Roan Shalut.
His true name was Solacius di Miteil Rune Maha.
His original identity was the Empire’s First Imperial Prince.
Queen Lucifurne did not learn his true name until much later.
That was because he had acted under the name Roan Shalut to avoid Evil Empress Octana’s pursuit.
When Lucie first saw him, she had not truly looked at him.
He stood more than ten meters away because of the Curse of the Snowfield.
The golden-haired, golden-eyed wandering knight trembled in the cold, but his eyes were sincerely calm.
But Lucifurne did not look into those eyes.
All she saw was the golden hair and golden eyes that symbolized imperial royalty, as well as the fact that he was a royal who had defected from the Empire.
A royal.
The royals who had acted under Octana’s orders, invaded during the Succession of the Snowfield, and ruined the ceremony.
Because of them, her mother—the former Queen—had lost her life.
Lucie had received the Curse of the Snowfield, becoming someone who was not truly alive even while living.
She felt the blood that was always cold inside her body begin to boil.
Her heart, cold as ice, gave off even more frost.
Unbearable irritation, rage, and sorrow suddenly overwhelmed her.
“Did you come here knowing what Evil Empress Octana and you royals did to my mother and me?”
The Queen’s voice, though she tried to sound dignified, contained uncontrollable fury.
“Look at this Curse of the Snowfield! Look at the wrongs your relatives committed against me!”
An extreme cold that seemed capable of freezing everything swept through the audience chamber.
“......”
But Solacius—the man who used the name Roan Shalut at the time—silently endured.
Though he could have frozen to death at any moment, he stood firm.
Even before Lucie’s fierce emotions, the exiled royal did not retreat.
“I came to atone, even if only a little, for the sins of the Imperial House.”
Then, for the first time, Lucie heard the exiled royal’s voice.
“......!”
His common language, evenly mixed with High Imperial and Fairy language accents, made Lucie hesitate for a moment.
“Yes...... Not all royals are evil. In truth, there are many royals who hate Octana and the Black Crown Prince. Rather, you are the only royal who has gathered the courage to come here. ......You are truly admirable.”
The Queen gritted her teeth.
His voice and accent being pleasant did not improve her feelings toward him.
Her mind understood.
But her heart felt stifled.
“Roan Shalut, collateral royal of the Empire. I will accept your defection. However, you will retain your current position as a wandering knight.”
The Queen made a decision that did not sit well with her.
“Thank you, Your Majesty.”
Though he trembled in the cold, the wandering knight Roan Shalut did his best to pay his respects.
Even that sight displeased Lucifurne.
“You may leave now. Before long, I will give you a mission through which you can atone.”
The Queen dismissed the exiled royal from the Empire from the audience chamber.
A few minutes after Roan left the audience chamber—
“Your Majesty, Chancellor Duchess Aria Desmo is entering.”
The door to the audience chamber opened along with Head Maid Vanessa’s announcement.
It was Duchess Aria Desmo, the Chancellor of Luhan.
The Queen looked at the Chancellor entering the audience chamber with a somewhat gentler tone.
“What came of the Necromancer subjugation?”
“When I arrived, there was nothing left, Your Majesty.”
“Nothing?”
“Yes. Perhaps Your Majesty’s Blessing of the Snowfield activated belatedly.”
“Only precious lives were wasted. If I had known this would happen, I would have left them alone......”
The Queen’s voice was filled with regret.
“By the way, is that golden-haired, golden-eyed knight the knight named Roan Shalut?”
“Do you know him?”
“Though he is a collateral royal who defected from the Empire, the abilities he displayed while making his way to the royal capital were outstanding.”
Interest filled the Chancellor’s red eyes.
“I know. Is that not why I accepted him? Talented people are even more valuable in times like these.”
Lucie stared at the door of the audience chamber through which Roan had left.
“But something feels wrong. There was no family named Shalut among any of the Empire’s houses.”
Lucie had heard that exiled royals who had fallen out with Evil Empress Octana hid their true names and used aliases.
Mindful of the Empire’s ears that could be anywhere, they did not reveal their real names even to the rulers of the lands where they sought refuge.
