Chapter 100
The business card's material was exceedingly luxurious. But the content printed on it was utterly tacky.
Bellacups Cardinal of the Papal Court Overflowing with Love and Hope
Immediate audience upon visiting the Papal Court
(Please deliver to the nearest priest.)
I wasn't sure if I should say this, but despite its high-end feel, it really screamed cheap.
"Well then, I'll take my leave. Haha, everyone, relax. Have a wonderful day."
With that, Bellacups Cardinal vanished, leaving behind Percival Benedict Parhenrine's single letter and that godawful business card.
Yaong, who had been hiding in the bushes, came bounding over with excited leaps. Pounding the ground thump-thump while scanning the surroundings, it was brimming with wariness.
「Catherine takes too much weird stuff. Not like you're a trash collector, but you take it every time. Thump-thump. Urk! That paper reeks of vomit!」
At those words, she brought the card close to her nose. The faint unpleasantness she'd sensed from Bellacups Cardinal wafted subtly from it as well.
"Eh, it'll make good kindling."
"No can do. This mansion's got bad vibes. We need to sprinkle salt outside the door or something."
Roze huffed indignantly and stormed off to the kitchen. Yaong, plugging its nose with its cotton-swab paws, followed gleefully.
「Wooow! That'll be fun!」
Catherine returned to her room and unfolded Percival Benedict Parhenrine's letter. It was the first time she'd received anything in writing from him.
To the Recipient, Catherine
It was also the first time seeing his handwriting.
Really... everything about him is consistent, except his personality.
Such straight, orderly script—she'd never seen anything like it. At a glance, it looked like printed newspaper text, every letter perfectly uniform.
And the content? Nothing special.
Leave that mansion.
Seek aid from the Papal Court.
If that's difficult, come to the capital during the Continental Peace Maintenance Conference.
Yeah. Not going.
Catherine neatly folded the letter twice and tossed it into the fireplace. She'd thought since Bellacups Cardinal had delivered it personally, it must contain something momentous. Feeling like a fool for tensing up was an understatement.
Oh. Didn't Magi's telegram arrive this morning too?
She'd heard Magi was doing well in the Imperial Palace, and sure enough, the paper quality of Magi's letter rivaled Percival's. The content was a simple greeting—though for a greeting, it spanned three densely packed pages of rambling stories. Magi must have had a wildly eventful day in the palace.
「……Oh, right. Just in case you didn't know, sister, Charles Kilholder is attending the Continental Peace Maintenance Conference as an observer.」
And that one line at the end of the final page.
Who? Charles Kilholder.
Charles Kilholder is...? The ex-fiancé who cheated with Anne.
Where? The Continental Peace Maintenance Conference.
What for? Attending as an observer.
That single line shot Catherine to her feet. No more deliberations needed.
Using her magic key, Catherine unlocked the door to the drawing room. Before her unfolded the interior of the Panya border guard headquarters.
Bad timing, perhaps—a few knights stepped forward, barking orders with fierce intensity.
"Grandma."
At her call, the Panya Marchioness, standing with a murderous glare, turned her head.
"……Catherine?"
"Sorry for the sudden visit. Do you have time right now? I have something to say. We can do it here."
Normally, the knights would swarm her with questions—how'd you get here, did you learn magic?—but they were too busy rolling their eyes in shock.
The Panya Marchioness, aware of the magic key's existence, nodded indifferently.
"Speak."
"First off, sorry for changing my mind so abruptly. Is my proposal from a few days ago still on the table? I'd like to attend the Continental Peace Maintenance Conference as your aide."
"Quite sudden. What made you change your mind?"
"Charles Kilholder's coming to the capital as an observer for the Continental Peace Maintenance Conference."
The silence lasted only a moment. Her words ignited the deathly quiet guards into a storm of vulgar curses.
"That name rang a bell. It's the bastard we'd tear limb from limb and still not feel satisfied!"
"Take us too, Your Grace! We'll make that sub-viscount piss his pants!"
"Piss? I'll make him shit himself right in the middle of the capital!"
The Panya Marchioness didn't restrain their fervor. Instead, she thumped Catherine's shoulder with a stern gaze.
"Worry not, Catherine. This old bat will assassinate Col Chancellor if she must to bring you along."
Her eyes were sharp enough to make onlookers weak-kneed. Assassination was a bit much, even so...
"Thank you, Grandma."
Good thing she agreed. With the Panya Marchioness, a woman of her word, there was no worry.
Charles. Wonder how he's faring now that Anne's in that state.
How should she torment him this time?
"Your Grace! Me too! Take me!"
"If not us, at least take Captain Karl—he's got the most bandit-like mug among us..."
