The Devil's Gaze
A mirror realm filled entirely with shades of gray. Envy watched the world beyond the glass, laughing with open delight. "Ian, hang in there! You got this!"
Her fondness for him aside, Envy wasn't worried in the slightest. Hands bound, legs useless—the worst possible situation. How could anyone escape from that? An ordinary human would die no matter how many hundreds of times they repeated the attempt, yet...
If it's Ian, maybe he'll suddenly awaken and unleash aMind Sword...
It defied common sense for someone who had never formally trained with a blade to ascend to the highest realm, but with Ian, nothing was certain. The Ian from back then was truly... magnificent.
Remembering him from the first round sent a shiver of pleasure through her so intense it bordered on ecstasy. She unconsciously reached toward him.
Crack—
"Eek."
Sparks flew and her arm was incinerated in an instant, the effect of the divine power sealed inside the artifact. Even with one arm gone she didn't utter a single scream.
"Looks like full manifestation is still beyond me."
Sighing, Envy pressed her face against the mirror until her lips nearly brushed its surface. She extended her tongue and licked the glass with careful reverence.
Lick—
Marking what she treasured with her saliva. Even this was Envy's way of expressing her love for him.
Zap—
A faint sting of static electricity flicked across her tongue, but it was a small price to pay. She gazed at the struggling Ian with a warm, satisfied smile.
Ian, do you have any idea how extraordinary your potential is...?
She who had watched his growth in real time during that first round had felt an ecstasy beyond words. To see a weak creature who had once been beneath her transform day by day into something magnificent was... a pinnacle of pleasure that threatened to invade every corner of her mind. Even after eons of existence, it was the first time she had felt anything like it.
How many heroes and geniuses had she witnessed? Some pursued good, others evil, still others neutrality, yet none had ever surprised her the way Ian did.
As the Devil of Jealousy, she should have felt inferiority toward his monstrous growth, but...
Strange. With Ian, I feel none of that at all.
Having claimed the Seat of Jealousy, she was condemned to live forever drenched in that sticky emotion. Envy might appear cheerful and almost human at first glance—unlike what one would expect from a devil—but that was only a surface mask. Inside, she was always jealous of someone.
Even now, thousands of "wills" churned and raged within her psyche.
So noisy.
She had listened to them for tens of thousands of years yet had never grown used to them. Still, these voices were not directed at Ian himself; they were jealous of the humans connected to him. Toward Ian she felt no negative emotions whatsoever.
Which means if I stay with Ian for eons, maybe these damn voices will finally disappear?
It was an utterly twisted line of thought. Truly inhuman.
Thud thud thud thud—!
The sound of soldiers running outside reached even this place. If their footsteps carried this far, they had truly arrived.
"Time's almost up, Ian...? Looks like you'll have to create something new again, won't you?"
The man he would become was an irregular who leaped over impossible gaps time and again. He was no fragile thing who would fall to mere imperial soldiers.
Before long, cute little horns had sprouted above Envy's dark-crimson hair—a clear sign of excitement.
"Come on, show me again...! Your strength...!"
Envy wore an ecstatic smile, eagerly anticipating the scene that would soon unfold.
However, there was one thing she had misunderstood...
The Ian of this life existed in an environment vastly different from the one he had faced in the first round. In some ways, it was no exaggeration to call it the single largest variable created by the regressors.
Wrists bound. Legs unusable. Evangeline, who had fainted, seemed to be recovering—her breathing had grown steady.
She's a princess after all; her body is resilient.
Even without the Magic Eye, a princess would have been fed every precious elixir imaginable from a young age. At this rate she would wake up soon.
Damn it. Looks like that method is the only choice after all.
In this hopeless situation, Ian had still managed to devise a plan. The only problem was... the consequences terrified him.
Once I escape, I have to find Lumiela no matter what.
With her support, he was certain he could at least avoid death. Just as Ian prepared to act—
Knock knock—!
Someone rapped on the door from outside.
"Fourth Princess! We heard a scream—are you all right?"
Already here?
Faster than expected. Ian immediately dropped to his knees and began dragging himself across the floor with his elbows.
Shuffling— Enduring the agony in his leg, he crawled toward Evangeline. He snatched up the slender sword that had fallen beside her.
Fighting all the imperial soldiers with this was obviously impossible. Therefore it had only one purpose.
Normally I'd cut the ropes first, but...
Instead, he would use it to tear something softer.
Riiip—
Even bound and unable to apply full strength, Ian instinctively knew how to regulate power while restrained. His heaven-defying talent allowed him to master anything that took the form of a sword.
He wrung out every last ounce of strength, twisting his wrist with final effort.
One chance.
