Chapter 54: Sylvia’s Guardian

Imperial Palace Audience Chamber.

A place where the Emperor personally meets with his subjects or foreign envoys.

“This is something the former Emperor entrusted to me.”

Vitalianus placed a wooden box on the table and gently pushed it toward Sylvia.

Sylvia opened the lid of the box in front of her.

“This is……”

Inside, she discovered the Imperial Seal.

The former Emperor had entrusted the Imperial Seal to the Sword Saint.

Even abolishing the position of Imperial Seal Minister for this purpose.

“What could have been the reason?”

Sylvia somehow felt she understood why.

“I understand you are coordinating the day of the coronation ceremony.”

“That’s right.”

“I will assist so that preparations go smoothly. And please, speak more humbly.”

“You’re not reigning yet. I will do so after the coronation.”

A quiet exchange of words.

The atmosphere was distinctly different from when she had met the two previous princes.

“Originally, there would have been much to discuss, but all my questions were answered on the way here.”

Vitalianus made a movement to wrap up the conversation.

“Won’t you have some more tea before you go?”

“No. I just want to rest a bit today.”

“Understood.”

The two rose from their seats.

A very brief and concise meeting.

The Sword Saint didn’t ask Sylvia a single thing.

“And…”

He took out a golden medal he had been carefully holding close to his chest and neatly placed it beside the wooden box.

An octagonal medal engraved with a roaring lion.

The only one of its kind on the continent, a symbol of honor granted to only one person.

The Guardian Knight of the Emperor medal.

To be the Emperor’s Guardian Knight was to be the Empire’s Guardian Knight.

The shield that protects the Empire and the sharpest sword that symbolizes it.

Vitalianus had set it down.

A medal he had held to his chest his entire life.

A symbol that weighed heavily on his heart but also filled it with pride.

Only now had he put it down.

His heart felt lighter.

But just as empty and hollow.

Sylvia looked at the Guardian Knight’s medal.

The Imperial Seal symbolizing the Emperor and the medal symbolizing the Guardian Knight.

She quietly gazed at the medal placed beside the seal.

Her gaze fixed on it as she spoke evenly, without any rise or fall in tone.

“You may keep this. Sword Saint Vitalianus Mahel. If not you, then who else could be the Emperor’s Guardian Knight?”

Surprisingly, it was Vitalianus who was taken aback by those words.

Although none of it showed on his face.

Then, as if realizing something, he nodded slightly.

“Please, take my life soon. This medal is no longer worthy of me.”

“If the Sword Saint is not worthy, then who is?”

“There must be someone. Surely.”

At that firm voice, Sylvia finally looked at the Sword Saint.

“…There is one person, but he cares little for such honor or the power that comes with it. He might refuse.”

“If truly there is no one else, then please recommend him again at that time.”

In the Sword Saint’s mind, however,

“That won’t happen, though.”

That heavy medal would never return to him.

***

Sylvia’s face, seen again after a long time, was even more haggard.

Although she had returned from the brink of death, her complexion was worse than before.

“How dare you. To defile me so.”

Sylvia’s expression was cold and resolute, filled with a commanding dignity as she spoke harshly.

Seeing her like that, Hio clapped his hands and gave a thumbs up.

“Oh, you really look like an emperor now.”

Only then did Sylvia soften her expression and smile wryly.

“Really? I’ve been practicing secretly a lot.”

She was trying not to show it in front of Hio.

Concealing the dark circles from her sleepless nights with makeup, she forced a brighter smile.

“By the way, what happened? You don’t look well.”

Instead, Sylvia asked Hio.

He sighed with a sullen expression.

“Nothing. It’s because of some useless brute. Don’t worry about it.”

A Death Knight, large but useless, had stubbornly summoned himself back and hid.

Shaking his head, Hio asked Sylvia, “How about you? Do the nobles in the capital listen to you?”

Although Sylvia had led the Eastern Alliance army, wiped out the leadership of the First and Second Princes, and absorbed their forces, that wasn’t enough to lead the Empire.

Ultimately, she had to win over the nobles and fill the vacant positions with her own people…

“No way.”

They wouldn’t follow Sylvia’s words.

