Translator: Nox

Chapter 65

That day was the Emperor's birthday.

The banquet was tedious. Yurien de Harden Kirie habitually activated True Sight and surveyed the banquet hall.

Most humans were gray, neither black nor white. People who could be good or evil depending on the circumstances. A hazy gray shadow flickered like a mirage.

The world seen through True Sight was close to monochrome. The more stable the essence or the stronger the core of the soul, the clearer the blurry shape became and the more color it took on, but such people were rare.

"Yuriene."

A man with silver hair and green eyes approached him. In True Sight, he was a dark gray, almost black. The blackness deepened as he approached. He stood before Yuriene and twisted up the corners of his lips.

"Looks like the banquet is boring you?"

"Not at all, Brother Karem."

He was the Second Prince, Karem de Harden Kirie. Yuriene's own brother. But their relationship was worse than that of half-siblings.

Yuriene clearly saw the malice swirling in his soul. Surely, that malice was directed at him.

Karem whispered in a low voice.

"Then stop acting so high and mighty and get lost. I don't want to see your face."

"...I apologize."

Yuriene answered calmly. He didn't want to be here either. But if he didn't stay until the end, his father, the Emperor, would find fault with him for not celebrating his birthday.

From the moment he left his seat, the one who would be the first to report it to the Emperor was the brother in front of him.

Just dealing with him was exhausting. Yuriene turned his gaze away from Karem, who was picking a fight.

He didn't want to see the malice flickering right in front of him, so he just moved his gaze randomly, and something caught his eye. Amid the colorless shadows, a faint spark stood out.

True Sight could be adjusted. The more he was conscious of it, the clearer it became. He involuntarily followed that soul with his eyes. As he stared intently, it became clearer and clearer.

It was a light gray shadow.

The silhouette of a woman. A pale, almost white, purple light flickered within it. It was a spark the size of a fingernail. It flickered as if it were about to go out, but it was a seed that could perhaps become a huge flame.

[An interesting soul. If it burns, it will become a sun. Of course, whether it can burn is another matter.]

The Holy Sword muttered as if intrigued. Yuriene observed the light flickering like a small star. He had rarely seen souls with such strong will, but this was the first time he had seen something like this. That faint light could burn like the sun. It was fascinating. Curiosity arose.

'Who is it?'

He withdrew True Sight. The person who possessed that seed was a woman with light pink hair styled and cascading down. She was wearing a sky-blue dress and chatting among the young noble ladies of her age.

The woman among them was no different from the countless young ladies he had seen. She had a pretty face and unique hair, but that was all.

Yuriene activated True Sight again and observed the faint light. Regardless of its potential, the current light was weak and thin.

The one who possessed the spark was the daughter of an ordinary noble family. She would probably marry someone her parents had chosen, and if nothing happened, she would lead a smooth and uneventful life. In such a life, that spark would simply end as a spark. Just as his brief interest was about to fade.

"Hey, you're not listening to me. Who are you looking at?"

A voice mixed with annoyance entered his ears, and Yuriene finally came to his senses. He had momentarily forgotten where he was and who he was in front of.

Karem checked the direction he had been looking. Pink hair stood out.

"...A woman? This is the first time you've shown interest in a woman."

The malice in Karem's soul was clear as he said that. Yuriene quickly averted his eyes from her. He feigned a nonchalant expression.

"It's not interest. I just glanced at her because her hair color was unusual."

"Oh, is that so...?"

Karem trailed off and smiled strangely. The more he emphasized that he wasn't interested, the more it would sound like he was. Yuriene deliberately changed the subject. And until the end of the banquet, he never glanced at the pink-haired woman again.

Yuriene knew from a very young age that his father hated him. Whenever the Emperor's eyes met his young son's, he would reveal undisguised disgust and anger. He had even said it outright.

"Get that disgusting thing out of my sight immediately."

It was his nanny who told Yuriene where the Emperor's hatred came from. He heard that his mother, whom he had never seen, had died because of him, and that was why the Emperor couldn't stand the sight of him.

"Then, does Father hate me? Will he continue to hate me?"

To the young Third Prince's question, the nanny couldn't bring herself to say it coldly. She stroked the child's head and said comfortingly.

"If you become a kinder and smarter child than anyone else, won't His Majesty look at you, Your Highness?"

So Yuriene tried. He performed all the duties and education given to the royal family to the best of his ability, and he did nothing wrong. But that only brought even more hatred.

"His Highness Yuriene is truly outstanding."

"His Highness the Second Prince is also said to have talent with the sword."

"Frankly, compared to His Highness the Third Prince..."

Inevitably, comparisons were made, and the more Yuriene was praised by his teachers and stood out, the more the Second Prince was overshadowed.

The field in which the Second Prince showed talent happened to be swordsmanship. Among Yuriene's many talents, it was the field with the most outstanding potential. Moreover, Yuriene loved swords.

The boy did not indulge in entertainment or distractions. Like a monk, he went through his scheduled life and devoted himself to the sword instead of hobbies. The Second Prince could never overcome the wall of his two-year-younger brother.

The Emperor couldn't stand it. He tried to find fault with Yuriene in any way he could. Even the slightest mistake or blemish was endlessly inflated and reprimanded. Yuriene became even more obsessively righteous in order not to be caught.

Sometimes the Emperor would get angry at the Second Prince as well.

"I support you this much, so why can't you beat that guy!"

The Second Prince, Karem, came to hate Yuriene. The brother who had taken away his mother tormented him just by existing. Karem always looked at Yuriene with eyes full of inferiority and hatred.

The First Prince, Kruen, a half-brother, was outside of that relationship. Having been born under the protection of a strong maternal family and becoming the Crown Prince as soon as he was born, he was indifferent to everything. Thanks to having chosen the path of scholarship early on, he had never felt much inferiority towards Yuriene. To be precise, he was indifferent.

