Chapter 19

Spirit

“…You really are something else.”

The Imperial Prince, who had spent quite some time laughing across the table, wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes as he spoke.

“Sir Noel truly brought along an extraordinary person. Even I never expected someone quite like you.”

“…?”

Aiden had responded half as though picking a fight, yet the prince’s reply came back far milder than he had anticipated.

He was about to ask whether the prince still intended to make another proposal when the man spoke a beat faster, as if reading his exact thoughts.

“After hearing you go that far, I have no intention of suggesting anything else. You may simply remain as you are.”

“…?”

Aiden narrowed his eyes further at the prince’s refreshingly decisive surrender.

“It is only natural, is it not?” the prince added softly. “If you say you remain beside her because you like her, there is little point in trying to separate you by force.”

“…”

“However…” The prince smiled gently as he continued, “I will assume that any danger arising from that choice is something you intend to bear yourself.”

His voice remained calm and, as always, impeccably courteous.

“Let us meet again sometime, Mr. Aiden.”

Yet the sentence the prince left behind as he rose from his seat carried enough coldness to freeze Aiden’s spine solid.

“I have a feeling we will definitely meet again.”

Aiden could only agree deeply with that prediction.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Mr. Aiden.”

“Yes?”

“Sir Noel has been acting rather strangely. Do you know anything about it?”

“…”

The moment he returned to the banquet hall, Stella asked him the question, causing Aiden’s eyes to roll slightly to the side.

“What do you mean by strangely?”

“She looked as though her soul had left her body, and then she suddenly said she felt unwell and returned to the military headquarters. She has never done such a thing at an official event before…”

“…”

“Her face was unusually red, so I do not think she was lying, but she is not someone who suddenly becomes ill like that.”

So that explained why Aiden had not seen her anywhere for a while.

As Stella continued speaking in a worried voice, Aiden nodded with a subtle expression because he certainly had a strong guess.

System Log

▶ Target ‘Noel Astria Seamus’ has increased her favorability toward you.

▶ The increase in favorability is extremely high!

▶ Bond stage has skyrocketed from Stage 3 to Stage 5.

▶ 2 additional skill-copy opportunities have been granted!

▶ The accumulated bond relationship is sufficiently high. The way ‘Weaver of Fate’ applies to the target will change soon!

▶ Related information will soon be added to the Main Quest!

▶ A new objective has been added to the quest ‘Sham Marriage’!

He definitely had an idea, but he merely answered, “…I am not sure. I do not really know either.”

For the moment, that was the only safe response he could give.

Honestly, if Noel had overheard the conversation he had just had, he could understand why her favorability had skyrocketed. He had defended her enthusiastically against the Imperial Prince, and at the end he had even said something that sounded very much like a passionate confession.

‘…Honestly, I want to die of embarrassment.’

Just thinking about blurting something like that out so openly made his face burn. He would have to explain it somehow to Noel later; it would become troublesome if she genuinely misunderstood his intentions.

Then again, thinking about it carefully, perhaps it was not entirely a disaster. He had gained two valuable skill-copy opportunities in the process.

‘If I look strictly at the profit, I definitely gained something.’

This time, however, he had not done it intentionally, so the entire situation felt strangely uncomfortable. The fact that his relationship with Noel kept deepening was also something he needed to monitor closely.

‘That is dangerous.’

Aiden knew perfectly well that his position was contradictory. Given his current circumstances, he needed to gather useful skills from whoever he could in order to survive, and Noel was far too powerful a figure to exclude from that list.

Even setting her abilities aside, maintaining their marriage contract was currently one of the core factors determining whether he lived or died. No matter how he looked at it, his relationship with Noel and her favorability toward him were essential to his survival.

But that was exactly why the opposite possibility bothered him.

If he and Noel genuinely became close on a human level, that would create a completely different kind of problem. It was not because he disliked Noel or considered her unimportant. In fact, it was precisely because she was too important.

‘I need to be careful with all the main characters.’

What he needed to do had not fundamentally changed: increasing their favorability remained necessary. However, with the protagonist absent, Aiden would have to keep meeting these people face-to-face until the main scenario concluded.

If they truly became close and he then made one wrong move that broke the relationship, repairing it afterward could prove nearly impossible. The higher a bond rises, the harder it shatters. A relationship that was once intimate can be far more difficult to mend after a serious rift.

People also frequently became far more capable of hurting each other precisely because they were close. That was simply how human relationships worked. Aiden possessed enough caution to know that anyone in the world could end up in that trap.

That meant every single one of these relationships had to be approached with delicacy and care.

“…”

Main scenario bonds were a problem for later, though. There was something else he needed to examine immediately.

Skill Info

◈ Weaver of Fate

⧾ Arden Brimstone Lionel

Malice: Stage 1

1 skill can be imitated.

※ It is impossible to build a ‘bond relationship’ with this target. The effects of imitated skills will differ from the originals!

