Volume 10, Chapter 21 – A Turbulent Encounter

“Oh? The Ymir Church?”

Since the angel was with a Cardinal of the Ymir Church, it meant the Ymir Church had gotten to the angel one step ahead of her. Adonis quietly clicked her tongue, but thankfully, she hadn’t expected the angel to belong to her from the start. Judging from how angels throughout history have guided chosen humans to challenge the Demon Lord, the angel’s ultimate goal was to defeat the Demon Lord. She herself didn’t have such a long-term objective; rather, she knew very well that demons were by no means easy to deal with. The difficulty was at least equivalent to, or even higher than, declaring war on all other nations on the continent simultaneously. To tie the entire Norta Empire to a sinking ship for a single angel… the choice was obvious.

However, belonging to the Ymir Church didn’t mean she couldn’t borrow the angel’s power. What she needed was knowledge. As long as she was clear on this point, everything was negotiable. The Norta Empire was not currently hostile to the Ymir Church. As long as she didn’t specify what she intended to use the knowledge for, she wouldn’t arouse suspicion.

Adjusting her emotions, Adonis tried her best to put a kind, yet royally dignified, smile on her handsome face. Her gaze swept from the tall angel standing on the far right toward the left. She didn’t know which one was Yisi Enya, and the person wasn’t wearing the red robes of a Cardinal, so she could only look at everyone in turn as she spoke.

“Thank you, Your Excellency Yisi Enya, for your assistance yesterday. On behalf of the empire, I express my grat—Iih!”

Halfway through her sentence, as Adonis’s gaze swept over the golden-haired, red-eyed Camilla, her voice suddenly went off-key, as if someone had grabbed her by the throat. The imperial family’s long-standing tradition of intermarriage took effect at this moment. With just one look, Adonis felt an indivisible sense of kinship from Camilla.

She instantly understood the girl’s identity.

This was the very person Bradley had mentioned to her yesterday. Younger than her in age, but by generation, her older sister. By birthright, more suited to be the heir to the throne than herself: the First Princess of the empire, Ailis Carol Gloria. Adonis was born of her father’s second wife, while her imperial sister Ailis was the child of the first wife.

Of course, none of that mattered now. She had already ascended the throne as the Emperor of the Norta Empire. Even if her imperial sister appeared, she posed no threat to her position. This was why both she and Bradley hadn’t been worried about the throne when they heard the First Princess had appeared. Under normal circumstances, she should be happy about her sister’s ‘resurrection’ and hold a national celebration for the First Princess—no, forget normal circumstances. If only her relationship with that girl who haunted her dreams was just one step further, she would have felt joy and excitement at her sister’s appearance. Even if she’d never spoken with her sister, the feeling of a blood connection was enough to feel kinship. However, the reunion was happening at this awkward moment. Adonis just wanted to yank her own hair and scream at the sky.

How did this happen!

If her subjects and the Cardinal of the Ymir Church weren’t standing right there, Adonis would have cried out. She could already imagine the scene after returning to the palace: the entire court of high officials urging her to marry her imperial sister.

Admittedly, her imperial sister was quite beautiful. Whether it was her well-proportioned chest or the fair skin and golden hair characteristic of the empire’s high nobility, her sister was as dazzling as the sun. Adding to that her strong, elegant temperament, even if her sister hadn’t said a word, Adonis could guess she had received an exceptionally high-level noble education. However, none of this was reason enough for her to transfer her affections. She had seen countless beautiful women, but there was only one woman in the world who made her fall in love at first sight, unable to extricate herself: Viel.

Why did I have to meet my sister right now?

This is practically a punishment from the gods!

Was her prayer to the goddess of love yesterday not pious enough? If so, she would immediately order a temple built for the goddess of love by the sea, facing the moon. And she would worship her in front of all the citizens. This was not an impossible task. For the sake of that beloved woman, such a sacrifice was completely worth it. As long as it could make her imperial sister show up a few years later, she wouldn’t even mind funding the construction of shrines to the goddess of love throughout the empire.

Unfortunately, it had already happened. No matter how much Adonis prayed to the gods, she couldn’t change the fact that Camilla was standing right in front of her. After an awkwardly long silence of at least five seconds, Adonis’s stiff facial muscles finally began to move.

Regardless, she had to acknowledge her sister’s identity right now. Even if she didn’t say anything, her imperial sister would feel the same kinship and eventually reveal her identity as the First Princess. No one could refuse the temptation of being the First Princess; it meant countless riches, splendor, and power second only to one and above tens of thousands. She didn’t think her sister would let her off the hook just like that.

