The demon of the triangle △ is the Demon King.
That concept was first introduced on [Hell Difficulty].
In other words, I don’t know much about the triangular demons.
The only answer here is to go to the royal family’s “Sanctuary of Setian.”
Because that’s where the end of 「Memory Forgery」 stopped.
If I go there, I can learn the whole truth.
But the opportunity just wouldn’t come.
‘I have no pretext to visit the royal family.......’
I know the Sanctuary is a place Setian holds extremely dear.
Dear to the point that, when Rebecca was a little princess and wandered near it, Setian scolded her severely.
So I made separate inquiries.
— It’s Betelgeuse. I’ve confirmed it.
“Right.”
— Setian’s Sanctuary is protected almost to the same degree as His Majesty the King’s inner chambers. There’s a Curse-attribute♠ barrier, and inside that there’s even a barrier of the Reaper Constellation Ω. [Stealth], [Illusion], nothing works.
— Additionally, there are two [Grandmaster]-class warriors guarding the front... but they’re fake.
“Fake?”
— I mean just sacks of barley plunked there. Behind them, something unknown is pretending to be a statue and standing guard. I couldn’t gauge its realm.
If Betelgeuse—whose skill roams between [Grandmaster] and [Challenger]—couldn’t gauge it, then in my estimation it was likely a one-horned demon.
“I understand. Please keep checking.”
Even as I said that, I snuck a glance at my status window.
< Time remaining on the 「Curse-attribute♠」 contract: 7 days >
Seven days until my death.
Yes, a revival with the 「Rune of Revival♥」 is in reserve, but if I can’t set foot in the Sanctuary within those seven days, there’s no telling what Setian—already rattled by international tensions—might do.
The two-horned demon Setian should be on the verge of bursting right about now.
I suddenly became a Bright Constellation.
A monster of unknown identity named Kaiser attacked the imperial family.
And publicly, that Kaiser is known to follow me.
Not long ago the imperial family even sent me a few questions.
They asked whether the attack on the palace was by my order.
I said no.
The palace accepted that readily. The reason was probably the 「Memorandum∞」. They had already convinced themselves I wasn’t the actor behind the attack and then asked.
Meanwhile Kaiser began dodging my messages.
I turned my head and looked out the window.
‘I can’t see the stars......’
In truth, I could.
But they were fake stars made by [Illusion].
‘The sky is blanketed in darkness, and some high-realm illusionist hung fake stars there.’
Only the Black Darkness Constellation⚉ would dare to hide other stars.
Did the Nibelung Matriarch, right after realizing the Hero Party couldn’t become her assassins, pull that stunt out of spite?
No.
My read is different.
‘The reason Constellations follow Kaiser is because he offers rises in realm like a gift.’
Kaiser’s method is cunning.
He and Quan smashed other people’s fences.
Then he flooded the Empire’s stagnant capital, elixirs, national treasures, and [Legendary]-grade artifacts onto the market.
Tasty-looking Constellations swarmed in, and with them he smashed more of other people’s fences.
In fact, check the rankings and you’ll see: of the last fifteen years, this year shows the biggest churn.
In short, this:
No Constellation follows Kaiser.
But all of them want to bite his bait.
Those who bite rise in rank.
This is the process by which he is coming to rule the world.
‘......’
Dominion❆.
That word gives me a peculiar feeling.
In the end, Kaiser—expanding his church using my name—has, as of now, rocketed up into the continent’s hottest potato.
Unfortunately, his path isn’t very pro-human. Too many people die.
And now, amidst that, Kaiser has begun to dodge my calls.
How should I read this.
‘......How am I supposed to understand you.’
In the end, what is he trying to do? What is his objective? I’m still parsing that...
But if any of it helps the Demon King even a little, or is anti-human in nature—then perhaps a day may come when I have to kill Kaiser.
“Professor.”
Ran called me then.
“You have a guest.”
“Who?”
“The Baroness of House Lemontree.”
My eyes widened.
Lemontree?
***
───
Eve Lemontree [3.0]
───
Once, I thought it was Eve’s family.
After I learned the truth, it remained a name wrapped in questions.
‘A border barony of Hiaka.’
But at present the Baron of Lemontree—the head—was dead, their businesses had failed to take, and they were effectively ruined.
‘They refused my outreach.’
I tried several times to contact them and was rejected.
Once I even went to visit, but had to turn away at the family gate.
And now the Baroness of Lemontree had come to see me.
For now, I decided to meet her first without telling Eve.
“This way...?”
“Yes. The lab up ahead.”
Soon Ran led a middle-aged woman into the lab.
She had blond hair and golden eyes. Her hair and eye color were different from Eve’s.
“Welcome, my lady. I am Professor Dante Hiakapo.”
“...Ah.”
Seeing me, she bowed, wary, and her hands trembled as if she were frightened.
A familiar reaction. These days, no matter where I went or whom I met, it was always like this. At present I was the royal family’s son-in-law, a professor famed across the continent, and simultaneously a [Constellation].
“I... am the wife of the Baron of Lemontree. My name is Rabier.”
I don’t like to judge people by first impressions.
She seemed good.
