Kindred

Ferda dreamed.

It was a dream of memories, based on recollection rather than some vague, jumbled flow.

It was something that had happened to Ferda long ago.

Yet it had been so insignificant that he had simply left it abandoned on the far side of his memory.

The scenery of that insignificant memory began on a balcony.

Beyond the balcony, black smoke rose here and there within the Imperial walls.

The bombs the Empire had stockpiled had finally exploded, and rebellions were breaking out everywhere.

A woman was watching it all.

The woman stood atop the balcony railing, gazing down at it all as though she were in a daze.

Like a tragic heroine, as it were.

-The Empire is burning. Burning so fiercely….

Ferda quietly looked at the woman.

-Are you happy now?

It was a question directed at Ferda.

There was resentment mixed into it, as though all of this had happened because of Ferda.

Ferda let out an incredulous laugh at her shamelessness.

“They are dying because of you, Olivia Arken. If you hadn’t stepped forward, they wouldn’t have needed to suffer like that.”

Olivia Arken.

The Empire’s greatest beauty and a devout follower of Alte.

She, who was called the embodiment of purity, was the very person who had thrust a blade into the Empire.

If she had not led the rebellion, screams would never have echoed within those massive walls.

-I thought we would succeed.

She spoke in a wistful voice.

-If I lured out my little brother and incited the people…… Yes, it was something we could have accomplished. If that had happened, the rebellion would have ended with ease.

She turned her head.

With blue eyes and golden hair, Olivia Arken was smiling brightly.

-But then…… you, an utterly unreasonable man, destroyed the balance.

Yet unlike that radiant smile, bright-red blotches had spread across her face.

Blood.

It was not Olivia’s blood.

It was the blood of the master of this room—the First Prince, who lay dead on the bed with his pants lowered awkwardly.

He had met his death at the hand of the dagger she held.

The First Prince had died by Olivia’s hand.

The Second Prince had become a traitor, so if this rebellion failed, he would be publicly executed.

And Olivia……

would not die.

-Instead, I’ll become His Majesty the Emperor’s plaything. I’ll be put up in some cheap auction house, and they’ll use my body as a hostage to secure loyalty.

Just as my beloved older sister did.

Olivia muttered so softly that she could not be heard.

-So I’ll make you an offer.

Olivia extended her hand.

Her tight-fitting silk glove was so drenched in red that bright-red blood dripped from it.

-Before I’m put up in such a filthy auction house…… would you hold me?

Ferda did not answer.

It was not that he was conflicted; the matter was not even worth answering.

After holding her hand out for a long while, Olivia gave up.

-As I thought…… you hate me, don’t you?

She was right.

Ferda disliked Olivia.

He had felt it clearly when he first saw her and every time he encountered her afterward.

-Why?

That feeling was not something Ferda had forced himself to produce from hatred, nor was it born of something like jealousy.

“You’re like me.”

It was a loathing born of kinship.

Ferda hated Rosnoba for casting him out.

And Olivia hated her own blood relatives.

The life of a woman so much like himself filled Ferda with revulsion.

Perhaps Ferda had unconsciously been aware that there was something wrong with him from that moment onward.

-I see. Because we’re alike, we’ll run through parallel worlds forever, will we?

Olivia gave up.

Even so, the smile settled on her face did not disappear.

That smile was Olivia’s mask.

A thick mask forged over more years than Ferda had lived, to conceal her resentment and murderous intent.

It was something that would never break, even at the moment of her death.

-What a shame. I thought you might have been all right.

Her smile twisted sadly.

-I mean it.

Olivia’s body tilted backward.

She threw herself down beneath the burning Empire.

* * *

When Ferda opened his eyes again, an unfamiliar, splendid ceiling greeted him.

When he tilted his head, the Imperial Palace came into view.

There were Imperial Guards surrounding the walls, along with knights of commander rank.

“Oh my, you’re awake?”

A sweet voice greeted Ferda.

The golden-haired woman closed the book she had been reading and smiled.

Olivia Arken.

True to her reputation as the Empire’s greatest beauty, merely smiling made it seem as though dozens of bouquets of flowers had surrounded her.

Ferda sat up and asked her,

“How long was I unconscious?”

“Hmm, about three hours.”

“Three hours….”

Strange.

For having been unconscious for three hours, his body felt far too refreshed.

He had never once felt this way when Luri treated him.

“Is this perhaps your first time receiving treatment from our Alte Church?”

“Yes.”

“Heehee, I thought so. All the priests stationed in the Imperial Palace are people of bishop rank or higher. When they borrow His light to heal you, you can move as though you’ve gained an entirely new body.”

“I see.”

The reason Ferda was so impressed was that in his previous life, he had never once entrusted his treatment to another person.

He had trusted no one, and he would sooner die than allow someone to lay a hand on his body.

‘Now I understand why a priest’s healing is considered the best.’

He wondered whether he should have a priest permanently stationed at his castle as well.

“According to the rescue teams’ reports….”

Olivia turned the subject toward the Sealed Vault.

