I Thought You Were Letting Me Go? (1)
The metallic voice echoed through the dungeon, laced with a sinister amusement. “What a sorry sight, Pasar…? I couldn’t sense your presence anywhere in the world, so Lord Vincent ordered me to find you… but now that I’m here, I understand. With a seal stone that large hanging around your neck, it’s only natural that no one would detect you unless they got close.”
“Sister… Sister─.”
“Just what exactly happened to you here?”
At Rho’s words, Grespara trembled with every inch her chains allowed, crawling desperately toward her sister. She moved like a worm, dragging herself forward on her elbows. Her bare skin scraped against the brutally rough stone floor, leaving bloody trails behind. The sight was so horrific that Rho didn’t even need an answer to her question.
The bloody tears welling in Grespara’s eyes made it painfully obvious what kind of treatment she had received—treatment that should never have befallen one of the highest-ranking servants of the Six Swords.
“……Rho, Sister Rho…. Please… get me out of here. I beg you. I… I was wrong. Please, don’t pretend you don’t know me. I can’t do this without you, Sister…. Rho….”
But Rho showed her no pity. Instead, she simply looked down at Grespara pathetically clutching at the hem of her skirt and let out a long sigh.
“Looks like quite a lot happened. Still, what surprises me more is that no one realized you were here.”
“Th-that’s…”
“If there had been any reports or permission granted, someone should have known you came here, right?”
The moment she heard that perfectly logical deduction, Grespara’s face froze.
She had planned to confess her sins, reveal everything, and then kill everyone who had heard her unwilling confession. But now that rescue seemed possible, her treacherous heart began to waver.
Even if she thought about it now, was there any way for her to handle the aftermath of this disaster? How could she possibly explain the utter humiliation that had befallen her—a being who was supposed to remain lofty and dignified at all times?
At the very least, she had no sharp escape plan. So the only thing Grespara could offer was an excuse.
“…Th-that… it couldn’t be helped, Sister. I went to scout the North on Lord Vincent’s orders, didn’t I? But while I was doing that─ I got captured….”
However, to Rho, Grespara’s excuse sounded like the pathetic squeak of a drowning rat. Deciding there was no need to listen any further, Rho moved to end the situation quickly.
“………Haa. Fine. I’ll hear the rest later. For now, let’s go back. I’ll just kill everyone here and─”
But the instant those words left Rho’s mouth, Grespara screamed as if she were having a seizure.
“No! That can’t happen! That─ No─! You can’t!!”
It was an abnormally hysterical shriek. Rho frowned.
“…What? They’re just humans. I can kill them all and be done with it.”
“No, we can’t! Not with just us─ Sister, Sister─! Please. Just listen to me─!”
The reason she was flopping around like a fish dragged onto land was actually very simple.
Yohan and Gorgo, the ones who had captured and tortured her, had already left long ago… but there was no way for Grespara, who had been locked in this underground prison and subjected to endless torment, to know that.
Gorgo had taken one look at her and immediately decided it wasn’t worth the trouble before bolting. And Yohan—she had been beaten directly by him and learned the overwhelming difference in their power. So from Grespara’s perspective, even if Rho was here, if those two were still around, there was no chance of victory. That was why she had no choice but to scream.
Rho was certainly stronger than Grespara, but as one of the Six Swords’ servants, she would be utterly helpless before Yohan—just like what had happened in Mihelrn.
“Sister, Sister─. Let’s just run. I want to go home….”
So she could only beg desperately. To save the sister who had come to rescue her, and to flee from her own trauma.
But Rho’s position was completely different.
“Tsk.”
Seeing nothing but childish, pathetic behavior made Rho, who had always been prickly and intolerant of such things, grow thoroughly sick of it.
This girl… she’s become hideous. I wonder if she’ll even keep Lord Vincent’s favor once we return.
At first, that was all she thought. A simple observation from the perspective of someone who wasn’t in Grespara’s shoes—that things would not end well.
But… thoughts have a way of branching out endlessly from the smallest impressions.
…Wait a minute.
It was unfortunate for Grespara, but at that exact moment, a cruel idea flashed through Rho’s mind.
To put it bluntly… why did she even need to take Grespara back with her?
