Chapter 34
Chapter 34
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: The Empress's Suspicion
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Late at night, Kaikilia sat upon the throne that overlooked the entire central hall. She had remained there for a full day, entirely alone, allowing no one else to enter.
The hall, vast enough to comfortably seat hundreds, was deathly silent. With all the lights extinguished, it exuded a chilling gloom. Only the moonlight filtering through the massive glass windows provided the faintest illumination.
Kaikilia sat with her right thigh crossed over her left, leaning back against the throne adorned with red cushions and gold, her right elbow propped on the dragon-carved armrest as she stared fixedly at something in the center of the hall.
It was the corpse of the being once called her big brother—long since grown ice-cold. The black blood that had oozed out had hardened into crust long ago. It no longer moved or twitched.
The moment the holy sword pierced it, its life had already ended. Yet Kaikilia had hauled the body here herself and watched over it for an entire day for a different reason altogether.
“You claimed to know nothing.”
A cold murmur slipped from Kaikilia’s lips.
When she had ordered everything about the newbie to be revealed, Iris had answered that she knew almost nothing herself.
All she knew was where she had met the newbie, why she had brought him to the knight order, and what had happened afterward. That was the extent of it.
Useless information. Save for one detail: that he had been cursed by a witch, losing most of his memories and having all his abilities degenerate to rock bottom.
“All abilities degenerated?”
The corners of her mouth curled upward ever so slightly—an unmistakable sneer.
There was no lie in Iris’s words. At the very least, Iris herself—the knight order captain who had brought in this knight of unknown origins—firmly believed her own account was the truth.
“Then it must be you who lied.”
Kaikilia rose from the throne. Slowly, she descended the steps one at a time. Black boots clad her feet as they pressed into the red carpet.
Her footsteps halted before the half-human, half-demon corpse impaled by the holy sword. A frigid gaze emanated from her golden eyes—more lustrous than gold itself—scanning its form from top to bottom.
Horns half-sprouted from the head. A face torn open to the ears. Leathery wings protruding from the back. Scales covering the entire body. Arms and legs twisted into reverse joints. Elongated claws.
And wounds emitting a faint white glow in response to the holy sword’s divine power.
“Foolish creature. Did you think I wouldn’t notice?”
The instant Kaikilia laid eyes on the demon that had once been her brother in the basement, she had spotted the holy weapon scars riddling its body.
It seemed the demon had tossed the territory lord to the knights to be beaten senseless, perhaps hoping its innate demonic regeneration would conceal the wounds. But it had all been for naught.
Scars etched into an impure being by divine power were not so easily hidden.
She might fall a notch short of the popes from the Raphaela Holy Kingdom—revered as goddesses descended to earth—but Kaikilia could wield the holy sword through her own power.
Even if every holy weapon on the continent were gathered, none could rival its might. It stood to reason that anyone capable of wielding it would detect scars left by divine power.
Kaikilia gripped the holy sword’s hilt tightly. At once, the faint white glows seeping from wounds across the demon’s body intensified. Short but deeply penetrating injuries.
Traces of a dagger.
“You possess a dagger blessed with divine power, yet claim amnesia so profound you don’t even know who you are? You thought that would pass as a valid excuse?”
The icy sneer continued. A human who not only owned a blessed dagger but could wield it—yet insisted memories were lost and abilities had bottomed out?
A blatant lie. With scars from a blessed weapon on this half-demon body, there was no choice but to conclude the newbie knight had lied to her.
Aurora was a woman devoid of combat prowess. She had matured in every way since childhood, but that pertained only to appearance and temperament, not battle skill.
The four captains of the Silver Dawn Knights boasted exceptional combat ability, but they could not wield divine power.
That was only natural. Scour the entire empire, and outside ties to the Raphaela Holy Kingdom, no human could use divine power.
But that man could. Kaikilia sank into thought.
Even a demon too feeble to successfully possess a single human would require at least the level of an apprentice nun from the Holy Kingdom’s papal court to inflict meaningful harm.
Women called apprentice nuns in the papal court wielded divine power sufficient to lead a major church in the outside world.
Repelling a demon meant precisely that.
“Everything contradicts itself, yet everything aligns perfectly.”
The more she pondered, the more maddeningly curious she grew about the true identity of this so-called newbie knight.
He wielded divine power potent enough to wound a demon, yet claimed a curse had degenerated all his abilities.
He was knowledgeable enough to procure a blessed weapon from somewhere, yet insisted he had lost all the memories underpinning that knowledge.
Nothing about him had been revealed, yet he acted as if he knew everything.
Therefore.
“There’s no way your claim of knowing nothing is true...”
Her faintly upturned lips showed no sign of relaxing. It had been ages—truly ages—since she last savored such a delightful dilemma.
If everything about the newbie was a lie, then the contents of Aurora’s letter were lies as well. A powerhouse like that “happened” upon a book possessed by a demon? Absurd.
“Summon the captain of the Golden Twilight Knights.”
Kaikilia’s voice rang out into the empty air. As the echo bounced off walls and pillars before fading, a single knight strode majestically through a side door into the central hall.
Clad in armor fully adorned with gold, complete with a golden cape, helmet, and scabbard, the knight approached with disciplined strides and knelt before her.
“You called for me, Your Majesty!”
“I have an order for you.”
“Yes—command me as you will!”
“Take gold coin to Aurora’s territory. Hand it to the lord there, claiming it’s a reward for disposing of the demon in timely fashion. Then seek out the Silver Dawn Knights.”
At the mention of the Silver Dawn Knights, the helmeted knight’s body twitched briefly. Ignoring it, Kaikilia pressed on.
“A man recently joined their ranks. Observe his every action—every single move. You have two weeks.”
“And after observing?”
“Report it all to me without missing a thing. Even what seems utterly trivial. Leave nothing out.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
The knight in golden armor bowed crisply, turned with precise movements, and exited the central hall. With a thud, the door shut, leaving her alone once more.
“To think I’ve lived a lifetime without such fascination, and now mere interest stirs such joy.”
Kaikilia approached the demon’s corpse and gazed at the dozen or so scars still faintly emanating divine power. She seized the holy sword’s hilt piercing its body and channeled her strength into it.
Light like the sun erupted from the holy sword. Whoosh—the demon’s corpse erupted in white flames and began to burn. Flames of purification that judged only heretics.
The body swiftly crumbled to a handful of ash and vanished. As Kaikilia released the hilt, the holy sword dissolved into a radiant orb of light. Nothing remained where the corpse had been.
“I will watch you.”
Kaikilia murmured those words upon completing the task.
She would watch the newbie knight. She would surveil and surveil again until she unearthed whatever secrets he hid, no matter the means.
Lying in the letter sent to her? She could overlook it. Concealing his true identity? She could overlook that too. Such acts were mere trifling deviations.
Only one condition: if he was truly a man who could aid her ambitions—if he could serve as a loyal blade at her side—then she could turn a blind eye to all such petty matters.
“However, if not.”
Her golden eyes gleamed with venomous killing intent. If not, he was no different from the countless fools who briefly shone before crashing into oblivion—mere trash.
He would pay the price in full.
“So prove your worth.”
To ensure this delightful emotion endured long and unbroken, unmarred by a cruel conclusion.