Empty (2)

“Leave the Empire by ship through a coastal city, not overland. There is a risk that the Marchioness of Belz will use the last of her strength to come after you, Katrina.”

At Alicia’s continued words, Katrina let go of even her smallest doubts.

“I recommend that you dispose of the estate you own on the Western Continent. If disposing of it immediately is difficult, at least do not leave it as it is and walk away.”

Alicia kept speaking.

“It will be hard to give up the reputation you currently have, but please, change your name.”

Katrina was someone who understood practical advice.

Everything Alicia said was a useful proposal.

“Katrina, you are going to live your whole life under the watch of a first-class agent of the Croa Clan.”

At Alicia’s final words, Katrina hurriedly stood and bowed.

The agent’s “surveillance” was not surveillance, but protection.

“Lady Alicia, thank you.”

Katrina had committed a crime against the imperial family.

She had not understood it clearly, but the scented candles she had made had endangered the royals.

Even if she escaped the Empire, the imperial house would pursue her.

“I will immediately look for a new name.”

Katrina spoke with a face full of emotion.

“Thank you for agreeing to follow my advice. I worried a lot because, even as I urged it, I knew it was such a harsh request.”

Alicia truly felt sorry.

At the very least, her expression showed that she sincerely felt regret for Katrina.

“Everything you said was for my sake, my lady. I will move and dispose of my assets in the Empire and on the Western Continent.”

Katrina’s voice sounded as if she had laid everything down.

“Master Katrina. I have one more request. I feel ashamed to say this after making you give everything up. But I am saying it because I think highly of your skills as a perfumer, so please forgive the rudeness.”

“Please speak.”

Katrina encouraged Alicia with a smile.

“It would be a misfortune for me, and for everyone else, if we could never encounter your perfumes again. If you permit it, I would like to have an exclusive trade in Perfumer Katrina’s fragrances.”

Katrina had planned to give everything up out of fear of the imperial pursuit.

However, the thought of never again being able to show her one and only pride to the world made her sad and full of regret.

Nobles would treat perfume as just another common cosmetic, but to Katrina, each perfume she created was like a child.

As long as she could present those results to the world, she could accept any conditions.

“My lady, you are the only one who has treated someone as lowly as me with courtesy and raised me up. Of course I will accept your offer.”

Alicia held Katrina’s fixation on perfume in high regard.

“Master Katrina. I am sorry, but given your past, every product you send will be thoroughly inspected before it is put on the market. Are you still willing to accept the deal even under such conditions?”

Alicia’s tone was gentle, but her standards were firm.

“Lady Alicia. I will serve you as my liege for the rest of my life. Whatever my name becomes, my liege will be you alone, Lady Alicia.”

Katrina bowed once again.

“Katrina, ‘liege’ is fine, but please also think of me as a friend. It is an honor that you accepted the deal. Clan agents will be here soon. Please prepare to move.”

Alicia helped Katrina to her feet and left the hideout.

Alicia came out of the hideout and immediately climbed into the carriage.

The carriage headed for Baden.

Even if Haime and Baden were said to be close, it still took an hour on horseback.

The carriage ran faster than usual.

Daisy looked around uneasily at the carriage, which rattled more than at other times.

“Daisy, consult with Sir Albert and have him buy up the items Katrina puts on the market.”

Katrina was already renowned as a perfumer.

She had swept up gold coins, traveling back and forth between the Western and Eastern Continents.

Many of Katrina’s collected items were rare and valuable.

“S-Sir Albert?”

Daisy, who had been staring up at the carriage roof, flinched in surprise and looked at Alicia.

Alicia turned her gaze to Daisy, who reacted to the mention of Albert’s name.

“Sir Albert is the expert. Katrina is a perfumer, so she will have special things related to scents. You may use everything in the Luderne vault for funds. There should also be scores and books among her collection; buy anything that looks old.”

Daisy, who had seemed flustered, changed her expression at the mention of scores and books.

