Pector of Despair
The carriage rattled along the road as I stared out the window, trying to ignore the ridiculous scene unfolding beside me.
Seria is currently ramming her own head into the window with clear malicious intent.
“Olivia. Maybe slamming Miss Seria’s head into the window is a bit much.”
“She won’t break from something like this. Don’t worry.”
Seria. This girl is definitely doing it on purpose, no matter how you look at it.
She already knows I don’t feel the cold, so the fact that she’s still doing this makes it obvious. Meanwhile, Shariel, who had been gazing outside, let out a gasp of awe, her eyes widening.
“Whoa!”
“What is it?”
“No, I mean… how is it so big? It feels like one noble’s territory is larger than the Great Forest.”
“The Great Forest is basically just a bunch of grass and trees, so it can’t be helped.”
The Great Forest was quite vast. Enormously so. But because of all the trees and dense woodland, the actual open area seemed smaller. If you cleared all that away, it would easily surpass the territory of most nations.
“Wow, the Empire really is huge. My sister must have traveled all over the place, right? Did she ever visit the Ashtar territory?”
There was nothing like that in the memories of the original Olivia. It felt similar to how I, as Noah, had lost bits and pieces of my own recollection. After all, I had even forgotten what I told the Emperor.
“The Hero Party did stop by Ashtar once, but they didn’t stay long. At the time, the war against the Demon King’s army was at its peak, so they only received some supplies before heading back to the front lines.”
Claire answered in my place. Ah, that part did ring a faint bell. In matters related to the Demon King, the Empire was obligated to support the Hero Party anyway. They must have stopped at Ashtar while handling imperial affairs.
“Do you know anything about my sister?”
“You mean Lady Ella?”
Claire had attached an honorific to Ella’s name. Since they were the Hero Party, even that annoying elf eventually earned a “Lady.” I wanted to curse her out, calling her a worthless elf bitch who didn’t deserve any respect, but I held back.
I wasn’t Noah anymore. I was Olivia. If Olivia started badmouthing Ella here, I’d just come off as some spoiled noble girl insulting the Hero Party. Ugh, my mouth was itching to let loose.
“There are knights blocking the way up ahead?”
Seria, who had been stuck against the window for a while, suddenly reported. She actually came in handy at times like this. Well, the coachman would have said something anyway. Soon the carriage came to a stop, and knights in full armor came running toward us.
“What’s going on here?”
Aslan asked the knights, who immediately saluted both him and me.
“Are you perhaps His Highness the Prince and Lady Olivia’s party?”
Oh, they recognized us right away.
“That’s right. Are you knights of Ashtar?”
“Yes. There’s an intruder at the western border of the territory right now. Our young master instructed us to ask you to pass through as quickly as possible.”
An intruder? At this time of all times, in Ashtar territory? What kind of idiot would pull something like that?
“An intruder?”
“A newly built outpost was completely pulverized.”
What? The outpost? The brand new one?
I shoved Aslan aside in a hurry and pressed the knights.
“It was completely reduced to powder?”
“Y-yes, my lady.”
If a building had been smashed into dust in a single blow, there was only one person it could be. The bastard who had destroyed the Berta I had meticulously reinforced with magic. That guy and no one else.
Pector. One of the Four Heavenly Kings.
When he unleashed his Authority, everything around him shattered. All the places living beings called home were destroyed, leaving nothing but despair in his wake. So he had come.
“Wait. Then are you saying it could be Pector of the Four Heavenly Kings?”
“You know of him as well, my lady? Yes. That’s why the mage corps and knight order are currently scouring the area.”
In that case, wouldn’t it be better to call the Seven Stars? Even Ashtar couldn’t handle Pector alone. That was why the Hero Party had been the ones to face him all this time. Despite possessing such an absurd ability, the reason the war had remained in a stalemate was because the guy himself didn’t particularly enjoy mass destruction. He simply loved fighting strong opponents.
The Hero couldn’t do it. That bastard had only barely held on in Berta; he hadn’t won. In that case, it would be far better to call the Seven Stars instead of the Hero.
