Chapter 60
Chapter 60
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: Audience with the King
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“Excuse me.”
“Oh my, entering a lady’s room without knocking? How rude.”
The one who entered through the door was Abyss.
He drew glares from the surrounding maids for not knocking.
“A kid like you...”
But his words didn’t get to finish. The moment “kid” slipped out, the maids started chattering with scoldings.
“Men are really so oblivious.”
“Calling Rachel, who’s about to come of age, a kid!”
“And coming into a lady’s room with a cigarette, no less. Utterly tactless.”
Abyss turned and slipped out of the room amid the barrage of nagging. Soon, a knock sounded.
“Come in.”
With the maid’s permission, Abyss poked his head through the open door.
“Is this acceptable now?”
He had put out his cigarette in the meantime and asked with a weary expression. The maids nodded.
“Yes. Well then, Lady Rachel, it’s about time for you to head out.”
“Thank you for everything.”
“We had a wonderful time too. Let’s meet again.”
Rachel exchanged goodbyes with the maids and left the room.
Outside the room stood not only Abyss but also what appeared to be the castle’s guard knights and attendants.
“Let’s go.”
Following the attendant’s guidance, they passed through the corridor and arrived before a massive door. Before it opened, another attendant checked their names and recorded them in the guestbook.
She had expected a stiff atmosphere filled only with bureaucratic nobles, given the occasion. But beyond the massive door, a banquet was in full swing.
The attendant who had taken the guestbook announced Rachel and Abyss’s arrival, and the gazes of those already present turned toward them.
“Don’t be nervous.”
Had her shoulders hunched up without her realizing?
Abyss gave her a light poke in the side and whispered. Thanks to that, Rachel straightened her posture.
“A regressor’s first time with something like this too, huh?”
His usual slippery tone chased away all her tension.
“First time for me too. You think I’ve experienced everything?”
Rachel shot Abyss a glare and looked ahead.
There were so many nobles. Some she recognized from portraits, others completely new.
Amid them, Rachel spotted Henri in his black suit.
Henri, who had been in the corner sipping from a small wine glass to wet his throat, saw his daughter and approached.
“You look lovely. Nervous in a place like this for the first time?”
“You came too? But it looks like Father’s the one more nervous.”
He had met many nobles while working as a doctor in the castle, yet he seemed more tense than Rachel. His face looked haggard from all the hardship.
But even more striking was the change in his hair color. His once jet-black hair had turned a deep copper shade.
“Did you dye it?”
“No, I woke up one day and it had suddenly changed.”
She had heard that extreme stress could turn hair white, but black turning brown was a first.
Rachel gazed at Henri’s hair with a puzzled expression. Feeling burdened by his daughter’s persistent stare, he changed the subject.
“Your mother’s here too.”
“Mother too?”
Following Henri’s gaze, she turned her head and saw Evelyn walking through the banquet hall with Deyner.
For Deyner, who was new to such events, his eyes were wide as he looked around curiously. His hair was also a deep copper color.
‘Both their hair colors changed all of a sudden. What’s going on?’
Rachel pondered deeply and recalled something she had read long ago.
‘The ancient Church of Light claimed that hair color was related to divine grace.’
The lighter the hair color, the more favored by the gods—that sort of thing.
If the men of the Emporus family had always been in a state where they could contract with demons at any time, thus denied divine protection, it would explain their dark hair.
‘Come to think of it.’
Rachel’s thoughts drifted to Enoch’s silver hair.
Coincidentally, his hair—which possessed strong divine power—was silver as well.
And if what she had read in a book someday was true, the ancient Church of Light must have regarded silver hair as the most sacred color.
‘Right. That’s why there are records stating that King Manus, the founding king, had silver hair, not red.’
The royal family claimed that Manus, the hero and first king, had fiery red hair. But scholars and the church denied it.
Of course, they couldn’t openly refute it, so lesser nobles and commoners believed the royal claim.
As Rachel was lost in thought, a fanfare blared. Following the orchestra’s performance came the attendant’s cry.
“His Majesty the King arrives!”
The king and queen entered through the widely opened doors, followed by the princes and princesses.
The nobles filling the banquet hall stepped back from the king’s path, clearing a way.
The royal family walked through and took their seats on the raised dais.
In the meantime, attendants assigned seats to Rachel and Abyss and withdrew.
The space just vacated by the passing royal family. Right across from the king, no less.
Rachel and Abyss knelt on one knee.
It was then that Rachel realized someone besides Abyss was beside her. It was Magistrate Jesty.
“Raise your heads.”
At the king’s command, the nobles who had bowed and stepped aside lifted their heads.
“The reason for gathering here today is to commend those who exposed a nefarious group that violated the law and sought to ruin the kingdom, thereby helping restore order.”
Rachel felt a stinging sensation all over from the gazes pouring in from every direction. She had learned to stay calm, but her heart pounded.
