Chapter 357: The Laversia (1)
“Are you having difficulties going to sleep once again?”
This was the question Scalia was met with the moment she opened her bedroom door, along with the heavily concerned face of her aide.
Her aide was Lord ‘First’ Ortus’ son, Dior Hyman. While gazing at Princess Scalia’s face, Dior held back a bitter sigh.
A knight who had reached the stage of being able to freely control their mana was able to adjust their own body to efficiently relieve their fatigue. However, that didn’t mean they could still stay in good shape after not getting any sleep day after day.
On top of that, Princess Scalia’s level wasn’t even high enough for her to have mastered complete control of her bodily functions.
Even though she should have just gotten out of bed, Scalia was wearing a thin layer of makeup. This was due to Scalia’s devotion to living up to her nickname as the ‘Princess Knight’ that the public had bestowed upon her. Thanks to her makeup and the darkness of the night, neither her sallow skin from staying up all night for the past few days nor the dark circles that now stretched down to her cheeks could be seen.
“I am getting enough sleep,” Scalia coldly insisted.
In the end, faced with this hoarse-voiced reply, Dior was left with no choice but to let out a sigh. Her obvious and stubborn lie was causing Dior all sorts of headaches.
“As your liege, I’m the one who should be questioning what my aide is doing outside my bedroom in the early hours of the morning,” Scalia said accusingly.
Dior began to explain, “I am Your Highness’ aide, as such, I—”
Scalia didn’t wait for him to finish, “There is no need for you to worry about Us. We are getting more than enough sleep and rest, and We are out here at this time because We wish to enjoy the sea breeze at night.”
“Your Highness,” Dior pleaded.
“As my aide, do you have no intention of listening to your liege’s orders? Hmph, if that's the case, just follow closely behind Us until you see the truth of the matter for yourself.” As she swept past Dior, Princess Scalia sarcastically suggested, “If you are still not satisfied with Our behavior, then why don’t you go and make a report to Lord Ortus?”
Dior bit his tongue at this scathing remark.
“If you are not going to stop me, then why don’t you just give in and turn a blind eye to everything?” Scalia suggested with a sneer.
“I have no intention of reporting you to the Captain,” Dior stiffly replied. “After all I haven’t done so thus far.”
At this reply, Scalia let out an obvious snort of contempt. Instead of confronting Dior any longer, she began walking out onto the deck.
All Dior intended to do was watch her back. This was nothing new. From the very beginning, Dior Hyman had been assigned such a role.
In case of an emergency, Dior was strong enough to draw his sword and fight in Scalia’s stead. He was to obey her unconditionally despite being subjected to Scalia’s irritation and dissatisfaction, and he was to report all of Scalia’s actions to their superior, Ortus.
Also, if, hypothetically speaking, he and Princess Scalia were to fall in love, that might push him into a role where he could serve as an even larger pair of wings to help elevate Ortus’ position.
Years before he had been first appointed as Scalia’s aide, Dior had perfectly understood what his role was to be. From a young age, he had been taught that he should never go against his father’s orders and that his entire existence should be devoted to his father’s — no, House Hyman’s glory.
So originally, Princess Scalia’s eccentricities should have already been reported to his father. That was part of the orders that Dior had been given.
However, Dior hadn’t made any reports. He hadn’t said anything about what had happened in the snowfields on the way to the Knight March — how Princess Scalia had committed a massacre — nor had he said anything about the secret hobbies that Princess Scalia had indulged in upon returning to Shimuin.
Dior hadn’t reported any of that to his father. What would have happened to Princess Scalia if he had made a report? Probably, most likely, she would have been locked up in one of the towers of the Royal Palace.
‘No,’ Dior reconsidered this.
Ortus wouldn’t be able to gain anything from doing so. Most likely, he would use the evidence of her actions to control Princess Scalia, or if he decided to be even bolder about it, Ortus could blackmail the Royal Family by threatening to expose her crimes to the public….
Dior was unhappy with either option.
Was it for Princess Scalia’s sake? Could it be that he was truly satisfied with his current situation — serving as the Princess’ aid and following her around wherever she went — and, as such, wanted to protect this way of life?
