Ⅱ
And so, Haimer's fingertip came down without the slightest hesitation.
The choice was locked in. Inside the master bedroom, the dazzling red light dispersed entirely, swiftly sinking away beneath the fair, delicate skin of the Holy Emperor like an ebbing tide.
『Mage』. This was the top-grade development ability she had obtained—one that perfectly meshed with her colossal magical power—after formally stepping into the ranks of Lv.2.
Haimer withdrew his hand and rose from the edge of the bed.
The wide, sweeping hem of the skirt fell back over the scenery that had been stirring such imaginings.
The Holy Emperor felt the touch of fabric against her back and hurriedly reached up to clutch her collar tight, sitting up with a flustered start.
Haimer looked at the Holy Emperor.
"How do you feel?"
The Holy Emperor closed her eyes and carefully sensed the changes within her body.
That nameless burden which had always been pressing down in the depths of her heart—so heavy it had even made her breathing feel laborious—now felt, in this very moment, as if it had been thoroughly washed and rinsed away by a stream of clear, cold spring water.
That magical power, so immense it was suffocating, was no longer a stagnant pool, but flowed smoothly and steadily like a gentle, docile river.
"It's so light…"
The Holy Emperor opened her water-blue eyes and gazed straight at Haimer, a smile rising to the corners of her lips that came from the bottom of her heart.
"Thank you, Kami-sama."
"There's no need to be so formal with me." Haimer's tone was calm.
"After all, what everyone cares about most, in the end, is you yourself—isn't it?" Having said those words,
Haimer did not keep looking at the Holy Emperor.
Instead, he turned his head, his gaze passing over the Holy Emperor's shoulder to fall directly upon that tightly shut, heavy solid-wood door.
Outside the door it was utterly silent—not even the faintest whisper of wind could be heard.
Yet the corner of Haimer's mouth curved into a teasing arc.
"Holding your breath behind a door with soundproofing this good, managing not to let out a single sound."
Haimer deliberately raised his voice.
"But you've probably forgotten—this door can't keep me out."
"Since you've all listened to your heart's content out there, aren't you going to come in?"
As Haimer's words fell, a faint shuffling of pushing and shoving immediately came from outside the door.
"Click." The brass doorknob was slowly twisted from the outside, giving off a crisp metallic catch.
The door first opened a narrow crack.
And then, the door was pushed wide open.
Onigawara Rin, Tendou Kisara, Hanasaka Warabi, and—red-faced and half-shoved to the very front—Inaba Tsukuyo, all squeezed in awkwardly.
Amou Kirukiru, by contrast, leaned against the doorframe with composed ease, arms crossed over her chest, looking into the room.
"Um… Kami-sama, we were just…"
Onigawara Rin scratched her cheek, her gaze wandering, not daring to meet Haimer's eyes.
The Holy Emperor on the bed looked at the lot of them with their guilty-as-thieves expressions.
How could she still fail to understand what had just happened?
Every single bit of it had been heard, crystal clear, by them out beyond the door!
With a sudden flush,
the Holy Emperor's cheeks went scarlet in an instant, and even that slender, fair neck of hers was dyed a fully ripened shrimp-red.
She wished she could dig a hole right then and there in this silk-cotton mattress and bury herself in it, tightly and completely.
"So… so embarrassing…"
The Holy Emperor covered her face with both hands, her voice even trembling a little.
Seeing the Holy Emperor in such a state of mortified despair, Haimer simply gave her shoulder a casual pat, stepping in at just the right moment to rescue her from the situation.
"There now, don't feel ashamed."
"Even if they had honestly refrained from pressing themselves against the door crack to eavesdrop—you know how it is, with Tsukuyo's hearing, as long as she didn't plug up her ears, the goings-on in this room couldn't have been hidden from her either."
Singled out so suddenly, Inaba Tsukuyo's cheeks instantly went red—whether from recalling certain goings-on of last night, or from the awkwardness of the present moment.
Rather bashfully, she wrung the hem of that red-and-white miko outfit.
"Tsukuyo… Tsukuyo didn't… mean… to listen…"
"Then I won't trouble you all any further."
Haimer gave a helpless smile and reached up to straighten the cuff of his black shirt.
"The rest of the time is for you girls to deepen your bonds with one another."
"I'll be heading downstairs first."
With that said,
Haimer, under the various complicated gazes of all the girls, walked out of the master bedroom with steady steps.
…
At that same moment.
Orario, at the intersection of the North Main Street and the West Main Street.
The upscale residential district.
The bright morning sunlight spilled without reserve onto the broad, level white flagstone road.
