Chapter 110
The story continues off the page
The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
The Arken Empire had to be superior to everything else.
That was why the imperial carriage was about half again as wide as other carriages, and its interior boasted cloudlike comfort.
The carriage, whose every movement cost as much as a village’s monthly operating expenses, set out on a long journey.
Its destination was a gigantic dome resembling a birdcage in a remote place.
“We have arrived, Your Highness.”
The person who stepped down from the carriage was Olivia Arken.
She was beautiful, befitting the flower of the empire.
Inside, she found not a parched winter but a lush spring.
“I will take your coat.”
“No. I’ll keep wearing it. It might be cold, after all.”
“It is the dress code set by the Grand Duke, so I humbly ask for your cooperation.”
“……”
Olivia took off her thick coat and proceeded along the path.
She passed flowerbeds where rare flowers from across the continent had been lovingly cultivated and headed toward the artificial lake at the far end.
At the edge of the grounds stood a table overlooking the lake.
“Oh, welcome, Your Highness.”
An old man with white hair and age spots, contrasting sharply with the vivid green spring garden, greeted her with his back held straight.
He was Grand Duke Valdemar Golt, one of the great nobles of the Arken Empire.
Olivia deftly put on her mask and smiled.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Grand Duke Golt. As befits the empire’s greatest noble house, you are enjoying leisure in such a magnificent place.”
“Hoho, you flatter me. The scenery is lovely, and what else is there to do in a place like this but play in the water and drink? Come, please sit here.”
Valdemar personally pulled out a chair for her.
When Olivia sat down, Valdemar’s hand brushed against her shoulder.
“Cough, cough.”
Olivia coughed and leaned forward.
She smiled sweetly and spoke lightly.
“Perhaps because I came such a long way, but my throat is terribly dry.”
“Good heavens, what have we been doing without even serving you tea? Let me pour you a drink.”
Valdemar went over to the drinks table himself.
“What would you like to drink?”
“Alcohol? That might be difficult……”
Olivia looked troubled, her eyes moist.
“I can’t hold my liquor……”
“Then why not learn today?”
“Well, I’m worried. They say a woman who enjoys alcohol is a temptress, don’t they? I wouldn’t want to become such a temptress.”
“She should be called a virtuous woman who knows how to enjoy the pleasures of life alongside a gentleman.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever become such a virtuous woman.”
Valdemar pressed her persistently, but Olivia refused to the very end.
In the end, he had no choice but to offer her warm tea.
However, Olivia merely pretended to sip that as well, without actually drinking it.
She did not touch any of the drinks or food Valdemar had prepared.
She was like a doll.
Although she was smiling, her eyes never met Valdemar’s, and they held no liveliness.
Such haughty behavior might have offended him, but Valdemar’s crescent-shaped eyes gazed at her intently with delight.
His sticky lips parted and uttered an exclamation of admiration.
“Stella was exactly this age.”
He paused.
Olivia’s face stiffened for an instant.
“She was very beautiful at that age too, but Your Highness grows more beautiful by the day.”
Olivia covered her mouth with her fan and smiled with her eyes.
“Hoho, my mother was called the most beautiful woman in the world. When golden blood and unparalleled beauty come together, isn’t it only natural that she would be beautiful?”
“Hohoho! You are absolutely right!”
The old duke chuckled and slyly reached out his hand.
“They say you’ve reached marriageable age, yet still have no man?”
Olivia picked up her teacup.
“Yes. It seems I haven’t found one yet.”
“Do not search too far away. The person who will be your partner may be closer than you think.”
“Oh my, is that so?”
“What do age or appearance matter? If he is a man who cherishes you and possesses power, you must seize him somehow.”
“I’ll take your words to heart. I’ll be sure to look for someone.”
They were conversing, but their words passed each other without meeting.
It was a situation both Olivia and Valdemar could understand perfectly well.
Olivia hoped he would become fed up and leave, but Valdemar was no pushover.
Only after three hours of courtship and conversation did he finally let her go.
“Perhaps we should bring our enjoyment to an end here.”
