◆
When we descended to the ground, Feri was there, wrapped in a membrane of light.
It was the protective barrier I had deployed just before throwing her away. Despite the tremendous heat and impact that had raged around her, not a single scorch mark marred her clothes. Feri had been crouched inside the barrier with her knees drawn in, but the moment she recognized me, she jerked her head up as if startled.
Her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes glistened with moisture.
「Young master……! Such a thing…… such a godlike feat……!」
Feri ran toward me. Her expression was close to that of a fanatic who had just witnessed a miracle performed by the god she worshiped.
「I have no words. That light was truly your very majesty made manifest. I, Feri, shall treasure this as the greatest honor of my life」
Feri knelt at my feet and prostrated herself, pressing her forehead against the toe of my boot.
Good grief, I sighed inwardly. No matter what I do, this one would react the same way. Even if I were simply hungry and my stomach growled, she would probably shed tears and say something like, ‘What a brave and beautiful sound’. If I took everything she said seriously, I would never last.
「Stand up. We are going home」
I pulled Feri close by the waist and leapt back into the sky.
Our destination was the royal capital. No, the inferior capital, Frostheim.
The scenery flowing beneath us was as white as ever, but my heart had already flown ahead to the imperial capital where Mother awaited me. I wanted to hurry back, drink the tea Mother brewed, and rest my head on her lap. That sweet fantasy alone was my only comfort in this bleak, frozen landscape.
◆
As we reached the skies above Frostheim, I noticed something strange about the city below.
People overflowed every street, moving back and forth like a column of ants. The noise that reached us on the wind was less like cheers and more like screams and angry shouts.
「Young master」
Feri spoke softly from within my arms.
She did not need to say more. From that single word, I understood her intent. The city was in chaos. Something unusual had happened.
Just as Feri can grasp my intentions from a single word, I can also read the situation from her brief remarks. That is the unspoken coordination between master and servant. Though really, it is simply that someone as gifted as I am can easily understand the thoughts of ordinary people.
But at the moment, whatever disturbance was happening in this city was of no more interest to me than dog filth on the roadside.
「As you wish」
I answered briefly. It meant do as you like, it does not matter.
「Just as you say. Let us go to the guild and collect the reward」
Feri nodded at once. Ignoring the chaotic noise around us, we descended in front of the Adventurers’ Guild.
Inside the guild was just as noisy, like a kicked beehive.
Armed adventurers shouted at one another, bristling with hostility, while the staff worked frantically with strained expressions. When we opened the door and stepped inside, the air froze for a brief moment, but the clamor quickly returned.
I let the noise wash past me like wind through willow branches and headed for the counter.
The receptionist, Schiff, stopped whatever she had been writing and looked at us with a pale face.
「Ah…. Ast-sama, Feri-sama….」
「We are here to report the completion of a request」
Feri took a pouch from her bosom and placed it on the counter. It landed with a heavy thud. Inside was the eyeball of a Frost Wyvern.
「Th-this is……」
「A confirmed part from a Frost Wyvern. Please verify it」
With trembling hands, Schiff opened the pouch and checked its contents. She inhaled sharply and looked up at us.
「I-it’s true…… b-but surely not with just the two of you……?」
「The reward」
When I cut in, Schiff flinched and hurried toward the vault.
After waiting several minutes, she returned carrying two heavy leather bags.
「Th-this is your reward. Two thousand gold coins…… p-please confirm」
「As you wish」
I gestured to Feri with my chin. She quickly checked the contents and bowed respectfully.
「There is no discrepancy」
「We’re leaving」
Our business was done. There was no reason to linger in a dusty place like this.
I turned on my heel and headed for the exit. I could hear the adventurers whispering behind me, but it was of no concern to me.
◆
When we stepped outside the guild, the uproar had grown even louder.
From beyond the main road, a group of soldiers approached, raising clouds of dust. No, calling them soldiers would be generous. They were a band of routed survivors.
Their armor was dented, their helmets missing, their weapons dragged along the ground. Despair and exhaustion were deeply etched into their faces.
At the center of them was a single wagon.
A cage was mounted on its bed, and inside it, a woman was confined.
She wore a tattered robe, with heavy shackles fastened to her arms and legs. Her hair was disheveled, her face darkened with soot, blood, and mud. She might once have been beautiful, but now she looked like nothing more than a filthy defeated captive.
「Look! It’s this woman!」
The soldier at the front shouted toward the crowd lining the road.
「This witch killed His Majesty Grunveld! She is a traitor who cowardly assassinated our king from behind!」
At those words, the crowd erupted.
「A king slayer!?」
「Unbelievable……!」
「Kill her! Kill that witch!」
Amid the curses, stones and rotten vegetables were hurled at the cage.
The woman, Aviana, did not move. She only stared vacantly into empty space. Even when a thrown stone struck her forehead and blood ran down, she showed no sign of pain.
I watched the scene with cold eyes.
