Strange images of Miles being ravaged kept surfacing in her mind.
Sylvia quickened her pace, and before she knew it, she had already arrived at the Emperor's bedchamber.
Unlike yesterday, when she brought Miles back, and the corridor had been empty and silent, several female guards in armor had already been stationed outside today. It was likely that Quaedes had arranged them in advance to prevent Miles from slipping away.
Even if the guards might not be able to stop Miles, they could at least notify the Emperor at once if anything unexpected happened.
Moreover, the imperial palace of the Empire was already heavily guarded to begin with; open sentries, hidden sentries, and spatial mana barrier formations were everywhere.
The true difficulty of escaping was, in reality, far greater than Miles had imagined.
"Please stop, Lady Sylvia."
Before she even reached the doors of the bedchamber, Sylvia was halted by a female guard who barred her way with a horizontal spear.
"His Majesty is still resting."
"So what if she is resting?" Sylvia frowned and glared at the guard who stopped her.
"Don't you know the relationship between His Majesty and me? Even if I enter while she is resting, there won't be any problem."
Since they were both girls of similar age, and considering Sylvia's status as the eldest daughter of the Diane family, she was one of the few people in the palace who could truly speak to Quaedes; someone who could even be called a 'friend.'
Furthermore, Sylvia served as a cathedral nun, while Quaedes was likewise devoted to the gods and inclined toward divine authority as Emperor. In that sense, they shared certain common ground in conversation.
Over time, the fact that the two were on good terms had become known even among the palace guards.
Rebuked like this by Sylvia, the female guard before the bedchamber looked visibly embarrassed.
Even so, she continued to hold her spear across the corridor, with no intention of allowing passage.
"My sincerest apologies, Lady Sylvia. However, His Majesty issued an order yesterday: during her rest, no one is to pass through. Even you, Lady Sylvia… please do not make this difficult for me."
During her rest, no one is to pass through.
The Emperor had given this specific order only yesterday. Sylvia did not need to think to know that Quaedes must be doing something improper inside the room.
Once again, the image of Quaedes pressing Miles beneath her surfaced in Sylvia's mind, and her legs instinctively tightened.
Damn it, I'm so jealous!
No, no, no… I'm here to save him. What am I being jealous for?
Anyhow, judging by the situation now, it seemed she was already too late.
"Very well. I understand."
Since Quaedes had issued a strict order, Sylvia had no intention of continuing to trouble a mere guard and reluctantly chose to leave.
Of course, leaving did not mean giving up.
Even if she could not enter the Emperor's bedchamber through the main entrance, Sylvia knew of another secret passage.
Important figures of a nation typically had such a hidden escape route concealed beneath the room's splendid exterior, meant for emergency evacuation in times of crisis.
Naturally, the secret passage in the Emperor's bedchamber had not been constructed by Quaedes, but had existed since the time of the previous Emperor.
The reason Sylvia knew about it was that, on a prior occasion when Quaedes had invited her to stay overnight under the pretext of friendship, the two of them had casually mentioned it while in the room.
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty. I'm not trying to steal anyone from you. It's just that Miles has shown me great kindness. If I simply stand by and do nothing, that would be repaying kindness with ingratitude. The great gods would never forgive such a thing."
The entrance to the secret passage connected to the Emperor's bedchamber was located in the study where she usually handled official affairs.
Although guards were also stationed outside the study, this time was different from the bedchamber.
Given Sylvia and Quaedes' relationship, she merely said that His Majesty had asked her to retrieve some documents, and the guards readily allowed her to pass.
Slipping into the study, Sylvia moved to the innermost bookshelf against the wall and pushed inward the book titled The General History of the Empire on the third row, seventh column, triggering the mechanism.
As expected, once the bookshelf shifted aside, the secret passage leading to the Emperor's bedchamber appeared before Sylvia.
Entering alone, she carefully advanced through the dark passage for some distance before finally glimpsing a light ahead.
The light filtered through a mirror.
The exit of the passage—or rather, the entrance within the bedchamber—was an ancient full-length mirror affixed to the wall.
Made of one-way material, to those inside the room, it appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary, large mirror.
But from within the secret passage, Sylvia could see everything inside the Emperor's chamber through the other side of the mirror.
