A Romantic Knight! (2)
A middle-aged voice carried through the office.
"It seems you will need to visit the Imperial Palace at the earliest opportunity."
The speaker was Butler Bordin, who had come seeking Athena with an urgent report.
"Must be something fairly pressing, then. That old man went so far as to summon me himself."
"I am told there was an intrusion by demons."
The man Athena so casually called "that old man" was none other than the foremost power in the Karaz Empire—Emperor Baruus de Magcitia.
That very morning, an imperial decree had arrived for her. As anything issued from the palace tended to be, it was long-winded and stuffed with needless flourishes, but stripped down to its essence it said roughly this:
A demon has been discovered within the Imperial Palace. Come and investigate.
An emperor's command was absolute. Even Athena could not simply ignore his orders. The Emperor, for his part, knew her willful nature well enough that he avoided calling on her whenever he could—but when a genuine crisis arose, he would summon her all the same. And Athena never refused those summons. She knew perfectly well that refusing would only breed far more troublesome complications down the line.
"Hmph... it'll take a week at the very least..."
In the old days she would have gone at once, if only to escape the boredom of sitting still. But things were different now. Hera was at her side. The thought of spending an entire week without her nearby sat poorly with Athena. She had even considered bringing Hera along to the palace—then thought better of it. If that face caught the Emperor's eye, the resulting headache would not be worth it.
Honestly. Being that beautiful for no good reason...
Hera possessed a beauty that could bewitch anyone who looked at her. Athena herself had fallen under that spell, of course—but these days the sheer force of that loveliness had begun to grate on her. She would cherish Hera for the rest of her life no matter how her appearance changed; Hera's charm was hardly limited to her looks. And yet that beauty remained so overwhelming that even a Succubus Queen would have raised the white flag. If Hera were left free to wander, the number of insects that would come buzzing around her would not be small.
On the other hand, leaving her behind conjured an equally unpleasant image—Hera, delighted by Athena's absence, running wild. That prospect did not sit well either.
She was still turning the problem over when Bordin spoke again.
"There is good news as well."
"Good news?"
"Yes. Heh heh... you are going to be quite surprised."
He squared his shoulders with a distinctly self-satisfied air and looked at her. The smugness of it put a slight edge on her temper.
"I have finally found it."
"...Found what?"
He flung both arms wide in a ridiculous pose and announced in a booming voice—
"Traces of a dragon!! Even I could scarcely believe it at first, but there is no mistake. I have discovered dragonkin mana."
The look on his face as he watched her seemed to say, Well? You didn't see that coming, did you?
A dragon, was it...
That was no ordinary matter. Dragons were beings so detached from the mortal world they bordered on heartless—legendary creatures who appeared like a typhoon and vanished like the wind, almost never seen. They paid no mind to other living things and lived solely according to their own will. Arrogant, and at the same time noble. Rather like Athena herself.
That was why she had taken an interest in them. She had wondered whether they, too, endured the same weary existence she did—or whether they had found some form of amusement to fill their days.
But.
"Not interested."
"Traces of their kind have not been found for several decades—... I beg your pardon?"
Bordin stood frozen, blindsided by her reply. Assuming he must have misheard, he shook his head a few times and tried again.
"Heh heh... I must be getting old. Hearing things, it seems."
"You heard me just fine, Bordin. I no longer care about the dragonkin."
His mouth fell open. Fair enough. Her life felt richer now than it ever had before—and all of it was thanks to Hera. Simply looking at her was enough to bring a smile to Athena's face. Touching her body felt better than holding any treasure. And when she claimed those lips...
Not yet. Endure it.
She crushed the lewd desire rising in her mind before it could take shape. She had no intention of laying careless hands on Hera. She had already forced a master-servant contract on her once, ignoring her wishes—and Hera still regarded her with thick walls of wariness because of it. Trample Hera's will a second time, and she would close her heart forever and resent Athena for the rest of her life.
Honestly, part of her wanted nothing more than to pin down that defiant girl and taste every inch of her body. Even if Hera never opened her heart, Athena could still do as she pleased—and Hera would be powerless to refuse. But she did not. What she wanted was not a Hera who obeyed like a doll, but a Hera who submitted from the deepest reaches of her heart. For that, Hera had to come to her of her own accord.
Of course, I'll be the one making sure she does.
She had already given Rosewen her orders. With time, Hera's defenses would slowly crumble. When that moment came, all Athena needed to do was step forward and hold her.
"You can stop looking into dragons as well."
"H-however... all my efforts until now..."
