Epilogue
'And so, we overwhelmed the monsters and magical constructs, and thanks to your keen insight, we safely defeated the Earthcore Dragon and captured all the demoralized enemies. A flawless victory!'
Some time had passed since that incomprehensible transmission spell arrived, claiming preparations for an interception were in place. The next report that came was nothing short of shocking.
“Lies… This can’t be true, no way…”
“Hell yeah! You did it, Klaus-sama!”
“As expected of our savior!”
The message seemed to have reached everyone around me as well. Marquis Markovar, whose final desperate struggle had amounted to nothing, foamed at the mouth and collapsed. Meanwhile, the knights and elves erupted in cheers.
Though they weren’t residents of the Renford territory, they harbored resentment toward Markovar for launching a simultaneous assault, and they were overjoyed at the news of its perfect defeat.
But me? I was—
(What the hell is going on!?)
—screaming that in my head with every fiber of my being.
The new weapon I’d had Milikator develop, the Enhanced Fixed Mana Cannon, was supposed to be a tool of overwhelming firepower to plunge the people of my territory into the depths of terror. I could only manage so much on my own, so I’d planned to entrust it to my reliable subordinates. Yet somehow, it had been mistaken for a weapon capable of defeating something as formidable as an Earthcore Dragon, even in my absence.
This… this is unacceptable!
(Hold on, hold on. How the hell did Milikator and the others predict and prepare for the attack in the first place? Even I only found out about it when Markovar told me just moments ago… wait, what?)
As I mulled this over, a new blue bird flew in. Listening closely, I learned the transmission spell was from Wyndham. He had the audacity to say, 'As per your orders, Renford-sama, I gathered the information and reported it to Oliver-sama. I hope it meets your discerning standards?'
What the hell was he talking about? I couldn’t make sense of it, but it seemed Wyndham had gone and done something unnecessary.
And then—
'From what we’ve gathered from the captives, it seems Marquis Markovar was launching an attack at the same time. But with someone like you, Renford-sama, I’m sure it was handled without issue. Therefore, I’ve already reported this entire incident to His Majesty!'
“—Huh?”
What the hell was he doing on his own? A bad feeling crept up on me, and based on past experience, these hunches never failed to betray me.
Sure enough, another transmission spell arrived—this time not for me, but for Sophia. The voice that came through was none other than King Alden himself.
'I’ve heard everything, Renford! To think you were such… such an extraordinary man! Pioneering the Great Forest of the Underworld, forging ties with the noble elves, dismantling the Phantom Hand and exposing its connection to Markovar, and neutralizing multiple weapons that could have destroyed our kingdom… No one else could have accomplished such feats!'
…Hold on, hold on, hold on.
Pioneering the Great Forest? All I did was enjoy a little environmental destruction.
Ties with the elves? I just forcibly recruited them and saddled them with grunt work that wasn’t worth my time, all to sour their relations with the kingdom.
There’s no reason to praise me for any of that.
If anything, dismantling the Phantom Hand was my one major screw-up—
“Wait, hold up. Even if you knew all that, how do you already know about this battle?”
“Of course, because I just reported it!”
Sophia answered proudly, puffing out her chest. Considering the transmission spell had gone to her instead of me, it made sense.
(You meddling… No, wait. So that means this was just a response to Sophia’s report? Then maybe Wyndham’s report hasn’t—)
The bad feeling didn’t let up; it only grew worse.
And, as expected, another bird flew in, this one landing on my arm.
(This is bad!)
I knew I couldn’t let this transmission spell play out. I tried to destroy it, but the bird opened its beak faster than I could act.
'What’s that!? You even stopped an assault from Markovar’s territory on Renford’s, and with only the forces under your command, no less!? What a magnificent achievement! It’s settled! With Markovar having committed such grave sins, someone must take over his lands, and that someone will be you! With all the capable talent you command, managing more territory shouldn’t be an issue! …Oh, but there’s one thing. A rank befitting your expanded holdings is necessary. Therefore, I hereby grant you the title of Marquis!'
“Wha—”
“““WOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!!!”””
Before I could stop it, cheers erupted across the area.
“Promotions one after another in such a short time… As expected, my judgment was flawless.”
