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Chapter 15
“The barrier created by divine power protects the entire temple grounds, so it’s safe even from outsiders’ intrusion.”
This was my chance.
I couldn’t let Hazel’s words pass.
“It’s my first time outside the Imperial Palace, so… would it be all right if I took a walk around the temple by myself?”
I made up an excuse as pitiful as possible, like a saintess who had never seen the world, and managed to leave the group with only one escort knight.
Regret lingered on Hazel’s face as he kept insisting I stay for tea until the very end.
But I had no desire to paint a picture that looked like parent–teacher counseling in the director’s office.
It sounded like a joke, but the person most likely to change their mind at any moment and order me to stay at the temple was His Majesty.
“If I’m going to die after looking at that face for a long, long time… hmm?”
As I strolled through the garden, I stopped walking.
The escort knight following behind me, Kadien, also halted.
In the outdoor corridor connecting the two wings of the main building, children were standing.
All of them were looking in my direction. They looked to be around elementary to middle school age.
“Sir Kadien.”
“Yes.”
“Are those children the imperial candidates?”
“That is correct.”
I counted them. Exactly ten.
I couldn’t hand over the throne, but…
“Saintess?”
I walked toward the outdoor corridor where the children were.
‘Future high-ranking officials.’
Wasn’t there a saying about making a handsome childhood friend early on?
You never know how relationships formed in the past might influence the future.
I didn’t have grand ambitions. I just thought I should at least introduce myself and leave a good first impression.
“Hi, everyone.”
“……”
I even waved and greeted them as brightly as I could, but the children flinched.
Ah… maybe I misread it because I’m still far away.
“The weather’s really nice today, isn’t it?”
“……”
“Are you on your way to class?”
“……”
But it wasn’t a misunderstanding.
The closer I got, the more the children huddled together and trembled like frightened rabbits.
That feeling of wanting to run away but being unable to. Somehow, it felt familiar.
“…This distance is more comfortable for us.”
Right. That’s the Prime Minister.
I see Ebon Hyben—the gentle, herbivore-type handsome man of Zendal—in these kids.
‘Then getting close is impossible.’
I gave up on introductions almost immediately.
Forcing myself on them would only make things worse.
“Haha. I guess I talked too much to strangers.”
I stopped about three meters away from them.
There was one thing I had learned while staying with His Majesty.
If it feels like you’re about to get on someone’s bad side, run.
It was a survival strategy to keep my fangirl life long and thin.
“Then, please focus on your studies. I’ll be going now.”
“Saintess…?”
Just as I was about to hurry away, a girl who looked like an upper elementary student called out to me.
The children around her panicked, fidgeting nervously.
Anyone watching would think I actually ate people.
Oh dear, is something leaking from my eyes?
“Are you really the Saintess?”
The girl with water-colored hair hugged a thick book to her chest and looked up at me.
She was adorable, with big eyes and baby fat not yet fully gone.
“Uh… yes, I am the Saintess…?”
Does divine power in Zendal correlate with appearance? Every one of these kids was strikingly good-looking.
‘Am I… actually kind of happy right now…?’
But my flower-filled thoughts shattered in an instant.
With an innocent face, the girl asked,
“Why did you come here?”
“It would have been nice if the Saintess had joined us as well.”
Hazel chose his own room as the place for tea.
An antique sofa and table, a display cabinet filling one wall, unusual ornaments and works of art—and tightly shut windows and doors.
It was cozy, yet claustrophobic.
In fact, his room was covered by a soundproof barrier, so no sound escaped.
“It’s truly a shame.”
As he said this, Hazel poured tea into the cup across from him.
The deep yellow tea gave off a faint floral fragrance.
It suited the emperor before him well. The emperor always carried a scent that was both splendid and subtle.
Alrend took a sip and spoke.
“There will be another opportunity.”
“Will there really be?”
Hazel replied playfully.
“It’s hard to trust those words when you’re the one who’s only just shown her to me.”
“Director.”
“She was very beautiful. And she had such a mysterious air.”
A strange light flickered in Hazel’s amber eyes as he glanced at the emperor.
Alrend smiled.
“Don’t covet her.”
“…My, my. I was only speaking. Do you know that when Your Majesty smiles like that, I get goosebumps all over?”
Hazel exaggeratedly rubbed his arms.
“I’m used to your expressionless face. It reminds me of the day I first met you. I’ve seen quite a few children in my life, but I’ve never seen a child with eyes like yours before.”