Yuriene was rather grateful for that indifference.

Karem was very interested in Yuriene. The mistakes Yuriene made, the things Yuriene liked, the things Yuriene was interested in. All of that went to the Emperor's ears through Karem. Mistakes were returned with punishment, things he liked were taken away, and things he was interested in were broken.

There was a time when a bird he cherished and raised escaped from its cage, which he had clearly closed, and was shot to death by Karem's arrow for ruining the Emperor's garden. After that, Yuriene didn't show that he cherished anything in particular. He consciously lived an ascetic life.

It was the same context. After the banquet, Yuriene stopped paying attention to that woman. He didn't look up her name, and he didn't find out who she was.

He returned to Ajenka and forgot about her. Forgetting was not difficult. In the first place, she hadn't made such a strong impression. It was just a little strange that a woman who didn't seem to have anything particularly special possessed a spark-like potential.

Yuriene soon completely forgot about that woman. He returned to his uneventful daily life.

But he didn't know.

Just giving her a glance. And that glance being caught by his brother. With just that, the tragedy had already begun.

* * *

The Demon of the Demon Sword first appeared in March 1629.

As soon as the demon appeared, it annihilated three holy sites and clashed with Nicole Sizten, a disciple of a sage who was staying nearby. Nicole Sizten died, but succeeded in inflicting considerable injuries on the demon.

The demon, who had been missing for some time after the injury, only appeared intermittently. Reports came in that it was getting stronger each time it appeared.

The Azure Knights continuously expressed their intention to subjugate the demon, but the Empire did not allow it. The Empire directly pursued the demon, but repeatedly missed it or the pursuit teams were killed.

After about two years of doing so, a large-scale subjugation force was finally formed in the winter of 1631. The Magic Tower and almost the entire Royal Guard were mobilized. The Second Prince, Karem, commanded the subjugation force.

"They were all annihilated, by just that one woman."

Dietrich Sarua shrugged his shoulders and said. The Giosa Owner of Reminggiosa and Yuriene's friend since the academy days, he frequented the captain's office as if it were his own room.

Yuriene was looking through documents and only raised his eyes to look at him. Dietrich shook the parchment scroll he was holding and asked.

"Yul, aren't you curious about what happened to your brother who commanded the subjugation force?"

"Don't steal and read reports, Dietrich."

"You're always so fussy."

Dietrich threw the parchment at him. While Yuriene caught it and unfolded it, he said.

"The subjugation force is unfortunate, but that bastard who I don't know if he's your brother or what, I'm glad he died."

"...Did Brother Karem also die in battle?"

"The demon sliced him up fairly."

Yuriene skimmed through the report.

- No survivors. The scouts who were sent late after the subjugation force went silent confirmed the death of the entire subjugation force, including the Second Prince.

Was he someone who would die so futilely?

Yuriene confirmed the death of his brother, who had tormented him all his life, with a strange feeling. He wasn't very sad. He was just curious about what the Emperor was thinking now.

"Since they're all dead, the damn Empire will finally request a dispatch. Isn't this the worst massacre Bardelgiosa has ever committed? Crazy bastards. They should have called us sooner."

Dietrich clicked his tongue. Yuriene closed the report with a heavy heart. It seemed that the biggest reason for not preventing the continuous massacres from the spring of 1629, when the demon first appeared, to now, the winter of 1631, was himself.

The Emperor refused the Azure Knights' intervention because the captain of the Azure Knights was Yuriene. On the surface, he gave reasons such as whether they were ignoring the Empire or whether the Azure Knights' interference was excessive, but the real reason must have been that.

[However, those deaths are not your responsibility. The one who actually committed the massacre was the demon controlled by the Demon Sword, and the one who condoned the massacre was the Emperor. It is against justice to blame you just because the Emperor made such a choice and say it is your fault.]

Rangiosa said sternly. It was the Holy Sword's own way of comforting him. Yuriene gave a faint bitter smile instead of answering.

It seemed that a formal dispatch request would be coming from the Empire soon. So now he had to make a plan to subjugate the Demon of the Demon Sword.

Nothing was known about the demon except that it was a young woman, but judging from the news that had been heard, it was certain that it would be stronger than the Bardelgiosa Owners who had appeared so far. Preparation was needed.

'After all, all the Giosa Owners must go.'

Yuriene came to that conclusion as he examined the demon's records. They were already known contents, but he felt a chill down his spine as he examined them again for the purpose of subjugation. It was brutal. Even if Yuriene himself was tainted by the Demon Sword, this much damage would not have occurred.

'Just what kind of person is she?'

He was also said to be a once-in-a-lifetime genius. It was not for nothing that he became the youngest Master and the youngest captain of the Azure Knights.

Surely the Demon of the Demon Sword would be even more outstanding than him. It was strange that someone with this much talent had not been known until now.

Yuriene checked the information about the demon again. A young woman. Black hair, black eyes, black spots spreading on her skin. That was all. There was a lot of data on what the demon had done, but almost nothing was known about who she was.

Dietrich asked him as he rummaged through the documents.

"How are you going to form the subjugation force?"

"All four Giosa Owners, including you and me, will go. It seems that other members would only be in danger."

"Okay, I'll tell Teresa?"

Dietrich smiled and waved his hand before leaving the captain's office. Yuriene glanced at the mountain of demon-related records.

He suddenly wondered what kind of person that woman was before she became a demon. It was a meaningless curiosity. She was already as good as dead from the moment she was devoured by the Demon Sword.

Whoever she is, she's a very unfortunate woman. With that light pity, he stopped paying attention to that woman and only focused on how to subjugate the demon.