Chapter 58

The Lady

"Just promise me one thing."

Right before departing for the territory of Liza Aslan, the Lady, Duke Aslan called Aiden and spoke up.

"...Liza, unlike Damian, has at least matured a little. Just... go easy on her, alright?"

"If she's matured, shouldn't that mean I don’t need to beat her up?"

"She’s not that mature yet."

"..."

To a parent, their child never seems quite good enough...

Aiden nodded slowly, chewing over the thought.

"I'll go easy on her."

At that, Duke Aslan nodded in satisfaction, but in truth, this was a necessary decision for Aiden too.

* Sub Quest

▶ Protect the target 'Liza Aslan'!

▶ Upon success, several characters' Affection Levels will greatly increase!

"..."

Whatever was going on, this kind of window had just suddenly popped up in front of his eyes.

‘What kind of situation is she even in right now...?’

Aiden tilted his head slightly.

Still, after seeing things like this repeatedly, a person naturally develops some learning ability.

Whether he knew the details or not, if there was something to protect, then it surely meant trouble was coming.

Which meant what he had to do was—

"..."

Aiden stroked his chin and stared at the window, then turned his head slightly to the side.

"...Hmm."

Surely—

Moving in without any sort of preparation would be a foolish move.

The people of the Aslan Ducal House were all warriors known for their noble reputation.

Of course, Duke Aslan’s personal opinion was that both Damian Aslan and Liza Aslan were hollow shells compared to their public image, and he often clicked his tongue about them, but still, there was definitely some truth to their reputations.

The conversation unfolding in Liza Aslan’s office was proof enough of that.

"I refuse, Minister of Administration."

Had he heard such a firm response, Aiden’s evaluation of her would have surely risen dramatically.

After all, anyone who opposed Rad Ilja Varfon automatically became an ally of Aiden’s. A simple equation.

Of course, it wasn't as if she was being unreasonably stubborn for no reason.

Liza glared at the man with a look of disbelief on her face.

The Crown Prince's closest aide, the Minister of Administration.

A man unanimously described as sly by everyone who knew him.

And his words lived up exactly to that reputation.

"Either way, if you want to gain an advantage over your brother in the succession race, your soldiers need to be stronger, don’t they? This isn’t the time to be picky about means and methods."

"..."

"I'd say Young Master Damian is already seriously considering a military strike against you, Lady Aslan."

If it had been at a tolerable level, she might have agreed.

By nature, Liza was just as ambitious as her older brother and was the kind of person who would take whatever she needed to do what she wanted.

However, even someone like her had a minimum line she would not cross as a human being.

Liza swept her curly blond hair back and threw the vial roughly onto the table.

It was something the Minister of Administration had just handed to her, saying, "Go ahead and test it."

"A beastification potion? Are you seriously offering something like this with a straight face?"

"It's a product with guaranteed effects, you know."

Her eyes sparked with fury at the words that spilled out without even a moment’s hesitation.

Dark energy itself was a deadly poison to living beings. There's a reason the Void Zones were off-limits—that much was easy to understand.

Even if, as this man claimed, the effects were certain, any soldier who took it would inevitably suffer side effects.

Everyone in the Aslan Ducal Territory knew this.

Those who were exposed to dark energy for long periods, or those ‘infected’ by beast blood, always showed physical changes, whether small or severe. Or they became so violent their personalities warped.

And yet, he was proposing to inject that kind of beast-related substance directly into the body?

"Of course I want the ducal seat. But you’re telling me to inject my soldiers with dark energy? That's basically telling them to drop dead!"

No matter how desperate she was, Liza still had the bare minimum conscience expected of a commander responsible for her troops.

"Revelation is coming, Lady Aslan."

The man who whispered those words in a soft tone clearly had no concern for such things.

"..."

"The Capital will soon be engulfed in chaos. Will you still say the same then?"

"...You..."

"Of course, it’s true that His Highness and I must remain hidden for now... but this isn’t just a simple offer of 'cooperation.'"

The Minister of Administration continued speaking with a cheerful smile still on his face.

"All the people of the Empire will soon have to take a side. His Highness the Crown Prince, or the other one. What I’m offering you is a chance to side with the ‘winning team,’ Lady Aslan."

"..."

Liza was at a loss for words for a while.

It was because the sheer absurdity left her speechless.

"You really have the gall to act all high and mighty after getting crushed trying to frame the Lionhearted. Do you think I don’t know what happened to you?"

"Well, we’re not saying this without any basis, you know."

...Indeed, for someone cornered, he was acting far too confidently.

As if he had something he could rely on.

Still, regardless of that, the proposal the Minister of Administration had just made was absolutely unacceptable.

"...Get out. This is your final warning. Or I’ll really cut you down."

Liza growled.

And seeing her reaction, Rad merely shrugged and picked up the vial.

"If you insist that strongly, then I suppose there’s no helping it."

At least, he looked like he was willing to back off. Liza eased the tension in her eyes and slightly relaxed her fierce expression.

It looked like things might just resolve peacefully.

—If only Rad hadn’t immediately started drawing out ‘black magic’ from around his body.

"...You—what the—!"

With a shout that was closer to a scream, Liza instantly drew her sword.

As someone from the ducal territory that bordered the fragments of the Demon King and the demonkind, she could recognize it better than anyone.

"From beyond the Void Zone, I managed to pull in something rather useful this time. This year’s Night of the Hunt is going to be quite entertaining. But regardless, I have a promise to keep with His Highness."

The thing before her wasn’t human.

It wasn’t human—it was something akin to a demon…!

