I Returned with the Cheat Holy Sword

Crunch.
Under Raiza’s foot, a centipede was crushed.

The spray of green fluid splattering in all directions was unspeakably revolting.
“These days, even the Imperial Palace gardens have bugs—”
She grumbled as she moved along.

Of course, insects could exist anywhere. But her exaggerated reaction came because an irritating sense had been tapping at her nerves since earlier.
From the “demonic attack” at yesterday’s banquet, for example.
⋯⋯Something didn’t feel right.

A sense that something bad was about to happen.
And, as always, such feelings inevitably proved true.
Raiza halted the moment she saw a familiar face approaching in the corridor.
“⋯⋯.”

“⋯⋯.”
Felix—the Gray Cardinal—looked at her without a word.
Raiza, too, stared at Felix, her smile unchanged.

Well.
It was hard to call their relationship a good connection, no matter how one framed it.
⋯⋯After all, Raiza herself was the one who had erased this woman’s “family.”

The one who spoke first was Raiza.
“Felix unni, long time no see—! Are you here to attend the Military Parade?”
At her words, Felix gave no particular reaction, only nodding slightly.

Quietly, she took a pipe from her robes and placed it in her mouth.
With the smoke came a voice laced with venom.
“Looks like you’ve been living easy.”

“Nothing much to complain about—?”
“That’s right. By now, I suppose making orphans, widows, and widowers doesn’t even faze you anymore.”
“Mmm—don’t you do that a lot yourself, unni?”

In fact, she seemed to be much better at it than Raiza.
At Raiza’s teasing words, Felix calmly nodded.
“Soon enough, I’ll have the chance to show you as well.”

“Wow, scary—”
“Black Lion Marchioness.”
Felix rubbed her eyes as she spoke.
“This isn’t something I should be saying in a hallway, but since I’ve no desire to look at your face any longer, I’ll just say it.”

Her movements suggested nothing more than fatigue, but the words she spoke were anything but ordinary.
“Are you people planning to blow the entire Capital to pieces?”
“⋯⋯.”

Raiza tilted her head with a smile still fixed on her face.
But within that motion was a distinct shift—the atmosphere showed she was now taking this conversation seriously.
The sense that the other party knew something she shouldn’t.

“What do you mean?”
“I’ve heard reports that supplies fit for war are being moved into the Capital. They say it’s all the doing of the Emperor and you.”
“⋯⋯Sharp ears, unni. Though, I suppose you always were.”

“Recently I’ve gotten acquainted with some friends, introduced by a certain contact. I worked them a bit.”
Carlyle had handed over that information network called The Pale Moon to Felix.
They had done their job even better than expected.

Every covert move Raiza and the Emperor were making beneath the surface—they delivered it all.
“Go and tell the Emperor this.”
Felix puffed smoke as she spoke.

“Whatever scheme he’s hatching, the Orthodox Church and the Round Table are fully prepared to smash any cheap trick to pieces.”
⋯⋯Not the sort of thing one normally dared to say in the very heart of the Imperial Palace.
But then, that much only underscored two things.

First, the backing Felix carried was no ordinary power.
Second, testimony was spreading everywhere that the Emperor’s condition was “strange.”
He was no longer the man of his prime. Not the same as before.

Something sinister had crept in.
Enough that people everywhere were saying so.
But.

“Sure, got it!”
“⋯⋯.”
That Raiza could reply so blithely showed just how far the Emperor’s majesty still stretched across the Empire.

The abilities of the First Prince and Second Princess were already renowned across the Empire, but the very fact that talk of succession had even begun was ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) only because whispers of the Emperor’s decline had gained ground.
And the woman before Felix now was essentially the Emperor’s representative.
⋯⋯Every time they met, she was an insufferable bitch.

Felix chewed on the thought as she moved to pass Raiza—then suddenly halted, as though something occurred to her.
“Oh, and one more thing.”
“⋯⋯? What is it, unni?”

“You’ve had your eye on someone lately, haven’t you?”
“⋯⋯⋯⋯Eh?”
Who was she talking about?

Raiza quietly turned it over in her mind, selecting the candidates.
Not that there was really a list. Just one name.
“Carlyle oppa?”

“Don’t call him oppa. It’s disgusting.”
Felix spat the words.
“He’s already marked as mine.”

“⋯⋯.”
“Don’t touch him. Or you die.”
“⋯⋯⋯⋯?”

With that, Felix swept past her, leaving Raiza staring blankly after her.
So.
The Gray Cardinal herself had just declared that she had her eye on a man—and Raiza was not to interfere?

⋯⋯That bizarre human who had even spurned her own chance to remain by the Hero’s side?
“⋯⋯⋯⋯.”
After standing dumbfounded for a moment, Raiza let out a hollow laugh.

