Chapter 17

1:20 PM.

When the clock furnished in my room hit that mark, there was a knock at the door.

“Escort’s here.”

Jin’s disgruntled voice came from the other side. I unlocked the door and pulled it open.
There stood Jin, looking like he’d just chewed on a bitter bug, and Raika, who gave a casual wave.

“Yo.”

“Move it,” Jin barked. He was clearly in a foul mood.

It wasn’t hard to imagine that something had happened between him and Leo just moments ago. Their chemistry had been toxic since lunch, after all.

Enveloped in a strained atmosphere, the three of us descended to the first floor in silence and stepped out of the ceremonial hall.

“Whoa.”

The sudden bite of the outside air made me flinch, a small gasp escaping my lips. The sky was just as clear as it had been that morning. Since the sun was high now, the cold was much more manageable than before.

We made our way toward the chapel. As we drew closer, the sheer strangeness of the structure became apparent. It was like a miniature version of the main hall—or rather, only the footprint was smaller. Its height was roughly the same as the two-story hall, giving it the appearance of a squat tower. The exterior was built from thick, rugged stone blocks; looking at it, I could believe that nothing short of explosives would put a dent in those walls.

Then there was the massive door. It was a giant metal slab, easily the width of three of my bedroom doors put together.

“This is the mythril door I mentioned. Custom-made and installed just a week ago. Impressive, right?” Raika offered a kind explanation.

“Stop the useless chatter,” Jin snapped, pulling a key from his breast pocket. Raika shrugged and produced a matching key. Looking closely, I saw the door indeed had two keyholes.

“It’s designed so it won’t budge unless both are turned simultaneously. Handy, isn’t it?” Raika explained with strange pride, considering she hadn’t built it herself.

Still, it was an impressive gimmick. At the same time, it felt like cold proof of what Leo had said: the Royal Court and the Church didn’t trust each other an inch. It was a little chilling.

Jin and Raika turned the keys, and with a heavy groan, the massive metal door swung outward.

“Listen. Don’t try anything stupid. You go in, prostrate yourself, receive your words, give your thanks, and come right back out.”

Jin’s nagging barely registered.

Beyond the door was nothing but darkness. Somewhere in that gloom waited Princess Victie.

I swallowed hard. I was surprised to realize my hands and feet were trembling. My throat had gone bone-dry.

Nervous? Yeah, I definitely was.

To be honest, as someone with memories of a previous world—an outsider, in a sense—I never thought I’d be this shaken by a ceremony with a princess.

“Hey, don’t just stand there.”

“There’s no need to be that tense. Just go in and get it over with.”

With their words at my back, I forced my shaking legs to carry me into the chapel.
Behind me, the door slowly groaned shut. I heard the distinct click of the locks engaging.

Once the door was closed, I was in total darkness. No—there was a tiny glimmer of light up ahead.

I approached the glow slowly.

It was candlelight. A candelabra stood there.

As I drew closer, I noticed the figure of a girl sitting near the light.

“!”

I hurriedly prostrated myself on the spot. The stone floor was freezing, but I didn’t have the luxury of caring.

It was Princess Victie.

There she was, illuminated by the soft light amidst the shadows.

“Raise…”

A faint, almost vanishing voice echoed through the silent chapel.

“…Raise your head, please.”

In response to that whisper-thin request, I slowly looked up.

In the dim light, Victie wore her veil, but instead of a dress, she had layers of white cloth wrapped around her body. For some reason, an old, weathered sword lay by her side.

Ah, I see.

I realized it instantly.

She was emulating the statue I had seen in the basement of the Grand Cathedral. This was likely her ceremonial attire.

Slowly, Princess Victie moved a slender, pale arm and reached for the veil covering her head. I noticed then that she wasn’t wearing gloves. Her bare skin was exposed. She peeled back the facial section of the veil, revealing her true face.

I caught my breath.

I understood now why they called her a reincarnation.

Princess Victie’s face was the spitting image of that statue.

It was an ethereal, androgynous face—one that could be seen as a beautiful youth or a dignified girl. Her eyes were sharp yet filled with a certain sorrow. If you added color to that statue’s face, this is exactly what it would look like.

Those eyes met mine, and for no reason at all, I felt a shiver run down my spine. It felt as if I were being looked upon by something overwhelming—a god or a buddha.

Victie only looked at me for a fleeting moment before turning her gaze upward toward the lightless ceiling, as if in prayer.

“I pray that you will continue to devote yourself to the future of Shark.”