That was why Lucie had not asked for Roan’s true name, which was clearly an alias, despite her unease.
“He is certainly suspicious. He uses High Imperial, but his accent is slightly different. Perhaps...... he could be a spy sent by Evil Empress Octana.”
“!!”
Lucifurne’s expression hardened at the Chancellor’s subtle remark.
“But what if he is a spy?”
The Chancellor smiled faintly as she looked at the Queen.
The smile of the gray-haired, red-eyed Duchess was cold.
“Your Majesty, the greater the enemy, the closer you must keep him. Use him to extract information about the Empire. Use his abilities to preserve Luhan’s precious talents.”
The Chancellor continued.
“Give him a mission that is absolutely necessary but has not been attempted because it is nearly impossible. Then, when he has outlived his usefulness, discard him without hesitation.”
The more Lucifurne heard her words, the more her expression relaxed.
“Yes, I will follow your advice. I will give that exiled royal a trial through which he can atone.”
“For his first trial, what about the Sunwell Ring in Volka Mine? It would be truly beneficial if he could eliminate the Ancient Demon nesting there.”
The Chancellor’s suggestion was like driving in the final nail.
“That is a good idea.”
The Queen decided on his first trial without even considering it.
The green leaf bracelet around her wrist glowed softly.
Thus began the bond between the wandering knight who had defected from the Empire and the Queen who bore the Curse of the Snowfield.
***
“Huff......! Huff......! Gasp!”
Lucifurne awoke from sleep and brushed the frost off her body.
The frost covering her body was cold sweat shed while dreaming.
“Ugh!”
Then, Lucie dry-heaved.
After coming to bear the Curse of the Snowfield, she could not eat or drink, and she did not need to eat or drink.
That was why her dry-heaving now had nothing to do with food.
“Huu......”
It was purely a mental problem.
It was likely deeply related to the dream she had just had.
It was one of the memories she hated most.
The memories of how, before her regression, she had hated Solacius and made his life miserable.
She had seen the face of the person she wanted to see most in her dream, but she only felt depressed.
She had slept all she could.
Though it was still deep dawn outside the window, the Queen completely rose from the hard bed made of ice.
After walking across a bedroom as vast as a training ground, she stopped before her workshop.
Various magic books and magic stones lay scattered about, and at their center was the spatial teleportation magic formation she had used before.
At the center of the spatial teleportation magic formation, which gave off a soft glow, lay a blue sword.
“......”
Lucie looked wordlessly at Winteira, the Royal Consort’s Sword.
Then, she continued the work she had been doing until she fell asleep.
She wove formulae as though weaving cloth, infused mana as though dyeing that cloth, and continued her work with the feeling of creating a work of art.
In her mind, the audience she had held with the Commander of the Royal Knights during the day replayed.
At noon the day before.
The audience chamber of the Palace of Pure White.
Lucie welcomed Haimar’s audience with a fluttering heart.
“The Second Subjugation Force succeeded?!”
“That is correct, Your Majesty!”
As expected!
Lucie inwardly applauded at Haimar’s report.
‘As expected of Solacius.’
She recalled the Solacius from before her regression.
The wandering knight who always resolved missions that were nearly impossible and returned to the royal palace.
Her face reddened for no reason, and her heart fluttered.
“How did they win?”
Lucie asked, her sapphire-like eyes shining.
She would listen closely to his tale of valor, then recall it before bed.
If things went well, she might even meet Solacius in her dreams.
“Well...... The Subjugation Force and the Church have been strangely tight-lipped about the details.”
Commander Haimar spoke as though he had committed a great sin before the Queen’s expectant gaze.
“Even the knights dispatched to the Subjugation Force seem to be hiding something...... Perhaps they made Mana Oaths, but they will not explain properly.”
“??”
Lucie tilted her head at the Commander’s report.
‘Is Solacius trying to hide his abilities?!’
She searched through her memories.
‘Could it be because he is afraid that his status as the First Imperial Prince will be discovered? But before my regression, he did not particularly hide his strength......’
Before her regression, Solacius hid his identity as the First Imperial Prince until the end, but he did not hide his power or achievements.
Lucie continued speculating.
