A Transmigrator's Privilege

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Reed left the dungeon while receiving a warm send-off from Anaxia and the other demons.

Anaxia reigned supreme as the number one figure in the dungeon once more and stood on a high platform to scan the humans with arrogant eyes.

“I am Duke Anaxia Pelhemstein. Human knights, do you think you can stand against me with your paltry strength?”

As she revealed her status, the hands of the knights holding the sword trembled and the shaking tip of the blade represented their feelings.

Anaxia dug her teeth into that.

“I’ll let you live. Only the Prince and Princess will remain, the rest of you will return to the mortal world and tell the story. Anaxia Pelhemstein has kidnapped your royalty to celebrate her succession to the ducal throne, so if you want to save them, send a lot of warriors.”

After much hemming and hawing, the humans seemed to have come to a decision.

The Prince and his knights and the Princess and her handmaidens bade each other an emotional farewell.

“Go now and tell the kingdom of my danger.”

“I understand, Prince. I will come to your rescue.”

The Prince feigned solemnity but was nervous, and the knights feigned loyalty but were eager to get out of the dungeon in a hurry.

In comparison, the Princess and her handmaids seemed to have a closer relationship.

“Your Royal Highness Princess Celestide, we will stay with you.”

“You’re talking nonsense.”

“I can’t leave Your Highness alone.”

“Stop. This is not the place to waste time. Bianca, you take everyone out. It’s an order.”

“As you wish, Your Highness.”

The maid who had just answered caught Anaxia’s attention.

A noble young lady with long bluish-black hair and pretty demonic-like red eyes. Anaxia’s pupils slit vertically as she took in her appearance.

“Wait a minute, you there.”

“……”

Bianca only glanced at her without answering and that defiance made Anaxia’s heart skip a beat.

“What’s your name?”

“Bianca Gillette.”

“Yes, Bianca. I kind of like you.”

“……!”

Suddenly, a full-length mirror was summoned to Anaxia’s side, and four chains stretched out from it fastening around Bianca’s wrists and ankles.

Restrained like the other demon slaves, Bianca was dragged from her feet and placed in front of Anaxia.

“Ugh……”

Anaxia forced Bianca’s head up.

“I feel like I’m seeing the Succubus Queen in her old glory. Since this Anaxia liked you, I’ll make you a good offer. Be my handmaid.”

“……”

“I will turn you into a succubus and give you eternal life. You’ll have the honor of serving me for all eternity. How would you like that?”

“I decline.”

“Oh, really?”

The chains dragged Bianca’s body into the mirror and she was forced to sit in the chair inside the space. Bianca tapped the inside of the mirror seemingly saying something, but her sounds did not reach the outside world.

“You’ll change your mind if you’re stuck there for a week. I’m excited to imagine you selling your soul for a sip of water or a piece of bread.”

Anaxia admired Bianca as if she were stuffed in the full-length mirror, with a flushed face.

“This would make a nice decoration, you two, hang this somewhere I can see.”

✠

‘This is why I wanted to deal with Anaxia in advance.’

Anaxia, the Mirror Princess whom we met in the thousand-year ice castle was only an S-class at the time, but now she’s an SS-class and is running wild under Reed’s wings.

A sigh of regret naturally came out.

“Your Eminence?”

“It’s nothing. Go on, Lord Clovis.”

Presently, I have returned to the Vatican to attend an emergency meeting.

Before Marquis Romina Lecandro visited the Principality of Hispenril, she apparently stopped by the Holy Country of Elpenheim first.

Clovis summarized the situation in the Kingdom for me.

“……Following the incident, the Royal Family of Vinchester is in chaos. It was said that the only one who escaped disaster was Third Prince Ligares, who did not join the trip to the villa. I don’t know if Your Eminence knows, but Third Prince Ligares is known to be a very hostile person to our Church of Elfenheim.”

I know.

Third Prince Ligares, who has a serious brother complex, regards the Church as the enemy of his older brother, The Second Prince.

If he were to ascend to the throne, it would be a bloodbath for the Kingdom and the Holy Country. Therefore, the Church of Elfenheim has absolutely zero desire to see the Third Prince succeed to the throne.

And because of that, is a matter of course that they will cooperate in this subjugation.

“According to the surviving escort knights, the Dungeon Sink was no incident. The boss, Anaxia, kidnapped two royalties to celebrate her succession to the ducal throne and taunted us to send heroes. This is truly questionable. How on earth did she specify the timing to cause a dungeon sync?…”

Of course, that is because of Reed’s power, who has become ‘Newborn Chaos and Evil’.

“It appears that Vinchester was initially planning to solve this on its own. It’s said that Marquis Romina Lecandro entered the dungeon with a large army, but unfortunately, she had to retreat without even seeing Anaxia’s face.”

“I suppose so.”

Anaxia’s SS-class dungeon, ‘The Fairy Land of the Dead’, was immensely vast.

We had to go through cemeteries, monster swamps, thorny groves, and labyrinthine gardens to reach the Castle of Mirrors.

