The Queen’s instruction to find yet another person. And her explanation.
“……?”
Haimar, Commander of the Royal Knights, tilted his head.
Blond hair and golden eyes again. Haimar felt as though he had grasped something.
“Blond hair and golden eyes are uncommon. But it will be difficult to find someone based on that alone.”
He expressed concern at the Queen’s words. Still, the commander’s tone was noticeably softer than before.
“I do not know much either. She will be wearing a rosary imbued with mystery around her neck, and she is the sibling of Roan Shalut.”
Lucy drew on her memories as much as possible.
“However, she will be using an alias. And she is believed to have come from the Empire to Luhan around ten years ago.”
Haimar endured the cold as he listened carefully to the Queen’s explanation.
Then, at one point.
“?!”
A thought flashed through Haimar’s mind.
Blond hair, golden eyes. Ten years ago. A royal who hated the evil Empress Octana more than anyone else. Above all, the sibling of Roan Shalut.
“Your Majesty, could it be……? The two people you speak of are……?”
The commander’s cautious question.
Haimar instinctively realized the identities of those whom the Queen had ordered him to find and help.
“…….”
Lucy considered what to do for a moment, then gave a small nod.
!!
When she nodded, Haimar’s shoulders jerked.
“The report that they died……?”
“They are alive.”
“Good heavens!”
The exiled imperial royals about whom the Queen had repeatedly given instructions were Solacius, the First Imperial Prince believed to be dead, and Lunacirne, the First Imperial Princess.
Color returned to the commander’s face.
A small ray of hope shone upon the kingdom’s bleak fortunes.
He sharply raised his bowed head and looked up at the Queen.
Even from a considerable distance, she could see his eyes shake.
Queen Lucifurne silently nodded once more.
‘The rightful heirs of the Empire are alive! The gods have not abandoned Luhan.’
Commander Haimar made the sign of the cross.
He did not voice his thoughts. Someone might hear. From mice to birds, dogs, and cats, everything could become the ears and eyes of the Grand Witch Octana.
He was not particularly curious about how the Queen knew this.
‘Before she was Queen, Her Majesty was also a Grand Witch. Though she failed to inherit the power and now bears a curse, she is undeniably the Grand Witch of the Snowfield.’
They said Grand Witches sometimes possessed foresight, like high-ranking priests.
Faith and hope returned to the commander’s face, which had been filled with anger, frustration, and sorrow.
“You must act as secretly as possible.”
The Queen warned Haimar once more.
“Above all, the Chancellor must not find out.”
She put even greater force into her voice when speaking of the Chancellor.
“……! I will remember that.”
Sensing something from the Queen’s words, Haimar lowered his head with a solemn look and left the audience chamber.
The snowfield-like audience chamber, now empty with only Lucy remaining.
“Sigh…….”
Lucy let out a breath and looked up at the ceiling of the audience chamber.
The cold yet clear northern sky could be seen through the crystal-decorated ceiling.
With her right hand, she touched the bracelet woven from leaves around her left wrist. The scent of grass soothed her troubled heart.
‘The Emperor will die, and the Black Crown Prince, the evil Empress Octana’s son, will ascend to the throne.’
An Evil Emperor would be born.
‘The Evil Emperor will ultimately awaken as a Demon King, and his power…….’
Lucy’s shoulders trembled.
Before her regression, the Demon King had torn through the Blessing of the Snowfield spread across Luhan and invaded the kingdom. At the end, he had driven a sword into her heart.
“…….”
She had regressed, but the feeling from then remained vivid.
‘Even if I begin moving now, there is barely enough time.’
The Queen’s thoughts unfolded deeply.
‘The Dark Empire’s Four Heavenly Kings are a problem as well. The Grand Witch of Lies, the Dark Grand Duke, the Grand Witch of Death, and the King of Destruction. Every one of them was a calamity.’
She remembered the Dark Empire’s Four Heavenly Kings whom she had faced before regression.
‘Solacius killed two of those Four Heavenly Kings. He even severely wounded the Dark Grand Duke. But Sola was badly injured as well.’
She remembered Sola returning to the Royal Palace covered in blood. Despite being drenched in blood, he had looked at her with a smile.
Before regression, she had treated him coldly and neglected him.
Throb!
Remembering that time made Lucy’s heart ache.
Sniff. She firmly held back the tears threatening to fall.
Then she forced those memories aside.
‘Fortunately, the Four Heavenly Kings have not yet gathered. There are only two Four Heavenly Kings in the Empire at present: Octana, the Empress and Grand Witch of Lies, and the Dark Grand Duke. At the very least, I must stop the Grand Witch of Death and the King of Destruction from becoming Four Heavenly Kings!’
In the cold audience chamber, Lucy sank into thought.
She closed her eyes and spread a map of Luhan within her mind.
