which had disappeared after the Human-Beast War a few years ago, had reappeared.
But her thoughts changed after she experienced the demonic creatures herself during this field training.
'This is not something to be believed or not to be believed.'
Ilya looked at the mountaintop in the border area that was still horribly destroyed.
This kind of widespread and unnatural destruction could only be caused by demonic creatures.
Of course, she didn't mention the story of her encounter with demonic creatures in field training for fear that her parents would worry.
'There must be a reason I don't know.'
She really wanted to ask her parents when she returned home.
When Ilya thought like this and looked at the Baron, he slowly opened his mouth.
“…I think I can tell you why now.”
He let out a light sigh.
“Since your brother Erhan, who was the sole heir to this fiefdom, has died, this fiefdom will now pass to you, Ilya, and to your future husband.”
There must be something, then.
Elijah's eyes narrowed.
“Elijah, do you perhaps remember when you were little and we traveled together to an area on the outskirts of the capital?”
Elia nodded and answered.
“I remember.
You mean the Ruppelt family fiefdom, right?”
At her answer, the Baron made a surprised face.
“How did you know that place was the Ruppelt family’s fiefdom?
I never told you that before.”
This is because the Ruppelt family crest was engraved on the shields of the soldiers who appeared immediately after the disappearance of her first love, the blind boy she met by the river at that time.
Of course, she hadn't realized that was the Ruppelt family crest until recently, after seeing the Axion heir's sword.
“...I found out about this by chance.”
“I see.
So do you also remember what I advised you back then?”
When Elia evaded the answer, the Baron didn't care about it and asked like this.
She nodded again and replied.
“Yes.
You said that that place was very hostile to our area, so you asked me to never reveal my place of residence and name to others.”
“Your memory is really good.”
Her father looked at her with eyes full of admiration.
But she couldn't understand it at all.
Why on earth would the Ruppelts, a famous noble family in the Imperial Army, hate their family and their humble fiefdom in the countryside?
What does this have to do with the fact that the neighboring fiefdoms ignored their fiefdom, which was attacked by demonic creatures, and left it destroyed?
“Dad, what the hell happened?”