Just Like the Beggars' Sect
The lights came up over the stage, and violin and piano struck together.
From somewhere, music fit for heaven began to play.
A woman descended who wanted for nothing but wings—perfect in every other respect. She looked for all the world like an angel come down to the earth.
“Ugh…!”
The brilliance was so fierce that an arm flew up to shield the eyes. What? There hadn’t been any light at all just now. She rubbed her eyes and looked again, and sure enough, no light existed there. Radiance simply poured from the woman’s very being.
“Hah… a halo…”
People were always saying that a halo shone from those of exceptional beauty. It was the same radiance felt every time one looked upon royalty—and now it was coming off this nameless woman.
“Who in the world are you, my lady, to come walking out of our estate?”
The honorific slipped out on its own. When a person was that refined, courtesy arose of its own accord.
…I hate to admit it, but that face is passable enough.
Lady Hoian, straining with all her might to deny reality. Her mood had soured completely. The old sickness had flared again—the one that sent spite and jealousy boiling up the instant she laid eyes on a young, beautiful woman.
“Kahahaha!”
Duke Briton burst into hearty laughter. He seemed to have realized exactly who she was.
“I truly cannot tell how much further you mean to astonish me before you are satisfied.”
Those features. That gaze. He had wavered at first, but no matter how he looked, that familiar face belonged to none other than Lilith.
The reason for the duke’s lavish praise was not that Lilith had lost weight. Weight was a matter of self-discipline; put in the effort, and anyone could shed it. But look at that presence. She was unmistakably different from a few months ago. The aura rising from the person herself was anything but ordinary.
“Ehh? Don’t tell me…”
While the other women still failed to grasp it, Rina—daughter of Duke Briton’s third wife—scrunched up her face as if something had clicked, and cried out.
No. It can’t be. It shouldn’t be… and yet, no matter how I think about it…
The only person left inside the estate was Lilith. She knew it was absurd, but the moment she looked at the woman under the assumption that it was Lilith—
I can see it… I can see Lilith’s face!
A familiar face.
“It’s really Lilith?”
At Rina’s words, Lilith rose in everyone’s mind and began to be set against that perfect woman. The fat Lilith and the slender Lilith overlapped, and the more the two shapes aligned, the deeper the doubt took root. The same height. Features nearly identical. Didn’t it seem all too plausible?
“That… that can’t be…”
The shock seemed severe; the strength went out of Lady Hoian’s legs.
Click. Click.
The closer Lilith drew, the lower Hoian sank, until she was sitting on the ground. And the moment she confirmed the woman’s manner of speech, she lost consciousness entirely.
“I am a little late.”
Clop. Clop.
Hoofbeats sounded. There was a faint rocking, and the chirping of birds.
“Mm… nngh…”
Lady Hoian, who had collapsed in shock at the sight of Lilith, slowly regained her senses.
Inside a carriage?
She must have dozed off for a moment from fatigue. The carriage had set out in the meantime.
Thank goodness.
She had dreamed a strange nightmare—the worst kind, in which fat, ugly Lilith had suddenly turned into a slender, beautiful woman.
As if. She couldn’t have lost that much weight in so short a time, and Lilith could never be more beautiful than I am.
Lady Hoian smiled pleasantly in the pouring sunlight.
“Oh, Mother, are you awake?”
Feeling the stir of Lady Hoian, who had been leaning on her shoulder, Serna checked on her.
“Yes. I only drifted off for a—”
Someone was visible before her eyes, if only faintly. All at once her mood turned foul—a feeling all too like the one that came over her at the sight of a young, pretty woman.
No. Surely not…
She simply wasn’t fully awake. A phantom, nothing more.
“Aaaaaaaah!”
A woman sat there, perfectly composed. At the sight of Lilith before her eyes, Lady Hoian screamed at the top of her lungs. It had not been a dream after all.
“M-Mother, please calm down!”
Lady Anti, Duke Briton’s first wife, and Lady Marie, his third, nodded as if they understood Hoian’s reaction perfectly.
“It’s understandable. We had quite a time getting used to that face ourselves.”
Lady Anti stole a glance at Lilith, then wrapped her arms around herself as if gooseflesh had risen all over her body. She had thought she was used to it. Apparently not yet.
Noisy.
Even as the carriage rolled along, the Heavenly Demon was circulating her qi. She wore a dress, yet she had forced herself into a cross-legged seat and was breathing in the energy of the natural world. Fortunately, no one spoke to Lilith or picked a quarrel with her. Like Lady Hoian, they were still sunk in shock, refusing to believe any of it was real.
