The Snow Emperor and Four Men - Chapter 15

Crash!

In the emperor’s private training grounds, where no one without permission could set foot, pillars of ice erupted upward with the force to skewer a person in an instant.

“Ugh!”

The emperor’s face was pale as she poured out her power. Blood was running down the corner of her mouth, so the internal injuries had to be considerable as well.

Even so, with each single swing of her sword, even the knight of powerful wolf bloodline and even the lady-in-waiting who was a swordsmanship prodigy the likes of which appeared perhaps once in a century could not hold their ground and leapt back.

“Maria! You must not get hurt!”

“I know!”

At Sirak’s shout, Maria nodded and raised her sword horizontally to block the emperor’s attack. If they were injured at this point of contact, the emperor’s heart would be injured as well.

“Ngh.”

Whatever her feelings, facing a runaway descendant of the dragon was no easy thing. With a heavy thud, her body was thrown back once more. The dull pain traveling up through her hands told her just how immense that force was. She looked down and found her grip had been torn open.

“Your Majesty……”

Maria could not hide the sorrow in her eyes and ground her teeth. The emperor’s rampage was classified. The matter of the curse was an absolute secret that had to be kept at all costs.

In this sealed space where nothing could leak to the outside, the emperor cried out. She raged and bled like a wounded beast.

Who could ever know.

Only hatred rose in her.

That cruel woman!

The Empress Dowager.

Where on earth had she hidden herself?

Even with every intelligence resource the imperial palace had deployed in the search, there was not a trace of that woman to be found anywhere, as though she had shot up into the sky or sunk into the earth.

All those who had aided the Empress Dowager had already been beheaded, so there should have been no one left who would lose their fear and help her.

“Sirak, watch out!”

Water surged with the ferocity to seize and tear apart its prey, and ice formed spears to cut off their retreat. But Maria and Sirak were more familiar with the emperor’s abilities than anyone. Sweat beaded at their temples as they focused on slipping clear and draining her strength with practiced ease.

“D*mn it!”

Maria, crying out in a tone rough and unlike herself, felt as though her heart was truly being torn apart.

She had watched every step of the emperor’s growth.

The princess in her earliest years, cherished and adored. The girl who had been forced to spend her childhood in bleakness because of that witch who appeared like a calamity out of nowhere. The dragon’s heir who had been driven from her cradle and had to survive by fleeing like hunted prey. And all the blood-soaked moments that followed.

How could that witch have laid such a terrible curse on someone who had nothing left but happiness ahead of her!

The witch truly had no shame. That criminal who had tried to strip this person of everything, and yet to the very end, without knowing her place……!

Iberis’s sword swept up and sliced off a few strands of Maria’s hair.

After a long while spent in that desperate struggle, Maria met eyes with Sirak, who held the unconscious emperor in one arm after she had fainted from the curse’s pain.

The two exhausted attendants sat in silence for a long moment before speaking.

“I resent the gods.”

“Maria.”

“Why must our noble Majesty break the curse in such a way?”

“……”

Of course, spending nights in turn with four men was not something that could leave so much as a scratch on the illustrious emperor’s dignity.

“We must find that wretched witch without fail and put an end to it so that breaking the curse becomes unnecessary. We cannot leave things like this.”

“I agree……”

It was said to be a cure through the Oracle, but the method was far too unsettling. The considerable delay caused by finding the second man too late had also had a large effect.

She had hoped the calming effect of the curse would last after Iberis’s contact with Kaian, the second contractor, but the reason Sirak, who needed to go and receive the Oracle, was still here was because the power had begun running out of control again.

“Hah. Go to the Central Temple, Sirak. I will hold things here.”

Watching the knight with the eye patch nod in silence, Maria bit down on her lip. A deep unease was swelling in both their hearts.

The third partner.

Surely not.

Maria shook her head.

A hypothesis about the subject of Iberis’s Oracle had reared its head.

Those who had helped the princess. The few who had. Even so, surely…… that perverted wretch couldn’t be the third contractor for breaking the curse.

But Maria knew.

When the late emperor had fallen.

When the empress had bared her claws.

When Elizabeth had died.

Always, always.

The gods were cruel.

* * *

Mike was a guard who watched over the prisoners locked in the tower of confinement. His days were the same every single day, to the point of tedium.

