*Thud.* With a short and firm slam of the desk, he captured everyone’s attention before slowly opening his mouth.
“Be silent.”
It was an eerie voice. And even more eerie was the fact that with just one word from him, everyone fell silent. The man who looked down on the now quiet individuals with disdainful eyes spoke briefly.
“There is a will, so we must follow the late king’s wishes.”
As he gestured towards the back, the silhouette of the crown prince’s figure appeared from the shadows. With unfocused and dull eyes, the crown prince moved obediently according to the magician’s gesture. The man who sat the crown prince in front of him attempted to put his hand on his shoulder but changed direction, resting it on the chair before removing his lips.
“Given the urgent situation, the coronation will be held simply. However, there is no doubt that the crown prince will govern all aspects of the nation as the next king.”
As the man finished speaking and tapped the chair with his fingertip, the crown prince, with his vacant eyes, echoed.
“It will be as he says!”
The people gathered in the palace assembly hall nodded as if enchanted and soon left the hall. A national conference dominated by one man’s words. And this was just after the current king’s death. It was such a bizarre sight that even a three-year-old child would find it strange, but no one present felt any discomfort. No one knew who the man, whose name and face were unknown, was, or how he came to be by the king’s side. But no one doubted him, not even the king himself; rather, as time passed, everyone began to trust him. Like magic. The man with a pallid complexion, who was the first to leave the assembly hall, gazed out the window from the king’s bedroom with gleaming eyes. Behind him, an apparition of a figure appeared silently.
“Father.”
“You’ve come, Greta.”
“Yes. It’s almost time now.”
The magician turned to face his daughter, spreading his arms wide and bursting into laughter.
“Yes. Finally, this day has come.”
“It’s been a long time. If it had been done like this in the Empire… You know. Even if it was a country slightly larger than the Empire, it wouldn’t have come to this.”
“It has been long indeed. How long has it been? Soon, the day to purify this filthy world will come!”
“A filthy world.”
Greta approached the magician with a faint smile on her pale face.
“But there are still those who are pure.”
“What do you mean?”
“The man chosen by the ancient gods.”
“A slave, you mean.”
“A slave of the gods. Having died once and been purified and resurrected, isn’t he clean?”
“True. So he won’t set the world on fire…”
His sentence was not even finished when -thud.- With the sound of flesh tearing, the magician’s eyes widened as if they were about to burst.
In an unexpected turn of events, the magician’s eyes were filled with nothing but questions. Without hesitation, Greta swiftly twisted the dagger embedded in his abdomen to the right. The sound of bones scraping from the inside grated on the nerves, but Greta was smiling. Quite satisfactorily.
“Cou… cough!”
As droplets of blood sprayed from his mouth, splattering Greta’s face, she didn’t even blink, continuing to stare straight at him. Between labored breaths and foam mingled with blood, groans escaped from his lips.
“Why…?”
The magician could only stare at Greta in astonishment until his heart stopped completely.
“Why?”
Greta smiled kindly as she slowly withdrew the dagger lodged in his abdomen and threw it to the ground. The dagger, haphazardly rolling on the white carpet, traced a red trail, with Greta at the starting point. Dripping blood from her abdomen, she embraced the collapsing magician in her arms and sat him on her lap amidst a puddle of blood. Gently brushing the blood from his lips and chin with her fingers stained with fresh blood, Greta whispered.
“Father, you are just a part of this filthy world after all. So, I will cleanse you with death…”
Gently cradling the magician, who was vomiting blood, in her arms, Greta’s fingers, stained with the red blood that had splattered his lips, also tainted his cheeks.
“Farewell, Father.”
Even her faintly ecstatic voice faded away in the magician’s ears. Thus, on the day the King of Norden was assassinated in an accident, the nameless magician, who had been forcibly resurrected through a contract with ancient gods to purify the filthy world, branded him with the ancient god’s slave mark. It was his daughter’s hands who did it, no one else.
“In the world cleansed by the ancient gods, only he and I will remain. It will be the clean world that Father desired.”
With a bright smile, Greta kicked her father’s corpse without hesitation. In her eyes, the already deceased magician did not come in. Strangely flickering, Greta’s eyes were only directed at Craeyer, who would be looking down on the human insects to be cleansed in the assembly hall held in the Empire by now.
The death of the King of Norden was simply handled as an unfortunate accident. No one brought up the possibility of assassination or any other possibilities regarding his death. To be precise, they couldn’t. If a king from another country was assassinated in the Imperial Palace? As soon as it was mentioned, anyone could anticipate what kind of thin ice they would be treading on. Moreover, wasn’t Norden just a country with very little influence on the continent? No one, not even those who had vested interests, questioned his death. No, it would be more accurate to say they didn’t pay enough attention to care. Everyone gathered in the assembly hall had their eyes wide open, focusing on Olivia and Craeyer standing right next to her.
“…Uh, to express sincere condolences to Norden…”
Surely the princess had sent back everyone who came from Norden to offer condolences.
“…and for the upcoming coronation…”
So, why did all those who came from Norden return? Why? Why was only that knight left by the Imperial Princess’s side? A common question arose in everyone’s minds.
“…Perhaps, could it really be…”
As someone’s whisper echoed with white breath, a hypothesis popped into the minds of those watching the two. And finally, someone unable to resist their curiosity, just like the cat that kills, opened their mouth.
