Chapter 147 - I need you

Olivia, who had looked slightly startled, propped her chin on her hand and asked.

"What would I regret?"

"Just because you are drunk and not in your right mind does not mean every word you say has immunity."

Her dry eyes gazed deeply at Ferda.

Eyes whose intent he could not read.

Then she said this.

"Let's do this. Regent, please be my first."

"... What did you say?"

She set the bottle down and rose from her seat.

With a dagger in hand, she staggered toward Ferda.

"Men say that fooling around with a whore isn't cheating. I'm going to become a whore with lofty golden blood instead of a Princess anyway, so does it matter?"

She spread both arms.

"Now, come here."

He knew what that look in her eyes was.

Those were the eyes of a thorn steeped in poison.

Those were the eyes Olivia had possessed back when Ferda had been a mad mage.

Even if William had been dragged in to put on a show so she could set foot on this land, the look in her eyes now was sincere.

She had lured the Crown Prince into her bedroom and killed him, and the 2nd Prince had raised a rebellion with her and been executed.

Half the Empire had burned, yet it still stood strong.

The imperial authority of Godfrey Arken had only grown stronger.

Ferda approached carefully.

Like someone swayed by that flower.

Like someone who had thrown away the mask he wore and seemed to give himself over to desire.

Once the distance between them was close enough, Ferda moved swiftly.

His target was the dagger Olivia held.

But Olivia's reaction speed was not to be underestimated either.

She put strength into the hand gripping the dagger and blocked Ferda's surprise attack.

"Let go!"

Olivia shouted.

He could not back down.

Ferda pushed on as he was, and it turned into a struggle.

"Let go! I said let go!"

Olivia screamed and thrashed.

Ferda was struggling.

He cursed this body of his, which could not even overpower one woman his own age.

He recalled the martial arts he had learned long ago and tried to deal with her somehow.

But Olivia had also learned self-defense, so she was no easy opponent.

Their exchange grew messier and messier.

Then the situation, where one of them might have drawn blood, came to an end.

CLATTER, CLATTER.

Olivia's dagger rolled across the floor and fell far away.

Ferda dropped Olivia onto the bed and pinned both her hands.

The sweat-soaked man and woman stared at each other's faces.

"Heh... hehehe..."

Olivia sneered as she looked at Ferda's state.

"You're fucking weak. Aren't you ashamed as a man?"

"Shut that mouth of yours."

"Why? Do you like it rough? I'm for that too. That way, I'll look even more miserable—"

"Shut your fucking mouth."

Olivia was crushed by Ferda's force.

Ferda's eyes blazed.

"Olivia Arken."

It was pure anger, not something as petty as lust.

"How long are you going to keep spouting that stupid nonsense?"

"What...?"

Olivia's face twisted.

Ferda continued speaking regardless.

"I know what you accomplished. If not for you, you achieved something those other bastards could never have done."

Olivia was intelligent.

Ferda had honestly respected that side of Olivia.

The way she could smile at someone she hated, and the way she did not shrink from sacrifice for the greater cause.

It was something Ferda could never do.

"Someone like you must have known very well."

Only belatedly did he understand the meaning of the smile she had shown when he handed her his materials.

"That you would not be recognized for this merit."

It had been a smile of certainty.

A smile filled with the certainty that this would absolutely not work out properly.

"And even though you knew that so well, you came into my territory, dared to seduce my knight, set foot in my domain, and now you're even threatening me to go down with you?"

Olivia seemed to be swallowed by Ferda's anger, but she was no pushover either.

After hearing Ferda's words, Olivia's face twisted.

"The likes of you..."

She, too, looked purely enraged.

"What the hell does the likes of you know about me to run your mouth like that?"

She vomited the anger she had only kept inside straight at Ferda's face.

"Even if I expected it! Do you know how furious I get when I watch them spouting that bullshit right to my face?!"

He knew.

"Do you know what it feels like to have my reason denied by the power lust of those pieces of trash?!"

He knew.

"You can talk so comfortably, can't you? Because you don't have the slightest interest in me. Because you treat me as just a woman like everyone else. You must only be thinking of living well with your fiancée."

Yes.

Ferda had no interest in Olivia.

He had not cared what she did.

Whether she became the new successor of the Arken Empire or became a loose woman.

All that mattered was that he lived well with Valdrova.

That was what he had thought.

But when he looked back on his actions now, that was not true.

If he had not wanted things to go well for her, there had been no need to lend her the tactical infantry.

There had been no need to compile her merits into documents and hand them over.

And instead of subduing her barehanded like this, he could have used Shadow Art to suppress her.

If he truly had not cared what happened to her, that is.

"You still have a path."

Ferda spoke in a calm voice.

Olivia's voice also sank along with his.

"What path...?"

"You had something planned, did you not?"

Saintess.

It was what Olivia had spoken of during the Grand Council.

"Instead of despairing over this kind of impulsive plan and lamenting your lot, isn't this the time to push forward with the plan you have spent so many years preparing?"

Olivia's expression was not exactly bright.