That wasn’t it, either. To put it bluntly, Dior didn’t have any interest in what might become of Princess Scalia. There was only one reason he hadn’t sent any reports regarding her — it was just an act of rebellion against his father, Ortus.
‘This insane woman,’ Dior cursed to himself.
Apart from using her to satisfy his rebellious spirit against Ortus, Dior couldn’t care less about Scalia.
This insane woman. Just like what he thought of her in the privacy of his own head, in Dior’s view, Scalia was a lunatic. Initially, she had been up to all sorts of shit while carefully hiding it behind her outer appearance as the Princess Knight… but after that incident in the snowfield, it seemed that the dividing line that kept her from betraying her own public image had disappeared entirely.
Dior had been waiting in front of Scalia’s door, and following her on her nightly walks was all because he was worried that Scalia might do something crazy. Unlike one of the vagrants you might find in a back alley or a low-priced mercenary, if she were to skewer one of the crew sailing this ship, he wouldn’t be able to take care of their corpse.
Scalia’s head was throbbing, and her vision was shaking nauseously.
It had nothing to do with the fact she was out at sea, riding on a ship. It was her brain desperately pleading for her to get some sleep after going for days without any rest, but that didn’t mean she could simply fall asleep comfortably just because her body wanted her to.
As a result, her patience was growing ever thinner.
She didn’t like the sounds coming from Dior, who was trailing behind her. She was also angered by how the soldiers standing guard in the distance kept glancing over to stare at her. And the way that the lookout perched high up on the mast of the ship was looking down at her was also triggering a dark impulse to surge up from the bottom of Scalia’s heart.
Scalia bit her lip to keep from shouting something.
In the past, it hadn’t been as bad as this.
When a person felt angry or frustrated, it wasn’t all that uncommon for them to relieve their stress by throwing something or hitting someone.
Scalia had done something similar. Whenever she was tense or angry, she would imagine executing all sorts of violent acts inside her head. Of course, while the executioner of that violence was always Scalia herself, the types of people she had imagined serving out this violence to changed every time she imagined it.
But it had only ever been in her imagination. She had never actually acted on her urges. However, after having finally sated this urge once, her desires had gradually grown stronger. It was as if she had finally realized that it was okay for her to do whatever she wanted.
Scalia was aware that she was slowly getting weirder and weirder. That was why she was currently keeping herself from doing anything and was instead trying to soothe her cravings by going out on a walk.
She might hate Dior and find him annoying, but she also felt slightly relieved that Dior was following along behind her. If Dior hadn’t accompanied her out onto the deck, she felt like she might not have been able to stand it any longer and would have finally done something in the end.
“Haaah…,” Scalia lifted her head to look at the night sky with a sigh, trying to steady her dizzy head and calm her racing heart.
It had been three days since they had set off. Looking up at it from the middle of the sea, the night sky was beautiful, with countless shining stars along with the dazzling moonlight.
Floating in the air not far from her, Eugene whispered, “It felt like our eyes met, but she hasn’t really seen us, right?”
“Don’t say something so ridiculous,” Sienna scoffed from her position at Eugene’s side.
Although this might be stating the obvious, Sienna took great pride in her magical skill. While shooting Eugene an annoyed glance, she poked him in the side with her staff.
Sienna scolded him, “You cheeky disciple, how dare you doubt your master’s skill in magic! How could a mere knight who hasn’t learned any magic see through my spell?”
“Ahem…,” Eugene grunted. “That might be the case, but there’s also an Archwizard on board that ship, isn’t there?”
“Hmph!” Sienna snorted. “He’s not even an Archwizard from Aroth, which could be called the birthplace of magic, but instead just someone who has become satisfied with his position as the Commander of the Court Wizards in an island country at the very southern tip of the continent. How talented could someone like that even be?”
In order to ensure that this subjugation expedition would surely succeed, Shimuin had dispatched the main forces that were usually stationed in the royal palace.
Not only had they sent Ortus, First of the Twelve Finest Knights, and the Knights of the Violent Tide, but they had even dispatched the Eighth Circle Archwizard, Commander of their Court Wizards, Maise Briar.
