Crossroad. Inside the ruined city.
"Ouch..."
Junior groaned in front of the wreckage of the inn building "Etti's Honey."
"It's completely collapsed, my goodness..."
During Night Bringer's first breath, the inn "Etti's Honey," which was swept within the breath's range, completely collapsed.
Fortunately, there were no casualties, but Junior lost the lodging she had used for over two years. Naturally, all her belongings inside were also completely destroyed.
"Ah, my books!"
Junior, who found her belongings amidst the wreckage, let out a strange mix of cheers and screams, then urgently rushed in to clear away the debris.
"The price of one of these books... I'd feel so wronged if I lost them all..."
Between the collapsed bricks and sand, Junior's fallen bookshelf was overturned. Junior hurriedly retrieved her books.Although they were dented and torn, she managed to salvage as much as she could. As she dug through, other belongings began to emerge.
Treasured magical items. The diary she wrote in daily since arriving here. And the one she had forgotten in the cupboard, unable to bring herself to eat...
"Keck, the hundred-year ginseng?!"
The gift from her mother.
It was the root of the hundred-year ginseng, which she had found among Jupiter's belongings and intended to mail to herself.
The dishes and cups in the cupboard were all shattered, but the hundred-year ginseng, stored in a mere paper bag, was miraculously intact.
Junior chuckled at the sight of this old herb root.
"Wow, it survived. I almost wasted it by saving it for too long. I should consume it quickly."
Junior recalled the method and benefits of consuming the hundred-year ginseng.
"Boil it with honey and drink it like tea? Its effects are nourishing, revitalizing, and calming..."
Junior then let out an "Ah."
She thought of someone who needed the herb's effects more urgently than herself.
"Would Mom want me to have it all to myself...?"
After a brief hesitation,
"...No, that's not it! Mom would prefer me to have more friends!"
Believing her decision would be supported either way, Junior exhaled through her nose and gripped the hundred-year ginseng.
***
Barracks.
Junior carefully carried a teapot of the brewed hundred-year ginseng tea, a jar of honey, and cookies as she headed cautiously to the front room.
"Hmm..."
She hesitated for a moment,
"Eek!"
Summoning her courage, she knocked on the door.
Knock knock!
"Hecate? Are you there?"
Junior waited anxiously for a response, but the room remained silent. Clearing her throat again, Junior knocked once more.
"Hecate, it's Junior. Let's have a little break together."
"..."
"I brought some healthy tea. And cookies. Please join me. Okay?"
Although there was no response, Junior sensed a presence beyond the door.
Junior waited calmly. Then,
Creak-
The door opened slightly.
Through the gap in the dark room, Hecate's dry, cracked eyes could be seen.
Her eyes, from which the red curse had completely drained, had turned a deep brown.
"...Junior."
"Hello, Hecate."
Junior waved the teapot in her hand.
"The tea's getting cold. May I come in?"
"..."
Hesitant, Hecate slowly stepped back and opened the door. Junior cautiously entered the room.
The room, with its drawn curtains, felt lifeless. As if someone had been lying still on the bed for days.
Junior first drew back the curtains and opened the window to ventilate the room. As the cold air penetrated the room, Hecate, who was wearing only thin clothes, shivered and clutched her shoulders.
"Oh, I'm sorry...!"
Not wanting to stop the ventilation, the flustered Junior draped her outer garment over Hecate's shoulders.
Hecate did not refuse and remained still.
Junior suddenly recalled a similar situation from before.
"..."
In the sunlight streaming through the open curtains, Hecate was in a terrible state.
Her beige hair was tangled, dark circles under her eyes, lips parched, and her complexion was pale.
Junior had heard the gist of it. Dusk Bringar had retrieved all the curses from the Glory Knights.
Along with the curse, Hecate lost all her magic power, rendering her unable to fight as she used to.
'Lucas visited a few times to comfort her afterward, but she kept avoiding him.'
Junior understood the feeling of not wanting to show such a state to the man she liked...
Hecate stood blankly in place with empty eyes. Junior, at a loss, hesitantly guided Hecate to the table.
"Come, let's have some warm tea and chat! This tea is brewed with a herb called hundred-year ginseng, it's really good for you!"
Junior hastily wiped the dust off the table and set up the tea set and cookies.
Seated across from her, Hecate watched Junior's actions in silence.
Junior, feeling awkward, set up the teacups she brought and poured tea into both Hecate's cup and her own.
‘I don't know a thing about tea ceremonies!’
