Chapter 17

“What? No, that little thing keeps—from earlier!”

“Baron, why do you keep doing that from earlier?”

Ailien spoke gravely again, as if to ask when she had ever played around. Baron Molton could only gape in disbelief.

Is that thing not listening to a word I say? Just as Ailien was about to scold him once more, the door opened at a timely moment and servants carrying silver trays filed in.

A subtle, refreshing floral fragrance filled the reception room in an instant.

Without a doubt, everyone in this reception room was smelling this fragrance for the first time.

Those who had survived the Human-Demon War each had their aftereffects. The common one was headaches. A mild throb had now become the normal state.

There was nothing they had not tried to reach this point. Every physician on the continent had sought out every herb said to be good for headaches and made them into medicine, and there was no one gathered here who had not taken them.

They used to joke that they had probably eaten every blade of grass on the continent, weeds included.

“This fragrance…….”

“Lili picked the flowers!”

When someone among those captivated by the scent spoke, Ailien cried out, thoroughly excited.

When she was told that the flowers she had painstakingly picked would suddenly be steeped in hot water, she had been so aggrieved that tears had even pricked at her eyes, but the fragrance only seemed to grow stronger.

“Ha!”

Baron Molton, who was still standing, scoffed openly.

“Are you telling us to eat weeds now, when no one even knows where the child picked them?”

“Ah. It’s that one again.”

Ailien and Baron Molton glared at each other. Baron Molton was remarkable for fighting so earnestly with a child, but Ailien, standing her ground without flinching, was even more astonishing.

“How can one eat something of such unknown roots!”

“Then just don’t eat it!”

“What?”

“But does Baron always figure out that—what was it—roots?—before eating? Really, Baron, the people around you must be tired…….”

Ailien, who had indirectly said you really do tire people out, closed her eyes softly and shook her head side to side.

“Enough, everyone have some tea. I guarantee it.”

Calisto spoke in a low but forceful voice. The retainers, who dared not defy their lord’s words, lifted their teacups one by one.

Of course, the new faction would have drunk the tea even if Calisto had not personally urged them.

“The fragrance is truly wonderful.”

“It is a scent I am smelling for the first time…….”

Because the floral tea gave off a fragrance that could not be ignored.

Even Calisto wore a faint smile. Those captivated by that smile began to bring their cups to their lips one by one. One sip became two, and everyone focused only on what was in their hands.

Ailien, now seemingly bored, was crossing and swinging her short legs.

“Good grief. How far must we indulge a child’s game of house.”

“Baron Molton.”

Kaius, who had not said a word since entering the reception room, opened his mouth with dignity.

“Do not insult the game of house.”

Kaius spoke in a serious voice. Playing house with Ailien had been far more exhausting than expected, but there was a strange pleasure that warmed a corner of his chest.

It seemed it was the first time he had ever played while listening to clear laughter.

Even if not often, he felt he could match her rhythm now and then while holding that small, soft hand.

‘They have all gone mad.’

Baron Molton, at a loss for words, shook his head in inward shock. And inwardly, he resolved once more. That little brat must be sent out at once.

That thing was clearly a harbinger of ruin.

He turned his head to seek agreement from the person beside him, and before his eyes unfolded an unbelievable sight.

Because the expressions of the new faction, silently savoring the floral tea, all looked…….

utterly enraptured.

“Your Grace!”

Baron Kirein sprang to his feet as if he could not bear it. Then he dropped to his knees on the floor. From his bowed head came the sound of quiet sobbing.

Following him, the new faction retainers all fell to their knees.

Ailien, watching this scene from the front, opened her eyes wide. Why are they suddenly sitting on the floor? She tilted her head and looked at Calisto, but he only wore a subtle smile.

“How, how can this be.”

He simply could not believe it. The moment the teacup was emptied, the chronic headaches that had tormented them for so long washed away like a lie. For the first time since the war ended, they felt as though they had returned to being ‘ordinary people.’

On battlefields, facing demons and magical beasts, what they had to fight most fiercely was not only the enemy. The demonic energy that relentlessly burrowed into their bodies was the true terror. Once poisoned by demonic energy, one lost reason, grew vicious, and in the end became a demon. The demonic energy that clung so stubbornly would not come off with any ordinary purification.

The fear that one might one day lose one’s will and become a monster gnawed at the knights’ souls. Even the Holy See was powerless. What lost its light first after the war began was religion. Rather than lofty doctrine, it was Zeronias, who descended directly onto the battlefield and bled alongside them, who was their only god.

And yet the flowers that small child had given had erased that fear.

That suffering they had carried even after the war ended.

“Yes.”

Calisto said quietly.

“All of it is thanks to Ailien.”

The reason Calisto had been truly flustered when Ailien had stuffed the flowers into his mouth earlier was not because of rudeness.

It was because of the energy that spread through his whole body the moment the petals touched him.

A warm heat spread from head to toe, melting his body languidly, yet it made his mind unnaturally clear.

Yes, that was Zeronias’s power.

‘There are so many astonishing things in this world.’

‘Is that something to say while idly picking flowers?’

In those days when endless slaughter left no room in his heart, he could not understand Marilyn, who could never pass by a flower field without stopping.

Whenever he did, Marilyn would look back and scoff.

‘One day, might not something beautiful come to save you as well?’

‘Enough. If there is anyone who needs saving right now, it would be me.’

How old was I then? Calisto had forgotten even how to count his age since joining the war. It must have been around seventeen, when he had grown to meet Marilyn at eye level. That was why he could more easily picture her expression in that memory.

Eyes mixed with every kind of guilt, regret, and sorrow.

‘Do not worry, dear child. I will prepare many things for you.’

‘You have already done so much for me.’

‘Even from far away, I will send them like gifts.’

It was a conversation he had avoided because he could not bear even to think of Marilyn being far away, and yet that tender voice kept tormenting his mind.

The gift she had said she prepared……

Calisto’s gaze drifted slowly toward Ailien.