“Of course, they pledge loyalty outwardly. She is the last legitimate heir and the coronation is near.”

But their true intentions were different.

Sylvia had no real power base in the capital.

Her only card was the Eastern Alliance nobles, but to those who had long held power in the capital, the Eastern nobles were nothing more than country bumpkins.

So they swore loyalty outwardly while harboring other intentions inwardly.

They waited for the powerless Emperor to be crowned so they could expand their own power.

How to fill their own bellies more.

How to seize even more power.

“Who would sincerely pledge loyalty to me now?”

“Who would genuinely follow the princess who had been pushed aside by the two princes?”

Everyone would only seek to use her.

“So, I just changed everything.”

Sylvia’s eyes glistened with a dark gray shade as she said with a sly smile.

Her raised lips looked both cold and sorrowful.

“I’m done being used, ignored, and hidden away.”

So she had changed everything.

All to make everyone truly loyal to her.

To wipe out the dirty schemes and follow the new Emperor with their whole souls.

Sylvia quietly gazed down at the Imperial Seal inside the wooden box.

“To live a lifetime as Emperor without anyone to trust… is just too cruel.”

She gathered all the nobles and asked their souls directly.

Under the new Emperor, how would they lead the Empire?

The answer was disgraceful.

The war had left many vacancies, and the amount to be devoured overflowed.

Politics?

The Empire’s future?

‘Who had time for that?’

Only thoughts of how to grow their power.

How to seize even more profits.

“That’s why I just changed everything.”

Sylvia smiled bitterly.

“How about that? Scary, isn’t it?”

Hio sighed deeply.

He opened his Trait – Ghost’s Eye and looked at Sylvia.

“Yeah… really scary. So that’s why you had quite a lot of Killing Intent built up.”

“Hehe… Oh, and about this.”

Sylvia pointed to the medal placed beside the Imperial Seal.

“Want it, Hio?”

He knew what it was.

The Guardian Knight’s medal.

A symbol of the sword and shield protecting the Empire.

A medal that demands respect from every citizen regardless of rank.

In the game, Vitalianus had held it until the very moment of his death.

“Who offers a Guardian Knight’s medal like that?”

Hio chuckled, and Sylvia laughed awkwardly.

“By the way, aren’t you going to have another bodyguard beside you now?”

“No. Is that really necessary? Everyone in the palace will now follow me sincerely.”

“…Hearing that is a bit scary.”

“I don’t think such loyalty has any real meaning anyway.”

“Then I know a good knight I can introduce you to.”

“A knight? You, Hio?”

“Yeah. But he’s a bit shy.”

Hio summoned his magic to call forth the Death Knight.

“You’ve seen him a few times before, haven’t you?”

The black aura of the Death Knight surged forth.

His large frame gave off an intimidating presence.

Sylvia’s eyes went wide at the sudden appearance of the bulky figure, but she soon nodded.

She did remember seeing him several times on the battlefield.

After all, he wasn’t just any summoned creature summoned by Hio.

Sylvia was about to decline since she neither needed nor wanted a bodyguard, but—

“Ah, why? You ran away on your own, so I summoned myself on my own. What’s the problem?”

“Where do you get off looking at your master like that? Oh, you don’t have eyes? Sorry.”

The way Hio bantered with him was strangely familiar.

“His name… Ter? Teddy? Hmm… Ter sounds better. Ter it is. Why? The name’s just nice.”

Covered entirely in black, with a gloomy soul, his awkward hand gestures and slightly hesitant steps were oddly familiar.

Sylvia froze in place.

“Go over there. Don’t cling to me. Or are you embarrassed being all black? That’s a pretty dangerous race, you know.”

Racist thoughts…

She didn’t consciously remember every action.

She just knew because she had someone who had been by her side her entire life.

Someone she had searched for but never found her soul.

Without looking into the soul, even if the soul changed or the appearance changed, she could never not recognize him.

‘How… how could she have treated her knight so badly until the very end?’

“Hio.”

Sylvia smiled brightly at the two who were still bickering.

“I need a bodyguard.”

Even when death was near, she had been able to smile because he was there beside her.

“Will you be my knight?”

