If You Wish For Something Useless - Chapter 21

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Chapter 21 – Original’s Arranged Fate (3)

She hoped someone would find her and hold onto her, telling her not to leave. Evelyn continued walking, embracing her contradictory desires. After a few minutes, she reached her first destination without being noticed by anyone. The east entrance of the castle, which was locked because it wasn’t normally used. From her pocket, Evelyn pulled out the bundle of keys she had already brought. When she opened the door and stepped outside, the gently piled-up snow was the first thing that greeted her.

“Ha…”

The white breath she exhaled was beautiful despite this situation. Evelyn pulled up her hood to block the swirling cold wind. The reason she chose the east entrance was that it connected to the closed mountain path passage. She followed the back path, which she had tried to learn over and over again, until she reached a large iron fence. After that, she reached out and fiddled with the recently changed lock. She was sluggish in her search for the match in the bundle of keys in her hands. But it wasn’t long before the lock opened with a loud click. As she pulled the tightly entangled chains, there was a rattling, creaking, and loud noise. Locks and chains. Evelyn, who released them all, pulled the tightly closed iron bars. The creaking of the hinges was quite loud. Evelyn took a deep breath as she dropped a bundle of keys that she no longer had to use. She stopped for a moment because her useless wishes didn’t let her go. 1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes…

She waited until her patience ran out, but no one came even after the loud noise. For a long time, she stood in front of it and wasted time, but nothing happened. It was then that Evelyn was able to move her dejected feet. The farther away she got from her castle, the more her warm memories flooded her. Not only the Archduke and the Grand Duchess, but also the castle’s servants, as well as Ethan, with whom she had been spending most of her time lately. As she remembered him lying on the ground and bleeding, she felt like choking. Nevertheless, Evelyn couldn’t stop. It was as if an invisible force was pushing her. Evelyn walked along the mountain path for a long time. The sound of the gently piled snow being crushed followed her footsteps. Suddenly, she heard a squeaking noise from the opposite direction. He, who was once indebted to Evelyn like Aubrey, kept his promise. A carriage appearing at an unexpected moment stopped in front of Evelyn.

“Princess.”

A middle-aged man in the driver’s seat jumped down and bowed politely. Evelyn had helped his guild, which was on the brink of bankruptcy two years ago. And she asked him to send a carriage whenever she went out to avoid the eyes of others in the future. The man did not forget the promise of that day and brought a carriage.

In the first place, it was not surprising that she only helped those with certain characteristics that would not betray her grace. Evelyn nodded and accepted the man’s greeting. Then she got into the wagon and searched in her pockets. It was to check the pocket watch she had brought with her as she left the bedroom.

“6:20 p.m.”

About an hour had passed since she left the bedroom. As Evelyn checked the time, the wagon began to move.

It was really easy for Evelyn to leave Fedora’s Grand Castle.

In the end, no one caught her running away, as well as no one held her from leaving.

The name of the owner of Evelyn’s now-vacated place and the real daughter of Archduke Fedora was ‘Etrada.’

‘A person who will be happy.’ The name had a warm meaning befitting a novel’s heroine and was given by her mother. According to her setting, Etrada parted ways with her mother when she was four years old. Mother and daughter were living a wandering life and stopped in a villa where a festival was held. She lost her mother there and was forced to wander the streets. But a few months later, she met an old priest and followed him to the orphanage he ran. An orphanage run by the small temple of the Viscounty of Amoren on the western periphery of the Hereos Empire. It was also the place where Etrada, when she turned nine, met Cesar. The old priest managing the orphanage had been favored by Duke Arangis in the past, thus he hid Cesar for a while. Thanks to this she became entangled with Cesar when she witnessed him wielding a sword manifesting blue mana. Mana was exclusive to nobles. It was a power that can only be dealt with by engraving a magic circle in the heart by consuming mana stones processed according to certain operation methods. Having seen it, Cesar believed that Etrada should be eliminated. If Etrada had not drawn the same blue mana from her hand, at the moment he lifted his sword in the air, she would have died.

“Is this really Mana?”

“Ho…?”

Etrada already had mana thanks to a mana stone that her mother had unknowingly consumed. There was no background explanation as to where her mother took the mana stone or why she was given it. And, in fact, it didn’t really matter. What was important in that scene was that Etrada categorized her mana. Even though she did not learn from anyone, she had already reached the level of an intermediate knight. At the young age of nine years. It was such a talent that it would be an insult to call her a genius. When Cesar, surprised to see something unexpected, stiffened, young Etrada offered him a proposal.

