Reader’S Regeneration Life [EN]: Chapter 293

293―――――

Lies with Sincerity, Theater with Absurdity

“Come here.”

“Haha!

Please, just spare me, Milady!”

“…Hey, you!

You!

Are you coming here or not!”

That afternoon, Lilith finally returned to Zion’s side.

She should have been tired from the long journey, but as soon as she entered Klausen, she immediately sought out Zion.

And without hesitation, she started growling, ready to devour him, thrashing about to grab her contractor.

Of course, Zion instinctively knew that if he were caught in those hands, all the nutrients that had been drained away by yesterday’s chaos might be completely depleted before they could even be replenished, so he dodged and ran.

“Do you know how much I suffered to get here!

I thought you were holding up well, but you ended up throwing such a huge party the day before I arrived?

You damn son of a bitch!”

“It was *force majeure*, Milady!” [Unforeseeable circumstances that prevent someone from fulfilling a contract.]

“Cut the crap!”

It seemed Lilith was seriously angry this time.

Zion ran around the room, avoiding Lilith’s grasp. Just as he rounded a corner, he subtly shifted his body to the side and grabbed Lilith’s waist as she followed.

“Ah?”

“Even though I’m a womanizer, how could I do such a crazy thing while Lilith-nim is away?

Please just think of it as some kind of Zion-eating scheme by other women.”

“Oh, really?

You should put some sincerity into your lies.

You were enjoying it, weren’t you?

You were slapping away with gusto!”

“If I didn’t do that there, wouldn’t I have to cut off my manhood!”

With those words, he gently embraced Lilith.

Not with the intention of wanting a physical relationship, but with a gesture full of gratitude and apology for the woman who had shed blood and fought for him in a distant place.

“You’ve worked hard, Lilith-nim.”

“Hmph.”

“And I’m sorry.”

“…Forget it.

Do you think I went all the way there just to receive an apology?

And I also wanted to cause some chaos while telling those Celestial pigeons to eat this.”

“You look incredibly tired to be saying that?”

It wasn’t a lie; Lilith’s condition wasn’t good at all.

Not only had she used up almost all of her mana in the heat of battle, but the battle itself was so intense that the fatigue accumulated in her body was visible even to Zion.

“…It’s okay.

If I relax and get a good night’s sleep today, I’ll be fine.”

“Then today, I will specially allow you to sleep next to me.”

“Get lost, you’re disgusting!”

Of course, Zion knew that wasn’t her true feeling, and Lilith was just saying it out of embarrassment.

She subtly changed the subject, perhaps feeling burdened by Zion’s constant staring.

“Putting yesterday aside, who was the woman you were with before that?”

“If you mean Helen, she returned to the royal palace this morning.

She has things to do, and there were things I asked her to do.”

“Asked?”

“It’s not just about gathering information from other regions; there’s something more important than that.”

“What is it?

Can’t you explain it?”

At Lilith’s question, Zion shook his head and replied.

“You know we’re marching to Nudia tomorrow, right?”

“Roughly.

Isn’t it something like paying them back in the same way they did to us?”

“Similar.

The only difference is that they failed, but we will succeed, or something like that?”

“You sound confident?”

Zion smiled and nodded as if it were obvious.

Currently, besides news about the north and the movements of the fairies, there was one more thing he had asked Helen to do.

That was to inform them of the actions of the radical fairies, causing division and ultimately creating a suitable picture in which they would turn their arrows against each other.

To do that, it was necessary to show them the truth first.

Considering that each and every one of them was a very valuable asset, Zion had another reason for sending Helen back to the royal palace on a griffin, besides the purpose of returning.

‘Surely those fanatical fairies will come out into the open this time, instead of hiding.

And they’ll act as if they are the light and justice, preventing Hispania from advancing further, and at the same time, they’ll shake Nudia to induce them to continue the war with Hispania.’

Still, a large number of Hispania soldiers, and most of the Nudia people, believe that fairies follow the will of light and do nothing harmful to this land.

The command staff knows that the fairies are doing something strange, but they are keeping their mouths shut to the soldiers for now to minimize confusion.

They had been emphasizing themselves as servants of the Celestial race for a long time, and they had even gained legitimacy thanks to their luminous appearance.

Zion predicted that they would definitely use that this time.

While Hispania and Nudia are in conflict, they will subtly appear and pretend to be mediators, saying that everyone is being deceived by the demons and their followers and that they should stop fighting each other, while behind the scenes, they will stimulate the rear of Nudia to somehow frame Hispania as an invading army.

