episode_0010

Regardless of what the Empire was plotting and planning in that underground auction house, my task was set from the beginning.

To obtain the abandoned hero of the Holy Kingdom, the Holy Maiden Jeanne.

A character who graced the cover title of the Heroic Century’s 20th-anniversary new release, and a clue to the core story of this work. Those reasons alone were more than enough to obtain her.

At the same time, that was precisely where it ended.

I had no immediate information on what would happen next, or how she would become the center of the story.

Now, it was time to find out.

“Ugh, mmph…”

The Holy Maiden, tossing and turning with sleep talk, opened her eyes.

The first sight she saw upon opening her eyes was the leader of the villain group who had just unleashed mass slaughter at the auction house, and their second-in-command, standing amicably side-by-side, looking down at her.

“!”

As soon as she saw us, her expression froze, turning pale. Indeed, I would probably react the same way.

“You’ve opened your eyes.”

“Y-you people…!”

She stopped mid-sentence, realizing that the clothes she was wearing had been changed while she slept.

“W-what did you do to my body?!”

“Nothing in particular.”

I said. Incidentally, it was Aria who had changed her clothes.

Nevertheless, the Holy Maiden Jeanne did not lower her guard, retreating to a corner and glaring at us.

“Aria.”

“Yes, Leader-nim.”

“Please step out for a moment.”

“…Understood.”

Aria bowed silently and withdrew. Only I and the Holy Maiden Jeanne remained in the room.

“What do you wish for me to do?”

“!”

After speaking, I stretched out my arm, and a shimmering pattern of magic on the back of my hand emitted a purple glow. At the same time, the same purple light rippled and enveloped the Holy Maiden’s body.

It didn’t specifically bind her or cause her pain. Yet, she couldn’t possibly not know its meaning.

“The Mark of Obedience…!”

“As you see.”

A mark used to brand slaves, binding and subjugating them with magic, allowing the master to freely control the brand and prove ownership of the slave.

“It wasn’t us who etched the brand. We merely obtained it there.”

I said.

“Your homeland abandoned you.”

Calmly.

“Holy King Charles sold you.”

“H-Holy King Your Majesty?”

Just the plain truth.

“After that, the Empire colluded with the Holy Kingdom, kidnapped you, and put you up as merchandise in the Empire’s underground auction. You were going to be sold here to the Empire’s high-ranking officials as a slave.”

“That can’t be…”

The girl named Holy Maiden’s voice trembled, trailing off.

“It’s true.”

“Are you telling me to believe the words of the Black Serpent?!”

Hearing that, I scoffed.

“Do you truly need to believe ‘someone’s words’ to know?”

“…What?”

“Do you have no intention of thinking with your own will, rather than someone else’s words, to find the answer?”

“How dare you speak, knowing what of me?”

The Holy Maiden glared at me coldly.

“I know very well.”

I answered, unperturbed.

“You are a slave.”

“!”

“A slave who believed the goddess’s voice, believed the Holy King’s words, and lived her entire life obediently according to the will of the strong, never thinking anything with her own will.”

My story didn’t end there.

“That’s why, even after being betrayed by the Holy King, kidnapped by the Empire, and on the verge of being sold as a slave, you still can’t grasp the situation and suspect those who saved you.”

“…”

“Yet you suspect nothing of what you should truly suspect.”

At my words, the Holy Maiden bit her lip quietly. So hard that blood drew.

“I, I…”

She wouldn’t be a fool either. Even if she didn’t want to, she would have to know.

The fact that she had been abandoned by everyone.

“That day, the goddess clearly told me—”

Hearing that, I let out a hollow laugh and asked.

“Where is she now?”

“What did you—?”

“The goddess, I mean.”

“How dare you attempt to profane the goddess’s name—!”

At her words, the Holy Maiden’s voice turned cold. I paid no heed.

“Abandoned by the kingdom, sold to the Empire, until you became a tool for the sexual gratification of disgusting pigs who think only of defiling and violating you, where exactly was she, and what was she doing?”

“—”

“Or do I look like a goddess?”

I asked. The Holy Maiden did not answer. No, she was no longer La Pucelle. She was merely a discarded dog who had lost her usefulness.