"It's fine, it's fine. I probably won't see anything too strange."
Before looking, Sylvia took several deep breaths, summoning her courage.
An entire night had already passed. No matter how fierce Her Majesty was, she couldn't possibly have kept it up until morning, right?
Pressing herself against the mirror and shielding the glare with her palm, Sylvia finally directed her gaze into the room.
"!!!"
And then she saw it.
Emperor Quaedes was putting on her trousers.
To be precise, Quaedes was changing clothes… taking off her sleepwear and changing into the formal imperial attire she wore when meeting others.
It was just that Sylvia had happened to miss the moment when Quaedes removed her nightclothes.
So what Sylvia saw was Miles sleeping soundly on the bed, and Quaedes covering her exposed snow-white skin with clothing once more.
No matter how one looked at it, this was after the fact!
"Wuwuwu, I've wronged you, Miles." Sylvia unwillingly wiped at the tears gathering at the corners of her eyes.
After finishing changing, Quaedes gathered the power of Spirit Eyes in her arm, shattered the ice crystals sealing the doorway, and pushed the door open to leave.
That left only Miles lying on the bed in the room.
Estimating that Quaedes would not return anytime soon, Sylvia took the risk of moving the concealed full-length mirror aside and jumped into the room from the secret passage.
Looking at the innocent and adorable sleeping face of the little boy on the bed, Sylvia recalled what had happened that night when she had slipped into Miles' room.
This time, no Alester would suddenly pop out to interrupt her.
"Since I'm late, I can only implement Plan Two."
With her own hands, she would comfort Miles, who had been toyed with. In her capacity as a servant of God, she would offer a devout prayer, hoping the divine could help cleanse this impurity.
Lightly kissing the cross on her chest, Sylvia prayed, "Merciful and great God, please forgive all that has happened here, and grant peace to the wounded soul."
"Mm?" Awakened by the sound of prayer, Miles groggily opened his eyes.
"You're… Sylvia? What are you doing here?"
"I'm offering your morning prayer."
"No, wait… does a morning prayer require your hand to reach inside my clothes?"
Sylvia held the cross to her lips with her left hand, while her right hand had already slipped inside Miles' shirt. Miles felt none of the holiness of prayer… only desire and impurity remained.
"What does it matter!"
Sylvia simply tossed the cross aside.
Good grief, she wasn't even pretending anymore.
"Anyway, you must have already been pushed down by Her Majesty last night. Why can't I at least take a look?"
Her mind consumed by chaotic desire, Miles had not been wrong at all… this lewd nun had been coveting his body from the very beginning.
"I wasn't pushed down! Nothing like that happened at all. Sylvia, calm down!"
Compared to the relatively reasonable Quaedes, this lustful nun seemed even more dangerous to Miles.
"N-not pushed down?"
Only then did Sylvia's wandering little hand reluctantly come to a stop.
"You're lying to me, right? In that situation last night, how could you possibly have survived? I just saw Her Majesty pulling up her trousers."
"Quaedes didn't originally have that intention… well, she did, but at least not last night."
Miles told Sylvia everything that had happened yesterday, including the agreement he had made with Quaedes.
"So that's what it was."
Having figured out the truth, Sylvia awkwardly withdrew her hand, pretending as if nothing had happened.
"But Miles, you're seriously bold… actually daring to challenge Her Majesty Quaedes. She's the genuine strongest in the Empire."
"Heh, the strongest, huh? I've already felt that myself."
"Then you only have one day left to think it over. What are you going to do? Once the time's up, even if you refuse, you'll probably be forced anyway."
That was indeed the case. His so-called purity and chastity were secondary. The most important thing was that Miles did not want Quaedes to obtain the power to control a god at such a critical moment.
With Quaedes' strength, and with Numerounius descending, there would likely be no one left capable of stopping her.
"By the way, Sylvia, you're from the Diane family, right? Do you know about Quaedes planning to summon Numerounius tonight?"
According to Prince Zepha Soroya, the Diane family, which held divine authority, would fully assist Quaedes in summoning Numerounius.
"What did you say?!"
Sylvia, learning this truth from Miles, looked even more shocked than Miles had been at the time.
