Noblesse
Thud.
The empress halted the finger that had been drumming against the desk.
"Bring me the chancellor’s son. Immediately."
No one else was in the imperial office, but the moment her words fell, a soft breeze stirred through the room. Not long after, the ivory pillar standing guard by the door tilted, and the heavy doors opened of their own accord.
Enzo, the chancellor’s eldest son who had secured a post as a civil official in the imperial palace thanks to his father’s absolute power, swallowed unconsciously. Whenever someone from Hwaryu—the empire’s strongest order, the elite force that stood guard at the empress’s side—came to call for him, his face would go deathly pale.
Ordinarily, when reports were submitted and evaluated favorably, there would be a reward. There was no occasion for being summoned like this out of the blue. Even the pupils of his surrounding subordinates held a sympathetic glint.
Hardly able to keep up with the quick stride of the Hwaryu swordsman leading him, Enzo finally managed to catch his breath in front of a door he had never once approached in his life. But before he could even straighten his rumpled clothes, the exquisite doors opened without the slightest sound.
The moment Enzo stepped inside and saw the empress seated beyond the desk, he bowed at once. She did not appear often in official settings, but as the rumors said, she was stunning beyond belief. And yet that was as far as it went. Having been summoned so suddenly, one tiny mistake could provoke her displeasure—and in that case, his life could not be guaranteed.
He knelt on his left knee and said, "It is an honor to meet the ruler of the great empire... Your Imperial Majesty."
Looking at Enzo, who trembled faintly with fear, the empress thought he looked like a puppy. Resting her chin on her hand, she spoke in a languid voice.
"Very well. Stand up."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
At her majestically weighted voice, Enzo rose but still kept his head lowered. It was improper to keep meeting the emperor’s eyes without permission.
The empress looked at Enzo and, in her mind, pictured a dog. When she judged people, she had a strange habit of blending together their mannerisms, looks, eye contact, the tremor in their muscles, and the pressure they gave off, then deciding on the most fitting animal to place in her mind.
"Does the chancellor not manage his children at all?"
Enzo froze with fear. A chill slid up his spine, raising gooseflesh along his skin. Somehow, the report he had just submitted must have contained an error. Since it dealt with the newest information, failing to maintain speed and accuracy while turning it in would have been a grave mistake.
"I-I deeply apologize, Your Majesty. Please, forgive me."
"You needn’t be so frightened. I am quite generous when it comes to first mistakes. This time, I shall give you something very easy so you can redeem yourself."
Enzo interpreted the empress’s words. If he made one more mistake, then his head would roll.
"I will devote my entire being to carrying out your command."
At that moment, the empress saw a tail wagging violently behind Enzo. The people beneath her feet were very easy to handle. If he hadn’t begged for forgiveness and relied on his father’s power, one of the Hwaryu members standing by would have taken his head before the empress even issued the order.
"Raise your head."
Enzo lifted his gaze and took the empress’s face into his eyes. For a heartbeat, he was nearly blinded by her beautiful, mature allure. He might have fallen in love.
Gasp! Get a grip. This woman is the ruler of the continent. The emperor of this nation.
He shoved the blasphemous thought out of his head and clung to his fading composure as the empress, Kaira Lahazer, spoke.
"First, send word to the Marinella royal family. The contents are about the Hero’s party...."
Enzo focused, forcing the empress’s voice as deeply into his mind as he could.
---
"So the victory celebration is being held in the Lahazer Empire. That’s unexpected."
The saintess had come to visit Hilde’s room and was rolling about on the bed. Hilde and Irene, having returned to Marinella at high speed using the teleporters in each city, had arrived at the Senium church, where they were affiliated, almost immediately. Their sudden return had been met with the church members’ fervent cheers and tearful reunions, and they had already reported to the pope.
The Hero’s party had completed its mission successfully, and the whole country was buzzing with excitement. Some even spread rumors that this generation’s Hero’s party would bring true peace to the continent. But such unprecedented accomplishments also came with inconveniences.
"I’ll pay any amount, so please grant me the saintess’s blessing! No, just let me see her face once!"
"We’ve come to interview the holy knight who cut down a high-ranking demon in a single stroke! We’re from a reputable magazine...."
People carrying artifects for taking pictures, or hauling absurd piles of valuables, kept showing up at the Senium church, and the members there were growing sick of it. Because their doctrine placed great importance on peace and harmony, they couldn’t simply throw the visitors out.
Helplessly trapped in her room, the saintess brought by a new piece of news.
"I suppose that makes sense. The empire has always taken a lukewarm attitude toward Makyeong."
Hilde answered while concentrating on the book she had been reading even before the saintess entered.
"Thanks to that, I’ll have to attend the victory celebration twice—once in Marinella and once in the empire. Honestly, just lying around beside Hilde is the best. This is so annoying I could die."
"You’re the saintess; you shouldn’t be that lazy. Besides, you do go off to volunteer in other regions regularly anyway."
Crushed by Hilde’s brutally factual remark, the saintess went limp on the bed. Then, suddenly, she remembered the other members of the Hero’s party—Edan and Lee Yu-seong.
"Still, we can just stay in our room and the priests will keep people away for us, but Lee Yu-seong is going to have a terrible time."
By now, with the full group’s photographs printed in articles across the nation, they had become certified stars, recognizable wherever they went. As for Edan, no one would dare barge into the magic tower without permission. But Lee Yu-seong had a home near Sword Waterfall. It was obvious people would start showing up there like tourists.
"I’m sure he’ll manage fine. Lee Yu-seong always sleeps well no matter where he is."
