Chapter 111 - The Ball

Having arrived at the Imperial Palace in the early evening, Renée sat in a waiting-room chair and went over the order of the coming-of-age ceremony that would soon begin. She did not have much to do. Once the lengthy rites were over, she only had to appear briefly at the end, lay a hand on Albrecht's head, and say a few words.

One might ask whether such elaborate preparations were necessary for that alone... but in a way, it was only right. Wasn't Albrecht the one who should shine today? Her role was simply to bless him.

As she considered this, another thought suddenly crossed her mind.

'His Highness must be thrilled.'

She imagined Albrecht would be in an excellent mood today. He loved attention and enjoyed standing before an audience so much that he might well be trembling from head to toe right now, delighted to have an occasion devoted entirely to him.

She shook her head.

'He really ought to grow up.'

They were the same age, and he had actually been born half a year before her, yet every time she thought of him, she found herself worrying about things one would normally worry about in a small child.

Just as the thought gave her an unnecessary headache and a deep sigh escaped her, Bera, who was sitting with her in the waiting room, spoke.

"Saintess, are you uncomfortable in any way?"

Renée gave a startled twitch at his words, then answered with a smile.

"No, I've only been sitting here."

There was an awkwardness to the smile on her face. Naturally, it came from thinking about the ball afterward. She had just listened to another of Annie's lengthy lectures today, and she was already full of nerves.

'I-I can do this!'

She really could do anything today! Last time, they had linked arms, so this time she would go a little further! Pretend to fall! Into his arms...!

She swallowed hard. As she reminded herself of her resolve, her face grew steadily redder.

Meanwhile, Bera misunderstood her reaction. The words Aisha had said to him a few days earlier came unbidden to mind, darkening his expression.

["Love... dunce?"]

["Totally clueless!"]

Those words she had offered as her idea of a taunt—insults she had picked up who knew where—felt as though they were stabbing at his heart.

Had she really heard them from Renée? Bera glanced over Renée as the suspicion arose, then squeezed his eyes shut and drove the thought away.

'Utter nonsense.'

Was Renée the sort of person who would bad-mouth someone behind their back? He chastised himself for entertaining such a ridiculous suspicion.

Silence settled between them as they both closed their mouths. Renée was the first to break it.

"Um, you said we're going to the academy once all our engagements are over, didn't you?"

She was confirming something she had heard two days earlier. The quiet was so awkward that she felt she had to find something to talk about, and Bera answered her.

"Yes. I believe we'll be leaving in roughly a week."

"We'll get to see Lady Terisa again after so long."

"It's been three years. I wonder whether she's been well."

They exchanged ordinary conversation, but the atmosphere remained awkward nonetheless. Just as both of them were thinking that they wished someone would break the tension...

KNOCK, KNOCK.

A perfectly timed knock sounded.

"Saintess, it's time for your entrance."

"Oh, yes!"

Renée rose, her expression brightening.

"Shall we go?"

"Allow me to escort you."

Bera took her hand, and they began walking slowly.

* * *

In a lavish hall, a multitude of guests sat in the vast, golden-lit space, all looking in one direction: toward the beautiful boy with radiant blond hair at the end of the long red carpet. One might have said that an angel descended from heaven would look just like him, or that a single glimpse was enough to fall in love. That was how beautiful he was.

Yet if that were all, so many people would not have sat there quietly, focused on him. After all, none of those present had enough time to spare merely to admire a pretty face. They had gathered for one reason alone: to celebrate the boy on the stage, the superhuman warrior bestowed with the title of the Empire's greatest sword, reaching adulthood.

... Or so it should have been.

"Do you think His Highness is all right? Just recently..."

"I heard he was rejected in the middle of the street..."

"Goodness, what nerve. How could that woman even think of rejecting His Highness?"

"Our poor prince. Whatever are we to do...?"

The guests' attention had already wandered far from the reason for the occasion.

Listening to them, Albrecht felt as though his heart was being gouged out and his whole body sliced apart.

'Stop...'

Stop, please...

That wasn't what had happened, so please stop tormenting him. He was begging them, please...

He felt as though he were weeping tears of blood, like a caged magical beast reduced to a spectacle. Why did rumors spread so quickly in this damned aristocratic society, and why did everyone love talking about other people so much? If only he couldn't hear them, he could pretend not to know and ignore it. But why was his hearing so good? Every whisper spreading through the hall hammered into his ears.

His legs seemed to be losing their strength. At this rate, he might stagger.

Albrecht struggled to hold on to his faltering senses, squeezed his eyes shut, and urged himself on.

'No, you can overcome this, Albrecht!'

Hadn't he overcome worse ordeals? The rumor that he liked men! The rumor that he was a pedophile! The rumor that he enjoyed wearing a collar and living as noblewomen's pet dog! Hadn't he overcome them all?

His eyes snapped wide with determination. His posture, which had begun to falter, straightened again. This much could not bring him down!

Just as he was thinking that...

"I suppose some people don't find His Highness's face attractive. How strange."

This time, a massive blow like a battering ram struck Albrecht. He froze as though cracking apart. His expression fractured, and the light went out of his eyes.

Whatever else he could let pass, those words were utterly impossible to ignore.

'I-I'm not beautiful?'

How could anyone look at his face—Albrecht's face—and say it wasn't beautiful? How was that even possible? His mind reeled. Everything he had understood as common sense seemed to crumble.

The shock was so great that Albrecht's grasp on reality collapsed.

'A dream? Yes, this is a dream. I'm dreaming that I'm being publicly executed in front of everyone!'

At last, he had reached the point of denying reality.