"To summon the most exalted Lord Numerounius… Is something like that even possible?"
"You really don't know anything, do you? Then, when we first met, why did you tell us to leave the royal capital as soon as possible?"
"I only heard from Mother that after the banquet, His Majesty's personal guards would arrest the Duelists gathered in the royal capital. As for the reason, I don't know."
"It's to gather power for Numerounius' summoning."
Another piece of information Miles already knew was that summoning Numerounius required the powerful mental strength of multiple Duelists. That was why the summoning time had been set during the Emperor's birthday banquet, when strong individuals would be gathered.
Now that most of the information had aligned, it was clear that in this turbulent Empire, something extremely dangerous would happen tonight.
He absolutely could not sit and wait for death.
"Sylvia, please. Can you think of a way to help me escape?"
Miles had already realized how naïve it had been to think he could slip away alone last night.
The imperial palace of the capital was heavily guarded and complex in structure. It wasn't somewhere a total stranger unfamiliar with the environment, someone who could get lost at any moment, could simply walk out of.
"Don't worry. That's exactly why I came."
Sylvia had already thought of a way to get Miles out.
"Wait a moment."
Placing her slender fingers before her chest, Sylvia began unfastening the laces of her nun's habit without warning.
Miles complained helplessly, "At a time like this you're taking off your clothes? Please clear out the dirty thoughts in your head, you perverted nun!"
"This is a necessary sacrifice," Sylvia replied seriously. "Your outfit won't work, Miles."
To slip out of the palace, the most crucial thing was clothing.
Miles' uniform from Fusion Academy of Livorden was far too conspicuous inside the imperial palace. Completely avoiding the patrol guards' sight was simply unrealistic.
With practiced movements, Sylvia removed her nun's habit entirely. The sight before Miles was even more shocking than Quaedes in her nightwear.
"Miles, put on the nun's habit and follow behind me. That way, we should be able to fool the patrol guards easily."
"Then what about you, Sylvia?"
She said he would follow behind her, but in her nearly unclothed state, Sylvia was far more eye-catching than Miles in his academy uniform.
"I'll be fine. As long as one's faith is devout enough, this isn't a problem."
Sylvia once again lifted the cross hanging before her chest. Without the nun's habit, the cross resting against her chest looked more alluring than when she was dressed.
"O great God, please grant me once more the attire with which I serve You."
After finishing her prayer, a brand-new nun's habit appeared on Sylvia's body.
"See? I didn't lie to you." Sylvia spun around to show him.
"Is this… some kind of magical nun transformation?"
Miles had only ever heard of magical girls conjuring clothes out of thin air. He had never heard of nuns pulling off something like this.
"This is the kind of thing that's better you don't know about, since you're not a believer," Sylvia urged. "All right, no time to waste! Change!"
"Change clothes?"
Miles stared blankly at the nun's habit in his hands, still carrying Sylvia's lingering warmth and fragrance.
Was this really asking him to cross-dress? He had heard that cross-dressing either happened zero times or countless times. Wasn't this a bit too dangerous?
"Do you still want to escape or not? Once His Majesty returns, it'll be too late!"
"I…" Gritting his teeth hard, Miles made an extremely difficult decision. "I'll wear it!"
To protect the peace of the world, to uphold the justice in his heart, and to stop the god who had once nearly destroyed the world from reviving, Miles decided… cross-dress!
"Although it's a bit big on him, that hardly matters. It's simply…!"
Clenching her fists in excitement, even that was not enough to express the waves surging within Sylvia's heart.
"It's simply too cute! You suit this outfit perfectly, Miles! Ever thought about becoming a nun with me? You'd definitely be very popular."
"I refuse!"
What did she mean, definitely very popular? Since when was being a nun some kind of idol profession that relied on looks and popularity?
Yet when Miles looked at himself in the full-length mirror, his not-yet-fully-developed youthful body, clad in the nun's habit, indeed perfectly displayed a sacred purity and innocence.
It was… somewhat endearing.
"What am I even thinking?!"
Miles slammed his head against the wall, cutting off the fleeting thought that had arisen in his mind.
So this was cross-dressing? It was far too dangerous. One careless step and he might fall into its abyss.
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