365. The Second Branch (1)
365. The Second Branch (1)
- 1 -
It was the moment when Esther and Libertas were enjoying themselves together.
"Your Excellency! Welcome back!"
"Well done."
Clementine, having entered the capital of the Norn Empire, nodded curtly in response to her royal guard knight's salute and strode forward arrogantly.
Thanks to the spatial movement mage she had hired at great expense, she had managed to return to 'her' imperial palace within half a day of the conference's conclusion.
Though her homecoming had been so lavish, her heart was not at ease in the slightest.
Returning to her imperial chambers, she summoned the one she trusted most among the holy knights who guarded her.
"Calix."
"Yes, Lady Saintess."
Knight Commander Calix was a devout holy knight in his mid-forties.
He had been Clementine's constant attendant ever since she came to Norn, and was almost always by her side except when sent on assignment to investigate recent events in Hysen.
"Contact the Holy Kingdom immediately. Tell them to secretly send one bishop who can hold his tongue."
"What is the matter, Your Excellency?"
Clementine hesitated for a moment.
The words Adriana had spoken flashed through her mind.
'But...'
Clementine shook her head.
Her own interests came before any tiresome preaching about values.
"Within the Holy Kingdom, there is treason..."
But she could not finish her sentence.
Because a deeply unsettling smile had spread across the face of her trusted confidant, Calix.
"Calix...?"
"Your Excellency. Why would you cast aside the chance that Lady Philia herself has granted you?"
Thud. She felt as though she could hear the sound of her heart dropping to the floor.
"How could you...!"
The strength drained from Clementine's legs.
Collapsed onto the sofa, her face had gone deathly pale.
Because the fact that she had met Philia in Rugnisah this time was something he was not supposed to know.
Calix approached her slowly as she stared at him in shock.
He produced from his bosom a rosario that resembled the dazzling radiance of the sun, and reverently pressed his lips to it.
"Lady Philia, our revered leader, is the sole one who realizes the divine will upon this earth. She granted Your Excellency the chance to stand upright on your own, so why would you make such a foolish choice?"
He extended two fingers before Clementine's eyes.
"However, our merciful leader has not yet abandoned Your Excellency. You still have two more chances remaining. Please, I urge you to consider carefully next time."
Calix bowed his head respectfully, then gave orders to the knights outside the door.
"Her Excellency appears to have fallen into deep contemplation. Ensure she may reflect quietly within the residence for the time being — bar all outsiders and maintain a thorough guard."
"Yes, Commander!"
The door closed.
'How... why? How could this be...!!'
Realizing she had been completely isolated, Clementine could do nothing but tremble faintly in terror and rage.
She had been imprisoned.
By the hand of the confidant she had trusted most of all.
- 2 -
The next morning, the sunlight pouring down upon the Norn Empire's imperial palace was unusually brilliant.
But Clementine's world was submerged in pitch-black darkness.
She stood before the enormous mirror in her bedroom, glaring at the rosario fastened around her neck.
It was a beautiful shackle, engraved with a sun pattern, which Calix — the man she had believed just last night she had made into her loyal servant — had placed around her neck with his own hands.
"Damn it... why won't it come off...!"
She had tried everything imaginable throughout the night.
She had mustered all her holy power to break it, but the rosario did not budge, merely emitting a gentle warmth.
When she tried to destroy it physically, the physical strength of a saintess was not that great to begin with, and she was too afraid of missing and hurting herself if she used a tool.
She had at least confirmed it caused no direct harm to her body, but the fact that she could not know what ability it held drove her mad.
Unknown terror constricted her heart.
Tok-tok.
"Your Excellency. His Highness the Crown Prince has arrived."
Calix's respectful voice.
Clementine glared at the door with eyes full of hatred, but soon a faint hope flickered across her face.
'Yes... His Highness the Crown Prince!'
The next emperor of the empire. The heir to the continent's mightiest nation.
Surely he could resolve this one unidentified magical tool, somehow.
She steadied her voice as much as possible so that Calix would not grow suspicious.
"... Show him in."
A moment later, the door opened and a man of splendid appearance entered.
Dazzling golden hair and deep green eyes.
Though he had entered his forties, it was the imperial crown prince, Eldgrim Sen Norhuan III, who exuded a youthful charm.
"Clem. Was your visit to Rugnisah pleasant?"
"Come in, El."
He approached Clementine with a gentle smile and naturally kissed her lips.
It appeared far more affectionate and loving than the other saintess-engaged couple, Adriana and Alexander.
'The smell of alcohol.'
But that was only on the surface.
Rumors of his complicated entanglements with women were rampant, and at the same time, he was a man who frequently kept close company with drink or drugs in the evenings and nights.
Of course, Clementine had known all this and still become engaged to him.
'It doesn't matter, I can just meet other men anyway.'
Once she became empress, those flaws would actually serve as justification for her to pursue her own affairs.
But right now, she desperately needed him.
She opened her mouth with all her might. This was her chance.
'Your Highness! Please save me! I am currently imprisoned here, betrayed by my own confidant!'
But the words that came out of her mouth were completely different.
"Yes. It went well. It was nice seeing my sisters' faces after so long."
Clementine felt goosebumps run down her spine.
'What is this?'
Her body did not move as she willed it.
Her reflection in the mirror was that of a perfectly loving, adorable fiancée.
A tender image, even wearing a soft and elegant smile.
Terror surged up from the tips of her toes.
'It's forcibly altering my actions!'
Her talent as a saintess had not gone anywhere, and the moment that power activated, she immediately knew what it was.