Their final destination, the Solgalta Sea, was an area that heavily restricted the use of magic. Perhaps because they were aware of this, Maise was the only wizard dispatched along with this fleet. They must have been hoping that, as an Eighth Circle Archwizard, he might still be able to use his magic in the Solgalta Sea.
“Though they might all share the title of Archwizards, not all Archwizards are on the same level,” Sienna explained. “Especially after the Circle Magic Formula created by me, the Wise Lady Sienna, became the standard for all wizards. Heehee, my disciple, you should have seen this as well, haven’t you?”
“I’ve experienced that gap personally,” Eugene confirmed.
“That’s right! Aroth’s Green Tower Master, just what kind of Archwizard is that? To think that this is an era where a worm without the majesty or mystique of an Archwizard can be called an Archwizard because they had the fortune to meet a good master who was able to efficiently and expediently teach them magic, allowing them to break into the Eighth Circle!” Sienna viciously spat out before glancing at Eugene with a regretful expression. “Ah, of course, I’m not referring to you, my disciple….”
“Ahem. As your master, I believe you can still proudly call yourself an Archwizard. Though you haven’t reached enlightenment through your personal in-depth research on magic and were only able to reach your current level of magic thanks to the Lionheart’s White Flame Formula and… ahem… the Witchcraft created by your master, but even so, well, ummm….”
“Why don’t you just stop there?” Eugene suggested drily.
“Like I thought, you really are a cheeky disciple. Even though your master is giving you some rare compliments, you’re still talking back to me so rudely,” Sienna muttered as she glared at Eugene, ‘What an annoying guy.’
Although it might be true that she had added all sorts of comments at the end, Sienna hadn’t said anything she didn’t mean. In Sienna’s unbiased opinion, Eugene’s Signature spell, Prominence, was extremely impressive.
“If we go down any further than this, we’ll be caught by their barrier,” Carmen, who was also flying along with them, warned them.
This was the flagship of the subjugation force, the most powerful battleship owned by the royal family, and yet they were still here to infiltrate the Laversia. They had even managed to convince Carmen of why they had to do it this way.
The ships from three hundred years ago were nothing compared to the ships of the modern day that were even enhanced further with magical technology, so the speed of the subjugation expedition was already plenty fast. However, if Sienna’s magic was added on top of that, they could become even faster.
Then there were the suspicions regarding Ortus. One method to deal with this problem was to maintain constant vigilance against him, but Eugene believed it would be a whole lot easier and much more comfortable to just subdue Ortus in advance.
Carmen had also come to agree with this fact to a certain extent. In the first place, one of the purposes of the Black Lion Knights that Carmen commanded was to punish those guilty of such similar suspicions when they appeared within the family and also to protect the discipline and laws of the clan.
However, Ortus wasn’t a member of the Lionhearts. The fact that he was the Grand Duke of a foreign country restrained Carmen from taking action. Carmen Lionheart possessed enough common sense to get that straight, at least.
But Eugene casually decided to ignore any such common sense.
This was because he had Sienna with him. In the end, it might have been Eugene’s decision to infiltrate the Laversia, but he was actually going to claim something otherwise when they eventually confronted the bewildered Ortus.
—Well, the Wise Lady Sienna said, ‘So what if we do kill that Lord Ortus?’
As a great hero from three hundred years ago and the friend of their family’s progenitor, once such a senior said something like that, they couldn’t help but go along with her — or at least, that’s how Eugene intended to pass it off.
Sienna frowned, “In that case, what shall we do? Should I just break open the barrier?
“Didn’t you decide to handle this quietly if at all possible?” Carmen politely reminded her.
If things didn’t go according to plan, they had also planned on just overwhelming the forces of the Laversia and forcefully taking control of the ship.
However, that course of action was just prepared for the worst-case scenario. Carmen hoped that, if possible, they could handle this quietly. Without having to confront the full forces of the Laversia, they would only need to subdue Ortus, the Commander of this expedition.
If they managed to do that, it would be practically the same as having seized control of the Laversia.
