Nemophila smiled gently, yet the princess’s face was twisted with confusion. “You would surrender your holy knight to another family?” she asked.
Nemophila smiled even harder, tilting her head slightly. “Bringing salvation to curions is a saint’s duty, is it not?”
“Hold on. Explain why you want Albert to kill him,” Orlaya interjected before her sister could get emotional.
“It’s simple. I decided to make use of it because I believed doing so would let me kill as many curions as possible. However, with Sir Albert here, it no longer serves any purpose.”
Oh boy. She’s hopeless. On the surface, Nemophila seemed kinda like me. But deep down, she was a fundamentally different case. Wanting revenge was fine—I had survived to get revenge on the witch, after all. But she was falling apart. It wasn’t that she was prepared to do whatever it took—she was just running wild. The death of her holy knight had broken her mentally, and now she was trying to take as many enemies with her as she could.
That was why she had brought one of the Twelve Corpses outside and used it to take on other curions. Now that she had found a more useful member of the Twelve Corpses, she was simply discarding her old tool. Getting rid of a dangerous tool might seem logical, but if she had truly been in her right mind, she wouldn’t have brought someone so dangerous into the outside world to begin with.
The princess had decided that I could be a potential partner for a variety of reasons, including Robert’s notes, the fact that I had killed all the other curions and driven back saints without killing them, and her personal conversations with me that determined whether I had any humanity left. Nemophila, however, hadn’t done that. She had freed the blue-haired asshole knowing full well that he wasn’t sane. She had willfully started off with the wrong move. She couldn’t be trusted.
“It currently possesses two abilities—the ability to create and control plants, Golden Garden, and the ability to cause earthquakes and landslides, Tremor Transmission. If he kills it, Sir Albert will obtain those two abilities.”
“What is it you seek in return?” asked Orlaya. Although she had likely also recognized Nemophila’s mental state, she seemed more interested in gathering information in case a dialogue could be established.
“I was hoping our families could share authority over Sir Albert.” She was throwing away an unwieldy tool that could break at any moment and replacing it with a new tool that seemed relatively stable. Because said tool belonged to Astrantia, she was proposing that they share it. “Personally, I would be satisfied simply killing curions, but my family originally intended to make use of its power. Yet aside from its role as a knight, it has proven utterly useless. Even when I commanded it as its princess to use Golden Garden, it simply froze up and wouldn’t activate it.”
Our abilities were controlled by our wills. If he wouldn’t use it even when ordered to, there was probably something weighing on the blue-haired holy knight’s mind. Even I might be reluctant if I was asked to use Hector’s flames to light a bonfire. There was a big difference between being capable of using an ability and deciding to actually use it. The people who sought to utilize curions as tools probably didn’t account for the fact that undead were once living people with wills of their own. They seemed to have forgotten the simple fact that humans didn’t act on logic alone.
“In order to continue killing curions in the future, my family must benefit as well. That is why we want to consolidate all the powers in Sir Albert and share the benefits between us. Fortunately, Sir Albert seems to have established a good relationship with Lady Astrantia. I believe there is room for us to cooperate.” Nemophila continued without waiting for us to respond. “I believe it goes without saying the potential profits Golden Garden could provide. Of course, we promise to reward you as well, Sir Albert. My family will do everything in their power to arrange a beautiful woman to your liking. What do you say?”
“Enough of this!” The princess slammed the table and stood up, rocking all the tea utensils on the table. Her chair fell over behind her.
“What’s the matter, Lady Astrantia?” Nemophila smiled at Astrantia without so much as raising an eyebrow.
“What do you think holy knights are?! You treat your own holy knight like a tool, then suggest sharing someone else’s?! I won’t stand for this discourtesy!”
“I think it would be a mutually beneficial—”
“Did you treat your first holy knight that way?” For the first time, Nemophila’s smile disappeared. “Would you be able to frivolously suggest sharing the holy knight who gave their life for you?”
Though her smile briefly crumbled, it was plastered back on Nemophila’s face a moment later. “I see now that my words were quite rude. I underestimated how important Sir Albert is to you.” As far as Nemophila was concerned, the Twelve Corpses were just tools for killing curions. It was probably hard for her to wrap her head around our relationship. “If I may ask, what do you think of the proposal, Sir Albert?” She turned her gaze toward me.
“I’ve already decided whose side I will die at. All the beautiful women in the world couldn’t change that.” Truth be told, my mouth was watering at the idea of being able to meet a new beauty, but it didn’t compare to the princess. I had only just recently vowed to die with her.
“Lady Astrantia means that much to you?”
“She does.”
“I suppose I’ve been rejected, then.” Nemophila gave a faint smile, not showing even a hint of disappointment.