Volume 10, Chapter 51 – Chrysdor

After dumping the task of moving her personal belongings to Yisi’s mansion onto her subjects, Adonis left her residence alone under the pretext of an “inspection.” Yisi, who was also leaving, ended up walking with her.

“As expected of a trade city. You hardly see anyone in rags on the streets,” Adonis remarked with a smile as they walked.

Yisi, beside her, shook her head. “Should I be lamenting the willfulness of an Emperor? Bradley knelt and begged you not to appear in your female form, but in the end, you just forcefully ordered him to make way.”

Just as Yisi said, Adonis was currently in public view as a noble girl with flowing golden hair, wearing a deep red dress. Thanks to this, and to avoid exposing her identity, Adonis didn’t have a single attendant behind her.

Turning to look at Yisi, Adonis couldn’t help but chuckle. “It’s not so bad to go out like this every once in a while. When I go out as the Emperor, ordinary people see the attendants behind me and are struck with awe. I end up not hearing the things I otherwise could. The empire is different from a kingdom. We have no nobles; regional administrators are appointed directly by the royal family. The entire empire is under the Emperor’s jurisdiction, and this creates some problems we never had in the past.”

“In a kingdom, when the king goes down to a noble’s territory, the noble won’t hide the slaves, vagrants, or homeless orphans. Even if the king sees them, he won’t revoke the noble’s title. After all, the fiefdom’s land no longer belongs to him. Even if the commoners are dissatisfied because they can’t get food and warmth, their anger is directed at their lord. No matter what happens, the king just needs to clean up the mess; the people’s anger doesn’t fall on him.”

Adonis paused at a stall, casually picked up a tropical fruit from a roadside stand, asked a bit about the business, and then waved goodbye to the stall owner with a smile. It was worth noting that because Adonis didn’t pay for anything, as she was leaving, the stall owner said in a rather rude tone, “Don’t touch the fruit if you’re not buying. Wasting my time with all these questions.”

“You’re not even a little angry.”

Her lovely face, so similar to Camilla’s, stiffened for an instant. Adonis averted her ruby-like eyes, looking embarrassed.

“Er… I didn’t bring any money. It’s only natural I’d get yelled at. No, it’s not that I didn’t bring money, but if I gave him a gem coin, he wouldn’t be able to make change, right?”

“…And here I thought you were a reliable person, Adonis.”

“Shh—” Adonis quickly turned, pressing a finger to her lips, her brows furrowed in anxiety. “I told you, you have to call me Chrysdor right now.”

This girl looks better in a dress than in her male clothes.

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As she leaned in close, Yisi couldn’t help but have this thought, faced with Adonis’s feminine features. But on second thought, Adonis and Camilla looked very similar. Camilla looked beautiful in a dress, so it was only natural Adonis did too.

“Yes, yes. Chrysdor.”

“Anyway, back to what I was saying. The same situation is completely different in the empire. The administrators aren’t nobles; they’re appointed by me. If they do a poor job, I can reassign them or even demote them to a commoner. A kingdom can’t do that; a king can’t just revoke a noble’s title.”

“But in return, to protect their official posts, when I go to their regions, they will try every means to hide the bad parts. Slaves, orphans, homeless, disabled, and elderly… They’ll also do things to make the territory look clean and the people prosperous. But that’s just on the surface. Once I leave, it all goes back to how it was. It’s not that I’m so benevolent I want everyone to live a better life. It’s that if I don’t manage them, they will eventually gather and rebel against me. Even if it doesn’t happen in my generation, my descendants will face the problem. So I have to use the identity of a commoner to inspect different places.”

“Eh…”

I thought just abolishing the nobility was amazing. I didn’t expect Adonis’s thinking to be this advanced.

In the eyes of a “person from the future” like herself, the principle that “water can both carry a boat and capsize it” was understood by any educated person and wasn’t remarkable. But one had to consider that this was another world, one that still had slavery and a generally backward way of thinking. For Adonis to have this much foresight was definitely progressive. Of course, what was more praiseworthy was that she actually put her ideas into practice. After all, everyone understands principles, but very few actually implement them. History has proven this time and again.

