Chapter 33
Chapter 33
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 33
Chapter Title: The Empress' Test
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In this fleetingly brief encounter, the player gets to sample every facet of the personality of the Empire's Empress, that NPC.
She utterly despises tedious tasks, harbors an extreme loathing for monsters or demons that threaten humans, and possesses Empire-tier supreme martial prowess.
And one final trait.
"I am genuinely impressed by your actions just now. I shall praise you personally."
That she is the kind of person who wouldn't bat an eye at committing any atrocity if it satisfies her curiosity or proves her theories.
That was the Empire's Empress.
'That was a close one.'
He wiped his sweaty palms on his pant legs. His hands were still trembling faintly. Staring at the deep gash in his scabbard made the near-death experience feel half-real.
Honestly, the other half probably stemmed from being too stunned to process it fully.
Beyond the black uniform, he could see Aurora frozen like a statue, mouth agape in shock. The flustered look she'd had while Kaikilia grilled him was nowhere to be found.
Unlike Aurora, who had turned to stone, or him, whose knees had buckled halfway, the perpetrator herself, Kaikilia, seemed utterly unfazed.
She even looked faintly pleased.
"That was an attack even the palace knights would need full preparation to react to, yet you blocked it with no defenses in place. I have never seen anyone like you before."
The Empress, reverting the holy sword of light in her hand back to light, fixed him with her signature sharp, chilling smile.
You blocked it with no defenses?
Wrong. From the moment she approached and spoke, he hadn't let his guard down once. In a situation where her next move was blatantly predictable, he couldn't afford a single lapse.
It was precisely those lightning-fast attacks with zero startup or recovery that made her one of the top handful of bosses in Brutal 4 difficulty, out of all of them.
Among users, it was commonly called the "pattern that tests the limits of human reaction speed."
No startup, no recovery, and the motion was disgustingly compact with virtually no tell. Such attacks were randomly interspersed midway through her patterns.
Fail to block? You eat it and die to the follow-up combo. Fail to parry? Combat fatigue procs and you die. Stay too far? Her unique wide heal forces a marathon fight.
The easiest counter was wielding a large or tower shield, buffing it with reinforcement magic, and holding guard whenever something felt off. That said it all.
'If I actually had to fight that thing as a boss here... fuck, just imagining it is nightmare fuel.'
The reason the Empress had suddenly pulled that stunt on him was absurd.
Something that dropped demon-related loot had to be a seriously powerful monster, and when a lone knight took it down single-handedly, she wanted to verify the skill with her own eyes?
'And if I hadn't blocked it, I'd be dead.'
In vanilla, even if you failed to react and took the hit, you'd survive with exactly 1 HP. Lore-wise, it was because she meticulously adjusted the blade's reach to not kill the protagonist.
But in Brutal mode, you just die. Grit your teeth and react, or die and end the event—those were the options.
"Aunt, what was that just now...?"
Aurora's voice trembled faintly.
"A monster that spat out a demon-possessed book, and he slew it alone. I merely tested his prowess. Had he failed to block, my suspicions would have deepened, but he seems to be a genuine human with real skill, so I'll let it slide. What are you waiting for? Help him up."
Kaikilia beckoned to Aurora. Aurora hurried over to him.
"Hey, you okay? Anywhere hurt or cut?"
"...No. My limbs are still a bit shaky, but. And if that had hit, it wouldn't have been a cut or injury—it would've killed me."
"How the hell did you block it? All I saw was a flash, then Aunt with a sword out and you flung back here."
"Don't ask me; I don't know either."
He waved off Aurora, who was trying to support him by looping an arm around his side, and stood on his own. Her grip tightened on his arm.
As they returned to their spots, Kaikilia regarded him with the faintest upward twitch of her lips.
"You have talent. Hone it, and you'll make an excellent knight. I look forward to your growth."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
It seemed like a casual remark at a glance, but the weight of its implications was anything but light. Just the way Aurora flinched while subtly supporting him said as much.
Praise for his talent and anticipation of his growth, straight from the pinnacle of the Empire's military might. No way to take it lightly.
It was also spot-on, considering the player's future exploits.
"Aurora."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"That's enough. Escort him."
"Understood."
The command cut straight to the chase, but it was obvious where to. Aurora bowed her head and released his hand.