“Just in case, it would be best to summon the Seven Stars.”
The Hero Party created by the Empire had never received official recognition from the Holy Kingdom, so it had eventually fizzled out. But they should at least step up when it came to dealing with the Four Heavenly Kings.
“The Seven Stars, you say… Then…”
Among the Seven Stars, there was one person whose compatibility against Pector was decent. Pector fought with swordsmanship and enjoyed battle. Arrows barely pierced his massive body, so the same approach would be best. The Radiant Sword could at least put up a fight against him.
“It’s the Radiant Sword. We need to call the Radiant Sword. The Hero is no match for Pector. The Radiant Sword should be able to hold out at least. And gather all the Seven Stars while you’re at it.”
“Wouldn’t they all end up dying?”
No, that wouldn’t happen. The reason I specifically told them to call the Radiant Sword first was to let Pector enjoy the fight. If they brought in long-range attackers who just spammed spells from afar right from the start, Pector would probably get seriously pissed off.
“The Hero is even more useless. Besides, Pector is someone you can actually talk to. If he gets satisfied or decides it’s not worth it, he’ll leave.”
Pector was a guy who knew his limits. I didn’t know why he had wrecked Berta, but he wouldn’t try anything excessive in the Empire. So right now, the Seven Stars were more important than the Hero.
“Understood. I’ll relay the message to the young master immediately.”
The knights turned and left after delivering that.
“What the hell? Olivia, you know about Pector?”
Aslan, who had been listening to the whole exchange, asked.
“Yeah. Why, is that weird?”
“For someone who supposedly just happened to hear about him, you sounded like you already knew everything.”
Ribelt tossed out the comment bluntly. Did he really have to say it in such a suspicious way? That guy was annoying in so many different ways. Aslan and his lackeys were also staring at me with curious eyes. This was exactly the kind of situation where Seria came in handy.
I poked Seria in the side.
“Ah, Seria told me about it.”
“Seria did?”
“Cough. Ah, yes. I learned about it while I was helping Sir Noah before.”
Seria answered while coughing awkwardly.
“Hmm. I see.”
“She was supposed to say it first, but since she stayed quiet, I ended up speaking for her.”
Seria nodded vigorously.
“Still, I didn’t expect you to know about the Radiant Sword as well.”
“Hahaha. Isn’t the Radiant Sword cool?”
“Yeah, even I’m surprised. I never thought you would know about that, my lady.”
Claire looked shocked, and so did everyone else. Except Seria, Ribelt, and that damn elf’s little sister. Well, if you were even a little bit of a fan of the Hero Party, it was common knowledge. And if you were close to Seria, it was only natural.
“What exactly have you all been thinking of me as until now?”
“A noblewoman with a shitty personality.”
“Someone whose strength is stupidly overpowered.”
“Ahem.”
When should I flip the table on all of them?
After the brief commotion, the carriage started moving again. Just as we were about to leave the territory, Seria discreetly handed me her notebook.
Wouldn’t it be better to call the Hero as well?
The words were written tiny, using mana. I wrote back the same way.
Does adding zero to one equal two?
The Hero is that useless?
Calling him might actually get in the Radiant Sword’s way. Those guys need to go struggle somewhere else and build up their skills first.
What if Pector doesn’t retreat?
Then I’ll go. If the bastard really refuses to leave, I’ll just drop a Meteor on his head. No matter how much magic-resistant armor he’s wrapped in, no one walks away unscathed from a Meteor.
The problem was, if Pector had truly come to strike at the Empire, the other Heavenly Kings should have moved as well. No matter how poorly they got along with each other, they all knew the Empire had been the one supporting the Kingdom from behind the scenes.
“Hmm?”
“What is it, Ribelt?”
“It seems we have guests waiting for us.”
“What do you mean?”
Come to think of it, I had been hearing strange noises for a little while now. The sound of clanking metal. Ribelt must have noticed it long ago. Soon enough, my unease became reality.
CRACK!
A loud crash rang out. When I looked outside, several trees had been toppled over, blocking the carriage’s path.
