Chapter 1 - Prologue
***
“Can we start the subjugation immediately tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“The number of knights is…”
“Unlimited.”
The vassals’ eyes lit up.
“As expected, it’s different that you’re the hostess!”
When Stern was not around, the knights wearing the Holy star armor could endure only for a limited amount of time. The cost of preparing the silver branches, and storage and transportation was also an issue. However, with Stern, they could theoretically fight the demons for an unlimited amount of time. The difference between with and without the Stern was that big.
Everyone’s eyes were melting, and Seria was kind of enjoying it.
‘To be honest…
It’s like they don’t have a brain.
Is that a terrible thing to say? But I couldn’t help but think that. How much fuss did the original Seria make every time she came here? The vassals would run away, thinking that perhaps they would be the target of her evil. Look at those shining transparent eyes now as if they had forgotten it.
Come to think of it, I also feel that if my chief professor is irritating me every day, and one day he suddenly changes and does a lot of things for me, I will forget everything that happened before. Humans are animals of oblivion.
Anyway, it wasn’t bad to see all the vassals laughing and going into the meeting. It’s purely for my experiment, but it’s also good for Berg, right?’
When Seria smiled with satisfaction, she felt the gaze looking at her from the side. She turned to the side and saw that Lesche was looking at her. As soon as their eyes met, he smiled.
‘Was I too proud? Was it too obvious?’
Feeling a little embarrassed, she pretended not to see him and turned her face away. A few moments later, she looked to the side again and saw that Lesche was still looking at her. He seemed to have fixed his gaze on her.
Seria tapped Lesche’s ankle with her shoe, hoping that he would stop looking at her. Lesche’s eyes stopped for a moment and he looked down. Then he looked at her again, and Seria asked him quietly.
“Why do you keep staring at me like that?”
“Hmm?”
Rather, Lesche’s forehead furrowed.
“I’m not really looking.”
“You’re not looking?”
‘Does this man think I’m an idiot?’ Seria complained quietly.
“You’ve been watching me for a long time now.”
“… A long time? Have I?”
Lesche looked a little perplexed. So Seria was taken aback too. The person who had been watching her for a while now suddenly seemed to have some sort of amnesia…
Lesche’s brow wrinkled again, and he slowly tilted his chin as he looked at Seria.
“You’re beautiful, so I guess I was mesmerized for a while.”
Seria was dumbfounded by what she just heard and couldn’t answer. Lesche raised his head.
“Are you mad at me?”
“…”
“Seria.”
Seria pretended not to hear him and looked ahead. Then she became embarrassed. The vassals, who had been engrossed in a small meeting among themselves, suddenly opened their eyes wide as they looked at them. Come to think of it, when did it get so quiet?
“…”
The vassals who met her eyes hastily averted their gazes, coughed, and took out their papers. Then, with a much more artificial attitude, they got enthusiastic about another small meeting. When Seria listened carefully, she heard words like “demons” and “defeat” mixed in with words like “auditory hallucination” or “vertigo” and ” ”faint”.
‘…They heard it, right? I’m sure they heard our conversation.’
It was winter, but suddenly Seria’s cheeks became unknowingly hot. She fanned herself with her hands.
***
Seria huffed out a breath.
She crawled up the snow-covered hill on all fours. When she got up, she saw the knights. She had to show up in person for them to see what she was capable of.
“Stern!”
When a demon appeared nearby, Seria was called Stern. Lesche would be appointed as the commander-in-chief in most of the defeat battles, so it would be the same.
She saw a broken carriage. The pattern was large and clear. It was the Duke’s crest. It was a pattern in Seria’s knowledge.
It was the pattern of the Duke of Polvas. In front of the carriage, a woman was lying on the ground. Looking at her appearance, she was the owner of that carriage. She was surrounded by demons. They lifted her body up as if they were about to eat her.
Seria panicked, but she couldn’t go down.
Stern was the most important entity in the official “Battle of the Demons”. According to the principle, even if the family was eaten by the demons right in front of her, she would not be able to help them by personal judgment.
In the meantime, if Stern were to die, there would be a terrible situation where all the knights would be wiped out.
Seria clenched and opened her cold sweaty hands. She had to make her decision as coldly and rationally as possible. She had to consider the distance. Her job was to keep her position well.
At that moment, the knights of the Berg struck the demons. She stared at them, saying “Oh”. Soon, one of the knights picked up the woman and carried her on his back. Seria quickly reached out her hand.
