The Imperial Princess Seraphina Radiance, a top-tier Hero on the path of the Radiant Sovereign, was not far removed from the rank of Saint.
The breath she exhaled, laden with killing intent and fury, was nothing short of soul-shaking.
Had Faust not previously absorbed the path experience of the Elven Martial Saint, he might genuinely have been rattled by it.
As it was, he merely stiffened for a moment before composing himself.
"Calm down for a second."
Realizing his words had been misunderstood, Faust wiped the flecks of spittle from his face with a handkerchief and clarified: "I wasn't talking about your Lord Lian."
Clearly, the explanation did nothing to convince Seraphina.
You just finished looking at Lian's photograph, and now you say you want to become a Dragon Knight. How am I supposed to believe there's no connection?!
But the princess couldn't afford to make a scene outright, so she swallowed her anger and stepped down from the ledge, teeth grinding: "You'd better be telling the truth..."
Settling back into her seat, Seraphina crossed her arms and legs, all trace of her earlier regal composure gone. The sharp look in her eyes said she wanted nothing more than to flay Faust alive.
She had approached this meeting with genuine admiration for him. One sentence had wiped that goodwill to zero, and now she looked ready to leap across and tear him apart.
Faust, for his part, didn't particularly care. If not for Mephisto, he would never have had any dealings with the Second Empire in the first place. What truly mattered were the Fae and the dragon. Seraphina's feelings were beside the point.
What actually troubled him was that Mephisto had caught him in the act.
"Heh heh heh... a Dragon Knight, is it?"
"Faust, Faust... my dear Faust. So you've been harboring thoughts like these. How adorable."
"If it benefits your conduit, I really wouldn't mind."
"Let me clarify," Faust said. "When I said Dragon Knight, I meant it purely in the sense of looking impressive. There was no other intention behind it."
"Trying to make me keep a straight face? I lose."
He sighed inwardly. He really couldn't let his true feelings show. Now that Mephisto knew, he would never hear the end of it.
In an awkward silence, the carriage rolled into the station. Just before the Imperial delegation departed, Seraphina finally spoke again.
"Prince of Aurum, if you're truly serious about earning the favor of a Fae, perhaps you should go and challenge yourself."
"Oh?"
Seraphina smiled coldly. "I have a suggestion. Whether you can survive it is another matter, but if you succeed, the merit you earn would absolutely be enough to draw the attention of the Fae."
The Imperial princess glanced around, then said lightly, "That Wintertide Kingdom isn't far from here, is it?"
"Wintertide Kingdom..."
Faust searched his memory. It was one of the more mysterious kingdoms in the surrounding region.
Despite being situated in no particularly extreme climate zone, its winters were extraordinarily long. Nearly half the year lay buried under thick snowfall. He had found it odd when he first heard of it, but given that a fantasy world was full of strange things, he had not dwelt on it.
More interesting than the unusual weather was Wintertide's sheer age and power.
The kingdom had kept its borders sealed for generations. Whenever a foreign power tried to force its gates open, Wintertide would sweep them aside with overwhelming force, compelling the surrounding nations to bow their heads and submit as vassals.
And yet, that was always where it stopped. Even with countless opportunities to absorb smaller kingdoms and expand, Wintertide had never once done so.
Even during the Empire's peak, it had failed to conquer that ancient realm. Over the long years, Wintertide had opened only a handful of ports for commerce and trade.
Virtually nothing was known about the kingdom's interior, which only deepened the shroud of mystery around it.
But Seraphina was bringing it up now, and the princess seemed to know something of its inner workings.
"What's happened with that kingdom?"
Seraphina rested one hand on her hip and shrugged. "It has been cursed by a dragon, trapped in a pitiful, unending cycle. Every Snow White princess must kill her own mother to ascend the throne. All the suffering and glory of that nation flows from the same source: the tragedy of the royal family devouring itself."
"And that," she added with a snort, "is why I say not every Fae possesses Lord Lian's compassion. Those executioners who carry out fate's sentence harbor plenty of malice toward humankind."
"Wait, what did you just say? What princess?"
Faust latched onto the word immediately and pressed her at once.
Seraphina was entirely baffled by his sudden intensity. She raised an eyebrow. "Snow White. That's what they call the heir to the throne. You didn't know? Fair enough. Your kingdom is far too young. Even your founder was some rough-and-tumble adventurer."
Right, right, Snow White it is.
Faust had known of Wintertide's existence for some time, but no one had ever told him this.
He could only sigh. His father's origins were too humble. There were simply too many secrets the man had never been privy to.
"Wintertide has been trapped in its curse, unable to break free. That is precisely why the kingdom has stayed so quiet all these years. If you can lift the dragon's curse, the merit from doing so would certainly draw the attention of other Fae."
"And beyond that," Seraphina continued, "once you conquer Wintertide, its vassal states come with it. That's a far faster path to expansion than painstakingly developing your own kingdom."
Tempting as Seraphina's words sounded, it didn't take much thought to see through her intentions.
If Wintertide truly bore a dragon's curse that had persisted for so long without remedy, it was bound to be a nightmarish problem. Seraphina's encouragement was, in all likelihood, payback for what she considered the Prince of Aurum's act of "desecration."
Even allies are enemies at heart, each hoping the other drops dead.
Faust suppressed a smile, pressed a hand to his chest, and bowed his head. "My deepest thanks for the advice. Truly enlightening. I'll give it a try."
Under any other circumstances, faced with an unknown scenario, he would never have agreed so readily.
But this was Snow White.
Not knowing was one thing. Having been told, he couldn't possibly leave it alone.
"Hm?"
Seraphina watched Faust's barely concealed eagerness and let her eyelids drop slightly.
She had meant it as a prod, but she hadn't actually expected him to agree without hesitation.
Still, the Imperial princess quickly lost interest in dwelling on it.
"Then I'll look forward to the good news."
Whatever. If Faust was the sort to die so easily, he would never have been considered the trump card against the Hero to begin with. And if he actually managed to pull it off... well, that could be dealt with then.
A deep rumbling reverberated through the air as the train approached. Seraphina and the rest of the Imperial delegation concealed themselves, exactly as they had upon arrival, and quietly boarded. They would return to the capital of the Radiant Sovereign the same way they had come.
After seeing the Imperial princess off at the station, Faust reined in his excitement and reached out to his contracted Fae through their shared bond.
"Mephisto, I've decided on our next direction."
The Prince of Aurum said, "First, tell me everything you know about Wintertide Kingdom."