***

She smiled warmly toward the knight and reached out her hand.

***

“His name… Ter? Teddy? Hmm… Ter sounds better. Ter it is.”

At those words, the black knight snapped his head toward Hio, but Hio just shrugged.

Though his expression was unreadable, their energy connection allowed him to roughly sense his intentions and emotions.

The emotion suddenly thrown before Sylvia was complicated.

Confusion mixed with a bit of worry.

And embarrassment.

Embarrassment over having become so dark that he could no longer stand beside the noble Emperor.

Embarrassment over the weakness that had turned him into such a being.

Would Sylvia be displeased with him? A faint unease.

But then—

“I need a bodyguard.”

Sylvia’s radiant smile.

A sparkle hanging faintly at the corner of her eyes.

“Will you be my knight?”

And seeing the outstretched hand, the knight’s tangled feelings vanished as if washed away.

His surprised look disappeared without a trace, and without hesitation, he stepped forward.

Toward the hand stretched out to him, he walked as if it were only natural.

He knelt before her, taking her pure white hand in his pitch-black one, bowing his head.

The feeling Sylvia sensed from her knight was only one thing.

Sincere loyalty.

For her, if it was what Sylvia desired, he would do anything without hesitation.

An eternal vow of allegiance that would not waver even in death.

Sylvia grasped the knight’s black hand tightly.

Her hand was much smaller, but she held the cold hand gently as she rose.

“I want to see the garden.”

Hio nodded with a smile at Sylvia, who suddenly stood up.

In the end, she would like it so much.

Thinking she really was a foolish knight, as someone once said.

They walked side by side out of the audience chamber toward the garden.

Sylvia’s hand was wrapped around the knight’s large fingers.

“You know, Ter.”

Sylvia’s call went unanswered.

Because he couldn’t speak.

Yet something was conveyed.

Eyes directed at her.

A lowered head as if listening.

Movements that showed he was paying attention.

“I had so much I wanted to say, but now only one thing comes to mind.”

Still no reply.

But that didn’t matter.

He wasn’t a blunt knight to begin with.

As always, she spoke, and he listened.

That was enough.

“Thank you. For being by my side.”

Sylvia smiled brighter than ever.

“I’ll keep thanking you, from now on too.”

The Emperor and her knight.

A girl who commands souls and a knight who refuses death.

Everyone they passed bowed deeply and made way for them.

“Thank you, Teordo.”

There was nothing to stop them on the way to the garden.

The Guardian Knight’s medal and the Imperial Seal lay side by side.

Looking at them, Hio smiled.

They really did belong side by side.

I knew it would be like this!

***

Just as he was happily smiling after a long time, Furnel’s voice bubbling from deep within disturbed him.

“What again? Why?”

“Why? What do you mean why! Why don’t you bring up the Imperial Palace Library story?”

“…Huh?”

Furnel sounded frustrated, pounding his chest hollowly.

Of course, there was no chest, so it was all noise made with his mouth.

He had urged repeatedly to bring it up…

“Oh dear! Stop the nonsense and just talk about the library! Aren’t you young? Already losing your mind?”

“Alright, alright. I’ll do it today…”

Like a ghost completely dried up of emotion.

“First… to extract the Killing Intent accumulated in Sylvia’s body.”

He planned to summon the Death God.

Because they had to remove the energy Sylvia had built up while seizing the palace and also thoroughly study the skills.

During the summoning and for twelve hours afterward, he would suffer a brutal penalty of being unable to use any other skills.

What exactly was the effect that warranted such a terrible penalty?

Hio’s expectations were high because a powerful penalty always came with power to match.

“Now… Death God.”

[Skill – ‘Death God Summon’ activated.]

As the skill activated, the room darkened rapidly.

The air filled with Deathly Energy.

Behind Hio, the Death God appeared.

A ghost who governs death.

And…

A blood-red scythe stopped right before Hio’s neck.

Killing Intent thickened, ready to pierce his throat at any moment.

From the dense darkness, red eyes flashed as they gazed down at Hio.

Only then did the skill’s description come to mind.

The final line that had been overlooked until now.

“Be cautious. The Death God’s scythe shows no mercy even to the summoner.”