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Chapter : 10
“…Are you alright?”
It was when I got into the carriage with the prince after parting ways with Lilia.
The nausea that had risen at Arienne’s affected tone of voice gradually subsided.
I nodded.
“If I were going to fall apart just from seeing her face once, I wouldn’t have come back for revenge in the first place.”
“…I see.”
For some reason, the prince’s tone sounded as if he were worried about me.
I lifted my head and looked at him.
Pitch-black hair with not a hint of brightness, and violet eyes with a feral, sharply upturned gaze.
He was someone who gave off a dangerous aura, anew.
I recalled the image of him I had briefly seen in the past.
[Kwaeeeeek!]
It was when I had entered the mountain range near the borders of the Lupium Empire, partly to retrieve something Alec had asked me to bring as research material, and partly to deal with the monsters that kept popping up along the way.
Suddenly, trees collapsed one after another in clouds of dust. Startled, I approached—and saw an A-rank monster rampaging.
Judging by the corpses strewn nearby, it seemed they had come to subjugate C-rank monsters, only for an A-rank monster to suddenly appear before them.
The knights who had been with him had all been struck down, and even the prince lay there, blood pouring from his wounds.
[Help me……]
He was wearing a robe over himself, making him look all the more suspicious, yet he grabbed my ankle and refused to let go.
Compared to now, the air he gave off back then was far more savage.
The past—though it had only been two years ago.
“Rien.”
At the sudden call of my name, I stopped thinking and raised my head.
Come to think of it, since when had he started calling my name so naturally…?
“Then what should I call you? Spirit Contractor? People would never think we’re lovers. You should call me Lihar too.”
Had he seen right through me?
I frowned slightly, but nodded anyway.
“Why?”
“Were you acquainted with the Duchess of Shuttrien?”
Ah.
Now that I thought about it, I had been so distracted by Arienne that I’d barely even greeted Lilia before getting into the carriage.
I didn’t yet know why, but she was a girl who liked me that much… Feeling a little guilty, I hesitated, then nodded.
“Shierra… well, Baron Agnes introduced us.”
Strictly speaking, he’d only said she was a young lady of the prince’s faction, then excitedly blurted out that I was a spirit contractor and ran off.
“She’s an empty-headed woman. Don’t get close to her.”
“…?”
I was dumbfounded by the prince’s indifferent reply, but the carriage had already stopped at Shierra’s mansion, leaving me with nothing more to say. I simply got down.
“Then, I’ll see you at the banquet.”
“What? You met who?!”
Shierra, who had been drinking wine, spat it straight out.
I frowned as I looked at the disaster on the floor.
“Undine.”
Blue-tinged spirits popped out of thin air and cleaned the floor spotless. Watching the scene blankly, Shierra ground her teeth.
“Do you have any idea how much I—every time I see that vile bitch… Ugh, this is so irritating! So, what did she say when she saw you?”
Watching Shierra flare up, I took a sip of wine.
The sweet yet bitter liquid slid down my throat.
“She didn’t recognize me.”
“…What?”
Whether it was because I’d dyed my hair, or because she’d never imagined I’d be here, I didn’t know—but the Arienne I’d reunited with hadn’t recognized me.
In a way, you could say the first step had been a success.
They say a person’s impression is shaped not only by appearances, but also by that person’s unique aura.
Wherever it might have been, my impression had clearly changed, and those who’d known me before—including Arienne—would never even imagine that I’d returned.
Either way, not being recognized was far better for me. She wouldn’t know what purpose I had in allying myself with the prince, and if luck was on my side, she might even think love had truly blossomed. Though that possibility was slim.
“But what was stranger than that was…”
“…What?”
I paused.
That feeling. I couldn’t quite find the words for it.
I hadn’t felt mana from Arienne. Thinking it odd, I checked again, but the result was the same. No—there was something faint, but far too little to be considered the natural mana humans possess.
It wasn’t the friendly, warm mana of spirits. Rather, it was a chill that ran down my spine.
An ominous presence that made you uneasy just from facing it.
It was almost as if…
[Kwaeeeeek.]
“…A monster.”
“What?”
Shierra’s face stiffened.
“You know that disgusting feeling you get when you destroy a monster’s core. That distinctive one.”
“…Yeah.”
“I think I felt that from Arienne. Of course, it was far weaker than an actual core, but still. Similar—no, the same. The difference was just in scale. The aura was almost identical.”
Monsters.
Beasts that tear through ‘rifts’ in gloomy places across the continent—deep mountains and forests—and emerge into the world.
