The Royal Banquet #4
Agnes hadn't given a precise reason.
In that light, there might have been room for excuses—but that didn't mean I thought what I had seen was wrong.
That woman had clearly meant to toy with me.
Of course it was only speculation without proof, yet for Helena that alone seemed more than enough. She ground her teeth.
The sound grated, sharp and chilling enough to freeze a listener's heart.
"Huuu——. All right. I understand."
I had no idea what Helena was thinking when she said she understood.
But one look at her sharp eyes and the light that had died in her pupils told me everything I needed to know.
She had absolutely no intention of letting this go quietly.
After dinner, the palace began to settle into the quieter hours. A few people still labored over leftover work, but most were preparing to rest and close out the day. Humans needed room to breathe if they were to work efficiently, after all.
Helena, however, chose motion over rest.
She sent Zion back to their room and walked the palace corridors alone. She had already memorized the path to her chambers; there was no risk of losing her way.
"You there. A moment."
"Yes. You called for me?"
Helena stopped a man in a hallway still lit as brightly as midday. He recognized her as nobility and tried to show proper respect, but his body locked up on its own. Her expression was ice itself.
"Y-you're... Lady Helena Krauser... aren't you?"
The man was so tense he couldn't stop himself from confirming it. The woman before him matched every description he had ever heard, yet her presence was nothing like the stories. The Helena he had been told about was kind even to those beneath her; he felt not a trace of that gentleness now.
"I am. Are you doubting me?"
"I-I'm sorry...! I never meant any such thing when I spoke...!"
He dropped his head as if he had committed a capital crime and began to tremble. Then he went further and sank to his knees on the floor.
Ordinarily Helena would have soothed him with kind words. Tonight she had no patience left. Agnes Kilinaire—she had waited until night precisely so she could press that woman more effectively. Her self-control was fraying to the breaking point.
So instead of comforting him, she simply made it clear that once his business was finished, he could vanish.
"It doesn't matter. Just tell me where Agnes Kilinaire is."
"Y-yes! Of course! Please follow me!"
Perhaps he had found a way to live. He sprang up with hope blazing in his eyes. The thought that his rudeness might be forgiven—that he might actually survive—put speed into his steps. Fortunately the man knew which noble occupied which room. A duke's daughter like Kilinaire's was impossible to miss.
"Right at the end of the hall..."
Helena let out a hollow breath when she saw the room almost close enough to trip over. She had guessed the floor was special—quieter, with fewer chambers than the others—but she had never imagined it would be this near. In other words, her own thinking was nearly paralyzed.
"H-here it is!"
"You've done well. Leave."
The moment she dismissed him, the man who had been shaking with fear vanished with almost joyful haste. In that instant even a seasoned assassin would have struggled to match his escape.
So. This is the place.
Helena's heart swelled with anticipation as she knocked with careful restraint. She hid her edge and put on the gentle manner she usually wore, so the woman inside would not panic and barricade herself.
"Who is it?"
"Forgive the intrusion. This is the room of the Kilinaire duke's daughter, is it not? I have an urgent matter and came to speak with you."
Helena spoke like a maid with pressing business rather than announcing herself as Duke Krauser. The goal was to prick Agnes's curiosity and irritation until the girl came to the door of her own free will.
"Haa. Urgent business at this hour...? Come in. I haven't locked the door yet."
A delightful miscalculation. Better than simply having the door opened for her. Helena allowed herself a private, crooked smile.
The pleasure lasted only a moment. Frost-edged fury claimed her as she slowly pushed the door open.
"Hm? Looking at your face and clothes, you don't seem like an ordinary maid. Something must actually be wrong."
Neither Helena nor Agnes had ever seen the other's face before tonight. Naturally they failed to recognize each other at once—yet Helena was certain this was Agnes. The woman sitting in the room known to belong to Agnes could only be her.
"Yes. Something quite urgent brought me here. Please forgive the rudeness."
"Mm. Granted. Still... I've never seen your face, yet somehow it doesn't feel unfamiliar..."
While Agnes folded her arms and tilted her head, Helena's hand quietly slid the latch home. The lighting artifact hanging from the ceiling cast a brilliant glow; the clear view pleased her. Even in darkness she could have pinpointed the woman by breath and presence alone, but visibility was always better.
"Well, fine. State your business, then—"
Business? Fine. I'll deliver my business from very, very close range.
Helena's eyes sharpened more than usual. In a single motion she closed the distance between the door and the bed. Even with the door shut, it felt as if a wind had rushed through the room. She seemed to take only one step, yet her body was already right in front of Agnes's face.
Agnes tumbled backward onto the bed in shock—but the real surprise was only beginning.
"W-wuup?!"
"I covered your mouth so you wouldn't make a racket. Cheap-mannered bitches like you always raise a fuss, or so I've heard."