The saving grace was that Hecate wasn't in a state to care about such details.
Warm tea, steaming gently, filled their cups. Junior added honey to her cup and placed cookies on a plate.
"Alright, let's give it a try, shall we?"
"..."
Hecate stared blankly at her cup. Junior, sweating nervously, carefully took her cup and brought it to her lips.
‘Nourishing! Revitalizing! Calming! Calming!’
Hoping it would have the desired effect, she took a sip,
"Phhbt-!"
and spat it out.
‘Gah, cough! What is this taste?!’
It was overwhelmingly bitter with a complex flavor. It might be good for the body, but it tasted awful...
‘Mom?! This is really hundred-year ginseng, right?! It's really good for you, right?! You didn't get scammed, right?!’
Since Jupiter had bought it from Nameless under the Lake Kingdom, it was undoubtedly genuine.
However, due to the excessively high magic concentration in the Lake Kingdom, the ginseng's potency and taste were far more concentrated than those of earthly ginseng...
As Junior gagged and spat, she looked up to see Hecate staring at her with wide eyes.
Junior muttered desperately.
"...It's, it's a joke. A joke."
Following her previous coughing up blood, now it was coughing up tea, Junior was truly doing a number of things.
Then Hecate, with blank eyes, looked at the teacup in front of her, cautiously picked it up, and brought it to her lips...
"Wait! Hold on, I'll add more honey! It's extremely bitter!"
Junior hurriedly opened the honey jar, but Hecate had already taken a sip of the tea.
And she swallowed it without issue. Junior blinked in surprise.
‘Ah, come to think of it.’
Hecate had said she couldn't taste anything since being cursed.
"..."
Hecate slowly removed the cup from her lips.
Then, turning her haggard face slightly to the side,
"Phhbt-!"
she spat it out.
Junior stared blankly at the tea splattering on the floor beside her. Wiping her mouth with a napkin, Hecate gestured weakly.
"...It's extremely bitter. Please pass the honey jar."
"Huh? You can taste it?"
"Since the curse was lifted, I can taste it now."
Junior almost said "thank goodness" but stopped herself. The lifting of the curse didn't seem to be a joyful event for Hecate.
Anyway, the hundred-year ginseng tea was terribly bitter and unpalatable, and the two women struggled through their cups by adding copious amounts of honey and eating sweet cookies alongside.
Despite the awful taste, they stubbornly drank every last drop, driven by some strange determination.
The teapot was emptied, the honey jar was scraped clean, and all the cookies were gone.
"..."
"..."
The two women were enveloped in an awkward silence.
Junior sweated nervously. She had come to check on Hecate out of concern, but now that they were face to face, she didn't know what to say...!
‘I mean, I shouldn't be so bad at communication! Why am I stammering like this?!’
She had only come to foster some camaraderie! Just relax and have a conversation! You can do this, Jupiter Junior! Go, go!
With a determined inner pep talk, Junior clenched her fists and looked at Hecate, who suddenly spoke.
"...Junior, do you not dislike me?"
"Absolutely not?!"
Junior blurted out instinctively, then quickly lowered her tone with an "Ah."
"I mean, there's no reason for me to dislike you, Hecate..."
"..."
Hecate averted her gaze from the hesitant Junior and looked out at the open door, which was left ajar for ventilation. Just outside was Junior's room.
After the collapse of "Etti's Honey," the two were assigned rooms opposite each other in the barracks as well.
"To be honest, Junior, do you know why I was assigned the room next to yours?"
"Huh?"
Junior blinked at the unexpected question.
Did the room assignments have a meaning? Wasn't it just a coincidence?
And then Hecate revealed the cold truth.
"As the captain of the Emperor's personal guard, I judged that the most dangerous element while His Majesty is here... was you, Junior."
"...?!"
"That's why, to keep an eye on you, I was assigned a room as close to yours as possible."
Junior's mouth fell slightly open.
"Dangerous? Why? Why me?"
"...You come from the Camilla Kingdom and achieved the level of an archmage at a young age. It was impossible not to be cautious."
The Empire had thoroughly investigated Junior's background from the Camilla Kingdom and her magical accomplishments.
Before coming to Crossroad from the Imperial Capital, Hecate had received all this information.
Hecate added in a somewhat apologetic tone.
"The war between the Camilla Kingdom and the Everblack Empire was personally led by His Majesty. It was also the last conquest war fought by the Everblack Empire."
"..."
