Chapter 150
Chapter 150
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 150
Chapter Title: Invitation (3)
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Fainol downed the pre-meal wine with an expressionless face.
She couldn't even remember how many glasses it had been, but judging by the bewildered look from the waiter who'd been diligently serving her, it must have been quite a lot.
It wasn't like her at all.
She wasn't the type to enjoy drinking, and chugging aperitifs like this was teetering on the edge between rudeness and outright eccentricity—something her usual self would never do.
‘...Amazing.’
But right now, none of that mattered.
Fainol let a faint smile creep inside as the subtle grape aroma tickled her nose.
Her sense of taste was definitely coming back, even if just a little. All thanks to that man, no doubt.
“Does it feel uncomfortable or something?”
Such words drifted from the seat beside her.
Turning her head, she saw the Tristan Duchess. Staring at her with that perpetual blank expression she always wore.
It had to look strange, her current state. That's why the duchess was saying that.
“...The dress is a bit uncomfortable.”
Fainol smiled as she replied, and Elnor tilted her head in response.
“The chest area does look awfully tight. Why would someone with such ample... assets wear something so constricting?”
“...”
“Having a large chest does come with its inconveniences. I'll share some useful tips, so listen well.”
“...I'll keep that in mind, Tristan Duchess.”
*You're one to talk, with yours even bigger.*
Fainol chuckled inwardly and continued.
“It was just a metaphorical way of saying this isn't a familiar place for me.”
She figured it was better to brush it off vaguely than admit she'd lost most of her senses for so long and was only now starting to feel them again, even faintly.
The statement itself was undeniably true, though.
“I was a commoner, after all. I never had the chance to attend a gathering this grand.”
Sure, it was just a dinner, but the guest of honor was a powerhouse rivaling the emperor.
An army of staff bustled around like a small regiment just to prepare.
“As a mage tower apprentice, you must have had plenty of opportunities to enter high society.”
Fainol's eyes widened as she looked at Elnor.
How did this woman know about her past?
“The student council handles the management of all students' personal records.”
Elnor continued in her usual curt tone.
“I heard you have ties to Dean Persy of the Magic Faculty. Or am I wrong?”
“...”
Fainol gave a wry smile and set her glass down.
A painful past. One she didn't particularly want to recall.
The name Persy Syston Levantyn still remained as the deepest scar in her heart.
“...We do have a connection.”
So, for now, she'd let it slide like that.
Elnor didn't press further upon hearing it. She'd picked up on the complex emotions laced in Fainol's voice.
“A commoner, you say. Where from?”
“A small village in the north. You probably wouldn't know it even if I told you.”
“I see.”
“...It was a beautiful place.”
As she said that, Fainol gazed at the wine sloshing in her glass with sunken eyes.
Blood red.
“Until a certain... accident.”
Just like the night she lost control and burned the entire village to the ground.
Elnor stared silently at Fainol after hearing that, but she avoided the gaze and downed another glass of wine.
The alcohol was clearly taking effect. Spilling useless things of her own accord like this.
‘...What am I doing, Fainol.’
Was she nostalgic for her ordinary days now, of all times?
For a monster like her—who'd destroyed her own hometown with her own hands, lost her place in the world, and even wounded the benefactor who'd taken her in?
The Red Night Incident, recorded as one of the empire's worst disasters, was her doing. The work of the red demon slumbering within her.
“...Do you know anything about His Excellency the Prime Minister?”
She forcibly steered the topic elsewhere.
It wasn't too far off from the occasion, either.
She was here because of him, and so was the Tristan Duchess.
Elnor paused in silence before answering, seemingly sensing Fainol's mood.
“...I ran into him a few times when we were young.”
Their age difference wasn't much, so she remembered him well.
“How was he?”
“My impression was that he was obnoxiously brilliant.”
Fainol chuckled.
Yeah, that tracked.
He was the kind of man who could push even her—the heir of a top-tier swordsmanship house among the continent's great noble families, praised as a generational prodigy—to second place.
A self-made man who rose from the lowliest dregs of imperial nobility to the very pinnacle.
“...It's unbelievable.”
A young woman who hadn't even lived half her life becoming the empire's top military commander? Just a few years ago, it would've been the stuff of fiction, impossible to find even in novels.
It probably was, until Sullivan first made his mark.
Now, no one dared mock that fact.
Anyone who tried was long dead.
“...”
Fainol gave a bitter smile.
Yes, Elnor was right about everything.
Except for one thing.
“It's not unbelievable.”
“Hm?”
The red demon slumbering deep in her heart was among the most violent of all demons. They didn't talk often, but.
Even without words, harboring a demon meant learning certain things naturally.
For example.
“A man who could've reached Prime Minister with just time—how much further would he go knowing the future?”
Sullivan the Prime Minister.
Was undoubtedly the same 'type' as her.
“...What?”
Elnor tilted her head and asked again, but Fainol sighed instead of elaborating.
There was no time for more explanation.
“His Excellency is entering. All rise!”
With those words, the servants bustling nearby scattered in perfect order.
Tension was plain on every face.
‘...Well, yeah.’
