Chapter 49

~That dawn, in the ballroom of a luxury hotel~

Under a black, dark dawn sky with no moon or stars in sight, the place was bathed in brilliant light.

She, a lover of light, was there, late into the night and early into the dawn, with no intention of leaving.

"Hey, is that woman, isn't she the Holy Maiden...?"

"Wake up, you fool, look at that dress. There's no way the holy maiden would dress like a whore!"

"To decorate your whole body with jewels like that—don't you realize that's vulgar."

"Well, I'm sure she's a man-biting, luxury-obsessed courtesan, but I don't see any decency in her."

"That's right, as far as I know, the Holy Maiden is a frugal, luxury-free...."

She didn't mind the chatter directed at her. She just stood there, loving the light of luxury bathed in the glow of the chandelier, which shone brighter than the night sky.

The light was whiter, nobler, and more pure than anything she had ever seen.

Alina watched wordlessly dressed in a dress that blatantly exposes her back, waist, and cleavage, not inferior to that of the holy maiden. She flaunts all her luxurious jewels like her.

"Miss Alina, dance with me."

"...."

Alina reached out to meet the Holy Maiden's touch, but she couldn't call her name. She didn't want to call her name, not in front of everyone here.

She didn't want them to know who she was.

"Are you ashamed of me?"

Then, as if seeing right through her, Jeanne asked, smiling. Alina bit her lip impatiently, and then asked.

"So, Jeanne, what do you think of...?"

"I'm free."

Jeanne replied.

"Like I'm going to fly."

Free, she said, even though she was bound and enslaved to the man with a crest of submission.

"Freedom is servitude."

"...."

"I am a puppet, unable to lift a finger of my own free will."

Freedom is servitude.

As she said this, the Holy Maiden of Bondage smiled and continued.

"Only when someone wraps a thread around my body, and controls the threads tied to my limbs, can I move, and then I am free to dance and play on the stage. Now, look-."

"Jeanne?!"

As if that was the freedom of a puppet─

After speaking, Jeanne dances on stage with Alina, making moves that seem very extreme and as if being forcibly drawn to the movement, Alina also joins in.

Before they knew it, the eyes of the people in the ballroom were focused on them.

"She just said Jeanne....?"

"What? Oh, no way."

"Ha, it's just a courtesan's name!"

A voice casually blurted out, causing several nobles to gossip.

"You disgusting whore!"

And one of them, a man with a particularly drunken face, shouted again, as if to make them listen.

"Even if you are a girl who only knows how to sell her body, there are some manners that you must follow! Could it be that they are not only going to steal the name of the noble Holy Maiden to fawn over men's crotches? You truly know no shame!"

"Ah, Sir Alfred, calm yourself!"

His drunkenly raised voice was just enough to break the rhythm of the ballroom.

Jeanne stopped dancing, right then and there. Alina stopped moving, too, and wordlessly swallowed her breath.

In her bewilderment, she saw the future: a drunkard's death, soon to be decapitated by Jeanne's sword. It was inevitable.

She is not the holy maiden she once was.

"You are...."

She asked, the insult directed at her.

"Apparently, you seem to know quite a bit about the holy maiden."

Not angry, not agitated, just in a voice that was so compassionate.

"Yes, you whore, I, Alfred, a devout and pious follower of the Goddess, will not tolerate your insulting her!"

"You mean that you will not tolerate the dishonoring of the holy maiden."

"Yes!"

"Yes, I see...."

Nodding, Saint Jeanne smiled.

"Indeed, thank you."

It was a virtuous, compassionate smile worthy of her name.

"Your heart, I am sure, has been conveyed."

"What?"

The drunken nobleman's eyes narrowed, wondering what she was talking about.

He couldn't understand why he'd been on the verge of losing his temper in the face of her smile, a smile so full of compassion and mercy.

"Ah, I'm glad you understand! You can repent now and...."

It was then.

"─Did you forget your orders?"

Suddenly, the air in the area fell silent.

An ominous, heavy air, incomparably different from the one before, engulfed the ballroom. Realizing instinctively what it was, Alina shivered as a chill ran down her spine.

"Alas, Master, it is you."

A man in a raincoat appeared but Holy Maiden Jeanne smiled, unfazed.

"Do you have any new orders, then, please tell me."

As the man's puppet, as a mindless slave who obeyed without thinking, she asked.

"I will carry out whatever orders you give me."

"Then why won't you do it?"

"What orders?"

Jeanne shook her head innocently and the man fell silent. It was then.

"Kuck, kuck...!"

The drunken man, who had just spent the last few minutes denigrating the holy maiden, suddenly grabbed his throat and dropped to his knees. Clutching his neck and chest as if he could not breathe properly, he flailed like a fish out of water.

"Whatever you do-don't let him sully the serpent's name."

All the while, the man continued to stare at the holy maiden.

"That man has insulted you. I'm sure you haven't forgotten who you are."

"Of course not."

Jeanne replied.

"The Black Snake."

"Then why did you let him insult us?"

A sense of bewilderment swirled around them with the name. Whether the words were true or not, it didn't matter; that was the weight of the snake's name in this world.

Like an ebb tide, the people in the ballroom disappeared. Panicked and clamoring as if there had been a fire.

None of them moved toward the man who had fallen and was struggling to his feet. His eyes, flailing on the floor, pleading for help, finally turned to Jeanne. They were begging for help.

"It was not the snake, nor the holy maiden, that he was cursing and denigrating."

Jeanne replied as she stared silently at the man pleading with her. Eventually, like a puppet with a broken string, the man's struggles ceased.

"Just a whore, impersonating the holy maiden."

"... Is that how you think you can define yourself now?"

"It's not my idea, it's just what he thought, so I let it go."

"...."

"Forgive me, Master, for my ignorance and foolishness, for not understanding your meaning."

Jeanne said.

"And bind me stronger with new threads, lest I repeat the same foolishness. Bind me tighter and tighter for I can think of nothing of myself."

The man did not answer and a short silence descended.

"Wait, wait, sir, what Jeanne meant was that...."

Then, breaking the silence, the Immortal Swordswoman-Alina spoke up to defend her.

"Enough."

The man shook his head as if that was enough.

"As soon as the...day dawns, we will leave Germania and head for the Holy Kingdom."

The man shook his head.

Home of the Holy Maiden, a nation that worships the stars in the sky. A nation that had suffered irreparable wounds at the hands of the Black Snake long ago, and would rise from the aftermath to become the stage for a new turbulence.

"Both of you, decide on another 'name' by then."

A name. Alina bit her lip as she considered the implications.

"A name that will define you to the world, as the Black Snake."

Said the man with the name of the original sin.

The Holy Maiden and Alina did not answer immediately. They could not answer.

It was not something that could be answered in a single day, nor was it something that could be expected in the future.

It was only a time that would come.

*

~The western border of the Duchy of Germania~

In addition to the armies that fill the demilitarized zone, where armies are not allowed to be stationed due to the treaty of defeat, there is a man leading an army of death.

The leader of the strongest necromancer organization that the Duchy boasts is preparing for a border conflict with the Holy Kingdom that is certain to occur within a few days.

"Hehe, the Hydra has six heads!"