Did You Deceive Me?
"How could this happen after everything I prepared?! Decades of every elf's deepest wish—how could it end so hollowly! Aaaaaaaaagh...!"
"Captain of the Guard. Take her into custody. I suspect we have a great many questions for that woman."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Sefirot was dragged away by the guards, still shrieking. Vanessa watched the dark elf wail in utter despair and sank into thought for a moment.
To be toyed with so completely by a single warlock...
Who could she even hold responsible for this disaster? If she had to place blame, it would fall on the previous emperors who had failed to recognize the danger of curses in time—and on herself.
Until now she had regarded a warlock as little more dangerous than a hypnotist. Who would have imagined one could infiltrate a corps as a lieutenant, spend years weaving curses over an entire army, and even create artificial life-forms powerful enough to tear down the Imperial Palace?
I have to admit it. I severely underestimated what a warlock could do.
Compared to mages, warlocks were few in number. Information about them was as scarce as knowledge of black mages. The one established fact was that their "fuel economy" was abysmal. The medium for a curse was mana warped by intense human emotion; not only were the conditions for obtaining that mana extremely strict, but the amount that could be harvested from a single person was limited.
Thus curses had long been regarded as one-use techniques refined over a lifetime by vengeful spirits who had lost everything, all for the sake of striking down a single hated enemy. Yet this woman had gathered the warped mana of every life lost in wartime and put it to work. There was no greater villainy.
In her own mind she had been carrying out vengeance on behalf of every elven nation. The irony was that the elven kingdoms, their civil war over, were now being freed of the Empire's many restrictions and elevated from puppet states to principalities—relations were actually improving.
A monster born of war...
That war could birth a warlock this powerful was a notion no one had ever conceived. She had just been handed yet another ironclad reason to suppress warfare at all costs. Contemplating the massive revision the Empire's diplomatic strategy would now require, Vanessa already felt a dull ache blooming behind her eyes.
"Aslan Belmont."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Aside from myself, Reinhardt, the guards, and you, no one witnessed today's events. Therefore this matter will be classified and all discussion of it forbidden. Do you have any objection?"
"None whatsoever. If word spread that curses can unleash such devastating power, the consequences would be troublesome. I will obey the order without fail."
Aslan Belmont bowed at once. Vanessa regarded him with a faintly dissatisfied expression.
"Then. Are you prepared to answer the question I asked earlier?"
"Pardon? Which question, Your Majesty?"
"I asked how it felt to look upon—and to fondle—the bare skin of the Empire's sovereign."
"..."
Aslan's face froze. His pupils began to tremble violently, and cold sweat rolled down his spine. Not only had he seen the Empress's jade-like body with his own eyes—something no living soul had ever beheld—but he had touched it as well. That was something far beyond an ordinary capital crime.
Even Vanessa herself had no idea how to handle a precedent this unprecedented, yet she kept her outward composure and fixed Aslan with a steady gaze.
If it hadn't been for Aslan Belmont, I would either be dead right now or weeping with blood on my hands.
Of course she understood how dire the situation had been. Left alone, the curse would have swallowed her body and turned her into a puppet; her heart stopping cold would not have been surprising either. In her heart she had already forgiven him. What she could no longer endure was the curiosity of hearing whatever excuse he would invent.
He'll just claim it was an emergency and he had no choice...
Silence stretched. Vanessa quickly regretted her own petty spite and sighed inwardly.
Why am I being so spiteful...? What do I even gain by cornering the man who saved my life? I'll only hear the same obvious excuse. What ridiculous expectation was I nursing?
She was about to take back the question and tell him to forget it when—
"Just now..."
"It was extremely soft, and also silky-smooth."
"...?"
"Your Majesty's skin was every bit as beautiful as your appearance, and the sensation of it filling my hand was..."
"W-w-what?! How dare you spout such lewd nonsense about the imperial body!!!"
The shameless, face-burning words pouring from Aslan's mouth finally shattered Vanessa's restraint; she lunged forward and clamped a hand over his mouth. Aslan simply looked bewildered, wearing an expression that said Wait, that wasn't it?
The Empress kept her grip on his collar while her own face burned hotter and hotter.
"You told me to give my impression..."
"Not a shred of remorse on that face."
"Of course not. Even if I returned to the past I would make the same choice and save Your Majesty again."
"...When you declare your loyalty so brazenly, I am left with nothing to say."
She released the completely unflappable Aslan. Her flushed face simply would not cool.