"You come too."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Kaikilia said it without turning.
No room for refusal.
"Surely your pent-up frustration is overflowing by now. I fully understand."
"N-No, I mean, that's..."
Iris stammered, sweating profusely with a look of utter bewilderment. Behind her stood Lize, Erika, and Claudia, all in rigid attention.
All four wore rare expressions of panic. Can't blame them—getting caught treating the lord like a punching bag by the Empress.
The knight commanders had been gleefully pummeling the lord right up until the Empress arrived in the basement. That the place hadn't collapsed was probably proof they retained some sense to pull their punches.
The problem? The Empress had witnessed the whole spectacle of the lord getting thrashed every which way.
'With the Empress' personality, that "I fully understand" is probably not sarcasm—it's genuine.'
Iris, Lize, Erika, Claudia—they all seemed unable to accept it.
Which made sense. It was the Empress speaking. How many would take her words at face value? Naturally, they'd assume hidden meanings.
"..."
Even after hours of beatings from four knight commander-level powerhouses, the lord's pathetic writhing on the floor looked no different from when he'd stabbed and left him with the blessed dagger.
Instinctively sensing the holy power from the holy sword, he was twitching his limbs to put distance between himself and Kaikilia.
"So, that's the demon who was once my brother?"
"Yes! Indeed, Your Majesty!"
Iris snapped to attention with a crisp reply. Kaikilia passed the rigidly standing knights on either side and slowly approached the demon.
*Hiss.* 'Her expression and vibe don't match at all.'
Her face screamed cold menace, but her outfit ruined it completely. For starters, the knights flanking her were in white sleeveless tops and dolphin pants.
And the Empress' uniform? The top exposed cleavage and lingerie, the skirt barely covered her ass cheeks, and garter belts hugged her thighs.
To a normal person, she'd look less like the Empire's Empress and more like a cosplayer in Empress getup.
Above all, like the other female NPCs, her ass—wrapped taut in that uniform skirt—jiggled lewdly with every step, as if begging to be noticed.
Couldn't they tone down that damn motion?
"..."
Ignoring his thoughts, Kaikilia stopped right in front of the lord and silently stared down at it with a blank expression.
Soon, a faint murmur escaped her.
"So that's how it ended up."
'...What?'
It was a side of her the game had never shown, so he couldn't grasp the true meaning.
At this point, comparing the event to the game was pointless—the process had diverged too much. The overall flow matched, so he assumed the outcome would too.
Her personality had shifted far from the original NPC too. Just like all four knight commanders.
"It's time to end this, you worthless thing."
Light gathered in Kaikilia's right hand, soon forming a holy sword. As sun-rivaling holy power manifested nearby, it thrashed desperately to retreat.
Futile. The holy sword pierced its body effortlessly, and the demon let out a shrinking shriek of "Kiiii..." before going limp.
Compared to its crimes, a rather anticlimactic end.
Leaving the holy sword embedded, Kaikilia drew a blue vial from her waist and poured it on the corpse. The spilled blue liquid pooled on its own, tracing a magic circle.
The completed circle shot a thin light pillar toward the ceiling, and the lord's body began teleporting away. When the light faded, nothing remained.
Kaikilia gazed at the scene impassively before speaking.
"Where is the book it used?"
"In a makeshift storeroom, under strict guard."
"I'll retrieve it. Prepare it."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Aurora bowed slightly and ascended the stairs first.
"Before you go, one more thing. Knight Commander Iris."
"Yes! Your Majesty!"
"You stay. Everyone else, out."
Iris shuddered at the words.
The rest looked baffled but couldn't defy the Empress. They left Iris and Kaikilia in the basement and climbed the stairs.
Another development unseen in the game.
In the now-empty basement, those signature emotionless, icy golden eyes fixed on Iris. She maintained her rigid stance.
Her face was stiff.
A heavy silence descended, pressing down like a weight on the heart. It felt as if the air itself had gained mass. Iris forcibly straightened her shoulders, which kept wanting to slump.
"I have an order for you."
"Command me in anything!"
Kaikilia tapped her forearm with a finger, pausing briefly, then opened her mouth with golden pupils gleaming.
"Everything you know about that new knight—tell me all of it."