The Ninth Symphony Descends
Meanwhile, in the Imperial Guard Dungeon.
“Ugh… ughhh!”
“Shut your mouth!”
“Uwaaaah! My Constellation!”
By this point, Aisha had finally begun to truly feel the gravity of her situation. She lay sprawled on the floor, wailing uncontrollably.
The knight had told her that while she would remain imprisoned for some time, her execution was all but certain. Numerous constellations were eager to interrogate her, and negotiations were underway through their respective incarnations. Upon hearing this, Aisha’s face drained of all color.
“Why! Why…?”
However, contrary to what the knight had said, it hadn’t even been a full day before the same knight—leading a group of Imperial Guard soldiers—arrived at her cell.
“Hmm?”
Clang!
The cell door opened without any explanation whatsoever.
“Prisoner 2741, step forward.”
In this bewildering situation, Aisha’s mind raced. The constellations were supposedly in discussions, meaning the execution should have been far off. Therefore this was neither an execution nor an interrogation. After all, the underground dungeon doubled as a torture chamber. Hadn’t she flinched every time she saw the iron shackles hanging on the walls? When she first arrived, the stench of blood permeating the prison had tormented her for quite a while. If they intended to interrogate her, there was no reason to drag her out of the cell. Moreover, the presence of not only the guards but a knight as well indicated this was clearly some sort of official proceeding.
After rapidly analyzing the given circumstances, Aisha’s brilliant mind soon arrived at an answer.
“Hmm, so that’s how it is.”
“Huh?”
The knight stared at her with an expression that seemed to ask if she had finally lost her mind. But he soon shook his head, remembering that this woman had always been crazy.
Regardless, Aisha continued speaking, her face twisted with irritation.
“Released in just a single day? It happened sooner than I anticipated. It seems our Constellation has exerted some effort on my behalf.”
“Released…?”
“Well, that’s that. But before I leave, shouldn’t I first receive an apology for the rudeness you all have shown me?”
Despite the tear stains still visible on her face, she tilted her head with an arrogant expression. The knight spoke as if he found it absurd.
“What kind of nonsense is this? This is an execution, Prisoner 2741. Drag her out!”
“Yes sir!”
“W-wait! What nonsense are you spouting! Quickly say it’s a joke! I’ll forgive you!”
The guards grabbed both of Aisha’s arms as she flailed pathetically and dragged her along.
“Let go of me! Constellation! My Constellation!”
The Seeker of Supreme Knowledge tells you to maintain your dignity.
“Se… Seeker?”
Aisha, who had been struggling, suddenly stopped thrashing about and stared blankly into the air with a dazed expression.
“This bitch is throwing a fit again…”
The knight unconsciously muttered his inner thoughts and quickly covered his mouth in surprise. It was behavior unbefitting his usual dignity, but he simply couldn’t hold back against the formidable opponent known as Aisha. Even so, the knight thought her performance was quite realistic. To someone seeing her for the first time, it would look as though she had truly received a message from a constellation.
While the knight was thinking this, Aisha’s eyes were trembling violently.
The Seeker of Supreme Knowledge says there is nothing to worry about.
The Seeker of Supreme Knowledge says he has been watching over you the entire time.
“As expected… As expected, you were watching!”
The Seeker of Supreme Knowledge apologizes for arriving late.
The Seeker of Supreme Knowledge says, however, that this was all part of a larger plan.
“It’s nothing! I had faith in you the entire time!”
Bang!
“Be quiet!”
The knight, unable to watch her performance any longer, struck her on the head. Of course, her acting had been so convincing that he had secretly asked his own constellation just to be sure. The answer he received was that the woman before him had no contracted constellation.
“Ugh! My Constellation! Would it be acceptable to slaughter every last one of these insolent fools?!”
“Crazy bitch…”
The Seeker of Supreme Knowledge tells you to endure it a little longer.
“Understood…”
After walking for roughly another thirty minutes, the group finally reached the execution grounds. What had seemed an unnecessarily long distance turned out to be the public execution square in the heart of the capital rather than the prison’s own facility. Waiting there were citizens who had come to watch the spectacle, along with a senior knight from the Rampart Knights.
The knight who had brought Aisha finally understood the situation. The Rampart Knight was also the incarnation of the Ruler of Serpents and Darkness.
Damn it, I’ve been dragged into something troublesome.
Just as the knight had suspected, the reason the execution was proceeding far faster than originally planned was due to pressure from the Underworld constellation group. As the Princess of Frost had predicted, the Underworld had intended to use this incident to attack the 72 Demons regardless of who the actual culprit was. While the Ruler of Serpents and Darkness, whose reputation had been damaged, naturally wanted to find the real perpetrator, the Underworld had suffered no real loss. Rather than go through the hassle of identifying the true culprit, they had chosen to use the event as convenient justification.
