Chapter 254: The Battle Situation (2)
A luxurious interior, truly befitting of the royal family.
Just as Louise was about to take a sleeping pill after her meal, an unexpected visitor—a welcome conversational partner and an awkward guest—arrived simultaneously.
“…What brings you here?”
Louise directed her question toward Siriel, but it wasn’t Siriel who responded.
“I came to ask you something, so I took the liberty of visiting.”
His sharp eyes curved into a smile, and Shiron greeted warmly with the manner of a perfect gentleman.
“What business do you have?”
“I heard that your knights were annihilated recently.”
“Th-that incident…”
“My deepest condolences for that tragedy.”“…Thank you.”
Louise sighed in relief, thinking they had come just to offer condolences.
“Well, now that I’ve expressed my sympathy, isn’t that enough?”
“Brother, how can you speak so well? You’re so lovable I could just die.”
“…?”
Her sigh was cut off midway.
Louise looked at Siriel, whose face had relaxed into a silly grin, with a confused expression.
‘…What kind of conversation just happened? Wait, they didn’t come just to offer condolences?’
“Now that the first matter is settled, let’s move on to the next.”
Her thoughts didn’t get to continue. Shiron’s words cut through before she could even process her bewilderment.
“Siriel’s husband has many tasks, it seems.”
“Indeed. Actually, this is where the main topic begins.”
Thud—Shiron sat down on any chair without waiting for the Empress’s permission.
Someone should have spoken up since he sat down without her approval, but the female knights guarding Louise turned their eyes away.
Luckily, there was no swordsman who would dare speak recklessly in front of Siriel Prient.
Shiron brought up the main issue.
“I want to know what kind of major incident happened that wiped out an entire order of knights.”
“…Can’t it wait? I’m feeling very dizzy right now.”
When Louise tried to postpone the conversation, Shiron frowned.
“What is she saying? We don’t have time for this.”
On the way here, Shiron had heard Siriel’s warnings several times. Among them, the most notable was that Louise, the Empress, was in a very fragile state of mind.
However, even Siriel didn’t ask him to be considerate of Louise’s situation.
After all, wasn’t this about the catastrophic event that caused an entire order of knights to disappear?
Shiron prioritized eliminating potential threats over Louise’s mental health and acted immediately.
“Later? Are you joking with me right now?”
“N-no, I’m not joking. I really am… just too dizzy…”
“I’ve been informed by Siriel that Her Majesty is in a fragile state. But even so, there are some things that cannot be delayed, such as the investigation into the enemy threatening the Empire’s safety.”
“B-but…”
Louise, now even paler, spoke. She wasn’t deliberately stalling for time.
She had gritted her teeth and sent out the knights, determined to divert the Emperor’s attention.
If the Emperor was not obsessed with strange desires but rather captivated by Shiron Prient’s accomplishments, she thought she could do the same by achieving feats of her own.
But Louise was the Empress, the mother of the Empire. It wasn’t suitable for her to embark on dangerous missions, and showing outstanding achievements was not an easy task.
Therefore, the mission assigned to Louise was not to subdue barbarians but simply to clear out a few monsters.
For an ordinary noble lady, it would have been challenging just to control a horse in a monster-infested region, but for the daughter of Viscount Biscont, a family known for their swordsmanship, it was far too trivial.
And so, it was even harder for her to accept reality.
Out of nowhere, a rainbow appeared in the clear sky and hovered above the heads of the knights galloping across the plains.
Neither Louise nor the lieutenant leading the knights knew what had happened.
They didn’t think of avoiding it. A rainbow wasn’t considered an ominous sign; in fact, it was regarded as a lucky omen in the Empire.
Had it been a dark cloud, they might have avoided it…
‘No, it was too quick for that.’
Before they had time to react, the ring-shaped rainbow descended upon the knights.
Gulp—
If only that had been the end of it.
Where the rainbow’s ring descended, there was no trace of bodies—just a massive, deep crater.
That was all Louise remembered seeing.
Perhaps overwhelmed by the thick miasma, she lost consciousness, and when she came to, she was in the tent of the expeditionary force’s headquarters. She heard later that her beloved horse had carried her to safety before collapsing and dying with foam at its mouth.
…And the situation remained as it was now.
The fear had imprinted itself deeply within Louise, and even recalling the event made her dizzy, to the point where she couldn’t sleep well for fear of encountering that rainbow in her dreams.
“That…”
Louise parted her lips, her throat dry with thirst.
