Oswald Mikal Keely, the Earl of Keely, responded immediately to the summons from the royal court and led his knights to the royal capital.
However, less than half a day after leaving at dawn, he received the news of the fall of the capital, and he had to return in a hurry.
There were reports that the First Knight Commander and the king had already been killed. Although he later learned that this was a false report (if the two were still “alive” in that condition), he was ultimately correct in his judgment that it would be meaningless for him to spend several days rushing to the capital at this late stage.
Although information from the chaos in and around the capital was scarce, it was clear that a disastrous battle had taken place.
Ruin or Rebirth…
Various visions of the future popped into Oswald’s head.
But no matter what the outcome, the fact remained that he had to protect the people of his domain for now. It was simply a matter of priorities.
m＊ ＊ ＊
It was three days after the fall of the capital that the carriage carrying Catherine and her mother arrived at the castle of Earl Keely.
“Father…”
“Catherine! Thank God you’re all right!”
As soon as Catherine got off the carriage, Oswald welcomed her with an all-out hug.
He was so anxious that he wanted to lead the knights to pick her up himself, but that was not going to happen.
“Hey, Father, this is painful.”
“Oh, I’m sorry…”
Oswald, who had been kneeling down and hugging Catherine, finally let go of her when Catherine shook him off.
“Are you hurt?”
“I don’t have a single scratch.”
“Good … I really didn’t feel good about living when I heard that the royal capital had been attacked. You were really lucky to escape in one piece.”
Oswald naturally assumed that she was lucky to have made it back in one piece, but Catherine tilted her head.
“Oh, you haven’t heard about it yet, have you? I was captured by the “Rose Princess of Hellrage”, but was released without being harmed.”
“What!?”
Oswald was so taken aback that he turned his voice inside out, unbecoming of a gentleman.
Because of the overcrowded communications station over there, Oswald had only received word from his wife, who was on her way back to the territory, that they were safe, but he had not heard anything specific about what had happened.
“They didn’t do anything to you?”
“Yes. I don’t know what happened to the daughters of the royal knights who were captured, but I don’t have anything to do with it.”
“I see…”
The surprise passed, and now a bitterness welled up in Oswald’s heart.
“Catherine. As you may know, that monster is …”
“Yes, I know. She is the daughter of the former king who was killed in the coup, right?”
“Yes. Even though she may have been turned into an undead monster, she was the daughter of the former noble king. She may have been trying to avoid the shedding of innocent blood, even for the sake of vengeance…”
Undead monsters, the sentinels of the Evil God, were supposed to be the enemies of the living human race. However.
René, who lost her life in the frenzy of the coup d’état even though she was innocent of any wrongdoing, had come back to life as an Undead to seek revenge, but she still refused to shed more blood than was necessary.
The sight was so tragic that it moved Oswald’s heart.
… Actually, though, it was for a much different reason that she didn’t kill Catherine.
“Yes, Catherine. You’ve been worried about the “Dragon’s Throat”, you know. While you were gone…”
Oswald changed the subject. Some information had come from the Adventurers’ Guild about the “Dragon’s Throat”.
Catherine was so concerned about Iris that he wanted immediately to tell her…, but Catherine slumped and shook her head weakly.
“No, father. It’s … no longer necessary.”
“What?”
“I feel like I know now.”
He couldn’t ask what.
The atmosphere was such that he was afraid to plunge in and ask any further.
“… Father. Can I get some rest?”
“Oh, yeah. I’m sorry. You must be tired. Take a good rest.”
Putting that aside, Catherine left without hesitation.
＊ ＊ ＊
Catherine was in her own bedroom, dressed in her pajamas and throwing herself onto the bed.
From the fiasco in the capital to the chaos of the subsequent escape and the forced carriage ride, she was exhausted to the point of not wanting to move her body anymore, but she didn’t feel like sleeping at all. The crackling sound of wood burning could be heard from the fireplace.
–That wasn’t Iris from the … beginning.
That idea was now a certainty in Catherine’s mind.
She had been ruminating over the conversations she had had with the Iris impersonator.
When she said, “I’m happy just to have a mother”. She could not forget the bottomless emptiness and sadness in her eyes.
When she said, “Everyone is unhappy.”. She had a heavy tone in her voice, almost as if she carried all the unhappiness of the world on her shoulders.
She wondered if those were Iris’s words… Maybe so.
But considering them as René’s words, they fit too well together. Everything fit together perfectly.
Every night, they talked about nothing else.
She would tell adventure stories (whether they were made up or not, or whether “Iris” really experienced them, she didn’t know), and Catherine would tell stories about her own life.
Laughing at the funny things. Sigh at the warmth of the hot milk.
Was it all a lie?
Was she just hiding in the guise of Iris and acting as Iris to avoid suspicion in order to take revenge?
Was she mocking Catherine in her mind, who thought she was having a nice chat with her?
No, Catherine thought.
She thought that René was there as another girl, taking off the mask of an avenger.
René was a girl of Catherine’s own age.
Catherine imagined what it would be like if she had lost her parents for some unreasonable reason and had been beheaded.
It would be sad, frustrating, lonely, painful, and very hard to bear.
“Of course I would be lonely…”
Unable to stand still, Catherine rushed to the window.
It was still early evening, but the sun was setting early in winter. A silver moon was shining in the sky.
René, the “Rose Princess of Hellrage”, was a monster who had brought down the capital with a large number of undead monsters in tow.
Even though she knew this, Catherine still couldn’t help but feel sorry for René.
“René … don’t you need a friend …?”
Catherine’s breath fogged the window.
Catherine Margaretha Keely, the girl who would later be known as “The Thorn Thwarted” and “The Powerless and Unyielding Goddess of War”.
With her life on the line, she…
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