The five Satellites who served Vincent. They were beings who had received his favor and been granted celestial magic of different attributes. That was why they were called satellites that followed the stars.
Because Vincent cherished every one of his servants, they had always been careful around him. On the surface, they addressed each other as sisters and maintained a strict hierarchy. But behind his back, these prideful, noble beings engaged in brutal, bloody power struggles to monopolize his affection.
Rho didn’t know the full truth of the matter, but the reason Grespara had acted alone without reporting back was precisely to escape the pressure from her older sisters.
Therefore, from Rho’s perspective… if she wanted to, she could eliminate one of her competitors right here and now.
The moment her thoughts reached that point, a dark smile bloomed inside Rho’s heart.
No—it seemed the smile had reached her face as well.
“S-Sister…?”
Then there was no need to hide it.
Rho slowly walked toward her, loosening her wrist as if preparing to fire something at any moment. Then she spoke.
“Grespara. You’ve always been the lacking one among us, yet you somehow possessed an arrogance that didn’t match your ability.”
“…What are you saying?”
“I always hated you for it. The same goes for our other sisters. All of you are nothing but obstacles to Lord Vincent’s love for me, aren’t you?”
It was like she was finally spitting out all the words she had held back until the moment of farewell. Thoughts everyone already knew, but had never dared voice out of fear of retaliation—the true feelings she had kept hidden.
It wasn’t hard to guess why she was saying such things to Grespara now.
“Poor Grespara, do you understand someone like me? …If you don’t, then at least understand this. If our positions were reversed, you would have done the exact same thing.”
The moment Rho reached out her hand, dark, heavy fragments of twinkling stars floated up around her wrist.
Celestial magic. Lightning-attribute Meteor Strike.
Seeing it, Grespara’s pupils shrank in shock. She begged.
“S-Sister. I… I was in pain. It was humiliating. But I endured it… believing you would save me.”
But Rho had no intention of listening.
“Yeah.”
“────You fucking bitch!! Even if I die, I’ll curse you from hell! From hell, I’ll curse you forever!!”
BOOM─!!
A beam of light shot from Rho’s hand with a thunderous roar. The Grespara who had been at the end of that beam no longer spat curses in the way she usually did. Her head was cleanly blown away, gone without a trace.
Her body, which had desperately clung to life even through this hellish pain, went limp immediately after.
Then, the earth-attribute magical energy that had resided within Grespara’s body—
Shuuuush─.
It burst out in the form of star orbs and flowed into Rho’s body, where it was absorbed.
“…Haaa. How beautiful. So this is the power you held, Grespara. Incredible.”
A fierce metallic taste bloomed in Rho’s mouth. The stinging sensation of iron filled her entire body. The same sensation she had felt when she first became one of Vincent’s servants was resurfacing.
Yes. This was undoubtedly the beautiful reaction that came from completely devouring a servant who had accepted the power of one of the Six Swords without resistance.
After savoring that sensation to the fullest, Rho looked down at the pathetic corpse of her former sister and smiled darkly.
“……Now that I’ve killed you, I’ll never know why you were captured here, but I suppose there’s no need to find out. Grespara was caught by humans and killed before I could do anything to save her.”
Whoever had detained her was likely connected to the royal family. If they discovered their prisoner dead, they would desperately try to cover it up—whether it concerned their honor or their dignity.
So as long as Rho kept her mouth shut, this would all end here.
A perfect crime. The reason was simple, the logic straightforward.
But there was no way for her to know.
The strong metallic taste she had just felt in her body wasn’t only from Vincent’s power. Another of the Six Swords’ powers had entered her as well.
When Gorgo had come here, she hadn’t simply interrogated Grespara. The memo Yohan had given her hadn’t contained only questions.
It had been nothing more than a contingency trap… but the jealousy they harbored toward one another had dragged them both straight into its jaws.
The power of the Third Satellite, Grespara, has been absorbed.
Celestial Magic — Earth Attribute has been added to your vessel.
***
The servants of the Six Swords. Those who have become one of the Six Swords possess the ability to create their own servants. The reason is simple.
The Six Swords are beings who have accepted the physical body of the Goddess of the Sun. As such, they are immortal existences who possess a degree of divinity. Therefore, they can perform acts similar to “bestowing grace” using the goddess’s power that dwells within them.