“⋯⋯Just what kind of people has that oppa managed to enchant, anyway?”
A moment of genuine, innocent curiosity.
***

Splitting the hydra in one blow had been a good thing.
It would have been even better if half his body hadn’t melted in the process.
Ughhhh⋯⋯

The groan slipped out silently.
As always, using the Hero’s power came with steep aftereffects.
Especially since he had been exposed to poison that dissolved everything it touched—the recovery time was inevitably much slower.

It was fortunate this was the Imperial Palace. Every conceivable form of medical facility humans could imagine existed here.
Thanks to his merit in subduing the demon, Carlyle was given luxury treatment in a recovery chamber.
He pushed himself up, body limp and half-melted—not just figuratively, but literally.

Normally, he should have rested longer, but an important guest was here, so he had no choice.
“Sir Carlyle, are you feeling any better?”
Lionel smiled warmly as he spoke.

Thankfully, it seemed he had suffered no lingering effects.
Carlyle had been worried what would happen after he was poisoned by the hydra.
“⋯⋯I’m all right. But what’s the situation outside?”

“Chaos.”
⋯⋯Of course.
It was an unprecedented incident—a demon manifesting in the very heart of the Imperial Palace.

The entire palace must be in a state of emergency, officials being disciplined left and right.
“⋯⋯Even so, His Majesty insists on pressing ahead with the parade.”
Even for a Military Parade, such stubborn insistence on the event’s progress was strange.

In that regard—
“To be honest, this is clearly not a normal situation.”

Rumors of the Emperor’s declining health had been circulating quietly before, but this incident was stirring them up even further.

Lionel ran a hand down his face, worry written across it.
“It’s been quite some time since I last saw him, but I fear the illness may have advanced. If his judgment itself has grown clouded, this is dire.”
“⋯⋯.”

That, too, was something Carlyle could not welcome.
The Emperor of the Empire.
Though Carlyle had never met him, only heard the rumors and reputation—

He knew well that in his prime, the man had been a transcendent force. Said to be a swordsman on par with Dean Sior, the Hero before Gray.
If such a man were still in his right mind, he could have been an immense ally against the demons.
“In fact, that’s not even the biggest uproar. The real stir is because of you, Sir Carlyle.”

“⋯⋯Excuse me?”
Baffled, Carlyle looked up. Lionel dropped a stack of papers onto his bedside with a thunk.
A quick glance told him they were all letters from nobles.

“Every one of these is a request to meet you.”
“⋯⋯⋯⋯.”
Damn it.

Because he had acted in a place where all eyes were fixed, like the parade, this was the result.
“Well, nobles are all obsessed with expanding their factions. You’ll be plagued with temptations from now on—gold, power, fame, all dangled before you.”
Lionel sighed.

“⋯⋯Honestly, I’m not interested in any of that.”
Such consumable trinkets meant nothing.
If demons invaded and overturned the world, all of it would be meaningless anyway.

“True. From what I’ve seen, you never cared for such things. What I worry about is something else.”
“Something else?”
“There are quite a few who say they’d like to make you a member of their family outright.”

“⋯⋯What?”
“Marriage. There are those who wish to give you their daughters.”
“⋯⋯.”

Uh.
⋯⋯Hmm.
The conversation had jumped too far for him to follow.

Nobles he had never even met wanted to marry their daughters off to him?
“Don’t underestimate noble society. They’ll go to far greater lengths than that just to inch closer to the center of power.”
“⋯⋯⋯⋯I see?”

“And besides⋯⋯ you’re hardly unpopular among those daughters.”
“⋯⋯.”
“Young, capable, and now you’ve carved your name into everyone’s minds by subduing a demon in the heart of the Imperial Palace.”

“But they don’t even know what my character or temperament is like⋯⋯?”
“You’ve endured alongside Gray all this time, haven’t you?”
“⋯⋯.”

“That alone counts as proof of character.”
“⋯⋯.”
[⋯⋯.]

Carlyle fell silent.
So did the Holy Sword.
Carlyle Belfast.

⋯⋯Suddenly turned into a Casanova among the daughters of the Empire.
[⋯⋯How nice for you.]
⋯⋯What’s nice about it.

[⋯⋯⋯⋯You could at least say if you like it.]
And he had no idea why she was sulking.
As Carlyle nursed his headache, Lionel cautiously broached a question.

“Sir Carlyle. In that regard, there’s something I’d like to ask you.”
“⋯⋯Yes? About what?”
He had no idea what required so much hesitation.

Surely, as a father, there weren’t many topics he couldn’t broach with his daughter’s companion—
“What do you think of Gray?”
“⋯⋯.”

Correction.
That was something worth hesitating over.