If it concerned Solacius, she had to examine every detail carefully.
Before long, the Queen was able to guess the reason.
‘Before my regression, I disregarded and hated him too much. That is why he needed to make his feats known. Someone who was originally this humble(?) and cautious...... I...... made him so desperate.’
Once that thought reached her, her shoulders slumped.
“My apologies, Your Majesty......”
Haimar, watching the Queen, became intimidated for no reason.
Feeling self-loathing well up again, Lucie once more vowed to atone.
“It is fine. Roan Shalut...... Has there been any progress regarding his younger sister?”
She asked about one of the ways she intended to atone: the whereabouts of Solacius’s younger sister, First Imperial Princess Lunacirne.
“So far, we have found five eighteen-year-old girls with golden hair and golden eyes...... But all five were natives born and raised in Luhan.”
Haimar answered with an even more dejected expression.
“......Is that so?”
Feeling disappointed, Lucie nodded.
If she said anything more, she felt as though she would only make the Commander of the Royal Knights more depressed.
“It cannot be helped. Continue looking.”
‘I want to find her before Solacius comes to the royal palace......’
Instead of the bad first meeting before her regression, Lucie wished for a first meeting where they could face each other with happy smiles.
Haimar’s report was not long.
There was nothing he had learned about Solacius’s feats or the whereabouts of the First Imperial Princess.
The Queen asked another question of the Commander, who looked ready to die from guilt.
It was the matter she most disliked hearing about, but also the matter that interested her most and might be the most important.
“Is that witch still beside him?”
It was a question about the witch with the strange name of Carrier Whisen Air Conditioner or whatever it was.
“Yes, but......”
At last, Haimar had something proper to report, and he nodded.
However, his expression was not bright.
Lucie soon learned the reason through his next report.
“Actually, that witch’s name is not Carrier Whisen Air Conditioner, but Rina Shalut. That is...... she is Knight Roan Shalut’s younger sister.”
“Hm?”
Lucie tilted her head with a blank expression at Haimar’s words.
“In my personal opinion, Sir Roan likely freed that witch from servitude as his personal attendant and made her his sworn sister.”
“......Is that so? Then they do not seem to be lovers.”
Unlike her words, Lucifurne felt confused.
‘What in the world is going on?’
A woman she had never heard of or seen before her regression had appeared merely because he joined the Subjugation Force.
They were said to be sworn siblings, but that made Lucie feel even more uneasy.
‘Come to think of it, the name Rina......’
It was the same as the name of the Grand Witch of Death, who had also been one of the Four Heavenly Kings before her regression.
The time and place where the witch named Rina had appeared were also suspiciously coincidental.
‘It must be a coincidence. Rina is a very common name, after all.’
She considered dismissing it as a simple coincidence.
‘Rina Reverse...... Rina Shalut......’
But the more she considered it, the greater her doubts became.
‘In the worst case, Rina Shalut might be the Grand Witch of Death’s past self. Perhaps...... she has ensnared Solacius.’
Lucie grew uneasy and impatient.
She felt as though she needed to see Solacius and that ominous witch as soon as possible.
Neither Lucie nor Haimar considered that Rina herself might be the First Imperial Princess they had been searching for.
For one thing, Rina did not have golden hair or golden eyes.
Furthermore, because Rina’s development was delayed compared to those her age, their estimate of her age was also wrong.
Lucie merely suspected her of being the Grand Witch of Death.
Of course, that suspicion was also correct.
“And I hear that Sir Roan is especially sensitive to heat.”
“Heat? Did you not mention that before?”
“He does not seem to feel heat in the ordinary way. I hear he keeps the witch called Rina Shalut beside him all day and makes her use cold magic.”
Lucie’s heart dropped at those words.
The claim that Solacius felt heat abnormally was important as well.
But words even more shocking pierced Lucie’s heart.
‘All day?! Right beside him?!’
She felt dizzy.
And cold magic, at that!
‘If nothing else, I can do that better than she can!’
Without even using magic, merely coming near Lucie would make all heat disappear!
If nothing else, Lucie felt hurt that Solacius was borrowing another witch’s power for this.