‘They’ll be confident.

They’ll think that even if one of them is caught, they’ll never talk, that there will never be a traitor in carrying out their sacred mission.’

In fact, it was almost impossible to open the mouths of fairies who were crazy about the will of light with human power alone.

They were already a tenacious race, but when they were imbued with a misguided belief, they became beings beyond the level of fanatics, beings that could not be reasoned with, beings that were immune to logic or threats.

But there was something they had overlooked.

That was the fact that Lilith and Kim Yoo-hyun were in Hispania.

They were all people who had a knack for extracting ‘information’ from the other party’s mouth.

‘They still don’t know that the guy who attacked the royal palace and the guys who tried to mess with Klausen ended up divulging information.

Even if they know they were caught, they firmly believe that they didn’t give in and kept their mouths shut, or that they gave false information.

That’s how they were all trained.

But, how easy would that be?

It’s always easier to tell the truth than to make up a lie.’

The fairies who appear in Nudia will say that the evidence presented by Hispania is fake.

They will catch those who betrayed their race and mixed with humans, torture them to make them say false information, and try to cover them with those who follow the great race.

They will ask what they get by doing that, and they will say that they are not really demon followers, and they will try to shake Hispania by saying that.

By doing so, they will create rifts, and by doing so, they will create a world that seeks the Celestial race.

By doing so, they will get rid of those who do not believe in the Celestial race, and when everyone seeks the light, they will welcome the great races and see the light.

This was the rosy future that the radical fairies dreamed of.

‘Roughly, when I look at novels, those heads seem to know at least roughly what the Celestial race is up to, but they still said they would follow it.

That’s why I said it’s dangerous for empty-headed guys to have ideologies and beliefs, and that’s exactly what it is.’

What is the world after that that those Celestial races are talking about that they follow so vehemently?

There is no guarantee that it will be better than the current life, except for the guys who just talk glibly.

Zion didn’t think that those who are not faithful in the present would be any better if they lived a different life in a different world.

“Originally, it’s very easy for a large group to match their words and make the words coming out of the mouths of small groups into lies, right?”

“Isn’t it?”

“If we bring out the fairy we caught as evidence, and the other fairies say they can’t believe it, that they betrayed their race and the light and just went over to the demons and are saying such nonsense, we won’t have anything to say.”

“Isn’t that the truth?”

“It’s a world where if you match your words and say it’s a lie, it becomes a lie.

No matter how much we present it as evidence, if those of the same race cut it off and say that a fairy can never do that, Nudia will eventually fall for it, even if Hispania doesn’t?”

At Zion’s words, Lilith showed a reaction of ‘Then what are you going to do?’

If that’s what he said, then there’s no value in making them spit out information and keeping them alive as witnesses.

‘Of course, it’s not like they’re completely useless.

If you can’t use them as witnesses, you can use them as evidence.’

The moment the fairies make such a claim, they will fall into the trap that Zion wants.

After all, what he wants is not to suppress them with clear evidence, clear logic, and certainty.

It was to disguise the other party’s stubbornness with logic through wordplay, to twist and distort the words so that each listener would think differently depending on their interpretation, and as a result, to make them suspect and suspicious of themselves.

‘I think the work in the north is almost done by now.’

Thinking that, he subtly hugged Lilith and was about to replenish her mana for a while when.

“Master!

Marquis Volko has sent someone!”

“…Anyway, humans have no tact.”

Lilith grumbled, perhaps having secretly expected it even though she said she didn’t like it.

Letting out an awkward laugh, he replied that he would be back quickly, and the demon woman nodded and said, ‘I’ll wash up and wait for you, so don’t be late. If you’re late, you’re really dead?’, uttering words that were quite exciting and subtly scary.

“I’m sorry.

I was going to tell you later, but it was so urgent…”

“Rather, it’s natural.

It’s still wartime from Hispania’s point of view, but I’m the one who’s abnormal.

More than that, the maid outfit yesterday was quite dangerous, Rishi.”

“…Ugh.

Th, that wasn’t my idea, it was Lucia-nim’s idea…”

“But you ended up wearing it, didn’t you?

Looking at it that way, didn’t you also secretly expect to wear such clothes once?”

“N, no!

I will always be your loyal knight…”

To say such a thing when she’s stealing the maids’ work and doing it all herself.

