Chapter 37

I hopped onto the carriage and urged the coachman to ignore the city speed limit, rushing straight to the market.

The royal family was not bound by the speed limit due to their privileges, so there was no problem.

The place was a mess with city guards under the Chief of Police, market vigilantes, and church priests all mixed together.

“How on earth did this abomination appear in the market in broad daylight?”

A church priest lamented.

“It’s possible it followed from an external territory,” said a guard managing the city gate, bowing his head.

“This is evidence that high-ranking infiltrators are operating in the capital. We must seal off the market and conduct a thorough investigation immediately,” the vigilantes raised their voices.

“Is the only witness that maid over there?”

The elites under the Chief of Police turned their pens.

“To be honest, I think we need to investigate that maid a bit more. Isn’t knowledge of the magical realms often spread merely by witnessing it?”

The deacon and priests of the church began to side with the elites under the Chief of Police as they exchanged words.

“That’s true. It’s also suspicious how she managed to survive an encounter with such an abomination.”

“Is it true she claimed to have seen a melted corpse…?”

“Ah, how can you trust that at face value?”

Perhaps they were trying to align their statements with the witness in some way.

…Even thinking positively about it.

And there I saw Rudi, pale and terrified among them.

Fearful of brushing shoulders with others, she crossed her arms tightly around herself.

Forget about procedures; those blinded by results could not be allowed to intimidate her.

“Rudi!”

I immediately called her name and rushed into the crowd.

“Move aside.”

“Ugh!”

“Who are you?”

“You shouldn’t recklessly enter the scene.”

“Who dares to set foot in the land marked by the traces of darkness?”

“I am the guardian of the witness!”

As I shouted, the elites under the Chief of Police and deacons following them quickly formed a wall with their uniforms.

“The witness has a hearing left to attend!”

“There needs to be a thorough verification to ensure her mind has not been contaminated by the darkness.”

I displayed my white hair and golden eyes, stating what complacent people fear the most.

“I am Crown Prince Valenccius. Must I summon the High Priest and the head of Barbatos to the Imperial Palace to clear the way?”

“Huh?”

“Yes?”

“Ah!”

“What are you doing!”

With the sound of footsteps echoing, a path was suddenly cleared like a scene from an absurd satire.

I dashed through the opening, grabbed Rudi’s hand, and fled the market.

“If you need to conduct a hearing, come to the Crimson Crescent Palace!”

It was a clear implication that they shouldn’t even consider coming.

After getting back into the carriage I arrived in and closing the door, Rudi slumped against the backrest.

“Valen.”

“Yeah. I’m here. Are you hurt? If you were pricked even a little, tell me. I’ll get holy water right away. That abomination is a high-ranking undead, so it could be serious.”

“I…I killed that person.”

“Ah…”

I struggled to find the right words of comfort.

Honor, corruption, class, loyalty; murder could be justified for many reasons.

If a commoner threatened or insulted a noble, killing them would be of no concern, and vengeance between noble families was praised as a noble act. Tales of knights slaying thousands on the battlefield were honored as legends.

The church burned the entire territories where infiltrators emerged to prevent the spread of mental corruption, and provincial high nobles were always in conflict, big or small, either with each other or with foreign nations.

My Empress, Jeilliris, sat on her throne after slaughtering about a hundred of her kin, and I was her loyal supporter.

With high birth rates due to difficulties in contraception, and thanks to the church’s baptism, blessings, and aid, infant mortality rates were extremely low; the abundance of people further contributed to a light perception of life.

Yet.

That’s why.

Especially because of that.

The fact that I had stained my hands for the first time was horrifying.

I too had done so.

For a while, opening and closing my eyes, I could not forget that red color.

I lightly placed my hand on Rudi’s trembling hand.

It was shockingly cold, like ice, even in the late summer weather.

“Thanks to that, you’re here by my side now.”

“I’ve never seen something like that before.”

“Yeah. Most people wouldn’t see it in their life.”

“I know. I killed those people even though I could have spared them. It was because I might have been retaliated against otherwise.”

“Well done. That was the right choice.”

“Is that why they returned? To take revenge on me? For what I did wrong. Should I have just subdued them and let them go?”

Stories of the deceased returning out of vengeful spirits were common.

“No. No matter how wronged a person has been slain, they don’t immediately turn into abominations. If they did, the Imperial Palace would be filled with abominations from the royal lineage. They were already connected to infiltrators.”

Perhaps they were indeed the real masterminds.

