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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 46
Chapter Title: A Calculated Alliance
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“Come to think of it, I don’t know if you could call it remnants of black magic… but there is one place that seems suspicious.”
“A suspicious place, you say? Where is it?”
“Well…”
I pretended to hesitate, as if I felt guilty for suspecting an innocent person.
“Actually, I was invited to a tea party by Lady Swanson… and I experienced something rather odd.”
“Something odd?”
Zion’s face lit up with interest. I was still just dangling the bait, feeling him out.
“Hmm. But it might just be my imagination. I’m hesitant to say anything for certain…”
“Even the smallest detail would be appreciated. We’re desperate for any hint we can get.”
“If you put it that way…”
I was about to relent and tell him the story.
“Ah, right. Before we get into the details, there’s someone I’d like to introduce to you, Emily.”
“To me?”
“Yes. We’ve had an escort with us all day.”
He tried to frame it nicely, but I saw right through him.
‘He brought his own person without telling me? Was he worried I might try to harm him?’
Didn’t he say earlier, when I asked about an escort, that he was strong enough to protect me on his own?
It seemed he was making the introduction now, before we got into the sensitive details, to avoid any potential awkwardness.
Of course, it wasn’t as if I had the right to refuse.
‘I’ve already started the story, so it’s hard to back out now. Wow, look at this guy.’
He was a real pro.
Had I been mistaken to think he’d softened up? Was that melancholy gaze he’d fixed on the world below just another one of his tricks?
“I think you’ll find it’s a familiar face.”
Snap.
Zion snapped his fingers, and a figure materialized out of thin air.
She seemed to be a highly skilled Holy Knight. The nausea in my stomach was already growing stronger.
“Knight Hazel.”
“……?”
Who? At the familiar name, I couldn’t help but look surprised.
The Holy Knight, who had been kneeling on one knee in a show of loyalty to Zion, slowly rose.
An androgynous face, with pale, lemon-blonde hair that barely covered the nape of her neck.
My gaze met Hazel’s golden eyes for a fleeting moment. She averted hers as if she hadn’t seen me and bowed her head to Zion.
“May the grace of the Lord be with you. I greet the Lord’s Proof.”
*What are you doing here…?* I almost asked aloud.
“I heard you two have been close since childhood. Is that correct?”
“Yes, that is correct. Our families are very close.”
“We grew up together and went to the academy together.”
Zion smiled and nodded, as if satisfied with our answers.
“What we’re looking for is no ordinary item, after all. We must be prepared for dangerous situations. I thought it would be best if you were with someone you knew, so I made a special request for Knight Hazel to escort you.”
He then casually asked if I was surprised. I had to bite back the urge to snap, *Of course I am, who wouldn’t be?*
“I thought Hazel… had left for the Frostwood to deal with monsters.”
“That was the original plan. I used my personal discretion to make it seem as if she were temporarily dispatched to the capital.”
“Is that allowed?”
“Not if we don’t get caught.”
Zion smiled faintly.
“The hunt for the grimoire must be conducted without the Holy See’s knowledge. I simply needed someone to assist me personally.”
He spoke so eloquently. Never mind that Hazel had essentially become a hostage.
‘Well, whatever. It’s not like I was planning to tell him the real location anyway.’
We were both just planning to use each other. I was in no position to judge.
“This works out perfectly, then. I’ll feel safe with Hazel.”
Having set the stage, I carefully observed Hazel’s reaction.
‘I don’t know the extent of Penelope’s mind control, after all.’
I was curious to see if it would even work on Hazel, who possessed divine power, however faint.
For now, I put on an innocent face, pretending to have fallen victim to Penelope’s ability.
“Natalie—ah, I mean, Lady Spencer sent me an invitation, saying she wanted to introduce me to a new friend of hers. So I went to a tea party hosted by Lady Swanson…”
Hazel was staring at me intently, her expression hard as stone.
It was an incredibly cold look, but I could clearly see the confusion within it.
