Chapter 7

[Jenna Fleur, Jenna Fleur Herbon.]

“What the heck! Am I going crazy?”

In the end, she raised her voice a little, and the women who had been gathering in groups and whispering all stared at Jenna. They all seemed to be hoping Jenna would immediately make something, even a dagger.

[Heh, well, if you keep talking, you’ll be the one who’s crazy.]

Jenna took a deep breath. Huff, huff. 

[You! Who are you? Why aren’t you showing yourself? Could it be, are you… a ghost?]

[Ahahaha, wow, you’re the most scared among the Fleur kids I’ve met. But you’re not a fool. You quickly learned how to speak inwardly? Just after two sentences? Much better than Olivia.]

[You know my mom? How do you know her?]

[Heh. How do I know? I was connected to Olivia until she died, so I know.]

[What?]

[By now, shouldn’t you have a sense of who I am?]

Even if one is smart, what kind of insight can a mere fourteen-year-old have?

[Who are you? Are you someone who knows me? Are you someone I can trust?]

After a brief silence, the voice spoke again.

[Your question is flawed. Of course, you can trust me. In fact, there’s no other option, right? But I’m not a trustworthy person.]

[…?]

[I’m the Stone Killer connected to you. I’m not a person but a relic creature. Haha.]

The crazy voice laughed cheerfully. Jenna’s mouth and eyes simultaneously widened, and Lady Evelyn, seeing this, shook her head and approached, muttering as if annoyed.

“Alright. Jenna, you really do resemble Olivia a lot… Let’s all proceed with this year’s banquet. To meet the Lion.”

When Lady Evelyn spoke, the Fleur women, who were holding weapons, simultaneously dispelled them and quietly walked forward. The woman walking at the front was holding a small lantern.

Jenna didn’t want to join the group walking through the Imperial Palace with gray robes over their heads, but there was no suitable way to escape, and she was curious to see the legendary Lion Stone, so she trudged along after them. There were twenty-three in total, including Jenna. However, there was no young Fleur like Jenna among them.

Jenna covered her face with the hood and hurried her steps to avoid falling behind. They left the banquet hall and descended the underground stairs of the Imperial Palace for a long time. Thanks to her father, Morgan Herbon, the chancellor, Jenna often visited the Imperial Palace, but this was her first time in such a gloomy underground, and she felt tense.

Drip, drip.

Even as large drops of water fell on the hood, no one spoke while descending. After a long walk, a small wooden door appeared, and they began to enter in line.

Lion Stone. What does it look like? They say the one who possesses it never ages or dies.

Lady Evelyn, who entered first, was already standing with a small box in her arms. The Fleur women surrounded her. Being relatively short, Jenna craned her neck to try to look closer inside.

But Evelyn moved it around to show everyone equally. Jenna felt tense as well. 

Lion Stone, Lion Stone, the legendary Lion Stone!

Finally, Evelyn’s steps halted in front of Jenna, the youngest Fleur, and she subtly showed it to her.

What is this? A lump of dung?

Shocked. It was more shocking than the Stone Killer embedding itself as a ring in her hand. The legendary Lion Stone looked, quite literally, like a lump of yellow dung. There seemed to be a smell emanating from somewhere.

[Oops! Calling the Lion Stone a lump of dung?]

The voice of the Stone Killer echoed in her ears. Of course, she didn’t respond. And she pretended not to be greatly disturbed as she slowly looked at the stone and went to sit at the table as everyone else did. The shock hadn’t worn off until then. Lion Stone, a lump of dung.

“Now that we’ve met the Lion, shall we have some tea and then set off?”

Why are they being so dignified about that lump of dung?

Lady Evelyn took the Lion Stone somewhere deep and returned to sit at the head of the long table prepared to the side. Then, everyone quietly engaged in conversation. There was a murmur. Jenna thought this level of light questioning would be permissible and opened her mouth.

“But I’m really curious, so I’m asking, why is it important to be able to make weapons with the Stone Killer? What do you do with them?”

Isn’t it a reasonable question to ask? 

All the teachers who taught Jenna until now had said that questions aren’t bad. But feeling all the Fleur women’s gazes piercing her now, questions might be a bit bad.

Evelyn’s lips curled into a round smile.

“We are at war. You know that, young Fleur.”

What… what?

