“…Judas?”
As she called his name, Judas snapped back to reality.
An unfamiliar feeling suddenly vanished.
He took a step back.
That’s because an unpleasant smell was wafting off him.
“…Yes, Miss.”
“Are you okay? What’s wrong? Did you get hurt?”
“No. I’m fine.”
In that moment, Eliya couldn’t understand why he felt strange.
Anyway, it wasn’t something to worry about right now.
Judas reported what he had encountered.
“Monsters have appeared in the northeast as well, but our royal guard was there, so we suppressed them.”
“Really? That’s good…”
Clank, clank.
The heavy sound of armor clanging against the floor.
The clattering was accompanied by the noise of armor colliding.
A group clad in golden armor approached them.
With a sun emblem emblazoned on their shoulders.
Unlike the Bevel family’s design, it was a bit different.
The sun on the golden breastplate was protruded like it could pop out, and the rays were sharp.
In contrast to the softly glowing sun of the Bevel family.
It was the emblem of the Empire.
And the golden armor was a symbol of the royal knights.
“Quite the swift response.”
Eliya lightly mocked.
The royal knight simply stood firm and saluted.
“Thank you for your assistance, Princess Eliya.”
“Not that. I didn’t do it to be thanked.”
While they were conversing, Judas returned the armor.
It was a bit dirty, but there was nothing that could be done about it.
There was no way to clean it here.
Once he took off the armor, his body felt much lighter.
The unpleasant smell was gone.
“If it’s not too much trouble, may I ask what you two were doing around here?”
“Are you suspecting us?”
“Not suspecting, it’s a legitimate inquiry…”
“Hm?”
Eliya did not reply, sporting a subtle smile.
The royal knight’s claim was indeed true.
They had the right and duty to investigate what had happened.
However, Eliya sensed a strange discomfort.
An anxious feeling.
She had intentionally reacted sharply to gauge their reaction, but the other party was overly flustered.
What on earth were they hiding?
“Well, fine. There’s nothing that can’t be said.”
Eliya reluctantly opened her mouth, as if saying she would talk.
In the meantime, Judas had stepped back to observe the royal knights.
Specifically, the giant among them.
“Whoa, look at that size. Is he even human?”
He stood at least over 2 meters tall.
Estimating at 2 meters and 50 centimeters, perhaps.
Not just in height; his broad shoulders resembled a massive gate.
“Has there ever been a human that big? There are no giants around here… But if he’s that big, he should be pretty famous, so why haven’t I heard of him?”
Perhaps tired from rushing, the giant suddenly swayed.
His painful gasps were audible.
“Almost a monster…”
At that moment.
The giant met his gaze.
No.
The giant had been watching Judas since he took off his helmet.
They just happened to lock eyes now.
“…What is this?”
A sudden wave of discomfort surged up.
There wasn’t even time to think.
“Grrroooar…! Gaaahrk-!”
The giant suddenly roared in agony.
He clutched his head and began to thrash.
“Grrrh-!”
“Hey! Calm down!”
The royal knights rushed over to intervene.
It was useless.
As the giant swung his arms, they flew off like paper.
“Grrh…!”
After stopping his thrashing, the giant glared straight at Judas.
Chills ran down Judas’s spine.
“Miss! Run away….”
Just as he was about to warn her, his mouth was tightly shut.
“Gack…”
A heavy pain pierced through his abdomen, and his body was slammed down.
The giant charged at him in an instant.
There was no time to process it.
He was hurled far away, crashing into the wall of Judeca.
“Grrrraaah-!”
The giant clutched his head again in distress.
“Judas-!”
Eliya screamed and used teleportation to reach him.
“A, what’s happening… Y, Judas…?”
Leaning against the wall, his body drooped.
“No, don’t….”
Eliya’s trembling hand reached for Judas.
He weakly raised his hand to meet hers.
“I’m okay… It hurts like hell… but…”
Eliya swallowed hard and glared at the giant.
Her eyes wide open.
