148. Hostile Psychology (3)
148. Hostile Psychology (3)
- 1 -
"Here, try this as well, my lady."
"Miss, please have another glass!"
"Goo-d!"
She was savoring freedom, truly for the first time in a long while.
Alcohol, meat, and both handsome men and beautiful women smiling at her.
And even the glimmering desires within the heads of those humans.
All kinds of pleasures she had been denied during the five years trapped in the Demon Realm were pouring down upon her.
"This is what life is...!"
The Demon Realm Archduke had tried to devour her, and the monsters had tried to subdue her.
But she had not submitted. She had waited for her chance.
[Female. You have work to do.]
At the end of it, a demon presented her with a contract.
The Black Skull Knight.
He was a piece of trash who dared treat her like a beast, but the power that demon possessed was real.
She could feel immediately that his level was not so different from the Archduke who had captured her.
In any case, she had preserved her pride.
Even while terrified, she had succeeded in striking a deal with the demon through fate-like luck.
[...What is it?]
Though she did suffer the humiliation of being treated as a subordinate by a demon.
[Find this Dungeon Lord. And do what you do best.]
[To steal her power, you mean...]
[Yes. That's exactly it. Try everything you can do.]
What the demon presented was a photograph of someone.
And it was a photograph of a figure so beautiful and noble in aura that it made her lick her lips.
[A Dungeon Lord, you say...? This?]
She asked back because it looked like nothing but a human to her, but no proper explanation came from that ignorant demon.
[Shut up. Human female! You just have to do as I command!]
[R, Right...]
[These are the personal details of that Dungeon Lord. Read them on the way.]
It was fortunate that the demon's subordinate had provided intelligence.
Otherwise, she would have nearly suffered a 'contract violation' without ever even seeing who her target was.
No matter how strong the power she possessed, violating a contract made with a demon of that caliber was bound to carry a burdensome price.
'Does it really matter?'
She had already made a contract with a demon anyway.
She had once believed she could cancel this contract with her trump card, but she knew now that it was impossible.
In that case.
"Hehehe. Everyone, come here!"
"Kyaa!"
Until she fulfilled the contract, she might as well enjoy the pleasures she had missed out on.
"Pour me a drink! It's empty!"
'I'm going to party hard!'
She was at her end anyway.
Even if she was called the continent's greatest assassin and the Dream Witch.
Because she could never escape from them.
- 2 -
"Isn't it enough now?"
"Just... a little... more..."
Ran's voice seemed to melt sweetly, as if she had swallowed sugar.
Her usual demure, composed appearance was nowhere to be seen, as she burrowed in like a child throwing a tantrum.
From her, the scent of mana influenced by sweet emotions bloomed.
Her three voluminous black tails gently swayed here and there as if pleased, laying her happiness completely bare.
"Ha..."
Shue was watching from the side with a slight frown, but she made no move to stop Ran.
Her attitude suggested that this level of 'reward' for the work she had done was only natural.
"My deepest gratitude, my lord."
As I carefully stroked her head and back, Ran rubbed her body and face against me one last time, inhaled my scent deeply, and only then pulled away.
Her face when she stepped back was flushed like a red rose.
"Hwaa..."
Excitement and regret.
Her shoulders trembled minutely from the two conflicting emotions.
She repeated deep breaths to steady her trembling shoulders and ragged breathing, to the point where it looked pitiful.
"It must have been hard."
"Some might say it was only a few days, but to me, each day felt like ten."
The longing in her voice pierced straight into my heart.
It was a truly fervent echo.
"Yes. I can see that."
Ran had been away on a mission for several days.
To stay by Elena's side and create opportunities to increase her influence.
The territorial war erupting in the southwestern region was the foundation of that opportunity.
Originally, I had intended to send someone else suitable to assist, but Ran had volunteered to go, insisting on it. Even knowing she would suffer being away from my side like this.
And she had returned for an interim report, which had led to the situation moments ago.
"You must have been through a lot of heartache. You may come back and nestle into my arms anytime."
