Chapter 40 - The Delegation (2)
9 min read ·
“—! —!!”
Katya's eyes were communicating furiously without words. Her expression seemed to scream, What the hell are you thinking? But Aiden ignored it and moved her behind him.
'... She's right to worry.'
The Holy Kingdom would undoubtedly rank among the five most powerful nations on the continent. Cross one of its royals the wrong way, and you could make an enemy of the entire country.
Nor were political repercussions the only problem. There was also the very real harm Laila could inflict here and now.
Not everyone who wielded divinity could become royalty, but everyone who bore that title was a master of wielding it in one form or another, each in their own way.
The reigning Pontiff stood at the pinnacle, of course, but that did nothing to change the fact that every royal was a threat.
“You certainly have nerve.”
The words slipped coldly from Laila's lips. The divinity she had just summoned rippled menacingly around her.
“Think before you act. Do you even know who you're picking a fight—”
“Five.”
“... What?”
“Four.”
“...”
“Three.”
... Ah.
He had said he would give her five seconds.
A thick vein bulged on Laila's forehead as Aiden calmly counted down, making good on his earlier declaration that this was neither a discussion nor a negotiation.
It presumably signaled her determination to respond in earnest now, too.
“Bring it.”
At Laila's chilling command, the maid beside her hurried over with a case. Inside was a bell-shaped ritual implement.
Everyone present grimaced the moment they saw it.
There was one fact as widely known as the obvious rule that Holy Kingdom royalty wielded divinity.
Royals whose qualifications had been recognized were each granted a unique sacred relic, which dramatically increased the limits of the divinity they could wield.
In short, that was what royals brought out when they truly wanted a fight.
“Princess Laila, enough! Anything further will genuinely be regarded as an act of hostility against the Empire!”
Stella sprang to her feet in alarm at the sight, but Laila, who had drawn the relic in the first place, remained utterly chilling.
“Your side interfered in someone else's family affairs first. Didn't you?”
“This is something we can resolve through subsequent talks. This really could mean war—!”
Before she could finish, divinity erupted from Laila and surged toward Aiden.
There was not a moment's hesitation in the attack. It was too sudden for anyone present to react properly.
Everyone responded in their own way: Stella drew her sword, Katya tried to pull Aiden behind her...
But they were all too late.
Considering that everyone here was an elite even by their respective nations' standards, that spoke volumes about the power of divinity enhanced by a sacred relic.
In other words, only one person present responded properly to that wholly unexpected strike.
Aiden himself, who had been prepared to take such a hit from the very beginning.
Energy and divinity rose around him simultaneously. His response was precisely timed and executed, as though he had readied himself for battle beforehand.
“—”
Even at that sight, however, a cruel smile briefly touched Princess Laila's lips. Responding did not mean his response would accomplish anything.
Output, deployment speed, power—in every respect, her relic-enhanced divinity was unrivaled even among the people in this room. She did not believe her opponent could counter it.
A lethal blow would strike Aiden. That outcome was assured.
“Law, I swear.”
... That is,
“This lowly servant offers a prayer.”
It would have been, had her opponent not been a certain anomaly who could summon divinity as quickly as energy.
As Consecration and Vow were murmured simultaneously on his lips, the Guardian’s Flame emerged.
A supernatural power unique to Aiden, wielded by no one else on the entire continent.
The pure-white flames deployed in an instant and tore apart Princess Laila's divinity just as it reached him.
“What...!”
Laila's eyes widened in shock.
Had her power simply been canceled out by one of equal output, or dissipated on striking a power specialized in defense, she could have understood.
But the power Aiden had just unleashed specialized in offense, just like hers. It clearly took the form of divinity.
And the fact that her power had been smashed helplessly upon colliding with it was unmistakable proof that his was superior.
“You said it yourself.”
Before she could recover from her shock, Aiden's quiet voice rang out.
“Apologies—”
The Guardian’s Flame drew back.
Its target, just as before, was Princess Laila's legs.
“—are made on your knees.”
The flames surged like an oncoming storm.
They scattered every paladin rushing to guard Princess Laila in one sweep, pierced the fresh burst of divinity she hastily summoned, and slammed into her legs.
She pitched forward.
“...”
“...”
With the princess on her knees, a dreadful silence immediately fell.
For quite some time, Laila stared blankly at the floor.
She looked unable to accept what had just happened. Even after bringing out her sacred relic and striking at an opening, she had been utterly outmatched in every respect.
“...”
“...”
Clearly, everyone shared that sense of disbelief. The fact that no one made the first move despite this emergency left no doubt about it.
Except, that is, for one person whose priorities lay elsewhere.
Katya hurled herself into Aiden's chest in an outright tackle while he was still wielding divinity.
“I told you to stop!”
