III
Leaving the chapel behind them, Felix and Olivia returned to where the passage forked to find Emerich, captain of the Golden Knights, making his way unsteadily along with one hand against the wall. He did not seem to notice them, and they could have passed him by without any trouble, but Felix chose not to.
“It’s been too long, Emerich.” At this, Emerich finally noticed him. For a moment he looked as though he had seen a ghost, but then he quickly drew his sword.
“Why did you betray the emperor?!” he demanded.
“To protect Emperor Ramza from Darmés the usurper.”
“What?! What are you talking about...” Emerich trailed off, speechless. Felix made the decision to divulge the situation to him. Based on the state he was in, Felix was sure that Darmés had worked some art on him. Now that Darmés was dead, the other Golden Knights and guards would likely go back to their proper duties, and he wanted to avoid any unnecessary confrontations before they began.
“You can’t expect me to believe that nonsense,” Emerich said at last.
“Then let me ask you this. What have you, as the one responsible for the security of this palace, been doing all this time? And not only you—we infiltrated the palace some time ago now, and yet all I have seen are a few soldiers from Darmés’s personal army and some others whose allegiance I know not. We have not met a single member of the garrison, nor guards, nor any of the Golden Knights.”
Emerich seemed to know just what Felix was talking about. His expression grew obviously pained.
“I am not going to stop until I have achieved my goal. Do you still intend to stand in my way, Emerich?”
“May I ask one thing?” Emerich said at length. “Where is Emperor Ramza now?”
“He is in the Royal Capital of Fis as their honored guest. I can promise you he is safe.”
Emerich’s expression softened a little. “I am relieved to hear it. Where are you going now?”
Olivia replied that they were going to Darmés’s workroom. Emerich seemed to notice her presence for the first time. He stared at her warily, then his gaze alighted on her epaulets and the color visibly drained from his face. “Not her...?!”
“There is nothing to fear. We are working together.”
Emerich hesitated, but said, “Very well. I will accompany you.”
As Felix had expected, they encountered many guards and Golden Knights on their way to Darmés’s workroom. The sight of Emerich and Felix walking side by side made them all gape, and when it became known that the woman walking behind them was Death God Olivia, Listelein Palace exploded like a disturbed hornet’s nest.
On more than a few occasions, the Golden Knights crowded Emerich, but each time, Emerich’s glare was enough to get them through without incident. Only their three sets of footsteps echoed in the corridor to Darmés’s workroom. When the great door with its intricately carved designs came into view, Emerich stood up against the wall and saluted.
“This is where I will leave you,” he said. Felix and Olivia thanked him, then turned to face the room. Olivia put both hands on the door, then slowly pushed it open. Felix followed her into the room, casting his eyes over every inch of it, but needless to say, there were no gods of death to be seen.
Our enemy is a god—one of death. It is rash to assume that there is no more than meets the eye... While Felix looked around suspiciously, Olivia walked confidently up to the large bookshelf, then, drawing too fast for Felix to see, she made a series of intermittent slashes with the ebony blade. Before he could say anything, the bookshelf collapsed with a mighty crash, and Felix saw something he had never seen before in this room.
“There was an underground room hidden behind that bookshelf...?”
“Xenia was down here last time,” Olivia explained. Paying no attention to the candlesticks in the hollow of the wall, she set off down the stairs. The staircase was by no means spacious, but their footsteps echoed loudly. Olivia’s steps were perfectly measured as she walked ahead of Felix. There was no trace of unease there.
“Say, isn’t there something a little odd about this darkness?” Felix said. Ever since they began their descent underground, he had felt something was off, as though the darkness was artificially created rather than natural.
“You think? I didn’t notice anything.”
“Yes, I can tell that from your footsteps.”
“According to Claudia, I have really good night vision.”
“Are all Deep Folk like that?” Felix asked out of pure curiosity.
“I have no idea. I’ve never met any other Deep Folk.”
To the best of Felix’s knowledge, all the Deep Folk except for Olivia had been hunted down by the Asura. He doubted any apart from her had survived and regretted his careless question.
“I apologize. That was tactless of me.”