It was not as if she had not thought of it herself.

Olivia avoided Ferda's eyes.

"It's impossible."

Her voice was mixed with resentment.

"The Saintess... Not a single one has appeared since the Dragon-Demon War. Even reaching the fourth enlightenment is this difficult... How could I reach the fifth enlightenment?"

Olivia was currently at the third enlightenment, the 3rd Circle.

In reality, most nuns found the 3rd Circle to be almost their limit.

Faith was such that even those who entered deep into monasteries, cut themselves off from the secular world, and praised God found it difficult to surpass the 4th Circle.

For Olivia, it could only be even more difficult.

In a place filled with desire, she had to hide her true feelings every time, so how could she focus on serving God?

"Find a way somehow."

"That is such an irresponsible demand—"

"If you only say that you will become the Saintess, I will help you somehow."

He needed power in order to stand against the Empire.

After the demonic creature subjugation campaign, he did not know what would happen or what dirty tricks they would pull.

The one who could help him there was someone who had watched the depths of the Empire for a long time.

Only Olivia.

"I need you."

The eyes that had been empty regained color and stared at Ferda.

Because she had been born of the bloodline of the Arken Empire.

Because she desired the fall of that same Empire.

That was why Ferda said to her.

"Move according to your original plan. Become the Saintess. If you move to become the Saintess, I will be on your side."

Olivia stared blankly at Ferda.

And then,

"...say."

In a voice as faint as the flutter of a mosquito's wings, she spoke again.

"Say it again. What you said earlier."

"You will become the Saintess—"

"Not that. Before that."

"According to your original plan—"

"Earlier."

"I need you."

When she heard those words, Olivia's body flinched once more.

"Again."

Olivia repeated the pointless demand again.

"What are you trying to do?"

"You said it yourself. That you have to make me the Saintess."

She spoke so clearly that she did not seem like someone who had been drunk only moments ago.

"This is the moment."

What kind of bullshit was that,

he tried to argue, but Ferda could feel it clearly too.

A vibration flowed up from the hands pressing down on her.

That vibration was rising from her dantian.

The ring of faith, as the clergy called it, the Red Circle, had begun to move.

He did not know what emotion he had stimulated, but there was no doubt Ferda's words had touched her Circle.

'What she needs to become the Saintess is the 5th Circle.'

Ferda had to make her the Saintess.

If he carried this momentum forward, she would reach the 4th Circle.

"All you have to do is whisper that to me. That you need me... Just say that."

Ferda did as Olivia wished.

Ferda did not add some sweet tone he did not even mean.

He merely repeated mechanically that he needed her.

Even so, the effect was sufficient.

Like a river struck by monsoon rain, it swelled in an instant, and before long became a torrent that seemed ready to swallow Olivia herself.

Olivia focused on her dantian.

But she was not skilled at it, and she suffered.

It showed that she had not properly moved it in a long time.

"Focus slowly."

Thinking she would surely die at this rate, Ferda decided to guide her.

"Imagine that there is another space inside your dantian, and imagine there is a hand there. Do it as if you are shaping the form with that hand."

"Ngh... ugh..."

Ferda read her flow, and Olivia focused as Ferda's voice guided her.

Just as she had kindly taught him an awkward dance, Ferda also did not give up on her and whispered the method into her ear.

After an hour like that, the form that had been moving roughly gradually fixed itself and compressed.

"Ah."

Olivia let out an exclamation.

The swelling Red Circle's form was shaped into a proper circle.

The catharsis that came afterward filled her empty eyes.

"Ahh..."

What those eyes caught was one man.

Gray hair and blue eyes.

Her eyes, caught in ecstasy, turned toward Ferda with affection.

"My..."

Olivia could not continue beyond that and closed her eyes.

He thought she might have lost consciousness, but she had simply fallen asleep.

Ferda left Olivia there and went downstairs.

William was there.

After finishing the bleeding, he had even wiped Ferda's dagger clean and waited.

It was something he had done, so he had to see it through to the end as well.

"Carry the Princess on your back and follow me to the castle. You are still one of mine."

"Yes..."

William quietly obeyed his command.

The next morning.

"I apologize, Regent. I showed you an ugly sight."

She was not wearing the Princess's attire, but one of the spare outfits in the castle.

She had erased the smell of alcohol on her body with perfume, and she thoroughly hid the remnants of her hangover behind a trained mask.

Ferda answered her apology like this.

"Did something happen?"

When she heard those words, Olivia opened her eyes wide.

Then she let out a small laugh.

"Yes, nothing happened."

"Correct."

That day, there had been nothing like a story between a man and a woman.

That was beneficial to both of them.

"Did you report that I was here?"

"Yes."

He had deliberately left out that William had spirited her away.

He explained that William had failed to notice, and that only after the incident occurred and he investigated again did he learn of it.

Even if a mistake was fatal, it was still less damning than deliberate intent.

Naturally, Alexander had flown into a rage.

How could he not have known that, he said.

But when Ferda retorted that even the imperial palace mages had not known, so how were they supposed to know, he went quiet as a rat.