“Alicia. Are you trying to buy music scores?”

For some reason, Daisy was wary of scores.

Whenever Alicia bought up scores, Daisy looked at her as if she were watching a gambling addict.

“I’m not trying to buy scores.”

At her suspicion-filled words, Alicia shook her head.

She did not forget to keep an innocent, guileless expression.

“I will ask Sir Albert to handle it.”

Daisy allowed herself to be swayed by Alicia’s innocent face.

Alicia knew that very well.

Smiling at Daisy, who was rolling her eyes, Alicia put her hand on the carriage door.

“Ah, wait a moment.”

At the same time, Alicia grabbed Daisy’s hand firmly.

“Alicia? Wh-whoa…!”

The next moment, the carriage that had been racing along jolted violently and came to a stop.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.”

The coachman soothed the horses in a terrified voice.

“M-my lady…”

He calmed the horses and hurriedly pounded on the wall.

Because of the aftereffects of the sudden stop, the carriage kept shaking and rattling.

“Alicia!”

Then, an unexpected voice rang out from outside the carriage.

It was Reichardt.

“You need to be careful, Daisy.”

Alicia patted Daisy’s hand and opened the carriage door.

“Alicia!”

Daisy called out in a startled voice.

But Alicia had already stepped down from the carriage.

The door Alicia closed as she got out locked from the inside and would not open again.

It was a mystery how someone who had gone outside the carriage had managed to engage the interior lock.

Having jumped down from the carriage, Alicia was just as surprised as Daisy, who was calling out to her.

“Rei…?”

Reichardt was riding toward her on the darkness-dwelling beast, Lusa.

It felt as if darkness were spreading in all directions.

Alicia knew Lusa well.

But she had never seen the sight of Lusa racing down a street lined with mansions.

Why was Lusa here…?

Reichardt, seated astride Lusa, reached a hand out toward Alicia.

Alicia reflexively grabbed the hand that reached toward her.

Was this really Lusa?

Reichardt pulled Alicia up lightly and seated her in front of him.

Even as she rode Lusa, Alicia doubted.

Lusa spread darkness as it charged down the street.

Alicia and Reichardt had never made any explicit promise not to bring Lusa out of Tessen.

When they left Tessen, both of them had naturally used carriages and horses.

And yet Lusa was here.

Alicia was about to ask why Lusa was here.

“South Fenz has appeared.”

Reichardt spoke to her bewildered face.

“Wha…? Rei. How do you know about South Fenz?”

Alicia twisted her upper body dangerously to look back at him.

Reichardt carefully wrapped an arm around her back.

“I heard you talking. West Alik. East Noah. North Kaya. The last one left is South Fenz, isn’t it?”

Reichardt spoke with an expression that said there was no way he had heard wrong.

“…”

Alicia could not hide her astonishment.

She had only mouthed the last name, South Fenz, to herself when she was alone.

How did he hear that?

There were many things she wanted to ask.

But there was no time to seriously press him right now.

“Yes, it’s South Fenz. Where is it located?”

“Beside the Dolore Ruins. The ground around the Great Temple and the Dolore Ruins collapsed, and an entrance leading underground opened up. Monsters are coming out from there.”

At Reichardt’s words, Alicia nodded.

“Let’s go straight to the Dolore Ruins! I regret not having my spear.”

“I brought it.”

Lusa was massive in build.

Hanging on either side of its flanks were an enormous, pitch-black spear and an axe of tremendous size.

“Then why is Lusa here?”

Alicia, delighted at the sight of her spear, asked what she had been curious about.

“I brought one just in case. Alicia, when you sent me your first letter, why did you tell me to meet you at the Dolore Ruins?”

Reichardt pulled Alicia a little closer into his arms as he spoke.

“Just because! It’s a famous place, isn’t it? Why are you asking?”

“Because the Dolore Ruins are where the empress of the founding myth and the angel met.”

