Time to Work

Night.

A lavish party consuming the entire estate in full display.

Hosted by House Kedrik, Marquis.

Guests laughed and talked and drank beneath blazing chandeliers in the banquet hall.

Close to three hundred in attendance.

A substantial number were armed.

Before the empire was even founded, it had been common practice to receive urgent dispatches mid-party and ride straight for the battlefield. Attending a party in arms and armor had never been particularly unusual.

Most of the guests were human, with the occasional member of another race scattered throughout.

Everyone wore a mask covering their face.

I wore one too, sitting in a corner of the hall.

“Preparations are complete.”

Heinkel sat beside me.

He had obtained a separate invitation through the dark elf intelligence network and slipped inside.

I combined what he had gathered with what I had observed since arriving and reached my final assessment.

“The empresses knew from the start. More than that — they’ve been actively encouraging the terrorists.”

“Pardon?”

“The railway terrorism. The Queen of Assassins’ design goes like this: even if the bomb goes off and her son dies, she uses him to catch the terrorists by the tail.”

Orca was a dark elf agent and a fighter.

Even so — he had been used as bait to draw the enemy out.

“It’s the same with Miriel. She gets thrown in front of the terrorists, dangerous and exposed, and pulled to safety only once the hook is set. There may have been a private arrangement between the two empresses worked out in advance.”

“……Actually, there are dark elves in this hall that I don’t recognize myself.”

Heinkel kept his voice low.

Agents recognized each other.

And there were dark elves here who were not attached to Orca — agents belonging directly to the Queen of Assassins, already in position.

I stared down at my clasped hands.

“The empresses who hold this empire’s reins are playing a chess game with terrorists. In the middle of that game, they use their own children as pieces. They don’t pass them real information, just shove them into danger.”

“……”

“Sure. Orca built a name for himself resolving the railway terrorism. Now it’s Miriel’s turn, is that it? Bleed for the empire, endure, sacrifice yourself — you’re of the imperial bloodline, it’s your duty?”

I shook my head slowly.

“Heinkel — Orca hasn’t said anything?”

“Sir?”

“……About what his mother did to him. Not once?”

“As far as I know, he has never spoken of it openly.”

“……”

He wouldn’t be able to speak of it in front of other people.

His mother who gave him no warning and pushed him into death’s door — could he truly not resent her?

And yet Orca had even lied to me, claiming he had already known everything.

“They give no thought at all to how their children feel.”

Politicians who refuse to send their own children to war — there’s no shortage of them.

But consider the reverse: a ruler who personally deploys their children to clear landmines.

Do you call that nobility of duty, or do you recoil at the cold-bloodedness of it?

“Enough. The empresses have their calculations and their plans — that’s nothing to do with me.”

“……”

Heinkel was silent, waiting.

I rose from my seat.

“Arsen confirmed the additional orders?”

“Yes, he’s standing by.”

“Then coordinate with the outside exactly as we discussed. The timing for the troops to move needs to be precise.”

“Understood.”

Everything was ready.

I crossed the hall toward Lisera, who had been waiting on the other side of the room.

She wore a mask hiding her face, but she was drawing attention indiscriminately regardless — men and women alike. The dark elf female agent positioned beside her was serving as a silent barrier, warding off anyone who thought to approach.

“……”

The agent recognized me with a small nod and stepped back.

I came to stand beside Lisera.

“All done. Miriel is in a room at the far end of the third floor.”

“Yes. And Kedrik’s second son, Luke, appears to be running the first-floor hall.”

I looked back across the room. Luke stood at the center of it, surrounded by people — the star of the evening, drawing everyone toward him.

“What’s your read on Luke?”

“At first glance — bright, clever, easy company. But there’s something concealed in his voice.”

“Right. Let’s go.”

I gently took Lisera’s hand.

She gripped mine in return without hesitation.

“I’m in your hands.”

Third floor.

No guards, no interference on the way up.

Lisera ascended the staircase following my lead, and spoke carefully.

“In my view, the Fifth Empress choosing to leave this situation alone…… I think there’s a reason she hasn’t acted.”

“There is. Everyone has their reasons.”

