Hostages Are Useless
"...Ugh!"
Haa... haa...
I was awake.
A familiar ceiling.
Nea, Saintess of the Empire, clutched at the cold ache around her heart as she scanned her surroundings.
A plush bed, and blue mana stones scattered here and there to aid in healing.
Each stone was imbued with the power of Lily Elbrit, quietly working to mend her body.
Feeling an instinctive revulsion, Nea severed her connection to the stones — though there was no doubt about it, this was an Imperial mansion.
"What in the world is going on..."
Pitter-patter-patter.
"...A lizard?"
It was a lizard.
The moment she saw that gluttonous, dim-witted creature gorging itself on meat, everything that had happened came rushing back.
Lily Elbrit had clearly moved to punish heretics — but this damn lizard had exhaled its killing frost and frozen her solid.
Her — the Saintess of the Empire herself.
She bolted upright!
"Urk."
Swish.
The instant Nea rose from the bed, Sre wrapped her enormous, bear-like arms around the towering mountain of meat and began to growl.
She took up a defensive stance as if to say: my meat would never, ever be surrendered.
Nea found it utterly absurd, but Sre, her round eyes wide open, was dead serious.
"Wh-what do you think you're doing... you mere beast..."
"Grrrr."
"The price of laying a hand on me will never be a light one..."
You ridiculous creature.
Swish.
Nea's hand moved in a way invisible to Sre's eyes.
She'd been careless and caught before, but Nea had plenty of techniques to kill an opponent without making any visible move at all.
The most representative one was a technique that inflicted a powerful buff on the target, causing their own body to tear itself apart.
It was a skill Nea used to great effect — devastatingly efficient against any living thing that didn't know what was coming.
Her buff flew straight toward Sre, who was foolishly doing nothing but stuffing her face.
"? Achoo!"
FWOOSH!!!
One sneeze, and the buff was blown away.
"?! What the..."
"Grrr..."
"D-do you really think that will make me back down..."
"Grrrrrr...!"
Frost began seeping out of Sre's body.
Not deliberately released — just cold leaking out naturally because she was angry.
It was far too minor to deal any real damage, but it was more than enough to make Nea retreat.
Thump.
A body that had been frozen once remembers the chill of that deep freeze.
"Backing down..."
"Grrrk?"
"...I-I'll let it slide. Just this once, you stupid lizard..."
"Grrrrr..."
"...D-dragons, honestly."
Tch.
Clicking her tongue, Nea shoved the door open hard enough to break it and fled the room.
Sre stared for a moment at the spot where she had vanished, then buried her head right back into the mountain-like pile of meat.
■
While Sre was gleefully feasting on cow and lamb, I received a message from Esther just as Nea's treatment was nearly complete.
'The Duke of Yellow Embers wishes to see me.'
Whoever had been stalling for time through Esther and Nea now wanted to meet me in person — for what reason?
Nea had been deliberately attached to me, after all.
Did that mean whatever she was supposed to do was finished?
Or had he genuinely finished his own business?
"...Here, is it?"
I arrived at the entrance to the place the Duke had indicated.
An enormous royal door trimmed in gold and crimson.
I had already activated my 4th Advancement state in case anything went wrong, and my own protective measures were fully in place.
What mattered, though, was my state of mind.
'...No matter how I look at it, the future is going to slap me in the face.'
I couldn't feel certain.
Would I really be able to stand before the Duke of Yellow Embers — a Celestial — and stay calm?
During the siege war, I'd put on the Crown and blown his arm apart, but he'd spouted nonsense then, and in the end I took a step back.
Partly to avoid using the Crown of Succession — but partly because his words had struck me harder than I cared to admit.
'That nonsense about a Celestial protecting humanity.'
Back then I'd been flustered and needed time to sort things out, so I'd withdrawn. But what about now?
"......"
I didn't know. So I'd go in and find out.
I couldn't annihilate him in my current state anyway, and if something happened, I could simply resurrect him.
Even if I didn't, he was a Celestial — he'd come back on his own.
Creak...
The door opened.
One step inside, following the opening door, and an involuntary scoff escaped me.
What is this?
"What is this supposed to be?"
"It was for your benefit. Did it displease you?"
An audience chamber for receiving the Emperor of the Imperium.
Resplendent pillars of gold stood in rows, a magical barrier shimmered across the ceiling, and a long platinum carpet ran down the center of the hall.
And at the end of the carpet stood a towering throne.
Upon the throne sat two beings.
"Huh?"
One was Karia, the former Grand Demon Duke, standing blankly — reduced to an empty shell.
The other was a small boy seated at the very center of the throne.
A boy who looked to be barely ten years old.
His golden hair and golden eyes resembled Duke of Yellow Embers Loberian, but he was no Celestial.
Aside from the aura that radiated when he spoke, he was pure human.
The boy, dressed in a platinum imperial uniform, spoke in a voice still carrying the cracks of youth.