Having that thought, I slightly narrowed my eyes.

“I’m… not a good person anymore.”

Rudi murmured weakly.

“A good person, in my opinion, is someone who treats those they spend a long time with well. Sparing those insane people who come with swords will lead to them acting the same way everywhere.”

“I am not a judge. I don’t have the right to kill or spare people…!”

“I do.”

“Huh?”

I firmly cut her off.

“Those invested as royalty have the ultimate right and duty to protect the empire and its territories, and all actions necessary for this are deemed right under imperial law. I will interpret it as the right thing to eliminate people like that.”

This provision existed to provide legal grounds for heirs to seek help from local lords when the empire was in danger, like during an invasion.

I too had received a title of a minister from Jeilliris, thus applying to this provision.

“Those who come to stab one among five are cowardly, so the provisions of honor and vengeance do not apply. If they attacked knowing you were the maid of a royal family member, it would be treason and sacrilege, and all five of them would have been subjected to interrogation, suffering worse than death at the hands of the church.”

This was also directed toward me.

It was my fault that she ended up with blood on her hands.

I allowed her, who was like family to me, to stain her hands with blood.

My breath felt heavy.

At that moment, Rudi smiled faintly with a surprised expression.

“Prince Valenccius, you are peculiar.”

Thanks to that smile, I was able to follow it with a truly selfish remark.

“…Even if you aren’t a good person, I’m okay with it.”

I almost murmured the last part carelessly.

“I’m not a good person either.”

The moment I said it, I regretted it.

I couldn’t tell if it was an invitation to indulge in mischief together, or if it was a statement pointing out that I was a bad person and implying she was also a bad person.

I didn’t know if I genuinely wanted to apologize to her or just wanted to comfort her and hold onto her.

…I was definitely reckless.

Rudi let out a feeble laugh.

It felt like my heart stopped.

“I will be remembered in history as the maid of a gambling fiend, reckless noble, and familial murderer.”

“Ah.”

Those were words I had said.

“I think now I understand how terrifying and heavy that statement is.”

“…Right.”

At that moment, I thought Rudi might want to quit her job.

And if so, she would erase the fact that she had served me with all her strength.

“I will serve you, Your Highness. Whether in life or after death.”

Yet Rudi said with shining green eyes.

She bowed her head at me, illuminated by the late summer sun pouring through the carriage’s window.

In that moment, I felt sorry once again for underestimating her.

With that firm resolve, like solid bone, I could do nothing but nod.

“Okay. I hope to continue to rely on you.”

* * *

“Thank you for your hard work.”

“Cough!”

After finishing my training with Lady Trentia, I collapsed on the training ground.

Today, I focused on honing the second-level imperial swordsmanship, Unforgotten, which I had used last time at Wyvernfit.

Unforgotten was an auto-counter; a reflexive and continuous defensive technique that allows the body to retaliate on its own even if half your consciousness is lost.

However, Lady Trentia’s training sword clearly broke through my defense and pounded me like a lump of metal on an anvil.

“I think I’m dying.”

“You did very well. I feel like I’ve grown a stage as well.”

“Then I’ll just keep getting hit.”

Lady Trentia laughed heartily.

“Looks like that’s how it will be.”

“Did you hear about what happened in the market?”

She nodded.

“Yes. I enjoyed seeing those Black Iron Knights getting summoned to the Imperial Palace and getting beaten down. From what I hear, things have recently escalated. Merchants have been sending assassins to each other under the pretext of pre-contracting harvests, leading to fights between the organizations in the slums, and the wealthy, who are getting anxious because of this, are requesting increased patrols in their neighborhoods…”

“In the end, the security gap increases in areas where there are many poor people, and the already high crime rate rises even higher?”

“Yes. That’s what I was about to say.”

I fell into thought for a moment.

Even in my past life, the harvest this year wasn’t particularly good.

But there wasn’t enough chaos where hired killers were rampaging everywhere over their harvest contracts to make security collapse.

I particularly remembered that the two neighborhoods with the worst security at the time had that kind of wildness.

The only notable changes were two things.

I regained the penpoint from Urglim, and Aquinas didn’t die.

There was still no faction among the infiltrators that openly defied the empire.

If I had just had full plate armor at that time, Lady Trentia alone could have taken down thirty bug knights.

At that time, three bug knights had died.

Their ultimate goal was destruction, and the means to that end was chaos.

In my past life, Aquinas died, and war broke out.

War is one of the ultimate forms of chaos, and even if a few infiltrators died in that process, it would be a jackpot by their standards.