The Fifth Empress would never use her own daughter as bait — not like this.

If she could, she would simply excise the problem cleanly and be done with it.

The fact that she couldn’t meant the stakes were bigger.

And thinking through the letter Miriel had sent……

A secret that implicated the entire celestial race. The healing medicine — their vulnerability, exposed.

The celestials’ unique gift, the method of producing their healing medicines, was a secret above all secrets.

The world held its share of the relentlessly curious.

What those curious minds uncovered after enough investigation?

Celestials channeled their magic to produce their healing medicines — that much was what the world believed, and most were satisfied to leave it there.

But that was the celestials’ misdirection.

Magic was involved, yes.

Through Grade Two.

For Grade One and above — for the highest-grade healing medicines — the true ingredient was the tears of a celestial minor.

If that became known?

Every manner of predator would begin hunting celestial children.

Like chickens in a coop, kept in pens — forced to weep on command, day after day.

When the children were gone, the race would perish.

In short, the celestials’ healing secret was a matter of species survival.

The reason that secret had held until now was that celestials were a formidable race, more insular than even the elves.

They had never intermarried outside their own kind to ensure nothing would leak.

The single exception was me.

One of the reasons I had taken a celestial wife was precisely because I had learned that secret.

I was too powerful to eliminate — and given the circumstances of the time, binding me through marriage had been determined the safer resolution.

And now that secret had leaked.

To Jade — a man who had thrown his lot in with the empire’s terrorists.

The Fifth Empress was playing along with the blackmail, biding her time, tracing how far the information had spread so she could cut it out entirely at the root.

Against a family of the twelve houses? With her daughter’s race’s survival at stake?

She was still taking measurements.

But I had no intention of doing the same with my own children.

“You know this may get rough. If it does — I’m counting on you with Miriel.”

“I won’t be frightened. You came to help us.”

Lisera held my hand more firmly.

“Thank you.”

I gave a small nod.

Third floor. The room at the end of the corridor.

Not a single guard posted outside. Strange.

Creak.

I pushed open the door and stepped in.

A wide room.

The sound of snoring from the direction of the bed.

“……”

And on the sofa — a girl, knees pressed together, eyes fixed on the floor.

Small frame. The white wings at her back hung slack and listless.

Platinum-blonde hair curtained her face, but the tension, the fear — they were plain enough at a glance.

Two people had just walked in and she hadn’t even noticed.

Thud.

Then someone dropped from the ceiling.

An agent from Orca’s dark elf team — the one I had stationed here to alert me if anything happened to Miriel.

The agent came to me and reported.

“Confirmed. Princess Miriel has not been physically harmed. However……”

“What are those bloodstains on the floor?”

“Jade was drunk and beat one of his own knights for making a mistake.”

The agent stepped aside.

The snoring from the bed continued undisturbed.

The girl on the sofa remained completely unaware of any of it.

“Sister Miriel.”

Lisera stepped forward — hand still clasped around mine.

Her own hand was faintly damp. Even Lisera was on edge.

“Sister Miriel.”

At the repeated call, the girl on the sofa slowly raised her head.

A face like a lovely doll, completely seized up with strain.

The kind of expression that ached to look at.

“……Lisera?”

The girl — Miriel — identified Lisera instantly through the mask.

They were close sisters. Of course she recognized her.

“Yes, it’s me.”

“It really is……”

Miriel’s face lit up. She started to spring to her feet — then caught herself.

Her eyes moved to the bed. To the sound of snoring.

“Oh — no. We have to leave. Come on.”

She rushed over and grabbed Lisera’s hand.

We need to get out of here. Now.

“It’s alright, Sister Miriel.”

“No, it’s not — I’m here because I want to be. He’s never done anything to me, really. I just have to sit here, have a drink, be present. That’s all. That’s all it is.”

“Sister.”

“I’m fine, I said? It’ll all be over soon, Mum said. So I just have to hold on a little longer and not see what I’m not supposed to see. So let’s go. Come on. Please?”

Scattered, incoherent.

Miriel was babbling as she tugged at Lisera’s hand.

