Advent of the Three Calamities

Chapter 718: Funeral [1]

"That’s.. This..."

Aoife’s hand shook as she stared at the paper in front of her. She looked at it again, and seeing that she wasn’t seeing wrong, her expression started to change.

’This doesn’t make sense. He voted for me? But... wasn’t it Julien who voted for me? Wait, since he has it here, it must mean that he didn’t send it.’

Aoife relaxed after her thoughts paused there.

"Yes, this makes sense. He tried to send it, but decided not to in the end."

She took another breath and turned the paper around.

But that was when she saw it.

The words written on the back.

’To my dear sister.’

’Even if no one votes for you, I will.’

’...Even if you might never find out, just know that this was the only vote you received.’

Her hand shook, and her expression started to change.

"This doesn’t make sense."

She was sure that Julien had been the one to vote for her.

Unless...

"...He lied to me."

Thinking back, this did sound like something Julien would do.

He had never been the nicest of guys in the past.

He was selfish.

He was apathetic.

He was...

’He lied to me. He has to have lied to me. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied.’

Aoife’s thoughts started to spiral.

They spiraled in a way that she felt she couldn’t control.

Perhaps because of everything that had happened to her recently, her mind wasn’t in the right state to properly process the situation. She needed an outlet to vent, and she found the perfect one.

"...He lied to me!"

Her hand slowly squeezed the vote in her hand, crumbling it in her palm as her eyes flickered.

"He—Ukh!"

But it was also in that moment that her mind suddenly throbbed.

Aoife let out a short groan as she dropped the vote and went on to clutch her head.

’He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied. He lied.’

Her own voice continued to whisper loudly in her mind as her eyes started to turn bloodshot.

She didn’t know what was going on.

’W-what... even is happening?’

Her eyes turned even more bloodshot as her fingers curled, trying to grasp the marble floor beneath her.

And just as the pain was starting to grow even fiercer than before...

Her vision blanked.

The world around her seemed to shift, pulsing in weird ways as she found herself hovering before a certain figure.

He stood before her.

He looked a little older, but that haughty and arrogant look of his...

Aoife could distinctly remember.

Her chest burned at the sight of him. It burned... with something that was akin to resentment and anger.

’Kill. I need to kill him.’

Her hand slowly clenched as his haughty gaze fell on her.

Their eyes met, and Aoife’s expression distorted.

But just as the tension reached its breaking point, Aoife’s vision suddenly narrowed, as if she were being yanked out of a tunnel. The next thing she knew, she was stumbling backward, collapsing onto the floor.

"Cough! Cough...!"

Aoife started to cough violently, feeling her hair attach to her forehead.

Her chest rose and fell unevenly as she desperately tried to gasp for air.

And then—

"W-what in the world was that?"

Aoife struggled to comprehend the situation. That vision. Those boiling emotions...

What in the world was happening?

Taking several more breaths, Aoife slowly turned her attention towards the glass plane that rested next to Gael’s bed, positioned at an angle.

She caught a glimpse of her reflection in that moment.

Her hair was disheveled, her face drained of color, and both her clothes and hair clung to her sweat-soaked skin.

’I-is that me?’

Aoife had already been aware of the fact that she looked horrible.

She hadn’t eaten for days and had hardly gotten much sleep.

But she didn’t know it was to this extent.

She was just prepared to stand up when...

’You need to kill him.’

A certain voice whispered in the air.

"Who!?"

Aoife’s head flicked upwards, towards the source of the noise, but...

Nothing.

There was no one else present in the room.

"Who said that? Who is here?"

Aoife tried to stand up, but found herself completely drained of energy.

’...He is not someone who should be kept. You need to kill him before it’s too late.’

"....!?"

The voice whispered again, and Aoife’s body tensed.

"I said... Who is it? Where are you? Show yourself!"

Aoife’s voice grew louder as she looked around. However, she still couldn’t see or sense anyone.

It was just as she was about to stand up to look for the voice that her gaze fell on the mirror.

In that moment, she froze.

"....."

All thoughts disappeared from her mind as she stared at her own reflection.