On either side of the street stood luxurious detached villas, each built up from high-grade stone, with their own private gates and courtyards.
All around were dotted meticulously tended flowerbeds, fountains refracting halos of light in the sun, and now and then a lavishly decorated carriage drawn by purebred horses would roll past along the street.
The people who lived here were either rich or noble.
Either the proprietors of the great merchant guilds that controlled Orario's economic lifelines, or the upper echelons of those large Familias.
Every single paving stone seemed to exude an air of expense.
And yet.
Right now, on this gleaming, glamorous street,
there was a tiny little figure that looked utterly out of place against its surroundings, walking with somewhat hurried steps along the polished flagstones.
—Liliruca Arde.
She still wore that somewhat worn red-and-white hooded top, its edges fraying with marks of wear.
She had tugged the enormous hood down hard, hiding the greater half of that small, delicate face.
For someone who had spent years scraping and struggling in the chaotic slums of Daedalus Street—someone who, within the [Soma Familia], couldn't even dream of so much as eating her fill—a place like the upscale residential district was a forbidden zone she would never once have dared to set foot in, not even in her dreams.
Because in this strictly stratified district,
just her shabby attire alone, together with that telltale Pallum build and appearance, would be enough for the patrolling military police to haul her in without hesitation on charges of "suspected theft" or "plotting wrongdoing" and interrogate her for half a day.
But now,
Lili did not flee.
Those slender arms of hers were clutching, with all her might, a battered hemp sack nearly as big as the greater half of her own body.
The sack looked heavy and laden.
The coarse hempcloth dug into her arms, leaving angry red welts.
As she walked, the sack would now and then give off a muffled "clink-clank."
As she passed several villas hung with exquisite nameplates,
a few fine ladies in custom-made silk gowns, holding expensive lace parasols, were gathered together chatting idly.
Hearing the noise, several of them turned their heads.
And when they got a clear look at Lili's run-down attire, they all knit their brows in disgust, even pulling out handkerchiefs to cover their noses.
"Where did this little beggar come from?"
"Did she get lost and wander here to beg for food?"
"How unlucky—seeing such a filthy thing first thing in the morning. What on earth are the guards at the street entrance even doing, eating their pay for nothing? How could they let in all sorts of rabble like this?"
These voices, deliberately lowered yet plainly meant for her to hear,
fell into Lili's ears without missing a single word.
Had it been the old days,
hearing such words, Lili would surely have immediately lowered her head and hurried away.
She might even, out of fear that these rich people would call the military police to seize the sack from her hands, have directly activated the magic of 『Cinderella』 to transform into another race and flee in a panic.
But today,
faced with these grating jeers,
Lili only tugged the brim of her hood down hard, blocking out those scornful stares.
And held the sack in her arms even more tightly.
"Lili is no beggar."
Lili silently retorted this in her heart.
She lifted her head and looked toward the corner of the street ahead.
There, not far off, the [Ganesha Familia]'s patrolling military police squad was marching straight toward her with neat, even steps.
The crisp clang of their armor knocking together rang out especially loud.
Seeing the patrol appear,
the fine ladies standing by the railing immediately waved their hands, intending to have these peacekeeping military police drive this eyesore of a little beggar away.
The squad's captain noticed the commotion and strode over with long steps.
However,
when the captain's gaze swept over that small figure beneath the hood—
and especially when he got a clear look at Lili's face, drawn somewhat taut with nervousness—
the captain's footsteps came to an obvious halt.
He glanced back at that group of still gesticulating, finger-pointing fine ladies.
No longer paying any heed to their incessant complaints,
he simply turned his head and made a clear hand signal to the squad members behind him.
He did not step forward to conduct any questioning whatsoever.
On the contrary,
these tall military police actively spread out to both sides of the street, clearing the way.
On this upscale residential street, which had not been narrow to begin with,
they forcibly opened up an exceedingly wide, unobstructed path for Lili.
What's more,
as Lili passed by his side, the squad captain even gave her a slight nod, his manner unexpectedly mild—carrying, faintly, even a trace of deference.
"Oo…"
Those fine ladies who had been all set to enjoy a good show were left utterly dumbfounded.
Each of them gaped wide, not even noticing that their parasols had tilted askew.
Lili herself, holding the sack in her arms, was also stunned.
The palms that had been gripping the sack so tightly had long since seeped with a fine layer of sweat.
She had already braced herself to be questioned—even to have to produce that withdrawal document to prove her identity.
"They… they actually made way for Lili?"
Lili walked past the patrol squad.