“They said that the magic investigator, Mr. Yuren, died and that Your Excellency the Regent was seriously injured.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know the details, but apparently Yuren’s corpse was found with Marbas’s Frostcraft in his possession, and his skin had changed color in the way it does for Marbas’s contractors. Did he succumb to a demon’s temptation?”

Ferda nodded.

“That’s right.”

“I see…… I can’t believe an investigator would fall prey to a demon’s enticement……. Fortunately, you managed to survive.”

Olivia gazed at Ferda with a languid look and gently placed her hand on his.

Ferda glanced down at her hand.

Ferda’s hands were small for someone from a family of knights, but hers were even more slender and delicate.

“As you said, the magic investigator, Yuren, fell into corruption and attacked me.”

Ferda raised his eyes to look at her.

“However, the causality is reversed.”

“What do you mean?”

“He didn’t attack me because he had fallen into corruption. He intended to kill me from the beginning, and he did not hesitate to fall into corruption in order to do so.”

“Um…… you mean he intended to kill Your Excellency from the very beginning?”

Her eyes darted about as though she were at a loss.

But Ferda knew.

He knew that she already understood the entire situation.

Because Olivia was the only one who wanted it to be so.

“Yes. He brought me into the Sealed Vault in order to attack me in the first place.”

“Why?”

“To kill me. To create the excuse that he had no choice but to kill me because he couldn’t overcome the temptation of the Sealed Vault.”

At that, Olivia’s eyes widened.

“To kill someone…… How could he commit such a cruel act? What could he possibly gain by killing Your Excellency?”

“Who knows?”

Ferda smiled gently and asked her,

“Would you please tell me?”

Olivia’s face stiffened for an instant.

Their blue eyes stared into each other’s for a long while.

They were engaged in a battle of probing each other’s intentions, something beyond simply meeting one another’s gaze.

After they had silently stared at each other for a long while, Olivia raised her hand.

“Commander.”

“Yes.”

“May I have a private conversation for a moment? I would like for us to be alone.”

“Alone…… the two of you?”

“Yes. Just the two of us.”

The knight commander wore a troubled expression.

Olivia looked at the commander with moist eyes.

“Please?”

Watching those eyes, the knight commander blushed as though spellbound and nodded.

“Understood. As Your Highness the Princess wishes.”

“Thank you, truly….”

The Imperial Guards stationed in the room filed out in a great rush.

The blue eyes that had held moisture as they looked toward the knight commander blinked once.

At that moment, the Empire’s flower, the embodiment of purity, vanished completely.

“You think I….”

Olivia’s airy voice sank so low that it was startling.

Even Ferda instinctively felt goosebumps rise as she became an entirely different person.

“You think I commissioned Yuren to assassinate Your Excellency the Regent?”

She was a perceptive woman.

She was not merely the subject of prejudice born from her reputation; she was genuinely exceptional.

Ferda had thought she would naturally get into an argument and then gloss over the matter somehow.

With the fuse already lit, she had instead given Ferda the optimal answer.

It was as though she had turned the tables and struck him, just as he had been about to hold someone responsible for this situation and turn everything upside down.

“You’re the first person I’ve ever had a conversation like this with. Especially the first man.”

“So will you tell me, Your Highness the Princess?”

Ferda emphasized his words with a sarcastic edge.

Olivia no longer smiled foolishly.

“To begin with, it’s true that I have a connection to Yuren. He did many things for me.”

A magic investigator could enter and leave the Sealed Vault.

Forbidden magic, black magic, and dangerous information were stored there.

Some of that information could become a disgrace to the Empire and serve as a weakness.

“But if I tell you that Yuren’s actions were a deviation caused by excessive loyalty…… will you believe me?”

“I’m someone who nearly died just moments ago.”

Did she really think he would believe that?

Olivia calmly nodded.

“I once spoke with him. About what could deal a heavy blow to this Empire—more precisely, what could shake the Emperor’s authority. About how we might….”

She smiled gently, like a girl who had held onto a dream for a long time.

It was an expression born of genuine emotion.

“Kill the Emperor….”

An ordinary person would have felt a chill at the twisted way she expressed that emotion.

But Ferda sympathized with her.

His mouth tasted bitter.

“Using the Grand Duke was, yes, one of the scenarios I had been considering. He was deeply disappointed in House Arken once, wasn’t he? If I disappointed him one more time, it would be difficult for me to survive even if the Emperor bowed his head.”

“Then it would be perfect if I died.”

“Of course not.”

She gently leaned her face forward.

A subtle perfume, not overpowering, wafted over like her natural scent.

“And even now, as we face each other like this, I’ve become certain that plan was wrong.”

“How so?”

“You hate me.”

The insight hidden beneath her lower eyelid glowed blue.

“I can feel it. You hate me deep down. You’ve hated me from the very first moment we met. Not because you dislike showing your feelings like a child, but because you truly hate me….”

She smiled faintly.

“I suppose you don’t like pure women very much? Women who are a little empty-headed and can’t do anything on their own. Men seemed to fall hopelessly for women like that.”

Ferda did not answer.

Olivia leaned her face back as though she did not particularly want an answer.