"I gathered you seemed uncomfortable around Celestials. This way, you can speak with me without any discomfort, can't you?"
"That's quite the wishful thinking. You think I won't touch that body of yours?"
Hostages are useless to me.
Even if a hostage dies or is maimed, so long as their soul remains intact, I possess more than enough power to bring them back.
And if someone were capable of erasing a soul entirely, there'd be no reason to bother taking hostages in the first place.
"Well. You didn't come here to fight in the first place, did you."
"I might have come here to fight."
"Let me say one thing first — this boy is not my child, nor my blood. He is the Emperor's son... which would make him, if you insist on counting, a distant brother of mine."
"That hardly counts as mitigating circumstances."
A Celestial's brother.
That only gave me one more reason to kill him — it was certainly no reason not to.
The boy's smile deepened.
...An oddly irritating face.
"Is that so? Then go ahead — kill me."
"......"
"Why don't you? If there are no mitigating circumstances, then surely I'm worth killing. You and I were enemies, after all."
"If you want it."
Clank.
I drew out my hammer.
FWOOSH! As divine radiance of healing poured into the Silver Purifier, I spun the hammer into a proper grip and lunged straight at the boy.
"...!"
Karia, standing blank-faced, spat out purple mana the instant she saw me move, unfolding a violet barrier.
A heptagonal magical shield woven from braided mana.
CRACK... BOOM!!
The collision between barrier and hammer ended in the hammer's victory.
The divinity laced through my healing power dispelled the shield, and the hammer came crashing down on the boy's head.
Crashed down — and that was all.
"...Didn't I tell you? Hostages are useless."
"As I said — I didn't come here to fight today."
Shhk.
"So this much will do."
I stowed the hammer and drew out my signature weapon, my staff.
The boy sat slumped and disheveled on the broken throne.
The reason he was completely fine despite taking a divinity-laden hammer to the skull was that I was currently in my 4th Advancement — the Path of the Saintess.
The Divinity of Healing heals all things — which meant no matter how hard I struck, he stayed perfectly intact.
But my goal was not to attack.
Tap.
The tip of my staff touched the boy's chest.
"?!"
Weaving through the Divinity of Healing that had soaked into him, I extracted the something lodged within his body.
The something resisted fiercely, spewing golden radiance — but it was useless.
The healing divinity had already bound him fast, and in my Saintess state, mere willpower could do nothing against me.
"Gah—! Kgh!"
The boy and the Duke of Yellow Embers were torn apart.
"Huh...? Huh?"
"Wh-what! Where is this..."
"Let's see here."
"Hwah?!"
I lifted the toppled imperial prince into the air and examined him.
Thankfully, he was fully separated, without any problems.
As expected — apart from the Duke having possessed him, he was pure human.
The prince blinked, then pointed at me and shouted.
"L-Lily Elbrit!"
"You know me?"
"How dare you invade the Imperium! My father commanded that you be punished severely!"
"Oh, did he?"
I see.
"And how does he plan to punish me?"
"Why, with the Swords of the Empire— Grand Demon Duke!"
"Huh?"
Karia tilted her head and looked at the boy.
Her gaze was vacant — but her violet eyes, holding mana within them, were fixed squarely on him.
"As prince, I command you! Subdue the criminal at once!"
"...?"
"What are you doing?! Subdue her, quickly!"
"......"
"She's not doing it?"
"Grrr...!"
The prince fumed with rage, but Karia didn't move an inch.
I could roughly guess why.
With Karia reduced to a husk, the Duke of Yellow Embers had no doubt been the one managing her — which meant she would obey him and him alone.
Karia had followed the prince only because the Duke's will resided inside him. The prince's own words, on their own, were nothing she needed to heed.
"What are you doing?! I said subdue her right now?! Do you take me for a joke—"
"Ah."
Thud.
The prince collapsed, put to sleep by Karia's magic.
She paused for a moment, as if receiving an order, then tore open a violet portal in the empty air.
Vmmm...
Beyond the portal, a golden sword appeared.
"No intention of coming out in your true form?"
— I have no desire to end up like Ruslan. My head is precious to me, you see.
"Ruslan? Is that the boy's name?"
— That's right. The boy who will become the next Emperor. He's sharper than he looks, so he'll be a great help to the Imperium.
"Why not do it yourself, then?"
— Is there any reason to?
The sword gave a little tilt.
— The Imperium moves by the Emperor's will, not mine. It's more efficient that way, when it comes to making the Imperium supreme.
"Efficiency... is this an efficient matter too?"
— Completely. Aren't we having this conversation the proof of it?
He was an enemy I bore enough hatred for to kill — and yet here we were, holding a peaceful conversation.
This was the outcome I had expected. And at the same time, it was the one the Duke of Yellow Embers wanted as well.
"Perfect timing, then. What I desire is efficiency too, so I'll ask you directly."
That efficiency was the very reason I had come all this way.
To prepare for the calamity soon to arrive.
"What is the Imperium's plan for facing the calamity?"