14. The Tide of Corruption (1)
It had all happened in an instant. Alice stood with her head bowed, her eyes fixed on nothing but her own feet.
Now that I thought about it, the signs had always been there. Why else would a woman who had climbed all the way to Lord of a territory bother changing how she addressed me, working so hard to close the distance between us?
Back then, naturally, I hadn't understood a thing about her feelings. I'd taken it all as simple gratitude toward the man who had saved her.
But over the past three years, Alice's behavior had followed one unbroken pattern. In private, whenever my address slipped from "Ellie" back into "my lord," her eyes would narrow into thin slits of displeasure. There had even been times, repelling demon incursions at her side, when her efficiency dipped ever so slightly — and looking into it, those days almost always turned out to be the ones I couldn't go out with her. I'd simply shrugged and told myself our rhythm matched best, that was all.
And then there was the way she pressed in with no distance at all, a relentless close-quarters offensive. Taking my hand. Leaning into me as though no line existed between us.
The restlessness I had never noticed, fused with the anxiety of the coming Tide of Corruption, had fanned her feelings into open flame.
So this was my fault.
Every time the thought crossed my mind — surely not? — I'd dismissed it as coincidence. Told myself that what she showed me wasn't love, only fondness. And my haste had led me exactly here.
She stood before me, head still bowed, waiting on an answer I had yet to give. I called her name and tried to raise her face again.
"Ellie. Lift your head for me."
Even at my words, her head would not rise.
The overwhelming knight who had once saved my life was nowhere to be found; in her place remained a girl terrified that her confession might be refused.
"Aren't you going to answer me?"
Only then did Alice's face slowly rise into view.
"..."
"Why are you crying?"
The reason Alice had kept her head lowered was to hide her tears.
"Because I'm sorry."
"Sorry for what?"
"The Tide of Corruption is almost here, and you must be frightened too... Was it really right of me to hand you a feeling only I carried? I was scared. And even so, I dumped it all on you, for no better reason than that these emotions felt ready to burst."
"...Hic... I'm sorry. Once this night is over, I'll go back to being your master and you my student. Just overlook tonight."
And as she said it, Alice had already decided that my answer was a "no."
"Who said that? That it's a feeling only you carry?"
At my words, Alice's head snapped up toward me.
"No one has ever looked inside my head. How can you just declare it as fact? That it's something only you feel?"
"And master and student? That relationship ended the moment you confessed to me — whether my answer was yes or no."
Alice listened without a word.
"I've given it a great deal of thought."
Speaking slowly, I rested my arm on the railing.
"For three years, building real combat experience at your side, it was always you I thought of."
Ah — Alice would have cut that one down far more cleanly.Ah — with her there, it would have ended with half the effort.Ah. If only she were here.
Somewhere along the way, every measure in my head had quietly become her. Alice. Naturally — without my ever noticing. So the answer had been decided long before tonight.
"You jump to conclusions easily, Ellie, so listen carefully."
I caught the small, subtle nod of her head.
"Whatever you're feeling toward me right now — mine isn't the least bit different. If anything, I was the coward. 'She's the Lord of the territory. What if she turns me down and uses that as her excuse?' That same proposition had apparently taken root in my own head."
"But the moment you showed your feelings first, that excuse stopped mattering. If we can't be master and student — then we'll simply be lovers. What was there to be afraid of?"
"Ellie. I don't know whether it's right for someone still eighteen to say this out loud. But I love you."
At the same instant, an enormous firework burst overhead, throwing both our faces into light.
And so, naturally, Alice's face filled my vision.
Tears were streaming from her eyes without pause. But this was nothing like the disappointment from before — nothing dark at all. These were tears born purely of joy.
"Why are you cryi— mmph!"
Her feelings had finally burst through — and our shameless victor kissed first and left the thinking for afterward.
"Phaah..."
"Hahh..."
Our lady, who had planted a kiss with not a single thought behind it, opened her mouth quietly.
"You've stolen my first kiss, so there's no taking it back. Agreed?"
At that, I snorted, thinking she was every inch a brazen little demon. The flustered embarrassment had melted away before I even noticed it was gone.
And so the date won with a wish ticket, and the confession that ticket had brought to life, became one more thread binding the two of us together — a successful leap, one step further along together.
"You bastards. Just what are you planning, that even after two years you still won't come at us?"
Five years had passed since I fell into this world. Even now that I'd finally reached an adult's age by Earth's reckoning, the demons did nothing but watch and wait, never committing to a real assault.
Choking on the frustration, I let the fury seething up from my dantian show.
For two long years, those demon bastards had shown nothing but signs of stoking the Tide of Corruption toward its climax — and nothing beyond that. Thanks to them, my vassals had been wound to a hair-trigger for weeks.
At this rate, we'd collapse from sheer nerves before we ever got our hands on a single demon.
"Why the angry face again~?"