“That…”
But for some reason, the words wouldn’t come out. She knew the situation was dire and that delaying any further would jeopardize the Empire’s grand scheme. Yet,
Huff—
Overcoming fear was not an easy task.
Louise’s breathing grew labored.
“I… later… huff.”
[Hero, it seems much more serious than expected.]
“…Excuse me for a moment.”
Noticing the situation, Shiron approached Louise. Someone might have stopped him from moving so suddenly, but seeing his divine aura, no one could think he was acting in vain.
Shiron gently stroked her back with his hand imbued with divine power.
Swoosh—
Louise’s small shoulders twitched. Her symptoms were so severe that she couldn’t even muster the strength to resist the awkward touch of a man she found unsettling.
Her body writhed in pain, and she drooled uncontrollably for a brief moment…
Louise felt a sense of relief as her breathing eased. It was at that moment.
“…?”
Shiron’s gaze shifted to the nape of Louise’s neck.
Her white skin, visible between her pink hair, was beautiful… but there was something strange covering it.
It was a rainbow.
“What is this? Some sort of magical equipment?”
“…Pardon?”
“No, the translucent rainbow wrapped around your neck. What is that?”
“Rainb…”
Shiron dropped the formalities and pointed to Louise’s neck. Louise picked up a hand mirror that was nearby.
The rainbow that had been draped around her neck slowly began to dig into her flesh.
Drip—
A chilling sensation washed over her as blood began to flow along the edge of the ring.
“Kya, kyaaaaaah!”
Louise screamed in terror, not from the pain that was distorting her neck, but from the fear etched deep into her mind.
“Save, save me!! Save me!!!”
“Goddamn it…!”
“Brother!”
Shiron thrust his hand between Louise’s neck and the rainbow.
Crunch!
A heavy pressure was instantly felt. The rainbow didn’t stop squeezing as if it intended to cut through, completely ignoring Shiron’s strength.
[There’s one above too!]
Latera shouted as loudly as the warning sound ringing in Shiron’s head. A scene faintly surfaced in his mind—an altar with a sacrificial mark at its center and the blade of a dimension about to fall…
He looked up to see a rainbow hovering on the ceiling.
“Get away!!”
“Brother?!”
Bang!
Shiron, with storm-like power coiled around his legs, shoved Siriel away with all his might. He pushed her so hard that the ground flipped over and a massive crater formed around the table.
It all happened so quickly that Siriel couldn’t react, but her eyes didn’t miss what was happening to Shiron.
The fact that Shiron was choking Louise didn’t matter.
Back then, when she beheaded the barbarian chieftain, a woman with a veiled face standing halfway up the mountain had aimed a rainbow at her!
She had retracted the rainbow after seeing Siriel slash with her sword, but Siriel remembered the situation completely.
Now, a ring of rainbow light was descending right above Shiron and the Empress.
“Your Majesty!”
“Your Majesty the Empress!”
The knights on guard tried to pull Louise out of the rainbow’s grasp by unleashing their auras, but the rainbow followed Louise wherever she moved within the tent, centering itself over her head.
“If you don’t want to die, get away!”
Shiron shouted urgently. However, the Empress was in a state of panic and even began foaming at the mouth, causing the knights who saw her to panic as well.
“What nonsense is this!”
“How can we leave the Mother of the Empire!”
It was clear they couldn’t hear Shiron.
Realizing it was futile, the knights raised their swords to slash at the rainbow hovering in the air. Snap! Crack! The swords that touched the rainbow bent and turned into scraps under immense pressure.
“I told you to get back!”
Clicking his tongue, Shiron once again wrapped a storm around his legs. If this continued, the knights within range would undoubtedly die. Just then, he saw Siriel running toward him, just like the knights. Shiron’s face twisted with anger.
“Stay back!!”
“B-Brother?”
Siriel took a step back, shocked by the expression of pure rage she had never seen on Shiron’s face before.
“Tell Father! An apostle has appeared, and it’s someone who can tear apart and reassemble space as they please!”
“I-I also…!”
“I said stay back! Move together with Lucia and Seira!”
Just as Shiron was about to gather his strength to kick away the knights…
Zap!
The rainbow descended and light exploded.
Thud—
Thud—
The sound of something terrifying. As soon as Siriel overcame the blinding light, she opened her eyes.
“…”
The tent was silent.
Several knights had been cut in half, and in the center, the ground was deeply dug out.
“…Brother?”
In the empty tent, Siriel looked around. She called out to her brother several times, but no answer came.