Chapter 169
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The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
Garnet asked Olivia, eyeing her warily.
“What do you think Regent Ferda would think if he learned this?”
Ferda had suffered because of this scandal.
He had even worried that it might inflict some outrageous wound on Valdrova.
He had consulted Olivia about it because he did not think he could resolve it alone.
That was because he trusted Olivia.
And yet Olivia herself was the source of the scandal.
If Ferda learned that the person he trusted was the one who had betrayed him, he would be angrier than ever.
“I suppose there would be a problem with our trust.”
Olivia smiled, tucking her hair behind her ear.
She was composed, not at all like someone afraid of the consequences.
“But you aren’t going to tell him, are you?”
Even if you held someone’s weakness, it could not be a weakness if you could not use it.
Olivia already had something to fall back on.
“Because the first and last contract we made takes precedence over your loyalty.”
“……”
“If you break that contract, you would be insulting your ancestors, and your actions would completely destroy the organization’s credibility.”
The first and last contract.
Garnet still remembered it vividly.
It had happened five years ago.
Though she was a novice leader, Garnet was nevertheless a shrewd businesswoman who skillfully led the organization.
Black Bandana became widely known behind the scenes and proved that it was amassing information no one could match.
It was an ability any person in power would naturally covet.
Valdemar Golt had also tried all sorts of schemes to bring Black Bandana under his control.
But they always set an example of anyone who tried to control them.
They had shown that Black Bandana was an organization no one could touch.
Except for one person.
The person who shook Garnet was neither a widely known authority nor an ambitious schemer.
A young girl like a doll, with blond hair and blue eyes.
To the world, she was a single blossom, a girl whose future inspired great expectations.
Olivia Arken.
When Garnet first met her, she got goosebumps.
She possessed mature, cynical eyes no girl should have possessed.
The words that came from her small, dainty mouth were—
-I know that your Black Bandana organization was once the Empire’s underworld.
It was a fatal secret even the current Emperor did not properly know.
-So let’s make a deal. Like you, I want nothing more than to see this Empire collapse.
That was how the first and last contract between Black Bandana and her was made.
That contract would end only when either the princess or Black Bandana died.
“Besides, wouldn’t it be more beneficial for my relationship with the Regent to remain intact?”
“……”
“Who would benefit if we destroyed our relationship over such a trivial matter?”
“Stop your arrogant posturing.”
Garnet lowered her voice.
“I’ve been watching your actions these past few days. You provoked Valdemar’s jealousy and tried to manipulate Regent Ferda in subtle ways. How long do you think I’ll continue to overlook that?”
As a third party who had watched from afar, she had been able to examine the situation more objectively and meticulously.
Even so, Olivia did not waver.
“Grand Duke Golt’s jealousy was necessary. I had to show Regent Ferda his ugly side so he wouldn’t be deceived by Golt’s words.”
She admitted that she had provoked his jealousy.
“But I have never tested Regent Ferda. Not even once.”
“That’s a lie……”
“I’m serious.”
Olivia said flatly.
But Garnet still could not believe her.
“Are you saying you were serious about trying to marry Valdemar Golt?”
“Yes, of course.”
Garnet was left speechless by the answer, which was so unequivocal.
As the head of an intelligence organization, Garnet gathered information from everywhere.
By observing the gestures and mannerisms people displayed when facing her, she could distinguish truth from lies.
That was why she was certain.
Those words were unquestionably sincere.
Garnet knew what Valdemar meant to Olivia.
It would be no exaggeration to say that she hated and loathed him, and had lived only to drive a blade into his heart.
She hated her own bloodline just as much, and was the sort of woman who would choose death rather than live as the Emperor’s tool.
Becoming her enemy’s consort was utterly impossible.
She couldn’t believe her mind had changed.
That made her curious.
“What value does that man named Ferda…… hold for you?”
If she had changed her mind, Ferda was the reason.
Was he worth doing that for?
Olivia answered Garnet’s question.