Her irises glowing with mad fire.
The magic was already prepared.
It was just a matter of deciding how to kill him.
Should she burn him in his armor?
Or melt him inside his armor?
Or perhaps… should she wipe out the entire city instead?
“Miss.”
Judas hugged Eliya tightly.
She fell against his chest, as if about to collapse.
“I’m fine.”
“I…”
“Calm down. He’s a royal knight.”
“…….”
“I don’t know why he’s acting like this, but it would be unsatisfactory to kill him.”
Eliya understood.
No.
Eliya understood more than Judas did.
How could she not?
Yet, Eliya struggled to control her emotions.
It wasn’t simply because of the mad fire.
The feeling she was experiencing right now.
Was pure rage and murderous intent.
Completely her own.
But….
Eliya looked up at Judas, who held her.
He had a smile on his face as if to assure her it was okay, despite everything that had happened.
He didn’t often smile like that… smiling like that now felt unfair.
“…Yeah. I get it.”
Eliya rested her face against his chest and healed his wounds.
It wasn’t the rage induced by the mad fire, but somehow, just his embrace calmed her down.
Why was this happening?
It felt strange.
Too strange.
But she didn’t dislike it.
So, she decided to remain a little strange.
“Hold him down!”
Several royal knights attacked the giant to subdue him.
The giant’s helmet was torn away and fell off.
This was due to the elbow he had received when he charged in.
He wasn’t just taking damage silently, either.
The wildly moving helmet fell to the ground.
Their faces were revealed.
‘…Huh?’
Judas, holding Eliya, and Eliya, resting against him, gazed at the giant’s face.
The eyes were completely white, exposed.
It wasn’t because he was glaring; rather, his eyelids had been cut off.
The sclera were stained red.
Skin covered in crimson rashes.
Even his bald head was filled with wounds and rashes.
Saliva dripped from his tightly closed mouth.
With a face like a rabid beast, he glared at Judas.
Judas recognized the giant’s face.
It had changed and transformed so much, yet the feeling from his childhood still lingered.
A trivial part of it….
‘…Envinil?’
A former candidate hailing from the same Judeca.
Envinil, who wanted to be like Judas, though he didn’t know it.
He appeared before Judas grotesquely strong.
In a way he never wished for.
*
Controlling the rampaging giant proved difficult for the knights.
Ultimately, they had to rely on the royal wizard order’s power.
The commander, Geist, rushed in and hurriedly took the giant away.
Due to the urgency of the situation, Eliya couldn’t do anything but watch.
Seeing their response, Eliya was certain.
The royal side had intentionally delayed their response.
Afterward, Judas and Eliya briefly testified to the royal knights.
Neither side was in a position to dig too deeply.
The royal prestige had significantly declined.
The monster escape incident at Judeca.
Although crafted by the Emperor, it yielded unexpectedly absurd results.
Originally intended to shake public sentiment, it backfired when Judas and Eliya suppressed it early on.
Even before the royal knights were deployed.
Moreover, Eliya’s royal guard had blocked the northeastern gate.
As a result, the incident only enhanced Eliya’s reputation.
After the investigation concluded, evening had fallen.
Eliya congratulated the royal guards who investigated alongside her and then dismissed them to rest freely.
Only she and Judas remained.
“Miss. Earlier… was that Envinil?”
“Yeah. I think so. I expelled him from the training facility back then.”
The incident where Envinil had attempted to stab Judas during training.
Afterward, Eliya instructed her subordinates.
To give him a proper beating and then expel him.
At that time, she hadn’t known the royal family were enemies.
“I never thought they would take him. My guess is, he seems to have been enhanced with dark magic. Perhaps he was used as a sort of experiment.”
Eliya sensed traces of magic within Envinil.
A type of forced physical enhancement magic.
Such magic could only originate from dark sorcery.
“If the royal family is behind this…”
“While I can’t say for certain, they were likely attempting to bolster their forces with dark magic. It’s possible that releasing the monsters was a setup. They must be busy trying to clean it up now.”