Her little sister had just turned up in this place — she was terrified Lisera would get pulled into it too.

Trying to protect her however she could.

“It’s the healing medicine, isn’t it.”

“……”

Miriel went rigid.

Only then did she register that I was here — and froze completely.

I wanted nothing more than to pull her into my arms right then.

But I couldn’t.

Miriel’s face was that of someone whose secret had just been uncovered by a stranger.

Right now, this Rigen Librata was nobody to her.

Even if I told her who I really was — it would only confuse things further.

I kept my voice as gentle as I could.

“I’m sorry it took this long. You’ve had to watch terrible things just to make you cry.”

“I — I wasn’t crying.”

Miriel answered on instinct.

The secret isn’t true, she was trying to say — scrambling to protect it. Protecting her people even now.

She kept her guard up against this stranger and reached for Lisera’s hand — then paused.

Because she had realized Lisera and I were holding hands.

“Good. That was well done. But……”

Tap. Tap.

I put a hand briefly on Miriel’s shoulder — twice, lightly — and turned away.

“Children are allowed to cry. That’s why they have fathers.”

“……”

Miriel stared up at me, blank.

I walked toward the bed.

That line was dangerous. But I couldn’t hold it back.

I stood over the sleeping figure and looked down.

A human man. Jade Kedrik.

“……”

I took hold of him by the collar and channeled my magic.

Hmmmm——

And threw him toward the corridor.

CRASH!

His body punched through the door and vanished.

I moved toward what was left of the doorframe and glanced back at Miriel.

My daughter, her hand in her sister’s hand, was staring at me, completely dumbfounded.

“……”

I let myself smile.

It’s over now.

Your father will chase away everything frightening.

I left a dark elf agent in the room and stepped into the corridor.

What came next was nothing the girls needed to see.

“Gghk! Hhnngh!”

Jade, hurled out of sleep and into the corridor, thrashed in disoriented panic as he scrambled upright.

His body showed real conditioning — squared angles, obvious training.

“What! Who are you?!”

“What kind of life are you living?”

Thwack!

I grabbed the vase sitting on the hall table and flung it.

Jade crossed his arms on reflex to block — and got drenched.

In that opening I drove my foot into his gut.

Wham!

“Ughh!”

Jade skidded back.

I grabbed the table the vase had been sitting on and lifted it.

“Blackmailing an empress. Blackmailing a princess. What exactly did you think the ending looked like?”

“W-wait——”

Whoooosh!

The table flew and cracked across Jade’s head.

His scalp split. Blood streaked down his face.

“Wait——”

Jade threw up a full-body magic defense and shouted.

He clearly had something to say. I ignored him and surveyed the corridor for what else I could use.

“Let’s talk! We can negotiate!”

“Pick what you want to be hit with.”

“You got here somehow — you must know something! So negotiate with me!”

Even as he deflected, Jade kept talking.

“That room up there is a gold mine! You don’t have to fight me!”

“……”

“Grade One potions — you can’t buy those no matter how much money you have, right? But when that girl cries, they come out! She’s a tree that grows money!”

“……”

Jade watched my face and licked his lips.

“……What? You didn’t come here for that? Then what — the empress sent you? I warned them what would happen if they moved.”

“What did you think the ending looked like?”

There was no need to even consider the Fifth Empress’s temperament here.

Celestials dealt in finality when it came to outsiders who had learned their secret.

Jade replied without thinking.

“I — I was going to marry her.”

“……What?”

“The emperor married a celestial, didn’t he? I can too. That would sort it all out.”

“……”

What kind of person actually thinks like this.

Blackmail someone’s secret out of them, coerce them into marriage, and call it resolved?

Pure self-delusion, living entirely inside his own head.

He had gotten drunk on being able to hold power over one of the empresses and genuinely thought he was running the board.

He had no idea they were just measuring how deep the rot went.

While I was absorbing the full extent of it — Jade suddenly dropped low and lunged at me.

A tackle. His idea of a counterattack.

Obvious.

I stepped back and went airborne — one rotation — heel dropping straight down onto the back of his head.

“GNGH!”

Jade, who had expected contact in front, took a blow from behind instead and staggered badly.

