episode_0049

That dawn, at the luxury hotel’s ballroom.

Beneath the dark, starless and moonless dawn sky, the place was filled with brilliant light.

She, who loved light, was there. She had no thought of leaving, even as the night deepened into dawn.

“Look, that woman, isn’t she that Saintess-nim…?”

“Snap out of it, you idiot. Look at that dress. There’s no way the Saintess-nim would wear such a whore-like outfit!”

“To adorn her entire body with so many jewels—doesn’t she know moderation? How vulgar.”

“Hmph, it’s obvious she’s a whore who latched onto a rich man and is obsessed with luxury. There’s no trace of dignity to be found, even if you clean your eyes to look.”

“Right, as far as I know, the Saintess-nim is modest and doesn’t know luxury…”

She paid no mind to the whispers of the people directed at her.

She simply loved the light of luxury that enveloped her there, beneath the chandelier’s glow, shining brighter than the night sky.

That light was whiter, nobler, and purer than anything she had ever seen.

Alina watched her silently.

Dressed in a gown no less revealing than the Saintess’s, openly exposing her back, waist, and cleavage. She too flaunted all manner of luxurious jewels.

“Miss Alina, let’s dance.”

“……”

Alina took the hand extended by the Saintess. But she couldn’t call her by name. Why? In front of these people, she didn’t want to call her by name.

She didn’t want them to know who she was.

“Am I, perhaps, embarrassing you?”

Then, as if seeing through her true feelings, Jeanne smiled and asked. Alina bit her lip hard. After biting, she asked back.

“Jeanne-nim… what do you think?”

“I am free.”

Jeanne replied.

“As if I could fly.”

Free, she says? Even while being bound by a crest of obedience to that man, claiming to be a slave, she speaks of freedom? Or perhaps, it is precisely because she has become so that she can finally speak of it?

“Freedom is servitude, after all.”

“……”

“I am a puppet who cannot move even a single finger by my own will.”

Freedom is servitude.

Saying so, the Saintess of Servitude smiled and spoke.

“Someone must wrap strings around my body, and control the strings tied to my limbs to move me, only then can I freely dance and frolic on the stage. Now, watch—”

“Je-Jeanne-nim?!”

As if that were the freedom of a puppet—.

After speaking, Jeanne danced on the stage with Alina, her movements appearing extremely violent. As if forcefully drawn by her movements, Alina also matched her steps.

Before long, the gazes of the people in the ballroom were fixed on them.

“She just said Jeanne-nim…”

“What? Oh, no way.”

“Ha, it must just be a whore’s stage name!”

Carelessly uttered voices flowed out, and some nobles who heard them whispered.

“You disgusting harlot!”

And among them, a man whose face was flushed red from drink, exceptionally so, shouted again as if to make sure they heard.

“Even a woman who knows nothing but selling her body has a duty to uphold! Are you, not content with stealing the noble Saintess-nim’s name to fawn over men, planning to commit indecency with another woman?! You truly know no shame!”

“Ah, Lord Alfred! Calm yourself!”

That voice, raised by drink, was more than enough to ruin the ballroom’s festive mood.

Jeanne’s dance stopped. Right there. Alina also stopped moving and silently held her breath.

In her bewilderment, the future she foresaw was the death of the drunken man, his neck severed by Jeanne’s sword, before long. It couldn’t be otherwise.

Because the woman standing there was not the Saintess of the past.

“You…”

Amidst the insults directed at her, the Black Serpent asked.

“It seems, you know quite a bit about the Saintess.”

Not angered, not flustered, but simply in a voice full of too much benevolence.

“That’s right, you harlot! I, Alfred! As a devout and deeply faithful follower of the Goddess’s religion, did you think I would tolerate such an act of desecration against her?!”

“You mean you will not tolerate acts that disgrace the Saintess?”

“That’s right!”

“Yes, I see……”

Nodding, the Saintess Jeanne smiled.

“Truly, I thank you.”

It was a noble and benevolent smile, befitting her name.

“Your feelings have been clearly conveyed.”

