The Dark Rebirth of Pandora: Revenge of the Abyss

"So, how do I look?" I ask Evangeline and Celeste as I approach them at the party. I just arrived a few minutes ago and I'm trying to mingle a bit even the heroes are here.

The heroes seem more serious, less at ease, and also stronger. It seems their special training in the castle is having effects, although I believe it's more of a way to control them. But who cares? If they suffer from it, everything will be perfect.

"You look lovely, Pandora. I think this is the first time I've seen you wearing a dress with hints of lavender in the ruffles of the black dress," Evangeline says, while Celeste nods in agreement.

"I'm trying something new." Normally, I always wear black, with an extra touch of red, gray, white, or gold if I'm in a good mood. So wearing purple, lavender, or other colors is really a rarity.

"But this party is so dull, don't you guys think?" Celeste says, looking at the various small groups of nobles in each corner.

"I agree, this party seems kind of pointless to me," Evangeline says, as I grab a glass of wine. I agree with them, but it's a way for the king to show off, so it's obvious there wouldn't be a good reason for it.

'Evangeline is a pure-blooded member of the royal lineage.' Now that I think about it, couldn't I use Evangeline to get something from the royal family's vault for me? She already likes to stalk me, so nothing would stop her from accepting this favor on her own.

This is something to think about, but for now, I'll set it aside. I have other matters to resolve.

"...Your brother seems angry with me. Is he still upset about that thing from the academy tournament last year?" I say, seeing the obvious rage in the prince's eyes.

"Ah yes, hahaha, he's definitely still upset about that. It was the first time he's been so humiliated. I heard he even said he was going to go easy on the juniors before that tournament, and then he ended up being the one who got humiliated," Evangeline says with a big smile.

"I also heard that the girls you left naked at the tournament ended up leaving the academy. They couldn't handle the shame of having their clothes burned off during the fight," Evangeline shares the situation I wasn't aware of, as I didn't have any interest in it.

"What weaklings." Leaving just because they were exposed in front of the whole kingdom is the act of a coward.

"But you know, Evangeline, I never found out who the bastard was that destroyed my clothes. Akari hid it really well and even altered all the starting orders of the fights so I couldn't find out," I say, remembering that incident.

It's frustrating. The Akari clone who runs the academy doesn't have the information on who did it. Akari really protected that person to the end.

"J-Just out of curiosity, what would you do to that person?" She asks tensely.

"I'm talking about my fight in the school tournament, the one that wasn't broadcast. Some miserable pervert was attacking from a distance, aiming at my clothes until he left me without them. If I found that perverted vermin, I'd make him pay dearly!" I say with malice.

"H-Haha, I wonder who it was. The principal changed everything so the fights were altered," Evangeline says with a smile.

"Yeah, you lost in a pretty ridiculous way too, didn't you? I thought you were stronger," I say to her.

"You know how it is, right? I got a bad opponent... Anyway, those are things from last year. How was going on a mission with Mikael Calamitas? I heard from some maids that you seemed interested," Evangeline changes the subject.

"It was nice..." It was wonderful. He's exactly what I expected, and he's also incredible in the lower parts.

"You're blushing?" Celeste says, looking at my face in surprise, and a huge smile soon appears on her face.

"Looks like he's your type? So you like the strong guys, huh?" Celeste starts teasing.

"In the end, you're a girl too!!" Celeste says with an arrogant air, as if she had won something.

"Oh yes, Celeste, it's better if you stop sending assassins after me. It's getting annoying, and if it happens again, I'll retaliate at the source," I say seriously this time. It's already starting to get irritating.

"Huh? B-But I stopped!" She says while I look at her with distrust.

"I-I swear I stopped!! You got too strong and are a temporary teacher now, so it became difficult to mess with you, so I just gave up. I don't do that anymore!!" Celeste says quickly, while I look at her color.

"Strange... so who?" I murmur. In the last few months, when I'm in the kingdom, many assassins have tried to attack or poison me. I just kill them with the shadows or drink and eat the poisoned food since it doesn't affect me.

"Wait, you've been a target?" Celeste asks, now with a certain fear that the blame might fall on her. Celeste never wanted to hurt me; it's just her strange way of showing rivalry. However, if they try to kill me for real, the blame could go to her.

"..." Suddenly, the door to the ballroom opens wide, and I see Duke Auberon. He enters with some soldiers, and he really reminds me of Liona when she was still a man.

"Good evening, all the guests at this party. I, Duke Auberon, would like to make an announcement," he says, drawing everyone's attention. Some guards approach in case he tries to do something stupid, but Evangeline's brother stops the guards and lets the Duke continue.