“Indeed, as expected of Master!”
“To serve such a great man… There is no greater happiness, my lord!”
“Hm. And if Klaus-dono becomes the lord of these lands, we who were entrusted with the Great Forest can deepen our ties and prosper together.”
Sophia, Marie, Linsia, Sedia.
And without exception, everyone else joined in the excitement.
I tried to deny it, to say something—
“““Marquis! Marquis! Marquis! Marquis!”””
But everyone present united in a chant, shouting “Marquis” over and over.
As I listened, I ground my teeth in frustration.
Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!
What the hell did I even do since coming to the Great Forest of the Underworld!?
I just fired off some spells to burn down a resource-rich forest!
I just dumped tedious forest management and dirty work on a rare species!
I just threatened a mid-boss from the game into joining my ranks and tried to commit every heinous act in the book!
So why the hell did it turn out like this!?
Amid the cheers, the shock was too much, and I lost consciousness.
Epilogue 2: Heroine Side
Amid the uproar of cheers hailing Klaus as a marquis, prompted by King Arden’s message announcing his ennoblement,
“…Ugh…”
“Master!?”
“Klaus-sama!?”
All of a sudden, Klaus lost consciousness, his body crumpling to the ground.
Marie and Sophia rushed to his side in a panic, catching him before he fell. But there was no sign he’d wake up anytime soon.
(To think Master would collapse like this…)
Faced with a sight she’d never witnessed before, Marie couldn’t hide her unease.
What could possibly be the cause…?
After racking her brain, Marie arrived at a theory: perhaps his magical energy had run dry.
Even someone as great as Klaus must’ve hit his limit after pouring enough mana into the magical war machine to make it self-destruct, then unleashing a massive technique to defeat a magical lifeform right after.
At that moment, one of the knights rushed over.
“Princess Sopha, what’s happened!?”
“From the situation, it seems likely to be mana depletion,” Sophia replied. “He’s been performing such immense magical feats repeatedly.”
Sophia had reached the same conclusion as Marie, her voice tinged with worry.
Meanwhile, the knight’s reaction was
quite different.
“Oh, to think…! To exert such power, even at the cost of himself, to crush the ambitions of traitors—how truly great a man he is!”
“Truly, he’s a lord worthy of our service!”
The knights and elves, moved by Klaus’s apparent self-sacrifice, grew even more fervent in their admiration, their voices rising in excitement.
As a result, discussions about the captured Marquis Markovar and the details of Klaus’s ennoblement were postponed until he regained consciousness.
A transmission spell from King Arden also arrived, instructing everyone to wait for Klaus’s recovery.
Amid the surrounding jubilation, Marie remained bewildered by this rare glimpse of her master’s vulnerability.
(What can we do to help Master recover…? Wait, that’s it!)
After much thought, Marie decided to contact the one person nearby with the deepest knowledge of magic—Milikator.
She sent a transmission spell, and a reply came almost instantly.
But its contents were less than satisfying.
'Hmm, I understand the situation, but can that monster of a man really run out of mana? Wouldn’t it be fine to just leave him be?'
“Perhaps you lack the proper devotion to respect and support Master?” Marie shot back.
'Hold on, I’m helping out of goodwill, not as one of Klaus’s lackeys! And can you stop radiating that dark aura even through a transmission spell!?'
“If you wish, I can teleport to your location right now…”
'Gah! Stop it! That’s seriously bad for my heart! Fine, I’ll give you some ideas!'
“Really!?”
'Aye, though I can’t guarantee they’ll be feasible on the spot…'
With that preface, Milikator began listing various methods to recover from mana depletion.
But as she warned, most required rare items or complex spellcasting, making them difficult to implement.
In the end, the simplest option available was transferring mana from another person.
However, there was one major concern.
'Mana transfer sounds easy enough to say, but it’s not recommended. Depending on the amount, another’s mana can act like poison.'
It wasn’t Marie but Sophia, listening nearby, who reacted to Milikator’s words.
“Indeed,” Sophia said. “Thanks to my unique constitution, I’m resistant to foreign mana, which allowed me to perform feats like those during the Great Forest reclamation. But for others, it’s not so simple… Klaus-sama must have known this and entrusted me with the task. Truly remarkable.”
