"Have you not heard from Sir Passius?"
"Not all of it. Passius fainted halfway through, how could you not know that?"
Rudger's gaze naturally shifted to Passius and he couldn't help but smile awkwardly at the question.
"It's just that I shouldn't be hiding anything from the Princess."
"……."
The words were unavoidable, but given the same circumstances, Passius would have made the same choice. His loyalty is to the imperial family, and he would never do anything contrary to that.
To Eileen, at least, he had to be truthful, with nothing to hide.
"So what happened to the Liberation Army officer who used that demonic power?"
"He's dead."
"Dead? How?"
"I killed him."
Rudger answered bluntly.
There was no point in hiding it from Eileen, who knew most things anyway. If anything, it would make it easier for her to help cover up the truth.
In fact, when she heard Rudger's answer, Eileen gave him a look of disbelief.
"Is that true?"
"Didn't you say you wanted me to tell you everything?"
Rudger looked at her with a distant gaze.
Eileen tapped her forehead with her index finger.
"From what I've heard, this Louispold guy was a guinea pig for demonic power and gained great power."
"Yes, that's right. You have your facts straight."
"He was said to have harvested the parts of countless missing wizards and implanted them into his body, allowing him to manifest multiple spells simultaneously. He was also said to be physically complete, with access to the cells of the World Tree and demonic powers."
"Yes. That is also correct. Since the Masters were overpowered."
Eileen's expression grew more subtle at Rudger's answer.
"And you killed him, is that what you mean?"
"Yes."
"How? From what I hear, even the Masters aura blade was unable to properly wound him."
"Uh, Princess. Technically, it could, but his regenerative powers were so great that he recovered."
"Shut up. You will keep your mouth shut."
Passius interrupted, but was quickly silenced by Eileen's tirade.
"You killed a creature that had shed its human form and become a full-blown monster, and you did it alone?"
"There was no one to help me in that situation, so alone, yes. Oh, not completely alone, I did have some help from Andrei Semov. Just a little."
"Please describe the situation in detail……."
Eileen didn't know much about the story after Passius passed out. That was why she had called Rudger here now.
Rudger told her how, after his companions had passed out, he had moved them out of the way and fought Louispold alone.
Eileen was initially intrigued and consistent in her attitude as Rudger explained that he had subdued Louispold with various spells.
But as Rudger's explanation grew longer and longer, she showed her first signs of surprise when he told her that the demon Basara awakened from within Louispold.
"'A demon,' did you say?"
"What are you so surprised about?"
"A demon……."
"Haven't you already heard about the demonic power sealed inside the World Tree?"
"I've heard that the demonic power was refined to strengthen the experiment, but I haven't heard that the sealed demon was fully awakened."
"Then you've heard it now."
At Rudger's words, Eileen glared at him, wondering if he was lying but she knew he wasn't lying at all.
"……Then there was that black storm that was seen on the ground."
"Yes. It was caused by that demon."
Rudger explained the power of the demon Basara. Interfering with the human psyche, stirring up inner trauma, sending people into fantasies and breaking them mentally.
Eileen laughed in disbelief as she listened.
"From what I've heard, its power is so dangerous that it can easily take down a Lexer-rank wizard and a Master."
"It must be, since I was actually struck by both."
"But how did you survive that power unharmed?"
"Not exactly unharmed, I was also affected."
"But you didn't pass out and fought him."
"Yes. I held it together with my mental strength."
"You make it sound like you're a well-trained soldier, like you got through it with your strength and mental toughness and all that. It's ridiculous."
Eileen shook her head as if in pain.
Rudger's words were full of things that defied common sense. But the whole situation, and Rudger's behavior, was proving to be true.
Eileen had always known that Rudger wasn't a normal person.
"I'm lucky because I'm basically immune to mental attacks."
"People don't usually call themselves lucky for something like that."
"Well, let's call it that then."
"……."
Eileen narrowed her eyes. The more she listened, the more she couldn't help but think that she was getting a little bit caught up in Rudger. But he was the one with the information right now, and he had the relational advantage in this situation.
"So you say the demon fled to the surface, attacked the Theon students as they sought refuge, and took the body of a girl?"
"Yes."
"Indeed. That explains why the students and guards fainted during the evacuation. Now we have a piece of the puzzle."
She thought it odd that there was no sign of injury on their bodies, considering they had been attacked.
None of the men could remember what had happened to them before they passed out and they thought that the Liberation Army had played another trick on them.
She didn't think it was due to demonic power.
"Is the student whose body was taken over okay? I remember you saying it was Flora Lumos, that Lumos."
"I saw her once before I came here, and she didn't show any signs of anything unusual."
"It may not have been immediately apparent, but there's no telling what will happen later, and if it's a member of the Lumos family, we'll have to be careful. We'll have to keep an eye on her."
"I intend to, even if you don't."
"As much as I'd like to, I'd rather keep her here and check in on her periodically……."
As she muttered that, Eileen sneaked a glance at Rudger.
"I'm sure a certain teacher would be very upset if I tampered with his student, so I'll have to put that idea to rest."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh, that's fine. If you're keeping an eye on her, that's reassuring in a different way, so I guess I can trust you. So, did anything else happen?"
"The demon took over her body and forced her physical talents to bloom, which is why her hair color has changed, albeit slightly."
"Any side effects from that?"
"No. On the contrary, her magic sensitivity, total amount of mana, and sense of the magic have increased by leaps and bounds."