"As such... the resentment runs deep. There are still terrorist acts occurring. There have been several attempts to assassinate His Majesty. So, naturally, the Glory Knights had to be wary of you."
Even after the war ended, guerrillas from the Camilla Kingdom persistently resisted, taking years to be fully subdued.
Jupiter's exposé revealed the massacres of civilians during this war, drawing global condemnation upon the Empire. Even within the Empire itself.
It was a war with more losses than gains in many respects.
Therefore, the Empire shifted from direct conquest wars to political and religious expansion through the spread of the Goddess's faith.
The Camilla Kingdom became the last country the Empire absorbed.
Almost 20 long years had passed since the war ended. But it could also be seen as merely 20 short years.
Junior, being a prominent figure from the Camilla Kingdom and a powerful mage, naturally aroused the caution of the Emperor's personal guard, the Glory Knights.
"Of course, I know. You directly assisted His Majesty in the Imperial Capital. I heard you played a significant role in dismantling the Shutdown Protocol. You have the great trust of Prince Ash. And you also made remarkable contributions in the recent battle."
"..."
"I was just... doing my job as a member of the personal guard, so I was wary of you..."
Hecate's voice trembled as she continued her disjointed confession, covering her face with both hands.
"...No, I admit it. I dislike the people of the Camilla Kingdom."
"Huh?"
Junior's jaw dropped.
The conversation kept taking unexpected turns.
"My parents were soldiers, but they got caught in an accident and passed away. I mentioned that before."
"Yes..."
"In truth, they both... died in a guerrilla ambush by the Camilla Kingdom."
Junior's fingertips stiffened.
Still covering her face, Hecate continued her disjointed speech.
"I know. From the perspective of the Camilla Kingdom, any Imperial soldier would be seen as an invader. Even the supply officers and medical officers dispatched after the war to stabilize the region could be targets of hatred."
"..."
"But as someone who lost my parents at a young age, I couldn't help but hate the Camilla Kingdom... and its people... so I was even more wary of you..."
Watching Hecate's trembling shoulders, Junior felt it.
‘Ah...’
A sense of a chasm, thinly veiled between the two of them, being revealed.
A chasm that seemed to deepen and widen, creating more distance between them.
"I grew up in the facility run by the Imperial Family for the children of war veterans, as I told you."
"...Yes."
"The name of that facility is Whiteblossom."
Hecate's overly elaborate surname was actually the name of that orphanage.
"All the children who grow up there are trained to throw their lives away for His Majesty. To die with worth for the country and to have white flowers bloom in abundance on their graves... That's what the new surname signifies."
"...!"
"I, too, was raised to die in battle."
Hecate's dry voice gradually became more intense.
"I became a soldier to eradicate all enemies of the Empire, to eliminate the terrorists threatening the safety of the Empire... to annihilate the vicious rebels from the Camilla Kingdom who kill innocent people!"
"..."
"But now the Empire is at peace, and it's allied with every country it once fought against. Fine, that's okay. I'm the one who's outdated. After all, a knight is just a cog that follows the command of their lord."
Hecate looked at Junior with trembling eyes.
"But what if I'm no longer even a knight?"
"..."
"If I've lost the curse, lost my strength, and can no longer go to the battlefield, then what do I have left? My life now has no purpose or value. What have I lived for all this time?"
In the war between humans, she inherited hatred and intended to fight and die as a knight.
In this peaceful era where humanity is united, she lost everything as a knight.
Her purpose, her means, all gone.
"The only thing the world hasn't taken from me is my hatred. My hatred for the Camilla Kingdom that killed my parents."
"..."
"Junior. I don't want to hate you. But having you close to me... it makes me suffer."
Hecate staggered as she stood up from her chair, taking off the coat and handing it back to Junior.
She shivered in the cold air, dressed only in thin clothes, but she gritted her teeth and held out the coat.
"Thank you for the tea. And thank you for your concern. But please, don't come to see me again."
"..."
"Don't worry. I'll disappear quietly in a few days so you won't be too uncomfortable. After all, I'm no longer needed at this front line."
Junior wanted to say something, but no suitable words came to mind.
In the end, she quietly accepted the coat, gathered the teacups and teapot, and left Hecate's room.
Thud...
The door closed.
Junior, staggering, leaned against the closed door and took a deep breath.
"...It's bitter."
The taste of the tea lingering in her mouth was astringent.
With her head hung low, Junior muttered softly.
"It's too bitter, Mom..."
--TL Notes--
Hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you want to support me or give me feedback, you can do it at /MattReading