“Thanks to you, I believe I’ve had a pleasant time.”
She did not even offer the customary pleasantry that she would have liked to stay longer.
As she rose from her seat with a polite farewell, Valdemar subtly extended his hand.
Olivia looked down at it and tilted her head.
“Why are you doing that? Why are you suddenly extending your hand?”
“Are we not going to shake hands?”
There was no way she did not know what he meant.
“Oh my, I see. Very well.”
Olivia reached out to take his hand.
“Ahem. When shaking hands, it is polite for both parties to grasp one another’s bare skin.”
“It feels awkward and burdensome for an unmarried woman to hold a man’s hand.”
“You did not touch any of the food or alcohol I set out, and you were inattentive to everything I said. Surely you can grant me this small request?”
It was a threat.
A threat to heed his final request before making a scene and complaining to the emperor about how offended he was.
Olivia sensed that this was no longer a situation in which she could refuse.
She had no choice but to remove her glove and give him a brief handshake.
No, it was a long handshake.
Whenever she tried to pull her hand away, he forced her back with his grip.
For an old man who was practically on the verge of death, his grasp was far too strong.
Her hand hurt so badly that she thought she might scream.
“Could you let go now?”
“Hoho, I seem to have held on for too long. My apologies.”
Only then did Valdemar release her.
She gave him a slight nod and left the greenhouse.
Before going outside, she glanced at a ceramic flowerpot.
Its glazed surface was so smooth that it could have been used as a mirror.
Valdemar Golt’s face was clearly reflected in it.
His eyes were smiling lecherously, and he was greedily licking the hand he had held.
* * *
After returning to the carriage, Olivia spoke to the escort knight who was about to close the door.
“Could you give me some perfume?”
“Yes.”
It was the rose perfume Olivia used frequently.
She uncorked the bottle and poured all of its contents over her right hand.
The slick oil ran down her hand and dripped onto the floor.
The carriage filled with the strong scent of roses.
She paid no attention to the suffocating fragrance.
She wiped her hand over and over with a silk handkerchief embroidered in white.
Grand Duke Golt’s face rose in her mind.
That greedy face seemed to overlap with the great demon Morax.
‘Dirty.’
Scrub.
‘Dirty, dirty.’
Scrub, scrub, scrub, scrub.
‘Dirty, dirty, dirty!!!’
She wiped and wiped again.
Eventually, the hand that had been as white as jade turned bright red, and it stung.
Could she not simply peel off this skin?
She wanted to cut away every part of her that had touched Valdemar.
‘Grand Duke Golt…….’
The handkerchief clenched in her hand crumpled.
There was a limit to wearing a mask.
Her porcelain mask cracked and twisted with rage.
‘How dare you mention that name?’
Stella Arken.
Her elder sister, eight years her senior, was a woman kinder than anyone else.
She possessed both beauty and talent, and even had an excellent fiancé whom she had chosen herself.
When Olivia was young, Stella had been her role model.
But at some point, Stella changed.
It began on the day her engagement was broken.
Her fiancé had been arrested for treason and vanished like dew beneath the executioner’s blade.
That was when it began.
The flower that had always been radiant and beautiful withered and grew haggard.
In Olivia’s last memory of Stella, her hair, once like golden silk thread, had been cut into a bob.
-Olivia.
Her voice was hoarse.
-Isn’t the scenery of the empire truly beautiful?
Her body was precariously balanced on the terrace.
Olivia spoke to her with a troubled expression.
-Sister, it’s dangerous to stand there.
-Hehe, that’s why you should move away from me, Olivia. Just for today, you must do as I say.
-Come down, Sister.
-Stand there and listen carefully to what I say. Olivia is a good girl, so you will, won’t you?
-Yes, Sister…….
She smiled.
There was no warmth in it.
Olivia did not act spoiled.
-What is it that flows through our bodies?
Stella asked.
-Golden blood. I heard that our blood flows golden.
-Hehe, innocent Olivia. I wish you could preserve that innocence forever…… but now you must wake from your dream.
