The World Didn't End, So It's Fucked
The moment the young lady of the Arlaxis family uttered my name, I felt a chill run down my spine. I had no idea how she knew my name. I quickly checked whether the recognition-inhibiting device on my face had malfunctioned, but it was still functioning perfectly. She must have recognized me by my voice, then….
Did I ever have any connection with the Arlaxis Count family?
After carefully searching through my old memories, I eventually shook my head. I was seeing even the Count for the first time today, so when would I have ever crossed paths with his daughter? Still, the fact that she had recognized me without even seeing my face suggested the young lady held some one-sided connection to me. And in cases like this, it had never led to anything good.
“The silver lining is that no one else heard my name….”
She had shouted my name inside the cave, but because she had already exhausted most of her strength fighting the demon contractor, her voice hadn’t been very loud. Fortunately, neither the Count nor the Countess seemed to have caught it. On top of that, after collapsing from exhaustion that day, she had remained unconscious until just recently. I had enhanced my hearing and eavesdropped on every conversation she had after waking up, but thankfully my name never came up.
That left me with two choices.
The best outcome is that it was simply a mistake.
The young lady’s condition had been terrible even at a glance. She looked like she could lose consciousness at any second. In a situation like that, it was possible a name buried in her memory had slipped out unconsciously. I could understand that. But. What if. Just what if. It wasn’t a mistake and she really had recognized me.
In that case, I would have no choice but to take the final option.
“Silence her.”
When people talked about silencing someone, murder usually came to mind first, but I wasn’t that ruthless. I would simply make her swear a simple oath so she couldn’t reveal my name. Of course, breaking the oath would bring a price, but if she never broke it in the first place, it wouldn’t matter.
With that thought in mind, I gazed through the window at the room where Lady Arlaxis was sleeping. Despite the late hour, the light in her room remained on. The Count and Countess were still inside, tightly holding their daughter’s hands and speaking with worried expressions.
The Countess was one thing, but I hadn’t expected the Count himself to wear such a tender look. The rumor that he was a complete daughter-obsessed fool in high society must have been true.
“Never do something like that again.”
“Yes, it was far too reckless. Confronting a demon contractor without any mana…”
“I understand. But I escaped safely, so…”
The three of them embracing in an emotional family reunion was a rather heartwarming sight, but the longer the hug continued, the longer I had to wait outside. I found myself praying for it to end quickly.
“You two should get some rest now. You’ve both been through so much, and it’s late.”
“That’s true. You only just woke up, so your mind must be a mess. Rest well.”
“Yes, if you need anything at all, tell your father immediately.”
Fortunately their touching reunion didn’t drag on too long. After the Countess smacked the Count on the back for being overly dramatic, the two of them finally left the room.
Once they were gone, the light in the young lady’s room naturally went out. The moment their footsteps faded completely, I wrapped my body in mana so she wouldn’t sense my presence and slipped carefully inside.
The room was impeccably clean, so I entered without anything catching underfoot. I looked at the young lady lying in bed. After her parents left, she had turned off the lights and lain down, yet she was staring intently at a lone chair placed in the center of the room. Her gaze was fixed on it as if she were waiting for someone. Then came her quiet murmur.
“He should be here by now.”
Hearing those words, I realized my first and best assumption had been wrong. As she wished, I stepped in front of the chair and released the mana concealing my body.
“You came.”
“You knew I would?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
I asked, genuinely curious.
“Since you’re a wanted fugitive, I judged you wouldn’t simply leave someone who had identified you alone.”
The young lady smiled brightly as she answered.
“Hah.”
At her response, I let out a hollow laugh, completely taken aback.
“As you said, I’m a fugitive the empire is hunting. And you figured out my identity. Saying I wouldn’t leave you alone could also mean I might kill you to silence you, no?”
“Even if I look like this, I am the only daughter of a Count family. If you killed me, the fallout would be enormous. Keeping me alive to silence me would be far less damaging than killing me.”