In other words, she had the opportunity to gather information and strike.
The true objective was not the Empire itself.
It was the Bevel family.
The Empire, Bevel family, and Molsin Church.
She would gather and explode the intersection of all three.
“Are you okay from before?”
“I’m fine. It’s healed quickly.”
“…I see.”
Eliya clearly remembered the moment her reason had snapped.
Exceedingly vivid.
At that time, she had been intent on killing her opponent.
But she hadn’t gone through with it.
Judas had stopped her.
It was a contradictory situation.
Her own possession.
Her own belonging.
My knight.
Mine.
A clear servant.
Judas.
He couldn’t issue commands to his master.
Nor did she have any reason to follow that command.
If she were to do it, she would.
However, Eliya obediently followed Judas’s words.
Accepting the reversed master-servant relationship.
She could not refuse.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to be.
It felt utterly strange.
She couldn’t push away this strangeness.
They walked side by side through the bustling streets of the founding festival.
The night of the founding festival was vibrant and dazzling.
Colorful lights twinkled all around.
The streets were filled with people.
The incident from earlier had become rather entertaining gossip.
In fact, there hadn’t been any civilian casualties at all.
It was something to rejoice about.
Claimed as divine protection from the gods during the founding festival, everyone was intoxicated by drinks and merriment.
On their way back.
Eliya asked Judas.
“Do you still want to see more of the festival?”
The two had come out to enjoy the festivities that day.
Though it had led to an incident, that was their original purpose.
Judas countered her question.
“And you, Miss?”
His own intentions were secondary to his master Eliya’s wishes.
“I…”
Eliya hesitated.
It was a trivial statement.
Normally, she would have suggested casually.
For some reason, her throat felt ticklish.
After a moment of hesitation, she looked up at Judas and smiled.
“…Yeah. I want to see more.”
A bright smile.
She still emanated a childlike purity.
Judas noticed something different in her face, one he hadn’t seen before.
A hint of shyness.
That was surely due to the colorful lights of the festival.
“Then I want to too…”
“Absolutely not.”
Eliya declared firmly.
“That kind of answer is unacceptable.”
“Y-yes?”
“I want to hear your pure thoughts, not just what you think I want to hear.”
“…….”
“What about you? Do you want to see the festival with me?”
Judas hesitated for a while.
It was a simple question.
She often approached his heart in this way, appearing without warning and then retreating.
But.
It felt oddly different this time….
Perhaps it was his own fault.
With a light heart, Judas replied.
“Yes. I also want to see.”
“Then let’s go. To the festival.”
Eliya answered with a smile.
A sensation tingled in one corner of his heart.
He felt a precarious sense that this shouldn’t be happening.
A complex feeling.
Something that was hard to describe; strange, ticklish, warm, yet fiery.
Judas and Eliya decided to temporarily bury that strangeness.
Just thinking that they were together sufficed for now.
“……”
Even after deciding, both didn’t know where to go first.
Staying still in a rather comical manner after agreeing to look around was silly.
Judas was about to say something, but a crowd rushed past them.
“Watch out.”
Judas hurriedly pulled Eliya’s hand, wrapping her in his embrace.
To avoid getting swept away.
The environment was ripe for being swept away due to the sheer number of people.
After all, they had the necklace, so they wouldn’t lose each other.
“Are you alright?”
“…Yeah.”
Eliya answered, her head bowed.
Judas realized he had committed a faux pas and tried to let go of her hand.
“I’m sorry…”
“Don’t let go.”
Eliya urgently grabbed his retreating hand and pulled him back.
They changed their grip.
Fingers laced together to intertwine.
Just like her request not to let go.
As if determined not to separate again, they locked tightly.
Eliya spoke without lifting her gaze.
“…Don’t let go. From now on.”
Judas swallowed the question that rose to his throat.
And simply smiled back at her.
“Understood, Miss.”
With their shoulders brushing against each other, the two began to explore the festival hand in hand.
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