A Wise Move
Wise move. Clop, clop. Inside the smoothly advancing carriage, four people sat with distinctly different expressions on their faces.
“Hehe.” As always, the Saintess, Iris, sat beside Evan with a big, goofy smile plastered across her face.
“Grind.” In stark contrast, Alphonse sat directly across from Evan, glaring at him like he wanted to kill him, not even bothering to hide the sound of his grinding teeth.
“......” Rowena sat across from Iris, shifting uncomfortably in her seat as she silently glanced back and forth between Iris and Evan.
“Hah.” And then there was Evan, who found this entire situation utterly tiresome.
The four of them were currently riding together in a luxurious carriage pulled by a lich. The reason was simple. Iris had flat-out refused to return to the Holy Kingdom no matter how much Rowena tried to persuade her.
Her behavior was like a child throwing a tantrum at the end of a trip, insisting she didn’t want to go home. The problem, however, was that unlike an ordinary child, no one could actually stop Iris.
Attempts to coax her with snacks had failed. Forcing her was impossible. Alphonse, unable to stand it any longer, had even added a mild threat—that the priests of the Holy Kingdom would be furious or heartbroken if they learned of this—but Iris’s stance remained rock-solid.
“I’m not going!”
In the end, the two priests, unable to break the Saintess’s stubbornness, had no choice but to accompany Evan along with her. Evan wasn’t particularly pleased with the arrangement either, but rejecting the Saintess’s inexplicable goodwill would only bring trouble down on his own head if she threw a fit. So he allowed them to tag along.
…Including the coachman who had fainted earlier, for good measure.
I won't eat you, so there's no need to tremble like that. Our king doesn't enjoy cannibalism.
“Y-yes! Of course!”
Of course, I enjoy it. When the subjugation force came from the Holy Kingdom last time, I feasted quite well.
“H-hieek!! I-is that so…”
It's a joke. The king hates watching humans get eaten.
“Hahaha!! I-it was a joke! I knew it all along!”
The carriage was so quiet that the voices coming from the driver’s seat were perfectly clear. Of course, that didn’t mean everyone stayed silent. Alphonse, unable to contain his rage, was the main exception.
“Abaddon’s Devil…! Remove that blasphemous face from the Saintess’s presence at once…!”
Evan found it absurd. Did I even move? It was Iris who had arbitrarily reached over to poke and play with his cheek. Still, he saw no need to argue or personally crush the insolent priest.
“Shut up!”
“Urk!”
It wasn’t just words. The outburst of divine power laced with genuine irritation forcibly sealed Alphonse’s mouth.
Fascinating. One reason Evan kept letting Alphonse run his mouth was to observe this very phenomenon. It was different from the curses he used. Different from the magic the lich wielded. Just what principle made something like that possible?
“Evan-Evan is my friend.”
“Friends with a devil…! Saintess, please retract those words immediately! The Saintess belongs to the Holy Kingdom—”
“Shut uuuup!!”
“Cough!”
The same pattern had repeated several times already. Yet no matter how often he witnessed it, Evan still couldn’t figure it out. Maybe he really should study divine power more deeply. As that thought crossed his mind, Rowena—who had remained silent until now—finally spoke.
“Alphonse is correct. Saintess, becoming friends with the King of Abaddon is simply unacceptable.”
“Uuu… Rowenaaa……”
Unlike with Alphonse, Iris didn’t lash out with divine power. She simply puffed out her cheeks in clear dissatisfaction.
“Why can’t I be friends with Evan-Evan……”
“That’s…”
Rowena wore a troubled expression. Inside her head, countless arguments about the relationship between the Holy Kingdom and Abaddon, and how doctrinally wrong Evan’s very existence was, were probably swirling. But she already knew such arguments would never persuade Iris.
“Because friendship isn’t a relationship that can be formed simply because one side desires it, Saintess.”
In the end, the answer Rowena gave could only remain at an extremely ordinary, common-sense level.
“…It is only when both sides regard each other as friends that the word can be used.”
Evan narrowed his eyes at the response. He sensed the spark was about to fly in his direction.
And sure enough, Iris immediately turned to him. Her sky-blue eyes sparkled as she made her demand.
“Just Evan! Let’s be friends!”
“......”