Catherine slipped through the rowdy knights and returned to the mansion. They were too fired up to even glance her way.
You're mad on my behalf, right?
A whole month left, but the conference day was already thrilling.
Catherine had Roze prepare an ultra-sweet whipped cream cake, savored it, and drifted to sleep.
How much time had passed? When she opened her eyes again, the familiar ceiling was gone.
She floated in a space darker than the night sky. Pinpricks of star-like light swayed like dust everywhere.
Her last memory was lying in bed, on the verge of sleep. Catherine knew exactly where this was.
Deep sea.
The place Chezare had summoned her to from the Lilith Ship. A space reached through dreams.
She swam vigorously downward into the depths. It felt like she'd transformed into a sea creature again. But no matter how deep she went, the beautiful kelp forest from her previous meeting didn't appear.
「You're quite the swimmer. Maybe your past life was a fish.」
His voice echoed from right beside her instead. Heart leaping with joy, she scanned around—but there was only inky, sparkling seawater.
「Chezare. Where are you?」
「Right here. Has been for a while.」
She couldn't see him. Well, if Chezare said he was there, he was.
More pressingly, Catherine asked:
「So, what am I this time? I'm curious.」
Dolphin, electric eel—what next? The movements felt a bit heavy—turtle? Shark? Or maybe...
「The youngest hatchling among sea dragons. You fell asleep so fearlessly in my domain, so I played a little prank.」
...Ah. A dragon, huh.
「You won't get revenge later, right?」
「Revenge? Quite the creative suicide method. It won't remember anyway.」
Catherine wriggled her body. Looking down, she saw enormous limbs covered in scales and a tail as thick as her torso. Estimating its actual size was impossible.
If I'm startled by this level now, it'd bruise my pride.
Catherine stretched her massive form languidly and lay toward what might be the floor or surface.
Chezare still wasn't visible.
「Where are you? I can't see you.」
Then, from the distance, a massive silver torrent shining like the Milky Way swept past her.
「This is my true form.」
So, what the hell was that? Pondering deeply, Catherine ventured cautiously:
「The ocean?」
「You could see it that way. Or merely a current, a vortex.」
「I thought you'd be a bit more...」
「Cool, handsome, gigantic, and grotesquely monstrous?」
「Something like that.」
「I can take that form too.」
The silver torrent flowed over her again. Naturally, no clumsy sea dragon claws grasped her. Aside from its slight warmth and star-like sparkle, it was ordinary seawater.
In that moment, she felt viscerally how utterly different it was from her—a being beyond compare.
「If I accept Lilith's power, will I become like this?」
There'd been no such passage in the guidebook.
「Who knows. But whatever you imagine, it'll surpass it.」
A scary thing to say. She might end up as a handful of dust or something.
Does Chezare hope I become Lilith?
Objectively, it was the choice for world stability. Chezare had rarely opined on her dilemmas—enough to feel a twinge of neglect.
「Hey. When our contract ends, will you feel any regret? Great Demons can always find new contractors.」
After a brief silence, he spoke.
「Catherine.」
「Yes.」
「Life has those things. Voices so ordinary you want to hear them longer, eyes so plain you yearn to gaze longer, moments so mundane they linger forever.」
She nodded. What he described was profoundly human.
「Things that should fade after years, yet remain vivid deep in the mind after centuries. Even after 600 years, unchanged. Probably millennia too.」
She wanted to ask why.
「Even if you ask why, I couldn't answer. Sometimes the world has those irrationals. For me, you.」
The swirling silver torrent beside her felt like it seeped into her chest. Sparkling, tickling.
Chezare was saying she was extraordinarily special. Laughter bubbled up unbidden; she pawed at her mouth.
Did sea dragons grin too?
「You're sweet-talking me now? Telling me to stay a Nephilim.」
Becoming Lilith would instinctively pit her against him.
「They say demons are possessive.」
He chuckled at her tsking tone.
「You don't grasp true greed. Hard for you to understand, but I'm restraining myself with all I have. To a degree I question if such patience existed in me.」
You don't have to hold back.
「Not asking for sympathy. ...Though knowing won't hurt.」
Come to think of it, she'd forgotten amid reality's bustle. She wanted to tell him she loved him until he was sick of it.
But now that the stage was set, the words wouldn't come. Her tongue parched, they swallowed back down.
She could say it 600 years ago. Why was one "I love you" so hard now?
Catherine sought another way to convey her heart.
「I'm content with just Chezare.」
His reply was gentle.
「That's enough for me. This memory will echo until death claims me.」
For some reason, his voice carried an indelible bitterness.