episode_0048

“─This isn’t what we agreed upon!”

“What do you mean, ‘this isn’t what we agreed upon’? I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

“The original agreement was that all participating nations would cooperate and retaliate against any other nation that engaged in military action immediately after the World Military Expo!”

At that moment, in the Bretona Empire.

An old statesman, formerly the head of the secret intelligence agency and now reborn as the ‘Empire’s Prime Minister’, replied.

“The agreement will be upheld.”

He said, leisurely sipping black tea in front of the Holy Kingdom’s envoy.

“However, the demilitarized zone where the Germania Duchy is stationing its troops is not, strictly speaking, the territory of the Holy Kingdom, is it?”

That place was the Duchy’s territory where the Germania Duchy had been defeated in a war once called ‘the war to end all wars,’ and had withdrawn its troops as the price of defeat.

And needless to say, that war did not end all wars.

“Unless the Duchy directly invades the Holy Kingdom’s territory, we need to examine a bit more whether that action corresponds to the ‘military action’ mentioned in the agreement.”

“Are you seriously spewing such nonsense right now! How absurdly massive our losses were in that place─!”

“The appearance of the Black Serpent was a tragedy for all of us in many ways.”

Oswald Rabbit, the Queen’s Rabbit, replied. In any case, he displayed an attitude of being unable to actively respond to the Germania Duchy’s military provocations.

Therefore, for the Holy Kingdom, which had believed the Empire would establish a joint front as promised, it was truly a bolt from the blue.

Even more so in a situation where they had suffered irreversible losses at the serpent’s hands at the expo that day.

“However, as long as the Germania Duchy also claims justification for their actions, we need to reconsider this situation more carefully.”

*

“Heil Whitley!”

“Heil Germania!”

Along the grand boulevard of Germania’s capital, a carriage drawn by steel horses was parading.

They were not living animals, but horses made of mechanical devices like clockwork and steel components. It was an automatic carriage from Mercedes, led by four steam horses puffing steam instead of snorting.

The man in the carriage was Gustadolph Whitley, the Duchy’s Leader─. More precisely, he was my subordinate, imitating him.

The people of the Duchy, completely unaware of this fact, simultaneously saluted Ergo in the Duchy’s style, displaying boundless patriotism.

Ergo of Artifice, 13th in the organization’s hierarchy.

We blended into the crowd and silently watched the scene.

Along with the considerable number of Black Serpent comrades gathering there one by one.

There was once a war that left indelible scars on this continent.

A war so brutal it engulfed the entire continent, a war of such scale that it was called ‘the war to end all wars.’

The Germania Duchy was the defeated nation in that very war.

And furthermore, what frustrated their victory and brought peace to the world was─ the player from the previous work.

It was the exploits of the hero I myself raised.

And I was about to break the peace brought by the hero I had raised, with my own hands once more.

“Losers.”

The carriage came to an abrupt halt during the procession. Along with it, mechanical devices installed throughout the capital for propaganda and agitation transmitted the Leader’s voice.

“Defeated nation.”

The voice was by no means passionate. Rather, it was cold, quiet, and composed.

“Someone will define this nation and its people as such.”

Furthermore, his words could not inspire any audience.

“─Who, pray tell? The nobles of the Bretona Empire? The priests of the Holy Kingdom? The lords of the Northern Alliance?”

Instead, they were merely words that probed and wounded the deeply ingrained sense of defeat in those nations.

“Nein!”

It *should* have been that way.

“Today, as a patriot of the Duchy, I bring news that will gladden all of you! Today, we have earned the right to defend our own borders! Our beloved Duchy’s Guard has stationed troops on the western border! But tell me, who calls us losers? Who obstructs and halts this nation’s will and actions? Where, then, is this ‘someone’ who calls us losers?!”

The Leader shouted. It wasn’t Ergo. It was *solely* the Leader’s voice.

“That ‘someone’ is only ourselves! That ‘someone’ is the weakness hidden like a parasite within us, the sense of defeat growing like a tumor deep in our souls, and the rat-like cowardice gnawing away at our pride!”