I continued.

“They probably couldn’t even see the castle. But since they’ve probably been to the thornbush forest, scouting that route shouldn’t be a problem.”

Cardinal Decal, who was attending the meeting, pushed up his monocle in admiration.

“Your Eminence, there is nothing you don’t know.”

“Please understand this comes from me being a High Saint.”

“We are doing so.”

“Yes, thank you.”

The Kingdom’s punitive force decided to retreat in front of the thornbush forest surrounding the Mirror Castle.

Although it was said to be a forest, in reality, it was no different from a living barrier. One that was not easily accessible to ranged dealers.

With the presence of Marquis Lekandro, an Aura Master, if one had the will, one could easily penetrate through it. However, the first wave of subjugators at the time must have suffered a severe loss of power as they wandered through the cemetery and the monster swamp.

Moreover, even if they did break through the barrier, it was unclear how many more gateways they would have to go through to reach the Boss.

A prudent commander would have chosen to retreat and be prepared, rather than rush in at random.

“They would want to save up strength until before entering the Mirror Castle, so I’m sure they’ve requested firepower from the nations that will make it easier to break through.”

I could roughly guess the contents of the request. Since ancient times, the opposite of wood is fire.

“It is as Your Eminence said. What the kingdom requested from our Church was at least five bishop-level people who knew how to use Holy Fire. They would have asked the Magic Republic of Ragneif to send 6th Circle Pyro-Mancer wizards, which are of the same level.”

Five people? From my point of view, this is a waste of manpower.

But I kept my true feelings to myself and asked the real questions.

“What about healers? Didn’t they ask for it?”

“It appears that the Diocese of Wilhelon is already providing sufficient support for healers.”

“Good. The reinforcement troops sent from The Vatican only need to meet the firepower requirements.”

“That’s right, Your Eminence.”

This concludes the basic explanation. Now it was time to hear what the Council of Cardinals had to say about the matter.

Decal, with a gracious impression, stepped forward again.

“We hope that Your Eminence would participate in this subjugation war. There are three main reasons.”

“Not two, but three?”

“From what you say, it seems like you understand two of them.”

I nodded, wanting to move the conversation along quickly.

“The first reason would be that the Third Prince’s succession to the throne would be unfavorable to the kingdom, and the second reason would be that the kingdom has promised a huge reward.”

“Very wise indeed, but are you sure you don’t know the third reason, which is the most important.”

“Hm, what would it be……”

“Think about it carefully.”

“Well, I don’t know… … .”

“You have to think about it.”

The eyes of Cardinal Decal and Cardinal Vesalius narrowed. Those were definitely testing eyes.

[‘The Critic who adjusts the balance’ whispers that this is like a test of common sense for the Church to weed out heretics.]

I tensed slightly, wondering if it was real and my necklace rang.

Aha! Competitive spirit!

Thank goodness Agnes is here. I rattled off a third reason like a guess.

“Now that I think about it, the ‘Chimera Researcher’ from the Republic is probably going to go, right?”

Chimera researcher, Morifis Marcelion.

As an 8th Circle Archmage, he is one of the six most powerful humans on the continent.

‘Well, since the Magic Tower Lord died at the hands of Reed, it should be said that he’s one of the five strongest.’

With that mention, Vesalius and Decal became slightly excited and spoke up.

“I guess that’s true given the circumstances. That mad wizard has been ignoring us for so long, we need to knock him off his perch.”

“Now is the time to break that wizard’s arrogance.”

“This isn’t just a simple subjugation war, it’s a crusade, and Your Eminence should defeat the boss in front of those conceited republicans. Just like you did with Hellkaion.”

“Ah, yes……”

I never thought I’d get such heartfelt support from these two Cardinals.

The Church of Elpenheim had been suffering from a chronic shortage of talent due to the decline in divine power.

It was so bad that Eleon O’Drek, who barely scratched the surface at the top level of Aura Expert just a few months ago, had been touted as the First Swordsman of the Church.

And even that tiny little hope was now dead.

In the midst of all this, now that I, The Chosen One, appeared, the church was eager to avenge the sorrow of having long been ignored.

After calming down his excitement, Decal cleared his throat and said.

“Well, anyway, it’s only fitting that you should join, since everyone will be sending their best and brightest.”

Vesalius also helped.

“That’s right. The Kingdom’s Marquis Lekandro, the Republic’s Mad Wizard, and the Principality’s Prince Hispenril will be there. We also have to match the standards.”

Here I remembered something to say.

“Oh, speaking of which, I have something to tell you about the Principality.”

“What is it, Your Eminence?”

“Prince Hispenril will not participate in the subjugation this time.”

“What? Are you saying that the Principality refused to aid the Kingdom?”

The two Cardinals widened their eyes, fearing that this would lead to diplomatic friction.

I corrected the misunderstanding.

“No, no. Since he’s the King of a nation, it didn’t seem right for him to move himself, so he decided to send his granddaughter in his instead.”

“Well, that’s…….undignified.”

“That granddaughter is me.”

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