Alicia marveled at the strange coincidence.

Nodding at Reichardt’s words with an “Is that so,” she drew out the spear.

Slash!

The sharp spear blade sliced through the skirt of her beautiful dress.

“What are you doing…!”

Reichardt let out something like a scream.

“It was in the way, Rei. Rei, are you all right?”

It had certainly been sudden for Alicia to cut off the hem of her dress.

It was enough to startle him.

But it was not enough reason for him to whip his head away from the face calling his name and pretend he could not hear her voice.

Lusa ran for a moment at a diagonal.

Reichardt, snapping back to his senses in a hurry, took off his cloak and draped it over Alicia’s shoulders.

His face stared straight ahead, as if he absolutely refused to let his gaze drop downward.

“Rei.”

Alicia was displeased that, after she had gone to the trouble of cutting off the troublesome skirt, he had put a cloak over her.

“Wear it, for my sake.”

Reichardt spoke with the most stubborn face in the world.

He kept his eyes fixed forward.

His expression said he would never let his gaze drop below.

“Yes, for your sake, Rei.”

Alicia could not help thinking that if the cloak fluttered and her thigh showed, wouldn’t that actually make it worse?

If the dark cloak billowed in the wind and her thigh peeked out, it seemed like it would draw even more attention.

But she decided not to say it and worry him.

In any case, there was no one there to see it.

Lusa ran powerfully.

It seemed delighted by the new scenery.

Alicia’s long hair fluttered in the wind.

It was not hard to imagine how the sight of the two of them riding Lusa would look to the people of the world.

The Grand Duke of Tessen, known as the Grand Duke of Demons, riding a gigantic black beast as he carried off his fiancée to hell.

That was probably how it would look.

Normally, the Great Temple observed rules and formalities as strictly as the imperial house.

Priests and scribes only went out after putting on cloaks and bonnets embroidered with the Great Temple’s symbol.

The purple cloaks and bonnets bearing the Temple’s sacred beast could only be worn by those who belonged to the Great Temple.

Now, the party that had fled from the Temple did not even have cloaks and bonnets, let alone shoes.

The terrified young priests moved their feet as tears streamed down their faces.

The Great Temple had collapsed.

Thanks to their preparations for evacuation, they had escaped quickly, but there was no small number of wounded.

The older, higher-ranking scribes urged the young priests to go on ahead.

The priests refused with all their strength.

The senior scribes promised that they would follow slowly with the injured.

They gave a reason why the young priests should go first—that it would be good if the priests could go ahead and bring the news.

In the end, the young priests decided to go on ahead.

They stubbornly insisted and took charge of the records that the senior scribes had managed to grab in the chaos.

The senior scribes wanted all of the Temple Knight Order to accompany the vanguard.

Of course, both the priests and the Temple Knight Order objected.

After much argument, of the fifteen Temple Knights who remained, five stayed in the rear, and ten escorted the young priests.

Everyone knew.

In the current situation, fifteen knights were far too few.

Splitting an already shorthanded order was a dangerous move.

There was a risk that both sides would be wiped out.

But they could not walk a road that was like hell itself without a single knight.

The Great Temple’s lands were vast.

Because they fulfilled many different roles, they needed numerous facilities.

First, the Seven Rocks of Dolore, which could be called the symbol of the Great Temple, occupied a wide space as a large, majestic ruin inside the Temple grounds.

The main sanctuary, which had been expanded over long years, was as large as the ruins themselves.

As time passed, the Great Temple also began to serve as an educational institution, and new school buildings were constructed.

Moreover, every prayer house within the Empire shared its purpose with the Great Temple. There was a separate place within the grounds for sending messages to the prayer houses and for lodging the priests who came from them.

In addition, the Great Temple was an archive.

It gathered and stored all the records that were important to the Empire and to humankind.

The Empire respected the Temple’s special status and granted it the right to govern the lands adjacent to the Great Temple.