This was the skill-copy opportunity he had just extracted from the Imperial Prince, but the underlying mechanism felt completely different from anything he had used before.

The fact that the prompt read imitate rather than copy was the first sign. That impression became even stronger when he opened the prince’s skill list and examined the parameters inside.

‘The performance has been cut down enormously.’

Compared to the skills the Imperial Prince actually possessed, every single option was inferior. Power and applicable range had both been weakened across the board, and several skills were crossed out in red, as though they could not even be imitated.

There was, however, one notable feature.

▶ The target’s ‘Malice’ stage is low.

▶ Only ‘Imitation’ is currently available.

▶ Raise the Malice stage to unlock additional functions such as ‘Rebound,’ ‘Filtering,’ and ‘Seal’!

Compared to skills copied through high favorability, this version seemed to have a substantial amount of extra utility attached to it. He could not use the skills at their original output, but in exchange, Aiden himself seemed able to exert some kind of direct influence over those abilities.

He would likely understand the details only after raising the Malice stage higher.

‘More importantly, if the condition is called Malice…’

Did that mean the more this person hated Aiden, the more skills Aiden would be able to manipulate?

“…”

Even for him, that activation condition was dizzying. Deliberately earning someone else’s pure hatred was hardly an appealing prospect.

Aiden let out a heavy sigh and rose from his seat.

“Are you leaving?” Stella asked.

“Yes. I have met everyone I came to see.”

That was what he said aloud, though in reality he still had to deal with the one person most likely to give him a pounding headache.

After stepping out of the banquet hall and walking a short distance, he spotted a figure in full plate armor sitting casually on the edge of a marble fountain. She had her chin resting in her hand, looking bored and half-asleep.

Strictly speaking, she was not acting like a knight at all.

“Booooring.”

The instant Katya spotted him, she began kicking her legs against the fountain wall and complained loudly.

“What is this? Nothing interesting is happening. Is there no huge incident somewhere?”

“…What kind of huge incident?”

“Anything is fine. Something we would get in trouble for if we were caught.”

“…”

“Beating someone up, burning something down, killing someone. Is there really nothing like that?”

“…”

This was the exact same person who had stubbornly insisted on becoming his aide because appearing improperly at official events would draw public criticism.

“Were you not the one who insisted on becoming my aide?” Aiden reminded her. “You should be faithful to your duties.”

“That was based on spending time together,” Katya replied casually. “Did you forget? I became your aide because I wanted to stay by your side for a long time.”

“…”

Casually uttering phrases that placed this much sheer pressure on another person was classic Katya behavior.

Aiden pressed his throbbing temples and answered, “Then shall we go do something interesting together? I am finished with the banquet now.”

“Really? What are we going to do?”

Aiden turned his head, sweeping his gaze across the grand structures surrounding the courtyard.

The banquet was taking place deep within the Imperial Palace—an enormous complex containing countless spaces layered with history and forgotten secrets. One of those places was precisely where Aiden needed to go.

The only challenge was finding a delicate way to describe what he intended to do there.

Aiden scratched his chin in thought for a moment. Realizing there was no phrasing that could make it sound remotely respectable, he simply stated it flatly.

“Grave robbing.”

“…Oh.”

✦ ✦ ✦

“The Hall of Honor?” Katya asked after easily infiltrating the restricted site with Aiden at his request.

She clearly recognized where they were.

“This really is a tomb. You weren’t speaking metaphorically when you said grave robbing?”

Every culture on the continent honored its historical figures, and the Empire was no exception. The Hall of Honor was a sacred site devoted to preserving relics associated with legendary figures and commemorating their deeds. Strictly speaking, it functioned as an elite state museum, but Katya was not wrong to classify it as an actual tomb. Whenever possible, even the preserved remains of great heroes were housed here.

Katya seemed genuinely intrigued by the venture, looking around freely while Aiden, who had followed obediently behind her, stared at her in quiet horror.

‘…She really is a monster.’

It went without saying that every inch of the Imperial Palace boasted security at the highest possible level. Yet Katya had effortlessly carried Aiden along, darting through patrols and bypassing palace security systems as casually as breathing. It was enough to make him wonder whether she was truly foreign royalty or a professionally trained covert operative.

She clearly possessed more than one terrifying talent.

“…Your Highness,” Aiden muttered softly. “When you fought Sir Noel earlier, you were not actually fighting seriously, were you?”

“Hm? That wasn’t even a real fight in the first place.”

“…”

Aiden was once again reminded of just how absurd the person acting as his bodyguard truly was. He shook his head and stepped deeper into the silent corridors of the Hall of Honor.

“So if you called this grave robbing, that means we’re stealing something from here, right?” Katya asked, her tone rising with excitement. “What are you trying to take? A legendary weapon? A secret manual? Ancient armor? Anything stored here should be absolute top-tier.”

She sounded thrilled at the prospect of committing a major crime inside the palace. Aiden almost thought her eyes were sparkling beneath her visor.