“Teach me how to use this.”

“What?”

“Then I’ll keep it a secret that you’re using Mana. You don’t want to get caught, do you?”

Although it was only a clumsy threat from a young child, Cesar, who appreciated her talent, accepted her offer willingly. Thus, Etrada learned how to use her mana from Cesar. Soon after, Cesar left the orphanage, and Etrada also became independent at the age of fourteen according to the management policy. And later, they met again according to the fate set by the original story. By the summer of the year Etrada turned eighteen, she had built her career as a mercenary as soon as she left the orphanage. The original story begins only when they reunite as the head of a mercenary guild and the leader of a rebel party and continue their past relationship.

That was all Evelyn knew about the past of the two main characters. The original story she read in her previous life didn’t deal much with the histories of the two main characters. It was only mentioned through the main character’s recollection. Of course, it was enough to perceive large flows and important information. At this point in time, the two were at the level of advanced knights in managing mana. It was possible for them to apply tangible mana to an object, and even upon removing the body, the tangible form was maintained. Of the hundreds of thousands of knights, only a few of them had reached this level, and even if they searched all over the continent, they could barely exceed a few thousand units. These skills and potential would eventually lead the rebellion to success.

After the two main characters take over the Imperial city, the forces at the border of the Empire with different countries, as well as those opposing Cesar, will move quickly. Most of them were members of a faction that supported other members of the royal family, such as the Duke of Arangis in the past. Like Cesar, they were survivors of a fallen family or nobles who barely maintained their lives while avoiding the downfall. Cesar gradually recruited them and formed a force that wouldn’t lose.

Already, the situation in Hereos must have been chaotic due to a sudden civil war. As evidence, the borders of Fedora were quite cluttered. Evelyn glanced at the tensed border guards while accepting the entry permit issued by the administrator.

“Next.”

The business-like confirmation of procedure complete was very short. Evelyn escaped the administrator’s sight without saying a word. She then pulled out a scarf from the luggage bag she had brought herself. After draping it over the common black hoodie, all she had to do was stand around the border checkpoint.

“It’s definitely less cold…”

Evelyn muttered a little. The air was warm even though she only came down two days by boat. Recalling her faint breath in the Grand Castle’s garden, she dropped her head. She didn’t like to find herself thinking about everything and comparing it to Fedora. Evelyn struggled to look forward, not backward.

She could do a lot from now on as long as she didn’t touch the main story. As she filled her head with her future plans, she was able to shake off her frivolous thoughts. The first thing to do was to go to Vetern, the Imperial capital of the Hereos Empire. She left the castle three days ago with a clear destination, and she was helped by another indebted person who had prepared everything for her to leave the Principality of Fedora. She boarded a ship straight from the harbor of Holfman, allowing her to set foot in Hereos’ territory in two days. If she had followed the land route, it would have taken five days, but she arrived quickly because she was using a small, maneuverable ship. It will take a lot longer to get to Vetern, though.

Fortunately for Evelyn, she had prepared a lot for today’s plan. She would be able to save considerable time.

“Are you the person I met in the summer two years ago?”

As she was alone in her thoughts, she heard an unfamiliar voice. When Evelyn turned to the direction the sound was coming from, she saw a boy believed to be in his mid-teens. When she saw that the scarf he was wearing was yellow, she replied while nodding.

“That’s right.”

“I’ll serve you.”

As if it was only natural, she followed the boy. She didn’t want to waste any time. Busy days will follow from now on. Evelyn was a person who had a lot to pay back. Everything she had received during her stay at the Grand Castle was a debt to her. Didn’t she steal everything that belonged to Etrada and was a person without a drop of blood with the Archduke? Even if it wasn’t a situation she wanted, that fact didn’t change.

Therefore, all plans after leaving the Grand Castle were to pay off the debt. No one forced it, but it was Evelyn’s wish. That way she thought she could become a completely different person. The first step was to erase any point of contact and clear any hint of her past. However, what she planned to do wasn’t something she could achieve by moving slowly and leisurely. She had no intention of wasting her time by dawdling. She needed to get to Vetern before things were sorted out.

Evelyn gradually accelerated her pace following the boy who took the lead.

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