—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
‘… No, they’re not exactly the same. If you glance briefly, you might mistake them for sisters or a mother and daughter.’
At first, I thought the woman who had walked out of the pillar of light had an appearance that was a spitting image of Aurora, but there were clear differences.
The woman’s eyes were sharper, her hair was longer, her impression was colder, she was taller, and her figure was even more superior.
Yes, she looked exactly like an adult version of Aurora.
‘Since they’re relatives anyway… Even if they resemble each other that much, there shouldn’t be any problem.’
Considering the fact that both their appearances came from the NPC appearance retouching mod, there was a high possibility that Aurora’s modeling was created by taking the empress’s modeling, making it slightly more immature, and using it for Aurora.
It wasn’t that they resembled each other because they were relatives, but rather, they were set to resemble each other because they were relatives. Although it might seem similar at a glance, it was clearly different.
“I greet the Sun of the Empire.”
“I greet the Sun of the Empire.”
I followed Aurora’s words and actions perceptively. In the game, when you start a conversation, the protagonist character would automatically assume a posture or do nothing and move on, but that wouldn’t be the case here.
“Raise your head.”
‘Even the voice is similar.’
The voice resembled Aurora’s as well, but this time, it gave the impression that the other person was more mature.
I raised my head. Only after properly looking from the front, not just stealing glances from the corner of my eye, could I take in her appearance.
Jet-black hair, as dark as the abyss, cascaded down her back and ended below her buttocks. It was black hair that felt like darkness that could even swallow debts.
The bangs were neatly arranged based on the parting, revealing the forehead above her left eye. The golden eyes, more golden than gold itself, held no emotions.
The all-black uniform was embroidered with the empress’s crest, and the deeply plunging neckline exposed her ample breasts. A lingerie bra was vaguely visible between the uniform and bare skin.
The bra was also black.
The collar and material of the uniform were extremely stiff, but the black garter belt hugging her thighs and the skirt clinging tightly to her hips seemed incredibly soft and squishy.
The skirt of the uniform was extremely short. Not only did it cling tightly to her thighs and hips, revealing the lines of her body, but it also seemed like it would show the underwear inside with just a slight change in angle.
No, perhaps it was already showing the black lingerie underwear inside, but I might not have recognized it due to the angle.
The emotionless golden eyes turned towards Aurora. The identical golden eyes likewise turned towards the empress.
“You must have had a hard time being tormented by the one who was my older brother, Aurora.”
“That’s right. You know it well, Aunt Cecilia.”
“You had the ambition to take that position someday. It seems you have succeeded.”
“I didn’t succeed with my own strength. If I had been alone, I would have surely succumbed to that thing instead. From beginning to end, it was the strength of a certain person, and I merely opened my mouth and accepted what fell into it.”
For a moment, I heard a conversation that made me doubt my ears, but I decided to let it slide. Regardless of the content, it was pointless for an outsider to interfere when relatives were exchanging greetings.
Still, for their first conversation to be about having a hard time being tormented by the lord. Did she know about it and just leave it alone?
“I received a letter. It said that idiotic thing tried to summon a demon, so you killed it?”
“We couldn’t kill it. To kill a demon, we need a spell or weapon imbued with divinity, but we have neither.”
“It’s destined to die soon anyway, so it doesn’t matter whether it’s alive or dead now. Is the incident exactly as described in the letter?”
“Yes. There are no differences.”
“Hmm, no differences, you say…”
With her arms crossed under her chest, emphasizing her breasts, Cecilia tapped her forearm with her fingers, lost in thought.
Perhaps due to the influence of the mods, whenever they crossed their arms, they all emphasized their breasts like that. Not only Lizé, who had breasts almost the size of her own head, but even Erica, whose size was far from Lizé’s.
Suddenly, her head turned towards me.
As soon as the emotionless golden eyes faced me, goosebumps rose all over my back. Cold sweat formed, and my entire body felt chilly.
‘Wow, this is no joke.’
Even in the game, there were testimonies from NPCs saying that when directly facing the empress, it felt like their entire body was being stripped naked and the essence of their innermost thoughts was being pierced through.
I had brushed it off, thinking that there was no way for the player to actually experience that feeling, but now that I was facing her in reality, I felt in my bones that it was absolutely not an exaggeration or a lie.
It really felt like all my innermost thoughts were being seen through. An unknown chill and ominous feeling spread throughout my body from my spine.
“You’re the new knight she mentioned?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“She said you helped Aurora take the position of lord.”
“No matter how much I struggled beside her, if her own abilities weren’t outstanding, how could she have succeeded?”
Cecilia closed her mouth again and stared at me intently. Cold sweat formed on my back. At this rate, I wasn’t sure if I could properly react to the events that would unfold in the middle.
“She also said you were the one who discovered the book inhabited by a demon.”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“The letter stated that after defeating an armored horse and an armored knight riding it, a book inhabited by a demon appeared. Is that also true?”
“As Your Majesty said, that is also true.”
I wasn’t exactly lying.
I had defeated the Headless Armored Cavalier, obtained the key to unseal the dungeon from its drop, unsealed the dungeon, entered it, and obtained the book. The intermediate steps were just slightly omitted.
“She said you took that book to the one who was my older brother to discuss how to handle it.”