The king spoke at length, but the words didn’t register in her mind. She just responded to the king’s words with the practiced replies like a vending machine.
Most were just “Yes.”
She came to her senses after the king and queen had left. Abyss was waving his hand in front of her eyes.
“You alright?”
“My stomach’s churning.”
Even without Abyss using an artifact, her stomach churned.
She had hated presentation time in school just as much. Above all, she hated having more than twenty pairs of eyes focused on one person.
No matter how careful she was at the orphanage, her lack of parents showed in small ways. Worn clothes, wearing the same outfit to school for days—kids noticed right away.
‘Yuri’s always wearing the same clothes?’
That kid had probably said it casually. But she could never forget those words.
She became self-conscious about her shabby clothes and hated her friends’ stares.
Would it have stopped there?
Word eventually spread that she was an orphan. She was falsely accused of stealing just because of that.
She insisted it wasn’t her, but the kids didn’t believe her. The accusatory stares back then had been so cold. She had gone through that.
She had grown numb to it with age, but she still hated having the attention of a crowd focused on her.
‘That’s why being a game streamer was great.’
No visible stares. Reactions came through the chat window.
People focused on the game, and she didn’t have to show her face.
Seeing Rachel’s poor complexion, Abyss—uncharacteristically—rubbed her back.
“Did I do well? I didn’t say anything weird in the middle, right?”
“You didn’t say anything weird, and it was perfect. Don’t worry. Dame Peristera.”
Abyss took a glass of transparent liquid shimmering with a yellow glow from an attendant carrying a tray of drinks and handed it to Rachel. As she received it, she asked.
“What’s this?”
“What else? A new house to replace Emporus.”
Rachel’s family name had been Emporus, but after this incident, the name Emporus was completely erased.
It would be struck from the noble directory, compiled by the royal family every ten years.
From now on, no one could use the name Emporus. However, the king had bestowed titles and new family names upon Rachel and Abyss, as well as Jesty and Henri.
To Henri, a barony along with the name Iasis. To Rachel, Abyss, and Jesty, honorary titles with the names Peristera, Pronimo, and Dairon, respectively, plus fiefdoms.
“This country lets women hold titles too?”
She had asked for one, but didn’t expect them to actually give it. She had thrown in an unattainable title on purpose, thinking they’d knock down a big monetary reward otherwise.
To the surprised Rachel, Abyss gave a curt reply.
“Rarely.”
At that answer, Rachel recalled that among the founding heroes who established the kingdom, there had been a woman.
Right after the demon king’s defeat, when Kudus was newly founded, female nobles had existed.
Due to the demon king’s invasion decimating the population, women could become nobles if they had the ability.
“So they did exist.”
“It’s a title that can’t be inherited anyway.”
A one-generation title that couldn’t be passed to the next.
Since it would end with her generation anyway, the king judged it wouldn’t cause much issue. There was precedent, after all.
“Ended up independent against my will.”
Her family name was now different from her relatives’. From now on, Henri, her mother, and Deyner would be called Iasis, but only she was Peristera.
On top of that, they had granted her a fief—one that Henri didn’t receive. The former fief of Paris Emporus.
In exchange, no monetary reward. Meaning, manage the fief and make your own profits.
‘The king’s no pushover, as expected.’
Paris Emporus had generated huge profits not from taxes or local specialties, but from running merchant guilds and controlling the back alleys with illegal dealings.
Commerce was developed, and there were taxes on merchants, but compared to Rachel’s demanded reward, it was a drop in the bucket.
“Lady, may I have the honor of this dance?”
As Rachel inwardly grumbled about the shrewd king, a man invited her to dance.
Rachel blinked. She soon registered the form of address he used and subtly twisted her expression.
“I don’t know which house you’re from, but you lack manners.”
The man looked down at her with a baffled expression at her reply, brimming with refusal.
Abyss clicked his tongue and explained.
“That wouldn’t be rude if she were an ordinary lady. But she received a title today.”
She had been awarded an honor in front of everyone today.
Calling her “lady” in normal times was fine, but doing so on the very day she received her title was tantamount to disdain.
To show respect, he should have called her Dame Peristera or Lady Peristera.
“Though I’m not a true knight, I received a title in recognition of my loyalty. Calling someone like me ‘lady’ goes beyond insult—it means disregarding His Majesty’s will.”
In short, get the title right.
Faced with Rachel’s piercing glare, the man who had asked for the dance apologized and fled.
To some, Rachel’s reaction might seem excessive. But she had to do this.
Her goal wasn’t high society, yet the king had dragged her into it. Her sphere of activity had unexpectedly expanded, exposing her to noble society.
Even if she had no interest, now that she was drawing attention from those around her, she had to begin social interactions with the nobles.
To avoid being looked down upon in her first foray into high society, she had to seize control of the atmosphere from the start.