Ian flicked his wrist and hurled the slender sword.
Whoosh—
The angle was off, the power lacking, yet the transcendent technique that encompassed all of it struck its target with perfect precision.
Crash!
The sound of shattering glass. Success.
At the sudden roar the soldiers kicked the door open and burst inside.
"Princess! What happened?!"
Each imperial soldier possessed strength rivaling a knight. They flooded into Evangeline's room radiating killing intent.
How dare some audacious bastard intrude upon the princess's chambers...!
As they entered to identify the intruder, they were met with a shocking sight.
"......!"
While the soldiers stood stunned, Evangeline, who had been collapsed on the floor, slowly regained consciousness at the commotion.
"Mm... uhh...?"
She looked around at them in confusion. "What is going on...? And where did that escort from earlier go...? Huh?"
When the soldiers simply stared at her in silence, she finally sensed something was wrong and slowly lowered her gaze. Pure white skin and bare breasts were revealed. Her clothes had been torn to shreds.
"Kyaaaaaaaah—!"
"Everyone, cover your eyes! If any of you directs even the slightest unpleasant gaze toward the princess, I will not forgive you!"
"Understood!"
The soldiers immediately squeezed their eyes shut. Evangeline screamed, tears welling from humiliation.
"That—that damn escort—! Find him right now!"
Inside the Full Moon Palace, a soldier promptly reported to a knight clad in ornate armor.
"We searched everywhere but found no trace. The broken window suggests he may have fled to another palace?"
A reasonable guess, yet the knight spoke in a somewhat unconvinced tone. "No. He may still be hiding inside the Full Moon Palace, waiting for an opportunity. Leave some troops on emergency standby just in case."
"Yes sir!"
As the soldier turned to leave with an energetic reply, the knight eyed him strangely.
"Wait."
"W-what is it...?"
When the soldier faltered, the knight asked suspiciously, "What was your name again?"
The soldier laughed. "Hey, Captain, what's this about? Didn't we share a drink last time?"
The knight searched his memory. "...Hm. That's right? I think we drank together in the Moonrise Palace garden, but the memory's hazy."
"Of course! You were so drunk it was a whole mess..."
Clang—
The knight drew his sword in an instant and pressed the blade to the soldier's neck.
"I can't listen to any more. Who are you?"
Even under the threat the soldier answered calmly. "...Who am I? I'm John. John Doe. My dream was to become a cook."
"There is no soldier by that name."
"......"
Fuck.
John Doe—no, Ian—was flustered. To think I'd get caught like this.
Earlier, while secretly hiding in Evangeline's bathroom, he had subdued a soldier in a surprise attack, stolen his uniform, and put it on. He had tried to slip out of the palace naturally afterward, but with soldiers posted everywhere he couldn't leave recklessly.
If I walk out now, anyone would find it suspicious.
He had approached the knight to create a plausible excuse, never imagining he would be exposed so quickly...
The knight glared at him coldly. "Drinking in the Moonrise Palace...? Are you in your right mind? Simply 'seeing' that place is already a grave crime for a common soldier, let alone drinking there."
"Couldn't one have a secret drink? A small taste of freedom in this stifling palace life... Urk."
Slice— Blood trickled from the shallow cut at his neck. A warning that any further slip would cost him his head.
"Stop playing with words and state your identity. Did you think I wouldn't notice you were buying time?"
"I-I'm..."
Serena, the Sword Ghost, was both stunned and impressed. "Wow, so once you sit on the Seat you're forced to suffer from a specific 'urge' for the rest of your life...?"
"Pretty much. It's closer to an eternal curse, really."
Envy answered casually, yet her words carried the weight of years Serena could not begin to imagine. Serena looked at her carefully.
"Then... do you also get impulses like wanting to die...?"
"Huh? Why would that..."
Envy stared at her in genuine confusion.
"It sounds so hard... Hearing thousands of voices every single moment... Ugh. I definitely couldn't endure it..."
Serena shuddered and hugged her arms as if imagining it.
"Hmm, well..."
Envy thought for a moment. "It's gotten a little better lately. Probably thanks to Ian."
"Whew, that's a relief... By the way, are you planning to keep living like this with Olivia?"
Serena wanted them to reconcile, but Olivia had no intention of ever getting along with Envy—even if it killed her. Naturally, since Envy was the one who had destroyed the Empire.
"Well, nothing to be done about it. It is a fact that I destroyed the Empire."
"...It was a misunderstanding."
Serena knew the full story behind the Empire's fall. Yet Envy had no interest in clearing up the misunderstanding.
"It's not exactly wrong, so it's fine. Time will fade everything away eventually. Resentment, regret... all of it."