“Huh? Why are you apologizing?” Olivia asked, perplexed. It was obvious from her tone that his comment hadn’t bothered her at all. It seemed she was at heart an optimistic person who didn’t care to dwell on things, something he’d had an inkling of back when the subject of her parents had come up.
“Speaking of which, Felix, are you all right?”
“Me? Oh, yes. I can walk well enough for now.”
“Then doesn’t that mean your night vision is just as good as mine?”
Felix gave a wry smile. “I believe my eyesight is better than most, but it is not as good as yours. I should be able to see a little once my eyes adjust, though.”
“How come you’re fine now, then?”
“I manage by using Odh,” Felix replied vaguely. By sending out Odh at regular intervals in all directions so that it reflected back at him, he could build a three-dimensional picture of his surroundings without being able to see it. Displaying its greatest effectiveness indoors, this was one of the Asura’s loathsome assassination techniques.
“Huh. I didn’t know you could do that with Odh. You should teach me sometime,” Olivia said directly.
“It is a technique used by assassins. I would not exactly recommend it...” Felix said, softly expressing his reluctance. Though he was indebted to Olivia, he had no intention of passing on the techniques and arts of the Asura to future generations.
“You don’t recommend it because it’s an assassination technique? You say some strange things, Felix. I mean, it’s not like the technique kills anyone, right?” Without meaning to, Felix stopped walking. “What’s wrong?” Olivia asked.
“The technique doesn’t kill anyone,” he repeated. “You are absolutely right.” He laughed aloud. Olivia turned back to stare at him, mystified.
The staircase was a lot longer than Felix had expected. It deposited them in a passageway barely wide enough for one person to pass through that stretched on and on. The unpleasant sensation that seemed to cling to his skin only grew more pronounced, and Olivia, walking in front, was distinctly tense and wary.
As well she might be. This god showed her how completely it outclassed her, and she is going to fight it again. The two of them went on in silence, their footsteps marking the passage of time. His eyes finally adjusted to the darkness, and he made out a hemispherical room. The moment he stepped inside, he realized what was strange about it.
The walls are completely seamless, and they’re made of a material I’ve never seen before. He gave a nearby wall an experimental tap, but the sound was muffled. Even the empire’s best technology couldn’t produce walls like these. He was confronted by the fact that the room had not been built by human hands. At the moment, Olivia was the only one he could see. She was scanning their surroundings as well, but it didn’t seem like she was looking for Xenia so much as trying to spot something.
Is there something hidden here? Felix wondered, watching her quietly as Olivia ran her hand along the wall. It felt like around ten minutes had passed when she stopped.
She laid her hand against a point on the wall as though making sure of something, then raised the ebony blade above her head and brought it down like a flash of lightning. Immediately, there was an ear-piercing screech, and the wall tore apart. On the other side was a staircase that seemed to stretch away up into the heavens. It was enough to render him speechless.
Olivia returned the ebony blade to its scabbard, then turned back to him. “I’m pretty sure that this is the point of no return,” she said. “That okay?”
Even now, she still worries about others... He was glad of the thoughtful gesture. In lieu of a reply, he pulled something from his pocket and tossed it to Olivia. She caught it without difficulty.
“What’s this?” she asked, looking confused.
“I heard that you like sweet things.”
“Huh? This is a sweet?!”
“Yes, it is supposed to be delectable.”
Olivia’s eyes sparkled as she peeled off a corner of the paper wrapping to reveal the bar-shaped confection inside. It was called chocolate, and had been all the rage in the empire lately. Unusually, even Felix’s butler Klau, who usually objected to sweets, had given it his seal of approval.
“Thith’ith thuper good. Bu’ ’ow come—”
“I am giving it to you now?” Felix finished for her. Olivia nodded rapidly, at which he couldn’t help but smile. “We have a saying in the empire: you can’t fight on an empty stomach. That is my answer to your question.”
“So basically you’re pumped up to go murder Xenia too, huh?” Olivia said. The only way Felix could think to respond was to laugh. “Well, I’m full of tasty sweets, so I guess it’s time we got going.” As she crossed the rift in space, she was still on the alert, but she did not appear overly on edge. She was just the right degree of relaxed. Felix too took a firm step forward and followed her.
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