From their perspective, it would be problematic if Aisha drew attention and some strange name slipped from her lips. That was why they had avoided mentioning her and planned to quietly execute her later to seal her mouth. If public opinion seemed to shift toward the 72 Demons, they could always torture her into giving a false confession.
But then—ta-da! Out of nowhere, a top-tier constellation had appeared claiming to be the culprit. What was worse, public opinion was already ablaze because the incident had begun with them abducting the incarnation of that very top-tier constellation (though at the time he had been the lowest rank). The 72 Demons had become the pitiful victims wrongly accused and attacked. From the Underworld’s standpoint, there wasn’t a single aspect of this that didn’t cause irritation.
At this point, the Underworld needed to save face. The easiest way to do so was to publicly execute Aisha. This would restore the honor of the Ruler of Serpents and Darkness, who had suffered the most from the incident, while also demonstrating that no one could touch the Underworld—even if that someone was the incarnation of a top-tier constellation.
The Underworld’s calculation had been simple. The Seeker of Supreme Knowledge would accept Aisha as his incarnation, but in the end he was only one constellation. If one thought about it, the 72 Demons were also victims caught up in the Seeker of Supreme Knowledge’s outrageous act of terrorism. While it was true the Underworld had grabbed the 72 Demons by the hair first, the root cause lay with the Seeker of Supreme Knowledge. Naturally, the 72 Demons’ feelings toward him would be negative. Therefore they would not care whether Aisha was executed. In fact, they would probably welcome it.
The lower and mid-tier constellations’ opinion favored the Seeker of Supreme Knowledge? So what? The Underworld was one of the five strongest constellation groups in existence. They possessed enough power to ignore such things. Finally, executing her would mean open hostility with the Seeker of Supreme Knowledge… but that was no problem at all. After all, he had already publicly sniped the Great Warrior of Tartarus, a top-tier constellation belonging to the Underworld.
In other words, executing Aisha was an action that carried no risk and only benefits. That was what they had concluded.
The Underworld’s thinking was not wrong. The only exception was that, thanks to the Seeker of Supreme Knowledge’s smooth talking, the 72 Demons and the Seeker of Supreme Knowledge had now become allies.
The Rampart Knight stepped forward. The Rampart Knights were the empire’s elite order tasked with defending the capital. Since they frequently worked with the Imperial Guard who maintained public order in the city, the guard knight naturally knew that the man before him was the incarnation of the Ruler of Serpents and Darkness.
“We will begin the execution. Hand over the prisoner.”
Since Aisha was not yet even an incarnation, the guard knight passed her to the Rampart Knight.
Now that I think about it, why has she become so quiet?
He wondered for a moment but soon understood. She must have finally accepted the reality of her impending death.
Aisha climbed onto the gallows. The citizens of the capital swallowed nervously as they stared at her. On one side, a knight was reading out her crimes. The moment the executioner moved to place the noose around her neck—
Flash—!
A brilliant halo erupted from behind her.
“Huh? Wha…?”
“What is this?”
A blinding radiance poured forth, accompanied by a sacred song in a language they could not understand. A heart-stirring melody—known in some worlds as Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony—washed over the square.
“Ahh…”
“It’s a saintess…”
“No, it’s a divine messenger! The Constellation’s apostle!”
The citizens who had come to watch the public execution burst into fervent cheers. The quick-witted Aisha was startled for only a moment before she grasped the situation. She swiftly closed her eyes, adopting a pious expression, clasped her hands together in prayer, and bit down hard on her tongue. Tears welled up from the pain. Regardless of the truth, the sight of her shedding a single tear in such a reverent pose harmonized perfectly with the music.
As the music gradually faded, the guard knight received a message from the constellation he had contracted with. The woman standing on the gallows had become the incarnation of the top-tier constellation known as the Seeker of Supreme Knowledge. Moreover, in this world that continued to exist only through the constellations’ assistance, human laws held no power to arbitrarily execute a constellation’s incarnation.
The knight shouted.
“Halt the execution!”
[Princess of Frost] Seeker! What in the world was that just now!
[Princess of Frost] It was a sacred song that seemed to drain one’s stamina just by listening!
[Princess of Frost] Moreover, I am also a top-tier constellation, yet
[Princess of Frost] when I formed a contract with my incarnation, there was no such effect!
[Seeker of Supreme Knowledge] Ah.
[Seeker of Supreme Knowledge] It’s not any kind of special effect.
[Seeker of Supreme Knowledge] I simply adjusted the voice message settings slightly
[Seeker of Supreme Knowledge] and sent it so that everyone could hear.
[Princess of Frost] !
“Ugh… my credits.”
The song had cut off midway because the credits had run out.