“Sopha-sama…”
Marie couldn’t help but feel a twinge at Sophia’s smug expression, but Klaus’s safety was the priority now.
When she asked if there was a way to transfer mana safely, Milikator’s reply came swiftly.
'Of course, it’s not impossible. Some rare individuals possess colorless, transparent mana that causes no harm when transferred. But such people are exceedingly rare, so it’s hardly practical.'
“No…”
Just as a glimmer of hope appeared, it seemed to slip away, leaving Marie disheartened.
But then, an unexpected voice cut through her despair.
“Nay, there may be a way to make this work.”
“…Sedia-sama?”
Sedia, the elven clan leader who’d been listening alongside Sophia, spoke up.
Linsia, standing beside her, seemed to catch her meaning and chimed in.
“Chief, are you thinking of taking them there?”
“Aye. I hadn’t planned to share it with outsiders, but for Klaus-dono, our benefactor, it’s no issue. Sophia-dono, Marie-dono, and Linsia, if you’re willing, will you come with me?”
“Yes.”
“If there’s a way to save Master, I’d be delighted.”
“Absolutely, of course!”
Relief washed over them as Marie and the others nodded.
In truth, Klaus hadn’t collapsed from mana depletion at all—he’d simply fainted from the shock of his sudden ennoblement. Not only that, but thanks to his Magic Reflection ability, he was, like Sophia, completely unaffected by foreign mana.
Unaware of this, the four set off with high spirits.
◇◆◇
“This is the ‘Purification Waterfall Basin’…”
A few dozen minutes later, Marie gazed at the massive waterfall before her and the basin at its base, murmuring softly.
Guided by Sedia, they’d arrived at a sacred place deep within the elven settlement, known as the ‘Purification Waterfall Basin.’
The water here was imbued with special magical properties, capable of purifying—or more precisely, rendering transparent—the mana within one’s body.
The elves had long excelled at stealth and barrier magic, but even the most skilled practitioners would leave traces of their mana’s unique signature.
By using mana purified here, however, they could make their magic nearly undetectable.
“One reason we built our settlement here was this ‘Purification Waterfall Basin.’ I thought its use might dwindle after Klaus-dono granted us formal residency rights, but to think we’d need it again so soon…”
“I see. So, mana purified here into a colorless, transparent state can be safely transferred to Master, right?”
“Aye, exactly. Soaking in the water alone has some effect, but standing under the falls accelerates the purification. Let’s take turns.”
Marie nodded in understanding, and Linsia, already familiar with the process, stepped into the basin.
Meanwhile, behind them—
“Erm, I understand the situation, but… couldn’t something have been done about this attire…?”
Sophia, her face flushed, fidgeted awkwardly.
Everyone present—Sophia included—was dressed in thin, white garments traditional to the elves, designed to enhance mana purification. The fabric was already scant, and when wet, it became nearly transparent, revealing every curve of the body.
Sophia had once bathed with Eleanor and others at the ‘Healing Springs,’ but being outdoors under the open sky made this feel oddly more embarrassing than being fully nude back then.
“I get it,” Sedia said, “but anything else would take too long. If it’s too much, you’ll have to leave it to us.”
“No need to worry, Sophia-sama,” Marie interjected, her tone as steady as ever.
“As Master’s personal maid, I’ll take responsibility for healing him.”
Sophia, catching the challenge in Marie’s words, shook her head vigorously.
“No, my apologies. I’m fully prepared. As a princess, I may feel some embarrassment, but as Klaus-sama’s fiancée, I won’t back down!”
“…There’s something about that statement that irks me, but fine. Your resolve is clear.”
Until now, Marie had seen Sophia only as someone oddly close to Klaus. But glimpsing this new side of her, Marie slightly revised her opinion of the princess upward.
And so, Sophia stepped into the basin without further hesitation.
“Brr, it’s quite cold… but compared to the suffering Klaus-sama is enduring alone, this is nothing!”
Despite shivering slightly, Sophia declared with conviction.
One by one, Linsia, Marie, Sophia, and Sedia took their turns under the falls.
