134. The Price of Loyalty (3)
134. The Price of Loyalty (3)
Now only the baron's family remained in the audience chamber.
The baron's knights and attendants had long since been expelled by the other 'human-shaped things.'
Thus, Gerald looked up at the woman upon the throne with the feeling of being left alone in the world.
"What in the world is this..."
A voice like a groan escaped his lips.
Outwardly, she was merely a small woman.
A woman who seemed far too slight to occupy that enormous throne.
But the moment he met the pair of eyes directed at him.
'So immense...!'
He thought, on the contrary, that the throne was far too small.
For though he had governed a fortress near the royal capital and met countless high nobles, such overwhelming presence was a first.
'What eyes...! A demon. She's definitely a demon!'
Meeting that gaze head-on, Gerald felt as though his entire body had frozen cold.
It was the reverence a subject should hold when granted an audience with a king.
The vertigo of one who faces something vast.
And the despair of one who has become the enemy of something irresistible.
Strength drained from his muscles, his back drenched with cold sweat, sending him a warning.
In the shape of 'fear.'
"Forgive us, Master!"
"P-please! Mercy!"
Thus, the wife concluded she must beg forgiveness for her child's rudeness, and the husband instinctively sensed something deeply wrong.
The actions of the two happened almost simultaneously.
The intellect and instincts of those who had long cooperated with the underworld reached the same conclusion.
That they must not defy the one before them.
"You two truly seem like a match made by heaven."
The response was filled with a pure delight and gentleness that, at a glance, might seem innocent.
'Death... passed by...!'
But Gerald felt his back grow wetter still from the 'immense sense of presence' that pressed down upon his head and shoulders.
It was like the presence of a colossal monster that had met him in the wilds, looked down at him for a moment, lost interest, and departed.
The sensation of a beast's breath, like a dragon's, brushing past the nape of his neck.
'She is not angered. But...'
It was the same for Haley.
Having served Libertas for some time, she had already noticed.
How enraged the master's close aides became when something shameful occurred before their great lord.
And that the master generally permitted those aides their fury.
If they failed to receive the master's forgiveness, nothing would protect them from the wrath of those ferocious retainers.
"Raise your heads, Haley. Surely I would not harm your child over such a thing. Today shall be a special day for you."
"Thank you, Master! Thank you!"
The moment she heard the command to raise her head, Haley lifted her head neither swiftly nor slowly and quickly scanned her surroundings.
Those near Libertas at this moment were the 'Black Fox' and the 'White Wolf.'
'She isn't here.'
Realizing the most terrifying 'Chief Overseer' was absent, Haley let out a sigh of relief inwardly.
The other two's rampages were fearsome enough, but not to the same degree.
For that woman was involved in all affairs great and small inside and outside the dungeon, while her personal martial strength was in no way inferior to the other two—rather, it surpassed them.
And yet, Haley also knew.
[If you do well... there will be no problems. Fortunately, you seem to want to do well, too. Let's get along well. As senior and junior. So that we never need to kill each other.]
That beneath the mask of that blonde woman who always feigned leisure and laughter, and who appeared righteous, hid a cruel blade sharper than anyone else's.
"Bring your children. Both of you."
"Ah... Father?"
"Mother...!"
Stephan, who had been realizing all along that the situation was strange, and Rosemary, who knew however innocent she was that this situation was not good, turned their gazes toward their two parents.
The reactions of the two adults were far more contrasting than their children's.
"...Please! Please punish me instead!"
The terrified Gerald once again slammed his forehead to the ground.
"Come here. Stevie. Rosie."
Haley, smiling with joy, reached out both hands toward her children.
"Jerry, stand up as well. Today is the day I receive a reward from our master. Nothing will harm the three of you."
"Leya... wife...! I beg you...!"
Afraid to provoke anger, Gerald could not bring himself to say 'get a grip' and merely muttered with gritted teeth.
Haley knew what he was trying to say.
She simply did not consider it a problem.
"It's alright, Jerry. For today, we will receive grace."
Leaving Stephan, who had stopped in place and would not approach, Haley took the hand of Rosemary, who had carefully drawn near, and approached Libertas.
"What do we receive...? Mother."
"That depends on the will of the great one. But she will give you something better than whatever you imagine."
Thus Haley and Rosemary approached the throne, carefully knelt, bowed their heads once, and looked up at her.
The daughter merely imitated her mother clumsily, but it was enough to count as having made an offering of respect.
Libertas's eyes briefly turned toward the husband and son before settling upon the two women.
"I wonder if it might be acceptable to give the reward only to you two first, Haley."
"I believe the two of them will come to understand soon enough. O mistress of my body and heart."
"Would it not be your joy for all four to receive it together?"
At the master's words, Haley bowed her head even more deeply, overcome with emotion.
Tears were already falling in droplets from her eyes.
The master's benevolence was her ecstasy.
"If you would grant me such consideration, it is certain that the joy of all creation shall be with me...!"
"Indeed."
Having nodded gently, Libertas took Xue's hand and rose from her seat, and with Haley and Rosemary in her train, approached the baron and his son.
Then she asked.
"You called him a traitor, did you, child of humans."
It was an exceedingly gentle question.
"Th-that... that...!"
Kung...! Kung...! Kuuung......!!!
But the pressure they felt from her was already draining the color from Stephan's face.
For the intense sense of presence she exerted, something those who did not oppose her never felt, was pressing down upon the child.
"Master. You must suppress your power."
