Royal Dot (4)

“……I’m sorry.”

Anne apologized quickly and slipped away from the scene of the incident.

“Uu—urk!”

On the day the Manners Marquisate informed the Brennel Viscounty of Cynthia’s blind date…

Anne wrote a letter.

Her recent daily life.

The happy event that would take place at the viscounty.

She filled the letter with small talk.

The reply was short and lively.

The medicine that arrived with the reply was not poison.

So, at ease, Anne sprinkled the “gift” generously onto the guest’s dessert.

A colorless, vanilla-scented liquid speckled the moist cake.

And the result promised to be very entertaining.

When Anne headed toward the Aengkeo Orchard, Lise and Lindsay—who had been admiring the flowers—hurried over in delight.

“Young lady. What’s happening inside?”

“We heard something.”

“It looks like there’s been an accident.”

At Anne’s answer, curiosity lit up both their faces.

“An accident?”

“Is it serious?”

Lise had sent Anne’s letter to Alicia, but Alicia’s reply had arrived in Anne’s room without anyone noticing.

“I don’t know. It’s about to get noisy, so let’s go out.”

“Yes.”

“Let’s go, quickly.”

The Brennel family had been extremely fussy with the three of them, saying an important guest was coming.

Their being at the outer grounds of the estate was purely because of that pressure.

Anne—who now lived far more comfortably inside the viscounty thanks to Lise and Lindsay—did not want the two to get dragged into a headache.

Kind people did not need to know about secret matters.

The three left the manor, feeling just a little vindicated.

West of Tessen Castle.

A tremendous clang of metal rang out through the once-silent forest.

Jjeojeong!

A massive axe hammered at the tightly shut gate.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The snow-white fortress’s sealed doors began to open slowly under the force of the blows.

“Rei!”

At Alicia’s shout, Reichardt stepped aside.

A heavy spear smashed into the dazzling white gate as it inched open.

Thud!

The moment the white doors parted, Alicia sprinted inside.

Reichardt, who had been watching, dashed after her.

“Two o’clock! Nine o’clock—directions!”

Becoming the spearpoint that cleared obstacles before her, Alicia shouted back to Reichardt.

He swung the axe where she called.

A stone beast writhing in from the right was hewn clean through in an instant.

Next, the head of a red-furred monster that leapt from the left was smashed to pieces midair.

These were creatures they had seen before— the same monsters that had plagued the western forest before Alicia razed its ecosystem to silence.

When Alicia declared she would come here, she had warned that monsters might lurk in the lake, along the stone walls, or inside the castle.

As expected, there were fiends within—but not many.

Their shapes were also different from what they knew.

The monsters squirmed, wrapped in thin, transparent egg-like film.

Which only made them more grotesque.

Reichardt shattered every creature in sight.

Without even looking where Alicia pointed, he kept his axe moving.

The creeping aberrations vanished under the sweeping blade.

“Grrr!”

A lump that seemed to be a Kakan was smashed beneath his axe and crumbled.

Reichardt flicked away the foul liquid and stone grit clinging to the blade.

Thump!

That was when the castle gate slammed shut.

“Who dares disturb my slumber? Declare your station.”

A booming voice rippled through the space, shaking the air within the shut castle.

“……”

Reichardt turned toward the source of the sound.

Alicia, as planned, raced up the stairs toward the center of the dais.

At the very center—curled not upon a throne but as a strange presence— there crouched a being with a lion’s body and four legs, golden skin, four golden wings mottled with black patterns, black hair, and the face of a human woman.

Motionless like a beautiful ornament, the creature opened her eyes with elegant poise, and her voice pressed down upon them.

“You are….”

And Alicia swung her spear straight at the mysterious being.

KWAAANG!

The master of the castle—likely the one who had been speaking—jerked backward, narrowly evading the strike.

The spear smashed the stone floor instead of the enigmatic figure.

“Ah, missed.”

Having failed her ambush, Alicia clicked her tongue—

then, without giving up, thrust for those red, startled eyes.

“Disciple!”

Golden body. Mystic wings. Black hair. Red eyes— their owner dodged Alicia’s spear, voice thundering with authority.

When the distance opened between Alicia and the master, Reichardt began hurling the throwing knives he had prepared from the rear.

Whi-whi-whish!

Knives cut through the air.

“You wretch!”

The sudden ambush seemed to have rattled the elegant, otherworldly lord.

“Rei—the wings!”

At Alicia’s cry, Reichardt focused every knife on the wings.

“Disciple, why… argh!”

One blade sank into the creature’s rear wing as she tried to speak and twist away from Alicia’s spear.

Alicia seized the opening and slashed at the staggering foreleg.

“How—how dare you!”

The once-serene, mystical face contorted into a feral snarl.

PANG!

The languid wings flared wide, sending a razor’s keen through the air.

With each step of the beast’s paws, pressure crushed the atmosphere itself.

Alicia felt her vision ripple and blur.

Poison.

“You won’t die easily, will you?”

She groused lightly and withdrew with care.

“W-what? Disciple—surely you know killing me is not the end!”

“Why do you keep calling me ‘disciple’? It’s irritating.”

Alicia, who had backpedaled, lunged again.

Her keen spear tip raked across the wing where the knife was lodged.