Then he left only the words that he would come to receive her tomorrow morning.

"I explained that the reason was not a simple runaway, but that you had come to negotiate."

Olivia tilted her head.

Was there something there that could be explained?

"I explained that the Princess had something she was after, and had secretly entered to negotiate for it."

"Something I was after?"

Ferda flicked a finger.

Then Luri opened the door, and the man waiting in front of it walked in.

"I am Hellus Phobidas, the Sage of Water."

Olivia skillfully put on her smiling mask and greeted him.

"So I meet the Sage. I am Princess Olivia Arken."

"You flatter me. As the rumors say, you truly are beautiful."

Hellus's eyes looked as if they had been struck with indecision.

They trembled madly as they moved back and forth between her chest and her face.

Suddenly, Ferda remembered the torrent Olivia had poured out.

She skillfully hid that disgust and smiled nonchalantly.

Ferda signaled to him with his eyes.

Stop doing useless things and speak quickly.

"Regent Ferda told me. He said that if not for Your Highness's operation, I too would surely have been done for."

"Not at all. My goal was to rescue ordinary citizens, and in doing so, I merely happened to stop by your house, Sage."

"If one is human, it is only right to repay such a thing gladly. I hear the Empire desires my wisdom, so I shall lend you that strength."

Olivia looked startled.

"Are you saying you will retract your words that you would not belong anywhere and become the wisdom of the Empire?"

"That is correct. Looking at the current state of affairs, I foresee that a great crisis will come not only to the Empire, but to the entirety of the Serdes Continent."

Hellus placed a hand on his chest and spoke.

"At a time like this, should I not cooperate for the peace of the Empire and the continent?"

"Oh my..."

With a face as if she had been moved, Olivia clasped Hellus's hand.

"Thank you very much. On behalf of the Empire, I sincerely thank you for your choice, Sage."

"Ha ha ha! It is only natural, so there is no need for that!"

Though he seemed to be trying hard in his own way to hide his feelings, it did not seem possible for him to hide the emotions swelling inside him.

After receiving his promise to go with her to the Empire, Hellus withdrew.

Olivia, who had worn a good-natured smile, quietly returned to her seat, sprayed perfume on a handkerchief, and wiped her hand with it.

It was the sort of action one took after touching filth.

"That pig is a stand-in, isn't he?"

As expected, she was incredibly perceptive.

"If I take in someone like that, I'll hear that the Princess brought in some pig. Are you sure you actually intend to support me?"

A slight note of resentment toward Ferda mixed into her voice as well.

But if he had meant to screw her over, he would have used another method.

"He is the Hellus Phobidas the world speaks of."

"He really is the man himself?"

"Yes. He can produce wisdom fitting the Sage's reputation."

Olivia compared the Hellus she had seen with his reputation.

No matter how she looked at him, he was a person who felt like a desire-driven local notable, without even a handful of wisdom to him.

"If you do not wish to take him, I will not stop you."

"Hm. I don't know how he uses that ability... but I suppose I will need it."

She had left home as she pleased, but if there was a separate reason for that willful action, things changed.

The fact that she had recruited the Sage of Water could not be easily belittled like the merit reduced to 3%.

"Thank you so much. For everything..."

Olivia conveyed her thanks like that.

The court mages opened a teleportation magic circle and arrived.

Their faces were half deathly pale as they paid their respects, and they hurriedly took the Princess and Hellus back.

Olivia looked toward Ferda until the very end and waved.

Thus, the Princess's disturbance was settled for the moment.

Alexander Arken was holding a secret meeting with his aides.

One aide in charge of intelligence carefully reported the news.

"It seems they intend to treat this incident severely."

One aide spoke in a trembling voice.

However much he was only the Crown Prince, with the Emperor in seclusion, he could enjoy power comparable to his.

But merely being comparable was not enough.

"Has... that been formed?"

"Yes."

Because power merely comparable to the Emperor's could not stop them.

"The Arken Emergency Response Headquarters will now move."

The Emergency Response Headquarters.

They possessed such mighty power that it would not be strange to say they stood directly beneath the Emperor.

Even the Crown Prince did not dare touch them carelessly.

"All because a single corps disappeared..."

Alexander muttered as if for them to hear.

His closest aides swallowed their reactions of disbelief.

It was more than enough for the Emergency Response Headquarters to move, and in truth, it would not have been strange if his head had come off.

But fortunately, there was no need for that.

Because someone else had already taken the blame for it.

"What about the bastards who spread that plague?"

By that plague, he meant the generals who had suddenly fallen ill and become unable to deploy.

"Without any need for concern, we eliminated their families and entire households."

By piling all the crimes they had accumulated until now onto them at once, they had been burned alive.

It was the worst possible end.

Normally, he would have at least felt relieved, but Alexander did not.

In any case, if the Emergency Response Headquarters had been formed, they would hold a hearing, and Alexander's punishment would be decided there.

To avoid it, he had to pin the blame on someone somehow.

On the person closest to it, and the one who bore the heaviest responsibility.