Ch.180Pride in Vanity (7)

A secret passage located beneath the academy.

Ancient remnants surround it, sheltering the darkness.

The pitch-black depths resemble dawn, invisible to ordinary eyes.

Yet, for those who serve sinister entities, it feels as comfortable as home.

For them, night was a time to unleash their seething desires.

In the thick silence, intruders were marching.

“Hmm.”

No.

More precisely, they had been marching.

Splash-.

Beneath a firmly planted step, ripples spread across a pool of blood.

No, could it even be called merely a pool?

A sea of blood stretched across the basement floor.

“Gack…”

“Ugh, urk.”

“……grr, ack.”

Groans echoed from all around.

Whether fortunate or unfortunate,

Those who had only lost limbs were still writhing with their pathetic bodies.

With each movement, the ripples in the crimson pond spread noisily.

Yet, even that would cease in an instant.

Slash-!

A silver afterimage traces a line from somewhere.

One straight stroke slits the throats of the intruders.

Then, the severed heads rise all at once.

The blood spraying like fountains and the scene resembling rainfall was, paradoxically, beautiful.

The intense scent of blood, scattered intestines, and the deep red mirror spread across the floor.

Everything was mesmerizing.

“This… doesn’t even count as a warm-up?”

A horrific scene.

At its center stood none other than a man.

He was standing calmly in the sea of blood.

Yet not even a single stain marked his sleeves.

With only the redness of his hair, he rotated his shoulders as if working out a kink.

His reaction was infinitely composed.

“What good is having numbers? They’re all weaklings anyway.”

A full 3,000 people.

That was the number of intruders who had planned to attack the academy today.

Including the chimeras they had released, their total force would have easily exceeded 10,000.

An unfathomable difference in power.

But.

“I thought there’d be at least one Apostle, though.”

The man had stopped them.

Single-handedly, without a scratch, in an instant.

The scene was like something from a dream.

Even in the darkness that had descended to the depths, the man’s sword shone.

The starlight swirled brilliantly.

“Tsk… and this was my debut performance after six years.”

A scene closer to a massacre.

Meanwhile, the man was smacking his lips as if disappointed.

He was remarkably relaxed, but that very composure was overwhelming.

The fox watching the situation held her breath.

‘……So this is the Red Sword Star.’

The Red Sword Star.

A figure known to have reached the highest night sky in all of human history.

Though he had retired from active duty and time had passed, his starlight remained unfaded.

Irene reflected on the momentary strike that had been dazzling.

The afterglow of the flashing light had not yet faded.

“……Amazing.”

“Hmm?”

Perhaps he heard that small mutter.

Kyle laughs heartily.

It was his usual, somewhat frivolous laugh.

“Hahaha! Such a reaction makes me shy!”

“Shy seems inappropriate, considering how flashy you were.”

“Even this is far inferior compared to the Commander’s skill.”

“That’s certainly true.”

Light conversation passing between them.

But perhaps because of the corpses lying around,

The atmosphere was ordinary yet alien.

The red-haired man smiled faintly.

“Besides, aren’t you capable of this now too?”

“……”

“If my intuition isn’t wrong, it seems you’ve also reached the stars.”

“It just happened. About 80% was thanks to that person’s help.”

“Regardless of how it came about.”

Kyle shrugs his shoulders.

Then, he sheathes the sword he had wielded.

The brilliant starlight had already disappeared.

“You’ve also risen to the night sky.”

“……The night sky, huh.”

“Soon you’ll surpass even me.”

“That’s unrealistic.”

“Well, you’re still inexperienced. But I can feel it. The fact that quiet waves wash upon your star.”

“……”

“At first I wondered. I couldn’t understand why the Commander took in such an ordinary child, but now I get it. He recognized your potential.”

Potential.

The fox contemplates that resonance.

Kyle lightly pats Irene’s shoulder.

“So, cheer up.”

“……”

“Because he needs your light.”

After that.

The man turns around without lingering.

The steps of the old era advance, treading on corpses and blood.

But the new generation briefly stares at his back.

‘Someday.’

The fox made a promise.

That someday she too would reach as high as him… no, even higher into the sky.

That she would live through the world’s karma with such brilliant starlight.

That she would stand proudly beside the boy.

Step-.

The girl’s steps move forward.

In her tightly clenched fist, white flames flickered.

***

The cultists were utterly annihilated.

In the end, their attack on the academy came to nothing.

The tactical nuke that was appropriately deployed proved its destructive power by eliminating the dangerous elements.

I was watching the situation through a crystal ball.

The fluttering starlight was truly beautiful.

“Master.”

“Ah.”

Just as I was momentarily lost in thought.

A slender voice calls to me.

Standing beside me was a silver-haired girl bathed in moonlight.

She was the Vice Commander who had been tasked with the remaining cleanup.

While my attention was elsewhere, the situation on this side seemed to have been concluded as well.

“It’s finished. I’ve handled everything to ensure there are no complications.”

“Thank you for your hard work again, Miss Neria.”

“I merely followed your will.”