Stella’s body tilted.
-Please make sure you see it clearly with those eyes.
She threw herself over the edge.
Young Olivia thought that wings had suddenly sprouted from her sister’s back and that she had become an angel.
But there was no angel.
Instead, all she could see was her sister’s corpse after it had fallen to the ground.
It looked as though a single flower were blooming.
Her short yellow bob formed the center of the flower, surrounded by red petals opening into full bloom.
At last, she had gained her freedom……
Olivia watched it bloom until a servant rushed over and covered her eyes.
Stella had been the worst sister.
It was a cruelty that could never be shown to a younger sibling.
But it was also her final act of kindness, revealing the fate and truth of the Arken bloodline, which was even more cruel.
And through a servant favored by Stella, Olivia even learned the secret behind her death.
The cause of that death was Grand Duke Golt.
He had long yearned for young Stella and wanted to possess her.
His obsession led him to frame Stella’s fiancé and have him brutally executed.
Then he sent her a message.
He said that to obtain her, he would destroy everything she loved.
The one who cooperated with him was the emperor.
Even the First and Second Princes, blinded by power, tried to sell their own sister to obtain immense authority.
That was the fate of those called the flowers of the empire.
Purity was a luxury no princess could afford.
‘The sister who died because of you.’
How dare you, with that filthy mouth.
How dare you!
She forcibly swallowed the urge to scream and throw a hysterical fit.
Even if there were no eyes watching her now, there were ears listening.
No one could be allowed to see what lay beyond this mask of purity.
‘This is the only weapon I have.’
She had decided to wear the mask that all men liked.
And by wearing that mask, she would make them her hands and feet.
‘That wasn’t enough.’
Controlling men ultimately meant that she could never escape from men.
She wanted to spread her wings and fly freely in the truest sense of the word.
There was only one breakthrough she had found for that purpose.
‘A saintess.’
She would become a devout follower of Alte and secure a position nearly equal to that of the pope.
That was the only means of resisting this blood-bound fate that was like a curse.
She could even entertain such a possibility because Olivia possessed divine power.
According to what was known publicly, she had gained enlightenment after understanding Alte’s doctrine, and holiness had taken root within her.
But as always, history was bound to be embellished, and Olivia’s actual awakening had begun with a tragedy.
On the day she witnessed Stella’s death, Olivia felt something deep within her chest begin to turn.
She had been too innocent to understand it at the time, but as she matured, she was able to conceptualize it.
A Red Circle had been turning inside her body.
‘To rise to the position of saintess, what I need is at least the fifth enlightenment.’
For a mage, it meant reaching the fifth circle.
Olivia had currently reached the third enlightenment.
She was at the level of an itinerant preacher traveling through villages, capable of simple healing and light magic.
She could not gain enlightenment on her own, so she needed someone’s help.
The pope’s help would not do.
That bastard was still in league with the emperor, after all.
That was why Odograsa, too, needed the help of the Holy Emperor of the Holy Kingdom.
He was a true saint who had shattered her prejudice that all men were the same.
Olivia sought his advice, and this was his answer.
-For God to dwell within you does not simply mean remaining inside a cathedral. You must feel and accept that He is always watching over you and standing behind you.
After hearing those words, Olivia thought,
There are enough of those bastards around me to fill a carriage. Were they gods?
That was technically true.
Damn morons.
Those sarcastic thoughts came first, making it even more difficult for her to accept the existence of a god.
That was why she carefully asked him for a little more advice.
The Holy Emperor then answered as follows.
-It is difficult because you are trying merely to believe in God. Try to love God, Your Highness. If you do, you will surely be able to hear God’s call as well.
He said that love came from following the commandments.
After even completing her vow of revenge against her blood relatives and carefully living according to Alte’s commandments for years, her mana circuit had not stirred at all.
She could not hear God’s call.
It was only natural.
Because that could not be called love.
‘Love…….’
What was love?
They said love would come to find you, but she did not know what that feeling was.
They said you could feel it in someone’s gaze, but every man’s eyes on her always passed straight over her heart and landed on her chest.