“Ah, no.”

Silence followed. In her short life, Jenna had never experienced such an overwhelming silence. But soon, Evelyn looked at Jenna with her arrogant blue eyes wide open.

“The Lion Stone and the Red Eye Stone are no longer just stones.”

What is she saying? 

Jenna swallowed hard. Calling a stone not a stone made her wonder if this woman was in her right mind.

“They are born as humans with special powers, young Fleur. The Red Eye Stone is mostly female, and there’s no need to kill them. Their divine power is only enough to control men.”

At the end of Lady Evelyn’s words, the lady who had spoken to Jenna about Estelle earlier interrupted.

“But Evelyn, you know that a female Red Eye Stone aware of her power can move an entire battalion at once?”

Evelyn shot her an unpleasant look, ignored her, and focused on Jenna.

“They’re just women. We can eliminate them with just three or four of us. No, if the Stone Killer has great power, one is enough to eliminate such a woman. Lady Jenna, female Red Eye Stones are fine. There’s no reason to draw weapons. Just let them be known as Red Eye Stones. What we are wary of is the male Red Eye Stone.”

Jenna couldn’t believe that Lion Stones and Red Eye Stones are born as humans, and what? Male? Female? Are they animals? Her head was spinning.

“The male Red Eye Stone is a war god. It brings destruction. Pray you never encounter a male Red Eye Stone alone in your life! If you do, you’re doomed.”

Everyone laughed following Evelyn, but Jenna and the lady who had just challenged Evelyn’s opinion did not.

“Then, what about the Lion Stone? Doesn’t the Lion Stone get born as a person?”

“Of course, they are born as people.”

“Then why does no one know about it? Why do we only know them as Lion Stones and Red Eye Stones? Why do you call them ‘it,’ as if they are objects?”

Again, questions are not bad.

Evelyn slightly stuck out her tongue to moisten her lips. Then she whispered as if smiling and approached Jenna. Her pink, beautiful lips blew breath into Jenna’s small ear, tickling her.

“Dear, our cute and well-bred young lady. Listen carefully to what I say. As the youngest Stone Killer, who knows nothing about us, I’m telling you an experience as the Priestess of the Lion.”

“…….”

“Perhaps during your lifetime, you may never encounter a Lion Stone or a Red Eye Stone. God no longer loves us. He didn’t want us to have the power of relics. We realized this when we discovered a human manifested as a Lion Stone twenty years ago.”

Lady Evelyn continued, as if generously sharing a secret only with Jenna.

“There were over a hundred Stone Killers, but we couldn’t inflict even a slight wound on him. His whole body was glowing. He was the sun.”

The sun? Is it possible for a person to shine like the sun?

“About fifty people who directly saw his light went blind, and five or six who approached him died without being able to breathe. But the remaining fifty threw their weapons at him, and he was hit and died. When a relic dies and completely loses breath…”

Breath? You mean they killed him? So, you’re saying they kill people.

Evelyn paused her speech and was clearly smiling. But Jenna sensed the malice glinting in her gaze.

“…his heart turns into a Lion Stone. I cut out his heart after killing him. Do you understand what I’m saying, Lady Jenna?”

No answer came, only the thought that it was extremely ruthless.

“Cruel, isn’t it? But now we can’t do that even if the Lion Stone appears again! Do you know why? Look at us. We’ve aged. The number of Stone Killers can no longer increase.”

“…….”

“God has abandoned us. So, I have something to ask of you. Dear, whoever you marry, please have many daughters. Be the future for us.”

Suddenly, Lady Evelyn contorted her pretty eyes and burst into laughter. She seemed completely mad.

Many daughters? It was as if she were being told to become a childbearing machine.

The Lion Stone was once a person too, and she cut out its heart? Jenna felt nauseous.

Yet, summoning all her courage, she asked one last question. Not all questions in the world are bad, but after this, she would never ask Lady Evelyn anything again.

“Th-then, what happens to the original Lion Stone when a new one appears?”

Evelyn’s hysterical laughter abruptly stopped. Her expression quickly shifted to something resembling hatred.

“What do you think happens? To us, abandoned by God, and to the relic consumed and extinguished by God…”

Feeling a sudden chill, Jenna dashed from the gloomy basement to the sunny lobby of the Imperial Palace. She had no strength left in her body.