Chapter 53

Commotion (2)

“…I don’t remember submitting an application.”

Aiden fired back, a noticeably sharp edge in his voice.

Noel, watching from beside him, instinctively pressed a hand to her forehead at the hostility in his tone. Then again, this was a man who challenged direct members of the imperial family whenever he saw an opening. There was no reason a Grand Duke would receive special treatment.

The surprising part was not Aiden’s attitude, but how calmly the Grand Duke accepted it.

“I already know that if you dislike someone, your manners become poor regardless of who they are,” the Grand Duke remarked, adjusting his clothes as he spoke. “If those children had actually been in danger of dying, I would have stepped in and saved them. You need not worry about that.”

“…”

Aiden listened before answering in the same blunt tone. “…I still don’t understand why you arranged something like that in the first place.”

“I wanted to know whether you were an idiot who happened to gain power through luck, or a man with an actual spine.”

“Pardon?”

“You were a war orphan, weren’t you? From the slums. You only became famous recently.”

“…”

Aiden’s expression tightened further while the Grand Duke continued without concern. “When a person’s surroundings change suddenly, it’s easy for their nature to become clouded. I was merely testing whether you were that shallow.”

“…By investigating my past and pushing innocent children into something dangerous?” Aiden’s voice remained openly displeased, but the Grand Duke only smiled.

“In that case, it was worth doing. I found someone I like.”

“…”

Aiden silently revised his assessment of the man. This person was a formidable opponent in an entirely different sense. Aiden had been needling him repeatedly, yet the Grand Duke simply let every barb slide away.

“…In any case, that still doesn’t explain anything,” Aiden said. “What position are you trying to hire me for, and what exactly do you want me to do?”

“Do you know why the Aslan territory lies in the north?”

Of course Aiden already knew the reason perfectly well. The territory served as a gateway against every kind of evil spirit and demon beast crossing over from the region bordering the Empire’s northern frontier. It was not called the Empire’s shield for nothing.

“If you know that much, explaining this will be easy,” the Grand Duke said, smiling faintly before continuing. “Once every ten years, the demons and demon beasts crossing from that place turn the land into hell. We call that day the Night of the Hunt.”

“…”

“I want you to help us bring it under control.”

The introduction to Chapter 2 could hardly have been clearer.

“…You have your own children, don’t you?” Aiden countered. “I heard every one of them is an accomplished martial artist. Surely you could ask them instead of me.”

“I don’t trust those halfwits. Is that even a serious question?”

“…”

“The moment I started showing weakness, those idiots began trying to swallow my title. I can’t entrust an important responsibility like this to them.”

“…Even so, surely they would be more qualified than I am.”

As Aiden tried to object despite the Grand Duke’s merciless evaluation of his own children, several photographs were scattered across the table.

Aiden and Noel both flinched at what they showed.

There were images of Aiden wielding pure white qi, divine power, and law force. There were even photographs from his recent battle with the Lord Protector, recording him using the Knight of Dawn’s signature technique.

“You’re a very hot commodity right now, Lionheart’s consort.”

“…”

“A wielder of multiple supernatural powers who is somehow connected to the Knight of Dawn as well.” The Grand Duke moved his gaze from the photographs back to Aiden. “You’re the kind of talent people across the entire continent would salivate over, not merely the Empire. It looks like that Emperor bastard is desperately suppressing attention because he doesn’t want anyone stealing you away.”

The Grand Duke continued matter-of-factly, “So prepare yourself and come to my territory. I’ll have compensation waiting that you cannot refuse.”

“…”

“Heaven’s Mandate is coming, Lionheart’s consort.”

Aiden’s body twitched the moment he heard those words. He remembered hearing that exact phrase before.

‘Heaven’s Mandate is coming, Mr. Aiden.’

The prince had once said the exact same thing.

Before Aiden could wonder why the identical phrase had now come from the Grand Duke, the older man continued, “The Empire is going to turn upside down soon. The powder keg is already full, and someone inside is playing with fire. That Emperor bastard may be good at many things, but he was catastrophically bad at raising children.”

“…”

“The conservative nobles loyal to the Emperor, the radical nobles attached to the prince, and the military officers aligned with me—those three factions currently divide the Empire’s political sphere. Did you know that?”

“…I wasn’t asking for a lecture.”

“You don’t need to know. What I just said is the entirety of the compensation I’m offering.”

“Pardon?”

“You and the prince don’t get along very well, do you?”

“…”

“I’ll help you solve that problem.” The Grand Duke’s voice remained perfectly even. “I command the largest faction in the Empire after the Emperor and the prince.”

The meaning of what followed was unmistakably clear to Aiden.

“I’m personally offering to help you take that prince bastard’s head.”

There was no denying that the offer was difficult to refuse.

✦ ✦ ✦

A well-made train—especially a first-class carriage—naturally offered an excellent ride. It was a space designed so wealthy travelers could cross long distances in complete comfort.

At least, that was how it should have been.

“…”

“…”

Aiden sat in the same carriage as Noel and Katya, looking between them while feeling as though his blood was drying up in real time.

Both women were staring exclusively out the windows with a degree of fixed determination that felt completely unnatural.

‘I can’t breathe.’

Aiden sat in place sweating under the suffocating atmosphere. They had never been especially compatible, but the tension now was far worse. Neither said a word, neither wanted to make eye contact, and on the rare occasions their gazes accidentally met, both snapped their heads away so abruptly that it looked ridiculous.