Whether fortunately or unfortunately, he had an answer ready that would not disappoint her.

“…The hero himself.”

“What?”

Katya tilted her head, but instead of explaining, Aiden walked forward.

As he had noted earlier, several impeccably preserved sets of remains rested within this sanctuary. Aiden brought his steps to a halt in front of one of the finest cases in the hall.

The spirit dwelled within the physical flesh. The better the physical condition of the remains, the higher the chance that the attempt he was about to make would succeed.

“…The Knight of Dawn?” Katya read the inscription on the glass preservation case.

“You know him? He is an Imperial figure.”

“Would it not be stranger if I didn’t?” she countered. “The First Knight is still a favorite subject for artists across the continent.”

He was a legendary Imperial hero who had accumulated countless military victories, myths, and achievements. Savior of the Nameless Valley, Overlord Who Brought Down the Spire of Heaven, a warrior worth a thousand men, the first and strongest knight, and Karva’s most faithful servant.

He was also the historical figure who had first discovered methods for channeling qi, creating the foundational Cultivation Arts. Aside from Noel, no knight to this day had ever surpassed him in the sheer purity of the qi he wielded.

“Even the Holy Kingdom holds the Knight of Dawn in enormous esteem,” Katya noted. “Is there anyone on the continent who actually dislikes him?”

Probably not, because he truly possessed achievements worthy of that grand reputation. Even considering only the lore Aiden knew from the game, the Knight of Dawn had left behind nothing but heroic feats deserving of unconditional praise.

Aiden, however, casually picked at his ear before responding.

“There is one thing I should correct,” he said in a completely indifferent tone. “This man was not actually that impressive.”

“…”

For once, Katya’s expression turned utterly bizarre beneath her armor. She clearly had never expected an Imperial citizen to casually insult one of his own country’s greatest historical idols.

“…Uh, really?” she asked. “But the Empire still worships him as a hero, does it not?”

“They glorified him because he belongs to the past,” Aiden shrugged. “Honestly, there wasn’t much to this guy.”

“…”

“This is only my personal suspicion, but several of those legendary accomplishments were probably fabricated.”

“Uh…”

Rather than explaining further to the baffled princess, Aiden silently brought up his system interface. After saying this much, the probability of triggering a direct reaction was exceedingly high.

Skill Info

◈ Weaver of Fate

⎨ Rania A’Shan ⎬

Bond: Stage 1

1 skill can be copied.

He intended to use the skill-copy opportunity he had received from Rania earlier. Aiden selected the specific skill he had already evaluated in advance.

[ ‘Spiritual Resonance’ has been copied! ]

< Copied Skill >

◆ Spiritual Resonance

Those who have touched divinity can see, speak with, and make contact with existences others cannot perceive. Your senses for detecting spiritual entities are fully opened.

The instant the skill bound to his soul, subtle, ethereal presences materialized at the edges of his vision.

Having heard Aiden’s insults, a faint trail of pale smoke began slowly rising from the Knight of Dawn’s preserved body inside the case.

It was likely visible only to Aiden’s heightened spiritual sight. As expected, the hero’s spirit remained anchored here. The physical remains had been perfectly preserved, and a soul of this magnitude would not dissipate easily.

‘…Necromancy is not supposed to be this simple.’

Forcing a confrontation between the living and the dead was an act that defied the natural order of the world. Under normal circumstances, Aiden would have needed to hire a master shaman from the Far East just to establish a temporary bridge.

Under certain specific conditions, however, even an ordinary person like Aiden could manage it. For example, if an extraordinarily powerful warrior heard an insult after death that their pride simply could not tolerate, their lingering spirit might temporarily manifest in the living realm.

The Knight of Dawn happened to be precisely that kind of individual.

This man’s historical achievements were genuinely dazzling enough to make one’s head spin, but his personal character possessed one glaring flaw.

“Petty little man,” Aiden snickered, leaning closer to the glass. “If you have a problem with what I said, come out and argue with me.”

The instant the words left his mouth, the smoke inside the preservation case began vibrating violently. Seconds later, it began generating actual physical phenomena in the surrounding room.

“What is this?” Katya murmured, her voice sharpening as a sudden, heavy gust of wind swept through the hall.

Nearby display cases began rattling in their stands, and a sharp, static tingling ran across their skin. It was absurd—the spirit was producing physical force through sheer residual presence alone.

It indirectly revealed just how unbelievably powerful the soul inside the case truly was.

In the game community, players had given this legendary figure a very specific nickname: The Strongest Petty Man in the World.

His extraordinary martial ability aside, his temper was so short that he could not endure hearing anyone insult him, even centuries after his death.

In other words, Aiden had deliberately struck the exact nerve the dead hero could never ignore.

[ WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY, YOU BASTARD?! ]

‘There it is.’

The instant he saw the enraged spirit burst violently out from the preserved remains, Aiden smiled satisfied to himself.