She spoke in a faint voice, no longer looking at me.

I bowed my head to the floor once more.

“I… I am honored. I shall do my utmost.”

While still facing the floor, I slowly raised my head again, but by then, Princess Victie had already hidden her face behind the veil.

I took it as a sign that the audience was over.

I stood up, gave one last deep bow, and walked away as if fleeing.

Desperately suppressing the urge to run, I stepped back outside the chapel.

“Ah, welcome back.”

“You didn’t do anything untoward, I hope?”

Raika and Jin met me at the entrance.

“Whoa, you’re soaked.”

Raika looked surprised to see me drenched in cold sweat. I didn’t have the breath to answer; I just stood there, taking deep gulps of air.

“Wait here. I’m going to check on things.”

Jin said this and entered the chapel with Raika. They emerged just a few seconds later.

“No abnormalities.”

“Yeah.”

I watched in silence as they closed and locked the door, trying to get my heart rate under control. To be honest, I’d looked down on this whole “ritual” business. But actually participating in it… I hadn’t expected it to shake my soul like that. No wonder cults are such a problem.

Escorted by the now-locked-in Jin and Raika, I left the chapel behind. I cast a glance back at the quiet, standing structure and felt another chill.

Whether it was a holy land or a foreign realm, that tiny chapel felt like it had transformed into a completely different world the moment it took the Saint inside.

We arrived back in the entrance hall on the first floor.

“Get back to your room, double-time,” Jin said with a sour face.

Raika was smirking beside him.

“You say that like someone didn’t go back to their room…”

I trailed off as the realization hit me. There was only one person who went before me.

“Leo?”

“When I told him to get back to his room, he started spouting a bunch of sophistry,” Jin spat out irritably.

“He said he was told not to wander around without a reason, but since he had a reason, he wasn’t going back,” Raika added, clearly finding the whole thing hilarious.

“A reason?”

“He said he was ‘a bit peckish.’ Apparently, he got Yasha to whip something up for him while she was still cleaning the grand hall.”

Jin was trying his best to sound calm, but his voice was trembling in places. Leo probably wasn’t even hungry; he just said it to mess with Jin. I felt genuinely sorry for the guy, having caught Leo’s eye like that.

Offering my sincere sympathies, I headed up to the second floor and opened my door just as Jin had requested.

As I stepped inside, I caught a glimpse of the next in line, Bob, being called by Jin and Raika. He emerged from his room looking triumphant.

Our eyes met, and he gave me a blatant, condescending huff.

That was all well and good, but by any objective measure, Bob looked different than he had before. He was dressed in an excessively ornate outfit, clinking with even more gold and silver accessories than usual.

He’s certainly fired up, I thought, somewhere between impressed and exasperated as I watched him head out. I stepped into my room and closed the door.

I checked the time: 1:40 PM.

I was surprised to see that only twenty minutes had passed since I left the room. My sense of time must have been warped by that experience in the chapel.

2:15 PM.

There was a knock at the door.

Thinking the escort carriage had already arrived, I opened the door, only to be surprised by an unexpected face.

“Kirio?”

Kirio stood in front of my room, eyes darting around nervously.

“H-hey. Can I come in?”

“Oh, uh, sure.”

The moment I said it, Kirio practically tumbled into the room and proceeded to collapse right in the center of the floor.

“I was… so nervous.”

Kirio sprawled out on her back in an X-shape.

Looking closely, Kirio’s complexion had gone past pale and into a sickly sallow hue, her face drenched in cold sweat.

Well, I guess that made sense. Even a relatively easygoing guy like me had ended up in that state. There was no way Kirio could have stayed composed.

“Sorry, just… let me stay here for a bit. My shaking won’t stop. I don’t want to be alone.”

“It’s fine, but won’t Sir Jin or Lady Raika be mad?”

“I was the last one, so those two headed back to the entrance hall to go pick up Princess Victie from the chapel. I think they’re going to escort her to her room.”

“I see. So, was it that nerve-wracking?”

I knew the answer, but I asked anyway.

“It was beyond ‘nerves.’ That aura… she really is the Saint. It felt like something not of this world.”

Kirio let out a long, heavy sigh.

“Seriously, I’m so glad you were here, Van. If I’d gone back to my room alone like that, I think my heart might have burst.”

Having calmed down a little, Kirio sat up.

“Ah, really, it feels like a dream. Thank you, Van.”

“For what?”

I was puzzled by the sudden gratitude.