In a distant corner, Count Vaishur, seated beside Mari, felt himself trembling with dismay.

'Your Highness! Please!'

Dignity! Please, some dignity!

He cried out desperately inside. The guests did not seem to have noticed Albrecht's state yet, but if this continued, there might truly be a terrible incident.

'When will the ceremony end?'

As he grew anxious, thinking they had to put an end to this situation quickly, words rang out that would draw everyone's attention elsewhere. Fortunately, perhaps the Supreme God had intervened.

Baron Pelden, the master of ceremonies, announced, "Next, we shall hold the blessing ceremony for His Highness!"

The murmuring stopped. At that single announcement, every voice in the hall fell quiet. The blessing ceremony, and the woman who would enter for it—the prospect of seeing her had plunged the entire hall into silence.

The musicians' music flowed over that silence, a melody both gentle and majestic. The sound of the firmly closed doors opening joined it.

Everyone in the hall except Albrecht turned toward the doors. Through them entered a powerfully built holy knight and a woman wrapped from head to toe in white ceremonial robes.

* * *

Renée struggled to suppress a deep sigh. There was a simple reason for it. Even while waiting outside the doors, she had been able to form a rough picture of what was happening inside. Her hearing, keen enough to make up for her blindness, and her ability to piece together events from the voices she heard were responsible for that sigh.

'Now they're making me feel guilty...'

Most of the guests' murmured remarks concerned what had happened recently at the outdoor hall. The rumors had sprung from the words she had snapped at Albrecht that day, when she had been in a bad mood.

TAP.

Walking slowly and touching her cane to the floor, Renée pursed her lips as her conscience pricked at her. Bera whispered softly beside her.

"Five steps ahead."

Following his guidance, Renée took exactly five careful steps, then stopped.

"We shall now perform the blessing ceremony!"

It was the voice of Baron Pelden, who had hosted the auction not long ago. Renée nodded, turned toward where she sensed Albrecht, and released Bera's hand.

Then she addressed Albrecht in a voice too quiet for the other guests to hear.

"Your Highness. Enough of that. Pull yourself together."

"Ah..."

Albrecht raised his head. A faint trace of focus returned to his vacant eyes.

"I greet the Saintess."

He spoke as he knelt and bowed his head.

The tremor in his voice pricked Renée's conscience again, and she found herself grateful that she was wearing a veil. Without it, all the nobles might have seen her flustered expression.

'Um... now I really feel bad.'

It was his coming-of-age ceremony, after all. She could hardly help feeling sorry to see him so frozen.

Feeling deep sympathy for Albrecht, who seemed to suffer blows from every side, Renée reached out and laid her hand on his head.

'... Fine. It's his coming-of-age ceremony, so I might as well build him up a little today.'

Suddenly recalling how she had only ever spoken harshly to him whenever they met, she decided to indulge him just for today and summoned her pure-white divine energy.

"Oh..."

A murmur of awe rose from somewhere among the guests. They gazed in wonder at divine energy of the very same color that had appeared in the sky on the day of the terrorist attack.

Feeling Albrecht flinch at the sound, Renée nearly grimaced, then gave up and began to speak.

"I bless you in the name of the Supreme God."

The pure-white divine energy drifting around Renée seeped into Albrecht as though spreading from her. Its radiance grew.

"May the future of the Empire's second prince, bearer of the noblest blood, the sword that guards the heart of the continent, be filled with brilliant light. May fate guide him along a sacred path."

She continued, stringing together whatever flowery phrases came to mind.

"May he never fall before adversity. May he be a steadfast wall before the weak. May he reign as terror before the wicked."

What else was there...?

Renée searched her mind for something more to say, then decided that this was probably enough and sent her divine energy bursting outward.

"I invoke these divine powers to bless you."

It was not a blessing in words alone. She really did invoke her divine powers—though, if one had to quantify the amount, it was about the size of a thumbnail. The guests knew nothing of that, however, and apparently found her declaration quite extraordinary. They began to gasp in breathless wonder.

"Oh...!"

Some reached out without realizing it, driven by a longing to grasp even the smallest shred of the greatest divine powers, a fragment of fate promising a brilliant future. Bera stopped them by projecting his killing intent, carefully keeping it away from Renée and Albrecht.

Meanwhile, Renée spoke her final words.

"In the name of the Supreme God, and in the name of the agent who wields His divine powers, I bless the future of the Empire's second prince, Albrecht van Frich."

Pure-white divine energy flared out across the entire hall, then gathered together again. At Renée's fingertips, the mass of divine energy formed a sphere, which floated slowly forward and sank into Albrecht's forehead.

Albrecht trembled as warmth spread through his entire body. His face began to fill with overwhelming emotion.

'She went this far...'

He was deeply moved. She had actually used her divine powers to bless him, bestowing the very thing that everyone on the continent longed for.

There was something about it: the kindness of someone who treated you badly nine times and well once could move you more deeply than the kindness of someone who treated you well nine times and badly once. Besides, hadn't Albrecht been battered by the guests' words until just moments ago?

Now, filled with an indescribably profound emotion, he bowed his head deeply.

"... My gratitude for your blessing."

Those words marked the end of the coming-of-age ceremony.

All the guests rose to their feet. It was contrary to ceremonial etiquette, but no one cared now. Knowing nothing of what Albrecht or Renée were really thinking, they saw a scene that might have come straight from a tale of heroes.

Applause and thunderous cheers erupted.

"Woooo!!!"

Albrecht looked around, feeling a thrill run down his spine at the sight before him. His face had already brightened as he waved to the crowd.

Naturally, watching him, Bera's face twisted into a thoroughly disgusted scowl.