"Hmmm… Hummm… Hmmm."

The corners of Alice’s lips were turned up in a bright arc as she moved through the halls of the Barong estate, humming quietly. She had spent some more time with Gabriel after they finished their conversation, applying some more ointment and medicine to his wounds so that he would recover faster. She told him to get some sleep before she left, but knowing him he was probably doing some minor exercises to wake up his muscles. That was just the kind of person he was, rarely a moment of rest when he was left alone.

"You’re looking quite happy, my Lady. Did things go well?"

Teresa was waiting for Alice not too far from her room, carrying a basket filled with a mixture of flowers and herbs in various stages of growth. When it came to matters relating to their position or shadier plans, Alice generally defaulted to working with Gabriel. But when it came to plans relating to Gabriel, Alice always defaulted to working with Teresa. As such, she was naturally in the loop about the current plans, it was one of the reasons she had prepared so many different medicines before they came here.

"You’ll no longer need to hide your main magic, but keep the poison under wraps for now. I’ll go out with three of mine, and we’ll do three of his, leaving the ‘useless’ one out for now."

Alice practically skipped about as she spoke. She was expecting Gabriel to bring out his water and strength magic at best, one of them at worst. But no, he even agreed to bring out his darkness magic, leaving only his demon magic hidden. When she thought back to the reflection she saw she couldn’t help but feel a light tingling in her spine. His eyes were a bit murky and distant, but he was looking straight at the her in the reflection. There was fire in his eyes, fire that burned for her.

He wasn’t a very passionate and emotional man, at least not visibly, he had never been. Calm, cold, calculative. Step by step, making sure that each one was perfect. But now, slowly but surely, she was coaxing emotions out of him. Desperation, sadness, anger… Slowly but surely she was turning that self-perceived dagger into a proper human.

"The three of yours, I imagine that it’s the ones introduced by the Crown Princess?"

Teresa was quick-witted. She had two magic affinities, wood and poison. If Alice was telling her to keep poison hidden for now while revealing three of her own it was likely that they weren’t yet ready to reveal most of their cards, much less all of them. Thus, it was most likely that the magic she would bring out would be ones that were already known thanks to more powerful people.

"Correct. So you can stop making medicines for a bit and return to focusing on the nerve toxins. I’ll meet with Arioch and set up the situation needed to show it all off."

The smile never left Alice’s mouth as she sauntered down the hallway, Teresa following her halfway. Looking at the smile, Teresa could feel just how much Gabriel had rubbed off on their young Lady. Such a vibrant smile as she spoke of nerve toxins, such carefree joy as she spoke of a situation most people would cower from just hearing about. Really, the people that picked her up were just insane.

———

"You’re smiling."

Arioch spoke in a rather matter-of-factly manner when Alice entered his study. Her entire face was lit up by her smile, she resembled a girl prancing amidst the flowers as she just enjoyed her life.

"Is it wrong to smile when you are happy?"

Alice didn’t retract her smile as she strode forward, a bit more dignified now than when she pranced through the hallways. Arioch was sensible so he signalled the old white-haired butler at his side, the hunched over man bowing politely before leaving the room.

"No, but it just so happens that whenever I’ve seen you smile, some unexpected things quickly followed. So, hit me, what are you cooking up this time?"

Alice wore a pleasant expression most of the time, barring the sparring match, but the times she smiled as brightly as this were few and far in-between. The first time ended with the violent sparring match, the second time ended with the death of six spies, and the third time ended with public humiliation by Francis De Vritara.

Alice dragged over a chair and plopped down in front of the desk Arioch was sitting at, the light coming from the window reflecting in her eyes.

"Your monthly expedition into the northern wastes, do it two weeks from now."

The Barong family was the guardian of the north, they stopped the demons from flowing down into the rest of the empire. And one of the ways they did so was periodic expeditions into the frozen lands to cull the demons. The last one was already four weeks ago so the next one should be within the next few days, but that timing just wasn’t right.

"…The contract?"

Arioch didn’t straight up deny it or question her about why she requested what she did. No, first he had to ascertain what he could gain from this transaction. After all, he and Alice weren’t so close that they could just freely request favours from each other. So it was a transaction, a give and take.

"You’ve been plagued by bandits from the west recently, haven’t you? They strike farms and caravans along the edge of your territory, and its only gotten worse since the Crown Princess introduced crops for you, right? But every time you go to subdue them they vanish into the western duchy and you lose all track of them, right?"

Alice still smiled as she spoke, her middle and index tapping the wooden desk as they moved across it. Each of her words was accompanied by a soft tap, like a panther slowly locking down its prey. Alice made sure that she came prepared, she had more than enough material to make at least four deals with the Barong duchy. And this, this was the material for the second deal.

"The leader of those ‘bandits’, or leaders rather, one is the illegitimate daughter of Sorin’s third son and the other is the nephew of the Vritara duke’s niece. The two duchies are working together to disrupt your farming capabilities so that you have to keep buying their crops."

Sorin of the west, Barong of the north, Woodime of the east, and Vritara of the south, the four great families of the Earhart empire. On the surface they all seemed to be close allies, but in truth, Woodime worked with Barong, and Vritara worked with Sorin. The Barong duchy was a great source of income for the Vritara family, and partly the Sorin family, so how could they possibly let them just acquire the capability to farm their own food?