‘Coincidentally, there is one place highly suspected of being where the Grand Witch of Death will arise.’
In her mind’s eye, her awareness turned toward the Moonlight Margravate in southeastern Luhan.
‘Sola happens to be there, too.’
Throb!
Her heart ached again. Though atonement would never be enough, she was shamelessly about to rely on him.
‘But…….’
As far as she knew, Solacius was the only person capable of resolving this matter.
In the past, she had given Sola five arduous trials.
Trials close to suicide. Trials that everyone, including herself, had thought impossible.
But Solacius had accomplished them.
Because she knew him so well, and because she knew the value of Solacius better than anyone.
“…….”
Lucy was conflicted. The Queen deliberated.
The conscience of a woman who bore atonement and the anguish of a Queen who had to remain coldly rational were locked in an even struggle.
“Your Majesty, Duchess Aria Desmo has requested an audience.”
At that moment, the Head Maid Vanessa’s cry sounded from outside the audience chamber.
“……! Let her enter.”
Lucy’s expression changed the moment she heard that the Chancellor had come.
The longing, affection, anguish, and conflict that had passed across her face vanished, leaving it expressionless and stern.
CREEEAK, THUD.
A moment later, the cold doors of the audience chamber opened, and a woman entered.
“Welcome, Chancellor.”
Lucy greeted Duchess Aria with a cold smile.
― Keep friends close, and enemies closer.
The words the Chancellor had said before Lucy’s regression suddenly came to mind.
“…….”
The Queen swallowed as she stared at the Chancellor, whom she was facing for the first time since her regression.
The Chancellor before her was no ordinary noble.
She was a Duchess of Luhan, the Chancellor, and a high-ranking witch who managed the Royal Witch Council on behalf of the Queen who bore the Curse of the Snowfield.
Click, click, click.
Chancellor Aria walked toward Lucifurne, seated on the crystal throne in the audience chamber.
Though her true age was beyond middle age, she retained the appearance of a woman in her thirties, as befitted a high-ranking witch. Her signature gray hair and red eyes remained striking.
One step, two steps, three steps.
Fifteen meters, ten meters, eight meters, then seven meters.
A full seven meters.
At present, she was the only person in the royal capital who could approach the Queen most closely. A formidable witch whose body did not freeze even at a distance of seven meters.
“Your Majesty, have you been well?”
The female Chancellor, Aria Desmo, gave Lucy a small smile.
***
Solacius and the merchants of the Kalt Merchant Company entered Oski more easily than expected.
Late at night.
For the first time since coming to this game-like other world, he ate a meal in a place with walls and a ceiling.
“Ha ha ha ha! It seems the knight’s prestige has spread all the way to the city.”
Merchant Dominic spoke with a cheerful laugh.
“Of course. After displaying such overwhelming might, there is no way word would not spread.”
They had defeated no small number of bandit groups on the way here.
There were certainly bandits who had escaped alive in the process.
The merchants were convinced that those surviving bandits had spread tales of Knight Roan Shalut’s feats.
‘Is it because I defeated the bandits far more overwhelmingly than in the game?’
He felt the butterfly effect unfolding in this way.
‘Still, it seems I will have difficulty being treated as a guest.’
Even at this inn, he could feel glances that seemed to be watching him.
Sola let such surveillance pass without much concern. He knew what people in the Kingdom of Luhan thought of Imperials, especially imperial royals.
“Sir Knight! Thanks to Sir Roan, we have saved our lives and property.”
“Once again, we sincerely thank you.”
“You do not need to worry about the reward. We will give you both a reward for you and the wages of those bastard mercenaries who ran away.”
“You may look forward to it.”
The merchants of the Kalt Merchant Company seemed unaware of the watchful gazes directed at Sola.
Their faces reddened by drink, they only smiled brightly.
At the luxuriously set table, the merchants gripped large cups of alcohol and continued drinking.
“Once dawn breaks tomorrow, we will go straight to the merchant company and help issue your identity plaque.”
“Our Kalt Merchant Company may be small, but it has history and tradition. If we guarantee your identity plaque, your activities in Luhan will be much easier.”
“Come to think of it, I heard you are meeting the Mayor of Oski tomorrow. You must visit me before meeting the Mayor. I will offer you the finest clothes in the city, Sir.”
“Weapons! I will offer you weapons!”
“You will need a horse as well. I will arrange for the finest horse, one fit even for a lord to ride.”
The Kalt Merchant Company’s merchants held the highest possible affection for Knight Roan Shalut.
Even though he was an exiled imperial royal from the Empire.
It was because he had saved their property and lives, but the charm unconsciously radiated by Solacius and Tae Gwang-hwi also had a great effect.
Perhaps because of that, the merchants were desperate to give Sola anything and everything.
