200. Covenant
200. Covenant
- 1 -
"Please make the preparations."
Semira Ishtar gestured towards a bench.
Soon, a flurry of movement arose among the nobles behind her.
The attendants and maids who had stood behind the nobles came forward, and in an instant, a luxurious refreshment table was set up in one corner of the garden.
It was set a little apart from here, but within sight of one another.
"I may use one part of the garden, may I not? Stella has used my garden before, after all."
A proposal with no cause for refusal.
The Demon King's second wife opened her mouth with difficulty.
"... Do as you please, Elder Sister."
Her tremor once again disturbed the mana of the garden.
I felt the dew that had gathered on the irises scatter and vanish into the void.
I reminded myself again that her mana alone was of a depth befitting a wife of the Fate's Demon King.
An ordinary human or a weak demon would have their insides overturned by her single display of agitation.
And then...
"Stella. I did not know your garden was so beautiful."
That woman was even more so.
Semiraniel Ishtar.
The cousin sister of the Demon Realm's Duke of Pride, Lucifer, the maternal relative of the Surface Continent's Archduke of Obsession, Astaroth, and the Demon King's first legal wife.
At the same time, she was a woman who wielded power separate from the Archdukes and swung her influence.
In her maiden days, she bore her cousin the Archduke's surname, 'Superbia', but in accordance with the Demon Realm's culture where the surname disappears once one joins the most noble bloodline, only the second name remained, so she was otherwise called 'Ishtar'.
'This side is beautiful too.'
She was a woman possessing a different charm from Stella's.
If Stella's mana seeped into the irises like moonlight settling on petals, her mana shone brilliantly like the sun illuminating sunflowers.
A woman as splendid as glittering golden petals and as solid as the heart of a flower blossom.
One could say it was a figure of speech befitting both the color and quality of her mana.
"Especially the one flower that forms the center of the garden..."
Her eyes brushed past me.
In that moment, her flower-like image vanished.
It felt as if a giant beast had licked my cheek. I had to resist frowning.
"... It is exceedingly beautiful."
As the first Demon Queen slowly moved her steps, the accompanying nobles spread out around her.
I could feel each and every one of them encroaching slowly upon Stella's domain.
Semira's authority filled the space. Like clouds covering the night sky.
Sarak.
She reached out her hand to a single flower.
The petals of the black iris flinched. To my eyes, it looked as if it was trying to avoid her touch.
"Libertas, I say..."
Facing her up close, her presence was even more overwhelming.
Her eyes roamed over my face, and ray-like mana encroached upon the nearby space.
"For a noble seed of the Demon Realm to bloom a flower upon the surface. It is a most rare occurrence."
Eyes and mana filled with the implication of searching, accompanied by words that seemed to allude to my origin.
"And moreover, for that flower to be..."
Her hand reached towards my cheek.
I did not flinch.
The warmth of her palm precisely traced the shape of my cheek and passed by. Her touch swept through the air beside my cheek.
"So beautiful."
A smile hung on Semira's lips.
It was the smile of a predator that had discovered its prey.
"Is it not so? Stella."
In her voice, some emotion lingered on the edge of revelation without quite surfacing.
And in my eyes, that was precisely a 'warning'.
A warning to live quietly, as I had done so far.
"Elder sister..."
I felt a gaze on my cheek as I looked at her.
Stella's. Without even looking, I felt the dejection that hung in her eyes.
Just then, Semira Ishtar stopped before me.
"Indeed. How about we sit together?"
At Semira's proposal given with a clap of her hands, Stella's face hardened.
Though it took the form of a proposal, Semira's words carried a command.
Yet fortunately, the fact that it took the form of a proposal was helpful to me.
It was a moment where I could feign ignorance.
"It is an honor, Your Highness the Demon Queen. However..."
I bowed my waist respectfully, then spoke with a smile.
"I believe I must take my leave for today. It is time for my appointment."
"And with whom?"
