Undead Preferences
Evan tapped his index finger against the table with a rhythmic tap tap. Kaede scrambled up from the pile of rubble in a panic and dropped to her knees before him. Having served him for so long, she could tell that despite his blank expression, he was deeply displeased.
“I-I’m sorry. I’ll accept any punishment—”
Tap. Evan’s finger stopped mid-motion.
“Kaede.”
“…Yes.”
“I told you to make excuses. That means I want to hear the process that led to this outcome.”
His face remained expressionless, but his voice was ice-cold. Kaede felt as if the very air around her was pressing down on her body.
“Or should I crack open your skull myself and pull out your brain to find the information?”
As a Living Jiangshi, Kaede didn’t need to breathe and therefore felt no pain from being unable to. But right now, as she bore the full weight of Evan’s fury, the pressure crushing her very life functions made it nearly impossible to speak.
“I-I…!”
Just as she gasped out the words, a sharp voice cut in through the broken wall.
“Jiangshi sister—!”
At that title, everyone in the reception room—including Evan—froze solid.
Paying them no mind, Iris dashed over and planted herself squarely between the kneeling Kaede and Evan. It looked exactly as if she were shielding Kaede from him.
‘…Weren’t they fighting?’
Evan was confused.
‘But there’s no one else with the power to send Kaede flying like that.’
There were liches, but if she had fought one of them, Kaede wouldn’t have been so utterly helpless. Besides, when Evan had asked if she had fought the Saintess, she hadn’t corrected him as if it were a misunderstanding.
“S-Saintess… Y-you called her sister…?”
Rowena, too, stood with her mouth agape, completely unable to continue speaking at this blasphemous scene.
“Evan-Evan! Don’t be mad at Jiangshi sister!”
“……Kaede.”
“Don’t! You’re supposed to love your neighbor!”
‘Didn’t you hit her?’ And with enough force to send Kaede flying without any resistance.
Evan smoothed out his furrowed brow and let the pressure he’d been directing at Kaede fade.
“At least use that phrase with some understanding of what it means. Don’t just slap it onto everything.”
“So you’re not going to be mad anymore?”
“……I’ll listen first.”
He didn’t know the full story yet, but it was clear she had fought the Saintess.
“And don’t get mad even after you hear it!”
“……It’s alright, Iris. I was clearly in the wrong, so I must accept punishment for my mistake.”
“Sister didn’t do anything wrong!”
“Regardless of the reason, raising a hand against my master’s guest is my fault.”
Kaede slowly began her explanation.
Kaede had no idea how to play with a child.
She had received Evan’s order, so she was required to spend time with the Saintess until her master finished speaking with his guest. After pondering what would be best, she chose the simplest method.
“Are you Lady Iris?”
“Yep! I’m Iris!”
“I’ve prepared some snacks. Would you like some?”
She would offer food, then respond to the girl’s endless chatter with things like “I see,” “Is that so,” and “How surprising,” while killing time. To avoid seeming too insincere, she would repeat the other person’s words at appropriate moments.
“It’s delicious! But it’s not sweet!”
“I see. So it’s not sweet?”
“Nope! Rowena’s snacks are sweet though!”
“How surprising. Are Archbishop Rowena’s snacks sweet?”
It went something like that.
She brought a chair out to the garden, sat beside her, and made small talk to pass the time. What Kaede hadn’t anticipated was Iris’s complete lack of boundaries.
After chatting for a bit, Iris suddenly asked,
“……Sister, sister, what’s your name?”
“Sister…?”
“Yeah. The sister who gives me yummy things.”
Kaede thought the Saintess had misunderstood her identity.
“Lady Iris, I am a jiangshi.”
“Jiangshi sister.”
“…No, jiangshi isn’t a name. It refers to my race. It’s a type of Eastern undead reanimated through sorcery.”
“Really? Then what’s Jiangshi sister’s name?”
Her sparkling eyes were so pure, as if she genuinely couldn’t see why that would matter. That innocence shook Kaede. For a moment, she even forgot she was only here because of Evan’s command.
“I am…”
“Saintess—!”
A voice cut off Kaede’s words. It belonged to the male guest.
‘Master told me to avoid being around that man.’
Kaede tried to leave, but Iris grabbed her hand. It was as if she were telling her not to go. The grip wasn’t strong enough that Kaede couldn’t shake it off.
“Jiangshi sister, where are you going?”
But when Kaede noticed that the hand holding hers was trembling faintly, she couldn’t bring herself to pull away.
‘As long as we’re not alone, it shouldn’t count as disobeying orders.’
“Saintess, what are you doing here?! Without the Archbishop…!”
Alphonse approached and scolded her sharply.
“…….”
The Saintess said nothing. She only tightened her grip on Kaede’s arm. The clear, sky-blue eyes that had been full of life just moments ago lost their light, turning as dull and inorganic as glass.
“Leaving the Saintess in such a profane place is unacceptable… We must return to the Holy Kingdom at once.”
“……Don’t wanna. Not going back to the Holy Kingdom.”
“Saintess!”
Alphonse’s face grew stern as he tried to forcibly pull Iris to her feet. That was when he noticed her hand was linked with Kaede’s.
“And what are you?”
“This is our first formal greeting. I am Kaede, the sole head maid of this mansion.”
“A filthy undead pretending to be human. Release her hand at once.”
Kaede felt no emotion at Alphonse’s insult. Because it was true. Her heart beat, her body temperature remained constant, she breathed, slept, and ate regularly—all things completely unnecessary for her to function.
Living Jiangshi. A moving corpse. That was what Kaede was.
But Iris clearly didn’t see it that way.
“Alphonse, don’t say bad things to Jiangshi sister.”