The woman they faced was the Iron Lady—no one who'd opposed her had survived. Worrying about falling from her favor was only natural.
And so.
When that Iron Lady entered the hall, arm-in-arm with a single man, intimately.
Unconcealed shock rippled across everyone's faces.
As if.
He were her lover, flaunting it for all to see.
“My, has something happened?”
As the Prime Minister casually said that,
Fainol stifled a laugh inside upon seeing Dawood being dragged along with a deadpan face.
Yeah. Most of the messes that man got into were self-inflicted, but this time, he was clearly a victim.
He hadn't done anything 'now' to deserve it, after all.
‘...Oops.’
But to those unaware, it wouldn't matter.
Elnor's face crumpled rapidly at the sight of Dawood with their arms linked tight.
●
[System Message]
[ Target 'Elnor’s' corruption level rises sharply! ]
“...”
Sorry, Elnor.
I couldn't stop it.
Thinking that, she was dragged by the Prime Minister to the seat beside her.
She'd tried escaping a few times en route, but each time, the Prime Minister fixed her with dead eyes, leaving no choice.
It felt like she'd really get hurt if she kept going.
[But you said there's no demon fragment. Doesn't that mean no rampage?]
‘Even so, who'd pick a fight with the Prime Minister?’
[Fair point.]
Kaliban chuckled in agreement.
‘...And even setting that aside, it's dangerous.’
Even without the fragment, the sense that this woman could wield 'demonic power' was near certainty.
The problem was, she couldn't even guess what kind.
She knew of only six demons total. No others.
‘...Could there really be more?’
Even she, who'd delved deep into Savior Rising's lore, had never heard of it.
Yet this woman.
Was a demon.
Or at least, had definitely harbored that fragment once.
Utterly different from her own faux-demon act via the Seal of Another World.
In the meantime, the servants who'd set the food bowed deeply and exited the hall. Probably on Sullivan's prior orders.
“...”
And the moment she saw that.
My insides burned black.
Clearing the servants meant the upcoming talk was one no one else needed to hear.
“First off, thank you for accepting my invitation. Tristan Duchess. And...”
Sullivan opened with that, his gaze shifting slightly to pin on Fainol's face.
“...An unexpected face is here.”
With his trademark gentle smile, he continued.
“Well, no matter. It's something you'd hear anyway.”
“...What is it you wish to say, Your Excellency?”
Elnor replied, her blank face emitting fierce red-glowing eyes.
Rude for a duchess addressing the Prime Minister, but Sullivan didn't blink.
As if he'd cleared the room precisely for this.
And right away.
“I'd like this to be conveyed to all the other women around this man as well.”
The Prime Minister dropped the bomb.
“Don't even think of approaching my husband.”
“...”
“...”
Elnor and Fainol blinked in unison.
The words came out of nowhere, no warning—shock evaporated their wits before anger could form.
The Prime Minister, who'd said it, calmly served food from the dishes with utensils, gentle smile unchanged.
As if it were no big declaration.
Just stating an obvious right as a matter of course.
“...”
And I was the same.
My brain flatlined hard.
Husband?
What the hell...?
“...Are you saying you're going to marry him?”
Fainol asked in a slightly dazed voice.
Even for someone devoid of emotions, staying calm at that was apparently tough.
Given her position, it'd send ripples across the continent.
But.
“Yes.”
The answer flowed out so naturally.
As if questioning something so obvious.
“...Your Excellency.”
Elnor opened with a frosty voice.
Not just frosty—her words brimmed with killing intent thick enough to shred Sullivan if they had physical force.
“That man is engaged to me. Surely you know—”
“I know, Tristan Duchess. That's why I'm emphasizing it to you.”
Facing Elnor, whose words could almost kill, Sullivan's gentle smile never wavered. Impressive.
“A woman as unqualified as you will never have this man.”
“...What do you mean, unqualified?”
At that, Sullivan's smile deepened further.
“Tristan Duchess.”
As if he'd been waiting for her to ask.
“Because of you, war might break out any day now.”
“...”
Hearing that.
My blood ran cold.
It was a fixed line from the game.
The trigger for a 'specific event.'
‘Kaliban.’
[Yeah?]
‘Go to sleep for a bit.’
[What? No, what—]
Ignoring Kaliban's bewilderment, I detached the Soul Linker from my arm and tucked it into my pocket.
What Sullivan was about to say.
This guy absolutely couldn't hear it.
“...War? What on earth do you mean?”
“Tristan Duchess.”
And then.
“Have you ever heard of the ‘Hero Selection’?”
With Sullivan's words, a system window popped up before my eyes.
[System Message]
[ Main scenario shifts due to status change in target ‘Sullivan.’ ]
[ Starting point of 〖 Chapter 4 – Red Night 〗 changes! ]
“...”
Yeah. I knew this.
It was the line signaling Chapter 4's start.
The chapter that created one of the scenario's biggest turning points.
“...”
I unconsciously stroked the Soul Linker in my pocket.
Why Chapter 4 was the scenario's greatest branch point was simple.
Not just because Fainol—one of the demon vessels—appeared as the final boss.
‘...Eliya.’
It was the chapter where this world's 'original protagonist'
got most deeply entangled.
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