I'm dying of embarrassment over here, yet he looks as if nothing happened. That shameless little...
"Haa. Your companions look exhausted. Get out of my sight."
"But, Your Majesty..."
"The Imperial Family will handle the cleanup. I have already received far too much of your help. Any more and the dignity of the throne itself would be at risk. Return home, recover your weary body and mind, and wait for your reward."
"Yes. As you command, Your Majesty."
The moment a convinced Aslan turned away, Vanessa remembered something she had nearly forgotten and hastily seized his forearm.
Ah—I only meant to call him back...
She snatched her hand away again, then floundered, unsure where to put the floating limb, before finally speaking.
"I... um... I seem to have forgotten to say thank you. When I entrusted you with the secret guard detail, I never imagined anything this large would occur. Thanks to your resolute and self-sacrificing response, countless lives—including my own—were saved."
"You make too much of it. I merely did what my duty required. Please do not feel indebted."
"..."
Aslan Belmont gave a small chuckle and turned once more. Vanessa watched until he and his party disappeared from the palace grounds, then finally let out a long, deep breath.
"Thhaaaa..."
She scrubbed her dry face with both hands and groaned under the weight of regret.
What reaction was I even hoping for from Aslan? Did I want to see him writhing in mortification for daring to touch the imperial body? Yet the reaction he actually showed was utterly unshaken and unembarrassed. When he described the sensation as if he were calmly appraising a work of art, my chest ached for some reason.
Does Aslan not even see me as a woman...?
"Damn it. What am I even thinking..."
She was married to the Empire. She had never once allowed herself to look at a man with romantic eyes. And yet this brand-new, tingling sensation was not entirely unpleasant.
Damn it. I don't remember a single thing.
Inside the carriage heading back to the estate, surrounded by children who had collapsed into exhausted sleep, I was far too busy rifling through every last scrap of memory left in my head to close my eyes.
I simply could not recall it. When I had put my hand on the Empress's chest, what had it felt like? Not a single sensation remained!
I remembered the size—something that almost filled one hand, just a fraction short of overflowing—and a shape so perfect the word "flawless" felt inadequate. But the actual texture? Gone. Completely missing, as if I had dropped it somewhere along the way.
That was why, when the Empress demanded my impressions, I had no choice but to cobble together something that sounded pleasant.
I'm going insane!
Was the situation just too frantic for the memory to stick?? Of all the things to forget. A once-in-a-lifetime—no, once-in-several-millennia-of-imperial-history—experience, lost so meaninglessly. The sheer tragedy of it almost brought tears to my eyes.
"Yuri. You did well. It must have been sudden, yet you stayed calm and handled everything—"
"Hnnngh..."
"..."
She was sitting so properly that I had assumed she was awake. Instead she was sound asleep behind the mask. After running her shoes to pieces all night, of course she was exhausted. I decided not to wake her.
"Mmm, mmyah... delicious cookies..."
"Ah, no... Aslan, you'll get hurt... nngh..."
I tried to stand and adjust my posture, only to discover I was completely pinned. Charlotte and Yulia each had an iron grip on my leg and arm respectively. Charlotte had suffered mana exhaustion; Yulia had drained herself healing the damaged undead legion. If I simply stayed still, every one of the children could sleep deeply without waking. That level of discomfort I would gladly endure. I sank back into my awkward position.
"Silvia. How about you?"
"I am uninjured, however... My lord. What on earth were you thinking? Attempting to face that monster alone..."
"I have an Evil God, don't I? I trusted that she would handle things somehow."
"..."
The Evil God 'Kali' greatly laments missing the perfect opportunity to answer your faith.
My answer clearly did not satisfy her; Silvia's expression remained sulky. She turned her head away from me with a soft rustle and closed her eyes.
"My lord, honestly... Haa. Never mind. You would not have listened even if I spoke. I will rest my eyes for a while."
"Hey. If you sleep, what happens if we're attacked?"
"It is fine. I have already raised a barrier around the entire carriage. Should any impact strike it, I will awaken and respond."
"..."
So she had a plan after all. In that case, sleeping was fine.
...Or so I thought, until something felt off.
"Wait a second. You raised a barrier around the entire carriage? Didn't you tell me before that the only barriers you could make were so small that two people had to hug tightly just to fit inside?"
"...Ah."
Silvia's eyes flew wide open. Color slowly flooded her face.
You little... did you deceive me?