Book 14: Chapter 27
I didn’t see anybody I was familiar with at Hilles City. I didn’t even see Castell, let alone Mommy Elizabeth. It suddenly occurred to me she most likely went looking for Mommy Vyvyan; I was certain of that. I was out of time to return, though. I didn’t think the two of them would fight.
I went to Troy City next. Upon arrival, I was shocked to discover Mommy Vyvyan and Mommy Elizabeth’s statue had been demolished. The new project they were working on there was a statue of me. It was the first time I’d seen such a massive statue. My moms’ statues were demolished, and then added together to make my statue. However, it seemed a little excessively large and expensive. The base alone was made using gold and embedded diamonds.
Troy City hadn’t existed for even one year. Where would we have so much money from? I told them to halt the project, only to be surprised by the news that taxes at Troy City had been raised by four times and an extra year of taxes was collected. Anyone who couldn’t pay their taxes laboured away day and night to build the statue. Talk about an unimaginable scenario. I never thought about erecting a statue of myself. If we had to erect one, a water fountain or a normal large stone statue would suffice. Why splurge on such expensive gold and wring the people dry? Those were signs of a nation meeting its doom.
“Who ordered you to do this?! Who ordered you to do this?!!” I raged.
It was the first time I grabbed somebody by their collar and raged so aggressively. I really did want to bite his neck off. Troy City was my city. It was my moms’ gift for me. I liked the city named after me. I put in a lot of effort to return the city to normal. I didn’t want this city to become hell on Earth. When I stood atop the hill and admired the flowers all around, I felt a big sense of accomplishment, but then I found out that it costs these citizens their blood, sweat and tears.
“Why did it turn out this way? There’s no way Freya could’ve done this!” I shouted in my mind.
Nier and Lucia didn’t involve themselves in politics. This sort of commemoration activity was definitely not something the two of them would do. Freya would stop them even if they lost their minds and wanted to go through with it. Freya would never do something akin to digging your own grave.
“It was Princess Freya! It was Princess Freya’s command! She… she erected an even larger statue in the North. She took all sorts of expensive gold and diamonds, and delivered them to the North. This is just a small statue. All of Troy City’s money has been sent to the North! Virtually all of it!” explained the panic-stricken General Manager.
The surprise and shock almost put out my anger. I was shocked. I never thought Freya would be the one to give the order and come up with the idea.