Chapter 125: 124

"Cough, cough!"

Curled up in the bed sheets, Junior coughed.

Every time she coughed, blood continued to seep from her parched throat.

"Haah, huff..."

Junior glared at the blood-soaked handkerchief in her hand.

After using magic intensely, she always suffered from such aftereffects.

'Plus, this time... I feel even more pain from being beaten up...'

Junior's magic was instantly dispelled by the countermeasure of the Vampire Lord's magic ceremony.

She didn't show it, but the process itself was a significant blow.

'I learned a lot, though.'

The dispelling magic of the Vampire Lord contained the simple but profound principles of magic.

'If I research, I can make it my own.'

A new revelation was nearby. Junior felt her magic was approaching the next level.

However.

'...Even if it becomes mine, I wonder how much more I can use it.'

Death, not too far away, was also approaching.

Junior clutched the blood-soaked, sticky handkerchief tightly.

- Don't even think about learning something like magic.

The voice of the person who said that... seemed to flicker in her ears.

If she hadn't learned magic, how much longer could she have lived?

10 years? Maybe, 20 years?

'Useless thoughts...'

It was when Junior was shaking her head.

Knock, knock.

There was a knock at the inn room door, and a familiar voice came.

"Junior? Are you in there?"

It was the voice of Ash, the commander and lord of this front.

Surprised, Junior hastily got up from the bed and approached the door.

"Ah, your Majesty... you came? Cough, cough!"

As she opened the door, blood spurted from her stomach. Junior clenched her mouth and coughed violently.

"Haah, haah. This damn blood cough really comes out at any time, hehe..."

When Junior finally stopped coughing and lifted her head.

In front of her, there stood a flustered Ash and... Jupiter was there too.

Seeing her granddaughter coughing up blood with a devastated face, and holding something carefully wrapped in her hand to give to her granddaughter...

Facing Jupiter like that, Junior muttered in a shaky voice.

"...Grandmother."

The grandmother and granddaughter stared at each other for a while without speaking.

- Even if you don't learn such things, Grandma can feed you for your lifetime.

Suddenly, a landscape from a long conversation they had in the past...

Passed through Junior's mind.

***

10 years ago.

On the eastern front of the Everblack Empire, a rural village overlooking the sea.

"Grandma!"

A small hand shook her body.

"Get up, Grandma! It's morning!"

"Uhm?!"

Jupiter, who had fallen asleep while sitting on the chair, opened her eyes wide.

When she turned her head and looked next to her, a small girl was making a stern face.

The bright morning sun was falling on her face.

"Get up! We're running out of time. We have to eat and go to work!"

The little girl covering the burn on her left face with her hair was Jupiter's granddaughter, Junior.

As she blankly watched her grandmother, Junior tilted her head.

"Why? Did you have a bad dream again?"

"...No, not really. Just..."

Soon after, Jupiter buried herself back into the chair, yawning lazily.

"Give me a moment... I had to go out for an emergency last night, so I came home in the middle of the night. Huhaaam."

"So, are you not going to work?"

"Well, it's not like that..."

Jupiter's job as the village's guard captain.

Even though the pay was meager, it was the only source of income for this family.

She wanted to take a week off if she could, but she couldn't.

"Then get up quickly and get ready for work! I made breakfast on the table. Don't be late and go hungry again."

Looking at her nagging granddaughter, Jupiter suddenly opened her mouth wide.

"Grandma's tired, can't you feed me, Junior?"

"Again? You always act like a child, Grandma."

"I'll be a good grandmother who works hard, okay? Feed me."

Junior sighed as she placed her small hand on her hip.

"Ai, I can't help it."

A moment later, Junior, who brought a bowl, scooped oatmeal with a spoon and put it into Jupiter's mouth.

"Here, aah~."

"Aah~."

As Jupiter chewed slowly, Junior asked cautiously.

"How is it? Is it good?"

"No. It's bad. My granddaughter can't cook."

"Ugh, not again! Then Grandma will make food!"

"Grandma doesn't know how to do that..."

She had lived her entire life on the battlefield, her meals being a hodgepodge provided by her subordinates.

Jupiter had no living skills whatsoever. She was clueless about cooking, cleaning, laundry - practically everything.