The Lord of our house — no, my lover — looked up at me and asked.
"The situation right now is suffocating."
"And that means you get to sulk about it?"
"...I suppose not."
"Right. The first move belongs to them. Even with the two of us being Successors, striking first is out of the question."
Alice had discovered that this Tide of Corruption dwarfed the last one — the wave that had been held back before I ever arrived — and so she had sent a request to the imperial court for support, along with word of my existence.
"A joyous event has occurred: a new Successor of the Azure Dragon has been born. However, the demons' movements hint at some deeper intent, and we cannot know when they will strike. We therefore ask Your Majesty to bear in mind that a formal Attestation cannot be rashly held at this time."
"The Successor of the Azure Dragon has received his Attestation within Cumul Territory, a fact affirmed by the vassals of the house, myself — its Lord — included."
"Furthermore, our investigation finds this Tide of Corruption to rival in scale the Great Demon subjugation of seven years past. We accordingly request the support of Successors."
...was what we had sent to the palace. How do I know? I was sitting right beside Alice when she wrote it.
The palace's reply was short and to the point.
"Upon the birth of a new Successor, I, the Emperor, likewise express my due joy. However, there is a vast difference between an Attestation performed and proclaimed before the palace, and one disclosed only to the lords and vassals of a territory. Once the Tide of Corruption has ended, the Successor is commanded to present himself at the imperial court."
"At the same time, judging from the findings sent by Cumul Territory that this is no ordinary Tide of Corruption, I shall dispatch a Successor of the Four Divine Beasts to Cumul Territory."
Summarized roughly, it amounted to: "Sure, do whatever you like. Just come up to the palace once the war is over. I'd like to see the Azure Dragon's Successor for myself."
"When did they say the Successor coming to reinforce us would arrive?"
"In two days."
That's fast...
I'd rather it be literally anyone but that bastard, though.
With that in mind, I asked Alice who the incoming Successor would be.
"Have they decided who it is?"
"Yes. From what I can tell, it'll be the White Tiger's Successor."
Ah. We're screwed.
Four houses served the Four Divine Beasts. The house of the White Tiger: Crystal. The house of the Vermilion Bird: Ignite. The house of the Black Tortoise: Plot. And last of all, the house of the Azure Dragon: Cumul.
Those four houses sought out newly born Successors and brought them under their banner, bound by the duty of protecting and raising the still-young Successors. And the person now coming to reinforce our territory was the White Tiger's Successor out of House Crystal.
The Fifth Successor of the White Tiger — Florence Crystal.
A piece of trash among trash, with nothing decent about him but his name.
Even before his Attestation as Successor, he'd used the excuse of his inherited Trait to commit every vile act a man could commit. And once he had been formally proven as Successor, he became an outright madman whom no one could restrain.
A lunatic built on the bedrock conviction that every soul alive stood beneath him. You might call him a madman whose brain hung between his legs.
And a man like that was coming to our territory as "support." No wonder the sighs kept coming.
He made passes at every woman he personally judged to be pretty. Most people held their tongues about a Successor's misdeeds, wary of the consequences — yet of the four Successors alive today, he alone had rumors trailing after him. Rumors that illegitimate children already existed.
And the lover standing beside me happened to be devastatingly beautiful. She was gorgeous by my standards too, of course, but Alice's beauty had been famous long before we ever got together. Naturally, that bastard would set his sights on her.
Sighing deep, I prayed to the Azure Dragon with all my heart that the carriage he rode in would break an axle and crash. My prayer, of course, went unanswered — with barely any time left until his arrival, everyone had to finish their preparations and go out to meet him.
So this is the uniform granted only to the Successors of the Four Divine Beasts?
The uniform had come back together with the Emperor's reply after our request was sent. It was enchanted so that, in an emergency, it could serve in place of armor — priceless by nature, beyond what money could buy even if you tried.
Mine was black, with blue epaulettes fastened at the shoulders. Black was the formal dress of the Successors of the Four Divine Beasts. No one else could wear it — not even the Emperor himself. For reference, ordinary knights and Order Commanders wore white, with epaulettes or capes in the symbolic color of the Divine Beast they served. Alice, naturally, wore blue.
By the time I had finished dressing, a maid knocked at my door.
"The White Tiger's Successor has arrived."
"Understood. Let's go."
I led the way, the maid falling in behind me as we walked through the manor. Through the windows, a white carriage came into view, rolling in through the gates of the sprawling estate.
At the manor's main entrance, Alice in her white uniform and two chief vassals were already waiting to receive him.
"Successor! You've come."
"Welcome, Successor."
Deus and Roji greeted me as they saw me.
"It's been a while, Deus. Roji."
At my greeting, Deus laughed heartily.
"It surely has. When we heard you and Lady Cumul had become lovers, I was beside myself with joy—"
At his words, Alice and I colored and turned our heads away. Roji piled on with a teasing laugh.