The saintess, who had been blanking her mind, suddenly remembered the first time she’d met Lee Yu-seong. She’d been oddly worked up when she saw him camping out on the dirt floor near the area after they had barely managed to defeat the Basilisk the previous day. Had Hilde noticed that too?
"Hmm.... No, never mind. But Hilde, what are you reading so intently?"
The saintess walked up to the desk and checked the cover of the book Hilde was reading. Since Hilde held books upright with both hands when she read, the title was easy to see even from the side. The Holy Knight’s Wrong Love.
After reading the title, the saintess blinked once or twice, then a moment later made a choking sound, as if all the air had been sucked from her lungs. Seeing her overreacting, Hilde closed the book and looked at her.
"Why are you so shocked?"
The saintess took a breath to calm herself, as though she had finally regained control. Her eyes, fixed on Hilde, were gentle and sorrowful.
"Hilde, you really have grown up. Well, I suppose sixteen is the age when girls start taking an interest in romance."
Taking another look at Hilde as if seeing her anew, the saintess nodded. If Hilde ever set her mind to seducing someone, there probably wouldn’t be a single person who could resist.
"Even if you date a man, make sure he’s a good one. Since I’m your guardian, you absolutely have to get my approval."
From Hilde’s perspective, the conversation was going so far off the rails that she didn’t know what to do. She’d just picked up some random book to pass the time, and now it had somehow been misunderstood.
In truth, Hilde didn’t really understand the feeling of loving someone. In her previous life, she seemed to have had a terribly mournful love, but for some reason she couldn’t remember it clearly. After absorbing miasma in Makyeong, instead of memories of her previous life, unfamiliar memories had flowed in and taken that place. Every time she fell asleep, someone would appear in her dreams and call her name, but she could never answer. Instead, she would quietly repeat the name she had never heard before and swallow it back down.
Lucael.
It was such a strange name for a Korean that she eventually gave up trying to think about it. She guessed it might have been a phenomenon caused by her unconscious mixing the memories of this world with those of her previous life.
Biologically, she was a woman.... If she ever dated, should it be with a man? If they were a person she genuinely got along with, it probably didn’t matter.
But when she thought of the men she had been spending time with lately—the swordsman and the mage from the Hero’s party—she shook her head. Even after spending months together, not a trace of that sort of feeling had mixed in.
"You should worry about yourself first. You’re the one who’s overflowing with marriage proposals, Saintess."
Irene, who was five years older than Hilde, was twenty-one this year—marriageable age in this world. In fact, letters for engagement or courtship were arriving by the truckload every day. It was a little unusual that people would even try to court someone who had devoted herself to religion.
The saintess snorted.
"Hah. I’m already married."
"What? What are you talking about?"
"I’m the saintess chosen by the goddess. My body and my heart belong to the goddess."
That was sophistry. It wasn’t uncommon for the saintess of the Hero’s party to fall for one of her companions and end up pregnant before anyone knew it. There was no doctrine in the Sermi Lord Church, the continent’s only religion, forbidding marriage. Unusually, the church had only one rule: even nobles who were believers in the church had to remain monogamous.
Hilde had wondered whether the saintess might develop feelings for the swordsman or the mage, but nothing of the sort had happened.
"You’re too young to know how wolfish men can be. Be careful of all the men who come near you at this victory celebration. No, actually, I’ll block off all the flies for you."
With her slight shoulders squared, the saintess put on a proud expression.
---
Black Snake, having returned from Makyeong to the demon realm through the gate, was making his way toward the Demon King’s castle. Everything in this place, which belonged to an entirely different dimension, was exceedingly dark and grim. A blood-red moon filled with miasma shone down on the demon realm’s land.
A monster that looked like a wolf without any intelligence lunged at Black Snake in attack.
Tch. Black Snake generated a thin beam of magical power to deal with the small fry, but before he knew it, the monster had approached to point-blank range and stopped moving.
Slash.
With one clean sword stroke, the monster was split in two. The person who had killed it without making a sound was someone Black Snake knew well. One of the beings who had crossed over into the demon realm with him and lived there for a very long time. The figure revealed between the halves of the monster was a tall, handsome man with neatly combed ash-gray hair.
Sniff, sniff.
He made a show of scenting the air, then one eyebrow lifted slightly.
"I smell her."
The one who had always crossed paths with him through the countless ages, yet never once had any real connection with him, walked up to Black Snake.
"Idiot. So she really did come back."
His tone was flat, almost vacant, without any rise or fall. It had been an extremely long time since Black Snake had heard that voice. It wasn’t the tone he used when speaking to Black Snake. Black Snake found the man standing before him deeply irritating.
"Move aside, why don’t you? Rasiel."
The one called Rasiel frowned at Black Snake’s words. The expression changing from his blank face carried a certain chilling quality.
"Don’t order me around. I’m not some underling of your Demon King."
Given his brazen personality, Black Snake shut his mouth. If he kept talking to this man, he might really die. Only one thing mattered to him. Black Snake spoke clearly enough for the retreating Rasiel to hear him.
"Rasiel. It’d be better if you don’t go looking for her. Unless you want to ruin everything."
Without turning his head, Rasiel raised his middle finger toward Black Snake. Black Snake shook his head, dismissed him, and resumed walking toward the Demon King’s castle.
Step, step.
Rasiel felt that the sound of his footsteps crossing the demon realm’s earth, a sound he had heard far too many times before, felt different than usual. No, perhaps what had changed was his own mood. Time in the demon realm flowed terribly slowly compared to the middle realm.
It was as if he had lived through an eternity with his mind half-lost.
In a world without her, even breathing was not the same as living.
Even if this were a desire unworthy of him...
"...Still, I’d like to see her once, even from far away."
He murmured quietly, burying this feeling he could not classify as joy or sorrow.