Most people would have crumpled. He held his feet, somehow.

Not entirely worthless, then.

“You’re not the one.”

“……H-huh?”

“You act first and think later. The empresses wouldn’t exercise patience for someone like you. What they’re angling for is the person behind you.”

I picked up the ceramic piece from the hall table.

Jade took a step back, then another.

“Some fool with half a story who got his hands on the celestials’ secret — where did you hear it? The empresses were playing along with your blackmail because they needed to trace the source. That’s all you were.”

“N-no way……”

“And I’m not letting you go either. I’m just saying I’ll deal with you first, then move on to whatever’s behind you.”

“Wh-what are you——”

“You want to get married?”

I said it sharply.

“The greatest man who ever lived could come on bended knee and she still wouldn’t look at him twice. And you — you locked my daughter in a dark room, forced her to watch things she should never have had to see — and your answer is marriage?”

“……”

“You die here today.”

The moment Jade’s face went blank, I launched the ceramic piece.

Crack!

“AGH!”

It shattered on impact, fragments scattering in every direction.

Jade’s magic defense held — but the force drove his back into the safety railing at the corridor’s edge.

“H-hang on——”

Wham!

I kicked him without pausing.

“AAAAAAHH!”

Jade screamed as he went over the railing and dropped.

From three floors up, a magic defense would keep him alive.

I measured the distance to the chandelier hanging above the first-floor hall.

Reachable.

I stepped onto the railing and launched myself onto the chandelier.

“Everyone below — clear the area. Now.”

Roar.

My voice rang through the entire hall like a shockwave.

I looked at the chandelier’s mounting bracket and focused.

Telekinesis.

Crack-crack-crack.

The heavy safety links sheared through.

I planted both feet on the chandelier and rocked it side to side, adjusting the trajectory.

Crack-crack-crack!

The final connections gave way.

It fell.

An enormous chandelier, dropping straight toward Jade where he lay spread-eagled on the first-floor hall floor.

“NOOOO!”

Jade screamed and threw both arms over his face.

CRASH!

The sound that erupted shook the walls.

The impact flung me sideways despite my magic barrier — I tucked into a roll through the air and landed clean.

“Wh — what was that……”

“A person fell!”

“The chandelier just — it landed on someone——”

“Who is that?!”

The guests who had been frozen in shock finally broke and stared at me from every direction.

Kedrik’s knights rushed in and hauled the chandelier off their master.

“Young Master!”

“Are you alright, sir!”

“Hhk — HHAAGH. What the hell — who are you?! Who does something like this!”

Jade, hauled upright by his knights, bellowed at the top of his lungs.

He’d caught the chandelier with his magic defense. Still breathing.

I nodded.

“Good. He’s alive. Too easy a death would be a waste.”

Jade and his knights fixed their eyes on me with naked hostility.

And behind them — every person in that hall, all three hundred guests, turned their gaze on me.

Influential people, every one of them. Gathered from across the empire.

I had spent every fight until now doing everything I could to stay out of sight.

That ended here.

Fwip.

I pulled off the mask and let it drop.

Gasps rippled through the room.

Many would not know this face — but Rigen’s face alone was more than enough to hold a room still.

Under the full weight of three hundred staring eyes, I pointed at Jade and declared it.

“I am Rigen Librata, youngest of House Librata. I have unfinished business with the eldest son of Kedrik. I am issuing a formal challenge for a duel!”

“You — you’re out of your mind! I never agreed to anything! Where do you get off just declaring a duel!”

“Your brother Luke Kedrik accepted on your behalf.”

“What?!”

Jade’s shock was genuine.

The knights who had stepped forward froze as well.

The crowd’s eyes swung in unison toward one point in the hall.

Luke’s expression had gone stone-still.

The empresses’ calculations. The terrorists’ schemes.

Not my problem.

Now that I knew, neither side would walk away from this.

“I will now be taking Jade apart. His knights, his friends — anyone who wants a piece of this, step up.”

I walked toward Jade through his ring of guards.

“I’ll clear through every last one of you.”

Time for a father to do his job.

House Kedrik shuts its doors today.