***
The banquet that continued until midnight ended.
After bathing, Solacius lay on the bed in the room assigned to him.
It was said to be the finest room in the city, but it did not particularly impress someone who had lived in the modern world.
‘If I kill the Demon King, I will be able to return home, right?’
Tae Gwang-hwi, who was also Solacius, looked at the ceiling with hazy eyes.
‘How should I kill the Demon King? Can I defeat him with my current abilities?’
Sleep did not come easily. Thus, all kinds of thoughts wound around his mind.
‘The problem is that the side effects are severe whenever I use my abilities.’
Recently, he had felt intense heat even without using his Sun ability. It was a problem he had never experienced on Earth.
It seemed to be one type of curse the Demon King had placed on him.
The Demon King likely intended to kill him after restricting Tae Gwang-hwi’s abilities in this way.
But he was not greatly concerned.
‘If I meet Queen Lucifurne, I will be able to remove this restriction.’
There was someone whose attribute stood in complete opposition to Tae Gwang-hwi’s right before him.
Queen Lucifurne, who bore the Curse of the Snowfield. The Grand Witch of the Snowfield would know a way.
‘The problem is how to persuade her…….’
The brow of the man staring at the ceiling furrowed.
The thought of enduring the Queen’s hysteria, carrying out the trials she gave him, and building affinity with her made him feel unpleasant.
‘If I unleash my Sun ability to its fullest, could I endure the Curse of the Snowfield?’
No one could approach the Queen closely. An ordinary person’s life was in danger if they came within ten meters of her.
Currently, Chancellor Aria Desmo’s seven meters was the closest anyone could get.
In the game, Solacius at maximum level near the very end had approached within three meters. That had been the limit.
But what about Solacius, who had merged with Tae Gwang-hwi?
The only person who could approach that Queen very closely. The only person who could touch her skin.
‘If it is an achievement of that magnitude…….’
Would it not feel different even to a Queen who hated imperial royals?
He made a baseless guess.
‘No.’
But he soon shook his head.
‘Do not gamble with your life. This is not a game.’
If he approached the Queen based only on uncertain speculation and froze to death, it would be a pointless death.
There was no guarantee that he could begin again after dying, like in the game.
‘I might die at the hands of the Queen rather than the Demon King. Perhaps that is what the Demon King intended.’
Even if he did not freeze to death, it could instead deepen the misunderstanding and wariness toward him. In Tae Gwang-hwi’s memories, Lucifurne’s wariness during the early part of the game had been extreme.
‘I need to be careful. Just as I was when fighting the Demon King on Earth. Even if I am certain, I must doubt it twice, three times, and again. This is a curse devised by Demon King Sephiros.’
Solacius, who was also Tae Gwang-hwi, repeated this inwardly.
― Lucy, please take care of Lucy.
A voice he had heard during the original playthrough suddenly came to mind. Regardless of Queen Lucifurne’s personality, he wanted to free her from her curse. Though it was a request he had received in a game, a promise was a promise.
‘The Curse of the Snowfield on the Queen can be resolved if I properly use the Sunwell Ring and the World Tree Sapling. If that is not enough, I can add my Sun ability as well.’
In the game, he had failed because the Chancellor interfered, but this time was different. At the very least, he knew that the Chancellor was a traitor.
‘The problem is making the Queen understand that the Chancellor is a traitor.’
He was back to the beginning.
The side effects of his Sun ability and any method of lifting the Curse of the Snowfield were both possible only after he gained the Queen’s affection.
His thoughts tangled and tangled, only to return to the beginning. There was no clean answer.
“What a fucking curse.”
Lost in thought, Sola voiced a frustrated remark.
Fucking curse. Fucking game. What a fucking awful game!
It felt as though heat was rising from his body for no reason. Perhaps it was only his imagination, but his head and body became hot and feverish. This would not do.
Sola quickly stopped thinking about the Demon King and the Queen.
‘Come to think of it, Solacius has a younger sister, too.’
Then he brought up another subject to cool his blood and mind.
Solacius’s only younger sister and the First Imperial Princess, Lunacirne.
The younger sister he had lost while fleeing the pursuit of Empress Octana during childhood.
He took the necklace rosary from beneath his shirt and touched it.
‘This rosary is glowing, so she is not dead.’
That was why he had not stopped searching for his younger sister until the latter half of the game during his playthrough.
The rosary that signaled the First Imperial Princess’s survival had continued glowing until the latter half of the game.
WHOOOOSH.
As he thought of Lunacirne, he felt the heat that had been boiling within him gradually cool. Perhaps it was the wish of Solacius, who had merged with Tae Gwang-hwi.
“Yes, I will definitely find her this time.”
He did not know whether the words echoing through the room were directed toward Sola’s wish or toward Tae Gwang-hwi himself, now one with Sola.