Chapter: 24
The overwhelming relief of having survived lasted only a moment before Marie, unable to endure the foul stench, began retching.
“It’s okay. It’s all over now.”
Lisithea soothed Marie and lifted her head.
The woman who had just brushed back her coarse black hair gave Lisithea a slight nod in greeting.
“Thanks. Tossing the firewood at just the right moment made it catch nicely.”
The black-haired mage jerked her chin toward the sword lodged in the basilisk’s gaping maw.
“Wilhelmina, leave the rest to me.”
A man who had hurried in after her effortlessly finished off the basilisk, which was writhing weakly.
“Why’re you making such a fuss about sticking a chunk of metal into something that’s already dead?”
muttered the woman called Wilhelmina in a bored tone.
“Hey, have you forgotten who pushed it this far? It was already half-dead.”
The man bragged as he tapped at the wounds covering the limp basilisk’s body.
It seemed the basilisk had already been mortally wounded by the knights’ joint assault and was fleeing when it crawled into the annex.
“If His Highness the Grand Duke finds out you drove a great calamity-class beast into his fiancée’s residence, do you think he’ll say you did well?”
“…How was I supposed to know it would run this way? I was chasing it and it just happened.”
The man scratched the bridge of his nose awkwardly.
“Not my doing, anyway.”
Shrugging as if it were none of her concern, the woman strode boldly into the room.
Wilhelmina looked around at the monster corpses scattered across the floor and let out a surprised exclamation.
“Goodness, you had quite a time alone. How many are there?”
Stepping over the corpses, she approached Lisithea and held out her hand.
“You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”
It was the sort of rough manner of speech one might hear from a thug in a marketplace.
But Lisithea knew that the woman before her was nothing that could be compared to such a person.
Roughly chopped, coarse black hair. Eyes as red as burning embers. And above all, a mage who could command fire freely.
Such a person could not possibly be common.
“Wilhelmina Richter?”
At Lisithea’s question, the woman bared her teeth in a grin.
“Oh, you know me. Well, our family’s pretty famous. Even if we’re not the brightest star in the sky.”
The Richter Margrave family, guardians of the northern border of the Kairos Empire.
Taking the Fire Star as their guardian constellation, the House of Richter stood as one of the empire’s twin pillars of military power alongside the House of Lowen, which was responsible for the defense of the capital.
Though circumstances were complicated, they were also part of Diamyud’s paternal bloodline.
“Thanks to you, I’m alive. Thank you.”
Lisithea took Wilhelmina’s offered hand and rose to her feet.
“Lady Aster, are you all right?”
The knight who had killed the basilisk with Wilhelmina looked strangely familiar.
He had accompanied Diamyud when he visited the Marquess Aster’s estate ten days ago.
The second son of Count Dilton and Diamyud’s escort knight.
“Yes. Thank you as well, Sir Ryan.”
At Lisithea’s reply, Ryan and Wilhelmina’s faces twisted oddly.
“You don’t look fine. You’re cut here.”
Wilhelmina pointed at Lisithea’s torn forehead, where blood was flowing.
“No bones are broken and no organs are damaged. It’s not something worth making a fuss over in a situation like this. We can talk in detail later.”
She was curious how the Grand Duke’s knights had known to appear, but there was no time for that now.
Lisithea grabbed a piece of cloth and tightly wrapped it around her bleeding forehead.
Blood kept flowing, blurring her vision.
At her overly calm demeanor, Ryan and Wilhelmina exchanged glances.
Whether the Grand Duke’s knights worried or not, what concerned Lisithea wasn’t her barely painful wound.
“Marie, can you stand?”
Lisithea asked the half-dazed maid.
“…Y-yes.”
Marie tried to rise but sank back down, her legs giving out.
Only minutes ago, she had nearly been devoured by a basilisk.
For an ordinary maid not to have fainted was already fortunate.
But this was no time for leisure.
From where the basilisk had died, smoke hissed upward as the floor began to melt.
The venom of the king of serpents.
“I’ll carry her.”
With Wilhelmina’s help, Ryan hoisted Marie onto his back.
“Let’s get out of here while the monsters are busy feasting.”
Lisithea tore a painting from the wall and pointed to the secret passage hidden behind it.
“…All right.”
Tap-tap, thud-thud, screech, screech—
The sounds of countless monsters running, flying, crawling, and shrieking drew closer.
They were converging to devour the basilisk’s corpse.
Avoiding the monsters flooding toward the annex, Lisithea and the others ran into pitch-black darkness.