"Oh, dear. I have been inconsiderate."
Libertas, who had been studying the child closely, realized this upon Xue's words and promptly reduced her presence.
To the two, it felt as though a beast that had been swelling to fill the air was now shrinking its body.
"Hu-ah—cough, cough! I-I'm sorry...!"
"Spare me... spare me...!"
Only after that presence diminished could Gerald and Stephan recover the breath they had forgotten.
It was only natural that Rosemary found this strange.
"Mother. It feels like the master is tormenting my brother and father...!"
"She is not, Rosie. The two of them are simply not ready to accept the great one. They are the ones doing wrong."
"Ah...!"
The normal-sounding, even pleasant conversation between mother and daughter dyed the two men's faces with deeper despair.
"If one does not know, one can simply learn. Even more so if one has realized one's mistake."
Pretending not to notice that despair even as she saw it, Libertas smiled gently.
She gently stroked Stephan's bowed head, and met the eyes of his father, Gerald.
"First, I must show you one thing. Grace."
"...Yes."
"That... person is?"
Seeing the figure who approached at Libertas's call, Gerald could not help being greatly startled.
Because of the one cleric standing beside someone whose atmosphere and presence could only be called demonic.
"As you see. She is a cleric. Cooperating with me."
"I am Grace, a priestess cooperating with Sister Libertas. Baron, sir."
The baron could immediately tell that this was not the whole story.
From her pale, dark-circled complexion, the fear in her face and eyes, and her trembling, hunched frame.
Because no matter how he looked, she did not appear to be cooperating voluntarily.
"Grace. Bestow a blessing upon Haley, I ask."
"Yes, Sister."
Yet whatever form it took, whatever feelings she held, the cleric was obeying Libertas's orders.
And that was enough to shatter his previous understanding of 'the divine.'
By common sense, if clerics were to bow their heads to demonkind, they ought to choose death instead.
"Master?"
"It will do no harm. Haley."
"Of course. Because it is something you are doing, Master. I will receive it gladly."
Haley knelt in a praying posture toward Libertas and received Grace's blessing.
Watching the dizzying sight of someone receiving divine power while praying toward a demon, Gerald felt confusion.
All the more so because no adverse reaction arose in Haley as a result of that blessing.
"As you see. Haley has received no power from me, nor am I controlling her."
Though if loyalty meant entrusting one's will to another, then yes, she was controlling her, Libertas added with a laugh.
But the two men merely averted their eyes as they watched the wife and mother laughing joyously with no abnormality at all.
"How can this be...!"
"Father. This, this is..."
Their common sense had been thoroughly destroyed.
The common sense that demons could never transcend divinity.
The stereotype that divine power was only used for justice.
"Behold."
Having sent Grace out of the room, Libertas stepped toward them and calmly engraved each word.
"The religion of the heavens that you know does not by any means contain absolute good, or absolute truth."
Tap-tap.
"You can see this from the fact that the gods still bestow holy power upon certain clerics, even though some of them have fallen into corruption."
Tap-tap.
"Then what is the difference between demonic nature and divine nature? It is simply that the divine nature has already occupied the heavens and this continent. And the demonic nature has not."
Between the words, the deliberately made sound of her boots intermingled.
Her physical abilities could have let her walk in heels without making any sound, yet her footsteps possessed a strange power that brought comfort to the listener.
Tap-tap.
"This is merely a difference in long-established justifications. Merely a difference in the forces used. And the owners of your land are yourselves—not those clerics, not the Holy Kingdom, nor your king."
Tap-tap.
"Even should your autonomy be taken back from them, I shall never exploit you."
Tap-tap.
"I am a proprietor who knows the value of my possessions. I am a lord who grows stronger through your service. I may also become a king who takes delight in bestowing my attention upon my vassals."
Tap-tap.
"You shall offer what is yours with deep joy in your hearts. I shall receive it gladly, protect you, and raise you into higher beings."
Tap-tap.
"Now. Speak of what you wish to do."
Thud. Thud.
The baron fell to his knees on the spot, and his son followed suit, flustered.
Not only that, but as the wife and mother had done, they pressed their arms and heads to the ground, offering the courtesy reserved for the most exalted.
"A joyous day this is."
Libertas smiled.
As a means to further cement her subordinate's loyalty, she had obtained even her family.
"Behold, Haley. They wish to serve me."
Looking down upon them, Libertas looked at Haley, whose face was colored with rapture, and spoke only to her.
The authority of darkness that she had lightly conjured enabled a conversation between just the two of them in an enclosed space.
"My family will soon come to know that serving you, Master, is true joy."
"That would be fortunate. But for now, know that this is my gift to you."
"I, Haley Shum, am beyond joy...!"
Haley bowed her body once more, then approached on her knees with her eyes meeting the master's.
Libertas, who had been smiling as she stroked her head, soon spoke to her of the mission that would accompany the reward.
"There is a task you must do for me. For that, I shall transform you into special beings."
"Whatever it may be! I will follow gladly!"
"Yes..."
That answer was a fanatical loyalty, as though she would follow even if told to lick the floor or crawl through filth.
"Your devotion of that kind truly brings me joy."
It was only natural that Libertas, sensing Haley's emotions, would be further pleased.
Thus, her prepared gift was successfully delivered.
"Your joy is my joy, Master."
"I will do my utmost from now on."
"I will offer my apology for the slip of the tongue...!"
"I am happy to be serving such a pretty master!"
Amidst everyone's joy.