We all loaded up into one carriage and arrived at our destination. “That’s one huge mansion. Does it belong to Nemophila’s family?” Stepping out of the carriage, we were greeted by a gatekeeper and a massive gate. Once we were confirmed as expected guests, the gate loudly creaked open.
As we strolled through the vast front yard, the princess finally answered my question. “No. If I recall correctly, this is...”
“In terms you may understand, this mansion belongs to the one in charge of the Shaman of the Heavenly Garden’s Forbidden City,” said Orlaya, finishing her sister’s sentence.
“Oh, I get it. Since Nemophila solved one of their headaches, they owe her.” As a result, they had provided her with a place she could stay and hold meetings. We were welcomed inside the mansion and guided by a maid. Although she was cute, it obviously wasn’t the time to hit on her. We stopped in front of a room and the maid proceeded to knock on the door. Nemophila’s voice responded from within, and the maid opened the door for us.
It was a massive room. The door to the balcony was open, allowing a gentle light and refreshing breeze to fill the room. The curtains and Nemophila’s sky-blue hair waved in the breeze. She was sitting in a chair with tea utensils and snacks laid out before her. Her face looked as beautiful and hollow as ever.
“I’ve been waiting for you. Oh, Black is here as well.”
“Is that going to be a problem?” Orlaya asked.
“No. It’s nice to see you again, Lady Orlaya.”
“I wish I could say the same.” Considering they had both been members of the Colors while at the academy, it made sense that they’d met before.
“My, have I done something to offend you?”
“That’s what I’m here to find out.”
“Is that so?” Nemophila ordered the maid to prepare some tea, then asked us to sit down. However, there weren’t enough chairs. Since Nemophila had only expected two guests, that meant Myra and I were left standing. Holy knights were bodyguards to begin with, so I didn’t have a problem with that. The blue-haired asshole was standing beside the door we entered through, which I only mentioned because he was also a holy knight.
“Please leave,” Nemophila ordered without so much as looking at him.
“But, Princess...” he protested.
“I would prefer it if you didn’t make me repeat myself.”
“Pardon me. I will patrol the estate.” The blue-haired holy knight bowed deeply and left the room.
“For one of the Twelve Corpses, you have him well trained,” Orlaya said sarcastically, a hint of surprise mixed in. It was her first time seeing him, so it was to be expected.
“No, he was like that from the start.” Nemophila gave an emotionless smile.
“From the start?” A question escaped the princess’s lips, and Nemophila nodded in response.
“Once our tea is ready, I will explain everything from beginning to end.” After that, the maid placed the tea on the table. We turned down her offer for additional chairs, and once only the relevant parties remained in the room, the conversation began in earnest.
“There are many people who think curions can be utilized, my family included.” That made sense. Though it was imperfect immortality, a curion could regenerate any damage as long as they had their head. I had theorized before that they could be used as test subjects for magic and weapons. There were probably people who had come up with all sorts of uses for them. “The Heavenly Swords possessed by the Twelve Saints are one of those uses.”
“Heavenly Swords?” I tilted my head in confusion. Neither the princess nor Myra seemed to know of them either. Orlaya’s expression, however, remained unchanged.
“I’m not surprised you haven’t heard of them,” said Nemophila. “Only a select few know of them. Contrary to what many believe, the Embodiment of the Spirit that curions possess is not limited to the Twelve Corpses.” Infection, regeneration, and unique abilities: these three features were possessed by all curions. Although I had never encountered any, there were some curions who possessed unique abilities of their own—somewhere between normal curions without special abilities and the Twelve Corpses.
“I’m aware of that,” the princess replied.
“The Heavenly Swords are the royal family’s greatest treasure, and only twelve are said to exist. When one is used to defeat a curion, it steals their ability. That sounds quite similar to what the Twelve Corpses do, doesn’t it?” So the holy knights in the Twelve Saints got new swords with special powers. “That said, the Heavenly Swords are imperfect. The abilities the swords hold become unusable after ten to fifty years, and they are unable to hold more than one ability at once.”
So they can’t maintain the powers they steal for long, and they’re limited to only one. The duration of the abilities aside, it was clear they were different from the Twelve Corpses’ ability to steal each other’s powers. I possessed both Bone Sword Generation and Pestilent Fire, which meant I could use multiple powers at once. That aside, it was definitely similar. It was probably—
“That technology was created by the witch, wasn’t it?” the princess asked in a strained voice, practically forcing it out. Technology concerning the undead was certainly suspicious.
“It’s possible. I don’t know the specifics, but it seems likely that the Eternal Witch has interfered with our world on several occasions.” That sounded plausible. I had to imagine that on top of utilizing the imperfect immortality of curions to its fullest extent, she had developed an even better version of the revival spell that had been used on me and the blue-haired asshole.
That meant she could appear in any era, with any appearance she wanted. She could have blended in with the early members of the exorcism agency when it had first formed, or she could have killed members of the nobility or royal family and taken their places. It was impossible to hunt for her based on physical features.