“There are many people who would give me their hearts and souls. But no one actually sees me for who I am.”

Ferda disliked her.

That was why he did not succumb to her gestures or rhetoric, and continued to see her exactly as she was.

“I need someone like that. A companion, not a slave.”

“Wouldn’t a slave be more convenient?”

“Yuren was a slave to me. A slave’s excessive loyalty always causes problems. They often rush ahead and do things I never asked them to, just to please me.”

Olivia sighed as though she had a headache.

“One provincial noble sold off all his possessions to prove himself and brought me a million roses.”

He was the romanticist of the century.

“Who was that?”

“I don’t know. I had him executed before I even asked his name.”

And the most pitiful bastard of all.

“I don’t want someone who sells his estate because he wants me, then sells his subjects into slavery. They would be useless to my ultimate goal even if they existed.”

On the surface, she sounded as though she was doing it for the common people.

But Ferda knew.

Olivia would start a rebellion and cause countless people to die or be injured.

“And yet you tried to raise the Empire’s dark mage?”

“Oh my, were you suspicious of me for that as well?”

She covered her mouth and blinked.

Of course.

She was someone who wanted the Empire to collapse.

“Hmm…… since you put it that way, I’m a little disappointed. In that case, I can’t help it. I just need to show you how sincere I am, right?”

She lowered her head onto the hand she had placed atop Ferda’s.

Mana circulated through Olivia’s body.

As it circulated, it skillfully traveled up her right arm and gathered there.

At that moment, something astonishing happened.

Ferda could clearly see the evidence of it.

A white, glowing mark was engraved on the back of her hand.

“Do you know what this is?”

“……A stigmata.”

The holy stigmata of a god.

When a believer of the Church makes an absolute vow, the god grants them a blessing, and its bearer gains immense power.

Because it grants such powerful strength, it is not given carelessly; it is bestowed based on an intense desire and the worthiness to receive it.

“This mark is called the Oath of Vengeance. According to Alte’s doctrine, vengeance must not be directed at those beneath the light, but at those who indulge their own desires and oppose the will of the light.”

The people she would protect were the commoners.

And those she would take revenge on were the Emperor and her brothers.

That was also proof that she had no connection to the dark mage.

If she had brought a dark mage into this, there was no way her stigmata would shine so brightly.

“There are too many agitators being branded as dark mages these days, so the truth of the matter has become obscured, but dark mages are vermin. I have no desire to use them, either.”

“I see.”

“And if I wanted the Imperial family to collapse, I wouldn’t use the shallow tactic of employing dark mages. Even if dark mages ran rampant, only the citizens would be harmed, and if the citizens were harmed, the Emperor’s power would merely grow stronger.”

Olivia toyed with her lips as she continued to speculate.

“If anyone stood to benefit from a dark mage entering the picture…… it would probably be my little brother.”

“You mean the Second Prince.”

“Yes. He’s the one who most wants the military to grow stronger. The reason he goes on campaigns is to gather more military forces. If he merely raises the need for outside forces to enter, he won’t be able to prevent the connections he has built from bringing them inside.”

Listening to Olivia, Ferda found himself impressed anew by the depth of her thoughts.

He felt that way even though he already knew she was not as foolish as she appeared.

He was also certain that if Ferda had not meddled in the Empire, she truly would have killed the Emperor.

“In any case, as proof of that, I’ll use my influence to ensure you aren’t held responsible for Yuren’s death. I’ll also take care of the books lost during the clash. Wouldn’t it be enough if I continue proving myself to you from now on?”

As expected, this woman already knew.

She knew that Ferda, too, had approached the Sealed Vault with a purpose.

“Would someone who bears a stigmata simply let someone capable of becoming a dark mage go?”

“Oh? The God of Light, Alte, prefers certainty to suspicion. We don’t even know how the information was leaked, and recklessly suspecting Your Excellency the Regent, who devotes himself to the people, would go against doctrine.”

In other words, all she had to do was refrain from digging deeper.

“So please, could you continue to cooperate with me in the future?”

Olivia Arken made her proposal.

“I know that the provincial lords dislike the Emperor’s actions. The neglected Far East is especially deep in resentment. I believe Your Excellency feels the same way. If you cooperate with me, I, Olivia Arken, will lend my support to the Far East and your voice in its affairs.”

Her clasped hands tightened.

A sensual hue deepened on her face.

“We could certainly become good collaborators, or perhaps something more.”

The light of seduction grew more intense.

Ferda could understand, at least a little, why men became powerless before women.

Even knowing it was calculated, she naturally drew out a man’s instincts.

“Very well. Then I’ll use my influence this time.”

“Thank you. But…… what do you mean, you’ll use your influence?”

At the same time as Olivia asked that question, the corridor began to grow noisy.

-Intruder detected! Level-One alert issued! Everyone, assume combat readiness!

They had arrived quickly.

Ferda withdrew his hand from Olivia’s and rose from the bed.

Ferda suddenly remembered something and asked her,

“You said I disliked pure people, didn’t you?”

“Yes? Ah, that’s right.”

“I like them. Pure people.”

Leaving those words behind, Ferda walked outside.