Only Duke Briton’s gaze remained fixed on Lilith.
She’s wielding mana?
To the duke’s eyes, it was plain: the flow of energy gathering around Lilith.
…Her concentration is remarkable.
The carriage swayed this way and that, and now and then struck a large stone and lurched hard, yet her posture never broke.
Impressive. When did she become a mage?
There was a reason he could not help mistaking Lilith for a mage. It was the density of the mana. An ordinary knight could not control mana with such skill. And mana that deep and concentrated was unmistakably a mage’s.
The second, then.
A great mage, appearing in House Tiribi. Serna had learned magic as well. She had studied it since childhood, yet she was still floundering at the Third Circle. And then there was Anne, Duke Briton’s fourth wife—an archmage who had reached the Eighth Circle, the highest realm a human could attain. Naturally, a mage of that caliber was not to be found in House Tiribi. She was currently researching magic at the place known as the Magic Tower.
Fourth Circle? No. At that level, one might as well call it Fifth.
Softly, softly, she gathered the energy and brought the circulation to an end.
“Have we arrived already?”
In truth they had run without rest for four hours to get here, but to the Heavenly Demon, deep in circulation, it had felt like no time at all.
A palace more splendid and far vaster than the Karma estate. This, indeed, was a residence fit for a king. Before a great fountain, several carriages that had already arrived stood waiting.
“Welcome. We are honored by the visit of House Tiribi.”
A butler and maids had come out in advance to receive them. A carpet had been laid, and they greeted Duke Briton. The duke, his wives, and his daughters alighted first, and the Heavenly Demon stepped down from the carriage last.
“Oh…”
The butler let out a short breath of wonder at the sight of Lilith’s face. He was a capable butler in service to royalty. Most nobles possessed looks above the average, and he had long since grown immune even to the youngest princess, reputed the most beautiful of all. And yet that same butler was startled by Lilith’s appearance. He hastily bowed his head and offered an apology.
“Ah, forgive me. You are someone I have never met before, and I was briefly taken aback. If it is no imposition, might I ask your name?”
“Lilith Tiribi.”
Lilith answered plainly and walked on. Only after she had left the spot did the butler understand.
“Lady… Lady Lilith has changed this much?”
Every gaze turned toward Lilith. Those eating, those playing instruments, those invited here and those at work—woman or man, it made no difference. All of them were looking at Lilith. The nobles gathered in that place numbered well over a hundred. They were people of considerable name, power-holders who could bring a person to their knees with a single word. And now they were busy murmuring over the spectacle that was Lilith.
“Who is she?”
“Whose daughter is that?”
“Is she even human?”
Praise that she was beautiful, lovely, perfect in figure—they were tired of all that. The question that mattered most was whose house she belonged to.
The corner of Duke Briton’s mouth lifted, as if he meant to boast that Lilith was his daughter. He came to stand at her side.
…What’s with this man? He never spared me a glance before.
Still, it wasn’t bad. In the past, the Heavenly Demon had drawn attention wherever he went. He had stolen every gaze, just as now.
Back then they were full of dread and terror. Now they look up at me.
The interest in Lilith lasted only a moment. Every light in the bright estate went out. When they came on again, they fell upon the center of the staircase leading to the second floor.
“Waaaaaah—!”
At the sight of the royalty standing there, applause and cheers erupted.
Tap. Tap.
Someone rapped a microphone a few times, and in an instant, as if nothing had happened, the hall fell silent.
“My thanks to all of you for attending the twentieth birthday celebration of Prince Greece.”
The queen offered the greeting with a gentle smile.
“Waaaaaaah—!”
The cheers burst out once more.
“Please enjoy the party we have prepared to the fullest, and I hope this gathering will be a place of fellowship, where ever more nobles may come to know one another.”
The remarks the queen had prepared came to an end. The lights that had gone dark flared again, and music flowed through the hall.
As expected, a place like this doesn’t suit me.
Nothing but noise and bother. What on earth did these noble fools find so delightful that they made such a fuss? The only thing worth enjoying was the drink, and even that only barely.
“Hey! Lilith!”
A familiar voice called the Heavenly Demon. She considered ignoring it out of sheer annoyance—but a flock of young ladies had already closed in around her. Twenty of them, at a rough count.
“Shut up and come with me.”
Among them, Serna, the one who had called her, seemed to be playing the leader.
…They’re no better than the beggars of the Beggars’ Sect.
Useless on their own, and full of confidence only once they had a crowd.