‘They both seem upset.’

Noel appeared angry that Katya had followed them without saying anything, while Katya seemed angry that Noel and Aiden had gone out together without telling her. They were both old enough to know better, yet they were behaving like children.

Watching the Empire’s greatest knight and the princess of an entire nation act this way left Aiden completely speechless. He decided he would be better off spending his attention on something productive.

Aiden organized the information surfacing in his mind, piece by piece.

‘A key branch of the Main Quest…’

He would have been lying if he claimed the Grand Duke’s sudden proposal did not bother him. The man had spoken as though he already knew about the final coup—the climax of Act One: Cracks in the Imperial Capital.

‘…Why?’

That was the largest question weighing on Aiden’s mind. Grand Duke Aslan had no particular reason to help Aiden. He did not even have a particularly good relationship with the Emperor. More precisely, he despised the Emperor, the prince, and nearly every direct member of the imperial family. In his eyes, they were fools wearing grand titles despite lacking real ability. He believed in merit above all else.

Grand Duke Aslan was a strategist with extraordinary talent for gathering capable people, as well as an ambitious man. That was the person Aiden remembered. In fact, the original game’s coup had happened precisely because of those traits.

‘…Wasn’t he the one who started it in the original story?’

Grand Duke Aslan himself had originally been the final villain of Act One. Now, the Main Scenario had been twisted so thoroughly that the prince—who should have stopped the Grand Duke—had become the most likely candidate to start the coup instead. Meanwhile, the Grand Duke, originally the villain, was offering to help Aiden stop him.

“…”

Looking at the differences from that perspective suggested one likely point of divergence. Unlike the original story, Grand Duke Aslan was ill, and the children who should have helped him participate in the coup were instead targeting his position. The Grand Duke had likely been betrayed by people he trusted. That might also explain why he had approached Aiden after deciding he liked him.

‘…There’s another part of this.’

Aiden tapped his chin thoughtfully as another consideration surfaced. Grand Duke Aslan was practically a treasure chest of golden skills, comparable in value to Noel or Katya. Very few people across the continent could match those two when it came to supernatural power itself, but skills were not limited to raw magic or qi. When it came to utility and support skills that could help someone navigate difficult situations, the Grand Duke possessed a level of excellence comparable to either woman.

Raising his affinity would bring no downside whatsoever.

Once all those circumstances were placed side by side, Aiden could summarize the current situation very simply:

‘Doesn’t this mean I have a chance to strip his skill list clean?’

For Aiden, it was an opportunity worth a fortune.

✦ ✦ ✦

“We’ve arrived,” Noel’s calm voice cut into his thoughts. “This is the Aslan territory.”

The train was passing over a high hill and beginning its descent down the opposite slope. From such an elevated position, the surrounding landscape was clearly visible.

Then, an enormous city unfolded beyond the windows like a vast panorama.

“…Wow.”

Aiden could only stare at its scale. It was absurdly, almost maddeningly vast. He had visited the Imperial Palace before, but that place was impressive because of the size and majesty of its individual buildings. It had never given him this overwhelming sense of sheer breadth.

The city stretched across the horizon with no visible end. By area alone, it was said to be the largest single noble territory on the continent. Along with the Imperial Palace, the Aslan territory was called the second heart of the Empire and its foremost strategic stronghold.

It was also the stage of Chapter 2: Night of the Hunt.

‘This is ridiculous.’

Apparently, there was a good reason House Aslan was considered the greatest noble family in the Empire.

While Aiden clicked his tongue internally, the train rattled and continued descending. The ridge that had filled his view disappeared.

“Hm?”

Something strange flashed at the edge of his vision.

“What is that…?” Aiden tilted his head as he looked toward the sky.

Dark shapes unlike anything he had ever seen covered a vast section of the atmosphere. At first he wondered whether they were simply storm clouds, but a closer look made that impossible. Ordinary clouds did not end along boundaries so precise that they looked as though someone had divided the sky with a ruler. Nor did they continuously spill out a black mist so thick and sticky that merely looking toward it felt suffocating.

“Ah, that must be the Voidlands. This is my first time seeing them in person,” Katya spoke quietly as she stared at the black sky faintly visible beyond the frozen lands. “I heard that humans born on the continent can never enter that place. It’s impressive that they managed to build an entire territory right beside it.”

The sealed body of Wornil, God of Devouring and god of the demons, lay there. That place was the coffin where the gods of the Pantheon had joined forces to seal him. Hundreds of years had passed since its creation, yet the death energy lingering around it showed no sign of fading. Any ordinary person approaching the place would die with absolute certainty. Even someone with powerful abilities could hardly expect to come away unaffected.

‘Come to think of it…’

Saying House Aslan had chosen to settle near the Voidlands was not quite accurate; the Voidlands were the very reason the territory existed here in the first place. Most people in the Aslan territory accepted a relatively low level of technological development in exchange for filling the region with ritualistic and religious structures. They needed those protections because the northern territory served as the Empire’s frontline shield. Aiden had heard that without them, the Voidlands’ influence would interfere with everyday life throughout the region.

“Let’s go,” Noel’s voice interrupted as Aiden finished sorting through the information in his head.

With a heavy rattle, the train gradually began to slow down.

“…”

Aiden drew a deep breath as the train came to a complete stop.

Chapter 2 was beginning now.