Chapter 10

Regardless of what the Empire had planned for the underground auction house, my mission was set from the start: obtain the Holy Maiden Jeanne, the forsaken hero of the Holy Kingdom.

A character who graces the cover of the 20th anniversary edition of Hero Age, and a clue to a story that will be the centerpiece of that edition. That alone was reason enough to get my hands on her.

I had no idea what was going to happen next, or how she was going to be the center of the story but now it was the time to find out.

"Uhhhh......."

The holy maiden opened her eyes, tossing and turning in her sleep.

The first thing she sees is the leader and second in command of the villainous group that had just committed mass murder at the auction house, standing side by side, looking down at her.

As soon as she sees us, her face freezes.

"Are you awake?"

"You, you...!"

Before she can speak, she realizes that her clothes have changed while she was asleep.

"What did I do to my body?"

"Nothing."

I said. For the record, it was Aria who changed her clothes.

Nonetheless, Jeanne remains alert, retreating to the corner and glaring at us.

"Aria."

"Yes, sir."

"Step aside for a moment."

"...Understood."

Aria stepped back, bowing her head in silence and now only me and Holy Maiden Jeanne were left in the room.

"What do you want me to do?"

"!"

I stretch out my arm as a pattern of magic flickers along the back of my hand, emitting a violet glow and an equally violet glow flickered and enveloped the holy maiden's body.

It does nothing to bind her or cause her pain. Nevertheless, she cannot fail to recognize its meaning.

"The crest of submission...!"

"As you see."

When an imprint is placed on a slave to magically bind them and make them obey, a mark that allows the owner to manipulate the imprint at will and prove that they are the slave's owner.

"We didn't put the imprint on you, we just found it there."

I told her.

"Your country has abandoned you."

Bluntly.

"The Holy King, Charles, sold you."

"The Holy King?"

The truth as it is.

"The Empire conspired with the Holy Kingdom to kidnap you and set you up as a commodity in the Empire's underground auctions, where you were to be sold as a slave to the highest echelons of the Empire."

"That can't be true...."

The Holy Maiden's name stammered, her voice trembling.

"It is true."

"You expect me to believe the words of the Black Snake!"

I mocked after hearing that.

"Do you really have to believe 'someone's word' to know?"

"...what?"

"Do you not have the mind to think for yourself and come to your own conclusions, not on someone else's word?"

"How dare you presume to know what I know?"

The holy maiden looked at me coldly.

"I know very well."

I replied, unconcerned.

"You are a slave."

"!"

"A slave who trusts the voice of the Goddess, who believes the words of the Holy King, who has spent her entire life submitting to the will of such a powerful man, who has never thought of anything on her own."

My story did not end there.

"So when you're betrayed by your king, kidnapped by the empire, and sold into slavery, you don't know what's going on, and you're suspicious of the one who saved you."

"...."

"Suspecting nothing when you should be suspecting everything."

At my words, the holy maiden bit her lip hard enough to make it bleed.

"I, I."

She was not a fool and can't help but know, even if she doesn't want to: she had been abandoned by all.

"That day, the Goddess must have told me-."

I chuckled at that, and asked.

"Where is she now?"

"What-?"

"The goddess."

"How dare you insult the name of the Goddess-!"

The holy maiden's voice turned cold at my words but I did not care.

"Where the hell was she and what was she doing when you were abandoned by your kingdom, sold to the Empire, and reduced to a libido-processing tool for disgusting swine who thought only of violating and defiling you?"

"─"

"Or do you see me as a goddess?"

I asked but the Holy Maiden did not answer. No, she was no longer the Holy Maiden (La Pucelle); she was merely an abandoned dog, out of use.

"I ask you again. What do you wish for?"

"...."

"Do you wish to continue to live a life of slavery, as you have done until now?"

"I, I."

Jeanne's voice trembles. It was a voice that wandered, lost in a delusion that even she could not recognize.

"-What I wish is-"

"The Holy Kingdom has abandoned you. They would not tolerate your existence if they knew the truth."

The Empire, too, would not want to reveal their hidden agenda.

The two most powerful nations on the continent do not wish her to survive. Even a fool could see the truth of what that meant.

"There is no place for you to go back to."

Right now, she has no place to go back to, no one to trust, no one to rely on.

"Then what the hell am I supposed to... do?"

The brown-haired country girl asked like a slave craving unsuspecting answers and blindness.

"Join us."

I replied.

"!"

Jeanne repeated, her voice trembling at the words.

"Are you telling me now to become a "black snake"?"

"As I said, I don't force anything."

I do not force anything.

"It's a decision you must think and make of your own volition."

At least it needed to feel that way to her.

"As it is, I can remove the imprint of submission from you and let you go."

"!"

"Is that what you wish me to do?"

At the words, Jeanne's eyes narrowed as if in anguish, but then she realized.

Now that she was free, there was no place she could go back to.

Rather, she realizes that the Black Snake in front of her is the only ark in which she can survive.

"Why do you do all this for me?"

"Because I have a use for you."

"...."

It wasn't a lie, she certainly had a use.

At the same time, her use is still unknown, even to me so I need to keep her with me and watch her.

Because with her around, the Empire and the Kingdom will do whatever it takes to get the Holy Maiden.

"Join us, or be free."

I said.

"The decision is yours."

Two decisions she could make with her will.

At those words, Jeanne bit her lip again, and when she did, blood trickled down.

*

A few days after the events of the Underground Auction House the entire continent had been shaken to its core after the residences of the highest echelons of the Imperial Capital were razed to the ground in the name of the Black Snake.

Stacking a stack of magazines on the table with endless coverage of the day's events, the elderly gentleman spoke up.

"It seems that in trying to kill two birds with one stone, we lost both."

"Well, at least you got one rabbit right, didn't you?"

The girl, her back to the pouring sunset, standing on the edge of adolescence and maturity, replied.

"You know that the cancerous lump in the country needs to be cut out whole."

"And in doing so, you've invited new tumors to grow."

"A poison must be subdued by a poison."

"Even so, that poison didn't have to be "Black Snake.""

"No, it had to be them."

The old gentleman said worriedly, stirring his black tea with a teaspoon.

"Don't take that name too lightly."

The girl, her back to the setting sun, asked indifferently.

"Why did the "Black Snake" let the Holy Maiden live instead of killing her?"

"They are untouchable, Your Majesty."

There is only one 'girl' in this country who can be called Your Majesty.

"As I've said many times, I could never condone your plan, and I still don't."

"Yes, this is all my fault."

The girl with her back to the setting sun nodded without denial.

"A 'plan' executed in my name."

Without turning away from anything in front of her.

"Everything that the sun shines on in this country is my mission, my responsibility."

As if the sun she has her back to is a responsibility she must bear.

"─For now, let's focus on dealing with the Holy Maiden according to our agreement with the Holy Kingdom."

"Please, this old man begs you. Never take the name of the "Black Snake" lightly, Your Majesty."

"I understand, Oswald."

In the presence of the old gentleman, who repeated the same words as if they were nails in his ears, the girl replied with a bitter smile.

"My dear little rabbit."

Oswald Rabbit.

The head of the Breton Empire's Secret Intelligence Service, the "Queen's Rabbit," as he was called, bowed his head toward the queen of the country he had served all his life, the girl who carried the sun.