“Always so faithful.”

Swish-.

I gently stroke her head.

Her hair beneath my fingertips.

Following that, her white face instantly flushes red.

Unlike her usual rigid demeanor, at times like this she was every bit a young girl.

I deliberately teased her by poking her cheeks.

Our Vice Commander finally sinking.

“M-Master…”

“Hmm?”

“In this state, I-I simply cannot give my report…”

“I like that Miss Neria is always so inexperienced. It makes you fun to tease.”

“Y-You flatter me.”

“Shall we hear the report then?”

Neria returns to her businesslike attitude.

The girl calmly summarizes the situation.

Most of the knights under the family have been neutralized.

Especially those who worked directly under the family head, the “Awls” or whatever they were called, have all been eliminated.

From what I heard, they had been committing all sorts of dirty deeds under Deron’s orders.

Additionally, the heads of elders and close associates who contributed to the betrayal have all fallen.

The only ones spared were those who had not betrayed the Venatti name.

However, their numbers were so few they could be counted on one’s fingers.

In short.

‘Is it over?’

The Venatti had fallen.

A pillar supporting the Empire.

The guardians of the Blue Winter.

On one hand, a bloodline second in nobility only to the Imperial family.

Such a proud story had finally reached its last chapter.

As the translator who put a period to their tale, I looked down at the ink spread across my palm.

Downfall is such a fleeting thing.

Whooosh-.

The gentle scent of winter wafts through.

I look around at the tranquil world still draped in dawn.

The snow field untouched by light flows in quiet beauty.

The things of today that have not yet fallen asleep, heading toward a tomorrow that will no longer exist.

I contemplate the complicated aftertaste.

‘Amelia.’

My eyes naturally stop before the girl.

A girl with blue hair that matches winter.

I hold my breath for a moment.

“……”

The girl was standing still, looking down at her feet.

What lay on the floor was a frozen piece of meat.

None other than her uncle.

‘I see.’

I quietly stepped back.

The look in the vain girl’s eyes seemed like it would crumble at any moment.

However, that suffering was not something I could share with her.

Nor should I share it.

I merely observe.

‘Deron Venatti.’

The villainess’s uncle.

Though he had betrayed them, he was once a beloved family member.

It would be a shallow lie to say her feelings weren’t complicated.

The girl bites her lip.

-Deron Venatti was a good chess piece.

-Didn’t I tell you? It was all a plot orchestrated by our side.

She learned that the cult was behind his betrayal.

Perhaps her uncle could have taken a different path.

The twins, too, might have had another way.

The bitterness after a tragedy always gnaws at the heart.

The casual “what if” stabs at the heart.

Amelia’s shoulders tremble slightly.

“Uncle… no, Deron Venatti.”

The girl doesn’t crumble.

She has accumulated much experience and countless frustrations.

Her matured reason accepts the bitterness.

Her trembling voice resonates with composure.

“Your crimes will be recorded in history.”

Amelia knew.

Even if the cult had orchestrated the corruption, what followed was clearly Deron’s responsibility.

He disposed of those loyal to the family and restrained the twins so they couldn’t escape.

Finally, with the greed to become Emperor, he tried to overthrow the Empire.

She didn’t want to attach any melodrama to such consequences.

“The pride you abandoned has tainted us all.”

Extinguished breath.

The girl was facing the adult she had feared.

No longer a child, but an adult herself.

There wasn’t even a tremor in her long breath.

“Those who remain will bear that sin. The Venatti name will no longer be honorable, but remembered with the stigma of betrayal. There is no glory left in this bloodline.”

However.

“I will gladly bear that name.”

A name that no longer shines.

Merely a mark of a sinner.

Nevertheless, the girl says she will bear it.

It wasn’t for the sake of the Duke and Duchess who had departed early, nor for the traitor who fell for the cult’s tricks.

It was solely for herself.

“Because this is my pride.”

The essence now forgotten.

The title that Venatti held and the value the girl admired.

Though the brilliant glory would disappear, the will of the ancestors would not be broken.

Indeed, will is not passed down through family or glory, but from person to person.

The villainess stood amidst the collapsed honor.

Above all, she had not lost her pride.

“I will be different from you.”

A final utterance.

Whether emotions had risen, the girl’s voice was choked.

But the steadfastness in her eyes remained unchanged.

Through the half-open window, the wind brushes past.

Whooosh-.

A name that will now remain as a page in history.

The vain girl was standing upon it.

With the winter fluttering and the pride she had finally affirmed.

She was no longer the jealous brat from the academy.

She was an adult.

“My Lady.”

I stand beside the girl with careful steps.

As if tension had been released, Amelia leans her shoulder against me.

I support her with gently opened arms.

A soft whisper in her ear.

“You’ve worked hard.”

“……”

The vain girl buried her face silently.

I patted her fragile back while embracing her warm body.

The dawn brightening outside the window seemed to signal an end.

We stood there for a long time in the morning that was about to disappear.

[EP31.Venatti]

-Betrayed pride, unfading light-

And so.

The episode concluded.