Chapter 161
“Ugh~ No matter how fine the inn is, it still falls far short of the Imperial Palace.”
The outskirts of the Imperial Palace.
A guest annex reserved exclusively for state guests.
Four people had taken up residence there.
Ash, a platinum-rank adventurer hailed as the strongest on the continent.
Esca Laurent, a knight from House Laurent.
Simon, a high priest dispatched by the Church, and Morian, known as a maverick in magical academic circles.
They were the people commonly known as the ‘Hero Party.’
Having followed Rahav all the way to the capital, they had been invited as honored guests and were resting in the Imperial Palace.
Among them, Ash propped one leg crookedly on the marble table.
Clumps of dirt from her leather boots pattered onto the luxurious tabletop.
“Mind your manners, Ash. This is a space provided by His Majesty the Emperor. Defiling it is an inexcusable discourtesy.”
Esca, seated across from her, frowned and scolded her sternly.
“Why are you being so fussy? The attendants will come and clean it all up anyway. Ooh, look how soft this sofa is.”
Far from being cowed, Ash snorted ostentatiously and sank deep into the sofa.
At her utterly frivolous attitude, Esca sighed and shook his head.
This sort of thing was hardly a once-or-twice occurrence.
He had long since realized that resigning himself to it early was healthier in every way.
Esca glanced around the room for a moment. Someone who should have been there was nowhere to be seen.
“The princess is nowhere to be seen.”
“The Hero said she had business to attend to and told us to go on ahead and rest.”
The priest Simon, dressed in clerical robes, answered Esca’s question.
“What for?”
“Isn’t it obvious? She must have gone to deal with that slave who defeated the calamity.”
At Ash’s answer, Esca recalled a man he had seen at the encampment.
A slave named Leon.
The soldiers said he had subjugated Rahav all by himself.
“Could that really be true? That he subjugated Rahav alone?”
“Isn’t it just boasting? How could a slave defeat a calamity on his own?”
“But Ash saw Rahav’s corpse too.”
“I did……”
It had been so enormous that even if she had not wanted to see it, she could hardly have avoided doing so.
Countless wagons had traveled in a long line to transport the corpse.
“And everyone has given the same account. It doesn’t seem like they’re lying. They have no reason to.”
“A slave, all by himself, defeated a calamity……”
Defeating a calamity was cause for celebration for all humanity, but it was not entirely welcome news to the Hero Party, whose goal was to do exactly that.
If it had been a calamity that a mere slave could defeat, then the hardships they had endured, risking their lives on the brink of death, would lose all meaning.
Despite their noble mission of saving the continent, a sense of self-loathing washed over them at the thought that they had merely been taking a lavish tour of the continent.
At this rate, the name ‘Hero Party’ would clearly become nothing more than an empty shell.
Just as Shabel had, they too were unable to stop the sense of futility from bearing down on them.
“What about Shabel?”
At that, the person who came to Ash’s mind was the Hero, Shabel.
The four people here were comparatively better off.
For Ash, Esca, Morian, and Simon, subjugating a calamity was merely a means of satisfying their personal desires.
But Shabel was different.
She had lost her homeland, the Kingdom of Breta, and come all this way with the single-minded resolve to subjugate a calamity with her own hands.
For her, subjugating calamities was both her sole goal and the very reason she lived.
It was as though a slave had stolen that away from her.
Only then did Esca realize why Shabel had left.
He could also guess, to some extent, what the business she had mentioned was.
She had gone to confront the slave who had stolen her life from her.
“Hmm……”
A heavy silence settled over the room.
No one dared imagine what she might be feeling.
It was then that Morian, who had been quietly tending to a magical device nearby, stopped.
-Thud!
The door flew open violently, and the subject of their conversation walked in.
It was Shabel, looking even worse than before they had parted.
Tap, tap! Anger radiated from her agitated footsteps as she stabbed at the floor.
At the sight of Shabel’s anger—something rarely seen—Ash obediently lowered the leg she had propped on the table.
She sat demurely, like a young noblewoman.
“……Shabel, you don’t look well. Did something happen?”
Ash asked cautiously, watching her expression.
The Hero’s presence was so fierce that it made even the continent’s most swaggering adventurer flinch.
Instead of answering, Shabel trembled as she clenched her fist. She exerted enough force to turn her fingertips white.
Esca asked in Ash’s place.
“Princess, did you just meet that slave?”
“Yes.”
“Is he really a slave?”
“Her Highness the First Imperial Princess said herself that he was her slave, so I assume he is.”
“What kind of man was he?”
“What kind of man was he? I’ve never seen a man so arrogant in my entire life.”