“Do you…… believe in God?”
It was an abrupt question, but Garnet answered.
“I don’t.”
“When I was young, I believed in God. I was a devout follower of the Alte Church. The doctrine of Alte was so warm and beautiful, after all. I truly believed that even my mother, who died giving birth to me…… had been enveloped in His light and gone to the world of angels.”
She folded her hands over her chest and smiled peacefully.
“But…… I woke up when my sister died.”
Her smile shattered completely.
“While my sister was throwing herself off the railing and the adults were making political calculations, do you know what I did?”
“……”
“I went to the cathedral and prayed. According to a saint’s miracle, the saint’s daughter had faithfully prayed to Alte and been resurrected after a week.”
Olivia recalled that time.
The little girl prayed so devoutly that she forgot even to eat or arrange her hair.
“So I believed that if I prayed hard for a week too…… my sister in heaven would return, just like in the story, with baby angels beyond the cathedral’s stained-glass windows.”
With each passing day, the little girl’s dream seemed closer to coming true.
“But nothing like that happened.”
Reality was always cruel.
“Alte did not answer.”
Even though her beautiful hair became tangled and damaged, forcing her to cut half of it off,
even though her kneeling legs turned blue and nearly became paralyzed,
even though that little child endured pain too great to bear, Alte did not answer.
That day, the rose-tinted glasses of innocence the girl wore shattered.
The ugliness of the world was laid bare, and the deeper she dug, the more she realized how filthy the world she had lived in truly was.
“Good should be rewarded, and evil should be punished. But God has never once punished this Empire. That was when I understood.”
The words no saint should ever utter.
“There is no such thing as God.”
“That is not something one would expect from an apprentice saintess who has reached the Fourth Circle.”
“I know.”
Olivia placed both hands over her lower abdomen and wore a blissful expression.
“I thought I might have to give up on my dream, too.”
The pulse dwelling in her lower abdomen.
No matter how devoutly she behaved, Alte had not chosen her.
“That was when Lord Ferda came.”
Ferda was the one who elevated her to the rank of apprentice saintess.
“Even when they told him to sacrifice me…… he never ultimately gave up.”
Her mind filled with the man named Ferda.
As she folded her hands reverently, Garnet witnessed something unbelievable.
‘That is…… a halo?’
The proof of faith said to appear only in saints.
When she tried to look again, it vanished as if by magic.
“God is…… the being who answers my faith.”
Alte did not answer every prayer.
Ferda had always answered Olivia’s faith.
“He was…… the god I was meant to embrace.”
The ecstasy that seized her sent chills down Garnet’s spine.
“Why have you…… become like this, Princess?”
Olivia had possessed a chilling side even when they first met, but never like this.
It was as though her heart’s darkness deepened as her light grew brighter; she was becoming twisted.
When Garnet said that, Olivia gave a faint smile.
“You wouldn’t understand even if I told you.”
Olivia abruptly turned and headed toward the shelves of medicines.
Garnet glanced toward Akad and asked,
“What are you going to do with him?”
“We must follow the law.”
She replied.
“Looking at this room, there are two ways to portray Marquis Akad Develung.”
She held up her index finger.
“The first is that he was evil by nature from the start, with no qualms about torturing and killing commoners. That would make him a typical demon worshiper.”
Garnet knew he was not a demon worshiper.
But the public, faced with these facts, would need a simple label.
In that sense, the five-syllable label demon worshiper was simple and easy to use to stir anger.
And it would be enough to damage Valdemar’s image as well.
But Valdemar could hardly be unaware of this.
Olivia then raised her middle finger as well.
“The second is that a perverted demonkin worshiper disguised himself as the good Marquis Akad Develung and pretended to be his right-hand man. If so, it would prevent Valdemar’s image from suffering serious damage.”
“And the common point between the two is that both can prevent the weakening of the Alte Church’s power.”
Whether demon worshipers or demonkin worshipers, they were the kind of beings that should not exist in the Empire.