Helena pinned Agnes's mouth shut and straddled her, completely covering the other woman's body. The room was soundproofed, yet if the woman beneath her started thrashing it would still fray her focus, so she kept the mouth sealed. With a master's strength she held Agnes down completely; an ordinary woman had no hope of escaping.
Cheap. The word ignited pure rage in Agnes. How dare some insolent wretch oppress a duke's daughter inside the royal palace?
Helena's hand hid most of her face, but the eyes and the twisted brow proved how furious she was.
"First, allow me to introduce myself. I am Helena Krauser. I inherited the title in full from the previous duke, Is Krauser. I am the duke."
"Uu, uuuup?!"
Agnes's fury flooded into pure shock the instant she heard the name. Being a duke's daughter was a high station—but only a daughter. Against the actual duke, Helena, her rank was hopelessly inferior. Atmosphere, dignity, beauty—none of it was even close.
Agnes had always been proud of her own looks and possessed a body that matched that pride. Next to Helena, however, it was nothing. She felt herself shrinking without meaning to.
Helena knew it and deliberately spoke with full ducal authority, pressing that superiority as hard as she could.
"You're wondering why I came so suddenly, aren't you? Or aren't you?"
"Uu, uuuu..."
Unable to answer with her mouth sealed, Agnes managed a tiny nod. Frost-cold words spilled from Helena's lips—meant both to answer the question and to threaten.
"Around sunrise today. In the rose garden. You met a young servant and had quite a conversation, didn't you?"
A servant? Does she mean that pretty, insolent brat?
He had carried himself with a strange arrogance, as if he had powerful backing—but never in a million years would Agnes have guessed he served under Duke Krauser. Only now did she realize the servant, Zion, and Helena shared some connection.
"Yes. Seems you remember. Of course you would. Claiming you forgot what happened today would only prove your skull is completely empty. Though that, in its own way, would be cause for celebration."
Helena deliberately scraped at Agnes's nerves with every word. The goading worked; Agnes recovered her composure enough to grow angry again. Even a duke had no right to grind her underfoot like this.
Then Helena's hand tightened, and the resolve shattered. Pressure and pain she had never tasted before crawled across her face and into her brain. It hurt. It was agony.
"Listen carefully. The servant you touched—Zion Altram—is my fiancé. You claim you didn't know, but laying a hand on my man is a crime even your life cannot pay for. And if the reason was simply that you needed to cool off your heat-struck body, that makes it far worse."
Helena's voice grew steadily more sinister. Colder than a graveyard at midnight, sharper than a winter wind. Combined with the pain, Agnes's reason began to drown in fear.
That brat was her fiancé?!
However selfishly Agnes lived, she was not insane enough to touch a duke's man—someone of equal standing. She was the classic type who crushed the weak and watched the strong carefully. She could at least make that judgment. Her only misfortune had been not knowing who Zion was.
To Helena, however, ignorance was no longer an excuse. Trying to take Zion Altram as she pleased was harder to forgive than if Agnes had laid hands on Helena herself.
As proof: when pirates had casually groped her body, Helena had still restrained herself. She herself had accepted Zion's plan to walk willingly into the enemy's jaws and finish things quickly. More than anything, they had never crossed the final line.
"But you... you tried to touch my fiancé. No—you already did. You slapped him for no legitimate reason. So I will never forgive you."
Helena kept her right hand clamped over Agnes's mouth and slowly brought her lips to the girl's ear. At the same time she increased the pressure just a fraction. Agnes's muscles and bones began to scream. A little more force and the facial muscles might twist permanently.
Helena held that exact line with perfect precision and spoke in a low, measured voice.
"If you had shown even the slightest consideration for those beneath you, none of this would have happened. We would have first met properly at the banquet, and any displeasure would have been quietly buried."
However.
Helena paused, steadied her breath, then continued in a soft yet unyielding tone. The surge of emotion made her fear she might crush Agnes's face if she spoke too soon.
"Since you picked the fight first, I cannot forgive you. He is not some low-class man for the likes of you to lay a hand on... Ignorance is no excuse here. So I believe I will only be satisfied once I have cut off your head."
"Uu, uuuup! Uuup! Uuuuuup!!"
Cut off her head. The chill in those words and the murderous aura rolling off Helena completely broke Agnes. Even knowing escape was impossible, she began thrashing with everything she had.
"But... I will not kill you here and now."
Helena exhaled a languid breath and drew her lips away from Agnes's ear. Then she looked down at her with the same arrogance as before, abyss-like eyes curved, mouth lifting into a smile. It was the kind of smile only men who had bathed in blood countless times could wear.
"It is a father's fault that a daughter grows arrogant. Therefore it is only natural that your father pay the same price as you. So when he arrives, deliver this message in secret."
Duke Krauser challenges Duke Albus Kilinaire to a domain war.