Through countless years of research and investigation, what lies beyond the rifts is now called the ‘Demon Realm,’ and monsters are believed to appear by using a specific powerful force to tear through the boundary between realms—between world and world.
Monsters are classified as A-rank, B-rank, or C-rank depending on size and strength. Every year, mages and knights from each nation set out to subjugate them, but even then, it takes at least ten people working together to handle a single one.
Even worse, until the demonic core that exists somewhere inside their bodies is destroyed, they will revive again and again, no matter how many times you cut off their heads.
Each time, knights and mages set out under the banner of a subjugation campaign, but there was a limit to how many they could handle. They simply lacked the power.
That was why the Spirit Tower stepped in.
Spirits were the natural enemies of monsters.
Spirit contractors began roaming forests and mountains, eliminating the monsters that threatened humans, and soon the number of monsters rapidly decreased.
As for me, I’d never liked research much to begin with, so I wandered the outside world even more, facing countless monsters.
Any spirit contractor who’s dealt with monsters would agree—the creeping, foul aura that seeps out when you destroy a monster’s core is truly unpleasant.
And I’d felt that, however faintly, from Arienne.
“…Rien.”
Shierra called my name, her face serious.
“You said that woman suddenly came back five years ago, right? Didn’t you notice anything strange?”
I shook my head.
It was strange that she’d suddenly appeared five years ago, but at the time, I’d been nothing more than a noble lady of no consequence. Even if there had been something odd, there was no way I could have sensed it.
If anything had been unnatural, it would have been how the people of the Isienga family abruptly turned on me after I was driven out to the cabin… but they’d already cut all affection for me and begun doting solely on Arienne, so it hadn’t felt all that strange at the time.
“Shouldn’t we tell Jema about this?”
I hesitated.
Partly because Arienne was the target of my revenge—but more than that, nothing was certain yet.
“Not yet. I only felt it faintly myself. Let’s wait until we’re more certain, then tell him.”
I drained my wine.
The prince came to the mansion again a few days later—this time properly sending a letter in advance.
I let out an irritated sigh.
It was only natural that a prince who claimed to hate all imperial family members except the third prince would be in a foul mood. I wasn’t in a good mood either.
The carriage was headed toward the imperial palace.
An audience with the emperor.
The emperor.
He wasn’t someone who had inflicted pain on me as directly as the Isien family or the crown prince had—but neither was he someone who had ever extended a helping hand to me five years ago.
He had simply stood by.
The emperor was a cunning man. The House of Isien was a powerful, entrenched noble family, perfectly suited to bolster the crown prince’s power.
When I had been Isien’s beloved youngest daughter and the crown prince’s lover, he’d called me his future daughter-in-law and even personally sent gifts now and then, treating me kindly.
Or rather, pretending to.
When Arienne returned and I visited the palace for the last time as the crown prince’s fiancée—
[How dare a fake open her mouth.]
[To return alive from death—how impressive. I truly chose well in taking a daughter-in-law.]
The roses he gifted no longer faced me.
I was treated as if I didn’t exist. No—more than that, to the emperor, I had merely been a tool.
He didn’t even acknowledge my presence, instead scolding the crown prince for bringing a commoner into the palace. Looking back now, it was so absurd I could only laugh. The crown prince’s mother—the current empress—wasn’t she also of common birth? The empress he loved so dearly, a commoner, was already walking freely through the palace. Such hypocrisy.
Setting that aside, it might have hurt more than if he’d openly insulted me.
Now, they all looked the same to me—perpetrators.
“Rien.”
Pulled from my unpleasant memories of the emperor, I looked up.
“…?”
“Why?”
He’d called me, yet said nothing.
After a brief silence, the prince shook his head.
“…Never mind. The emperor is a cunning man. No matter what he offers, don’t accept it.”
They really must be on terrible terms—his way of referring to his own father was scathing.
From what I’d heard from Shierra—she’d been too lazy to explain and had just thrown me documents she’d gotten from her information broker, detailing far too much internal information—the power struggle within the imperial family was clear.
Despite how atrocious the relationship between the emperor and the prince was, it seemed Jema had used some trick to force the emperor to stamp the seal on the proposal letter.
I’d had a lot on my mind lately and hadn’t sent Jema a single letter, but it seemed I should at least send him my thanks.
“His Highness the Second Prince and the Spirit Contractor have arrived!!”
With the attendant’s booming announcement, the heavy doors of the audience chamber opened.
It was my reunion with the emperor.