“Haaah.”

The Red Tower, where the most heinous criminals deemed unworthy even of death by the emperor’s command were held.

Managing those imprisoned there, checking that the magic circles had not been damaged, and overseeing the inmates.

In particular, confirming that the guards were not going hungry and were getting at least a minimum of meals was the most important duty.

“I’m bored to death.”

He was on his way up now to check on the prisoner housed on the topmost floor.

“Hey!”

When he climbed the damp stone steps, stood before the iron bars, and called out, Mike let out a habitual groan and screwed up his face at the sight inside.

Ugh, no matter how many times I see him, he’s a man I can’t stand.

He was a prisoner, so that was to be expected, but the man locked in there was particularly unpleasant.

Wasn’t he that witch’s lover?

Mages were divided into many types.

Nature mages who primarily worked with the elements, light mages who used the energy of light and were well-versed mainly in healing and cures, and Black Mages who excelled in curses, poisons, and item crafting.

What was inside was one such mage, a Black Mage, and one who carried a past as a genius once celebrated as having received the gods’ blessing at that.

Not that it mattered. He was a madman.

The witch’s lackey, and on top of that a lunatic whose story ended in betrayal!

Clank, thud. Clank, thud. Moving with speed that suggested the weight of the shackles around his ankles didn’t bother him at all, the prisoner rushed forward and seized the iron bars with a clang.

“Wh, what, what?”

“Any news?”

“What?”

“Any news!”

Mike trembled from head to toe. Even in the darkness, those gleaming, staring eyes were clearly not those of a sane person.

He had heard that after this man was captured, prejudice against Black Mages had reached its peak.

A notorious villain even other mages cursed. One who had followed the former Empress Dowager, that witch, like her shadow. The one who had orchestrated her misdeeds!

And yet a lunatic who fell for the emperor and betrayed the witch.

“Hell! What d*mn news!”

Bang!

Mike, ashamed of having been frightened, kicked the bars irritably with pent-up annoyance.

“You really are insane, how many times do I have to say it? Shut your mouth! Who do you think you are, asking after the emperor’s wellbeing! Nobody is looking for you. Nobody!”

“……No.”

“For crying out loud, enough with the nonsense! There’s a limit to how much you can delude yourself!”

What kind of delusion that man harbored, he actually believed that Her Majesty would come looking for him again.

He was truly out of his mind.

“Rotten luck, that’s what this is.”

The guard spat and turned away. Unbothered by the menacing glare, the man, who had an unusually large build for a mage, pulled his hands from the bars with a sullen look.

“That can’t be right……”

What nonsense, honestly.

A man like that ought to be starved, but the empty bowl told him the meals were being eaten just fine.

“D*mn it!”

The guard kicked the bars one last time for good measure, hurled a final curse, and headed back down the stone steps.

Then silence.

The mage who had been concealing himself in the frigid dark slowly raised his eyes.

Black Mages are sensitive to darkness. They are also keenly attuned to the presence of others.

The man, whose build was extraordinarily well-trained for a mage, perhaps the equal of a knight commander, slowly opened his eyes.

“Why, why, why?”

In those strikingly gentle eyes gleamed red irises that sent a chill through anyone who looked at them.

The Black Mage Theodore reveled in silent frenzy.

“Why didn’t you say anything! You’re here!”

Bang! In the empty space, the firm hands gripping the bars trembled.

“I know. Her Majesty has finally come for me!”

The veins in his thick neck stood out.

“For me, for me, you’re here for me, aren’t you?”

A childlike manner of speaking, a voice that stuttered and trembled when he grew excited. A strangely ecstatic demeanor. All of it inspired revulsion.

“Say it, quickly, quickly!”

“Ha.”

Then, astonishingly, someone stepped slowly out of what had seemed like empty space.

The one fixing the prisoner with an ice-cold stare was the man with an eye patch over one eye. Sirak.

He made no effort to hide the hatred and disgust in his gaze as he glared at the man locked inside.

In the standoff, the mage trembled and broke into a wide smile.

“Si, rak!”

The knight’s irritation showed.

“I don’t believe I gave you permission to call me by name.”

“Tell me. Is it her?”

“……”

“She’s looking for me, isn’t she?”