"And I hear it's been quite some time since the two of you got together. Still burning bright, I see."
Alice cleared her throat and spoke.
"He will be showing himself before us shortly. Receive him with full courtesy."
"Yes, Lady Cumul."
"Understood."
Smiling at her words, the vassals turned their eyes to the front. The white carriage traveled the full length of the estate's drive and stopped, precisely, where we received our guests.
The coachman dismounted quietly and unlatched the carriage door. It swung open, and out stepped a man in the same black uniform as mine — white epaulettes on his shoulders.
Quite the handsome face, admittedly. Sharp, striking features and a high-bridged nose — the sort of beauty that seemed to cut.
As Florence stepped down from the carriage, Alice and I moved forward to receive him, stepping ahead of the others and extending our hands.
"Welcome. I am Alice Cumul, Lord of the house that serves the Azure Dragon."
I let out a long breath inside and began the words of welcome.
"Welcome. I, Lee Hyun, Seventh Successor of the Azure Dragon and executor of the revelation of the Four Divine Beasts, greet the Fifth Successor of the White Tiger."
When our greetings were done, Florence turned his eyes on us — and looking at Alice, he never so much as touched her offered hand. He only stared.
"So you're the Lord of the house that serves the Azure Dragon?"
So I was simply invisible, was I?
"Yes. I am."
Alice had clearly noticed as well, but perhaps unwilling to spark a dispute, she simply answered him.
Florence began toying with her, his eyes sliding up and down her body. Worse, the tight-fitting uniform only threw her figure into sharper relief. His gaze crawled over her legs, her thighs, her arms and shoulders — then drifted toward her most sensitive places. Her hips. Her chest.
This fucking bastard?
Just as I was about to erupt, Alice stepped in front of me and spoke.
"Withdraw your gaze, if you would. I find it most displeasing."
Florence's expression didn't so much as twist at her tone. If anything, he grinned.
"What? Is even looking a discourtesy now? I'm not touching you. Fine — I'll stop looking. In exchange, let me get my hands on those big breasts of yours, and I'll turn my eyes elsewhere. How about it?"
Even as he said it, his hand began drifting toward her chest without a shred of permission.
Alice saw it coming and shifted her body back — but my thread of reason snapped faster, and my body moved faster still.
I swept her into my embrace and summoned the Sword of the Azure Sky.
"Has this dog-fucking bastard lost his mind? Come forth. Answer your master's call."
Answering my words, the sword tore into the world, crackling with lightning.
"Where do you get off pawing at her, you rabid cur?"
Watching me draw the blade, Florence's face contorted.
"Are you talking to me right now?"
"Who else is standing here? Is the head on your shoulders just decoration?"
"Unbelievable. I come running because you begged for reinforcements, and this is the welcome I get?"
"Ha. So the head is just decoration. Because I don't recall our request for aid including a single line about coming here to toy with my lover."
"So what if she's your lover? She's a woman all the same, isn't she? And a beauty with a figure like that is a rare thing. Just as the rumors promised."
"Right. Fine. Then let's just try it, shall we?"
- Crackle-crack! Snap!
- Whoooosh!!
As if giving voice to our emotions, lightning and a howling gale wrapped themselves around the grand estate.
Florence, apparently still not finished, began spewing filth.
"Set that sword down even now, and we'll call it a bargain — that woman serves my bed tonight."
And of course, the one named to serve his bed was Alice.
"If that lord does not present herself in my chambers tonight, there will be no reinforcements."
Alice's eyes went dark.
To face the demons' overwhelming numbers, his support was necessary. And to secure it, she would have to offer her body to a man she did not love.
And of course, I could never stand to watch that. I'd sooner die first.
Florence opened his mouth with the air of a man who found me utterly ridiculous.
"Are you seriously proposing a Successor Contest right now?"
"If you want one."
Just as I readied myself to swing the sword on the spot, the White Tiger turned his head away, as if he'd lost his taste for it.
"How dull. You there, maid. Lead the way. To the guest quarters."
As he turned in boredom, the blizzard died. But my lightning still swam through the open air.
"Until next time, Azure Dragon's Successor. I have never once given up a woman I set my eyes on."
"Get out of my sight, you son of a bitch."
"Women don't much care for foul mouths, you know."
Unshakably smooth, he followed the maid's lead toward the guest room.
The moment he vanished from my sight, I unsummoned the Sword of the Azure Sky and let out a long, deep breath.
What in the world am I going to do about that bastard?
"Hyun-ah..."
Alice's eyes, fixed on me, brimmed with worry.
Right — there was nothing to fear. Someone had told me, before I was ever called to this world: protect what is precious. I could not afford to lose anyone precious ever again. And even if that someone happened to be a fellow Successor, bound to the same duty of protection as I was — I would draw my sword all the same.
And so, in that instant, my resolve was made.