“You’re basically the one who brought me this far, aren’t you?”

“Eh, you think so? Leo’s influence was huge, and more than anything, it was your own hard work, Kirio.”

When I answered honestly, I got a flick to the forehead.

“Dullard.”

“Ow.”

There, at point-blank range, our eyes met.

Wait, what is this… this atmosphere?

Things felt strange all of a sudden. I knew I should pull away or say something, but my body wouldn’t move and the words wouldn’t come.

Kirio was silent too.

We just stared at each other in total silence.

My heart was pounding so hard it hurt. My face felt hot. It was a completely different kind of tension than what I’d felt with Princess Victie.

Kirio’s sharp eyes were tinged with red. Does that mean she’s about to cry?

Her boyish, sharp features were flushed. Her eyelashes are actually pretty long, I thought in a corner of my mind. And her hair has grown since we first met.

“Ah…”

Just as my mouth finally began to open to say something—

A roar. A vibration.

“Huh?”

“Eh?”

Kirio and I both rounded our eyes and looked at each other, stunned in a completely different way.

“Hey, what the hell is happening!?”

“Someone! Anyone!”

Shouts and screams erupted. Then, thick white smoke began to pour into the room through the gaps in the door.

“Kirio!”

“Right!”

We lunged out of the room.

“What!?”

The hallway was entirely blanketed in white smoke; I couldn’t see a thing.

“Cough, cough!”

I heard Kirio coughing, likely from inhaling the smoke.

“Hey, you okay, Kirio!?”

“Is that you, Van? Is Kirio there too?”

It was Merlin’s voice.

“Hey, what’s going on!?”

Bob’s voice followed.

“This way!”

Even in this situation, Leo’s voice remained calm and full of confidence.

“The smoke is thinner here!”

Looking closely, there was indeed a direction where the smoke was less dense. Desperately covering my mouth with my hand, I crawled forward in that direction. I soon realized why the smoke was thinning there. Wind. There was a breeze blowing.

Wind? Why would there be a breeze inside this windowless building?

Eventually, the wind swept the smoke away, and the surroundings cleared. I was finally able to look around.

“What…?”

I stood dazed at the sight before me.

While aiming for the clear air, I had reached the area just before the stairs. It wasn’t just me; everyone else was gathered there too.

Yes, everyone. Almost every single person was assembled in the space before the staircase.

The Military Academy group: me, Kirio, Leo, Bob, and Merlin. King Uraenus and Queen Ice. Jin and Raika. Arle and Mintz. Yasha. Every one of them looked frantic.

Even Leo and Ice had eyes darting around, clearly bewildered. It stood to reason. Of course they were confused.

On the landing of the southern wall, there was a massive hole. That was undoubtedly the source of the wind. A sudden explosion. A gaping hole in the wall. I had nothing but a terrible feeling about this.

No, what was even more ominous was that Princess Victie was nowhere to be seen.

Amidst the chaos, Jin and Raika were disproportionately distraught.

Jin’s usual arrogance had vanished; his face was deathly pale as he shouted incoherently. Raika stood paralyzed, her eyes wide, sweat pouring down her face.

What? What happened?

Through the hole in the wall, I could see the outside world. Likely having heard the explosion, dozens of knights were charging from the forest toward the hall.

“Quiet down. What happened?”

The person who silenced the chaotic scene with a single word was Queen Ice. That voice, devoid of any human warmth, forced us back into a state of calm.

“Hah… ah…”

Jin tried to say something, his pale face opening and closing like a fish.

“Reporting…”

Raika spoke in his stead, but her usual light tone was gone. She spoke in a low murmur, her face completely drained of blood.

“Sir Jin and I… since the award ceremony had concluded, we were attempting to escort Princess Victie from the chapel to her room…”

There, Raika choked on her words.

Whether from the sheer shock, she began to wheeze.

“An explosion… occurred.”

Somehow, in jagged fragments, Raika resumed her report.

“It happened just as we reached the second floor. Simultaneously with the blast, smoke made visibility extremely poor, and then…”

Raika’s voice began to tremble.

And that tremor spread to all of us. Precisely because we could guess what the rest of the report would contain, we began to shake at the thought of that impossible news.

Ice, who was receiving the report, was no exception. The face of the woman they called the “Woman Who Never Smiles” and the “Strongwoman of Shark” turned white, her lips quivering.

“And… as of this moment, Princess Victie is missing.”

Raika squeezed out that terrifying fact.