"My deepest gratitude... my lord...!"
Nodding a couple of times, I gave her a soothing smile.
Ran straightened her posture, tidied her clothes, and knelt on the spot to bow politely once. Then, sitting upright with her back straight, she opened her mouth.
She spoke of the original business at hand.
"First, Elena has received the title of Baron from the Border Count."
"Really...? That's unexpected. She hasn't even accomplished anything notable yet."
At the surprise and delight in my voice, Ran responded with a subtle smile as well.
"Seeing Elena's changed martial prowess, the Border Count seemed quite pleased."
"I can see that happening."
Monsters are inherently born with stronger physical bodies than humans.
Their muscle structure and density are different, and their rate of development from training is also faster.
'The same holds true even for races not specialized in close combat.'
Elena was already a banshee with the power of seductive magic, so she simply had not bothered to train her close-quarters abilities.
Once she seriously trained her combat abilities, reaching a level comparable to werebeasts or greenskins did not take long.
And since I had further granted enhanced talents to Elena, who originally possessed her own, her growth rate must have become even faster.
Moreover, as a banshee, a magical creature, her affinity for and ability to manipulate mana was excellent, so she would have shown dazzling progress in mana training as well.
An ordinary human might have mistaken it for a talent that bloomed late.
"However, a title wouldn't have been granted merely for potential. Elena must have accomplished something, correct?"
"That is so. I shall report."
Smiling, Ran soon began to explain the events that had occurred around Elena.
I listened in naturally.
Because what followed was a more interesting story than I had expected.
- 3 -
"This is an opportunity, Head of the Family."
"...."
It was a private audience with the head of a family.
Elena looked straight into the eyes of Frederick Ironfield, the Border Count, who was looking down at her from his lord's throne.
Red-brown eyes possessing a sunken depth that reflected no light at all.
Eyes she had never once been able to meet since she was a child.
'Why is that.'
Meeting those eyes, Elena wondered.
Her father's power must surely have grown stronger than when she had last seen him.
The pressure of his aura that touched her skin, still imposing even though she herself had grown stronger, proved his growth.
'I'm not afraid.'
Yet she was no longer crushed by that pressure.
She was still tense, but to her now, this level of pressure was nothing.
'Compared to the pressure felt from Master, it's nothing.'
This was clearly a contradictory situation.
Because the realm of the one she now served could not possibly be higher than Frederick's before her eyes.
'No, it must certainly be lower.'
Frederick's realm was High Rank.
The state of being only a few steps away from the supreme realm that all living beings could reach.
By common sense, the pressure felt from him should have been stronger.
'This is... the difference in the vessel.'
She soon realized the reason.
With that sharp intellect that Libertas often praised when evaluating her.
The head of Ironfield, who no matter how strong he became or how much power he seized could never rise beyond a Border Count of a nation, and her Master, who could bring the whole world to ruin and ultimately make it her own.
The difference between the two.
'That is what belongs to one who shall become an Absolute.'
That intense yet gentle presence, which became the greatest pressure to enemies but approached allies with the utmost tolerance.
Recalling that, she was able to face her father's eyes without the slightest waver.
It was a change that could only invite misunderstanding from anyone watching.
"You have become much stronger. Eli... No, Elena."
"Thank you, Head of the Family."
Praise from her father, which she had long craved.
But her heart was swayed no longer.
For it had long since lost its special value within her heart.
What had filled the void left by long disappointment and betrayal was her new Master.
"Yes. An opportunity, you say... You claimed that the war which will break out in the south could further our family's prestige."
"Yes. That is correct."
Elena recalled the opportunity her Master had informed her of.
The small-scale war that would break out between the two counties south of the Ironfield Margraviate, and if 'lucky', the two nations that would be drawn into that war.
And the superior position of Ironfield, which stood above it all.
"You surely know the gravity of what you are proposing. This affair will run the diplomacy between our Kingdom and the Zenota United Kingdom straight into the ground."
"Does that matter?"
"It does not matter, you say?"