Those who accept that grace gain power far surpassing that of ordinary demons, along with abilities that could be considered diluted versions of the Six Swords’ own powers.
Of course, all of Asparug’s servants were long since eradicated by Lady Gorgo, who once rampaged across the continent. Yagnus preferred to move alone in secrecy. And he tended to avoid creating servants because “the risk upon death is too great.”
But Vincent was different.
He was the one who most actively utilized this system, fully exploiting the special nature of servants to maximize his spatial movement ability. Wasn’t that exactly why he had created Grespara and her five sisters?
Anyway, there was a clear reason why I, Yohan, had to recall the setting regarding these servants right now.
Thud!
“───Uwaaack, wait a second!”
“What is it, Gorgo-nim!”
“Yohan…………?”
After returning from the North, Lady Gorgo had been resting in the Sun Tower when she suddenly flinched and spoke.
“It seems your prediction and plan were correct after all?”
“………I see. Excellent!”
I had to recall that setting in order to explain the context of this conversation.
Lady Gorgo seemed quite intrigued by the situation. She exhaled excitedly and said to me,
“Good heavens. The North really couldn’t execute her…!”
“Of course not. Since her sisters and Vincent can all use spatial movement, it was far more likely that a rescue force would arrive before the North could carry out the execution according to procedure. Since we knew that, we had to prepare accordingly.”
It appeared the North had failed to execute her. But I had already anticipated this.
In a way, it was obvious. The reason I hadn’t immediately slit the throat of that war criminal and instead left her a gap through which she could escape was precisely for this purpose.
“So that’s why you told me to turn Grespara into a double servant. The Six Swords have the ability to track the location of those they have made into servants.”
“…Yes. Thanks to that, we have achieved our goal of ‘pinpointing the location of Vincent’s main base in the Demon Realm.’ Where is she right now?”
Lady Gorgo clutched her head as if she couldn’t believe the idea, as if she had just experienced an impossible flash of insight.
I asked her again.
“Where is she right now?”
“I can’t explain it in words… but the trace of that girl I couldn’t feel before… suddenly appeared at coordinates far above the North. How should I put it? It feels like a new sense that lets me know her location has been born?”
“I see. But it’s too early to assume it’s Grespara. Don’t those sisters have a terrible relationship?”
“…Wait. What do you mean? I don’t understand.”
This too was a self-evident fact if one knew the setting. I kindly explained my thoughts to Lady Gorgo, who did not.
“We don’t know who came to rescue her. If it was Vincent, then of course he would properly save her… but what if it was one of her sisters? What would they do if they saw their ‘competitor’ in a weakened state?”
“They would obviously kill her, wouldn’t they?”
“Yes. And then they would absorb her power. Since the power of a servant can be absorbed.”
“That was why Yagnus never created servants… He was afraid his power would pass on to an unknown party.”
I nodded at her words.
“Therefore, Lady Gorgo, you may currently be sensing the presence of a third party who killed the weakened Grespara without hesitation and stole her power.”
“B-But couldn’t they have saved her? What if her sisters just took her away?”
“It doesn’t change anything. If Grespara returns to the Demon Realm, our goal of locating the base is still achieved.”
“Then what if they killed Grespara but didn’t absorb her power…?”
“That would be the worst outcome, but we lose nothing. We would have still achieved the goal of killing Grespara. However, the fact that you can sense that presence in your mind already means…”
“…Wow, Yohan. I finally understand it completely!”
“I’m glad.”
“You… you really are incredibly smart and meticulous. No wonder you’re the top student.”
Having played this game through twenty-two cycles, I probably understood the servant system better than anyone else in this world.
And what I knew was this: the Six Swords could pinpoint the location of their servants—who emitted magical power—from anywhere on this earth.
Of course, the captured Grespara had been holding a large seal stone, so even with that ability, Vincent would have had difficulty locating her while her magic was suppressed… but if she were rescued, would she continue to carry that seal stone?
The answer was no.
And that meant… if I asked Lady Gorgo, one of the Six Swords, to turn her into a double servant, no matter what happened, we would complete a living locator that could pinpoint the ever-elusive Vincent’s position.
The operation name was Trojan Horse.