"What on earth do you know, Grandma!"

"Only magic, well..."

She seemed like a total failure as a grandmother.

Junior, pondering, continued to feed Jupiter oatmeal, despite her grumbling.

Jupiter quietly accepted the meal.

When the meal was over...

"Then, I'll be off."

As Jupiter donned her Empire Army coat over a shabby shirt, she glanced inside the house; the rest of her grandchildren were still asleep.

Only Junior, the eldest, had risen at dawn to prepare breakfast for the family.

"Oh, my granddaughter is remarkable."

"Ugh, get off! Stupid Grandma!"

Startled as Jupiter suddenly embraced her, Junior swiftly slid out and held out her hand.

Jupiter blinked her single eye, confused.

"Why? What's this gesture for?"

"For money, Grandma! Money! We're out of living expenses!"

"What? Already? I gave you some recently."

"How many people live in this house, and you think that paltry sum is enough?"

At Junior's sharp words, Jupiter grimaced.

The total number of survivor children she had taken in that day was eleven.

Even excluding the money spent on treating the aftereffects of magic attacks, the expenses of feeding and clothing them drained the funds frighteningly fast.

The saved money had long since run out, and they barely managed to scrape by on Jupiter's guard captain salary.

She furrowed her brows calculating the balance.

"There's still a long way until payday."

"Anyway, we're out of living expenses! Earn it, steal it, do whatever it takes!"

Junior, having seen her grandmother to the door, narrowed her eyes delicately.

"Earn some money!"

***

At the outskirts of the village, the guard post.

"I'm here, guys."

As Jupiter arrived grumbling, the tired-faced soldiers sprawled inside the post hastily stood up to salute.

"Loyalty!"

"Loyalty! You've arrived."

"Yes, loyalty... you brats. How many times do I have to tell you to take it easy? There's nobody watching. Rest!"

Immediately, the soldiers relaxed back into their seats. Jupiter, too, slumped comfortably into her spot.

"So, nothing major happened, right?"

"Yes, Captain. Apart from the kid we arrested yesterday, nothing happened."

One soldier gestured inside the post.

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There was a crudely constructed cell inside, and a young man was trapped in it.

He was a smuggler arrested last night.

He was caught by the guards while trying to bring in black market goods from a neighboring country to the village port.

"If you're going to do it, do it in a big city. What smuggling are you planning in such a small village..."

As Jupiter grumbled, the smuggler clung to the cell bars and yelled.

"No, guard. Think about it! If you just turn a blind eye, I'll give you 40%, no! I'll give you 50% of the money I make from selling this. Okay?"

"..."

"I mean, it's obvious even without seeing the wages of a guard post in the middle of nowhere. Think of it as a small side job? Hmm? How nice would that be. I sincerely do my work, you guys get money for free, and my customers get their goods. Everybody is happy!"

Jupiter, who had been quietly listening, slowly stood up and walked towards the cell.

The smuggler, excited, continued his tirade.

"Especially Captain! I don't know why a wizard like you is here, but think about it! It's just a small smuggling business now, but if a wizard helps, even a much bigger business-"

Zap!

Lightning struck.

When Jupiter flicked her finger, a bolt of lightning streaked through the iron bars of the cell. The startled smuggler fell backward.

"EEEEK!"

"Watch your mouth, criminal."

Bang!

Jupiter snarled fiercely, leaning against the iron bars.

"I'm Jupiter. Once the captain of the 2nd Magic Soldier Squadron of the Empire, the Thunderbolt Jupiter. Even if I starve to death, I wouldn't stoop to smuggling."

"H-heee..."

"Damn, you're bad luck."

Jupiter spat on the ground and turned her back on him.

"Keep a close eye on that guy. An investigator from the capital is coming tomorrow."

"Yep."

"I'll take a round of village patrol."

"Take care."

"Be safe!"

With the farewell of her subordinates, Jupiter left the outpost.

Normally, she would have her subordinates do the patrol while she sat and dozed off, but today she didn't feel like doing that.

The coastal village was more chaotic than before.

The eyes of the fishermen on the boats going to and from the port were fierce. Was it because of the bodies that had drifted in not too long ago?

'The public order is getting worse.'

Only five years ago, it was a peaceful rural village.