Chuckling inwardly, Zion headed to the room where Marquis Volko was waiting for him.

“Welcome.

I’m sorry to have bothered you while you were busy planning the operation.”

“It’s okay.

I was just taking a break for a while.”

Of course, it’s a blatant lie.

Yesterday, he spent the whole day rolling around with women, and today, he rested all morning, and in the afternoon, he was about to have another big fight with Lilith.

“A magical communication came from the royal palace.

The Queen has allowed the advance into Nudia.”

“What about the late King?”

“He’s still by her side, but she said he’s still not doing well.

When I showed concern about that, the Queen said that if he could still speak, he would have scolded me and shouted to quickly advance into Nudia and get everything we can get.”

“She knows exactly what he would say.”

“So, we decided to advance towards Nudia as planned.

To avoid losing speed, we will use Klausen as a rear base, gather the necessary reserves and supplies from the east and south, leave only the necessary defense forces, and move forward immediately.”

“That’s good.

The Nudia side probably hasn’t even properly gathered the remnants of their troops yet.”

Marquis Volko nodded and beckoned Zion.

Then, he showed the map in front of him and pointed to a certain point.

“This road will probably be our main supply line.

There’s no way to avoid going around a bit, but I’m too worried about Count Basura’s territory to use other roads.”

“That area should already be half-abandoned as the main force of Nudia was swept away.

How about recommending surrender instead?”

“Well.

It’s not like this war has been decided as Nudia’s defeat yet, and if they surrender for nothing and things go wrong, I don’t know what kind of dire ending awaits them, so I don’t know if they’ll surrender right away.”

For reference, the recommendation to surrender was just something he said.

Zion himself knows how much of an idiot the current Count Basura is, the man who coolly kicked away his only sword, Rishikia, and handed it over to Zion.

Even if he surrenders, there’s no one who would benefit from it, and if we eat Count Basura’s territory for nothing and Nudia, who was stimulated by it, just resists and fights until someone dies!

If they change their minds, it could be quite tiring for Zion.

‘It’s not even a waste of effort.

It just causes stomach problems if you eat it.

Anyway, they haven’t even recovered from the previous damage, and they’re a family that’s been abandoned by the Nudia royal family and even the fairies.

He’s a guy who can’t do anything even if Klausen monitors him and blocks him with reserves.’

There’s nothing as dangerous as leaving an enemy behind, but conversely, there’s no need to stir up trouble by touching guys who have no will to resist.

Above all, this is not a task to conquer Nudia, but a task to create cracks to shake Nudia itself, so if we leave Count Basura’s territory as it is, it will be worse for them than being attacked.

“I wanted to ask you who would be good to take on the task of managing this supply line, so I called you.”

“Isn’t that the authority of the commander, Marquis Volko?”

“A commander should listen to the opinions of his staff and coordinate an appropriate conclusion from there.”

Marquis Volko was clearly showing his respect for his staff, who was about the same age as his son.

Rather than making decisions on his own, he was trying to give those who would take over this army and country in the future more practical experience.

‘If so…’

Zion stared at Marquis Volko for a moment, then decided to manage his connections and give an answer that Marquis Volko would be quite pleased with.

“How about appointing the commander’s escort knight as the person in charge of the supply line?”

“…Hmm?”

“I heard that he’s been shutting himself in and constantly honing himself, and wouldn’t you like to see how well his sword cuts, Marquis?”

Marquis Volko’s escort knight was none other than his only son and heir, Ludwig Redenen.

Marquis Volko showed a surprised and embarrassed reaction when Zion mentioned a fact that even the vassals of the Marquis family didn’t know.

“…Did you know?”

“It hasn’t been long.”

“How?”

“The escort knight’s gaze towards me was quite strange, and above all, I felt like he was bringing the escort knight along and showing and teaching him everything about the war.”

“…You noticed even that?

Did you perhaps release people into our family to investigate?”

“Am I crazy to dare to do that to the Marquis family?”

He didn’t release people to investigate.

He just released cats to monitor the command staff and check if information was leaking or if there were any traitors inside.

‘Nyaang!

Zion, I overheard it, but the escort knight definitely called the Marquis his father!

Nyaang!’

‘Oh, well done.

Tteokkeoluk [Rice cake crumbs – a small reward].

This is something that deserves praise.’

Stroking Lia, who was happy with the great deal, Zion decided to prepare a suitable stepping stone for Ludwig, a promising knight.