“Sister!”

The Prince ran toward Adelia.

“What is it? What happened? Are you not feeling well? Why did you do that? Do you know how shocked I was?”

The Prince grabbed both Adelia’s hands and bombarded her with questions.

Adelia awkwardly smiled and pulled her captured hands free to pat his head.

“Don’t worry. I’m fine.”

“Why did you do it? Hmm? Tell me”

“Yes. You’ll need to explain very clearly.”

The Emperor who had walked up to Adelia looked down at her. The Emperor was already imposing due to his large build, but he seemed especially tall facing her while seated.

His hair moved eerily in the wind blowing through the wide open window.

His anger-filled face looking like a general standing proudly in the middle of a battlefield was somewhat chilling. Adelia’s body shuddered.

“Well you see…… To make the Holy Kingdom protest more if someone tries to harm me later……”

“Again, you did this for just that reason?”

“And to refuse visitors with the excuse of being sick……”

“Again.”

“Again? Um…… Because I might get caught by people if I stay at the banquet?”

“Again.”

“Again……”

The word ‘again’ continued endlessly in Adelia’s room until she gave reasons satisfactory to the Emperor.

After being tormented by the Emperor for a long while, the Prince’s worry came next.

“Still, get examined. I’m so worried I won’t be able to sleep.”

Adelia accepted the Prince’s request with his round eyes exactly like Arianna’s.

Then came the procession of doctors and ministers. Finally even the Saintess came and shook her head with a pale face.

She had created more troublesome situations trying to avoid trouble.

After that day Adelia made a vow.

‘Never doing anything dangerous again!’

* * *

On a dark night. Though there had been a commotion in the banquet hall, it was quickly settled.

It was thanks to the Emperor’s announcement after he hurriedly left and returned to the banquet hall.

“The heretical cultist who tried to harm the Crown Princess was executed on the spot. The Crown Princess is fine but needs time to recover, so all visits are refused. Now let’s resume the banquet.”

Of course the Emperor wouldn’t stay in the banquet hall.

When the Emperor left the banquet hall again, people prepared to leave one by one. However, thanks to the Saintess returning to the banquet hall, people stayed in their seats.

“Saintess!”

“Saintess. It’s an honor to meet you like this.”

“The hand I held with the Saintess! I’ll never wash it!”

“Haha……”

The Saintess awkwardly smiled while dealing with believers. She desperately wanted to return to her quarters with the excuse of being tired.

But she had a reason for staying in the banquet hall.

— Go spread word that Adelia is fine.

The Saintess’s greatest weakness was, first and foremost, the imperial family—and second, the imperial family. Above all else, she valued her life, leaving her with no choice but to obey the Crown Prince’s command.

While the banquet hall buzzed with liveliness, the area outside the imperial palace remained relatively quiet. 

In stark contrast to the brightly lit festivities inside, the outside was calm and serene. The stillness was broken by the figure of a man leaving the palace, riding a black horse.

“Hya!”

He rode the horse quickly. He seemed to be in a hurry as if being chased.

He secretly left the palace through a small side door in the outer wall. Brown clothing peeked out from under the robe covering his upper body. Faint remaining golden light dropped to the ground.

Following the suspicious man’s footsteps, golden markers invisible to ordinary people were created.

The man rode without rest following the high mountains. When the sun that had been sleeping in darkness timidly peeked between mountains, his movement stopped.

Where the man arrived was a shabby inn. It was the most secluded inn in the slums located on the outskirts of the capital.

The inn’s name was

[Silentium]

Silentium. It meant silence.

The rough wooden sign was so damaged the engraved letters were barely legible.

The man entered through the inn’s door. Seeming to double as a pub, what appeared immediately upon opening the door was a burly innkeeper wiping beer mugs.

The innkeeper with a scratch scar on one eye frowned upon seeing the suspicious man.

“The one who rules Kerum is.”

“Blue smoke”

The suspicious man answered the innkeeper’s question.

The innkeeper silently pointed to one side. He wiggled three raised fingers.

The suspicious man lightly bowed his head and walked where the innkeeper pointed. Going up the stairs led to room 303.