“Your Highness!”
“Yes?”
“Why… Why hasn’t that knight returned?”
At the jab aimed at Craeyer, a slight twitch appeared at the corner of Olivia’s mouth. Don’t provoke him like that, because if you’re not careful, you could disappear without a trace. Swallowing the words she had almost spoken, she soon plastered on a smile filled with nothing but pretense. Behind the gentle and calm smile, a brief answer flowed out.
“He will stay in the Empire for smooth communication between the two countries.”
“Yes?”
“That’s… No, we! Our knight too!”
“What nonsense! Our knights are far superior…”
It was truly a scene where everyone started boasting about the superiority of their own knights as soon as Olivia finished speaking, sending shivers down the spine of those gathered in the assembly hall.
“Exchange between the two countries?”
In response to Craeyer’s murmured question, Olivia looked up at him and replied.
“Well, you can’t exactly say, ‘I’m going to recruit you as my spy because I fell for you at first sight.’ Of course, regardless of what you say now, he’ll accept it like that.”
The unmarried princess, who had a chilly demeanor, brazenly singled out a man she had never seen before, especially in front of so many people, including foreign knights.
“For exchange between the two countries.”
“No, that’s too much. Even if I didn’t fall for you at first sight, if I did, there’s no need for you to recoil in disgust. What does it matter where I come from or who I am…”
“A woman who is soon to be killed might appreciate being whispered words of love.”
“That was a wise answer to a foolish question.”
“More importantly, how are we going to handle this?”
When Craeyer gestured towards the knights who accompanied them, almost brimming with madness, Olivia simply replied.
“We’ll take in the knights from each country, one by one.”
Olivia had anticipated this turn of events. And why they were so desperate to recommend the knights who accompanied them…
“It’s better than spies.”
“Forget about that part. Cut it out of your memory.”
“If Your Highness wishes.”
“Stop giving me the creeps and forget about ‘Your Highness.'”
Olivia shook her head while rubbing her arms, feeling goosebumps.
“If we bring in the knights one by one and place them in the Empire, we can silence their concerns all at once.”
“If they’re concerned, should it be the princess’s spies after all?”
“Damn spies. Not really… well, they do play a certain role, but the real issue is war. War.”
“They wouldn’t know about my presence causing a war across the continent, would they? If it’s not just the princess who has returned, but also the regressed one, they might be able to figure it out.”
“Not the war you’re causing, but the war being incited by the Empire.”
“Ah. This continental conference was about world peace, wasn’t it.”
“Yeah. It’s understandable that they’re anxious about suddenly changing the topic of the upcoming conference to world peace a few months later, suggesting that the Empire is preparing something.”
“So, you’ll allow knights who are legal spies from each country to stay in the Empire?”
“That’s the idea.”
“But, Princess.”
“Yeah?”
“It seems like there will be an influx of spies rather than knights.”
As a wry smile appeared at the corner of Craeyer’s mouth, Olivia narrowed her eyes and turned her head slowly. The conference hall, which had become somewhat quieter, was now filled with chaos. New figures were seated next to the leaders of each country. Olivia glanced at them and whispered almost inaudibly, lips barely moving. It was a small voice that might barely be heard by herself, but surely Craeyer could hear it.
“How many of them do you think have received knighthoods?”
In response to her question, Craeyer bowed his body and whispered in Olivia’s ear.
“If we’re talking about knighthoods, they’ve all received them, but as for those who can actually fulfill the role of a knight… well, there will probably be fewer than you imagine. They seem more concerned about spy positions than war.”
“Damn.”
Those who are about to distribute rice cakes never think about those who drink kimchi soup. Truly, the words handed down from our ancestors’ experiences in Bolsheviks were never wrong. Even though the conference was hastily convened to address world peace, all attention was focused on their own agendas, leaving me feeling irritated.
“Would it be better to incite war to alert those wandering eyes?”
“Absolutely not. No matter how, war must be avoided.”
What is war anyway? We’ve seen enough to know that even local skirmishes or a few people gathering can become fodder for a continent-wide war. So peace must be maintained. To never die again.
“Are you the dove of peace?”
“Yeah, I’m the dove. Coo, coo, coo. Got it? Satisfied… Stop smiling. I said stop.”
Seeing the slight tremor in his shoulders as Olivia bit her lip, she couldn’t help but want to grab him by the collar and shake him, but there was no way that would work… He would probably end up clinging to her chest like a cicada. But feeling the urge to do something with the potion, Olivia withdrew her hand, which had been gently stroking his trembling shoulder, behind her voluminous skirt.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m hitting you.”
“It’s like being hit by a passing mosquito.”
“You should pretend to be hurt a bit… Ahem. Now’s not the time for this.”
Olivia reluctantly withdrew her ineffectual toy club, having tried and failed to achieve any result by grabbing his collar.
“We still have things to discuss, don’t we?”
“Well…”
“You haven’t talked about the specifics of your contract, and the story of the guy who’s… a wizard or something.”
“Yeah. But first, we need to figure out what to do about this chaos.”
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Translator Note:
This chapter was translated by Bree.
If you like my work please support us in Patreon. Next post will be released on February, 19.
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