13. Iris El Devhardt – 01
It was probably around that time that Arya felt an indescribable, strange ominous feeling.
“…Cain-sama…?”
Arya frowned as she felt something very unsettling in her senses, no, at the tip of her sixth sense, which could not be called a sense. Until then, I didn’t know why. However, at this moment, Arya’s mood was very dirty due to that unknown sensation.
If I had to make an analogy, should I say it’s a similar feeling to the day Cain bought me the macarons I put on my desk and a fellow lady-in-waiting devoured it while I was away from work for a while? Needless to say, Arya doesn’t like it very much when someone touches her. Especially when it comes to Cain.
‘…But, Cain-nim told me to wait quietly in my room today.’
I want to find out the cause of this unpleasant sensation that touches my planting right now. However, Cain’s command to himself was also something that could not be easily violated. It was at that time that Arya, confused by the conflicting proposition, found Cain’s coat hanging over the chair.
‘right. Recently, the weather tends to get a bit chilly in the evening.’
Although the weather has improved a lot lately, Lumentium, where the Imperial Palace is located, gets very cold when evening approaches, and some people feel cold. From this point on, Cain is the minor duke of the Estel family. Leaving someone the size of a duke to get cold without a coat on is something that shouldn’t be done as an exclusive lady-in-waiting to serve him, and shouldn’t be allowed to happen-
Having persuaded herself like that, Arya put his coat over her hands and headed for the banquet hall. Of course, she didn’t want to think much about the fact that after Cain reached the level of a master, at least the cold could not invade his body, and it was even less of a concern to her. Just in case, he might really feel the cold.
“…what?”
However, when Aria arrived at the banquet hall and looked around, Cain was nowhere to be found. Despite looking around the banquet hall just in case, Aria failed to find Cain in the end.
“…..”
The anxiety that didn’t exist in the form is slowly starting to come out with the substance. Arya quickly turned her eyes to check the top seats in the banquet hall, but sure enough, the top seats were empty, as if no one had ever existed in the first place.
He still remembers the image of Iris leaving the room with a relaxed attitude, telling Cain to follow her as soon as she was heading to the banquet hall.
Is this just a mere coincidence? Was it just by chance that Iris and Cain disappeared at the banquet hall at the same time?
‘…That can’t be.’
Arya knew all too well about the greedy nature of a woman named Iris, who pretended not to be, but could not easily hide it.
Where did the thief cat disappear with Cain? What kind of insidious scheme did he hide himself from here?
That’s when Aria frowned and was in trouble.
“…Tsk, why are you standing in the middle of the banquet hall? Judging from how she is dressed, she seems to be a lady-in-waiting, but would she use it if people were blocking her way? If you have nothing else to do, go over there and get some champagne.”
Apparently, the fat man, who was half drunk, misunderstood Arya for an imperial court lady, and started babbling words like that while resting his hand on her shoulder. Aria’s eyes as she looked at the man naturally became wild at the unpleasant feeling of her shoulder being touched.
Dare, where do you dare to raise your hand? These clothes are the first clothes Cain gave him as a gift. It’s not something that a man like you can carelessly touch.
“…What, what is it? those eyes. Huh, a lady who is nothing more than a lady-in-waiting has eyes that seem to eat a person. Yes, do you know who this body is? This body is-”
Wood deuk-
Unfortunately, the man’s words did not go further. It was because the left arm holding Arya’s shoulder was completely crushed. As if the man had been hit on the arm several times with a huge hammer.
“Quaah”
Grabbing his left arm, which had been shattered in an instant, the man fell to the floor of the banquet hall. The man’s moans of pain filled the entire banquet hall.
“Guards! Where are the guards! Grab this bitch right now…”
It was at that moment that the man who was rolling on the floor with the pain of his broken left arm felt something out of place. Even though his left arm was smashed and bleeding like this, and he let out such a loud groan full of pain, the people around him were enjoying the banquet without even paying attention to what the man and Aria were doing. I just did it.
…As if the existence of the man and Arya never existed in this banquet hall. As if there was an indescribable gap between the man and them, and his voice could never reach them.
“…this, this…”
Only then did I realize That woman in front of me, although she was wearing a maid’s outfit, was by no means a maid.
That it was something similar to a natural disaster in the shape of a woman.
And that he had touched something that he should never have touched, at the end of an asshole-like outburst.
Turbuck-
Arya takes a step forward towards the man with a cold gaze, as if looking at something inorganic. The man who met Arya’s eyes momentarily forgot even the pain in his left arm and staggered backwards.
“Finally, it went very well. It was the moment when I needed a mouth to explain the situation.”
A light flashes in Arya’s eyes. At the same time, an abstract-like momentum of not allowing objections or anything like that began to emanate from her body. The man who received the energy leaking out of Arya’s body from the front, forgot to even breathe and turned pale.
“I will ask. Have you ever seen Iris el Devhart in this banquet hall?”
Although the outfit she was wearing was that of a court lady, when she asked the question, she had the spirit of an emperor. To Aria’s question, the man opened his mouth without realizing it and stuttered an answer.
“…there was. The Imperial Princess, Iris el Devhart, existed here just a moment ago.”
Even if I forgot everything else, there was no way I could forget that. Because how could he forget the scene where he proudly declared that he belonged to the Duke of Estelle?
“…Then, was the Duke of Estelle also here?”
“Yeah, yes. The Duke of Estelle was also here. Ha, but at some point…”
“Hidden, that’s what you mean.”