I felt some emotion pass through Semira's eyes. It was a curiosity, and a very slight anger, towards one who dared speak of a prior appointment and step back before the Archduke Demon Queen.
"The Marquis of Belitra."
"Ah, I see."
A smile hung on Semira's lips, and relief settled over Stella's face while it simultaneously darkened.
A marriage talk was something the First Lady of a nation would celebrate, not obstruct.
"I heard that marriage talks are in progress with the House of Belitra. Congratulations."
At Semira's words, Stella's expression wavered minutely.
I saw it, but pretended not to know as I spoke.
"Your words are most gracious."
"I suppose we shall see each other often from now on. Libertas."
One was a warning, the other an invitation. Words carrying a dual meaning.
Pretending not to know, I lowered my waist deeply.
"I hope so as well. Your Highness."
As I exited the garden, I felt two intense gazes pierce my back.
They carried different meanings from each other.
Regret and lamentation.
Warning and curiosity.
'I thought as much, but it's not simple.'
My heart was complicated as I left the flower garden, but a smile still lingered on my lips.
One who, driven by ambition, did not wish to let go of even the smallest detail.
One who was breaking her long seclusion and stretching out.
Both wished to be cautious, yet were bound by Fate to inevitably reveal cracks.
This could become a new possibility for me.
"Hoo."
Once I left the flower garden, pretending to sigh in relief, I shook them from my mind for a moment.
Now, only the meeting with the Marquis remained on today's schedule.
And in that meeting, I intended to give him the answer he desired.
At least, so it would appear on the surface.
- 2 -
Belred's library was filled with a darkness tinged with red.
The interior's atmosphere, resembling the darkening sky visible beyond the window, was as calm as his way of speaking.
"I was aware of that matter... My Lady. I heard you visited the Demon King Castle."
After I mentioned that my stay in the Demon Realm seemed likely to lengthen, the Marquis, standing with his back to me by the window, continued speaking.
"And that you met with both Their Highnesses."
Gentleness permeated his voice, but the meaning it held was weighty.
"Yes. That I did."
"A most interesting affair. It must be exceedingly rare to meet those two in one place."
The Marquis slowly turned his body. His eyes stared directly into my face.
The gaze of one who had survived at the center of power for a long time.
But I did not avoid his gaze.
"What did Their Highnesses say..."
"It was simply a meeting of Fate."
I gently cut off his words.
I kept my etiquette but added no unnecessary explanation.
"A Fate, you say...?"
A smile hung on his lips.
Not a genuine one, but a smile merely following courtesy.
What his two unreadable eyes denoted was a search.
He picked up the wine glass placed on the desk.
"As you must already know, in the Demon Realm, a thing called coincidence does not exist. Especially not in matters related to Their Highnesses."
A brief silence flowed.
Following his lead, I passed a sip of wine down my throat, then calmly continued.
"Your Excellency."
I slightly tilted my head to the side. Wearing an unadorned, gentle, blank expression.
"If I had been interested in the politics of the Demon Realm, I would have already had at least one bouquet in my arms when I arrived here."
At those words, Belred's eyes wavered minutely.
He had caught the implication: that I had refused the goodwill, or the invitation, of the Demon Queens.
"If that is so..."
"I am merely interested in managing my dungeon and protecting my people."
Belred's smile only then turned into a genuine one.
He must have been wary of his future son-in-law, or rather daughter-in-law, becoming too entangled in the Demon Realm's politics.
For him, a 'Dungeon Lord focused on the surface's affairs' would be easier to cooperate with.
Therefore, his gaze remained sharp.
"You are cautious. Yet sometimes, that alone proves insufficient."
He began to slowly circle around me.
An aura akin to an elegant feline predator.
It was a presence that let one know where Serica—sometimes like a cat, sometimes like a beast of prey—had inherited such qualities from.
"In the Demon Realm, political power was once nothing more than a secondary matter, but at some point, the relationship reversed itself entirely."