The pope of the Alte faith was no different.
Still, because of his gaze, she was a little confused as to whether saying that love came from the heart meant loving her breasts.
‘Love is nothing but a tumor made from lust.’
Every man had one of those tumors.
Since all that accumulated within her was disgust, she had thought she would never know what love was.
But recently, even that belief had been disproven.
‘Ferda Waldrova.’
His appearance suddenly came to mind.
He was tall, with gray hair and blue eyes like a deep lake.
His expression seemed pessimistic, and his actions were resolute.
‘That is partly because he has power supporting him, but…….’
He possessed the ability to put plans into action, and the people around him were both outstanding and respected.
As the Far East came to be regarded as relatively safe, young people from within the empire began leaving to work there.
That was not something that could be accomplished merely by relying on one’s prestige.
‘Above all…….’
His eyes had never once shown lust.
At first, she had been curious.
She had wondered how long he could maintain such an attitude.
She had done things that might have shaken even married men and knights faithful to their vows, but his heart remained unmoved.
That was why she became irritated.
She felt as though she alone was the fool for believing that all men were the same.
No, she was a fool.
Ferda was working to turn the Far East into a second capital.
Wasn’t she the only one failing to keep her promise to become a saintess and lend him her strength?
‘If this is how it is, how am I any different from those noble ladies with flowers growing in their heads?’
That was unacceptable to Olivia.
She was merely standing still, accomplishing nothing that could help him.
She was supposed to be his ally, standing beside him on equal terms, yet he was the one moving ahead.
‘Men really are all the same.’
They were all alike in how they somehow managed to irritate her.
The irritation inside her seemed to prick at her head.
She looked out the window to change her mood.
There was a blue sky and the parched land of winter.
Amid the scenery that did not fully enter her field of vision, one distinct dot caught her eye.
“Stop.”
The carriage came to a halt at her command.
She got out of her seat and checked again, just in case.
Perhaps she had been mistaken.
But after looking closely, she realized it was not a mistake.
‘That man…….’
It was Ferda Waldrova.
The person beside him was probably Waldrova’s maid.
‘Why is he in a place like this?’
When she searched through the map in her head, she remembered that House Rosnova was nearby.
Had he stopped briefly at his family home before sitting there?
She took a step toward him, intending to exchange a greeting.
But her feet would not move any farther.
When she looked at Ferda again, he seemed unbearably weighed down.
He looked powerless, utterly unlike the man who normally held his back straight and wore a cold expression.
‘Such weakness…….’
Olivia hated seeing people like that.
To her, revealing a wound was the same as showing weakness.
In the world of nobles, weakness was like a piece of meat giving off the scent of blood.
Nobles like piranhas immediately tore into such wounds.
She had no need for anyone unable to bear the weight of nobility.
“……How pitiful.”
Olivia was startled even as the words left her mouth.
Had she just called him pitiful?
Was she genuinely sympathizing with that man?
She wondered if she was mistaken.
But instead of sighing at how pathetic he was, her chest began to ache.
‘Why?’
Olivia turned the unfamiliar feeling over and over, searching for its meaning.
What was she hoping for from that man?
The sensation frightened Olivia herself, but she did not let go of it.
Without thinking, she placed both hands over her chest and folded them together.
Olivia’s gaze held him, and she let herself be guided by her emotions.
She licked the tears he would shed and savored his sorrow.
That feeling grew steadily, until the two hands resting on her chest overlapped one another.
As if she were offering a prayer.
‘I…….’
That was when Olivia felt it for the first time.
‘If I could become that man’s support…….’
It was compassion, not contempt for his helplessness.
That was when it happened.
“Ah.”
She began to feel a strange sensation inside her body.
The thing that had been the greatest reason she could not become a saintess,
the thing that had refused to move even when she deceived herself into believing she was a devout follower,
was moving.
This was undoubtedly the love for God that the Holy Emperor had spoken of.
At last, she realized it.
‘Ferda…….’
He was the god she had to hold within her heart.