"Anyway. That man and his group are conveniently nearby, and I need some ‘field data’ on this medicine if I want to use it later in the Capital, so…"

In the next moment—

"...Lady Aslan, I’ll need you to provide that for me personally, alright?"

Rad’s eyes glowed red.

"The world is going off the rails."

Noel muttered as if she had lived through the entire history of civilization.

If one were to hear that they’d gone to the young lord’s territory by day and turned it upside down, and were now headed to the lady’s territory by night to do the same, they’d likely react in a similar way.

‘...It’s not going to be as easy as with Young Master Damian.’

Though all members of the Aslan Ducal House were known as skilled warriors, truth be told, the lady, Liza, was far more respected than the young master, Damian.

In fact, among noble circles, it was commonly believed that Damian’s frequent attempts to suppress Liza stemmed from pure inferiority complex.

And now they were on their way to hit such a place.

And yet Aiden, who was the one leading this situation, had vanished saying he needed to prepare something, leaving only Noel and Katya behind—making Noel’s sense of exhaustion all the more intense.

"..."

And what were top-tier assets like the Lionhearted and Deathwish doing in the meantime?

They were meticulously weaving webs of supernatural power across the area.

Noel’s qi and Katya’s holy power were being spread out as thinly and invisibly as possible.

At such faint levels, their actual power wouldn’t have much effect.

At best, with Noel and Katya fully focused and maintaining this delicate web, they’d just barely be able to detect if someone passed through the area.

Still, since they had to weave a net that covered the entire territory, even with just the two of them, it was a labor-intensive task.

‘...Tired.’

That was the only feeling she could muster.

“What? The schedule’s packed. Isn’t that great?”

Of course, there’s no such thing as absolutes in this world.

Noel pressed her temple firmly as she watched Katya, who was humming cheerfully and walking along with a spring in her step.

She looked far too happy for someone heading off to beat people up...

‘Honestly.’

She and this woman had absolutely nothing in common, from beginning to end.

To the point that, watching from the side, you’d think even their food preferences were polar opposites—so completely different that they might as well be from different worlds.

The only fortunate part was that, as long as Aiden was the shared link between them, Katya never seemed particularly hostile toward Noel.

Usually, whenever they were in the same place, Noel would be nervously wondering what kind of trouble Katya might cause. But whenever Aiden asked something of her, Katya would always comply meekly. Almost suspiciously so.

Still, that didn’t change the fact that she was a difficult person.

“By the way, I have something I want to ask you.”

“Yes?”

“You two—what exactly are you to each other?”

“...”

A question like that, blunt and direct, wasn’t something Noel appreciated.

“...Why are you suddenly asking something like that?”

“No reason. It’s just... it’s kind of hard to believe you’re really just an ordinary married couple.”

“...”

“...Don’t you think you’re hiding a lot from each other?”

What made Katya even harder to deal with was that she wasn’t just blunt—she was quicker-witted than she looked.

“I’ve thought this for a while now, but you two seem... off. Like you haven’t known each other that long.”

“...”

“That whole ‘engaged couple’ thing—was it ever real?”

In the past, she would have changed the subject or deflected somehow.

Or, like before, maybe things would’ve even escalated into a fight.

It was a topic she found uncomfortable to begin with, and Katya’s eyes, now full of suspicion, only made it worse for Noel.

“...”

But instead of giving any sort of answer, Noel just clamped her mouth shut.

Because that was it.

‘...What are we, really?’

There was no one more troubled by that question than she was herself.

Of course, it wasn’t a bad relationship. They weren’t distant or cold.

But were they close enough that she could answer such a serious question in front of Katya?

Her eyes drifted around the area. She looked like she was holding back a sense of embarrassment.

“...”

But soon, Noel’s gaze, now filled with seriousness, returned to Katya.

Seeing Noel’s hand slowly rise and rest on her sword’s sheath, Katya’s eyes narrowed.

“Your Highness.”

“Yeah?”

“I’ll be honest. I don’t particularly like you.”

“What a coincidence. I feel the same.”

Despite the icy weight of their words, neither of them showed even a flicker of emotion. It was clear that neither Noel nor Katya felt much about the tension between them.

“But I suppose we can find at least one thing in common.”

“Hm.”

In that moment, Noel's hand moved like lightning.

Her sword traced a cold, gleaming arc under the moonlight scattered across the night sky.

And caught in that arc was a ‘thing’ creeping toward them silently through the darkness.

A creature with too many limbs to be human. A body grotesquely twisted, deformed, and crushed into a monstrous shape.

And right alongside Noel’s sword, Katya’s holy power struck, latching onto the target hit by Noel's blade.

Hit by simultaneous attacks from two of the most powerful supernatural combatants, the creature was torn apart before it could even let out a scream of pain.

“...At least when we’re fighting together, we seem to work pretty well.”

“Yeah. I’ll agree with that.”

Maybe it was because they had someone they both wanted to protect.

That thought passed through Noel’s mind as she slid her sword back into its sheath.

“The Night of the Hunt hasn’t even started yet… and we already have beasts wandering around. That’s what you get for living near the Void Zone—”

Noel’s casual remark cut off mid-sentence.

Because the beast they had just struck was now staggering to its feet.

“...What the—pretty sturdy, isn’t it?”

Katya tilted her head as she spoke, but Noel’s eyes were fixed somewhere else entirely.

Something familiar had caught her eye amidst the monster’s rising form.

It was unmistakably a beast. With a shaggy body and spider-like limbs sprouting near its torso, it was far from human.

But—

The core body, the original form hidden within that monstrous shell.

With reddened eyes, gasping for breath—

It was a human form Noel recognized all too well.

“...Lady Liza?”

---!!!!!

Instead of an answer,

Only a horribly distorted scream returned.