Chapter 106 : The Saboteur

Rein Everflame.

The eldest son of the Everflame family, one of the four ducal houses.

Currently, he was the closest candidate to inherit the Everflame lineage.

Although his elder sister, Alice, stood above him, she was a woman, and thus the traditional right of succession fell to him.

“When are they going to get here…?”

He muttered impatiently, waiting for someone with a restless demeanor.

At that moment, he heard the soft sound of something landing beside him.

They’re here!

The scowling expression he wore moments ago was instantly replaced by visible relief. 

The arrival of what he’d been waiting for brightened his mood.

“Finally! Why are you so late, you call yourselves knights? What, did you crawl here? Do you know how much time I’ve wasted waiting in this dump?”

He sneered sharply before speaking with a peculiar sense of anticipation.

“So, did you bring her…”

Huh?

But his words trailed off, unfinished, as he took in the scene before him.

Two knights lay on the snowy ground, wrapped tightly in chains.

“What… what the hell is this…?”

“Oh my~ Who might you be talking about when you say ‘her’?”

A voice sounded from behind him, startling Rein. 

He quickly turned his head.

“Could it be… you were talking about me?”

His jaw dropped open.

“You… how are you—?!”

Rein couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

After the humiliating incident that day, he had prepared meticulously to punish the woman who dared insult him.

Rein devised a plan to exact his revenge:

First, he would kidnap the child accompanying her and hide them. Then, he would ensure the Saintess descended into panic over the missing child.

At that point, he would start feeding her small pieces of information about the child’s location, forcing her to rely on him.

By toying with her in this way, he intended to gradually break her spirit until she was begging at his feet.

To execute this plan, he made extensive preparations. Since the task was challenging, he needed skilled individuals to carry it out. Unsurprisingly, no one volunteered.

Thus, he turned to the Shadows of his family.

Convincing them to comply wasn’t easy. He even had to invoke his authority as the heir apparent—a privilege he hadn’t used in years.

With such thorough preparations, he was confident of success. He was certain he could crush her arrogance.

Yet, the current situation was entirely beyond his expectations.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

The Saintess grinned at him wickedly. Rein found himself speechless.

He couldn’t believe what was happening.

How… how is she unharmed? I sent two knights after her! Isn’t the Saintess supposed to be vulnerable in combat?

It was widely known that the hero provided the strength while the Saintess handled strategy and support. Even Rein had based his plan on this premise.

After all, while the hero might have been a different story, the Saintess couldn’t possibly handle knights on her own.

And yet, the sight of the Saintess standing victorious while his knights lay in chains shattered that belief.

“You know you’ve done wrong, don’t you?”

Her question snapped Rein back to reality.

As unbelievable as the situation was, he had to regain control somehow.

Feigning composure, he hid his emotions and replied, “Hah! I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Hmm?”

The Saintess tilted her head quizzically at his response. Then, with a casual step, she placed her foot on one of the fallen knights and said,

“These gentlemen said you ordered them.”

“And why should I believe that? Do you have any proof?”

“Hmmm… true, I don’t.”

Her response sounded almost childish, but sometimes playing dumb was the best course of action.

Rein smirked.

“How absurd. You come barging in here and spouting nonsense—”

“Oh, it’s fine,” she interrupted.

Rein frowned. The audacity of this woman to cut him off mid-sentence! But she didn’t seem to care and simply continued smiling.

“Fine? What’s fine—”

“If there’s no evidence, I can just create some!”

Again, she interrupted him. This time, she clasped her hands together with a grin.

Furious at her insolence, Rein opened his mouth to reprimand her.

But then, she started walking toward him.

And he fell silent.

What the hell?

Something was wrong.

The moment she took a step, chills ran down his spine.

Cold sweat dripped down his cheek, and his back felt icy.

His body froze.

It all pointed to one thing—

He was afraid of her.

Why… why am I scared?

Desperate to distance himself, he forced his trembling legs to move and began stepping backward. 

He didn’t know why, but he felt like he had to get away from her.

But his retreat was short-lived—he slipped and fell on the snow.

