Ceres, Ceres Alkamine (1)

There was something Yona had talked about with Alec.

It would be difficult now, but after resolving the issue with Ceres, they should go somewhere together—

Burying the faded anger towards the Celestine Church somewhere, and leave.

The two of them should leave and live in a quiet place.

Just Alec and Yona, living happily and intimately in a quiet place.

‘For that to happen, I need to get rid of Ceres quickly.’

Yona thought as she sat in the chair with her chin resting on her hand.

The anger towards the Celestine Church had already cooled off.

Though there was still some lingering resentment towards the Celestine Church where Bigrand had become the Saintess, it was something that could be ignored to that extent.

‘I wonder when she’ll arrive.’

Yona already knew through Alevian that Ceres would be coming soon.

Ceres and Alevian had already parted ways, and Yona was aware that their goals had completely diverged.

Ceres, who wanted to use Yona as a vessel for the revival of the False Celestial Deity.

Ceres, who didn’t care what happened to the original Yona and wanted to revive the False Celestial Deity while leaving only Yona’s body behind.

In contrast, Alevian had wanted to gather the power of the False Celestial Deity in one place and revive the original body of the False Celestial Deity to transfer it there.

These two people had the same goal in terms of reviving the False Celestial Deity, but the results were too different.

Although the Celestial Deity had hinted that the revival of the False Celestial Deity was necessary before returning to the demon realm, she probably wouldn’t care about the outcome.

‘It’s unreasonable to rely on the Celestial Deity now.’

Yona’s thoughts about meeting the Celestial Deity were simply summarized.

A somewhat foolish deity, too stupid to be trusted and relied upon — that was Yona’s impression of the Celestial Deity.

It’s just a matter of dealing with Ceres.

It’s just a matter of making Ceres give up her goal, whether by killing her or making her abandon it.

Though it won’t be easy.

*

She thought it would be an easy task.

She didn’t even think it would be difficult.

For Ceres, the girl named Yona had always been clumsy, stupid, foolish, and lacking, so she was someone who could be easily persuaded with some vague words, and even used in reverse.

So even after coming to this Katus Empire, Ceres didn’t think too complexly.

Blaming the mistakes made by those stupid snakes on others, and then guiding it towards the next Grand Duke—

Ceres thought that would be enough to resolve everything without any problems.

The Katus Imperial Palace was visible in the distance.

Since Arami’s communication had been cut off in the palace and she had caused such an incident, Yona would probably still be staying in the palace.

“Greetings to His Majesty the Emperor… hmm, I suppose I can skip that?”

What was his name again?

Was it Aforzha Al Azrami?

He was quite an ambitious emperor.

Aforzha, the emperor of the Katus Empire which was in opposition to the Kapatia Empire of all human races, was someone who knew how to use his head, unlike those blockheads of the Prairie Gill Tribe. He was also someone who knew how to wait and how to scheme. That’s why he got along quite well with Ceres, and being clumsily clever, he was very good for Ceres to use.

That’s why Ceres wanted to make Yona a vessel at this point. The body of the False Celestial Deity would be difficult to use properly after such a long time anyway. Then it would be much better to awaken the False Celestial Deity in Yona’s young and fresh body.

Alevian was too straightforward in nature and lacked flexibility, and things moved as slow as a snail because he prioritized principles. What’s wrong with saving that stupid human world from being overrun and destroyed by the demon realm? And what’s wrong with using one human girl as a vessel in the process?

Hadn’t Alevian been constantly opposing, saying he didn’t like that and there was no need for such sacrifices? Even so, Ceres had been steadily progressing her plans like this.

‘It would have been better to acknowledge who was right by now.’

Ceres thought as she looked at the walls of the Katus Imperial Palace — Esima — slowly approaching in the distance.

What should she say when she first meets Yona? Should she say she came here guided by the Celestial Deity — but Yona already knows that Ceres is a divine official of the demon realm, and she has bad feelings towards the Celestine Church, so that won’t work either.

Should she say she felt an ominous energy?

Or should she say she came at the request of the Saintess?

‘I think it would be better to say I came at the request of the Saintess.’

Since they seem to be getting along well, it would be better to say that Ceres came here at the request of the Saintess.