"Now that I've got your attention, I'd like to say that I've been recently researching a bit about someone who has been causing problems in our society for a long time, an annoying stain that is difficult to remove and does as they please, as if the world were their playground," the Duke says, looking straight at me.

"...?" I'm confused.

"What I have here with me are proofs, proofs of the abnormality of Grand Duchess Pandora, someone I believe to be an ally of the demons and an enemy of humanity," when he says this, everyone is shocked and looks at me.

'W-What the hell?' Even I'm surprised. It's not that I don't know the reason for this, it's probably his way of getting revenge for me making his son disappear, but the accusation is very serious.

"You talk too much, don't you, Duke Auberon?" I say, taking steps towards him as a soldier hands some papers to the Duke.

"I don't talk too much, Grand Duchess. I'm simply stating the truth and have proof to support what I'm saying. I'm sure everyone here would like to hear why I have such an interpretation of things," he says with an arrogant smile.

'Filthy worm.' He should have stayed in his hole instead of coming out and trying to pick a fight.

"So, what proof do you have of this?" I question, while the two of us are the center of attention. It's obvious he waited for the day of the party to do this.

"Let's start with this. These are information from the last 7 years showing an extensive list of murders of nobles committed by you for futile reasons that had very convenient excuses," he says, beginning to cite a bunch of dead people.

The worst part is that there's not much I can say about it because it wasn't me. All of this was Kaelith, since these are things from before I was born.

'He must have obtained this from the black market.' It's not something easily documented by anyone, since both Veritus and Kaelith were very responsible with this kind of thing. It seems those information about me that I didn't buy and left for anyone ended up coming back to bite me.

He finishes the list with more than 40 dead nobles for reasons that really weren't very good. Kaelith didn't have the best temperament in the past.

"Okay, a list of dead people, is that all?" I say coldly.

"Obviously not, Grand Duchess. Moving on to last year, we have this," he says, picking up another paper.

"First, the general abnormalities demonstrated by you, linked to a strange sudden increase in power and size, with you growing unusually fast and having an increase in power that is not normal."

"At the same time, even though you have a potentially terminal illness as a dragon-human hybrid, you have demonstrated the ability to cause very high levels of problems, such as those I will mention..." He begins to cite some things that I have really done.

And these are things that are truly undeniable, crimes that I have actually committed, and I'm surprised they discovered.

"Well, those are serious accusations, but all the proof you have is these papers, which can easily be forged. Furthermore, nothing you've said links me to the demons in any way," I'm certain about that.

"Ah yes, of course you would say that the documents are fake, but I have several witnesses, including the Prince of the Kingdom, Eric Silverhart himself," he says with a victorious smile.

With witnesses to prove this on his side, things become difficult, and a large part of it is actually completely true.

'It had to be that petty Prince who's angry with me. I bet he helped the Duke get this information.'

"Okay, then what's the proof of my connection to the demons?" I question, already too irritated with this nonsense. Everything was going perfectly well, why did it have to go downhill right now?

"It's connected to your sudden increase in power. Doesn't everyone here find it strange how the Grand Duchess, not once, but twice, had a sudden increase in power while she got a little older?" He asks the crowd, and many people agree.

'I should have dealt with this problem before.' It was obvious they would talk about this.

"Well, according to some research, I discovered through reliable sources that the Grand Duchy has an unregistered teleportation circle in the kingdom that is activated in a blind spot, making its use undetected by the kingdom's barrier," he says, and now the things are getting complicated.

"Powerful mana variations have already been noticed coming from this place, in addition to the obvious demonic aura that has already been noted in the same location. Isn't it strange that these variations occurred more or less around the same time as when the Grand Duchess suddenly became much stronger?"

"And of course, your full name, which I bet no one here needs to cite to realize how strange it is for you to have the name of the greatest enemy of humanity. Honestly, that prediction excuse isn't very reliable," he says arrogantly.

'Tsk...' Now I regret not taking the medication before coming. Usually, when I spent time in my castle, I only took the medication to hide my appearance when I was already in the Veritus mansion. It seems this left traces.

"How can you explain this, Grand Duchess? Why do you have a teleportation circle with powerful demonic traces?" He says with a smile, as if he had won.

And he's kind of right. This is "irrefutable" proof from the perspective of most, since only a demon, monster, or demonic item could emit this type of power.

'What do I do?' I notice the accusatory looks. He's already mentioned so many small pieces of evidence that have become something complicated. If I don't fix this, I'll be in trouble. It's not like they can kill me.

But if they discover me, I'll have to leave without knowing the abilities of each hero, which can screw me over a lot during the war, in addition to all the time I've spent trying to figure it out.

"...I..."