Evan had read the Archbishop’s intention perfectly. If he rejected Iris here, it might shatter the strange affection she held for him. And if that gave them an excuse to take the wounded Saintess back to the Holy Kingdom, all the better.
Unfortunately for her, he had no obligation to play along.
“Sure.”
Iris’s face lit up like the sun. In contrast, the two priests’ expressions soured instantly.
“Evan-Evan, you’re really my friend now?!”
Alphonse shot to his feet inside the carriage and shouted.
“Saintess, that is absolutely not—!!”
“Shuuut uuuup!!!”
BOOM—!
That one probably hurt. The shout hadn’t merely silenced him; it had struck Alphonse’s chin hard enough to slam his head into the ceiling. After smacking into it, his eyes rolled back and he collapsed, neck bent awkwardly over the seatback, silent once more.
Paying him no attention whatsoever, Iris kept her gaze fixed solely on Evan and pressed for confirmation again.
“Are you really, truly my friend?”
“If you listen carefully to everything I say from now on.”
“Yes! I’ll listen well!”
“Then sleep until we arrive.”
“Okay!”
Iris immediately squeezed her eyes shut, leaned her head against the carriage wall, and tried her best to fall asleep.
Rattle. Thunk.
“Ow.”
But Abaddon’s roads were rugged canyons with virtually no maintenance. Every time the carriage jolted, Iris’s head would slip and bump lightly against the wall. She eventually cracked her eyes open and leaned the other way instead.
That is, onto Evan’s shoulder.
“……What are you doing?”
“The carriage wall hurts.”
“Then why are you leaning on my shoulder?”
“Because this is how I slept on the way here……”
Her voice grew thinner and thinner, eventually mixing with the slow rhythm of her breathing.
Is she actually asleep? The ability to fall asleep instantly just because someone told her to was a talent in itself.
His shoulder was slightly uncomfortable, but thanks to it, both the noisy one and the annoying one—two birds with one stone—had finally gone quiet. Deciding to let it slide, Evan turned his gaze out the window.
“…King of Abaddon.”
However, as if she had been waiting for the Saintess to fall asleep, Rowena spoke up.
“What exactly are you thinking?”
“Is this about the friend thing from earlier?”
“Yes. You would not have misunderstood my intention. So why would you say something you clearly don’t mean and disturb the Saintess’s heart?”
“Because it was unpleasant.”
Evan answered honestly. There was no reason to hide it.
“If the Saintess returns to the Holy Kingdom as quickly as possible, you will be able to obtain what you desire that much sooner.”
Evan shifted his gaze from the window to Rowena, eyes filled with clear annoyance.
“Archbishop. The ones in a hurry are you people, not me.”
From Evan’s perspective, whether it took one year or ten years to receive the holy relic made no difference. In fact, the more desperate the Holy Kingdom became, the more advantageous it was for him.
“I’d appreciate it if you refrained from interfering. Or have you forgotten that we’re in a hostile relationship just because we aren’t currently pointing blades at each other?”
At Evan’s icy declaration, Rowena lowered her head as if acknowledging her mistake.
“…My apologies.”
After that, the carriage fell quiet once more. Only the occasional sound of the lich teasing the coachman drifted in from the driver’s seat.
Coachman, have you considered employment in Abaddon as food? Plenty of undead would pay a gold coin for a single one of your fingers.
“G-gold coins!?”
Well, there are also plenty who would accidentally devour the whole wrist instead of just a finger! Hahaha!
How noisy.
Thinking it would only become annoying again once the Saintess woke up, Evan clicked his tongue and lightly flicked his finger. Instantly, the tip of his left index finger burst into black flame and vanished. The sounds from the driver’s seat cut off as if they had never existed. Not only that, the carriage’s vibrations decreased dramatically, now feeling no rougher than being wrapped in several layers of thick, fluffy blankets.
“…Mmm.”
When Iris—who had been frowning slightly at the noise from the driver’s seat—finally relaxed into a peaceful expression, Evan decided it was good enough and returned his gaze to the window.
“......”
Rowena watched the scene with an unreadable expression.
.
.
.
How many hours passed like that? The carriage finally came to a stop.
Evan opened his mouth with a warning.
“Archbishop, you’d better keep that fainted idiot under proper control.”