It seems she has even subjugated Catsy, so if I add some praise saying how amazing that is, she’ll like it even more.

Ceres wasn’t worried about Yona.

If she just spoke well, manipulating her would be no problem at all.

“I’ve come from the Celestine Church. If you tell His Majesty the Emperor that I’m the head elder of the main branch of the Celestine Church territory, he’ll know.”

Ceres told the gatekeeper, thinking that the drawbridge leading to the palace seemed new compared to before — compared to when she left. Although she didn’t place much significance on it, since it was the imperial palace after all, it took quite a while for the gatekeepers to verify her identity.

“Please wait here for a moment. We’ll take care of the camel.”

At the palace gatekeeper’s words, Ceres handed over the camel’s reins to her attendant and yawned lightly.

With her abilities, sneaking into this palace would be no big deal. It would be much easier than turning over a child’s palm, but there was a reason for going through these troublesome procedures instead of doing that. If Yona were to lose her temper and cause trouble here, it would mean that Yona had been rude to a guest who had entered the palace with the emperor’s official permission.

It was a bit of a trick, but these little things add up to form quite a plausible foundation — that’s what Ceres believed.

“You may enter.”

After a long time, the gatekeeper finally delivered the news.

Of course, it was bound to happen that way.

Ceres followed a knight who seemed to belong to the palace guard corps, passing through the palace gate and entering inside. Though nothing much had changed in the scenery around her, there was a peculiar smell tickling her nose.

‘The smell of blood is strong…?’

Although it had been several days since the tragedy in the audience hall, and it had already been thoroughly cleaned, Ceres’s sensitive nose detected that faint scent of blood. Was there any reason for the scent of blood to linger in the palace?

‘…Did something happen?’

Without Alevian, there was no way to know what had happened. If Alevian were here at a time like this, he would have grasped the whole situation and come up with countermeasures, but now even that was impossible.

‘Did a rebellion occur? But most of the imperial family members are timid… I heard the Prairie Gill Tribe lost the civil war.’

While following the knight from the guard corps, Ceres glanced around slightly. Most of the palace maids visible around were snakes, which meant the imperial power was still with the Azrami. Yet there was this scent of blood.

‘I don’t know what happened…’

Meanwhile, the knight guided Ceres to the audience hall. And only then could Ceres notice the source of this faint scent of blood.

‘It seems something happened here.’

The door opened, and court ladies guided Ceres into the audience hall. As the knight bowed his head and slowly disappeared from view, the audience hall door closed, and Ceres looked around as she was guided to a table in the center of the hall.

“This way, please. His Majesty should be arriving soon.”

“Thank you.”

Waiting a little wasn’t a problem. But what had been bothering her from earlier — this intense scent of blood in the audience hall.

It was undoubtedly some time ago, but even Ceres couldn’t help but be concerned about this strong smell of blood.

What could have happened?

In her plan, she already knew that the simple ambush targeting Yona had failed.

Then Arami might have been executed.

She didn’t think Yona would have done something directly given her nature.

Should she casually ask about it when she meets the emperor—

‘Maybe it would have been better to appear in the form of that fortune teller.’

If she had done that, she could have met the emperor directly without needing to come to the audience hall unnecessarily.

But it was already too late, and there was no use regretting it now.

Ceres quietly closed her eyes and organized her thoughts.

What to talk about first when meeting the emperor — start with some talk about revoking the permission for Celestine Church’s missionary work, and then—

“His Majesty the Emperor enters—!”

Ceres’s eyes snapped open at the gatekeeper’s announcement.

The large wooden doors leading from the palace interior to the audience hall slowly opened, and Ceres’s eyes began to widen as she saw the shadow stretching long in the audience hall, backlit by the evening sunlight streaming in.

The emperor wearing the imperial crown and dressed in a red dragon robe.

The emperor’s appearance was not that of Aforzha whom Ceres knew.

It was clearly the imperial princess of the Azrami clan whom she had seen in the church territory.

The one whose name she could barely remember was standing there in the form of the emperor.

And the figure visible behind such an emperor was clearly—

‘…Yona…?’

Yona, dressed in black Saintess attire, was standing right behind the emperor with a cold smile.