The night felt unusually long.
As though dawn would never come.
Creak.
Wilhelmina, who led the way, opened the wooden hatch above and checked their surroundings.
Ryan, carrying Marie, and Lisithea followed out of the secret passage one by one.
After running through the dark tunnel, they emerged into the forest behind the annex.
“Looks like all the monsters gathered around the basilisk’s body.”
The forest was littered with traces left behind by monsters—arachne webs, harpy feathers, satyr hoofprints.
“Where to now?”
Wilhelmina asked, holding a dagger engulfed in blue-tinged flames.
If they crossed the forest as they were, they could escape this detestable estate.
Ryan and Marie looked to Lisithea, as if waiting for her decision.
Breathing roughly, Lisithea clutched her aching side and forced herself upright.
In the distance, the brightly lit main residence of the Aster estate was visible.
“To where the light shines. To that place where the brightest star in the sky has risen.”
The star in the eastern sky that heralded dawn.
Aster—the house guarded by the Star of Light, said to have brought the first mage to this land.
Lisithea ran toward the place that had never once truly become her home.
With every heavy step she took, the darkness behind her grew thinner.
At last, emerging from the forest, Lisithea reached the main residence bathed in radiant light.
“Ah—ah, ah?”
The first to spot her was a low-ranking soldier rummaging through monster corpses to ensure none still clung to life.
The sudden battle against monsters that had invaded in the middle of the night was drawing to a close, and soldiers like him had only just begun cleanup.
“Lady Lisithea, why do you look—”
Realizing too late that such a word was improper for addressing his young mistress, the soldier hurriedly clamped his mouth shut.
But her disheveled hair, the cloth roughly wrapped around her forehead wound, her torn and filthy clothes—
Lisithea, who had always appeared stiflingly perfect.
At her wretched appearance, people gaped and began whispering among themselves.
“D-did monsters appear in the annex too?”
“I-it looks that way?”
“Did anyone send support there?”
“Support? The annex guards would’ve handled it. Who had the presence of mind to send help in this chaos?”
“You idiot. There’s a two-hour gap around midnight during shift changes when the annex guard post is empty. No one was there!”
The guards grew paler as they spoke.
After Lisithea moved her residence to the annex, the Knight Commander of House Aster had complained about splitting the guard forces.
When the commander openly voiced his dissatisfaction, the knights and guards followed suit.
Those assigned to guard the annex grew lax, and eventually began leaving their posts for hours around shift changes.
Only later did it come to light that this had been the commander’s measure to prevent gaps in security at the main residence.
“So then, how did I end up in such a state?”
Lisithea smiled brightly, as if delighted.
The house she had grown up in—
not a single blade of grass, not a single tree had ever been on her side.
Even the servants had been in collusion, treating her as the sole blemish upon a perfect family.
She had merely used that.
To escape this house without any grounds for reproach.
“Th-that’s….”
The flustered soldier stammered.
While Lisithea pressed the guards on one side, on the other the Aster knights were driving off the remaining monsters.
Flash!
Pale blue light flared throughout the garden, binding the monsters’ feet.
The magic stones planted in the grounds transformed into traps, restricting their movement.
It was Aster magic—manipulating the metal that was the remains of stars.
Edward’s golden hair fluttered in the wind.
He was a being who borrowed the power of the stars to perform miracles.
Blue mana flowed from his fingertips and dissolved into the air.
Bound by Edward’s magic, the monsters were easily dispatched by the knights.
Most ground-roaming monsters had been eliminated, and only a few harpies—eagle-like beasts—remained circling above the estate.
“Eddie!”
“Lady Celia!”
The doors of the main residence burst open as Celia ran out, surrounded by escorts.
“Eddie, are you all right?”
Tearfully, Celia cupped Edward’s face in both hands.
“Celi, I told you to stay somewhere safe until all the monsters were gone. What if you collapse again?”
“You used too much mana. What if you collapse instead—”
As Celia pressed her forehead to his, trying to transfer mana to him, she felt an unsettling gaze and turned her head.
“…Sister?”
Calling Lisithea hesitantly, Celia’s face quickly turned pale as she clutched Edward’s collar.
“…Elder sister.”
A groan-like sigh escaped Edward as well.
Her ragged clothes, disheveled hair, the torn, bleeding forehead—
Lisithea’s condition made it clear she had narrowly escaped death.
Just imagining what kind of commotion she might cause over this made his head ache.
Pressing his hand to his forehead, Edward let out a deep sigh.