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Of course, this so-called ‘letting her off’ was just her own one-sided thought. After all, her imperial sister couldn’t possibly know that she didn’t want to see her at all. Setting subjective factors aside, the empire gaining a First Princess was a good thing in every respect.

“You…”

Staring intently at Camilla, Adonis tried to open her mouth, but her throat was dry and her tongue felt as if it wouldn’t obey her, unable to straighten out. She only managed one word before she couldn’t continue.

Carl, who had been standing behind Adonis, sensed her abnormality. He stepped forward and asked in a low voice.

“Your Majesty, what’s wrong?”

“Guu,” Adonis swallowed. “Carl, call Bradley. Tell him I’ve found the First Princess, Ailis Carol Gloria.”

“What!?” Even with Carl’s composed personality, he couldn’t help but cry out in shock. “Your Majesty, what are you saying?!”

Schumann, the city lord of Wilfred at her side, also turned pale with shock.

“Your Majesty, where is Her Highness the First Princess!”

“Right here.” Taking a deep breath to make her expression as natural as possible, Adonis stepped forward, coming to stand before Camilla. Under everyone’s gaze, she opened her arms, preparing to embrace Camilla. “I’ve finally found you, Imperial Sister Ailis.”

“Shameless!”

Plak.

To everyone’s surprise, just as Adonis was mentally preparing herself to refuse marriage to her sister, regardless of the officials’ opposition, Camilla slapped her hard across the face in front of everyone. The sound was so loud it seemed it would burst their eardrums. The slap, coming from a level 21 magic caster, left Adonis momentarily unable to register what had just happened.

“Protect His Majesty!”

“How bold!”

Schumann and Carl both sprang into action. The former pulled Adonis back, while the latter drew the longsword at his waist and slashed down at Camilla.

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Although she didn’t know what had happened to make Carl draw his sword, his action was clearly intended to kill Camilla. Adonis quickly reached out toward Carl and yelled.

“Carl, stop!”

“But Your Majesty——”

“She is the First Princess of the Norta Empire! Stop, I said!”

“…Yes.”

Very reluctantly, Carl moved back to stand behind Adonis. During this time, the fiery pain on her left cheek finally made Adonis realize she had just been slapped by her imperial sister.

“Ca-Camilla! Even if he is your imperial brother, you shouldn’t…” Yisi, with a look of utter shock, quickly stepped between Camilla and Adonis. She bowed her head to Adonis, who was much taller than her. “I’m sorry, my… sister? has a tendency to dislike contact with men. It was my failure not to inform Your Majesty Adonis beforehand. My deepest apologies.”

Although calling Camilla “sister” in front of Adonis might seem rude, it probably wouldn’t cause any problems if explained slowly. As for ‘disliking contact with men,’ it was an excuse Yisi fabricated on the spot. Of course, judging from Camilla’s reaction, it was true she didn’t allow men to touch her, but the root cause had no causal relationship with the ‘male’ label. Camilla was simply not easy to get close to, period.

Yisi didn’t know that these words held a completely different meaning in Adonis’s ears.

It was like a divine oracle, tantamount to gospel.

The anger from being slapped vanished in an instant.

What did ‘disliking men’ mean? It meant that as long as she didn’t reveal she was a woman, this imperial sister of hers would never get close to her. If not for the setting, Adonis would have felt the urge to jump up and shout for joy. This way, even if Bradley and the others pressured her to marry, she could just use her ‘sister’s dislike of men’ as an excuse, using her sister as a shield. All those troubles would no longer fall on her. If Bradley and the others wanted to matchmake her and her sister, they would have to start by persuading her sister.

Well done, Imperial Sister! You should have hit even harder, to show everyone your determination to reject me! This way we can cooperate and shut Bradley and the others up!

Subconsciously, she touched her cheek. A slight smile curved Adonis’s lips, unnoticed by herself.

She couldn’t help but start to believe that gods truly existed. She had just inwardly pledged to build a temple for the goddess of love, and the goddess had fulfilled her believer’s wish in the most surprising way imaginable.

Oh, my lady goddess of love, from this day forward, you are the one and only god I believe in. To hell with the likes of the Goddess Ymir. You are the only god willing to listen to the wishes of a devout believer.

Forcibly suppressing the ecstasy in her heart, Adonis tried her best to keep the smile on her face from looking too maniacal—it would be terrible to show elation. Anyone happy after being slapped must have a problem with their head.

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“It’s alright, miss. It was my oversight for not understanding my imperial sister’s boundaries beforehand. In fact, her stopping me was a relief to me,” Adonis blurted out, momentarily forgetting herself in her delight. She coughed awkwardly and corrected herself, “Er, I didn’t mean anything else, I just meant… if my sister dislikes men but forced herself to allow me to hug her, it would have left me with endless guilt and remorse. She truly did me a great favor.”