The rosario's function exceeded her imagination.
It was the power to — the instant it detected intent to commit 'hostile acts' against Philia or her faction — forcibly convert that intent into the most 'natural' positive action.
"Is that so? I am glad. Today, I came for a different reason — to discuss the date of our wedding. His Majesty, my father, is also beginning to wish for grandchildren."
Eldgrim smiled and took his seat.
Clementine, as she always did, instructed the maid to bring tea and sat down across from him.
Inside, one part of her was screaming, but outwardly, an utterly serene teatime began.
She did not give up.
She tried to 'accidentally' spill her teacup and use the liquid to write 'help me' on the floor.
But her hand, far from tipping the cup over, merely demonstrated even finer tea etiquette.
When she attempted to rampage with her holy power to cause some kind of abnormal phenomenon, her body merely emanated an 'aura that naturally flows out when one is in a good mood,' only improving the crown prince's spirits further.
'This is absurd...!'
All resistance was meaningless. Nothing she did made any difference.
This dreadful necklace had turned her into a living doll.
"Well then, I shall take my leave. May you have a pleasant day as well, my beautiful future empress."
"And you as well, Your Highness."
Eldgrim kissed her once more with a satisfied expression and departed.
Utterly unaware that his fiancée was trapped in the smallest and most terrifying hell in the world.
The moment the door closed, the smile evaporated from Clementine's face.
She collapsed helplessly onto the sofa.
If only, in that moment just before this rosario was placed around her neck, she had resisted with all her might.
If only she had killed Calix on the spot.
Belated regrets washed over her like waves.
"Your Excellency. Do cease your futile resistance."
Before she knew it, Calix had opened the door at will and approached, whispering with a gentle eye-smile.
"Lady Philia shall place everything Your Excellency has ever desired into your hands. For she understands your desires better than anyone."
His voice was like the whisper of a demon.
"So, quietly ascend to the seat of the empress. Within this gilded cage, you need only sing as the most beautiful bird."
Clementine could not answer.
Realizing that her own greed had become the most perfect prison to confine her, she could do nothing but tremble faintly in terror and rage.
- 3 -
The matter of Calix had been a pleasant miscalculation.
[I had been harboring doubts about the meaning of God's existence.]
In the world, there were many who starved to death, many who were ill, many who were disabled.
No matter how much one tried to aid such people alone, as long as there existed those who mass-produced the weak in this world, the impact one's own actions could have was small.
Even among those 'who mass-produced the weak,' there were figures from the Holy Kingdom itself.
It would have been more than enough to make a cleric whose faith in God had been desperate come to harbor doubt.
'That was where Clementine made her mistake.'
Not knowing whether the holy knights around her were loyal to the symbol of the 'saintess,' or loyal to her personally.
Even a holy knight who was loyal and strong at first could not help but reexamine the meaning of his devotion when watching a saintess who was unworthy of the title.
Loyalty to a person, after all, was not a gauge in a game.
'Thanks to that, things were easy.'
I had made certain arrangements not only for Clementine but for the other two saintesses as well, but it was simply fortunate that I did not need to use those methods.
So, as for where I was after resolving the saintess matter in such a way—
Kurrrrung—
I was in the sky above a storm-tossed sea.
The fierce winds of the upper air that felt as though they would cut the skin were nothing more than a spring breeze atop the back of Keltarion, the bone dragon who beat his enormous skeletal wings.
That was because the translucent spell barrier Ran had unfurled was gently diverting all wind and waves.
At the center of the barrier, looking down at the island we would soon arrive at, I asked Saya, who was seated beside me.
"Are you prepared in your heart?"
Upon her face, so full of quiet beauty, deep anguish was etched.
"If they are truly spies... it is only right that I execute them with my own hands. That is the unwavering loyalty I offer to you, Master."
But the end of her voice trembled faintly.
I gently stroked Saya's hair.
This child must be struggling as well. For she might have to kill with her own hands the blood kin she was meeting for the first time in hundreds of years.
She naturally bowed her head. To receive the touch of her master, who was shorter than herself.
"That heart of yours, the very intent to execute them, is enough to reassure me. But Saya, I do not believe that is where it ends."
I spoke warmly, then deliberately lowered my voice.
"Simply killing the betrayers is not enough. Naturally, Gaph must pay a greater price."
I sharpened my gaze as if to pierce through the island.
The one who dared to use Saya — one of my precious swords, and my soon-to-be companion — as bait to test me.
My fury was cold enough to darken the surrounding air in an instant.
"The blood they shed shall be my first warning to Gaph. Showing clearly what fate awaits those who covet what is mine."
My words carried both my absolute affection toward Saya and my merciless will to annihilate my enemies.
Saya listened to my words and quietly nodded, as if overcome with emotion.
"Let it be as you will, Master."
"Indeed. So do not torment your heart before its time. They may truly be your pitiable family who have waited eagerly for you for hundreds of years, after all. If that is the case..."
I comforted her again in a tender voice.
"Should we not rather bestow upon them even greater reward and glory?"
"... You speak rightly."
When I smiled gently, she smiled along with me.
At that moment, Keltarion began to slowly lower his altitude.
Beneath the dark clouds, the full view of a small island surrounded by the storm was revealed.
"Now, let us go."
I murmured quietly, looking down at the island.
"To see for ourselves whether they shall become our new family, or a gift of blood to be sent to Gaph."
Toward the island that would become a forked road of fate, the great dragon of death descended, casting his shadow.