The World Is Mine For The Taking-Chapter 1299 - 197 - The Fall Of Milham Kingdom - Part 3 (6)
"I’m sorry," I said quietly. "About the Leader."
The words came out slower than I expected. Even to my own ears, they sounded heavier than they should have. The air between us seemed to settle for a moment after I spoke, like the conversation itself understood the weight of what was being mentioned.
Even though my time with them hadn’t been that long, I had still spent a decent part of my life around those people. Long enough to get used to their presence. Long enough to remember their voices, their habits, as well as the way things used to be when the group was still whole.
Hearing that someone from among them had died felt strange.
It felt... wrong.
Apologizing was the only thing that came to mind.
For one thing, I hadn’t been there.
The thought lingered longer than I wanted it to.
Of course, logically speaking, I didn’t really have any obligation anymore. I had cut ties with them a long time ago. The moment I walked away from the Silverblades, whatever responsibilities came with it should have disappeared along with my name on their roster.
Still, the apology slipped out anyway.
"Well, the Leader made her choice," Arianne said.
Her voice carried a calmness to it. A calmness that only showed up when someone had already gone through the worst part of their grief and decided to live with it instead of fighting it.
"If not for her, many children and people would have died during that incident," she continued. "There were still many casualties, of course. A lot of people didn’t make it. But if she wasn’t there... if she hadn’t done what she did, then no one would have survived."
She paused for a moment before continuing.
"Right now, the people who survived are under the care of Sister Lily and Sister Alice. Alice is studying to become a priestess," she explained. "And since you’re staying there... you must have seen them already."
I tilted my head slightly.
The truth was simple.
I didn’t know them.
This was actually the first time I was even hearing their names. Sister Lily and Sister Alice didn’t ring any bells in my memory. That Sister Lily was probably the person who had greeted us during our first day.
Then again, the place had a lot of people moving around every day. Faces came and went. People walked past each other without exchanging a single word.
It was possible that I had already seen them somewhere in the building without realizing it.
Maybe one of them was the person who nearly spilled soup on me in the hallway last week. That would honestly be a funny way to find out.
"Even though the Leader died, she managed to save the children," Arianne said again, her voice steady. "Now it’s my turn to protect them."
Hearing that made me look at her for a moment.
The statement sounded simple, yet the meaning behind it was anything but.
Protecting a group of survivors was not exactly a small responsibility. Those children and people she mentioned were not related to her by blood. They were not family. They were not people she was forced to take care of.
Arianne could have walked away.
Many people would have.
Instead, she chose to stay.
A small part of me couldn’t help but respect that.
Her decision felt like a quiet way of honoring the Leader’s sacrifice. Someone had given up her life to save those people. Arianne was simply making sure that sacrifice did not go to waste.
"But... that’s actually not the thing I wanted to talk about, Shredica," she said after a short pause.
Her tone shifted slightly.
A different kind of seriousness settled into her expression.
"Have you ever seen Claire again... after you became a magic knight?"
"Claire?"
The name came out of my mouth almost automatically.
My mind flipped through memories faster than I expected.
And yes.
There had been a time.
Back when I was trying to obtain the other half of the book that was needed to summon the heroes, I had briefly crossed paths with her. It wasn’t a long encounter.
The entire thing felt strange at the time.
Something about the way she acted didn’t sit right with me.
Still, I didn’t think much about it back then. Too many other things were happening for me to spend hours analyzing a single meeting.
"I did," I answered. "Why?"
"I heard that Claire is trying to build her own organization," Arianne said. "And from what I’ve been told, the agenda is the same as what the Silverblades used to have."
She rested her elbow on the table as she spoke.
"One of our former members managed to escape being neutralized when the magic knights hunted us down," she continued. "He came to me recently. According to him, Claire recruited him. She told him she wants to finish what the Leader started."
Her expression hardened slightly.
"Honestly... I never thought Claire of all people would do something like that."
Her eyes slowly shifted toward me.
"When she met you, what did she say?" she asked.
"Nothing," I answered.
The memory replayed again in my head.
"As far as I could tell, she didn’t look like she was trying to bring me back into the organization."
Arianne stared at me.
Her gaze didn’t waver.
A few seconds passed in silence as if she was carefully placing puzzle pieces together inside her head.
Then she took a slow breath.
"I knew it..."
"What?"
"It’s her," Arianne said.
Her voice lowered slightly.
"The one who betrayed us."
The words hung in the air.
"The one who sold us out back then."
My eyebrows furrowed.
Betrayed?
Sold out?
My mind tried to make sense of what she was saying.
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
Arianne’s jaw tightened.
"Because of her... my father..." she muttered, her teeth clenched together.
The anger in her voice was subtle, yet sharp.
She inhaled deeply again, clearly trying to calm herself down.
The effort showed.
Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to help much.
The tension around her shoulders remained.
Right at that moment, the door to the establishment opened.
The sound wasn’t loud, but it was enough to draw my attention.
A man stepped inside.
Black hair.
Red eyes.
The moment my eyes landed on him, my body reacted before my brain could catch up.
"L-Leon?"
The name slipped out without permission.
Leon stood there for a moment.
His gaze moved across the room.
Then it stopped.
Not on me.
On Arianne.
"You’re a former member of Silverblades, right?" he asked.
His tone was direct.
Straight to the point.
"Yes," Arianne answered. "Why?"
Leon didn’t waste time with polite introductions.
"I believe members of that organization are attacking the palace right now," he said.
My brain froze for a moment.
Attacking the palace?
"Do you know who’s currently leading them?" Leon continued.
The words hit like a rock dropped into still water.
Silverblades.
Attacking the castle.
The idea sounded almost unreal.
Arianne’s eyes widened slightly.
"Well," she muttered quietly, "looks like the storms are finally colliding."
She rubbed her forehead briefly.
"We were just talking about this."
After a moment, she straightened up and spoke again.
"It’s someone named Claire," she said.
Leon’s eyes narrowed slightly.
"She used to be part of the Silverblades," Arianne continued. "But she’s also the one who sold us out when our members were being hunted down." 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎
Her tone turned colder.
"If the Silverblades are launching a coordinated attack on the castle right now... then it’s very likely that she’s the one leading it."
Silence followed.
Leon closed his eyes for a moment as if he was processing the information.
A few seconds later, he opened them again.
His gaze briefly moved toward me.
Just for a second.
Then he looked away.
Without saying anything else, he turned around and started walking toward the exit.
That was it. He didn’t even explain.
Just Leon doing Leon things and leaving like he had somewhere important to be. Which, considering someone was apparently attacking the palace, he probably did.
I pushed my chair back and stood up quickly.
"Leon!" I called out.
He stopped.
After a moment, he turned his head and looked back at me.
Our eyes met.
"Can I go back with you?" I asked.