A small glimmer of light⁺₊⋆ twinkled at her side—it meant “someone I like,” vouched for by the Radiant Constellation⁺₊⋆.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“...You reached out to us many times before, didn’t you? I apologize for not responding properly then.”
“Were you very busy?”
“No. No... that wasn’t it. I was a little afraid of entangling with the Department of Assassination... and when I asked your reason, you spoke of a daughter, but I... even when I was young I was someone who could not bear children, so I had doubts...”
“I see. I’m sorry. I was lacking in consideration.”
“No. Now...”
I asked Ran to bring a tea with a calming effect.
As a light aroma spread, the lady shook off some tension and began to speak more easily.
“Not long ago, while cleaning a room we don’t use, a sudden frightening thought came to me.”
“A frightening thought.”
“I felt as if I must have had... a daughter.”
“......”
I see.
When Eve’s 『Curse of Forgetting』 broke... if she was close, fragments of memory could surface.
So long as will is involved, a perfect forgery does not exist in this world.
Just like when Abraxas’s memories—self-forged—rose before me.
“While I stayed in that unused room and kept cleaning it, I found a hairpin. Then, all at once, I remembered myself touching some little child’s hair.”
“......”
“Next, near the playground, I found a child’s cardigan... It was a child’s as well. Collecting those traces one by one, I found this.”
The lady took a basket from the bag on her back and showed it to me.
‘Ah, that?’
A cradle.
A very small cradle.
And it bore traces of lacquer applied for waterproofing...
What suddenly came to mind was the cutscene from when Eve was dying in Wonderland.
In the past shown by the Scout│ㅅㅇ), the village midwife couldn’t bring herself to kill Eve, so she lacquered a cradle and set it afloat on the water.
That reached House Lemontree.
“Have your memories returned?”
“Yes. Might Eve... that child... be here?”
“She’s training at the moment. You should be able to see her around evening.”
Her face brightened.
“Ahh. I see...”
It seemed this conversation would end here for now.
A touching reunion between a stepmother parted and an adopted daughter.
...Or so I thought.
“Th-then, you see. As I pondered, something else surfaced.”
“Yes. What is it?”
“That child handled a sword incredibly well.”
“She did.”
Because she’s a Hero.
“Then when she was in her early teens... maybe nine or ten? She once beat a knight in a bout.”
“A knight?”
“Yes. It was truly astonishing. A little girl. And of all things, [N O V E L I G H T] word of it spread through the local order of knights.”
Understandable.
Even now Eve is strong on a world-class level.
If a twelve-year-old girl carved up grown male knights like a monster, of course the rumor would spread.
“The Knight-Captain once came to test her, and I remember the Captain and Eve being evenly matched.”
“That is truly remarkable.”
“In fact... the reason I came today is to tell the next part.”
The next?
She glanced about, lowered her voice.
“Wasn’t Hiaka a nation of warriors?”
It was.
Even more so in the past.
King Hiaka III was a warrior, and the royal house produced warriors generation after generation.
‘Which is why Ezekiel proposed, as a way to make him the prince’s concubine (?), to place Eve as the prince’s sword master.’
I was adrift in that idle thought—
And then something rather shocking came out of the lady’s mouth.
“The royal family took Eve.”
“...Pardon?”
“Because the child was a genius at the sword. They decided to raise her under the auspices of the court.”
“......”
Wait.
“How old was Eve then?”
“Perhaps ten, eleven.”
If it was then, Setian was already at the palace.
And Rebecca was at the palace as well.
“Do you have memories from after that?”
Her face darkened sharply.
“I remember only the very first visitation.”
“But... with what did you converse?”
“Ah, at that time Eve communicated with us using this.”
What she produced was, surprisingly, a “bell.”
Palm-sized.
A bell again?
“This is a Lemontree heirloom. The 『Bell of Expression』—a bell whose chime conveys consciousness between people.”
Ding—♪
She struck it lightly, and a pleasant resonance brushed my ear. At the same time—
< Like this. >
As if it were 『Secret Transmission』, the lady’s “voice” reached my ear.
But it wasn’t a voice.
It was the transfer of consciousness.
Just now, rather than her literally saying “like this,” I had received a feeling akin to that. (It’s roughly like this~), as if.
“You must have used that to converse at the visitation.”
“Yes. And what Eve told us then was, um...”
She seemed to be groping for a nonverbal memory. Then she spoke something rather shocking.
“...‘Her Highness hates me.’”
It felt like lightning in my head.
There was only one princess at the palace then.
“And then?”
“No... From then on, she no longer existed in my memory. Eve’s very existence...”
“......”
I raised a hand and covered my face. Pressing my temples, I tried to follow the thread.
Curses are the power of demons.
If so, where did the 『Curse of Forgetting』 originate...? Under what circumstances did Eve’s 『Demonization』 occur...?
In that moment—I felt as if the last puzzle piece I’d been looking for had been placed before me.
At the same time I remembered what Quan once told me.
— At the gathering to decide the Hero Party this time, there’s not only assassins—there is one more issue that is very important and very dangerous.
If the lady’s words are fact, unfiltered—I think I know what that “issue” is.
What on earth happened inside the royal family?