Leon’s words from just moments ago resurfaced in Shabel’s blazing eyes.
‘Then you won’t mind if I subjugate the other two as well……?’
He had spoken as though he could subjugate a calamity whenever he pleased, if only he set his mind to it.
‘I’ve spent my whole life pursuing that.’
Anyone would think the slave, not the Hero, was the one.
“Mr. Esca, Ms. Ash, Mr. Morian, Father Simon.”
Shabel glared at her companions one by one. Her bloodshot eyes were filled with obsession.
“Pack your things at once. We’re leaving immediately.”
“What? What do you mean, Shabel? We just got here.”
“We don’t have time to lounge around here. We have to subjugate the next one before someone else takes down a calamity.”
They had already heard that the continental allied forces were locked in a desperate battle with one of the calamities.
If even a slave could take down a calamity, surely an army could do it too.
Every moment counted.
“A calamity isn’t some neighborhood cat you can just snatch away like that.”
Ash let out a hollow laugh, too incredulous for words.
“I’m against it. I can’t leave right now.”
“Ash?”
“Do you know how hard we pushed ourselves chasing Rahav? And now you want us to run off again the moment we arrive? I’ll pass.”
Ash sprawled across the sofa, making her refusal to move abundantly clear.
Even a platinum-rank adventurer was still human, and fatigue was bound to accumulate.
They had simply not shown it; everyone was hovering precariously at their limit.
“More importantly, you told us to pack, but don’t you remember we don’t even have any luggage with us? We need to replenish our supplies too.”
“……”
“Ash is right. More importantly, Your Highness, you haven’t had a proper night’s sleep in several days.”
“That’s right. We need to make thorough preparations. Meeting a calamity in this condition would be no different from suicide.”
With Simon backing Esca up as well, Shabel’s intensity inevitably faltered.
“……I was being too hasty. I’m sorry for making such an unreasonable demand.”
“Oh, come on. Why apologize between friends? Don’t make it so formal.”
Ash waved her hand dismissively with a laugh.
The others did not scold Shabel either, since they understood how she felt.
The corners of Shabel’s lips curved faintly.
Yet although she was grateful for her companions’ consideration, the emotion boiling in one corner of her heart refused to cool.
‘I need to learn more about that slave.’
A man with that kind of power could not possibly be a slave without some hidden story.
What kind of man he was.
How he had become a slave.
She would uncover his identity down to the last detail.
***
The reception room in Aurora’s Imperial Princess’s Palace.
Leon stared at the girl drinking tea before him.
“Why aren’t you leaving? You should be off subjugating a calamity.”
Shabel paid no attention to whether Leon said anything or not.
She leisurely sipped and savored her tea.
It had only been the day before that she had chased after him with a spear, making a scene and demanding a fight.
Her composure was so complete that she seemed like a different person altogether.
“This is the Hero Party’s official period of recuperation. Before entering battle, it’s important to preserve our strength at full capacity.”
“I understand that, but then why come to the Imperial Princess’s Palace instead of going to prepare?”
“I’ve been close with Sister Aurora for a long time, and since I happened to stop by the capital, I thought I’d come have a chat. Is there a problem?”
“Of course not. I thought you’d come to see me again.”
“Last time, I only came because I was curious about the abilities of the person who had subjugated the calamity. I have no interest in you beyond that, so please don’t get the wrong idea.”
“Then that’s a relief.”
He had been worried she might cause another scene.
Since she said she wouldn’t, it was a huge relief to Leon.
“So you’ve decided to stay in the capital a while longer?”
Aurora, who had been watching the strange tension between them with interest, joined the conversation.
“Yes.”
“That’s great. There’s a banquet scheduled for a few days from now, and someone suggested that Shabel attend too. You’ll come, right?”
“A banquet……?”
Her fingers tightened unconsciously around the teacup.
It was a victory banquet held to commemorate the subjugation of Rahav, the calamity.
To everyone else it was a festival, but to Shabel the Hero, it was little different from a funeral.
Defeating calamities was the Hero’s duty.
Yet Shabel had contributed nothing to this subjugation.
She had done nothing despite bearing the name of Hero, and now they were telling her to attend a celebration of it.
What would the gazes of those watching her be like?
Just imagining it made self-loathing and humiliation surge within her.
“……I understand.”
But Shabel was in no position to pursue her revenge except by relying on the Empire’s goodwill.
A princess of a fallen kingdom had no choice but to accept the imperial family’s outstretched hand.
“You promise you’ll definitely come?”
Aurora smiled brightly, as though satisfied.
Facing that innocent smile made Shabel’s heart ache even more.