She screamed the words as she pinned him down. Her golden eyes blazed. She was absolutely furious.
“I told you not to get angry! You're going to be in serious trouble—! I told you I'm fine—!”
“...”
... The fact that she was angry out of concern for him was admittedly rather impressive.
In contrast to her agitation, however, Aiden merely blinked and replied calmly.
“You don't need to worry so much, Katya.”
“... What?”
As she answered in bewilderment, he gently pushed her away and got up.
The lull after a situation poised to explode made the surrounding silence all the more dramatic, and Aiden's words carried clearly through it.
“Your Highness.”
“...”
“Bring just one guard. Let's settle this among the people involved instead of making it any bigger.”
“What are you—”
As Katya opened her mouth in horror, Aiden subtly held a hand out to her.
It was the exact gesture she had used earlier to stop him, and presumably carried a similar meaning.
I'm fine. Don't interfere.
That was what it seemed to say.
“I'll be back. I'm going to sort this out.”
... He called it sorting things out, but to Katya, it sounded like nothing but a promise to teach the people who kept picking fights with him a lesson.
▣
Fortunately, Princess Laila agreed to Aiden's proposal without much resistance.
Presumably, she had done so because she was now certain that further hostilities here would not get her past him.
And so Aiden and Stella stood quietly facing Princess Laila and her maid on the headquarters rooftop.
A cool night breeze blew across the roof.
... Though the icy chill rising between the four of them was enough to make that breeze feel tropical.
“You will pay the appropriate price for this, Princess Laila.”
Dame Stella was the first to speak.
She was normally so wooden that her demeanor often felt cold, but now the chill she radiated seemed sharp enough to cut flesh. She was clearly making a major contribution to lowering the surrounding temperature...
“Your side was clearly the one to act with hostility. We will most certainly hold you accountable—”
“No, Dame Stella. There's no need for that.”
... He was sorry to interrupt her anger, but Aiden scratched his head and cut in.
Dame Stella's head snapped toward him, her gaze still icy.
“Excuse me?”
Her response meant he should stay quiet and stop interrupting. Unfortunately, Aiden could not oblige.
Because...
“You can't hold her accountable. There's no such person as Princess Laila in the first place.”
“... Excuse me?”
“The Holy Kingdom grants royal status to anyone capable of wielding divinity beyond a certain level. That's why it has the most complicated family tree on the continent.”
Speaking calmly, Aiden shifted his gaze slightly.
“Which means it would be hard to notice if someone important slipped in a nonexistent royal as a cover identity.”
“...”
Stella blinked blankly, evidently unable to follow what he was saying.
“You mean...?”
“Princess Laila exists only on paper. And she's not the one who came here as the delegation's representative, either.”
He had thought something was strange from the beginning.
With his grasp of all the important information in the original game, how could he possibly have forgotten someone with such a distinctive personality?
'The premise was wrong to begin with.'
He hadn't missed any information.
A person who didn't exist had simply appeared out of nowhere.
“So...you can drop the act now. I sent everyone else away so we could have an honest conversation.”
“... I have no idea what you're talking about.”
Laila's face remained expressionless, but Aiden looked at her dispassionately and replied with ease.
“You're a puppet.”
Once he started with the assumption that this person wasn't royalty, it was easy to explain the odd sense of incongruity he had felt upon first seeing her face.
Aiden knew this person.
She wasn't particularly important, so his memory was vague. He simply hadn't recognized her at once because she was not someone who should ever have been in a place like this.
“You're not royalty. You're not even human. You're an illusion someone is controlling.”
This was one of the faces someone frequently used to deceive others.
A human mask that should never have appeared here under normal circumstances.
“What on earth are you—”
Ignoring Laila's words, Aiden glanced to the side.
“So let's stop this and have a proper conversation.”
He spoke with a sigh.
“I'm talking to you.”
... Aiden's gaze was fixed on the maid standing quietly beside Laila with her head lowered.
She was the same maid who had handed Laila the sacred relic earlier.
Her eyes widened at his words.
“P-pardon?”
“...”
“U-um, what on earth do you mean? I'm just a maid—”
She sounded genuinely flustered. To anyone else, it would have looked as though Aiden were spouting nonsense at a completely innocent bystander.
Regardless, he continued, now looking downright irritated.
“This is in poor taste.”
“...”
“You've tested me enough.”
Silence.
It settled over them like a curtain, lasting more than long enough to drink a cup of tea.
Dame Stella, who still couldn't follow the conversation, darted her eyes frantically between Aiden and the maid he had singled out.
He continued, looking as though he could scarcely bear to humor her any longer.
“How on earth did the ruler of the Holy Kingdom sneak into the Empire?”
“...”
“Your Holiness.”
The maid froze in place.