Whether a king lived or died, and whoever the culprit might be, was none of my concern. A power struggle in a small frontier country like Norn was nothing more than a storm in a teacup.
Just as I was about to pass by, it happened.
The woman in the cage slowly turned her face and looked at me.
Within her face, smeared with mud and blood, only her eyes shone with an unnatural light.
The instant her gaze pierced me, something unpleasant ran up my spine.
「Hm」
I frowned without thinking.
──So it was her. The one who was watching me.
The owner of that unpleasant gaze I felt on the great ice field was this woman.
Sensing my displeasure, Feri silently stepped forward in front of me.
「Young master, is something the matter」
「That inferior slut」
I jerked my chin toward the woman in the cage.
「That filthy woman was watching me. What a disgusting, deviant inferior」
At my words, Feri’s eyes narrowed sharply. Her pupils contracted like needles, taking on a dangerous gleam.
「…I see」
Feri’s voice was calm, but the killing intent within it was enough to chill the surrounding air.
「Perfect timing. I’ll say a word to her. I despise filthy acts like spying」
I pushed through the crowd and walked toward the wagon.
When I stepped in front of it, the inferior soldiers escorting it grew agitated.
「W-who are you! Don’t interfere!」
「Step aside!!」
The soldiers leveled their spears at me, trying to intimidate me.
But before I could open my mouth, Feri stepped forward.
「Be quiet」
Feri wore a faint smile.
It was an obvious display of pressure. Inferior beings like these would never withstand it.
「Hh…!?」
「W-what is this woman……」
The soldiers shrank back, nearly dropping their spears as they retreated.
Feri has become quite perceptive.
I praised her inwardly as I stepped in front of the captive woman.
She stared straight back at me.
That alone further grated on my nerves.
「Hey, you filthy inferior slut」
I slowly drew in a breath.
「You were rudely spying on me on the great ice field earlier, were you not. Let me be clear. Observing another without permission through magical means is a base and despicable act that violates ethics, even if it skirts the law. Someone as lacking in dignity as you may not comprehend this, but my existence is solely for the sake of my beloved Mother. Every strand of my hair, the tips of my nails, even the breath I exhale all belong to Mother. They are a sacred domain polished for the sole purpose of receiving her love. Do you not think that licking them with your filthy, gutter-rat eyes is a blasphemy worthy of ten thousand deaths? No, of course you would not. That is precisely why you are in such a state. Most likely, that vulgar habit of peeping led you to commit some grave blunder. If so, learn the meaning of self-inflicted consequences before showing yourself again. More importantly, have you ever considered how it feels to be the one watched? Every time I sense your sticky gaze, my skin crawls, my mind is defiled, and noise is introduced into my pure devotion to Mother. How do you intend to take responsibility for that mental anguish? With money? With your life? Either is beyond the means of a filthy defeated wretch like you. If so, then at the very least, gouge out those clouded eyes yourself and spend your days in darkness, repenting without ever reflecting beauty again. That is the only sincerity left to you. Are you listening? That vacant face shows no sign of remorse. Well, enough. Preaching higher morality to a dull inferior like you is pearls before swine, sutras to a horse’s ear. Curse your own wretchedness and rot away as you please」
Having said everything I wanted to say, I snorted and turned away from the woman.
She never uttered a single word. Only the heat dwelling deep within her eyes seemed to grow stronger.
A truly unsettling woman.
「Let’s go, Feri」
「Yes, young master」
Leaving behind the stunned soldiers and crowd, we departed the scene.
There is nothing left for us in this city. We should return as quickly as possible to our home, where Mother awaits.
◆
Aviana, the great criminal who had committed regicide by slaying King Grunveld.
She was now enveloped in a strange sensation.
Surrounded by soldiers, showered with curses from the people, and left only to await death. Normally, her heart should have been crushed by despair and fear, yet a single ray of light had pierced her mind.
It came from the words of the boy who had just left.
──My existence exists solely for the sake of my beloved Mother.
──Everything belongs to Mother and is a sacred domain.
How powerful, how pure those words were.
Aviana had always hungered for power.
While bowing to the violence that was Grunveld and being used as a receptacle for his twisted desires, somewhere deep in her heart she had sought an absolute power that surpassed him. Not a power that would break her, but a power that would define her.
And now, she had found it.
The master of the light that could burn the world away, whom she had seen on the great ice field.
He looked down on Aviana and reviled her. Yet there was no falsehood in his words. He possessed an unshakable core. A devotion bordering on madness toward the singular existence called Mother. That was the source of his power, and what made him a sacred domain.
Compared to that, what was she?
She had stolen a glance at his sacred domain with tainted eyes. That was indeed blasphemy.
──At the very least, gouge out those clouded eyes yourself and spend your days in darkness, repenting without ever reflecting beauty again. That is the only sincerity left to you.
The boy’s words echoed within Aviana’s mind.
They were a declaration of punishment, and at the same time, a signpost toward salvation.