“Sister?! Saintess! What kind of nonsense is that!”
Yet Iris remained silent, refusing to leave her spot. Since Alphonse couldn’t force her, he had no choice but to back down, face flushed with anger.
The problem was what he said next, his pride wounded by the Saintess who seemed to value an undead over him.
“Master and slave, both equally vile. Taking advantage of the Saintess’s curse to fawn over her like dogs begging for scraps. Even if you bark like that, do you really think the Saintess will spare a glance at heretics like you once she regains her true self?”
…She had tried to endure it. She reminded herself of her master’s orders and tried to dismiss it as the nonsense of an ignorant fool.
“I’ll kill—”
But by the time she came to her senses, she was already stepping forward. The only thought left in her mind was to rip that man’s head off so he could never insult her master again.
Just before her outstretched hand could reach Alphonse, it stopped in midair—not by Kaede’s own will.
“Sister—!”
An explosion of light erupted between them, sending the two flying apart. Even then, Kaede’s eyes were bloodshot; she couldn’t regain her senses. She twisted her airborne body like a beast, slamming her limbs into the ground to brake as she tore up the garden.
‘I’ll tear him to shreds, scatter his remains so he can never be revived.’
She kicked off the ground, closing the distance in an instant. That was when Iris stepped between them with a sorrowful expression, her fist glowing with a soft light.
“I’m sorry, sister.”
Iris’s fist slammed hard into Kaede’s right cheek. The impact sent her flying straight through the reception room wall.
“……That is all, Master.”
“Sister didn’t do anything wrong! Alphonse said mean things first!”
“You think it’s not wrong to try to kill someone just because they said something mean?”
Iris fidgeted, unable to defend that part, then planted both hands on her hips.
“……I stopped her!”
‘That’s the bigger problem.’
It wasn’t just that she had touched a priest—the Saintess herself had gotten involved. This could easily be misinterpreted as Abaddon declaring war on the Holy Kingdom. There was no defense against that accusation.
…Still, there was a simple way to resolve it. Since Abaddon wasn’t yet recognized as a nation, they could pin everything on Kaede alone.
“Kaede.”
She lowered her head as if she had already resigned herself.
“Yes, Master.”
“Go to your room and reflect.”
“Thank you for everything until… Huh?”
Evan turned to Rowena, who was still stunned by Iris’s use of the word “sister.”
“This incident was my mistake. I will take responsibility.”
“M-Master, this matter…!”
“Kaede.”
Evan spoke firmly.
“It’s an order. Reflect.”
“……Understood, Master. I’m sorry.”
Kaede rose weakly and retreated through the broken wall of the reception room. Iris looked back and forth between Evan and Kaede before chasing after her. She didn’t forget to turn around midway and declare her displeasure.
“Evan-Evan! You big dummy idiot!”
“…….”
“No snacks for you! I’m gonna eat all the snacks sister gave me!”
The mental age Iris had regressed to because of the curses was too low for her to realize that his decision had been made out of consideration for Kaede.
“Archbishop.”
“The Saintess… toward an undead… the dignity of the Holy Kingdom…”
“Tsk.”
‘Still hasn’t come to her senses.’
Evan looked at the Archbishop and decided it was time for some harsh medicine.
“So undead are your preference? For a Saintess of the Heavenly Mother Church, that’s quite a refined taste.”
“Don’t be ridiculous! The Saintess is simply…!”
‘There we go. She’s awake now.’
The plan had worked, but Evan grew curious about the words Rowena had stopped herself from saying.
“Simply?”
“……She is simply pure.”
‘That’s a lie.’
After listening to Kaede’s story, Evan had realized something. The way Rowena treated the Saintess might actually be unusual in the Holy Kingdom.
Based on what he had seen inside the carriage, he had assumed Iris could fully control Alphonse’s behavior. But the truth seemed to be the opposite.
‘The male priest was pressuring the Saintess, and she looked too afraid to offer any real resistance.’
The reason Iris didn’t want to return to the Holy Kingdom might not simply be a child’s reluctance to end a fun trip.
“Sounds like you have your hands full. Because of that pure Saintess of yours.”
‘But now’s not the time to dig into it.’
Right now, Evan had to take a step back.
“How do you intend to take responsibility for this, King of Abaddon?”
“Back to business the moment you regain your senses?”
“Don’t try to gloss over it. If we make an issue of this, it could be framed as Abaddon inviting the Saintess only to trap and assassinate her.”
Evan was well aware of that fact. If he didn’t offer clear compensation here, it could give the Holy Kingdom an excuse to withhold the holy relics later.
So he offered the greatest price he could.
“How about one curse?”
“…What did you just say?”
“I will remove one of the four curses on the Saintess free of charge.”
Rowena blinked in disbelief. The price Evan offered was that enormous. The difference between dealing with four intertwined curses and three was not simply one curse. Both casting and removing curses became exponentially more difficult with each additional one.
It was like the difference in difficulty between juggling two balls and four—not merely twice as hard.
In other words, Evan’s offer could be interpreted as:
-I will give you a chance to lift the Saintess’s curse without relying on my power.
“Are you serious?”
“Of course, I have conditions as well.”
Evan had no intention of giving away such a price for nothing. He wasn’t sure if there was anyone left on this continent—where the study of sorcery and curses had been all but lost—who could remove even two curses, let alone three. Still, the cost he was paying was undeniably huge.
“What is it?”
“Send the male priest named Alphonse back to the Holy Kingdom.”
‘A troublesome stone must be removed.’
Thanks to Kaede, he even had the perfect justification.
“There is no room in my mansion for a beast who doesn’t even know how to show basic courtesy to the master of the house.”