“Yes.”
“But that thing couldn’t resist its own greed and recklessly tried to summon the demon, causing this incident.”
“That’s right.”
As this absurd questioning continued, I felt a slight sense of unease.
There were no lines in the game where the player was interrogated about what had happened so far while going through the contents of the letter one by one. The empress would just enter the basement right away, as if even wasting time talking was bothersome.
Cecilia took one step at a time, very slowly walking and narrowing the distance between us. With each step that narrowed the distance, the pressure squeezing my heart seemed to intensify as well.
Even though she was definitely stepping on the grass, it felt like I could hear the thudding sound of footsteps.
The distance that had been slowly narrowing in sync with her steps finally stopped after the space between the two of us had shrunk to about four or five steps.
“How long has it been since you joined the knighthood?”
“About 2 weeks.”
“2 weeks, 2 weeks…”
Cecilia tapped her forearm again, lost in thought. Then, she looked at me with an even more inorganic and cold gaze.
“Then, are you saying that even after such a long time had passed, you failed to realize that the one who was my older brother was nothing more than trash?”
‘Damn it.’
I cursed quietly under my breath as I watched Cecilia directly ask the question Iris had pointed out. It was a situation I had never experienced in the game.
The empress would just go straight to the basement, deal with the demon, briefly ask how the incident had unfolded, lightly trigger an event with the protagonist, retrieve the lord’s corpse, and return to the Imperial Palace.
If I hadn’t thought ahead and prepared for a situation like this, I would have definitely shown a flustered expression on my face. What would have happened after that was obvious.
I glanced at Aurora. Aurora also had a noticeably flustered expression.
‘Aurora is fine. She’s standing behind anyway, so her expression can’t be seen. The important one is me. If I show any signs of being flustered or shaken, it’s over.’
The game had already begun, and it couldn’t be reversed. If that was the case, whether it turned out good or bad, I had to push through to the end.
“I failed to realize it.”
“Failed to realize it?”
Those eyes narrowed. I felt like my heart would not only pound but even jump out of my mouth.
“Yes. The Knight Commanders cursed that lord as aㅡ”
“Call it ‘that thing.'”
“Pardon?”
“I told you to refer to it as ‘that thing.’ According to imperial law, it is no longer a human being. Why are you addressing a non-human with a title that only humans can hold?”
Come to think of it, I remembered that Cecilia had also consistently referred to that lord as “the one who was my older brother.” I hurriedly bowed my head and changed my words.
“I apologize, Your Majesty. It was a slip of the tongue. I knew long ago that the Knight Commanders cursed that thing as a bastard who hadn’t been properly raised, but it was precisely because of that that I thought I should discuss it with that thing. Given that bastard’s personality, if we had tried to handle the demon-related matter internally within the knighthood without saying much… I thought it might use that as an excuse to find fault with us.”
“Hmm, I see. You thought it might find fault with you…”
Cecilia trailed off vaguely. Then, she took another step forward. Now the distance between Cecilia and me was narrowed to less than an arm’s length.
On the other side, Aurora could be seen fidgeting and pacing back and forth, not knowing what to do. She probably hadn’t expected Cecilia to interrogate this deeply.
That was the same for me. Although I wasn’t showing it outwardly, I was breaking out in a cold sweat inwardly.
Aurora had thought it would be glossed over because she had directly met Cecilia before, and I had thought it would be glossed over because I had knowledge from the game.
Both of us had a certain level of confidence with some basis, but at this point, we had no choice but to admit that we were wrong.
“Is this the kind of fault you’re talking about?”
‘…!’
As soon as I saw the mass of light forming in Cecilia’s hand, I raised the blood-stained sword. There wasn’t even time to draw the sword from its sheath. The moment I tried to do that, it would already be too late.
The key here was to react as quickly as possible, using any means necessary. I brought the blood-stained sword, sheath and all, to the side of my neck. Immediately, a powerful impact struck.
—Clang!!!!!!
“Aunt?!”
“Oh?”
I heard Aurora’s voice, close to a scream of shock, and at the same time, I heard Cecilia’s voice, slightly exclaiming as if she had never imagined I would be able to react.
My body was sent flying straight back.
I stabbed the sword into the ground to support my body, but I was still pushed back a considerable distance. Only after distancing myself about twenty steps from my original position was I able to barely stop.
Shaking my tingling hands, I relaxed my posture. The trace of trying to reduce the speed by stabbing the sword was deeply engraved in a straight line on the garden soil. All the surrounding grass was overturned.
‘Wow, I almost couldn’t react in time.’
Phew, I let out a sigh of relief inwardly. Surprised by Cecilia’s actions that greatly differed from my expectations, I had momentarily panicked and almost died without being able to properly react.
If I had been just a little slower in blocking the sword, or if I had tried to block it by drawing the sword instead of using the sheath, my neck would have been sliced off.
“It seems the achievements you claim to have accomplished are not empty boasts.”
It was a voice that sounded somewhat satisfied. I raised my head to face Cecilia.
In Cecilia’s right hand, as she slightly lifted the corners of her mouth while looking at me, was a holy sword emitting a bright and sacred light as radiant as the sun in the sky.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Thx for chapter
Now he knows not believe game knowledge