A Dangerous Element
"Mmmmmgh. Another beautifully clear day."
The sun already hung at its zenith as I stretched out at my leisure. Then I gave the bird's nest on my head a rough tidying and changed out of my gown and into formal dress.
Today marked a full month of living in the grand mansion in Eldrion.
I had assumed these would be fairly busy days, yet since the audience, the Emperor had demanded nothing of me whatsoever. Thanks to that, my questions only multiplied with each passing day and left me restless — but I was living comfortably enough to bear the cost.
"About time she came knocking."
Right on cue — patience was beyond her, too. A knock sounded, and the very next moment she strode in without a shred of hesitation.
A woman whose most striking feature was snow-white hair spilling down to her waist — and, to me, the very embodiment of trauma itself. Irelphi Justiha.
"Lazier than ever today, I see."
"It's called consideration. I'm making your job easier."
I shot back, shameless to the last.
Irelphi and I had been sharing the grand mansion ever since the imperial audience. She had been prickly and irritable at first, but she seemed to have adapted; her edges had softened considerably.
"Do you realize that thanks to you, I cook breakfast every single morning? A task I was never fated to perform in my life?"
"If I'd known, I'd have asked for it ages ago."
"Oh? I would be happy to oblige."
Irelphi swelled with some inexplicable hope. I ignored her words entirely and shot toward the corridor like an arrow.
"Don't you dare ignore me!"
The sole person on this earth unaware of Irelphi's catastrophic cooking was Irelphi herself. Perhaps from a lifetime spent gripping nothing but a sword, a metallic stench would ripple through the air whenever she cooked.
I still remembered it vividly — passing the kitchen while she was at work, recoiling from the smell in horror, and walking on without so much as a word of acknowledgment.
For the servants, daily life at the mansion meant hovering in anxious silence, none daring to presume to instruct the illustrious Marquis Justiha, known to all.
"...Forget it. Let's just eat out."
"Honestly. And whose fault is that, exactly?"
"If it's so unfair, go become immortal yourself."
"Tch..."
This time, the injustice was entirely mine. On the very day of our imperial audience, we had moved into the grand mansion that had once belonged to a Founding Noble.
The estate already came with a full staff of live-in servants, and not long after we settled in, I addressed them.
"Just keep the place clean. Treat the mansion as if it were your own home — and don't trouble yourselves with meals for me."
At the time, every last servant had stared back at me in open bewilderment.
"What's this about dropping the formal speech? Aw, come on, it's fine. And like I said, consider the mansion part of your benefits package — use it however you like. Throw parties, invite whoever you want..."
It was Irelphi who poured cold water over my generosity.
"One moment. Then what am I supposed to do about my meals?"
"Ah... I know it's asking a lot of the staff, but could you look after just the one Marquis's meals here? Oh — no, wait, I'm perfectly fine, I said! The last thing I want is to pile more work onto people who already toil enough!"
As she listened, Irelphi's face flushed redder and redder until it finally detonated.
"Honestly, what is wrong with you?! Why am I the only one who comes off as the villain here?! Fine! I don't need it either. I'll make my own blasted meals!"
In truth, there was not a single thing for Irelphi to feel guilty about. The abnormal one was me — telling servants hired to work that they needn't work.
Most likely, the Irelphi of that day — her reason still swamped by the strain of our brand-new, forced cohabitation — had simply let the declaration tear loose from her.
'I think I'm finally getting the hang of handling Irelphi.'
Ours was a cohabitation neither of us had chosen, but a month was ample time to map out her temperament.
"Today we are going to the strawberry cake shop."
"You do realize it's been nothing but cake for lunch and dinner since two days ago?"
"It's delicious. Not that you'd touch anything, no matter where we went."
"Urk."
Faced with my unbroken expression of disgust, Irelphi offered up a dramatic compromise.
"Haaah, very well. Then from today's lunch onward, we shall change the menu to chocolate. Strawberry chocolate for lunch, chocolate chocolate for dinner."
"Be straight with me. You've got regeneration like mine, don't you? Otherwise my teeth would've all rotted back into baby teeth by now. And what about nutritional balance?"
"Don't tell me you're actually worried about me?"
I scrunched my features in genuine dismay.
"What?"
"If that is all, there is no cause for concern. Cake and chocolate are the perfect foods."
As if even a second spent on me were a waste, she turned on her heel and swept out. A truly magnificent dessert devotee — and an eater of monstrous appetite.
Yes, Irelphi was not a sane woman.
'Is the world's strongest really allowed to be like this?'
She must have been laying some protective enchantment on her teeth before every meal, I decided, and followed Irelphi out the door.