I normally disliked repeating the same reaction, yet I let out another hollow laugh. I couldn’t help it. I should have realized it the moment the Count’s daughter picked up a sword and challenged a demon contractor. To look at a wanted criminal with a bounty of hundreds of millions without fear and calmly calculate the profit and loss of her own life at stake—this wasn’t the behavior of a girl her age. Moreover…
“Dying at the hands of the Empire’s First Star would be a rather honorable death in its own way.”
At the words that followed, I stared down at her with an incredulous expression for a long moment before dropping heavily into the chair.
“This is ridiculous.”
“So you’re not going to kill me?”
“Yeah. Like you said, killing you would be more trouble than letting you live.”
Besides, exploiting something like that wasn’t really my style.
Hearing my mutter, the young lady pulled something out from behind her pillow.
“Then this won’t be necessary.”
The one who killed me is the Empire’s First Star, Kyle Amillan.
He is wearing an unknown device on his face.
With a relieved expression, the young lady tore the paper to shreds right before my eyes. I watched silently for a moment before the words rose unbidden from my throat.
“You’re crazy.”
“That’s what people usually say about me.”
I was truly at a loss. What kind of woman in the world would hear herself called crazy and just smile in agreement? Among the people I knew, there were quite a few, but they couldn’t be considered ordinary women, so I’d skip that thought…
…Come to think of it, could this girl be considered ordinary either? I wasn’t sure.
I shook my head to clear away the messy thoughts and spoke.
“Did you also predict how I would silence you?”
“Yes. I assume you will use a Geas… Am I correct?”
“…Yes.”
A Geas. An oath bound by mana. Everyone in this world possessed mana within their bodies, and the oath was formed by staking that mana. Because it literally bound one’s mana, an ordinary person with little mana would be unable to move properly for about three months. For a superhuman with immeasurable mana, it could cost their life. In short, the higher one’s realm, the harsher the price for breaking the contract.
However, unlike the other oaths forbidden by the empire, it left no visible trace on the surface, and the price for breaking it was clearly demonstrated. That was why it was the most commonly used method when nobles made deals with one another.
“I heard that, unlike other oaths, a Geas requires both parties to give something in return to be established…”
“That’s right. The scales must be balanced.”
It was one of the most annoying aspects of a Geas—the need to balance the scales. That was why I usually preferred other oaths, but unlike a Geas, those were always detected from the outside. If it was detected, they could track the one who cast the oath, and eventually it would be revealed that I was involved. Then the oath would lose all meaning.
I sighed inwardly and asked Lady Arlaxis what she wanted as compensation for the Geas.
“Fight me. Just once.”
“Are you actually insane?”
The crude words that came out of the young lady’s mouth were so shocking I could hardly believe them.
“So…”
Latua, a new knight of the Cantuma Knight Order affiliated with the imperial family, stood in a posture so perfect it left no room for criticism.
“Someone dealt with a Contaminant?”
“Yes!”
“And during the process, a blue moon appeared?”
“Yes, that is correct!”
He couldn’t afford to let any flaws show in front of the person before him. He didn’t even want to imagine what his superior would say.
The Empire’s Second Star. The Knight Commander who oversaw every knight order in the imperial family. With the First Star gone, she was now called the empire’s greatest sword. The very person who had unilaterally decided on the subjugation of a 4th-class Contaminant known as a disaster.
Scarlet Frausia.
After listening to Latua’s answer, she swept her finger across the floor.
“……”
They had thought it was a 10th-class Contaminant, but it turned out to be 9th-class. The mental contamination directed at the knight order could have inflicted catastrophic damage on the empire if things had gone wrong. Fortunately some superhuman had stopped it, but there was no way she would miss an opportunity like this.
The moment the incident occurred, Scarlet had flown straight to the scene without waiting for the Emperor’s orders. From the slash that had cut down the Contaminant, she caught the scent of familiar mana and the corners of her mouth curved upward.
“Aah, so it really is you. Kyle?”