She was clearly thinking something like, *Didn’t Lady Swanson… die?*
“…Strangely, I have this feeling that my memory got a little hazy in the middle of it.”
“What do you mean, you have a feeling?”
“I know. It’s hard for me to explain clearly, but it’s a little, how should I put it…”
I pretended to choose my words carefully. Zion didn’t seem to notice anything odd in what I said, likely because he wasn’t well-versed in the empire’s internal affairs.
“An unexplainable sense of unease, perhaps? As if my mind was in a daze.”
Hazel’s eyes trembled slightly. I smiled faintly, my face a mask of ignorance.
“But it might just be my imagination. I only mentioned it because it was the only strange thing that’s happened recently, but now that I’ve said it, I wonder if it was unnecessary.”
“Emily. What have you been talking about this whole time?”
Hazel couldn’t hold back any longer and spoke up.
“Lady Swanson, she definitely died when we were at the academy—!”
“Ah, that’s right. You went to the academy too, Hazel, so you’d at least know her name.”
I quickly cut her off.
“Natalie said the same thing. She said she couldn’t believe she’d overlooked someone so beautiful back at the academy.”
The bizarre conversation continued. Hazel could not read even a hint of compromise in my beaming smile.
But this would have made it all the more obvious.
That there was some suspicious power connected to Lady Swanson.
No, that her very existence was suspicious.
‘I’m sorry, Hazel.’
I silently apologized to her as she stared at me, her expression on the verge of tears.
I felt sorry for Hazel, but thanks to our conversation, Zion also seemed to have grasped the general situation.
‘I believe they call this ‘using an enemy to defeat an enemy’ in the East. A tactic for turning your foes against each other.’
Now, all that was left was to watch how things unfolded.
I smiled silently before the two of them and their complicated expressions.
***
As soon as she left the Crown Prince’s office, Hazel let out the words she had been holding back.
“Something is strange.”
Zion replied with a gentle smile.
“In what way?”
“I’m talking about Lady Swanson. As far as I know, she definitely died while attending the academy.”
“Do you think Emily has fallen for one of those scams that have been going around?”
Zion had heard of them—scammers who impersonated provincial nobles and posed as aristocrats in the capital.
While that was the more logical conclusion, Hazel felt deeply uneasy.
“That could be the case, but… There’s no way Emily or Natalie wouldn’t know something that I know, so for them to fall for such a scam itself…”
‘Is absurd.’ Hazel forced herself to swallow the rest of her words. It seemed like an opinion mixed with too much personal emotion to voice in front of the Saint.
“Something suspicious might be going on, so it would be best to investigate it properly.”
“You yourself, Your Holiness?”
Hazel looked surprised at Zion’s words. She couldn’t believe that a figure like the Saint would get involved in such a matter.
“Wouldn’t that be the most certain way? Besides, as I told you when I requested your escort, this is entirely my own personal undertaking. I cannot expect any help from the Holy See.”
“Yes. I remember.”
Zion had already warned Hazel about everything.
He had told her that what he was doing might go against the will of the Holy See, and that she could suffer disadvantages as a result.
Nevertheless, Hazel had willingly stepped forward to be Zion’s escort.
“If it’s a matter of eliminating warlocks, I don’t care what it takes.”
Beneath Hazel’s short, wheat-blonde hair, her golden eyes flashed.
“That’s right. Whatever it takes…”
Zion muttered under his breath.
“I’m glad we’re on the same page, Knight Hazel.”
Zion’s eyes curved as he smiled. Her friendship with Emily wasn’t the only reason he had chosen Hazel from among the many Holy Knights.
「Shows extreme aggression toward monsters and the warlocks who are the source of their creation. High risk of rampage; caution advised.」
That single sentence from her letter of recommendation explained everything. It proved that Hazel was the right person for this job.
“Then, until the day we exterminate all warlocks from this continent, I’ll be counting on you.”
Hazel stared at Zion’s outstretched hand for a moment before taking it in her own.
