Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

No, to begin with, it was all her fault. If not for her being so exceptional as to build her own merchant guild and threaten his position all these years, he could have grown his faction much bigger than what it was now.

'If only she had died in that forest all those years ago, I wouldn't have fallen out of grace like this' Alstin cursed inwardly.

A couple of years ago when he found an excuse to send his sister to the remote city of Moutnmend, he had planned to get rid of her than by sending assassins.

Jeeves who was working for him in the shadows, reported her every action to him. However, to his dismay, not only did she return alive from the trip, he lost his important pawn and the Cerberus broke all ties with him ever since then.

To make matters worse, now there were even rumours going on about her being alive. Even after death, she was making things difficult for him. As much as he hated her for ruining his plans, he couldn't say all that to Lucas.

"I see then isn't it a good thing? If Princess Cynthia is really alive, she can finally be with me"…

"Haha… right. It is as you said, if the news is really true, then nothing will make me happy to see you together"

While he said that out front, inwardly he was (You fucking obsessive bastard, if not because I need your aid right now, I would have sent you to the gallows. It's disgusting how much you can get infatuated over someone).

He had known Lucas long enough to know all of his disgusting behaviours. His sister had never shown any interest towards this guy, it was all in his head that she liked him.

.

.

City of Mountmend… Sitting atop a mountain, the city was not like what it was before. Although not wealthy, the city was once filled with vibrant people and full of life. However, after the capital fell, injured soldiers and people who had lost everything flooded the surrounding regions.

The city of Mountment was no exception, homeless and destitute people crowded the streets of the city. With nowhere else to go, they could only rely on the cities who have yet to fall.

Count Alfred Eude Bergest who was one of the few royals who actually cared about his populace, didn't have the heart to send all of these people away. He did everything he could to help them.

However, things turned for the worse again after the tower town was taken over by some kind of shady organisations and all trade and network was cut off.

The city which primarily lived with its trade from the monster parts and merchants that came from the tower town, suddenly lost its source of income. In a situation like this, the condition of the city went from bad to worse.

With no supply of food and the threat of looming war, even the average population of the city had nothing to eat. Much less needs to be said for those homeless people.

Piles of bodies lay on the ground, unknown whether they were alive or not. The city was not only surrounded by a dark atmosphere, it even gave off a bad stench.

On this day, an unusual group of people visited the city. Alfred who rarely dressed in his noble attire, did so for this occasion and came out of his manor to invite the guests in.

Usually, he gave this job to his butler or maids; however, the identity of this guest was simply too special to delegate to his subordinates. Thus, the count came out personally to invite them in.

The manor of Count Alfred wasn't an extravagant one, although it was called a manor, it wasn't in a too good of a condition.

The colours of the wall had lost their vibrancy, subdued by the war and tears of the season. Moss and wild vines hung tenaciously to the edges of the manor showing nature's claim over the place.

It was not only the exterior of the manor that saw its time, the interior of the manor was no different. Cobwebs adorned corners and archways, dimly lit halls with only lamps and other low quality lanterns to light the halls.

Forget about chandeliers, there was not even a piece of decoration that looked like it was worth something inside the manor. Everything and anything of value was sold off to run the city.

After Alfred brought them inside a hall used for entertaining guests, they sat on what looked like antiquated furnishings.

"Bring some tea and snacks for our guests" He ordered his few servants who still remained employed despite Alfred not being able to pay them their wages.

"It looks like you are not doing well for yourself, Aflred"

The guest sitting on the head seat spoke. To be able to call a count with their name, the guest's identity was at the very least equal or above theirs.

"Haha, it's as you say, your highness. However, compared to the people of the city, I am still living too well"

Alfred spoke looking at the woman in front of him with incredulous eyes. Why would he not? After all, the person sitting opposite to him was none other than the sole princess of Ellesmere who had supposedly died in the incident in the capital.

"You are being too humble. I haven't seen any noble who lives so modestly and cares so much for their populace. If I didn't know you, the thought that this was a house of a noble, wouldn't even cross my mind"

It was as she had said, most nobles usually lived a life of extravagance. It did not matter to them if their populace was dying of hunger or were unable to fend for themselves, their first and foremost interest was to safeguard their possession and wealth.

Which is why, seeing a noble like Alfred who sold off his possessions just to support the populace was such an oddity.

Cynthia and Alfred chattered on, reminiscing about the old times. Finally as if unable to keep it to himself, the count spoke.

"Your Highness… you are really alive!!" His tone was a mix of confirmation, disbelief, surprise and relief.

"That's right, I'm alive and well just as you can see"…

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"Then all those reports about your death in the capital and that weird news about you appearing in the dungeon town?".

Knowing that the news of her being alive would surprise anyone, Cynthia explained her situation—

"The reports about me dying in the capital are false. I didn't die in the incident when the capital fell. On the contrary, I wasn't even there. I had run off from the capital to avoid being used as a political tool by my brothers. Running and constantly avoiding their pursuit, I arrived at the tower town. The news you received from people witnessing me in the dungeon town is true. I have been living there for the past few months"…

"You have been living in the dungeon town? Hasn't that place already been taken over by the criminal organisations? Don't tell me Your Highness that you were taken hostage by them?"

Hearing that Cynthia was living in the dangerous dungeon town, Alfred couldn't help but exclaim. He had sent several spies of his to assess the situation of the town which is why he knew that the town had been converted into a den of criminals after the takeover.

To have survived in that kind of condition, Alfred couldn't help but become impressed inwardly.

"The tower town you know about is no longer the same. In fact, one of my objectives behind coming here, was to let you know that the trade routes between Tower Town and Mountmend would reopen once again. Not only that, the custom duty on goods travelling to Mountmend would also be alleviated for a year. About the routes that connect the two towns, I was thinking about levying an excise tax on the carriages… "

Cynthia kept on talking about multiple topics causing the Directly support the authors on WebNovel!

already confused Alfred to become even more baffled.

"Wait… wait a minute Your Highness. What do you mean by all this? What do you mean when you said that the tower town is no longer the same?"

"About that, let me fill in to the count" Alvara who was among the few people accompanying Cynthia, spoke.

She told Alfred about everything that happened in the tower town in the past few days. After the Count of Mountmend heard everything, he was stupefied for a good long while.

The content of the tales, from the start of the insurrection by the few revolters and how Her Highness and the others came to their rescue to how they took back the tower town from the hands of the criminal organisations was so thrilling that Alfred did not even have time to breathe in between the story.

He couldn't believe all that happened in the tower town and he got no report about it from his subordinates.

"I have blocked all communication going in and out of the town. Every person and transmission are strictly monitored so as to avoid leaking of any information. This is how I found out your subordinates are also inside the town. They tried to explain their reasoning; however, I still stopped them from reporting"

"As you can see, the tower town has just begun growing anew again and I don't want anyone to know about the place or what happened there yet".

So that was the reason, no wonder his subordinates didn't send any report back. It was because it was the princess who had sealed off the entire town.