“Alright,” Sienna said with a smile as she reached out with Frost.
The mana in the air underwent a change. This was a sign that Sienna’s Signature spell, the Empress Rule, had just been cast. The magic barrier that protected Laversia might have been created by the Archiwizard Maise himself, but it still couldn’t disobey Sienna’s Empress Rule.
“Let’s head down,” Sienna ordered once she was done.
Eugene, Sienna, and Carmen were able to slip past the barrier without any incident as it failed to detect the intruders. Sienna narrowed her eyes as she looked down on the Laversia.
“Found him,” she announced.
Sienna had managed to detect Ortus’s location. From that point onwards, everything was simple. The party managed to deceive the eyes of any watchers or guards and arrived at the door to the room where Ortus was staying.
The three exchanged glances silently.
Then they opened the door.
Ortus Hyman was sitting on the other side of his office desk, apparently pondering something. Judging from how he was tapping the desk with a pen held in one hand, he appeared to have been writing something.
“Hm?” Ortus looked up.
The door had opened without any warning. Ortus blinked in surprise. He continued to stare blankly as three people walked through the now-open door. Caught off guard, he wasn’t able to immediately understand the surprising situation he was now in.
Of the three who had opened the door and entered his office, he recognized two of them.
The first was Carmen Lionheart. But why was she here when she should be on another ship? No, if he thought about it, he could guess that she may have crossed over to his ship because she needed him for something, but… what reason could she have for barging into his room without even knocking?
As for the man now closing the door… Ortus also recognized him. This was Eugene Lionheart.
Hold on, Eugene Lionheart? He was meant to be in Kiehl, so why had he shown up here along with Carmen?
Three days ago, there had only been three Lionhearts sailing along with the fleet: Carmen, Ciel, and Dezra. Apart from them, the Lionhearts had also sent three servants along, but none of those servants had been male.
Also… who was that woman? With such vibrant purple hair, she definitely couldn’t be regarded as an ordinary person. Her green eyes shone with amusement, and she held a magic staff in one hand…. Could she be a wizard?
Was this actually the Wise Sienna?
Ortus exclaimed, “Just what on earth…?”
He still couldn’t quite understand this situation. What were Eugene Lionheart and the Wise Sienna, who were meant to be in Kiehl, doing here? Also, why had Carmen brought those two here late at night without any warning?
Hold on. They had come here without any warning? How was that possible? This ship, the Laversia, was covered by a magical barrier. If anyone had touched the barrier, the news would have automatically been transmitted to Ortus and Maise no matter what.
‘So why wasn’t I alerted?’ Ortus thought warily.
They must have broken through the barrier. But whether it was from doing that to showing up in front of his door, he hadn’t managed to notice their approach until they had opened the door to his office. No matter how focused he may have been, it didn’t make sense that Ortus hadn’t noticed the approach of such weighty existences.
So Ortus instinctively felt a strong sense of danger and leaped up from his seat.
Whooosh!
Sienna sealed the room with a spell. Eugene and Carmen kicked off the ground at the same time without saying anything as they ran towards Ortus. Their first priority was to capture Ortus before doing anything else.
“You lunatics!” Ortus cursed.
How could they just attack him without saying anything?! What on earth were they doing? Ortus regretted that he wasn’t wearing his Exid and that his sword had been set down far away from him. Even though he was still somewhat stunned, Ortus immediately prepared to defend himself.
Ortus vaulted over his office desk as he came up with a plan. Let alone now, even if he had been in perfect condition, he didn’t stand a chance of winning if he went up against those two head-on. Moreover, there was still the Wise Sienna standing behind them!
He couldn’t understand why they were attacking him. But since he didn’t know their purpose for doing so, Ortus couldn’t afford to take them lightly.
Once a commotion was raised, alerting those outside his office that something was happening, the Court Wizard Maise and other reinforcements should arrive. That was what Ortus had decided to aim for.
Boom!
Ortus, who was covered in a huge amount of mana, charged at Eugene. This was because he had judged that Eugene should be weaker than Carmen.
‘Well, now,’ Eugene thought with a broad smile as he saw Ortus rapidly closing the distance between them.
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