Aviana’s lips trembled as they formed a smile.
I see. So that is how it is.
I thought I was still seeing. The ugliness of this world, my own misfortune, the king’s death.
But such things are not worth seeing at all.
Have I not already seen what truly matters? That beautiful light.
Then these eyes are no longer needed.
No, merely possessing them is a sin.
Something inside Aviana shattered with a sound, and was then rebuilt.
She refined the small amount of magic power remaining within her body. With her hands bound, she could not form signs, but she no longer needed them. To destroy her own body, no complex spellwork was required.
She focused her consciousness on both of her eyes.
The lens, the vitreous body, the retina. She instantaneously cooled the moisture within them to the absolute limit.
A sharp cracking sound echoed inside her skull.
Agony.
However, for her, it was also the joy of atonement.
From both of Aviana’s eyes, glittering particles spilled forth.
They were fragments of her eyeballs, frozen solid and shattered. Catching the winter sunlight, they shone in rainbow hues and formed a fantastical mist of light around Aviana.
「W-what is that!?」
「Her eyes… they’re shining…!」
The soldiers faltered, shaken, and came to a halt.
The crowd too held its breath before the gruesome yet beautiful spectacle.
The world was sealed shut.
Light was lost, and eternal darkness arrived.
Yet within that darkness, Aviana saw for the first time.
The flow of magic power, the whisper of the wind, the contours of the world. Things that could never be fully grasped by eyes of flesh.
By discarding the sense organ called sight, which consumed an enormous amount of the brain’s resources, her perceptual domain expanded explosively.
For a mage, loss is not a deficiency. It is a price paid, a ritual to ascend to a new tier.
She was seeing.
The towering pillar of magic power rising skyward from the back of the boy as he moved farther away.
Rough ropes no longer held any meaning. Aviana released freezing air from her entire body, freezing the bindings and shattering them.
「W-wait! Are you trying to escape!?」
A soldier shouted and thrust his spear forward.
But to Aviana, the movement looked frozen in place.
She swayed lightly, evading the spear. Then, as if dancing, as if gliding, she began to walk through the mist of light.
No one could touch her. On a primal level, they understood that any hand reaching out would be frozen solid.
Aviana was no longer a great criminal guilty of regicide. She was a martyr, judged by the divine and reborn.
She began to walk.
In the direction opposite to where Hein had disappeared.
She would not pursue him.
As she was now, she still lacked the right to stand before him. That was what Aviana believed.
She had to hone herself further, deeper, colder, and sharper still.
And so, she vanished into the snowy plains, unseen starlight dwelling within the two hollows that were once her eyes.
・
・
・
The reason Aviana had become so obsessed with power, and why she came to worship Hein.
It lay in her origins.
The loneliness of being born a half-blood of human and spirit, belonging to neither world. And the sense of powerlessness from being endlessly dominated by the overwhelming violence that was Grunveld.
She had always been parched with longing.
For absolute strength that no one could threaten. For an even greater injustice that could crush senseless violence.
Hein embodied that.
To Aviana, he was both an object of fear and a symbol of salvation.
She wanted to become like him. She wanted to draw closer to him.
That warped yearning eventually transformed into fanatic devotion.
Yet it was also the first path in life that she had chosen of her own will.
◆
──Well then, everything up to this point is what happened in this world.
In the original history, the fate of Aviana Frostheart was nowhere near this merciful.
In the original history, Grunveld was not killed by Aviana.
Rather, the opposite was true.
Grunveld killed Aviana.
No, killed may not be the most accurate word.
He devoured her.
Grunveld and Aviana were half-siblings.
Within Grunveld, however, festered incestuous lust toward his younger sister, a visceral revulsion toward her spirit-blooded nature, and above all, a twisted desire to possess her completely.
In his heart, a warped something had taken root where Aviana was concerned.
A mass of emotion, neither love nor hatred nor mere obsession, but something thick, black, and clinging.
Under normal circumstances, it might have ended with that darkness smoldering within his heart.
But there was one who set those murky passions ablaze.
It was Hein Sera Aster, who became the Demon King.
Demon King Hein peered into the darkness of Grunveld’s heart and stirred it further.
「Devour her. If you do, she will be yours forever」
Carried away by that sweet whisper, Grunveld crossed the line.
He summoned Aviana to his bedchamber, violated her, and sank his fangs into her soft throat.
He drank her blood, tore into her flesh, and consumed her organs.
All while listening to her screams and pleas as the finest music.
After taking into himself the blood and flesh of the winter spirit that flowed within Aviana, Grunveld abandoned his human form.
Ice spikes erupted from his entire body as he transformed into a beast devoid of reason.
That was Grunveld the Demon Wolf.
He became a loyal hound of the Demon King and continued to rule the far north through terror.
All the while keeping his beloved sister sealed forever within his belly.
His lonely rampage would continue until he was eventually slain by the hero Azel and his companions.
But that is a tale from yet another world.
Leave a Reply