The sacred site, hidden by the elves, proved remarkably effective, with the purification process advancing rapidly.
At first, the translucent, water-soaked garments felt strange, but they gradually grew accustomed to it, and conversation flowed to pass the time.
Naturally, the topic uniting all four was Klaus.
They began sharing memories of their time with him, marveling at his greatness..
Sedia and Linsia were genuinely awed by Klaus’s many virtuous deeds, while Marie and Sophia occasionally felt flickers of jealousy. Yet learning new facets of Klaus outweighed those feelings, and bit by bit, the four grew closer.
Then, mid-conversation—
“Come to think of it,” Linsia said, “all the stories about our lord from Marie-shisho and Sophia-sama seem to be from the past few months. What was he like before that? With all his great deeds, I’m awfully curious!”
“Before I served Master, you mean…”
Marie’s brow furrowed slightly..
Before she became his attendant, Klaus had been plagued by unsavory rumors.
She was now convinced those were all misunderstandings, but how they’d come about remained a mystery.
“I’m sorry, but I only grew close to Master after becoming his personal maid, so I don’t know much about before…”
“That’s a shame… What about you, Sophia-sama?”
“I only met him recently myself. But… perhaps Eleanor might know something.”
“Eleanor-sama?”
The name made Marie tilt her head.
She recalled Eleanor, the skilled girl they’d fought alongside against Braze.
(Come to think of it, Eleanor seemed to know something about Master back then… What’s their connection?)
Unaware of Marie’s thoughts, Sophia continued.
“Eleanor’s a classmate of Klaus-sama’s at the Royal Academy. He’s currently on leave for certain reasons, but she might know something about his time there.”
“The Royal Academy…”
Marie’s mind drifted back.
When the previous Renford lord and lady passed away, Klaus had been attending the Royal Academy but returned to take up his duties as lord.
According to rumors among the maids, his leave was for one year, during which he worked tirelessly to prove himself worthy of the title, both within and beyond the territory.
His reputation during that time was notoriously poor, with the worst rumor being that he’d banished his only younger sister to a remote area to secure his position as lord.
Given the Klaus she knew now, it was unimaginable, and the truth remained unclear.
But for Marie, one thing stood out above all.
(It’s been nearly a year since Master took his leave. Does that mean he’ll return to the Academy soon…?)
What would her role be then?
As doubts and anxieties swirled, Sedia, the last to stand under the falls, spoke up.
“Hmm, that should do it.”
Checking her condition, Marie felt an unusual clarity, as if her mana had become transparent.
They changed out of the wet garments and headed to the mansion where Klaus was resting (half-destroyed in battle but hastily restored with magic).
On the way, Marie sent another transmission spell to Milikator, asking for precautions when transferring mana.
The reply came quickly—and it was a problem.
'Gah, I forgot to mention something crucial! To transfer mana efficiently, maximize physical contact with the target. Oral ingestion is also effective. In other words—strip down, cling to him, and kiss him! That’s the best way!'
““““——!?!?!?””””
The bombshell statement left all four wide-eyed.
Standing half-naked under a waterfall was one thing, but to strip, embrace Klaus, and kiss him? It was beyond anything they’d imagined.
(Even so, my duty is clear! As his personal maid!)
Marie steeled herself with that silent declaration.
Having made up her mind, there was no turning back.
Not—not—that she saw this as some irresistible opportunity.
(I mean it!!)
Shouting an inexplicable defense to no one in particular, Marie lifted her face with a determined glare.
And then—
“I’m Master’s personal maid, so there’s no issue. Leave it to me—you all can step back!”
“N-n-n-no, I’m prepared too! It’s just a matter of sooner or later… As I declared, I won’t back down!”
“I’m with you! I’m ready to devote myself to the lord I respect!”
“A-aye. It’s for our benefactor, so no problem! …I-I can’t let it slip that I’ve never been with a man at my age… (mutter)”
Each of the four reacted in their own way.
But later, when they arrived at Klaus’s bedside, brimming with resolve, they found him already awake, perfectly fine—rendering their worries moot.
Oblivious to this, the four continued to fluster, faces flushed with embarrassment.
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