The man opened that door. The room was shabby like the exterior. The suspicious man closed the door.

Click—

The door locked. Without hesitation, the man approached a bookshelf placed on one side of the room.

He pulled out one brown book from the shelf full of books containing all sorts of gossip and sensational content.

At that moment, the floor rumbled as the bookshelf moved sideways. Hidden behind the fully moved bookshelf was a stone staircase. He descended the unlit stairs. After going down for a while, a huge door appeared.

The man knocked on that door.

“Your Majesty. I have arrived.”

“Enter.”

The voice from within was chilling, like the sound of nails scraping against stone walls, and clung uncomfortably, as if stepping on a floor slick with spilled, viscous liquid.

When permission was given, the man grabbed and turned the doorknob. At that moment, nausea swept through his whole body like his insides were turning over. The man endured the pain gritting his teeth and opened the door.

The interior was decorated very solemnly.

Dark spruce wood floors contrasted with pure white walls. A dark red carpet covered the floor, and the black sofas and dark desk made it look like the Emperor’s office had been moved there.

The difference was a large family portrait hanging in the middle of the pure white walls.

The portrait, seemingly depicting the Decra Empire’s imperial family, was somehow bizarre. The black hair symbolizing the imperial family was painted brown, and red eyes were dyed pink and pure white.

At the center of the portrait, where the Emperor should be, was overlaid an image of a man with long brown hair.

Only the Empress was intact in that portrait.

Upon entering the room, a man was looking at that portrait below. It was the brown-haired man from the portrait. He turned upon seeing his subordinate enter the room.

“I have returned after carrying out my lord’s orders.”

The suspicious man removed his robe and bowed his head to the brown-haired man.

“I greet Your Majesty the King, absolute ruler of Silentium.”

Silentium, neighboring country to Decra. Its ruler, King Calligo.

His appearance with brown hair flowing down to his chest was extremely bizarre. His sclera that should be white was dyed pitch black, and his iris that should hold color was pure white.

“Oh…… My subordinate has returned. What news do you bring? Did you discover the Master’s identity? Or perhaps found the Crown Princess’s power?”

Calligo approached the man with arms spread wide. The man pressed his body flat to the floor and bowed deeply. Like a lowly servant unable to look upon a god, the man feared even seeing the King’s appearance.

“At the banquet…… The Saintess’s prophecy was announced.”

“Prophecy? Wasn’t the Saintess there for blessing?”

“Yes, she came because the prophecy was related to the Crown Princess.”

“So, what was the prophecy?”

Calligo bent down and brought his body close to the man. The man sharply inhaled at the distance close enough to hear his breathing.

When Calligo glared at the man with half-focused eyes, he opened his mouth, suppressing his trembles.

“It was a prophecy that the Crown Princess is a key sent by god. They said she is the key to complete the Saintess’s incomplete power.”

“Ha……”

Calligo let out a languid sigh at the man’s words. He suddenly stood up. The man trembled in shock.

“How can this be! A divine key? Then she is not the white mage?”

“Yes…… The ministers seemed to cherish her greatly. It must be true since the Prince himself said she cannot manifest holy power.”

“Tsk. A woman couldn’t be the Master in the first place. Then who is it! Who dares!”

Suddenly Calligo raised his voice while kicking the ground hard.

“Who is the human who stole my white magic!”

Energy black as the night sky swirled around Calligo. At that moment, the subordinate lying flat on the floor writhed.

The energy emanating from around Calligo enveloped the man. In an instant, wrinkles filled the man’s previously firm face, and his plump limbs withered leaving only bone and skin.

“Urghhhh……”

The man making strange noises suddenly fell silent.

Calligo clicked his tongue.

“Tsk. Terrible taste. So useless.”

Calligo kicked the mummified man sprawled on the floor. The man’s remains crumbled like sand.

Calligo clenched both fists, not even caring.

“I decoded everything—the location, the password! Just as I was about to take it, that damn Master! Before overthrowing the Emperor, I’ll catch that bastard first!”

As he burst in anger, the dark energy around him grew stronger. As if it would devour everything.