But this time, they failed.

Both the duke and the royalty only grew feelings of hostility and caution toward them.

I asked Lady Trentia.

“Did they find the bodies, by any chance?”

“No. They dispose of the bodies by throwing them into the sewers. Didn’t you handle two that way as well?”

“Yeah, I did.”

…In this world, undead are common.

If not buried in a church cemetery, they almost always rise again, attempting to act as they did in life. As time passes in that state, their hostility toward the living only grows stronger.

That’s why the evidence from murder cases is made to become slime food by releasing massive slimes into the sewers.

To prevent a horde of zombies and skeletons from overrunning the city.

So it’s only natural that the dead or missing people aren’t visible.

But what if they hadn’t all become slime food?

…Offering sacrifices is the easiest way to gain power.

“Lady Trentia, it’s after hours, so I’m sorry, but could you introduce me to a mage?”

“I’m truly worried about how bizarre this mage is going to be.”

“He’s much more normal than you think.”

* * *

A few days had passed since I returned from the Ivory Tower.

Sererassie replicated several new electric induction formulas she had been exploring in various ways.

First with incantations, then with hand signs, and finally by mixing incantations and hand signs.

“This is the last one.”

The magic guild in the Imperial Palace was truly a crafting workshop.

It was the instinct of mages to endlessly pursue magic, and while the emperor funding it wasn’t likely to hinder that, he wanted tools that were usable.

In particular, Jeilliris believed that any magic needed to be able to be produced into magic tools using incantation circuits to be deemed truly complete.

Sererassie gradually infused mana into a silver wire as she engraved it onto a wax plate.

Soon, the complex circuit of the magic formation was completed, and the magic formation glowed faintly.

She swallowed hard and released a thin bolt of electricity.

Zzt!

The electric current that fell onto the magic formation spread like ripples in a lake instead of drilling into the floor.

“Meow!”

A cat, whose tail had touched the current, squealed and leaped onto the desk.

“See! I did it! I told you it would work!”

Sererassie raised her hands high, sparkling with the glimmer of gold and silver, cheering.

“Really? What worked?”

A voice came from the entrance of the workshop.

She swung the door open wide and shouted.

“Listen up! This is the electric diffusion spell!”

“Uh-huh.”

“Until now, when lightning was struck, the mana waste was too severe. The range was too narrow compared to its power.”

“That’s true.”

She ranted quickly.

“So, most area spells used flames for attack. But flames have a short range. They had to be sent using wind magic, which took longer than incantation, complicating the procedure, meaning both had to work in sync.”

“Uh-huh.”

It was a mage’s instinct to want to share their discoveries with others.

“However, by applying this formula, you can quickly drop lightning from a distance and broadly diffuse it around! It means you can wipe out many more enemies from a much greater distance! This is a game-changing discovery for the battlefield!”

And she was inherently a mage.

“Ah… what brings Crown Prince Valenccius here? No, how do I address you?”

After having said all she wanted to say, she remembered her last meeting with him hadn’t been very pleasant.

Valenccius introduced the knight who had followed him.

He too wore a face covered by layers of armor.

“Say hello, sis. This is Lady Trentia of the Silver Knight Order.”

“I am Trentia. Your Grace Duke Sorelazie.”

“I came because I had something to ask. May I come in?”

Only then did Sererassie realize she had not thought about that day’s events at all.

“Just stand there for a moment. I can’t keep you standing forever, but I don’t want to let you in immediately either.”

She was a true mage, one who dreams and pursues relentlessly.

Having declared she wouldn’t fall into a well while only looking at the sky, it didn’t mean she wouldn’t look at the sky.

She glanced at her workshop, the cat, and the freshly completed spell.

Regardless of anything, it was this black-haired younger brother who had brought her out of this.

“Please don’t attempt to move me around on your own from now on. It makes me just want to roast you.”

“Fine.”

“Please don’t lie either.”

“…No.”

* * *

“I haven’t conducted any studies on infiltrators, but there is indeed a possibility for offering sacrifices. If they are already connected to the old ones as infiltrators, just a willingness to provide offerings might open the gates.”

“It would be better to take a look, at least briefly.”

“Sister, it’s dangerous so don’t follow. You can’t handle close combat.”

Sererassie shook her head.

“Shut up. You don’t have the right to tell me what to do.”

“Ugh.”

And she said with a playful smile.

“Besides, the opportunity to research infiltrators without permission from the emperor isn’t easily presented, you know?”