The Fragments of Disaster Come with the Storm (5)
Shwaaaaa―
The Secret Room, hiding all sorts of documents and items that could never be publicly revealed. Having finished their business there, Emilia and Mona stepped out into the corridor to find a fierce downpour raging outside.
It’s finally coming down.
Even when they’d arrived at the Imperial Palace by carriage, the sky had been thick with dark clouds. She’d wondered if it might rain.
“Lia, are you really sure you don’t want to just tear that thing up?”
“……”
Mona pointed at the parchment in Emilia’s hand. Written on it was a marriage betrothal between Emilia and the emperor, enforced by a magical tool with the absolute compulsion to carry it out.
But ripping up the parchment would easily dispel the tool’s effect. That’s why Mona had suggested shredding or burning it on the spot, but Emilia had stubbornly refused and brought it with her.
“You wanna marry the emperor? Well, it might get you out from under Master’s thumb~.”
“That’s not it.”
Emilia furrowed her delicate brows and tossed the parchment at Mona. Mona caught it in bewilderment.
“Hold onto it for me. Can’t hide it anyway. Tear it or burn it if you want, I don’t care.”
“What? Then why bother bringing it out?”
“Need the real thing if I’m gonna ask around about it. Not that I plan to ask His Highness Karik directly, of course…”
She’d just grabbed it because without the physical copy, she worried he might claim everything they’d seen was an illusion. No intentions of using it as leverage to throw herself on the emperor’s mercy—and besides, the Melrn Count surely knew about this document anyway.
So bringing it out was pure whim. She didn’t care if it got burned or whatever. And as she’d told Mona, with no clothes on, there was nowhere for naked Emilia to hide it while scurrying back to the banquet hall.
She’d almost forgotten again, but Emilia was still buck naked.
Anyway, she still had no idea what this parchment had to do with the Melrn Count… but their business here seemed done. A bit late, but they needed to hurry back to the banquet hall—
Sting…
“……?”
Suddenly, a sharp tingle at the nape of her neck. Emilia lifted her head at the odd tension crawling over her skin.
What is it…? Something’s…
“……What is it?”
Mona, floating idly beside her through the air, also looked up with a puzzled expression. Had she sensed something too?
What is this…? Something… unsettling…
Her chest churned. A prickling sensation like electricity danced across her skin. She furrowed her brows, but couldn’t pinpoint the source.
Then, at last, she realized.
Blood… smell?
A thick scent of blood reached her nose. The rain’s aroma wafting through the windows had delayed her notice. A faint bloody smell drifted from down the corridor…
Kyah, kyaaaaaah!
Uwaaaaaah!!
Screams followed.
“W-Wait?! Lia?! Hold on~~~!”
By the time Mona noticed, Emilia was already bolting toward the source of the commotion.
* * *
The lavish banquet in the splendid Imperial Palace. To make the event even more spectacular, countless servants bustled in and out of the hall.
Knights of the Imperial Guard stood ready inside and near the hall to protect the nobles, while others patrolled outside to ward off intruders. The palace teemed with more people than usual, but with everyone focused on the banquet hall—
Areas away from it were quieter and emptier than normal.
And that’s where the incident occurred—in a sparsely trafficked spot.
“A-Ahhhhhh!”
Slash!
Thud, thud, rollll…
A male servant fleeing with his back turned collapsed, cleaved by a massive jet-black greatsword. His severed head tumbled grotesquely across the luxurious carpeted floor. The corridor was already drenched in blood.
Five servants dead here: two maids, three men. They’d just been patrolling during the banquet to check for stragglers or hidden intruders with ulterior motives.
Then they spotted the uninvited guest in pitch-black armor limping down the corridor.
By the time they snapped to attention, two servants lay horrifically slashed at the knight’s feet. Blood sprayed, mangled bodies hit the floor.
They screamed and fled, but barely managed a few steps before the rest were butchered.
A gruesome corridor of dismembered corpses and pooled blood. At its center, the jet-black knight stood emotionless amid the dead servants, muttering to himself.
“Hero… Herooo…”
“Where… where are yooou…”
Red eyes gleamed.
He’d already slain over ten servants and knights reaching this point. Yet his goal eluded him.
Locked in the Sealed Chamber, a blinding holy light that annihilated undead had scorched him endlessly. Even among undead, his exceptional immortal flesh meant he died and revived in a hellish cycle.
He resented and raged at it, but the bigger issue now was prolonged exposure to the holy power—most of his functions were malfunctioning.
One was detecting the Hero’s presence. Instinct told him a bearer of the Hero’s Blessing was nearby. But location, distance? Impossible to pinpoint.
He’d slashed every living human in sight, but none were the Hero. They were too weak.
“He…ro… where… are… you…”
His sworn king’s final command. He had to fulfill it now. But how…?
“Kill… them… all… until…”
Simple. Kill everything in sight. Slaughter indiscriminately. Whoever he couldn’t fell would be the Hero. If the Hero was among the slain, mission accomplished.
The monster—known as the Death Knight—decided thus. He sensed the strongest cluster of life signs and set it as his target.
The place teeming with life. The Hero was likely there.
Clank, clank, clank—!
“……?”
As the knight of death moved to advance—
A new figure appeared in the corridor where he’d stood dazed. A woman of stunning beauty. His illusion-piercing eyes saw her stark naked.
Lacking human norms, her nudity meant nothing. But her life force—several times denser and stronger than others—blazed dazzlingly in the eyes of death.
Human…?
An odd presence. Blinding vitality mingled with a familiar, nostalgic aura of sorcery. Like one of his king’s top lieutenants from centuries ago—a dream demon comrade.
But not her. This was human.
A flicker of confusion, but confirmed human, the Death Knight gripped his greatsword tighter.
And charged.
Only murderous intent remained. Slash this living being in view, then head to the life-packed area likely holding the Hero—
With that thought, he swung his black-energy-wreathed blade.
Claaaang!
His sword, which cleaved steel effortlessly, was blocked by the thin ceremonial rapier in the naked woman’s hand.
* * *
Emilia arrived mere moments after the screams, yet the scene was already over.
A blood-soaked corridor. Corpses scattered and rolling on the floor. And in the midst, a ferocious knight in jet-black armor.
She’d passed two more bodies en route—unarmed servants. The perpetrator was obvious.
Not human.
The pattern on her hand—the Hero’s Blessing proving her the Hero—burned like fire.
She’d never truly lived as a Hero. She’d helped those in immediate peril and done what good she could, but never ventured to subjugate demons or embark on a quest to slay the Demon King.
Her heart had been consumed by vengeance against the Melrn Count; her Hero’s duty pushed aside.
Yet now.
That thing… it’s harmful. Can’t leave it be.
Defeat it…!
Facing the knight radiating deathly aura, Emilia felt her Hero identity for the first time.
She must fell this foe. Couldn’t let it roam. That conviction—that will—surged from the pattern on her hand.
No time to assess or question identity. Emilia thrust forward the decorative rapier she’d picked up en route.
And in the next instant, parried the knight’s murderously swung greatsword with it.