Is Adonis this approachable? Yisi couldn’t help but feel baffled. As an emperor, even if the person who slapped her was her sister, she should still feel angry. To confirm if Adonis truly didn’t mind, as her words suggested, Yisi looked up at Adonis, who was a head and a half taller than her—she had been bowing her head in apology before and hadn’t looked at Adonis’s face.

However, this one glance was a Cupid’s arrow that struck Adonis like a bolt of lightning. Adonis was like a coward who had just seen a ghost, stumbling back several steps.

What did I just see?!

Is it an illusion? Or did the gods hear my prayers?

This girl looks exactly like Viel!

Even though her exchange with Viel was barely two sentences and their meeting lasted less than half a minute, that face was deeply etched into her heart. Adonis was certain. If she had any artistic skill, she would have already drawn the face of her dream lover, hung it on the wall, and gazed at it day and night. This girl and Viel were practically the… no.

Noticing that Yisi didn’t have cat ears, and her facial features weren’t as indifferent as Viel’s, Adonis’s heart, which had been pounding so hard it felt like it would leap from her chest, gradually cooled.

Appearance can be disguised with illusions and makeup, but temperament is not something that can be changed at will. A poor person cannot become as elegant as a noble overnight. Likewise, a noble won’t suddenly become as vulgar as a commoner. Viel and the girl before her were two different entities. Their only similarity was their appearance.

But this was still worthy of her attention. A similar appearance could imply many things—for example, that they were related by blood.

Is Viel the older sister? Or the younger sister?

No, it’s better not to ask these things right now. As the person Viel had beaten up, if this silver-haired girl with blue streaks was Viel’s sister, then Viel must have told her not to expose their relationship, otherwise it would bring trouble to this girl.

Damn it, how much better it would be without all these messy identities.

If she didn’t have the status of the Norta Empire’s Emperor, Viel wouldn’t have paid her any mind, and she would be able to openly ask this girl—Viel’s sister—what Viel likes and dislikes. It didn’t even matter if Viel was married. As the Emperor of the Norta Empire, no man could be more outstanding than her. Even if she was married, she would just steal her away. In this one thing, she had absolute confidence.

But then again, even though she should have been warned by Viel not to get close to the Emperor, this girl showed not a trace of fear when standing before her—no, it wasn’t just fear. She didn’t even show any respect . Normally, people meeting her for the first time would look at her with reverence or deference. This girl, however, only showed polite respect, but didn’t regard her as a superior in her heart.

Just as expected of Viel’s family… they’re too similar in this regard.

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“Your Majesty?”

Yisi’s voice woke Adonis from her daze. Realizing her lapse in composure, Adonis gave a wry laugh and tapped her head. “Ah, apologies, apologies. This long-lost reunion with my imperial sister has made me a little overcome with emotion. I’m sure my father would be deeply moved if he could see this day. May I ask your name, miss?”

“Yisi Enya.”

Adonis’s eyes suddenly flew wide open.

The Cardinal of the Ymir Church?

But Viel is clearly the Pope of the Divine Religion. What are these two sisters doing? Are they on bad terms? If their relationship is bad, should I… capture this Yisi Enya? But no matter what, Yisi Enya is still Viel’s sister. If I act rashly without knowing if they’re truly at odds, Viel might come to hate me.

No, wait, what on earth am I thinking? Capturing a Cardinal of the Ymir Church… setting aside what Viel might think, that would be a direct declaration of war on the Ymir Church. I’ve truly been blinded by a woman, completely bewitched.

Her expression changed several times within a single second. Calming down, Adonis feigned surprise. “I never expected the Cardinal to be such a young girl. I’m truly astonished.”

“Your Majesty is too kind.”

“Er…”

What should I say next?

Adonis was momentarily at a loss for words. Carl, his expression complicated, quietly reminded her.

“Your Majesty, the matter of the First Princess… and the angel’s knowledge…”

No, no, no, no, both of those things can wait. We’ve done without the angel’s knowledge until now; the empire will function fine without it. As for my imperial sister, now that I’m sure she won’t cause me trouble, I just need to organize a proper celebration when we return to the capital, hold a ceremony to grant her the title of First Princess, and announce her status publicly. The most important thing right now is to get all the information about Viel’s preferences from this girl, who might be Viel’s older or younger sister. To make this girl an ally, I must make thorough preparations.

But asking about these things rashly would be extremely improper and would easily arouse suspicion. Adonis could only suppress her excitement and awkwardly, and inappropriately, change the subject.

“Well then, allow me to bestow the medals of valor upon you all.”