In a certain shop beneath the blazing noon sun sat a creature that drew every eye. She monopolized the gazes of everyone around her, and the crowd's murmurs rose and fell in an endless back-and-forth about the two of us.
The result of Irelphi's conspicuously beautiful features... if only that were all it was. I sat across from Irelphi, yet my field of vision simply could not contain her.
All I could see was the mountain of strawberry chocolate stacked upon the table, along with its fizzy, chocolate-laced drinks. The sweetness was so overwhelming the whole shop might as well have been flooded with the scent of strawberries.
For a man whose five senses operated beyond the human sphere, it was pure torture.
"...Is it good?"
"The taste and the quantity are both passable."
At that word — quantity — I gave up on speaking entirely. Irelphi and I had already shared dozens of meals together, and yet no amount of exposure could acclimate me to the sheer volume she put away.
Astonishingly, the neatly stacked chocolates kept dwindling into some unseen abyss, until at last I found myself face to face with Irelphi's eyes once more.
"You ought to feel sorry for me, Nepi."
"Me? The one dragged along to every single meal against his will?"
"It is constant surveillance, day and night — what choice do I have? And spreading my perception across the entire mansion while I sleep is far more of a bother than you would imagine."
This woman was claiming that even deep asleep, she felt every last stir of every living creature in the mansion. And it didn't tire her, mind you. It was merely inconvenient.
With sharing a bed off the table, this must have been the next-best arrangement she'd settled on. The true monster here was not me. It was Irelphi.
"...And you think I'd do something reckless?"
"Yes. Which is why I must eat at least this much, or my strength will fail me."
Irelphi hastened to add:
"I do not normally eat this much."
'Uh-huh. Sure you don't.'
"And had we been dining at my own estate, I could have eaten even more without anyone watching."
"More than this?"
Irelphi pressed her hands to her heart like some ill-fated heroine of tragedy. Without the red syrup smeared around her lips, she might even have pulled it off.
"And I sacrificed every last bite of it for the sake of watching you, Nepi. Be grateful to me. Always."
"My deepest thanks for severing my arms and legs."
"Mmph."
My unforeseen counterstrike sealed her mouth shut. She had, after all, only carried out an imperial command — and yet here she sat, trading banter with the very man she had cut to pieces.
Considering my undeserved infamy, Irelphi probably felt no guilt over it whatsoever...
"...Then save your gratitude for His Majesty the Emperor, who does precisely as he pleases."
"Is a knight permitted to say such things?"
"It is quite all right. So long as you hold your tongue, who is to know? Besides — in the first place, for His Majesty's safety, I hold the authority to restrain even His Majesty's own person at my sole discretion. It is only because the party in question happened to be you, Nepi, that matters have come to this..."
Just as Irelphi was warming to her subject, a man wearing a troubled expression cut in from directly beside us.
"Um... I can hear every word."
"Forgive my rudeness, but who might you be?"
"I carry business from His Majesty the Emperor... I had intended to speak only once your meal was finished."
The man drew a crest of golden chains halfway from his breast pocket. And then I saw it — Irelphi's eyes trembling as though an earthquake had torn through the ground beneath her.
My eyes lit up.
"Oh dear. As one of His Majesty's own, you'll simply have to report everything you've heard here."
"Nepi?"
"And do be certain to mention how I scolded Marquis Justiha for badmouthing His Majesty."
"W-wait just a moment! You were an accomplice too, Nepi—"
The man looked at me and chuckled, then before long drew up a chair at our table.
"Why not deliver it in person? His Majesty the Emperor wishes to see you, Marquis Alteon."
Alteon was the surname newly bestowed upon me after my audience with the Emperor. These days, I was making a fresh start under the name Nepi Alteon.
"How convenient, then! Let's go report everything — the true and the fabricated alike!"
"Nepi? Fabrications are strictly forbidden!"
The Emperor's messenger laughed good-naturedly, then lowered his voice and spoke with careful measure.
"His Majesty desires a private audience with you, Marquis Alteon. So, Marquis Justiha, if you would kindly return to the estate—"
"Refused."
The air about Irelphi — scatterbrained mere moments ago — inverted in an instant. Even facing the Emperor's own messenger, she was resolute and cold.
Her presence bore down so fiercely that the chattering patrons fell silent in a heartbeat. The man could not bring himself to continue, and stole anxious glances at her.
"Marquis, I — that is to say..."
"On the authority of my duty and my rights, I refuse the imperial command. You will arrange for me to accompany him to the palace."
The man swallowed hard, his lips trembling. Unable to watch any longer, I stepped in.