"What do you mean?"
"Strength."
A low, but strongly flowing voice.
His voice was chillingly sharp, yet simultaneously began to boil with heat.
"The Archdukes of the Surface. The Archdukes of the Demon Realm. Without exception, they all began to seek political stability. They are merely politicians. But His Grace the Wrath Duke is different."
'Is he really?'
I thought to myself.
What his eyes saw and what my eyes saw were different.
The Wrath Duke's actions, which no other Surface Archduke had chosen, were not those of one who truly desired strength. It was simply a more subtle, more defensive form of politics.
While I remained silent, he walked up before me, and looked at me straight on with his glowing red eyes.
"Order through strength. That is the very essence of the Demon Realm. His Majesty in the end also subjugated everything with strength. Things packaged with the word 'politics' are, in the end, inevitably bound to crumble before strength."
In his eyes shone a conviction close to frenzy.
Beliefs accumulated over long ages sometimes became the root of one's very existence.
"Our House shall become a sturdy background for you. So..."
The Marquis, who spoke of strength yet was unaware he was himself speaking of politics.
I understood him now.
There was an old man who did not want to admit he had become a politician, a noble standing in the ambiguous position of simultaneously not wanting to let go of his childhood convictions.
If he were not Serica's father, he would have become nothing to me at this very moment.
"Your Excellency."
I cut off his words.
Firmly, but absolutely not rudely.
His value within me had vanished, but he was still Serica's father. One who even loved and cherished her.
"I cherish that child very much. Perhaps I might even come to love her."
It was no different from saying I was not certain of my love for her, yet there was no disturbance in the Marquis's eyes.
For in noble marriages, love was not a necessity.
"And so?"
"But for now, I cannot proceed further than that."
The air of the library grew heavy.
The Marquis's gaze, fixed on me, was slowly subduing the fire in those eyes.
"Tell me the reason."
"Though Your Excellency may regard my marriage as me joining the Wrath Duke's faction, others would not think so."
I paused my words for a moment, then continued.
As if I were nervous before him.
"Are Their Highnesses not already showing interest in me?"
The existence of the two Demon Queens was more than simple political pressure.
Their authority was on another dimension from the Archdukes, and the influence they possessed could not be ignored.
"If the marriage talks were to become official, it could flow in a direction entirely different from Your Excellency's intentions."
If even one of the Demon Queens showed me goodwill, and if I accepted it, even by mistake...
That could be seen as the House of Belitra trying to form a direct Fate with the royal family.
Of course, if I accepted it, it would be no mistake but intention, but the Marquis did not know that.
Belred's eyes were tinged with satisfaction.
"Not only cautious, but wise as well. Both are virtues of the battlefield... I now understand the reason you were able to survive as a Dungeon Lord of the surface."
At his words, I smiled wryly to myself.
If he knew the way I had survived on the surface, this passionate attitude of his would turn cold at once.
"Then what of a covenant? I do not wish to let go of one such as you."
Finally, the proposal I had been waiting for flowed from his lips.
"I thank you for the undeserved assessment. Your Excellency. I shall accept."
The Marquis's gaze turned towards the window.
Complex emotions stirred in his eyes.
"Serica does not know what politics is. But that child follows you with genuineness."
He stopped speaking for a moment to control his growing roughness, then opened his mouth again.
The earlier sharpness had completely vanished, leaving only the affection of a Father.
"I entrust that child to you. As a Lady, I believe you will be able to protect her."
With the sound of light footsteps, the Marquis exited the library.
I gazed at the door he had left through and thought.
'The first objective has been accomplished.'
There was no longer a need to return the magic stone he had given me, and the Marquis's proposal had also been made exactly as I had orchestrated.
But this was not the end.
The two Demon Queens and the authority they held. The other Archdukes who had yet to show themselves.
A larger chessboard was spread out before me.
I looked out the window at the Demon King Castle.
That massive citadel towering under the dark-red sky.