She couldn't help glancing back at the military police, who still stood along both sides of the street without leaving.
Then she lowered her head and looked at the dirty, battered sack in her arms, her heart filled with disbelief.
Of course, Lili knew very well in her heart.
What these military police—who normally kept the peace, lofty and aloof, in Orario's core district—feared was absolutely not herself, a support-role Pallum who couldn't even barely manage Lv.1.
The one they revered, even feared, was—
—that deity who openly declared he would shelter monsters, who walked monsters down the main streets, and who in the end had forced the upper echelons of every major Familia in all of Orario into not daring to raise any substantive objection.
—The patron deity of the [Haimer Familia].
Quite evidently, word of what had happened to her yesterday had already spread on a small scale.
Yesterday,
the moment she was gently gathered into his arms within the [Soma Familia] and declared to be a member of the Familia under his command, her original fate had already been utterly changed.
Thinking of this, Lili drew a deep breath, pulled herself together anew, pushed the hood back, and revealed that head of chestnut-brown short hair.
She quickened her pace.
Although the sack in her arms was unusually heavy,
nearly bending her frail little body double—
the things inside this sack were her entire fortune, every bit of it gouged out, copper coin by copper coin, from the days when she had first come of understanding: used as bait down in the Dungeon, scraping together a little at a time by stealing and picking up the scrap copper and rotten iron that adventurers didn't want.
Even by stripping the broken gear off the dead and pawning it on the black market.
One Valis, one Valis, all of it wrung out from between her teeth—every last bit of her savings.
Inside it was packed full of worn copper coins and silver coins, along with a few gold coins giving off an alluring luster.
Several hundred thousand Valis in all.
This money. This money had once been the only thing in this world that could give her a sense of security.
But now,
she carried this coffin-fund of hers to this upscale residential district she had once looked up to.
Lili's fingers gave a hard tug at the coarse surface of the battered sack, hoisting it up a little.
And from within the sack rose once more a crisp "jingle-jingle."
This little sound, to the her of the past, had been a sound more pleasant to the ear than any wondrous music in the world.
It made her mind drift, unbidden, back to what she had encountered earlier this morning.
Just as the sky was beginning to pale with the first light of dawn,
she had returned alone to the [Soma Familia].
The once-overbearing Zanis had been thoroughly toppled.
The newly appointed captain, Chandra, had not, like Zanis, opened his lion's maw to extort from her some absurd sky-high withdrawal fee of over ten million Valis.
He had only sat before that table stained all over with wine, and looked at her for a long while.
In the end he gave a deep sigh.
Saying nothing more,
he readily stamped down the seal belonging to the captain upon that withdrawal document issued by the Guild.
And it was in that very moment, as that dull "thunk" of the stamp fell,
that the invisible chain which had bound her for over ten years, keeping her unable to rise from the mire,
snapped completely.
At last, she was free.
Thinking of that deity who had changed her fate,
Lili couldn't help quickening her steps once more.
She held the sack in her arms even tighter, and even though her arms had gone sore and numb, she did not stop.
Following the broad street, she ran at a trot all the way toward that imposing stone-built mansion in her memory.
Before long, in the spacious hall on the mansion's ground floor.
The soft sunlight poured down without reserve through the enormous glass dome of the central courtyard,
lighting up those priceless obsidian round tables and the soft genuine-leather sofas.
Haimer was reclining at ease on a comfortable sofa,
a cup of freshly brewed black tea in hand.
"Creeeak—"
Hearing the sound of the wooden door being pushed open at the entrance hall,
Haimer lifted his gaze, his eyes passing over the rim of the teacup,
and saw that tiny little figure, clutching a huge battered sack, edging into the hall step by laborious step.
"You're back?" Haimer set the teacup down on the table and asked in a gentle voice.
"Is everything over at the Soma Familia all taken care of?"
Lili stood at the doorway.
Her breathing seemed a little ragged, her forehead beaded with fine droplets of sweat.
She carefully bent down and set that heavy sack on the floor with a "thud."
The weighty clash of Valis sent a muffled reverberation echoing through the quiet hall.
Haimer raised an eyebrow slightly, waiting quietly for what would come next.
Lili pulled the hood completely off her head.
She did not answer Haimer's question about the [Soma Familia].
Instead, she stretched out her faintly trembling fingers,
and yanked open in one motion the tightly knotted mouth of the sack.
"Clatter-clatter—"
As the mouth of the sack fell open,
the coins packed brimful inside instantly scattered out, piling up into a little mountain.
There were copper coins of dull luster, silver coins bearing marks of wear,
and mixed among them, a few glittering gold coins.