And it would also show that religion was not the only corrupt institution.
“And neither of them needs to stay alive.”
She picked up something from among the many potion bottles.
It was an oil lamp.
Olivia detached the oil reservoir and placed it on the table before Akad.
“Now go. Call the Church priests and tell them about this tragedy, shouldn’t you?”
“What will you do?”
Garnet glanced at the oil lamp.
“I need to perform the purification. Saints protect us from evil and burn evil away. I may be an apprentice, but as a saintess, I still have a duty to perform, don’t I?”
“……”
Garnet knew the dark side of the world well enough to understand what Olivia was about to do.
“Then……”
Garnet withdrew from the room.
Olivia was now the only one free to move about the room.
She looked down at Akad, who had been turned into a puppet.
She was smiling.
Yet that smile was empty, containing no meaning whatsoever.
“Merciful and holy Alte.”
Her hand tilted Akad’s head back.
“O Alte, who pities us, grant sacred light to those who follow you, so that they may repel the temptations of darkness.”
She tipped the oil reservoir in her hand into his mouth.
Yellow oil flowed unimpeded into his mouth.
Olivia’s prayer continued.
“With your light, save us from the temptations and sins of this world.”
She dipped her index finger into the oil remaining inside and carefully rubbed it across his retinas.
“Even if darkness falls and traps us in trials, let us realize that a lamp burns within you, and proclaim that evil is destined to perish.”
Olivia’s hands gripped Akad’s face.
“With your sacred flame, purify evil.”
Golden flames rose from her fingertips.
“Divine Judgment.”
Golden light burst from Develung’s body.
Flames burst from every opening in his face, burning him.
Fwoooooosh!
Flames rising through his throat rumbled deeply, and his body trembled.
“Ah……”
Olivia let out a cry of admiration as she watched.
Akad Develung—the vicious deceiver and Valdemar’s henchman—was burning in her hands.
The revenge she had thought might never be possible was being carried out by her own hands.
The Circle in her chest throbbed wildly.
The golden light sent her into ecstasy.
In her rapture, only one name rang through her mind.
“Lord Ferda……”
Olivia called that name repeatedly.
“Lord Ferda…… Lord Ferda……”
As though whispering into the ear of a lover she had loved for a long time.
“I will make your dream come true, no matter what.”
She offered up a prayer to her god.
The Empire awoke to turmoil.
Yesterday, the Empire had been thrown into turmoil by the revelation that the bishop of the Grand Cathedral was a demonkin worshiper.
Contrary to predictions that nothing more chaotic could happen, another shocking piece of news was cast into the fray.
“People of the Empire! Last night, another demonkin worshiper was discovered! His name is Marquis Akad Develung! The one who discovered him was Princess Olivia Arken!”
The agitators moved faster than anyone else, carrying the news throughout the Empire.
The inn where Ferda was staying was no exception.
He spent the morning listening to the agitator’s announcement.
‘He chose the option that would do less damage to his image.’
Ferda knew that the agitator was one of Valdemar’s people.
As soon as the Church heard, they drew up a response plan and mobilized in an organized fashion that morning.
It was an ability to act that made them impossible to hit with a single easy blow.
“Regent, a guest has arrived.”
Bewilderment showed on Arwen’s face.
He knew who it was without being told.
“Tell them to come in.”
“Pardon? Ah, yes……!”
Arwen went back downstairs, and soon he heard a group of footsteps climbing the stairs.
An old man entered through the open door at the head of the group.
His expression was a sight to behold.
It was like sugar sweetening bitter black tea.
“Welcome, Your Grace.”
“……You’ve certainly stirred up something entertaining.”
He ignored the greeting, entered, and sat wherever he pleased.
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
Ferda lifted his cup of black tea, feigning ignorance.
“According to what I’m hearing outside, it seems your close aide has stirred up something even more entertaining?”
Valdemar’s ironclad expression twisted.
It was a meal perfectly suited to morning tea.