“…yes.”
It really couldn’t have been a ghostly sight.
“…great. Originally, I was going to cut off that left hand that accidentally touched this outfit, but today I’ll take care of it like this. It’s not like the situation is relaxed enough to play with someone like you. Consider yourself lucky.”
The next moment, Arya’s figure disappeared from the man’s field of vision without a trace. As if no one had ever existed in front of him from the beginning.
“…uh?”
His left arm was fine. It was just fine, as if nothing had happened from the beginning.
People around him begin to glance at him as if he is strangely sitting on the floor.
…it was like a daydream.
****
In fact, it’s a good thing, but no matter how much Aria is a great sorceress who has identified the truth that transcends royalties, there are considerable restrictions on the use of most of the magic she can use within the premises of the imperial palace.
Of course, there were laws within the imperial palace that strictly restricted the use of magic by anyone other than those who were permitted to use it, but at the very least, there was no way that such a royalties law could restrain Arya.
The real reason was the barriers that Castana, the great wizard of a thousand years ago, had set up throughout the imperial palace. The barrier of Castana that enveloped the entire imperial palace had the property of interfering with the composition of magic within the barrier itself. Perhaps, because they were concerned about the royal family being killed by magic, they set up barriers like this-
Of course, if you were a wizard at the level of Ariana or Bianca, you could use magic while ignoring the effect of the barrier to some extent, but it was not easy for even Arya to use magic inside the barrier.
Perhaps, it was because the barrier Castana had set up didn’t just exert a certain effect, but also confined itself to the inside of the barrier and re-engraved the laws of the world itself. Just by looking at this barrier alone, Castana had more than enough qualifications to be given the title of Archmage even now, after a thousand years have passed.
“…under. To think that such an idiot is now being called the Archmage after a thousand years has passed. He was nothing more than a chaff-like chaff, at best a well-lined priest.”
However, because of that idiot, he couldn’t even use the space teleportation he boasted about, and ended up having to jump on his feet to find Cain’s whereabouts, so his anger toward Castana began to rise. His anger toward Bianca, his descendant, was a bonus.
“Where the hell is this anyway?”
As she poured out her anger on the princess and Castana, she recklessly moved, and the place she arrived was near a secluded terrace. In this area, there was no trace of Cain, let alone human presence, so at this rate, finding Cain and an appendix clinging to his side would be a truly distant task, and Marira.
“…it can’t be helped.”
Arya sighs softly and caresses the bracelet she was wearing very lightly. It was a beautiful bracelet engraved with snowflake patterns that Cain had bought her earlier in Ystad. Cain bought Arya an accessory, hoping that she would wear it, but unfortunately, Arya had no intention of leaving the bracelet Cain had given her as a simple accessory. As it was a precious accessory he had given him as a gift, he made an efficient decision to add at least one useful function to it.
The barrier of the imperial palace set up by Castana interfered with the composition of magical power itself. Therefore, magic tools that can be said to be a completed magic will not be affected by the barrier.
“…It’s a waste to write in a place like this…”
As she said that, what Arya pulled out from her bosom was black hair. This accessory, which Arya remodeled herself, had the ability to detect the whereabouts of the person she was looking for if there was only a part of her body.
In other words, it was a magic tool developed to prevent such a thing from happening again by reviving the bitter experience of having to travel around the north to find his whereabouts, just like Bianca del Castana earlier. If there is a downside, it should be said that every time you try to find out whereabouts, a part of the body of the person who brought it to the magic tool disappears. Fortunately or unfortunately, there were still a few more pieces of Cain’s hair that Arya had collected.
ugh-
The jewelry that ravenously devours Cain’s hair begins to point to Cain’s whereabouts. location is west. The accessory said that Cain was standing about 200 meters away from where she was standing.
As far as Arya knew, the area to the west of the imperial palace was extremely uninhabited, so it must have been a place where people didn’t pass by often. Could it be that Cain and Iris are alone in such a place? why?
“…..”
yes, nothing will happen It’s just that Cain chose the western terrace because he had something to talk about secretly with that woman. If I didn’t think so, it seemed like something would happen to my head. Arya puts her ominous imaginations aside in a corner of her head and begins to conjure magic, ignoring the interfering effect of the barrier.
double casting. One is floating magic to rise into the air. And one is a self-developed invisibility magic that makes her existence itself disappear from the world.
Aria, completely hidden, floats into the air and begins to move slowly to Cain’s current location.
100 meters.
…my heart trembles. The closer I got to him, the more the anxiety itself seemed to take on reality. The decision that it is better to turn around and go back now strikes in my head.
50 meters.
However, as if her body was broken, despite her heart beating like crazy, Arya’s body did not stop and headed towards where Cain was. I don’t know why, but I missed his face so much as he smiled at me. If I could only see his face, it seemed that the fear and horror that was engulfing her body would disappear without a trace. …No, I had to.
30 meters.
It won’t be. yes, it will be nothing. please say no Cain, please-
…10 meters.
“…..”
and-
“…Hah, haang…!”
At the groan of a voice she had heard a lot somewhere, Arya stiffened her body without realizing it. Unknowingly, I closed my eyes tightly. She did not have the courage to face the horrors unfolding in front of her.
“…chureup, haeup, ah…!”
“…..”
In the end, Arya had to face the terrible sight with her own eyes.
The horrible sight of Cain and Iris exclaiming and exchanging affection on the railing of the terrace.