“…What do you mean by that?”
“The lich can still tell right from wrong, but in my mansion, there’s one who can’t.”
Before she could ask what he meant, the carriage door was violently ripped open.
With a loud crunch, outside air rushed in, and the previously muffled sounds returned.
How many times must I tell you not to rip the door off? Wood is already a precious commodity in Abaddon.
“Lich Lord, my apologies, but my master’s safety is my highest priority.”
It’s only a patrol. Isn’t your concern a bit excessive?
“Such complacency could cost our master his life. Lich Lord, unlike us, our master is an extremely frail human.”
You are the only one in all of Abaddon who would call our king frail.
It was a distinctly human voice, produced through vocal cords—completely different from the sounds made by undead like liches or skeletons. Through the now-missing carriage door, Rowena finally saw the speaker.
“Oh? We have guests? Lich Lord, you should have informed me beforehand.”
You ripped the door off before I could say anything. Besides, even without words, you should have noticed the humans sitting beside me.
“My mistake. I assumed they were the Lich Lord’s snacks.”
A woman with pale skin and a talisman burning faintly with black flames on her forehead. Her eyes were reversed—black sclera with white irises.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, guests of my master. I am Kaede, the sole head maid of this estate. Should any inconvenience arise during your stay, please inform me of everything. I will serve you with utmost sincerity.”
Rowena, who had never expected to receive such a polite greeting in a place like Abaddon, could only hesitate, unable to form a reply.
However, Kaede’s politeness ended there. The moment her gaze landed on Evan’s left hand—specifically the missing segment of his index finger—all trace of courtesy vanished. An ominous aura comparable to the lich’s began pouring from her.
“I thought they were guests, but they were nothing but sons of bitches from the doghouse. How dare the Holy Kingdom’s worthless scum lay a hand on master’s body…!!”
“The lich’s carriage-pulling skills were terrible. I used it to reduce the impact.”
My king?
In the next instant, Kaede’s figure blurred. When it stabilized, she was holding the lich’s head in her grip, black flames dripping from it like blood.
“Master, it would be appropriate to offer this useless undead’s head as a sacrifice. Considering it failed to properly attend you, its supposedly brilliant brain must have rotted away from improper preservation. Therefore, allowing it to disappear for the sake of master’s finger as its final honor and annihilating it would be—”
“Kaede.”
At Evan’s quiet call, Kaede flinched violently and dropped to her knees on the spot.
“I-I’m sorry! Master! I lost control of myself again…!”
“Put the lich’s head back where it belongs.”
“Yes. My apologies, Lich Lord.”
The sight was so drastically different from her previous demeanor that it seemed like a split personality. Rowena broke into a cold sweat. If Evan’s words had been even a second slower… the thing in that woman’s hand might have been her own head instead of the lich’s.
“Ugh……”
At that moment, Alphonse—who had fainted from the earlier commotion—regained consciousness. The first thing he saw upon waking was Iris sleeping with her head on Evan’s shoulder. His face instantly twisted into something hideous.
“Abaddon’s Dev—!”
Without hesitation, Rowena grabbed Alphonse’s chin and twisted his neck. With a sharp crack, he collapsed once more, unconscious.
Evan let out an impressed hum at the decisive action.
“Wise move.”
“…Thank you for the advance warning.”
“Because it would be troublesome if our relationship with the Holy Kingdom were completely ruined.”
Evan gently pushed the sleeping Iris’s forehead, leaning her against the opposite wall of the carriage, then stepped out first.
“Escort the guests inside, Kaede.”
“Yes, Master.”
“W-wait!”
Rowena called out in a panic, but Evan answered as if he already knew what she wanted to say.
“In this mansion, she is the only one capable of attending to human needs.”
Evan spoke coldly.
“If you dislike it, feel free to eat, sleep, and relieve yourself outside the mansion. I won’t interfere. I do hope you brought sufficient food and water.”
Without waiting for a response, Evan walked into the mansion. Rowena stared for a moment at the path they had traveled. It was a completely barren canyon. The deathly energy rising from the abandoned land would drain both stamina and sanity just by standing still.
“Will you be coming inside?”
Faced with Kaede’s question at the mansion entrance, Rowena eventually had no choice but to nod.
“…I ask for your care.”