“I’ll ask again. What do you desire?”

“…”

“Do you wish to continue living the life of a slave, as you have until now?”

“I, I…”

Jeanne’s voice was trembling. It was a wandering voice, unable to find its way amidst a delusion even she couldn’t comprehend.

“—What I desire is.”

“The Holy Kingdom abandoned you. They won’t tolerate your existence, knowing the truth.”

The Empire, too, would not wish to expose their hidden shame.

The two most powerful nations on the continent do not wish for her survival. Even a fool would understand what that implies.

“There is no place for you to return to.”

As she was now, she had no place to return to, nor anyone to trust and rely on.

“Then what in the world… should I do?”

The brown-haired country girl asked.

As a slave craves an unquestioning answer and blind faith.

“Join us.”

So I answered.

“!”

At those words, Jeanne asked back with a trembling voice.

“Are you telling me to become a Black Serpent now?”

“As I said, I force nothing upon you.”

I compel nothing.

“It is a decision you must make purely with your own will and thought.”

At least, she needed to feel that way.

“I can also release the Mark of Obedience etched into you and send you away as you are.”

“!”

“Do you wish for that?”

At those words, Jeanne’s eyes blinked once, as if tempted. But then she immediately realized.

That even if she gained freedom now, there was no longer any place she could return to.

Rather, the Black Serpent before her was the only ark through which she could survive now.

“Why are you doing all this for me?”

“Because you are useful.”

“…”

It wasn’t a lie. She was certainly useful.

At the same time, even I didn’t yet know the full extent of her usefulness. That’s why I needed to keep her by my side and observe.

Because with her presence, the Empire and the Holy Kingdom would surely make a move, using whatever means necessary, regarding the Holy Maiden.

“Whether you will join us, or become a free person.”

I said.

“The decision is yours.”

Two decisions she could make by her own will.

Hearing those words, Jeanne bit her lip again. As she bit, blood trickled down.

***

A few days after the underground auction house incident.

After the residential area where the highest echelons of the Imperial Capital lived was devastated in the name of the Black Serpent, the entire continent was turned upside down.

With a stack of magazines on the table, ceaselessly reporting on the incident of that day, the elderly gentleman opened his mouth.

“Trying to catch two rabbits, we ended up losing both.”

“Well, didn’t we at least catch one rabbit properly?”

With the setting sun at her back, a girl standing at the cusp of childishness and maturity responded.

“The cancer in this country that needs to be completely excised.”

“And as a result, it seems we’ve invited a new tumor.”

“It is the law that poison must be subdued by poison.”

“Even so, that poison didn’t need to be the Black Serpent.”

“No, it had to be them.”

The elderly gentleman stirred his black tea with a teaspoon, speaking worriedly.

“Do not treat that name too lightly.”

The girl with the setting sun at her back asked, unconcerned.

“Why did the Black Serpent spare the Holy Maiden instead of killing her?”

“They are unpredictable individuals, Your Majesty.”

Your Majesty. There was only one ‘girl’ in this country who could be called that.

“And as I have repeatedly stated, I could never condone Your Majesty’s plan. I still can’t.”

“That’s right, all of this is my responsibility.”

The girl with the setting sun at her back nodded, not denying it.

“And it is a ‘plan’ executed in my name.”

Without turning her head away from anything in front of her.

“Everything the sun of this country illuminates is my mission, and what I must bear.”

As if the sun at her back were the very duty she had to bear.

“—For now, let’s focus on dealing with the Holy Maiden according to the contract with the Holy Kingdom.”

“Please, this old man implores you. Never treat the name of the Black Serpent lightly, Your Majesty.”

“I understand, Oswald. You’ll wear out my ears at this rate.”

In front of the elderly gentleman who repeated the same words as if to wear out her ears, the girl replied with a wry smile.

“My dear Rabbit.”

Oswald Rabbit.

The head of the Bretona Empire’s Secret Intelligence Department and the trusted confidant known as 《The Queen’s Rabbit》 bowed his head.

Towards the Queen of this country, whom he had served his entire life, and the girl who bore the sun.