Loen, near the offshore waters outside Pritz Harbor.
In the dead of night, a massive sailing warship rested silently on the sea's surface.
The sea breeze stirred, raising waves, yet the ship maintained an oddly perfect balance, completely still despite the swells.
The giant vessel was empty. Only one person and one cat stood on deck, bathing in moonlight to celebrate the new year.
"This is your first time seeing the ocean, isn't it? How do you like it?"
The Mysterious Queen, Bernadette Gustav, rested her chin on her hand as she addressed the black cat across from her.
"..."
Luna remained quiet without responding, simply meeting her gaze with those deep blue eyes.
"All right, don't worry so much. Your master will definitely survive."
Bernadette smiled silently, picking up a piece of bright red fish meat from the plate on the table beside her.
"Come here, want to try a Sonia Sea specialty? Fresh-cut flying fish..."
"Hurk!"
Luna's eyes suddenly went wide, her mouth opening as she made a strange noise.
"Hm? Sorry, don't you like it?"
Bernadette jumped in surprise, quickly putting the fish down, but the black cat's retching motion didn't stop.
Its back arched high, its belly convulsing rhythmically, periodically making "hurk, hurk" sounds.
The Queen calmed down slightly.
She noticed Luna's appearance looked like she was... coughing up a hairball?
"Splat."
Just then, the black cat finally expelled something from its mouth. It was a piece of bright red flesh and blood.
"Sizzle..."
As the sea breeze hit that piece of meat, it suddenly began to expand and stretch violently!
"Hm?"
Surprise flashed through Bernadette's spirited eyes as she watched the flesh writhe and rapidly grow.
In the blink of an eye, it went from a tiny piece of meat to normal human size, and this human body radiated powerful spirituality!
However, this mangled, bloody human form struggled violently, rolling all over the ground, as if enduring unbearable torment.
"Thud!"
A section of pale white rib was forcibly squeezed out from inside his body, falling onto the deck.
"Clang!"
A bizarre picture frame also dropped from his back, landing face-up.
"Pat, pat."
Two tarot cards. One depicted a devil, the other a chariot!
"Ahhh..."
But even after expelling several spirituality-laden foreign objects, this skinned human form continued to howl in agony, filled with madness.
Then, across the surface of his blood-soaked body, a rust-like deep crimson color suddenly emerged!
This crimson instantly covered his entire body, making him emanate a scent of iron and blood!
"Stop!"
The Queen's face turned severe. She waved her hand to send the black cat aside while summoning invisible servants to open the treasury doors.
She didn't know what Silas had provoked now, but judging solely from the erosion intensity and rank of this thing, it was definitely no ordinary entity!
"Creak..."
The treasury doors burst open.
She retrieved a pale mask with a metallic sheen from inside and placed it on her face.
This mask only had holes at the eye positions, making Bernadette's figure appear noble and cold, yet lifeless at the same time.
The masked Queen looked coldly down at the mangled body on the ground.
"Hehe, little girl, do you want to kill him along with me?"
A bloody mouth split open on the surface of that body, chuckling softly.
"He just barely survived a life-or-death crisis. He absolutely can't withstand..."
Before the mouth could finish speaking, the bloody human form used his hand to cover it.
"Do it!"
He forced a word through gritted teeth, enduring the pain.
The Queen didn't hesitate.
The gaze from deep in her eyes was incomparably cold and pale.
In an instant, the rust color on the other's body was suppressed.
But equally, terrible death descended. Large swaths of flesh on his body lost vitality and peeled away.
"Whoosh..."
The illusory sound of ocean tides rose from within his body, driving out Medici's soul.
The latter reluctantly retreated, shrinking back into the Shepherd enclosure within.
"Huff, huff..."
The mangled human form panted, his body slowly recovering. He grew skin and hair.
It turned out he wasn't a monster at all, but a handsome young man with black hair.
Silas formed blood and flesh into a red robe that covered his body, then slowly stood up.
He looked around. The starry sky stretched vast, the crimson moon hung high, and the deep, tranquil sea reflected the stars like a mirror.
The enormous sailing warship floated on the ocean, yet appeared as small as a speck of dust...
One moment, he'd been struggling in the palace ruins and sea of blood. The next moment, he was already here at sea amid magnificent scenery.
For a moment, it felt like a lifetime had passed.
"No wonder you asked me to look after your cat. So this was your contingency plan."
The Queen had already put away the mask and was sizing him up. "So, did you avenge those people?"
"...Hardly revenge.
Even fighting with everything I had, all I managed to do was bombard the palace with artillery, barely reach that shitty king's feet, and splash some of my blood on him."
Silas fell silent for a moment before answering.
"Bombard the palace? Attack the king?"
Surprise flashed in the Queen's eyes. "You actually went that far?"
But Silas only shook his head.
This time, he'd clearly felt his own weakness.
He still needed to keep getting stronger.
"Meow~"
Just then, Luna ran over, rubbing against his calf and looking up at him while meowing continuously.
Silas bent down to scoop her up. She obediently stayed in his arms without moving, only staring at him intently, as if afraid he might disappear again.
"What was that thing?"
"My cat, Luna."
"No, I mean the existence inside your body."
"Oh, that."
Silas stroked the black cat's smooth head, answering casually. "It's the evil spirit formed after the deaths of three angels from the Hunter pathway: Medici, Sauron, and Einhorn."
"???"
The Queen spent some effort finally sorting out matters related to the evil spirit.
"According to some hidden history I know, the Medici family were great nobles of the Solomon Empire during the Fourth Epoch.
Their family ancestor was an angel, with origins possibly traceable to even earlier eras..."
She said cautiously, "One day, this Medici ancestor disappeared. After that, the Blood Emperor Tudor became a true god at the cost of going half-mad..."
Light gleamed in the Queen's eyes, as if piercing through time to gaze at distant ages.
Becoming a god?
A memory jumped out in Silas's mind of the hallucination he'd witnessed at the time: three Hunter angels dying simultaneously.
It seemed they truly had become sacrifices for someone's ascension to true godhood...
As for the Blood Emperor, the War of the Four Emperors, and such things, he hadn't researched them much.
"So can you fully control this evil spirit now?"
The Queen asked.
"Unfortunately, that's somewhat difficult at present."
Silas answered. "Just as you saw, He's not yet my lamb."