Hazel recalled the first day he met Alrend.
Sixteen years ago.
He stood on the platform, looking down at the children lined up below.
Among the ten children, the youngest—and the most striking in appearance—was eight-year-old Alrend, who wore the coldest gaze of all.
Hazel had found himself staring into those lifeless-looking eyes without realizing it.
Even as years passed, warmth never settled in those eyes.
Yet he was excellent in every regard.
Overwhelming divine power that far surpassed the other candidates, and a body and mind worthy of it.
The fact that he seemed emotionless was no defect at all.
A perfect vessel for an emperor.
If only the former emperor’s death had been delayed by one more year—if Alrend Leodius had remained a high-ranking priest.
Hazel might have mourned the rest of his life.
“People change. You’ll have to get used to it, Director.”
That is, if the current emperor had not become a gentle pacifist toward everyone.
Once Alrend placed the imperial crown upon his head, he became a different person.
The first time Hazel saw Alrend smile, he felt the embers in his chest go out.
“You’ve changed a lot. You’ve gained someone precious, too.”
“Someone precious?”
“The Saintess, of course. This is the first time I’ve seen you care for someone like that.”
“……”
‘Precious.’
Alrend gazed into the gently rippling surface of the tea and spoke quietly.
“Everyone knows that Hazel Roiken loses his mind when he sees anything rare, whether object or person.”
It was a well-known rumor that the collector had even built a mansion near the Nisephoreal Temple to store his collection.
There was no way a Saintess with black hair and black eyes wouldn’t catch his interest. In fact… she would overflow it.
“I don’t care what you collect, Director, but lately it’s been irritating.”
“Oh dear. Has my hobby displeased Your Majesty? Even so, I’ve only been enjoying it through legal means lately…”
“That’s not what I mean.”
Alrend, who had been idly touching the ornament on the teacup handle, slowly lifted his head.
The smile that had been on his lips was gone.
Cold eyes beneath sharply shaped brows fixed on Hazel.
Like a beast about to tear out its prey’s throat.
“Worthless things keep trying to steal what’s mine.”
It was better to briefly remove the mask and swat away the flies.
Yes, that princess too.
She had shown her greed and returned to her homeland, but who knew when she might crawl back like a rat.
If she didn’t disappear after the warning, then she would have to regret coveting what belonged to him.
Meanwhile, Hazel felt a chill so strong it sent shivers through his entire body.
Earlier it had been acting. Now it was real.
The same words could be an empty threat—or a warning that endangered one’s life—depending on who said them.
And what had happened?
He, once called a war hero who had survived countless battlefields, had flinched in fear for an instant.
“Your Majesty.”
Hazel’s heart pounded.
After the former emperor died, the ten children he had raised entered the “Labyrinth of Selection.”
Only one emerged.
And he had returned a full week earlier than any emperor in history.
The man who emerged from the labyrinth, drenched in blood, had been draped in the pure white emperor’s cloak.
When his jaw, sharper than before, tilted toward the sky, Seikan’s darkness had blanketed the world.
Even now, the vividness of that scene was deeply carved into Hazel’s mind along with every sensation.
The stench of blood, the heavy breathing from Alrend’s lips, and those empty eyes.
His blood boiled. In the ringing silence, his violently pounding heartbeat thundered in his ears.
Six years later.
The emotion he thought long dead had revived at the sight of the emperor’s briefly revealed true face.
Pacifist, my foot.
The emperor was someone who would give him the thrill of war, of blood and flying flesh.
Hazel Roiken was a war fanatic before he was a collector.
“You said there was something I could help with.”
He had been unable to sleep after receiving the emperor’s letter.
Perhaps… perhaps.
Suppressing his rising emotions, he asked calmly,
“What exactly is it?”
Perhaps the emperor might finally free him from the boredom of being trapped in Nisephoreal.
“Found you!”
“Gasp!”
“Found you!”
“Eek!”
Leaving the children’s startled faces behind, I changed direction.
‘Just a little faster…’
I was running, focusing every nerve in my eyes and ears.
Right now, speed was everything.
‘Where are you this time?’
Rustle.
“…Achoo.”
There.
I pointed to both places where the sounds had come from.
“Inside the haystack next to the bell tower, and at the top of the tree!”
“…No way.”
“How did you…?”
I heard the children gasp in shock.
Heh heh heh… things are going smoothly.
‘Ugh, I’m going to throw up…’