Kill the prince inside!
Drag them all out!
“There must be at least a few dozen of them.”
“Your Highness! There are assailants outside!”
I peeked out slightly. Dozens of armed thugs had surrounded the carriage. It wasn’t an impossible number to handle. Seeing how relaxed Ribelt looked, subduing them shouldn’t be too difficult. The real problem was if their goal was specifically to kill the prince.
Could we protect him? If they were only targeting the prince? Even if Seria could bring out her teddy bear puppets, if these were professional assassins sent with clear intent… they might actually die.
“Then I’ll go out and—”
As I tried to stand up, Claire stopped me.
“No, my lady. There’s no need for you to step forward. Everyone, please stay seated.”
“Hmm?”
“Because this is Ashtar’s land.”
The situation, which had seemed on the verge of an all-out assault by the thugs, changed in an instant.
STAB!SLASH!
The sounds of blades piercing flesh and slicing through bodies echoed from outside. Screams rang out from all directions, followed by the thud of bodies hitting the ground.
“What the hell? What’s happening out there?”
“It’s the assassination unit that Ashtar boasts about.”
Dozens of thugs had their lives snuffed out in moments. Well, a couple were still alive. Claire carefully stepped down from the carriage. Looking closely, there were indeed about a dozen men and women with the chilling aura of professional killers. A pool of the assailants’ blood had already formed at their feet.
The Ashtar personnel gave us a crisp salute, confirming they were on our side. The next person to emerge from the carriage was Riler, the prince’s closest aide. Riler grabbed one of the surviving thugs and hauled him to his feet.
“Who the hell are you people?”
In response to Riler’s question, the thug spat out an answer.
“Who are we? We are righteous thieves who have risen up to capture that incompetent crown prince!”
Righteous thieves. Righteous, my ass. No matter how I thought about it, that was complete bullshit. When Riler looked like he was about to lose control of his anger and punch the guy in the face, I stopped him.
“Hold on a moment.”
“Lady Olivia?”
I pushed Riler back and kicked the thug, knocking him to the ground.
“No matter how you look at it, that’s bullshit.”
“Ugh. You Ashtar bitch!”
“You’re obviously subordinates of the nobles who suffered losses because of the Lily incident.”
His face twitched. Looked like I was right. I had expected as much.
“No, we’re—”
He stopped mid-sentence and began moving his mouth strangely. The way he was rolling his tongue suggested he had hidden poison in his mouth.
THUD!
“Gah!”
I first punched him in the jaw to force out the poison capsule he had hidden inside.
“For someone claiming to be a righteous thief, your insides are way too filthy.”
It was so obvious I didn’t even need to look. I couldn’t believe someone could be this disgusting.
“Claire. It might be good to tie up these self-proclaimed righteous thieves, lock them up in Ashtar for now, and take them to the capital later for interrogation.”
“Understood.”
Claire gave a slight nod to the assassination unit. The failed suicide attackers were dragged away by the unit.
“Is it possible they were hired assassins?”
Aslan asked me. I understood his concern, but…
“If that were the case, after all these years in this business, the assassination guild would have known. No. As I said, there are plenty of nobles targeting either His Highness or me.”
Since they were already ruined, they were probably just venting their anger. Still, we couldn’t drag them all the way to the capital for questioning while on this journey.
“To think there would be an organization trying to assassinate me…”
“Your Highness. The royal family of the Kingdom has suffered multiple assassination attempts. Why would the imperial prince be any different? Especially someone at the center of the Lily incident.”
When you thought about it, the Kingdom really had been in chaos. The princess had nearly been assassinated in broad daylight in the capital. I had barely managed to stop it.
“Sigh. You just had to bring that up.”
“Can’t be helped. The aftermath of that incident was pretty massive.”
“But how do you know about that? The Kingdom’s assassination attempt, I mean.”
Ah, right. The setting was that Seria had told me. I poked Seria in the side again.
“Seria told me.”
“Ah, yes. I happen to know quite a lot of things.”
Seria smoothly played along with me. At this point, we were perfectly in sync.