Yisi deliberately asked a question she already knew the answer to. “Then why not just send people to inspect the regions for you?”

Adonis gave a wry, heartfelt laugh. “It’s not that I haven’t thought of it. But what if the people I send are won over by the local administrators? Wouldn’t I become blind and deaf? If the people I send only show me what I want to see and hide the truth, then that kind of monarch is no different from a disabled person with their eyes covered and ears plugged. Ah, speaking of which, did you sense that that maid had ulterior motives? I was all prepared to use a magic item, but I didn’t expect you to subdue her the moment she moved.”

“No, my reflexes are just a bit faster than a normal person’s.” There was no way I could have predicted a level 3 maid with no magic would suddenly attack. “I remember the Tower of Alexia has the ability to warn its master about people with malicious intent. That maid was only a few steps away. You already knew she was a problem, didn’t you, Adonis?”

Surprised, Adonis raised an eyebrow. “You even know about that, Cardinal Yisi? It’s not a secret, but it’s not something people would know without having contact with a tower. I did feel her malice, but that wasn’t reason enough for me to have her detained. Most of the time, the tower’s warnings aren’t worth worrying about. It’s often just a maid having a bad day who also has to serve me, so she directs her anger at me. Even Bradley has ill intentions toward me sometimes. But in the end, nothing ever happens. The malice is gone the next day, or sometimes it dissipates in just a few minutes—”

Her words stopped abruptly. Adonis covered her slightly open mouth, her eyes wide with shock.

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“…I’ve said too much. I don’t know why, but I’m so talkative in front of you, Cardinal. It’s just like… just like having Viel in front of me. I have endless things to say, hehehe… I hope you’ll keep this a secret for me. I’ve never told Bradley or the others. Everyone has their bad days.”

Adonis’s words made Yisi’s heart skip a beat, but she quickly recovered and smiled. “It’s probably just because I look a lot like my sister. I’ll keep your secret, Ado—oh, right, Chrysdor.”

“I’m counting on you.”

They walked a while longer. After watching Adonis randomly grab passersby and ask them questions, Yisi suddenly asked, “But since you can use the Tower of Alexia to detect malice, you don’t really need to live at my house, do you? You don’t let maids in when you sleep, and when you’re awake, you just have to send away any maid who shows malice.” At this point, Yisi realized something. Her expression turned strange, and her tone became knowing. “It feels like… you’re just using the maid as an excuse to move into my house.”

“Ahaha… You found me out.”

Completely lacking in imperial dignity, Adonis—dressed in her deep red, flame-like dress—stuck her tongue out at Yisi. She then tilted her head and shot Yisi a wink.

It was true she was somewhat cute, but when superimposed on the gallant image of her with the low ponytail, it was incredibly… dissonant.

Yisi could perfectly imagine the devastating effect Adonis would have on women if she, in her male guise, winked like that. Handsome, far-sighted, and at the pinnacle of humanity… if she changed her hair to blue and cut it short, she’d almost match the “ideal master” Laxy used to write about in her diary. —Though Laxy hadn’t mentioned a blue-haired man in a very long time. Recently, her entries were all about Yisi’s sleeping habits. The annoying part was, Yisi couldn’t let on that she’d read it, so she couldn’t tell Laxy to stop staring at her face while she slept.

“What’s wrong? Are you mesmerized by me, Cardinal? I knew my male form could capture a girl’s heart, but I didn’t know my female form could make a girl stare, too. Ah… I just remembered, you like girls too, Cardinal. My apologies, but I only like Viel. I cannot accept your feelings. I have decided, in this life, I will marry no one but Viel.” She seemed to remember something, and she propped her chin on her index finger, smiling as she turned. Her golden, wavy hair and deep red skirt fanned out like a blooming rose. “—Or not marry, if Viel prefers.”

Uwah.

Not good. Is this… a confession, to my face?

Although Yisi knew Adonis didn’t realize she was Viel, hearing her say it with such a smiling, yet deadly serious, expression… even she, who had seen plenty of beautiful girls, couldn’t help but feel her heart tremble. Of course, this didn’t mean she liked Adonis. It was just that when you see something beautiful suddenly displayed before you, anyone would applaud. Not to mention Adonis in a dress was a total bombshell.