The knight’s eyes lit up.
“Coming, Stern!”
The knight, who shouted louder than necessary, quickly climbed up the hill towards her. How could he climb up this snowy hill so well while carrying a person on his back?
Unlike the urgency of the situation, Seria thought it was amazing. The woman arrived in front of Seria in an instant.
“You’re the Duchess of Polvas, right?”
The woman’s face was blooming with blotches as dark as Linon’s face before. The woman was on the verge of fainting. Seria held the woman to her chest. And sure enough, she noticed….
“What exactly is this circlet?”
Normally, it was just anions and gushing holy objects, but when divine power was needed like this, its power was greatly increased. She didn’t know this because she didn’t see anyone contaminated by magi during that time, but it was certainly different.
It suddenly struck her as odd. It could just be her suspicion. In the original story, did Lina get helped by this circlet as well?
“…”
It was right after. The woman who was in a delirious state let out a groan. Seria hastily looked at the woman’s face. The Black Magi had disappeared. Seria immediately shook the woman’s shoulders.
“Are you okay? What? Wake up!”
The demons attacked the carriage and almost knocked her unconscious. The woman pleaded in a voice that sounded like she was about to throw up after Seria shook her several times.
“S…save me!”
“I’m here to help you.”
The woman looked down in horror. Soon after, she fainted.
“Oh my God.”
A knight said as he came up gasping for breath.
“She’s the Duchess of Polvas.”
“Yes, I think so.”
Linon really was terribly meticulous in his work.
He kept dissuading Seria and worried about her going to the contaminated land she inherited, but when it came down to it, he had been keeping track of the Duke and Duchess of Polvas’ movements the whole time, right from that evening. There was no other as fastidious and perfect as Chief Aide.
So Seria heard early on that the Duchess of Polvas had left for her home in the territory of Berg, but Linon didn’t expect that her carriage would be attacked… Still, it was fortunate that this road was not far from the Connes Plain.
“Thank you so much for rescuing her, My Lady.”
Accepting the knight’s bow, Seria looked at Abigail who had come to pick her up.
“Young Lady.”
“Bibi, are all the knights out?”
“Yes, all went to the east, west, south, and north directions of the Connes Plain to deal with the remaining demons, and the Lady’s husband went to the north.”
“To the north? That’s the most dangerous place.”
“The Lady’s husband is the strongest knight I’ve ever seen.”
“…Really?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
It was true that Lesche was the strongest knight approved by the original author. Then what was Abigail’s rank? Lesche headed for the Connes Plain. A Magi contaminated land. An abandoned land.
Seria saw a few Berg knights here and there. As soon as they saw her, they rejoiced, waving the silver branches, which they were holding like their lifelines.
It seemed they were really cold.
Seria roughly waved and squatted on the floor. Then she focused her mind like when she purified the Magi of the green manor.
How many minutes has passed? Seria looked at the ground with astonished eyes.
The contaminated land had indeed been cleansed.
‘Did Lina really cleanse Magi with this circlet?’
But Seria didn’t understand. Where did the power of a Saint go? Why didn’t she use her Saint power instead? The content that Lina struggled with because of her strong power was one of the most important episodes in the original story.
Suddenly, Seria remembered that Lina was very curious about this circlet.
“Seria, the necklace I saw yesterday, where did you get it?”
What is it?
Seria felt terribly sick.
***
The battle to defeat the demons in the Connes Plain, which lasted over a week, ended successfully.
Seria learned that the circlet could purify Magi, but she didn’t purify the whole Connes Plain.
It was obvious that if she tried to figure out the exact extent and limits of the circlet’s cleansing capabilities, she would be in the public eye.
She didn’t mention this to anyone until she was sure of everything. Abigail, who was by her side, seemed to notice something, but she didn’t say anything like a quiet woman.
‘I’ll keep quiet until I learn more about this circlet.’
She just grabbed the circlet in the basement of the green manor due to the circumstances of the situation back then. But the fact that it allowed her to perform abilities that she hadn’t done before was very questionable. In the original story, this circlet was just a special accessory that Lina loved.
“Hmm.”
When everyone returned to the main castle after the battle of the demons at the Connes Plain, an unexpected document was waiting for Seria and Lesche.
The sender was the supreme Emperor of the Glick Empire.
The content was…
It was an official approval for the marriage of Grand Duke Berg and his wife.