Two months had passed since Isaac took away Imshi's three puppets.
In those two months, everything returned to calm once more.
With John personally standing guard, no one came again to assassinate Old Chui-de.
The Savant Cathedral also resumed normal operations.
The people of the city seemed to have forgotten the Saint-tier battle that had shaken everything before. Everyone simply returned to their ordinary lives.
That included Hel.
These days, her life consisted of either attending classes…
Or taking care of a child.
That is to say—taking care of Zephyra.
York's matter was clearly not finished. Knight Irina still hadn't returned, so Hel had been the one looking after the little girl this entire time.
As a result, the two of them had grown increasingly close, and Zephyra became more and more attached to Hel.
It was as though she had become Hel's little shadow.
Only, her timid nature had grown even stronger.
Now, whenever they encountered strangers outside, Zephyra would shrink behind Hel like a quail, carefully clutching at the corner of Hel's clothes.
Or she would wrap her arms around Hel's back, burying her childish face against her, as though that alone could bring her safety.
Hel could only sigh helplessly.
With things like this, she had no choice but to postpone the soul-splitting ritual until nighttime.
But at night…
That troublemaker Niv would take advantage of the catgirl Niv's body and crawl straight into Hel's bed, clinging to her as she slept.
Judging by her behavior, she was practically determined to squeeze out every last scrap of Hel's remaining free time.
Of course, Hel was only this busy on her main body's side.
Lyco's clone, on the other hand, had things much easier.
Aside from attending classes, her only task was occasionally visiting the factories outside the city for inspections.
These days, Tina had done an excellent job.
Not only had she seized most of Savant City's market through an overwhelming flood of cheap goods…
She had even expanded distribution through the Heim Merchant Caravan into several countries surrounding the Scholars' Nation.
And what no one had expected was this:
The place where these goods sold best…
Was actually the Gordon Tri-Kingdoms, which had fallen into chaos.
Although those three nations had suffered massive population loss, the nobles who controlled most of the wealth had not been greatly affected.
Their land and gold were still intact.
What had been destroyed were merely cities and buildings.
Furthermore, the royal families of those kingdoms had carried out settlements of noble estates after the disaster, reclaiming titles and territories from houses that had lost heirs.
This allowed the crowns to gather enormous amounts of liquid wealth and land.
Which meant they now had plenty of spare money.
And when a batch of affordable, high-quality goods passed through their lands…
There was no reason to refuse.
Of course—
If the Heim Merchant Association had not been escorted by ten fifth-tier puppet knights and twenty fourth-tier knights…
Those kings and nobles would have much preferred to simply take everything for free.
After all, Hel was only a noble of the Knight Empire, not of their Ymir Empire.
To them, an outsider coming here to earn money was practically an insult to the very name of Ymir.
They were the ones who profited off others.
Since when did others profit off them?
That would be turning heaven upside down.
Fortunately, the journey was uneventful.
And it brought Hel an enormous fortune.
Yet when the Heim Merchant Association returned, they brought more than just wealth.
Behind them came a vast number of refugees.
According to Hel's plans, these refugees could not be allowed to enter Savant City and disrupt her designs.
Thus, she purchased a count's territory and a count's title in the northwest of the Gordon Kingdom.
Yes.
It was that fantastical.
In the Ymir Empire, there was nothing money could not measure.
If there was, it only meant your wealth was not enough.
Witt used only a portion of the profits from this trade and handled everything neatly for Hel.
The only issue was…
The land he bought was mountainous.
Its only structure was a castle perched atop a cliff at the mountain's peak.
Developing such a place would never be easy.
But in a way, it was perfect.
Hel immediately ordered Witt to organize the refugees to build a new city there, using labor-for-relief to support them.
This way, Hel needed only to wait patiently…
And little by little, she could drain the factory owners dry.
However—
Accidents always came when least expected.
The old King of Savant, Giovanni II, had fallen gravely ill.
And the reason was absurd.
The old king had never possessed great talent.
So ten years ago, when he had first ascended the throne, even after expending enormous resources…
He still failed to break into the sixth tier.
And for a king, being unable to reach the sixth tier was fatal.
Even with brilliant political skill and the full support of the Alchemy Academy…
Weakness was weakness.
The nobles would still whisper.
Thus, the old king—who had long suppressed the Skoll School—was forced to choose the Skoll School's bloodline transplantation technique.
And in order to gain the opportunity, he even married Hiness's mother.
All to ease relations with the Skoll Academy.
Yet once his bloodline modification was complete…
He turned his back on them without hesitation.
Especially after Hiness's mother died suddenly of illness, his relationship with the Skoll Academy deteriorated even further.
And at that time, to maintain his base of support—the Mechanical Academy—
He once again began suppressing the Skoll School.
What he had not expected…
Was that more than a decade later, the bloodline within his body would suddenly become unstable.
And as time passed, the problem only worsened.
But by then, he had already offended the Skoll School beyond repair.
Not only had he betrayed them and refused to pay the benefits he once promised…
He had personally sent Hiness—whom the Skoll School supported—to study at the Art Academy…
All to sever her future claim to the throne completely.
So he could only rely on various potions to prolong his life, barely maintaining the balance of bloodline power within him.
Yet all of that was shattered by the battle between John and Isaac.
That golden lightning from the heavens had struck a noble not far from the old Savant King.
The noble's horrific death shocked the king into a stress response—
And, as expected, the bloodline within him erupted violently.
He collapsed, gravely ill.
Even so…
He still refused treatment from Skoll scholars.
In his eyes, after offending them so thoroughly, there was no reason they would come to save him out of kindness…
Unless healing him brought them an even greater benefit.
And as it happened—
He was not wrong.