The empire's conquest war gave birth to countless war refugees, and the shaken public order from the borders affected the inside of the empire.

'If only I could live quietly until these kids grow up...'

Money was running out, and her job as a security captain was dwindling.

Suddenly, Jupiter craved a cigarette.

But she had quit a long time ago because she lived with the children, and because her pocket was empty.

'Even the great Jupiter is dead.'

Thinking about herself in her heyday, she found her current situation, unable to smoke because she couldn't afford it, rather funny.

'...Cigarette.'

Jupiter suddenly thought.

'Come to think of it, weren't there tobacco leaves among the confiscated contraband...?'

It was then.

"Huh?"

Rumble...

Dark clouds gathered quickly in the distant sky,

Flash-!

A slender bolt of lightning struck down.

It wasn't normal weather. It was clearly artificially formed lightning.

'Magic?'

And that lightning was falling towards the outskirts of the village, towards Jupiter's house.

Boom!

"Damn it."

Thud!

Jupiter immediately kicked the ground and ran home.

As soon as she arrived at her house, she saw the charred bodies of a man and a woman collapsed at the entrance.

They were holding things like a kitchen knife and a club in their hands.

And in front of them, Junior was shaking.

"Junior?! Are you okay?!"

"Gr, grandma..."

With a pale face and tears rolling down, Junior stuttered.

"These people suddenly opened the door and came in, and said they'd kill us all if we didn't give them money, so I was so scared, I didn't know..."

Inside the house, the other grandchildren were looking this way with terrified faces.

Had Junior, the oldest, stood up to protect her siblings and awakened her talent as a mage?

Jupiter tightly hugged such a granddaughter.

"It's okay, Junior. It's okay. It's okay."

"Cough, hack!"

"Junior?"

Jupiter, who was trying to calm her granddaughter, felt something was wrong and looked down at Junior.

Junior was vomiting blood from her nose and mouth.

"Hey. Are you okay? Hey."

"Grand, ma..."

Junior's eyes rolled back and she fainted. Now blood was oozing from her eyes and ears.

Holding her granddaughter, Jupiter quickly rose to her feet.

"Damn it...!"

***

The temple of the village.

The priest, who was also the attending physician of Jupiter's grandchildren, took his hands off Junior.

Junior, who received healing magic, looked a lot better.

"This is a temporary measure. It won't cure her."

The priest wiped the sweat off his forehead and spoke coldly.

"Magic is flowing back from the magic scar left in her heart. It's a problem because she has a talent as a mage. She can't handle her own magic because of the scar."

"..."

"She's going to die. She doesn't have much time."

Blood oozed from Jupiter's tightly clenched lips. The priest gave a small nod.

"You knew, didn't you? That your child wouldn't live long."

"...To save her."

Jupiter asked in a low voice.

"To make her live even a little bit longer?"

"You'd have to take her to the big temple in the capital. If you show her to the Central High Priest, she might be able to receive the highest level of miraculous healing magic. It'll cost... quite a lot of money."

Jupiter gritted her teeth and stroked her forehead.

"Where do I have the money for that..."

"Well then, she's going to die soon."

"..."

"Anyway, it looks like she won't live long, so you might as well feed her something good. The kid's all skin and bones, what a sight."

The child's worn-out clothes and thin arms and legs were visible.

"..."

Jupiter thought.

All she had done was to gather these children, wasn't she actually killing them slowly?

Unable to provide proper treatment, making them suffer in poverty...

'Money...'

Jupiter's fist tightened as she gazed at her granddaughter who had fallen asleep as if she had fainted.

"Damn it, money...!"

***

Late in the night, after all the guards had gone home.

The smuggler, dozing off in the dark prison, was jolted awake by the loud sound of the prison door being slammed open.

"What, what the hell?"

Had the investigator dispatched from the capital arrived already? Was this the end? The smuggler trembled at the thought.

Step by step.

Approaching the prison was... Jupiter, the captain of the guards at this place.

"Hey, trash."

One hand twirling the key to unlock the prison cell, the other hand rolling and lighting up a cigarette taken from the seized smuggling goods.

Inhaling the smoke deeply, Jupiter exhaled slowly.

"Let's talk about the smuggling deal you mentioned earlier. Tell me everything."