“Wh-what did you say?”

For a moment, the drunken noble blinked, wondering what she was saying.

In the face of the smile she showed, that smile overflowing with benevolence and mercy, he could no longer understand why he had been furiously raging just moments before.

“Ah, I’m glad you understand! Even now, repent and…”

It was at that very moment.

“—Have you forgotten your orders?”

Suddenly, the air in the vicinity grew heavy.

An ominous and heavy atmosphere, incomparable to what was there moments before, swallowed the ballroom. Instinctively realizing its true nature, Alina shivered from the chill running down her spine.

“Ah, Commander. It was you.”

The man appeared. He was wearing a raincoat. The Saintess Jeanne smiled calmly, unperturbed.

“Is there a new order? Then, please tell me.”

As that man’s puppet, a slave who claimed servitude without thinking of anything, she asked.

“I will carry out any order you give me.”

“Then why aren’t you carrying it out?”

“What order are you speaking of?”

Jeanne tilted her head innocently. The man remained silently. It was at that very moment.

“Gasp, choke…!”

The man who had been insulting the Saintess and was drunk just moments before, suddenly clutched his own throat and fell to his knees on the spot. Grabbing his neck and chest as if unable to breathe properly, he thrashed like a fish out of water.

“No matter what—do not let the Serpent’s name be defiled.”

Even amidst that, the man did not even glance at him, but gazed at the Saintess Jeanne.

“That man insulted you. You haven’t forgotten who you are, have you?”

“Of course not.”

Jeanne replied.

“I am the Black Serpent.”

“Then why did you let him insult us?”

With that name, feelings of dismay arose from the surroundings. Whether those words were true or not, it didn’t matter. Such was the weight of the Serpent’s name in this world.

The people who filled the ballroom vanished as if by an ebbing tide. They fussed in confusion as if a fire had broken out.

Among them, no one approached the man who had fallen and was struggling. His eyes, flailing on the floor and begging for help, soon turned towards Jeanne, who stood before him. They were eyes pleading to be saved.

“The one he disgraced and insulted was neither the Serpent nor the Saintess.”

Jeanne replied, silently gazing at the man who was pleading with her. Before long, the man’s thrashing ceased, like a puppet with its strings cut.

“He merely believed I was a harlot impersonating the Saintess.”

“…Do you think you can define yourself that way now?”

“It’s not my thought. That man merely thought so. That’s why I let it be.”

“……”

“Please forgive me, Commander. My ignorance and foolishness in not understanding your will.”

Jeanne said.

“And so that I do not repeat the same foolishness, bind my body even more strongly with new strings. Subjugate me even more strongly. For I cannot think for myself.”

The man did not reply. A brief silence descended.

“W-wait, Commander! Jeanne-nim’s meaning was, well, that is…”

Then, breaking the silence, the Immortal Sword Princess—Alina—opened her mouth. To defend her.

“Enough.”

The man shook his head, as if to say it was enough.

“…As soon as day breaks, we will leave Germania and head for the Holy Kingdom.”

The man said, shaking his head.

The Saintess’s homeland, a country that revered the stars above. A nation that had once suffered irreversible wounds at the hands of the Black Serpent and was now, amidst those after-effects, poised to become the stage for a new era of turmoil.

“Both of you, decide on another ‘name’ by then.”

A name. Understanding its meaning, Alina bit her lip.

“As the Black Serpent, a name that can define yourselves to the people of the world.”

The man with the name of Original Sin said.

The Saintess and the Sword Princess did not reply immediately. They couldn’t reply.

For it was not something that could be answered overnight. Nor was it an event of an uncertain future.

It was simply, in the not-so-distant future.

*

The western border of the Grand Duchy of Germania.

Along with the army that filled the demilitarized zone where no troops could be stationed due to the terms of defeat, there was a man leading the legions of death.

The leader, who commanded the Duchy’s proudest and strongest necromancer organization, preparing for the border conflict with the Holy Kingdom, which was certain to occur within days.

“Hehe, Uncle Hydra has six heads!”