Even if they couldn’t stop it entirely, they had to at least slow it down as much as they could. It was just a few bandit groups now, but there would be more in the future.

"I don’t imagine that this information is the price, no?"

Arioch’s eyes finally looked serious. The duke was currently in the east to work with the Woodime family and the duchess had gone to the west to talk with the Sorin family about handling the bandits. If the Sorin family really was related to the attacks, then it would be a fruitless meeting, they’d probably keep the duchess there for as long as possible just to make any attacks easier.

Alice had handed out the information too easily so he knew that it wouldn’t be her bargaining chip in this deal. No, looking at those crimson eyes he felt that he could already tell what she would use to bargain.

"We’ll take care of them for you. Every. Last. One. Of. Them. Then you can farm in peace and prepare for a long winter, right?"

She still smiled as she spoke, soft tapping enunciating every word. Looking at her sitting there, smiling while speaking like that, he couldn’t help but think about her knight. Ah, so the reason he was like that was because of her, her nature must have rubbed off on him.

"Why do you want to join the expedition?"

Once again, he didn’t go straight to giving an answer, finally asking the question most would have had when she first made her request. She actually only asked to delay it for another two weeks, but he could read between the lines so it was clear what she really wanted.

"What do you think of legends, Arioch?"

Contrary to what Arioch expected, Alice returned his question with one of her own, one without he least bit of context. Well, as his thoughts started to move, he made a few reasonable guesses, but Alice didn’t give him time to voice any of them.

"I think they all stem from truth. Twisted by word of mouth, eroded by time, exaggerated by humans. But in the end, all legends come from a kernel of truth. Even the fact that the Vritara family has dragon blood is nothing more than a legend to most. But it’s still true."

Commoners were just commoners after all, most of them would never even meet a demon in their entire lives. To them, things like dragons and the like were basically just legends. But they were still true. Even if people didn’t believe them to be, they were true, such was the nature of truth. With that, Arioch could figure out exactly which legend she was referring to, there was really only one here in the north that could be mentioned in the same breath as the Vritara’s bloodline legend.

"You’re looking for that… thing out there? Do you really think it exists?"

A legend older than the Barong, a legend older than the Earhart empire, a legend as old as the frozen wastes. If that thing really had a basis in the truth…

"It must, for my knight needs it."

Alice insisted without hesitation. Gabriel had Akasha so he needed that thing, she would do everything she could to ensure that it fell into his hands.

"So that’s why you wanted the covenant…"

Arioch finally understood why Alice had asked for his family’s inheritance during their first deal, it was to prepare for this moment. But even if she had the covenant… would one even be able to tame that thing if it really existed? And before they even spoke about it’s possibly existence, there was one other fact that had to be kept in mind.

"It’s dangerous. More dangerous than the sparring matches earlier. There are actual demons out there, monsters that won’t have the mercy my knights-in-training had. Caine may be following with his Unique Magic, but that is no guarantee for anyone of us. If you join the expedition, he may die. And you may too if you follow."

The expeditions existed to cull demons, they would encounter monsters sooner rather than later. It wasn’t rare for knights-in-training to die during their first outing. Caine would tag along and his Unique Magic would help, but it wasn’t omnipotent so it was still incredibly dangerous.

Unique Magic, as the name suggested, was something unique. But because it was unique, getting it was no easy feat. Well, basically impossible actually. The few who survived going through a World Fissure, those who came here from another world, they were the ones blessed with a Unique Magic. The magic would be passed on to the descendants of the user, but it would be a weaker form and it would generally only last for three generations before it became too diluted to maintain itself.

"Arioch, can I let you in on a little secret?"

Alice leaned forward, almost whispering as she smiled. It was a fair warning, and if she was Marion or Francis then he would probably never allow her to go. After all, if a direct descendant of the duke perished during an expedition, even with a contract, it could be grounds to publicly break all relations. But she was just Alice, the illegitimate child, the hated one, so they wouldn’t care even if she did die. But she wouldn’t.

"I’m strong, Arioch. I have strong spirits, but even without them I’m strong. Those knights-in-training from earlier? Even if you allowed them to use everything they had, magic, spirits, equipment, and sent all of them at me at once, I wouldn’t even have to take a step to kill all of them. I wouldn’t even break a sweat while doing so. My knight, Gabriel, he would often tell me that I was unparallelled."

She still remembered that night like it was yesterday. Sweet and calming words, the crackle of lightning as he revealed the true world to her. Unparallelled, there wouldn’t be anyone in the empire that could rival her. She always tried to make those words come true so she trained without end, and she really had become strong. But unparallelled? Oh no, she would probably never become that as long as he was around.

"But you know what? My dear little knight… If he was allowed to actually use everything… You could quadruple the number of knights-in-training and send them all at him at once and he’d still be able to make them all vanish as if they never existed."

Yes. The knight. She named him Gabriel after an angel she read about, and only later did she learn that Gabriel was the angel who rang in the end of days. And her Gabriel, the only true Gabriel, oh how he had grown to fit that name. And it was for her, all for her.

"We are strong, Arioch. I. My protector. My friend. We are strong, so we won’t die."

Her hand slapped the table as she spoke, no, declared to the world. A contract was pinned between her palm and the table, crimson eyes alight with boundless confidence and madness.