"Lord Haimer."
Lili let go of the sack and stepped back half a pace.
With a "thump,"
her knees came down heavily upon the carpet.
Her forehead lowered, her gaze fixed dead upon those scattered coins.
"This is all the money Lili has secretly saved up over these years, working as a supporter down in the Dungeon."
"It's six hundred thirty-five thousand four hundred and twenty Valis."
Lili lifted her face.
And looked straight at Haimer.
"This is all Lili has right now."
"Even though this money, to someone like you, Lord Haimer, probably doesn't count as anything at all."
"But this… this is already everything Lili can offer up at the moment."
"From now on Lili will keep working hard to gather drop items in the Dungeon, and every single bit of money she earns, Lili will hand over in full every month, without keeping a coin back!"
"As long as… as long as you don't drive Lili away!"
Lili poured out, in one breath, all of these words she'd been holding pent up in her heart.
As the final word fell,
the whole spacious hall sank into silence.
One could even hear the rustle of the gentle breeze brushing through the leaves out in the courtyard.
Haimer sat on the sofa.
Looking at that heap of Valis on the floor, giving off its unmistakable stench of copper.
And then glancing at Lili, kneeling on the ground, her body trembling slightly, her eyes brimming with dread.
He couldn't help being momentarily stunned.
He truly hadn't expected it.
This little girl had run off first thing in the morning without even eating a bite—
only to go and painstakingly gouge out every last bit of the fortune she'd hidden away all over Orario.
And then run here, to offer it up to him.
What was this supposed to be?
Using money to buy her own peace and safety in this household?
In Lili's deep-rooted perception, twisted by suffering,
during those years in the [Soma Familia],
a low-ranking supporter was nothing but a tool to be endlessly squeezed dry, a consumable.
All fruits of labor, all spoils, had to be compulsorily handed over.
In exchange for that meager scrap of coarse food just enough to sustain life, and for the right not to be beaten.
This was the sole law of survival for those at the bottom within a Familia.
Even though her patron deity had now been changed,
it seemed she still instinctively assumed that this rule had not changed at all.
With no value, unable to create profit, you would be cast aside without the slightest mercy.
Haimer, realizing this, let out a helpless soft sigh.
He rose from the sofa.
And walked, step by step, up to Lili.
Watching Haimer draw near,
Lili's breath caught; she instinctively shrank her neck back and squeezed her eyes tightly shut.
However,
Haimer did not so much as spare a single glance at that battered sack full of Valis on the floor.
Instead, he slowly bent down.
Before this lowly little Pallum girl, he crouched down on one knee.
His gaze level with hers.
He stretched out a slender hand.
And lightly rested his palm atop Lili's head.
"Oo…"
Lili froze.
Her closed eyes snapped open, and she stared, incredulous, at Haimer so near at hand.
Haimer gently ruffled Lili's chestnut-brown hair, freshly washed clean and smooth.
"Do I look, right now, like some sort of pauper?"
"N-no, you don't!" Hearing these words from Haimer, Lili hurriedly shook her head, anxious to explain.
"That's not what Lili meant! Lili only wanted to…"
"In that case,"
"then gather up all this money, untouched, just as it is, and take it back to your own room."
"Or else find something you think is safe and hide it away again."
Haimer pressed on Lili's shoulder, his fingertips applying a slight pressure, cutting off her flustered, incoherent words.
"But, Kami-sama…" Lili still wanted to say something.
"There are no buts."
"This money."
"Didn't you earn it yourself, risking your very life?"
Haimer looked at Lili's wide-open eyes.
"In that case,"
"then hold onto it properly, and treat it as your own little nest egg."
"In this Familia, there's no need to trade in this kind of way for the right to survive."
"After all, you're a girl—at this age, you ought to buy yourself some things you like now and then."
"Whether it's a pretty dress in a shop window, or some sweet you spot on the street that looks delicious."
"Since this money was earned by you yourself, it ought to be spent on the things that make you happy."
"And even if one day all the money in this sack is spent down to nothing."
"If you're short on money, then come and ask me for it."
"Since I've taken you in,"
"then of course I won't let my own child go on living that kind of fearful, anxious, hard life."
Having said this,
Haimer stood up and gently helped Lili—who was still holding her kneeling posture—to her feet, the corners of his mouth carrying a smile that put one completely at ease.
And so.
The wind blew gently in.
Lili stood there, blankly dazed where she was…
____
👻🔥Seek: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Homelander: Founding the Hero Association
Let's hit these goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = 1 extra chapter for the public!