...Or more precisely, the figure clinging to her back, arms wrapped tightly around her neck, head resting beside her shoulder, lips curled into a quiet, unsettling smile.

’You need to kill him before it’s too late. All of it is his fault. He’s the one who did it. He’s... the killer of your father and brother.’

Aoife’s lips trembled.

Not because of the words, but because of the figure that appeared.

She looked older, but that was certainly herself.

’What are you waiting for?’

The voice whispered closer to her ears.

Aoife’s lips trembled further, and her eyes shook.

’...Get rid of him. Get rid of the cancer that is slowly growing next to you.’

Wha...

What was happening to her?

***

"...There’s so much stuff that I need to look through. I don’t think I’ll be able to get through everything in a day, let alone a month."

The reality of just how many things were present before me started to sink in after the initial excitement died down.

Seeing just how many files were in front of me, I knew that it was impossible for me to go through them quickly.

To make matters worse, I really wanted to read each and every section.

However, I knew that I had to prioritize things based on the current situation.

As such, the first thing that I did was go to the ’Evenus Household’ section. This was probably the one that I wanted to look at the least, but considering everything that was happening, it was the most important one for me.

"It’s also not like I don’t have time to check the others later."

I flipped through the first file.

[Financials]

My eyes lit up.

’...Maybe not everything is interesting.’

I licked my lips and looked through the financial data.

The layout was quite well done. It was separated into different sections. From the income generated from taxes. Income generated from trade. Income generated from the gold mine. Income gained from conflicts and so on.

The file had everything, including the final sum at the end, as I sucked in a cold breath.

"Holy shit."

The number of zeros made my head spin.

’So much?’

The amount of income that the territory managed was simply astronomical. It was something that even put all of my savings to shame.

’If I take into account everything that I have, including the Solas that I kept from the Mirror Dimension in case I’d have to go back there, I have a total of around two hundred million Rend.’

That was a lot of money.

And yet...

It was still nothing compared to what the Household made.

"Is this just unique to our household, or are the other households the same?"

It suddenly started to make sense why Aoife and the others cared little about money. This was simply ridiculous.

Or at least, this was what I thought until I saw the expenses list.

"Never mind."

...That number was also astronomical.

"I guess running such a large territory isn’t cheap."

A sharp pang hit my chest the moment I saw the numbers. My first instinct was clear... increase taxes, cut spending. But I knew that path would ignite a storm of backlash, so I forced the thought aside.

’I think it’s best if I don’t touch this stuff. Noel has already arranged everything accordingly. He knows about this more than I.’

I started to look through the other files.

[Forces of the Evenus Household]

Yet again, I sucked in a breath of cold air.

It turned out that the Evenus Household had quite the force under its command.

We had a total of twenty thousand soldiers under our command. Of the number that were above Tier 5, there were only 200, each of which were respectively leader of their own unit.

There were two Tier 7’s and one Tier 8.

"This is a lot more than I expected."

This made me think about the upcoming Rite.

’...If possible, I can probably use them.’

But at the same time, I shook my head. A lot of these forces were stationed far away and were kept secret. It was still not time to display the full force of the Evenus Household.

I could still handle things without their help.

However, it felt more reassuring to know that I had backup like this.

"What else?"

I started to look through all the other files related to the Evenus Household. I immersed myself in learning all about the ins and outs of the Household. From hidden allies, to people that I needed to watch out for, to...

"Wait, these are our territories?"

It turns out that the Evenus Household was even bigger than previously anticipated. There were several smaller territories that were officially ’Baronies’ but were in fact secretly owned by the Evenus Household.

The scariest aspect of it all was that each territory was strategically placed in areas where special ’targets’ of interest were located.

Staring at the map and seeing all the red circles, I couldn’t help but cover my mouth.

’Just how much did you plan advance, Noel?’

I leaned back into the chair while musing over the entire situation.

But then...

"Hm?"

Feeling a small vibration over my communication device, I took it out and read the message.

My expression changed subtly.

"Oh, shit."

I stood up from my seat and went out of the room.

I needed to go quickly.

I had been so immersed in my studies that I had completely lost track of time.

I was about to miss the Emperor’s funeral!