episode_0044

The ducal underground waterway reeked of sewage. Ignoring the hordes of rats scurrying out of the tunnel with squeaking sounds, I silently moved forward.

Just because I let the Saintess go didn’t mean I lost sight of her.

In fact, in a sense, she had never left my sight until now.

The uniform of the Black Serpent I gave Jeanne—it wasn’t just for show.

“Hmm, I smell it! The scent of darkness!”

Sniff sniff, Alice said, taking a sniffing stance in the darkness.

“It’s close!”

No sooner had she spoken than the shadow at Alice’s feet grinned, its mouth tearing open.

“─It seems there are uninvited guests as well.”

It wasn’t difficult to guess their identities.

“The task is the same.”

Nothing had changed. I stepped forward, avoiding a few rats loitering at my feet, and that’s when it happened.

Crunch!

There was a sound of something being swallowed. Exactly from beneath our feet.

“……”

“……Why, why?”

“……It’s nothing.”

I turned my head, and Alice turned away, unable to meet my gaze.

The shadow at my feet had an unknown red liquid, like ketchup, smeared around its mouth.

What on earth did it eat?

Because I really didn’t want to hear the full details of what it was, I decided to just pretend I didn’t know.

“─Who goes there!”

So, I paid it no mind and continued walking. Soon enough, we encountered others traversing the underground waterway with the same purpose as us. It was obvious at a glance, even if they weren’t wearing lavishly shining steel armor.

Their dark brown tanned leather clothing and stiletto daggers spoke to the nature of the mission they were undertaking.

“Have you come to pursue the Saintess’s whereabouts?”

“And you bastards……!”

“Stand down.”

“What did you say?!”

Watching them all simultaneously place their hands on their sword hilts, I paid them no mind. I took a cigarette from my pocket, put it in my mouth, and lit the tip. After lighting it, I replied.

“No, it’s fine.”

They wouldn’t listen anyway.

“Alice.”

“Yes!”

The already blood-stained shadow at her feet grinned widely.

“Handle it.”

“I’ve been waiting for you to say that, Commander!!”

After speaking, I continued walking. I paid no attention to the Templar Knights blocking our path, treating them as if they weren’t even there from the start.

And behind me, Aria followed silently. As always, quietly, her eyes covered with black bandages.

“How dare you arbitrarily─.”

“This way, cherry pie uncles!!”

Just as they were about to readjust their sword hilts and aim their blades, the shadow at our feet moved faster.

Crunch!

“Sh-Shadow Devourer!”

“Wait! Surely these guys……!”

“Why is the Black Serpent─.”

The knights only realized the situation after a casualty occurred. They no longer had the luxury to pay attention to me as I passed by them. They were only desperate to survive.

“Could the rumors really be true……?”

I also had no time to waste indulging in Alice’s ‘special performance’.

So I moved.

Having come this far, it wasn’t difficult to find their whereabouts in the labyrinthine underground waterway.

Just as Alice said, I too ‘could feel’ it.

The mark of comrades wearing the same uniform, proof and symbol of the serpent.

“Have mercy on us……”

“Aaaaaah!”

Before long, behind us, a unilateral massacre was unfolding, something that couldn’t even be called a fight.

Perhaps I should have explained more clearly. Well, by now, even the act of asking them one by one felt tiresome. It was like an echo reverberating hollowly, without any meaning.

Leaving the echoing screams behind, I traversed the waterway tunnel once more.

Not far away, I sensed the presence of two individuals who showed no sign of fleeing.

Again, the distance narrowed.

“……”

She was there. They were there.

The Saintess and the Immortal Sword Maiden, two female swordsmen named Jeanne and Alina.

“You……”

“I came for an answer.”

In front of Alina, who made no effort to hide her blatant hostility, I spoke without concern. At my words, Jeanne silently bit her lip.

“What was it like, to turn the world into an enemy, to live a life of fleeing from the eyes of the world?”

“I heard about what you did at the World Expo.”

“Because there was something I had to do.”

I answered Jeanne’s question calmly.

“You bastard, what business do you have with Jeanne-nim?!”

At the same time, guarding her side, Alina coldly revealed her hostility. Exuding a pallor and sharp edge befitting the name, Death Knight.

“As I said, I came for an answer.”