By then, the streets had once again become a cauldron of fervor. I watched the man there with emotionless eyes. Who was that being existing as right now? Ergo? The Leader? I couldn’t tell. And it didn’t matter.

“From now on, I will no longer listen to the voice of the who gnaws at our souls! Listen only to your own voices! You must do the same! Entirely with our voices, with our will, with our actions!”

“……”

The world would once again fall into irreversible chaos, and within that chaos, people would once again yearn for a ‘hero.’

It was unknown whether that would be the 18 heroes in the mausoleum, or the 20th hero who had yet to appear, or the who was the only one not to appear from the mausoleum.

But at the very least, someone would definitely appear.

To fulfill their role as a hero, as humanity wished.

This was like entering a tiger’s den to catch a tiger.

Moreover, the hunter who enters the tiger’s den does not enter to be eaten.

It was for the hunt.

*

That night, at a luxury hotel in Germania’s capital.

As a considerable number of Black Serpent members gathered, someone spoke up.

“Ah, as expected, it seems the border dispute with the Holy Kingdom will intensify.”

I nodded silently at Golden Mirror’s report.

“Jeanne.”

“……Leader.”

After nodding, I called out to her, who was there.

In the appearance of the woman once called the , one could no longer find the nobility and purity of those days.

As if trying to forget her past self, she adorned and decorated her body with luxurious and extravagant jewels and ornaments, almost bordering on obsession─ revealing her feminine beauty without reserve.

As if to affirm all the desires and beauty of this world.

“When the conflict with the Holy Kingdom truly begins, you will reveal that, as the ‘Holy Maiden,’ you were abandoned by the Kingdom and defected to the Duchy’s side.”

“It would be an unparalleled card to pressure the Holy King.”

“……Political matters are difficult, so I don’t really understand.”

“Don’t worry, junior! Alice doesn’t understand them much either!!”

Aria and I exchanged words, and Holy Maiden Jeanne replied calmly. Let’s pretend I didn’t hear Alice’s words.

It had always been like that. She simply didn’t understand politics. She followed without understanding. Then and now.

“I will simply follow orders. Whatever orders you give me─.”

As if a child simply didn’t want to know complex and difficult-to-understand things.

She simply lost interest like that and turned her eyes back to the jewels adorning her.

“Hehe, more importantly, this jewel is truly beautiful.”

As if nothing else pleased her but the mesmerizing glow emitted by the jewel.

“I want earrings made from this jewel.”

“Well, well, Lady Jeanne certainly has an eye for beauty.”

As soon as he saw it, Golden Mirror smiled and replied. A man who was among the most extravagant on the continent, whose very moniker used the word ‘gold’.

“The Koh-i-Noor. It’s a jewel whose name means ‘Mountain of Light.’ Incidentally, it’s so rare that it symbolizes the Bretona Empire’s Queen. It can only be found in the elves’ forest, the Great Forest.”

“Mountain of Light, truly it lives up to its name……”

She, the Holy Maiden, still loved light. But that light was no longer the light of faith. Nor was it starlight.

“It was what prompted the Bretona Empire to establish the and begin plundering the Great Forest.”

Watching this, the Dark Elf, Selena of the Dark Moon, frowned.

The elves’ forest, the Great Forest. The nation that the elves living there called the .

Now, the elves’ land was occupied by the Bretona Empire, under the colonial rule of their Queen.

“Oh, Alina. ─I just had a good idea.”

Just then, Jeanne spoke respectfully to the Immortal Sword Princess.

“Let’s get matching earrings made from this jewel. They’ll surely suit you well, Alina.”

“Lady Jeanne……”

“Because you, Alina, are so beautiful.”

Jeanne smiled in front of the Sword Princess, who trailed off, worried about her. She did not deny the loveliness of the immortal body.

“……”

At the Holy Maiden’s expectant smile, Alina said nothing. She couldn’t.

Nothing would change. Both she and I had already fallen into this pit of evil, covered in mud and filth.

It was a quagmire named the Black Serpent.