At Elena's words, the Head of the Family's eyebrow twitched, and disappointment surfaced in his eyes.
Because what she said seemed at first glance to be a domineering statement that ignored all international relations, showing no grasp of reality.
But she paid no heed to that and smiled leisurely.
"The United Kingdom dislikes our nation as it is, do they not? They say it enjoys backstabbing us, alongside the Arilit Duchy."
"But that is a far cry from placing us in a state of open war."
"That is true. So, we shall be the ones to come under attack from them first."
"Oho...?"
Frederick, who had swept his lion's mane-like hair back once, finally half-rose from his seat and regarded her with interest.
Beyond his eyes, the smile hanging on Elena's lips looked quite cruel.
Just as she intended.
'As expected, he's showing interest.'
She knew.
She knew how cold-hearted her father Frederick could be, and also how dark and vicious he could become.
Those who saw only one side of him tended to praise him as honorable or strong, but in her eyes, her father Frederick's true strength lay there.
"Explain in detail."
"Yes. Once the forces of Damamolon soon..."
'It's done.'
Having lowered her head once, she revealed only the smallest glimpse of the opportunity her true Master would provide to Frederick.
And with that alone, she was able to obtain from Ironfield the title of Baron, dominion over three villages, and the funds to hire three mercenary bands.
'This is enough to declare independence right now, if I wanted to.'
As she exited the Head of the Family's office, Elena thought that to herself.
What she had now obtained was a force of scale capable of buying time against the northern part of Damamolron County and the troops of surrounding lordships who would send reinforcements to defend that northern region.
Combined with her own 'private soldiers', it was not even particularly difficult to gain the land needed for her to become independent from Ironfield.
It was simply that she was not doing this to gain such 'trifles', so she refrained.
"Elena."
"Brother... No, older brother."
At the sight of the young man who had approached before she knew it, Elena tensed her body and paid her respects.
Blonde hair that was the spitting image of the Border Count's first wife, and red-brown eyes that resembled the Marquis Ironfield.
It was her elder brother, the Border Count's second-born and eldest son, Reinhardt.
An appearance so cleanly youthful it belied his early thirties.
With that face composed into a calm smile, Reinhardt spoke to her.
"To think you truly became a woman. I still can't believe it."
"I hear that often these days."
Reinhardt's face as he approached was remarkably unblemished for a man in his early thirties, and his demeanor was exceedingly polite, but.
'That appearance is only skin deep...'
Elena was not someone who would be fooled by his surface.
Because she knew well how actively he moved to become the most powerful successor to the Border Count.
'Was he called the Iron-blooded Knight?'
He was a knight famous on the battlefield for cruelty surpassing even his father Frederick, and at the same time, he was regarded as the second-in-command of the Border Count's territory.
He was also someone who, even within the domain, drew in more of his younger siblings than the eldest daughter Adelaide did, holding over half of the margraviate's military power in his hands.
Of course, it was authority that would scatter futilely at a single command from the true master, the Border Count, but that was only in the context of the succession struggle.
As such, it was necessary to be careful in his presence.
Especially since Elena herself was his potential rival.
"I heard you just came out from a private audience with Father. Is everything alright?"
"Of course. It was quite nerve-wracking, but nothing happened."
"I see. I was worried. Since you've been frail since childhood."
"You worry too much."
The corners of Reinhardt's handsome eyes crinkled softly, holding a glint of light.
A bewitching eye-smile that had made many women's hearts flutter.
'The fucking nerve.'
As it was directed at her, Elena felt her stomach turn queasy.
His face, much more handsome than when she herself had been a man, and his muscles that attested to his martial prowess, had always been the subject of her jealousy.
If only I had been born a little sooner. If only I had been a little more handsome and strong.
Could I have stood against him?
'But now, I can surpass him. At least in individual ability.'
Ironically, now that she had become a woman, the possibility had arisen of actually surpassing his looks and martial strength.
And based on that ability, she truly intended to seize more than his position.
No matter what means she had to use.