"So she practically gained a boost in her talent."
Eileen was intrigued by Flora Lumos, but it was only a fleeting feeling. There were too many other questions on her mind right now.
"So how did you deal with the demon?"
"I entered the student's mind and annihilated his mental body."
Eileen wasn't surprised anymore, she took it for granted.
"That must have been no ordinary fight."
"It wasn't a big deal."
"Yeah. It was not a big deal to you, but not to everyone else."
Eileen cupped her chin with her left hand, lifting her right to point her index finger at Rudger's brow.
"I sometimes wonder when you'll say something out of the blue, a word of great praise, and it's always no big deal, an ordinary thing, so-so, not like this, but something more. Just the thought of those words coming out of your mouth frightens me. I think I need to brace myself."
Eileen's words were playfully sarcastic, but also half-sincere. It was at that moment that Eileen's expression changed from a smirk to a grimace.
"I see. I hear what you're saying. In the end, it was the Liberation Army that did this, but it was the awakened demon that did the deed."
"Yes."
"Well, that makes it even more troubling. Demonic power in the center of the capital gives them a reason to intervene."
"If they are……."
"The Cult of Lumensis. Its headquarters, the Kingdom of Bretus, to be exact."
"……."
Rudger's jaw dropped at the mention of the Cult of Lumensis. He remembered the bishop who had sought him out in Leathervelk.
Normally they would have stayed quiet, but lately they had become very active and Rudger didn't know why.
"Do you think they'll see through this?"
"They will. They're very perceptive in these things. A black storm has risen in the center of the capital. It's ominous to say the least and too many people have seen it."
The only good news is that the black storm was caused by Basara, who had taken Flora's body.
The fact that Rudger had actually stopped it was unknown but only that.
The Cult of Lumensis would use it to their advantage, and they might get to the truth by some means.
"For now, we're keeping as much information as we can, but it's only buying time. They're bound to get involved and start investigating, and when they do……."
"……You're telling me I'm not the only one under suspicion."
"You won't be the only one. The Lumos kid, Flora, will be caught up in it, and even if the two of you can keep it a secret, there is no truth that can be hidden from the world forever."
Eileen clicked her tongue lightly at the thought.
"How insolent of them, to use their privilege in the name of their gods and try and meddle in my family's affairs. Unfortunately, when they set their minds to something, it's not easy to stop them."
"It was not long ago, after all, that the Kingdom of Bretus wielded great influence."
"They say it's less powerful now than it once was, but I don't buy it. You know what happened to the former kingdom before the Exilion Empire took over."
Rudger nodded with a heavy expression.
"Before the Exilion Empire appeared, the former kingdom built a facility underground and conducted many experiments.
We don't know why they built such a huge structure underground but we do know that the elves were involved, and that something that almost succeeded was thwarted by Basara's intervention.
"Come to think of it, I heard a story about that underground."
"About what?"
"About how the Dead World Tree came to exist in an underground facility, and how a demon was sealed within it."
Eileen didn't look at him, wondering why he was telling her now. There had to be a hand or two they kept from each other. Wasn't that the nature of their relationship?
"That's interesting."
"There were those who helped grow the World Tree underground."
"……Elves?"
"Yes."
At the mention of elves, Eileen leaned back and crossed her arms. She seemed to be lost in thought, and then her lips parted as she remembered something.
"Come to think of it, I've heard such stories. That there are special nobles in the kingdom of the elves."
"Yes. I heard that too. They were called the Elder Houses."
"They are said to be divided into several families, from those who control the World Tree to those who rule outside the forest, but the most powerful are those who guard the center of the forest, the World Tree."
They are called the Seven Roots of the Elven Kingdom.
"But do you know, the House of Rifre, which is said to be the guardian of the World Tree and the most powerful, was not always so."
"Is that true?"
"It is said that in the past, the Rifre family did not rank so high within the Seven Roots. There was a different family that served the World Tree at the time, but something happened and the Rifre family became responsible for the World Tree."
"You don't mean to tell me that something strange happened……."
"Yes. It's just a guess, but it seems likely that it has something to do with the World Tree underground in the capital, and it makes perfect sense."
It was still speculation, but Rudger thought it was a very credible story.
To grow a World Tree underground in the first place would be impossible without the help of elves. However, not all elves have the ability to grow a World Tree.
In the immediate case of Belaruna, she was banished from the kingdom for touching the World Tree.
The World Tree is a deity that elves serve. To tamper with it would have been an affront to their very identity.
'But the Zero Order said there were some very enterprising elves in the past.'
Rudger pictured the situation in his mind.
A family that existed before House Rifre. And what had become of them?
Most likely, it had been ousted from elven society. More than just banished, the family itself might have disappeared.
"That would have caused a great revolution in Elven society at the time."
"Yes. But it was a long time ago, and it's such a closed place that few people know about it. Except."
"Except?"
"There is word that survivors of the ousted family still exist somewhere on the continent."
"That's surprising, but when you think about it, it makes sense."
"Indeed. They were once the most powerful family in the Elven realm, so they must be well hidden somewhere on this continent. If we're lucky, we might run into them, and learn the truth of the day from them."
"That's nonsense. They'll be hiding their identities for fear of pursuers, and how do you expect to meet them? It's like finding a needle in a haystack."
Rudger thought it was none of his business anyway.
The heirs of a doomed elven family are not the only ones who are searched for.