“An answer, you say……”

After speaking, Alina turned to Jeanne. And before that gaze, Jeanne silently bit her lip.

“I’m sorry, Alina-yang.”

After biting it, she self-deprecatingly chuckled, devoid of strength.

“You can despise me, if you wish.”

“Despise you! How could I, the Saintess-nim……”

“I am not as beautiful or noble as Alina-yang.”

As if exposing her own flaws before her.

“What are you saying……?”

Alina blinked her eyes as if unable to understand.

Even in her shame, Jeanne spoke as if kneeling to an irresistible temptation.

“From the very beginning…… I counted down the days for this moment.”

“This moment, you say?”

“The day that man would claim me in their name.”

“!”

Alina silently swallowed. Her skin, already pale as a corpse, seemed to blanch even further. The Saintess paid no mind and self-deprecatingly chuckled.

“This uniform is theirs, given to me by that man.”

“Surely not……”

She must have vaguely realized it. That the uniform was by no means ordinary, but an absurd armory and artifact blessed by the Black Serpent.

At the same time, as if feeling her presence nearby, the crest engraved on the back of my hand glowed. The crest of magic. Comprehending its meaning and form, Alina gasped.

“A Crest of Obedience!”

Realizing it was what was also known as the Brand of Slave Obedience, Alina’s expression froze.

“You, what on earth have you done to the Saintess-nim……!”

“No, Alina-yang.”

However, the Saintess smiled, blocking the Immortal Sword Maiden.

“This is my will.”

Gently, as if taking the strength from her shoulder, restraining the Sword Maiden.

“I have lived my entire life as a slave and a puppet.”

“What do you mean……”

“One day, the goddess’s revelation suddenly descended, then the King’s command—I lived a life dictated solely by the powerful and influential people around me.”

“……”

“So, when I gained a freedom I didn’t know what to do with, I realized something.”

The Saintess Jeanne knelt before me. It was not a command from the crest nor anything else. It was an act born solely of her own will.

“That a life of obedient servitude was the form of life truly befitting me.”

The words Aria had whispered to her long ago came to mind.

“I like Jeanne-yang. And I like the way Jeanne-yang has lived her entire life.”

At that time, Aria must have known her true nature from the very beginning.

“How could this be……”

It wasn’t a long journey. However, Alina, who had shared hardships and joys with the Saintess throughout that journey, silently bit her lip.

It was that man, again.

As if taking away her beloved man and comrades wasn’t enough, that hateful man, now a ‘Death Knight’, had even stolen the only one who understood and affirmed her grotesque body.

It had to be this way.

“Come with me, Alina-yang.”

“……Yes?”

At the words that followed, she had to doubt her own ears.

“I will protect you, Alina-yang.”

“─.”

“So please, be with me.”

The Saintess said.

“It will be far better than the days of fleeing from people’s eyes, living in fear, evading pursuers, and killing them, day after day……”

“Becoming a Black Serpent and condoning their evil, you mean?”

“Yes.”

Jeanne smiled without denying it.

“At least, it’s better than now.”

I did not reply.

“A soft bed and blanket to lie on, a bathtub filled with hot water to soak in, no more spending nights awake in fear worrying about pursuers. Alina-yang, you too will be guaranteed a much better life than now.”

I couldn’t precisely know what kind of lives they had lived. However, judging by the scars etched on their faces, it wasn’t difficult to infer their hardships.

Especially now, with the pursuit of the Saintess intensifying after the Expo incident, it went without saying.

“For us, abandoned by the world, with no place in it…… there is only here now.”

“Saintess-nim……”

At those words, the Immortal Sword Maiden bit her lip.

“They’re here!”

At the same time, from the opposite direction of where we had come, individuals who appeared to be the ducal secret state police revealed themselves.

“Huhu, Alina-yang. You’ll never be able to escape!”

“!”

At the voice echoing from among them, the Immortal Sword Maiden unconsciously trembled with the fear engraved in her instincts.

“H-How?”

“Because Hydra Uncle has seven necks!”

Saying that, the man revealed himself.

Colonel Hydra Waltz of the Ducal Royal Guard, National Security Department, 4th Bureau, also known as ‘Carrion Vulture’.

His gentle smile made him seem like a very amiable man.