“You curs—aggh! Will you not cease?!”

The golden beast shrieked, running up the wall in a burst.

Alicia chased, swinging as the creature beat its remaining wings to run along the stone.

Sharp winds screeched in succession.

Cha-chaeng!

Because of Alicia’s interference, the monster could not take off and only skittered along the wall.

Whenever the distance opened, Reichardt sent another knife from behind.

“……And how did you—”

After fleeing for a while, the monster spat a curse under her breath, dredging up the last of her strength.

“Because we stuffed ourselves with magic stones first. Rei! Watch your footing!”

Alicia answered brightly and drove her spear into the fiend as it split its focus to cast the curse.

“Kh—!”

Skewered, the creature faltered.

The ground heaved and sloughed into sludge as the just-cast curse took effect.

“Rei—take the head!”

Alicia slipped aside, opening a lane.

Reichardt stepped in and hewed upward with his axe.

“Stop…!”

Even as the floor turned to mire beneath him, Reichardt ignored it and finished the motion.

“Smash the head completely!”

Alicia shouted, moving to firmer ground.

Thoom!

Reichardt’s axe fell again.

With the final blow, the monster’s skull shattered and the body toppled to the side.

Alicia approached the mystic creature’s corpse.

As the head caved in by the axe began to crumble, dusting away from the wound, an odd doubt flickered across her face.

“Disciple.”

The title the master of the castle had used for her stuck strangely in Alicia’s mind.

Disciple?

While Alicia pondered, the creature’s whole body scattered into dust.

Amid the drifts lay several large magic stones.

“Rei.”

Alicia plucked the largest magic stone and tossed it up.

Reichardt reflexively cleaved the dull outer shell with his axe.

Jjeojeok!

The thick, sooty casing split—and a brilliant light burst forth.

Seeing the magic stone blazing with a fierce red glow, Alicia cried out:

“Rei—take it!”

She yielded the stone to Reichardt.

It was the most forward display of affection she could offer him; Reichardt himself would never know it as such.

“……”

Reichardt reached out indifferently and took the stone.

Normally, a magic stone would either extinguish its light as it settled into his palm— or flare and be absorbed into him.

Expecting one of the two, Alicia had offered it up— and then witnessed something absurd.

The stone cracked in Reichardt’s hand, its light erupting— only for that radiance to slip out of his grasp and sweep straight into Alicia.

“Uh…?”

A dazed sound escaped Alicia’s lips.

She only blinked at the incomprehensible sight.

‘Uh… this isn’t how it’s supposed to go…’

Alicia sat at the tea table, blankly staring.

The elegant table, the ornate cups—none of it registered.

Where had it gone wrong?

Her unfocused violet eyes trembled with confusion.

Why?

The beginning had been good.

The road to Tessen was pleasant.

Unlike sweltering Baden in summer, Tessen’s wind was cool and crisp.

Their arrival—just a few days before the rise of the second moon, Rua—was well-timed.

Amazingly, even after Rua rose, Reichardt was not crushed by pain.

A good omen.

Alicia immediately asked to go break White West Alik.

The old castle deep in the forest was ringed by an emerald lake.

After stationing the guards on the far shore, Alicia and Reichardt crossed alone in a small boat.

Thankfully, the crystal-clear lake held nothing beneath.

Nor did the blindingly white stone walls surrounding the castle present real danger.

Though bristling with sharp ornamentation at varying heights, nothing there troubled either Alicia or Reichardt.

Entry into the castle proceeded smoothly.

After a few strikes of Reichardt’s axe, the white gate opened.

Breaking the rest with a spear and slipping through took only minutes.

The moment Alicia rushed in, she was certain: at the center of the dais, in that beautiful castle, a powerful monster lay coiled.

The more human a fiend was, the stronger its power.

Beholding a monster whose mystique matched the snow-white castle, Alicia thought, This was it!

Reichardt’s pain stilled when he touched Alicia.

And what set Alicia apart from others was that she had been to hell.

Just before returning here, she had defeated the Warden of the Western Hall in hell and absorbed the power of a massive magic stone.

She had rejoiced for two reasons upon seeing a mighty fiend: strong monsters left behind large magic stones.

To Alicia, magic stones meant power—and finding great power brought her a pure thrill.

If Reichardt could absorb the massive stone’s power, perhaps it would erase his agony.

Alicia rushed the dais in one breath and ambushed.

Killing a careless enemy was the easiest.

She left the finishing blow to Reichardt in case something went wrong.

He did his part flawlessly.

When the long-awaited stone appeared, it felt like everything was going perfectly.

Alicia had always monopolized magic stones in hell.

Yielding a magic stone—especially one produced by a Hall Warden—was no easy thing.

Her hands had trembled a little, but she gladly ceded it because she wanted Reichardt to be free of pain.

This would end it!

But her great resolve ended up meaning nothing.

“……”

The power that had flared in the stone from Reichardt’s hand seeped wholly into Alicia.

The reason was unknown.

Since then, Alicia often drifted off in a daze.

Why?

Reichardt and the guards coaxed the vacant-eyed Alicia back to the main castle.

Even in her stupor, she confirmed something crucial.

The place they had called “White West Alik” was not the surface-world version of West Alik from hell.

Its true name was East Noah.