"All right, all right — you can come too, so will you let it go? And stop sabotaging my business."
"I am not upset in the first place—"
I ignored her and took the messenger by the hand.
"Come along, then. So — did you arrange a carriage or anything of the sort?"
"Y-yes! It's waiting right outside the shop — you may board at once."
"Splendid. Let's hurry, then."
And so, quick as a crab shutting its eyes against the wind, the whole affair was smoothed over. Irelphi and I boarded the carriage; the messenger, pleading necessity, declined a seat inside and rode out with the driver.
Before long, the conversation between messenger and driver drifted up to me.
"...After what happened back there, I'm afraid Marquis Justiha has marked me as her enemy."
"Don't you fret yourself, m'lord. Folk of high station never remember faces like ours. Nothing will come of it, I promise you."
"You'd have to have seen that furious marquis for yourself... Aigoo, aigoo. My wife... forgive me."
Naturally, the exchange reached no ears but mine — hearing beyond the human sphere has its uses. Irelphi simply went on staring out the window, cheeks still puffed in a sulk.
'So even here, the lowly bore the sorrows of the powerless.'
With that bitter thought, I set foot inside the imperial palace.
"Welcome, Marquis Alteon. ...And Marquis Justiha."
The Emperor looked visibly taken aback that I had brought an uninvited guest — but reading the weary resignation in my eyes, he pieced together the situation and gave a small nod.
"Have you been in good health, Your Majesty?"
"It is an honor to stand before His Majesty the Emperor."
Irelphi and I offered our courtesies in turn. Unlike Irelphi, who sank gracefully onto one knee, I remained bolt upright.
Unfamiliar with court protocol, I had missed my cue to kneel; the Emperor waved a hand at me as if to say it didn't matter.
"Public and private affairs alike have kept me buried of late — there was hardly a moment to summon you, Marquis Alteon. Let us continue our talk inside."
We stood before the enormous Glass Greenhouse. The Emperor, Irelphi, and I had been on the point of entering when the Emperor held Irelphi back.
"Marquis Justiha will wait outside."
"Your Majesty, with respect, I cannot allow—"
"It is precisely because of you that I chose the Glass Greenhouse as the venue for this private talk. Here, any disturbance would be plain to every eye at once."
From the Emperor, that was as far as concession went. Put another way, it was also an expression of trust in Irelphi's abilities.
The certainty that even if I were to turn on him without warning, Irelphi would be able to save him.
"...I shall comply."
Irelphi was hardly the sort to miss such a meaning; convinced, she withdrew.
Once inside the greenhouse, the Emperor latched the door shut with his own hands. Irelphi flinched at the gesture — but the moment the glass chamber was sealed, the Emperor burst into hearty laughter.
"Truth be told, that was half an excuse. This greenhouse is my favorite place in all the palace."
"It does have a certain charm to it."
"Glad to hear it!"
The Emperor settled at a table laid with tea and sweets and beckoned me to the seat across from him. The instant I sat down, he steepled his fingers and spoke.
"The truth is, I have no great desire for the Founding Noble's knowl— no, forgive me. For the Marquis's knowledge."
I hadn't expected him to plunge straight into business; it caught me slightly off guard.
"Might I ask why?"
"To put it precisely, I should say the time has not yet come for me to want it. No — I called you here because I wished to hear the Marquis's views."
"I doubt my humble opinion would be of any use."
"Hoh ho. Speak freely."
"...Then ask."
The Emperor's gaze deepened and stilled. Meeting those eyes, I tasted once more that uncanny sensation from our first audience.
'As if he could see straight through to everything inside me.'
At length, the Emperor spoke.
"Tell me — what do you consider the greatest threat to the security of the Eld Empire at this very moment?"
I pondered briefly, then answered with care.
"Well... there are the neighboring states growing stronger year by year. The 'Chain Reach' phenomenon, perhaps..."
At that, the Emperor asked again, looking thoroughly intrigued.
"Do you truly believe that? You have no other views to offer?"
"That's... hmm."
I held the Emperor's gaze head-on. He knew, beyond any doubt, that I was not showing my true hand. That eerie sense of being seen straight through — I finally understood it was no trick of my imagination.
It was less a logical deduction than a judgment rising from the animal instinct dormant within Netionpis's body. The Emperor had asked for my 'views,' not my 'knowledge' — yet the answer I had chosen was knowledge.
At the answer I finally produced after long deliberation, the Emperor let out a short, sharp breath of surprise.
"Irelphi Justiha. She is the Eld Empire's greatest strength — and its greatest threat."