9/15 Bonus chapter thanks to @Bear on Ko-fi!
In the deep underground of Constel, a faint torch illuminated the room. Philly Terst appeared at the entrance with two knights in tow.
“You’ll be in danger if you stay too long.”
“I know.”
Philly responded with a smile to the man standing by the door.
Opening the door, Philly stepped inside with the knights.
“Hello.”
Philly greeted the man before him as usual.
The man who responded was Renzo.
“Is the food to your liking? Are you uncomfortable in any way?”
“…Who are you?”
Renzo looked at Philly with displeasure.
For a brief moment, Philly’s gaze shifted to Renzo’s right side.
Where his right arm used to be.
Suddenly.
“…Do you want to die?”
Renzo’s murderous intent sharply pierced Philly.
He had seen the brief movement of her eyes.
However, Philly continued to smile warmly.
“No, no. Of course not.”
“This crazy woman…”
Renzo stood up.
He was not restrained in any way.
The two knights stepped in to block his path as he began to walk towards them.
But.
“Move aside. Both of you.”
“Ms. Ph-Philly!”
The knights were taken aback by Philly’s words.
Without changing her expression, Philly said,
“No, could you both please leave? I’d like to have an honest conversation with this person.”
“But…”
“Don’t argue.”
Philly deepened her smile at the knight.
“I’m giving an order. Don’t you understand?”
Finally, the two stepped back from in front of Philly and slowly opened the door.
After watching Philly’s back with concern, they left the room.
“You really have lost your mind, haven’t you?”
“Um, Mr. Renzo.”
“What?”
“Just stop barking.”
At that moment, Renzo’s patience seemed to snap.
With a sudden movement, he grabbed Philly by the throat.
“You crazy woman, how dare you…!”
Anger flared in his eyes, veins bulging on his forehead.
However, he never actually broke Philly’s neck.
When Renzo let go of her hand, Philly straightened her disheveled clothes.
“You’re not as foolish as I thought.”
At Philly’s words, Renzo gritted his teeth but said nothing.
“Because dying in a place like this would be truly ‘boring.'”
“……I don’t know what nonsense you’ve heard.”
“You knew I was the Empress from the start, didn’t you? What happens if you kill me, who stands where right now?”
Philly continued to provoke, reading Renzo’s expression.
The small certainty she gained from his look.
‘……To live by ‘fun’ as the only standard. That really was true.’
Philly had heard about Frondier from one of her knights, Robert.
The first was to beware of the royal palace, and the second was about Renzo.
Frondier had told her about Renzo’s temperament.
A hedonist who prioritizes ‘fun’ over good and evil, right and wrong, loss and gain.
The more she thought about it, the more peculiar Frondier seemed.
Treating her, the Empress, nonchalantly, knowing about the Dragon Heart, and even severing Renzo’s arm.
Moreover, he seemed to thoroughly understand what kind of person Renzo was.
‘I’ve never seen someone so hedonistic before.’
Philly was certain Renzo wouldn’t be able to do anything to her.
If he had been just a madman seeking fun, he would have been dew on the scaffold long ago.
No matter how strong his skills were, an individual cannot defeat a nation.
Especially since Renzo was only ‘among the strongest’, not a supreme being divergent from them.
Even if he acted like a battle maniac,
Appearing as someone who doesn’t cherish his life for the sake of fun.
There was a clear reason he had survived intact until now.
‘Well, not intact anymore.’
He probably never imagined he would lose an arm because of a student.
He must have believed he wouldn’t receive a single scratch.
“So, now that we understand our positions, shall we have a proper conversation? Please, take a seat.”
Renzo’s hostility didn’t fade with Philly’s words, but he trudged back to his original seat nonetheless.
Philly sat opposite him.
“So, what business does the Empress have?”
“There’s something I want to ask first.”
Philly looked at Renzo’s missing right side as he asked.
“How did that arm get blown off?”
“You really know how to irritate someone. You know, right? A student here did this.”
“That’s not what I’m asking. I’m asking ‘how’ did the student blow off that right arm.”
Philly is well aware of Renzo’s strength.
Among Pros, he is compared to ‘Eden Hamelot’, and if he weren’t a criminal, he could easily have been one of the ‘Zodiac’.
The ‘Zodiac’ refers to the twelve human weapons designated by the state.
The chancellor here at Constel, ‘Osprey’, is also a member of the Zodiac.
Or ‘Zodiac Heldre’, who participated in the nobles’ conference during the Mistilteinn incident.
Of course, there are others in the Empire as strong as the Zodiac.
Notably, the northern iron wall, ‘Enfer de Roach’.
The reason Enfer isn’t part of the Zodiac is because the Zodiac must always obey the Empire’s direct orders.
Enfer simply disliked that.
Anyway, Renzo’s physique easily surpassed that of an ordinary person.
Even without using aura, a clumsy knife wouldn’t leave a scratch on his muscles.
Yet, Frondier managed it.
Resting his chin in his hand, Renzo seemed displeased as he thought about something, then muttered softly.
“I don’t know.”
“…You don’t know?”
“Exactly as I said.”
Renzo simply stated that.
No more words followed.
Philly laughed.
“Hmm? It’s something any witness could easily tell, you know?”
“…I don’t know.”
Renzo clicked his tongue and repeated the same words.
Philly had seen Renzo’s true expression earlier.
She read signs of genuine anger, panic, and resignation.
And based on that, her conclusion about the current answer was,
‘…It doesn’t seem like a lie.’
He really doesn’t know.
What attack she had undergone.
“What happened in that fight?”
Renzo said that asking a witness would reveal everything, but Philly had already asked the witness.
The only witness being her daughter, Aten.
But Aten’s answer was similar.
-I’m not sure. Frondier must have done something, but Renzo’s arm suddenly flew off. At least, that’s how it looked to me.
At the time, Philly thought Aten hadn’t seen it properly because she was far away.
But even the person involved doesn’t know.
“Well, I’ll think about that later.”