Bordin muttered in a daze. She could hardly blame him. She had hounded him endlessly to track down any trace of dragons—and now, overnight, she had flipped her stance like a hand turning over. From his perspective, the letdown must have been considerable.
"I'll double your pay."
"Heh heh!! What does a dragon's trail matter in the slightest!! It shall be as you say, my lord."
The moment he heard about the raise, his expression transformed. The nakedly mercenary shift drew a faint sneer from her, but money was something she had in absurd abundance. Raising his salary several times over would not trouble her in the least.
"Anything else?"
If not, she intended to go find Hera. There was no telling whom that girl might bewitch during a week without Athena around. She would need to drill the proper lessons into her thoroughly beforehand.
"Hm... news that just came in, but I am told the young lady is heading toward the training grounds."
"What?"
"The knights have a sparring session scheduled for today. I suspect she has gone to watch."
Hera, at the training grounds. Did she have an interest in fighting, of all things?
Come to think of it, Athena had heard about Hera's nickname back when they first arrived in Drax. The Black Bear of the West. An almost painfully adorable moniker—except it had been earned by tearing through far too many people. And when Athena thought about it further, even in their own fight Hera had not hesitated for a second before driving a kick straight into her solar plexus.
So she's not the type to shy away from a fight.
A brilliant idea struck her all at once. She had the distinct feeling it could accelerate her plans considerably. A sly smile curved her lips as she stepped out of the office.
"That's the most important thing I've heard all day."
Bordin followed at her heels. Together they walked the corridor until they reached a window overlooking the training grounds. Athena spoke to the butler trailing quietly behind her.
"Bordin. Did you know?"
"To what do you refer, my lord?"
Beyond the window, she could see her. Hera, watching the knights with a somewhat vacant expression.
"That the mana inside a person's body takes after its master's nature."
"Heh heh. Yes, I am well aware."
"And I am extremely competitive."
She closed her eyes and focused. Slowly she sought out the trail of her own mana, following it across the distance until, at the far end of the connection, Hera's emotions flowed back to her. Something buoyant and full was stirring in the girl.
A master-servant contract allowed for a great many things. With her mana she could heal her servant—or, conversely, burst that servant's heart in an instant. It required considerable skill in mana manipulation, of course, but so long as her mana was planted within the servant, the ways it could be used were nearly endless.
Which means I can do this, too.
Holding the shared sense steady, she recited a spell in her mind.
Unleash your rage.
Ignite your fighting spirit.
Set all the world beneath your feet.
A private suggestion-magic of her own design—amplifying mana to temporarily drive the body into a state of heightened arousal. The moment the incantation finished, mana began to thrash wildly inside her. Her body heated in answer, blood rising, until she wanted nothing more than to stride outside and smash something to pieces.
And Hera would be feeling the same.
Athena opened her eyes. Through the window she watched Hera start walking toward the knights. She covered her mouth with one hand to hide the laugh that threatened to escape.
You'd better be careful, Hera. My mana is very, very rough.
"Bordin."
"Yes, my lord."
He bowed his head at once, attentive. Athena wiped the smile from her face and issued her command.
"Contact the church and have them activate a coordinate transfer stone."
"The church... my lord?"
"Mm. I have a feeling I'll need to go somewhere soon."
"...Understood."
Bordin set aside the questions rising in his mind. That was precisely why she liked him. He discarded personal judgment entirely and followed her orders alone. If she commanded it, he would kill without the slightest hesitation.
She turned her gaze back toward the training grounds, already picturing the first person who would fall victim to her lovely little slave.
"I just hope no one dies."
She had no desire to watch Hera break, after all.
Deep in a forest on the empire's outskirts lay a vast woodland so sprawling that anyone who became lost within it might wander for a long time without finding a way out. Hidden in a place so remote that human footsteps could scarcely reach it was a single cave.
Inside that cave—
Wooooom—
—mana was being drawn relentlessly toward a single point, as if caught in a whirlpool. The light of the siphoned mana reflected off whatever lay at the center, giving it the suggestion of a shape. An oval form. At a glance it resembled an egg—except it was not made of shell. It was an egg composed of densely concentrated mana.
Before long, the thing that had been endlessly devouring the surrounding mana like a starving child—
Crack-crack-crack—
—gave a sharp fracturing sound, then erupted with a thunderous BOOM, blasting mana outward in every direction. The shockwave shook the entire cave; sections of the ceiling and walls began to collapse. Through the haze of dust and rubble, a single shadow suddenly burst free.
As the haze slowly cleared, what came into view was a creature sheathed in blue-tinged scales.
"Kyuuung?"
A living thing that looked rather like a lizard.