An alarm bell rang in his mind.

Something is very, very wrong.

“D-don’t come any closer!”

Rein shouted desperately. But his cries didn’t stop the Saintess from advancing toward him.

Frantic, he raised his hand and began chanting, gathering magic into a forming sigil.

A magic circle.

“Damn it!”

He knew well what would happen if he used magic against her—it wouldn’t end quietly. The situation would spiral far beyond his control.

His rational mind screamed at him to stop, to abandon the spell.

Yet, the magic circle continued to form.

His instincts told him otherwise.

But—

“[Dispel].”

The Saintess’s single word shattered the magic circle mercilessly.

Rein stared at the fragments of his magic, hopelessly scattered.

“Is that it?”

The Saintess now stood before him, the broken magic circle no longer in sight. She had finally closed the distance.

Rein couldn’t reply.

She still wore a smile, but it didn’t feel like she was smiling at all. 

Her expression was infinitely kind, yet the atmosphere around her was oppressively ominous.

His gaze trembled with fear.

Is she really the Saintess? Or… something else entirely?

The person before him was completely at odds with the image of the Saintess he thought he knew.

He realized something then.

I’ve been a fool.

To think he could bring someone like her to her knees…

Rein admitted it to himself: he had underestimated her. 

There was a reason why people called her a representative of the divine.

They survived the Demon King for a reason…

What do I do?

He panicked, racking his brain for a way out.

Then, the light shifted.

A dazzling halo began to radiate from behind the Saintess, the sun casting its brilliance over her shoulders. 

Rein squinted against the blinding light.

He could no longer see her face clearly. 

She seemed less like a woman and more like a judge ready to deliver his sentence.

“Punishment is in order, don’t you think?”

Her voice was cold, sharp—nothing like the warm, kind tone he was used to.

Rein wanted to shake his head, to deny it.

But then, a deafening roar erupted behind her.

—GRRRROOOAAAARRRR!

A massive shadow loomed over them, swallowing up the light.

Darkness engulfed them briefly before fading as the light returned.

Rein opened his eyes cautiously, looking around. 

Behind the Saintess, a colossal creature had landed with a thunderous crash.

A massive being with giant wings, razor-sharp teeth, and slitted pupils—

A dragon.

‘Oh no…’

Rein felt his body go limp. His head grew heavy, his vision blurred, and warmth spread in a mortifying way. 

His legs trembled as his consciousness began to fade.

The last thing he saw was the Saintess standing with her back to him, uttering chilling words:

“What kind of foolish creature dares interrupt when adults are teaching a lesson?”

I asked with irritation in my voice.

“I was just about to start having fun…!”

And yet, something had interrupted it perfectly.

What sort of being would dare? Was this creature sent as reinforcements by his family? Or was it just a monster? 

Either way, I wasn’t in the mood to take this lightly.

Quickly, I moved to shield Rein behind me while glaring at the unwelcome guest.

“A wyvern…”

The interruption to my divine lesson came in the form of a dragon.

Or rather, to be precise—a wyvern. Not the brightest of creatures, often used as mounts.

“This damn lizard dares…”

Even if an intelligent creature interrupted my lesson, I’d be livid. But a dumb one? Unforgivable.

“Wow, a dragon! A real dragon!”

Rein looked delighted, but I was too annoyed to care. No, this made me angrier.

This thing needed to be punished.

Raising my hand, I prepared to cast a spell.

But when I noticed something unusual, I hesitated and said something else instead.

“Huh?”

A confused voice escaped me as my gaze locked onto the wyvern’s back.

The reason was simple—someone was riding it.

It wasn’t clinging on haphazardly either. 

The creature was equipped with a saddle and reins, clearly indicating its rider was a professional.

“Wait, don’t tell me…”

A single hypothesis formed in my mind.

If my memory served me correctly, there was only one group in this world who used dragons as mounts.

The Dragon Knights of the First Duke, Redros.

And now, someone was riding a wyvern right before my eyes.

Which meant…

“What are you doing here?”

I had run into someone from my homeland in the most unexpected place.