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The dress highlighted her incredibly slender waist, which made her chest seem all the more… impressive. From the side, her silhouette was an exaggerated curve, one that could rival even Laxy’s divinely-crafted body. Add in the wavy, cascading golden hair and translucent, jewel-like red eyes… the fact that she, a silver-haired girl, was walking next to her, was turning heads at an astonishing rate. Of course, most of the men were looking at Adonis’s chest. This girl was a perfect clothes horse.

Yisi waved her hand dismissively. “It’s true I like beautiful girls, as you said, Chrysdor, but I don’t fall for every single one I see. Besides, I like the gentle, older-sister type. You fit the ‘older sister’ tag, but you’re not gentle at all.”

“Oh? We’ve only spent a short time together. How do you know I’m not gentle? Anyone who meets me for the first time thinks I’m very approachable.”

“That’s because they imagined you’d be hard to approach. It’s only by comparison that you seem approachable. And the ‘older sister’ I admire isn’t just gentle; she’s also comforting, considerate, and empathetic. You don’t fit that at all, Chrysdor.”

“Mhm, mhm, I think I understand. You mean the type of older sister who would let you bury your head in her chest, right?” Adonis nodded, as if in complete understanding, and puffed out her chest. The valley visible in her deep red dress made Yisi politely avert her gaze. “See? You say it’s your favorite, but when you’re actually faced with it, you get all shy. By the way, this sounds less like an ‘older sister’ and more like a ‘mother’.”

“A motherly older sister is also very cute.”

Is she more open like this because she rarely appears in her female form?

Yisi felt the current Adonis was very different from her usual self. But on second thought, it made sense. Just like how Evelyn was dignified and serious in front of nuns and priests, but extremely casual in private. Yisi herself wouldn’t say overly casual things in a formal setting, either. Adonis was the same.

For some reason, Adonis suddenly started shaking her head and sighing.

“Haah, being held up by these demons… I wonder when I’ll be able to return to the capital. Cardinal Yisi, will Viel… be staying in the Duchy of Chloe?”

“I think she probably will.”

“Probably? Hmm. I don’t think I’ve ever asked about your relationship with Viel. Why did you choose different faiths, even though you’re sisters? And why does Viel have cat ears, a fox tail, and half-dragon wings? Even if she’s a hybrid, the bloodline should dilute, and the diluted traits shouldn’t manifest. Sss… Don’t tell me Viel is the Incarnation of Calamity? I heard from Gore, the one you negotiated with, about a legend of the Calamity. My imperial sister ended up in the Hels Kingdom because of the Calamity. If Viel is…”

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Is this my chance?

Although her goal was to have Adonis be rejected by “Viel” after making every preparation, if she could make her give up before that, it would be much better.

Yisi deliberately feigned a thoughtful, somber expression and nodded. “That’s why I joined the Ymir Church. My sister, to break the curse of the Calamity, chose to pray to the Gospel for a future. But the Gospel is just an object; it can’t be fully trusted. I thought that if I joined the Ymir Church, with its deep history, I might be able to find something out. That’s why we’re sisters, but joined different churches.”

“Ooh! A sister devoted to saving her sister! Cardinal Yisi, you are truly magnificent!”

Although Yisi knew Adonis wasn’t being sarcastic, the sight of her clasping her hands, her face filled with emotion, felt like mockery.

I’ll just pretend I didn’t see that.

Yisi continued. “Once a ‘Witch’ dies, she becomes a Calamity, uncontrollably destroying everything around her. A thousand years ago, there was a tragedy where a single Calamity destroyed an entire nation. Chrysdor, if you choose my sister, you must be prepared for that day. It won’t just be you; the entire Norta Empire might face annihilation.”

As she finished, Yisi looked up, staring seriously into Adonis’s eyes. Unfortunately, Adonis showed none of the hesitation she had hoped for. Instead, she answered with a dazzling smile that could break through any cloud.

“The premise for becoming a Calamity is death . So, as long as I don’t let Viel get hurt and protect her, it’ll be fine. I am prepared for that.”

So, getting her to back down is impossible.

Yisi understood this, deeply.