A Query That Changed Everything
“I’m 8th rank?”
Irene asked Bariel with disbelief, reaching out for help.
“Haha, just once more…”
“But…”
“I can’t believe it, so please… just one more confirmation?”
“But I’ve already confirmed it over ten times. Lady Irene, your purification rank is indeed 8th. It’s certain.”
Bariel’s words left Irene with a short sigh, her hand sweeping across her face.
‘My purification power has risen?’
When she’d been judged 10th to 9th, she had been startled, yet the similarity in ranks had made her suspect a mistake.
But two such coincidences were impossible.
“I’ll go report it first. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a purifier’s rank change like this…”
Bariel, equally astonished, hurried out, leaving Irene alone. She lifted her hand and examined the ring closely.
If the purification power had truly increased, there was only one explanation.
‘It said that absorbing demonic energy raises the power, yet it requires an enormous amount…’
So, after purifying several barrels of monster blood, there had been no change at all in her power.
‘Yet yesterday, upon Michael purifying the demonic energy he carried, the rank rose immediately?’
It was certainly a vast quantity of demonic energy he had accepted.
That was why she had nearly fainted several times. Each time, Michael had woken her and continued the purification.
But he had thought it was merely because her purification power was weak, and that it was nothing compared to what princesses purified.
How else could he have thought?
‘Michael had been perfectly fine.’
The Michael who had come for her yesterday was calm to a degree that made her doubt he had just completed an advanced dungeon raid.
Other knights would have been agitated or their eyes reddened with demonic addiction before purification.
Sometimes they even attacked their own purifiers.
Yet Michael had been perfectly calm, as usual.
Reina and Cynthia, who had been with him, had also conversed normally.
Therefore, he could not possibly have brought such vast demonic energy.
If he had, there would have been something strange about him.
‘Apart from the stubborn way he insisted on purification, there had been nothing else.’
Irene sighed and touched the ring again. The ring that had never left her fingers still gleamed in the sunlight.
* * *
“Irene! You’ve become 8th rank!”
Reina and Cynthia entered the room, calling her name warmly rather than with the formal title.
In their hands were enormous bouquets and large fruit baskets.
It had been only three days since her rank re-evaluation, yet Irene could move normally again—though she had not stepped outside the room even once.
“Um… how is it outside? They said it wasn’t even a riot.”
Irene’s question made Reina’s eyes widen in genuine surprise.
“A riot? Even without the Unlabeled Healing, scholars are foaming at the mouth to come over. They’ve been begging dozens of times a day to meet you at the fortress.”
“Haa…”
In the meantime, Cynthia arranged the bouquets in the vase on the table.
“They say Cecilia’s princess gathering is the most chaotic. They’ve been talking nonstop about how Irene’s rank might reach 1st.”
“What nonsense…”
Irene let out an involuntary laugh.
In truth, the difference between 10th and 9th, or even 8th, was not so great.
But 1st or 2nd rank power was vastly different; thousands of 10th-rank purifiers could never compare to a single 1st-rank one.
Irene fiddled with the ring and said,
“Perhaps the artifact evolved from luck… but I doubt this is the limit.”
“But it might rise again. Since the gathering has already been mentioned, should we discuss it now?”
Cynthia gave Reina a meaningful look.
Reina cleared her throat and spoke carefully.
“We’ve decided to form a gathering. We’ve already gathered quite a few members…”
Reina hesitated, then clenched her fist and declared,
“We’d like you, Lady Irene, to be the representative of the gathering!”
“Me? But…”
Irene had expected them to include her, and Michael had approved. Yet to make her the representative?
“Isn’t it more natural for Reina to take that role?”
Reina was 2nd rank—the highest among them. Why choose Irene?
“But Irene knows so much more! I thought she was already exceptional at giving advice on high-grade dungeons, but talking to her has only confirmed it.”
Cynthia agreed with a nod.
“That’s right. I’ve also felt how knowledgeable she is about dungeons and monsters.”
“Still…”
“And Irene is Michael’s pair. That alone will draw many people to the gathering.”
Reina’s words were taken up by Cynthia.
“From what the maids told me, many purifiers in the princess’s gathering are dissatisfied.”
“Dissatisfied?”
“Yes. The princess doesn’t demand much from strong purifiers, but for mid-tier or lower, she collects fees under the name of dues.”
Cynthia continued with what she had heard from the maids. The required amounts varied—sometimes a portion of rewards, sometimes the item itself if it was rare.
Naturally everyone complained, but no one dared speak out.
Yet at their lodgings, they vented to their own pairs or similar purifiers. The maids had overheard every word.
“And they’re hoping other gatherings will appear so they can escape. With Michael’s attendance, many would join.”
Irene fell into thought.
‘The situation seems far bigger than I imagined.’
She had opposed the princess before, yet never wanted to confront her directly.
But if she accepted the representative role, she would be openly defying her.
The princess would not look kindly on that.
‘I’ve avoided it as much as possible.’
Unlike before, even if Irene were not afraid, she preferred to avoid facing her.
Running away might be cowardly, but it seemed the wiser choice.
Yet…
When she closed her eyes, the past still rose vividly—the princess’s gaze like that of a bug she despised.
Suddenly, something within her chest surged.
Why must she have received such a look? Because of her low rank? Because she was Michael’s pair?
Neither was a valid reason to look down on a person.
‘Moreover, now that I’ve openly turned my back, she’ll keep finding fault.’
It would make staying in the fortress uncomfortable.
‘And if it’s not me but Reina who becomes representative…’
Reina and Felix had said they would stay at the fortress only this year and never wanted to return next year.
Yet those were merely their dreams; next year they would likely return for another raid.
Then the princess would not leave Reina alone.
‘But if I take the role and absorb all the resentment…’
Perhaps next year, if Reina changed her mind and joined the princess’s gathering, it would be easier.
‘Even if I coerced her, it wouldn’t matter.’
After all, she was leaving; it would be better to take the blame.
Irene raised her head. Reina and Cynthia, tense and watching her, stood before her.
It felt strange.
Originally, Reina would have been taken away by her family by now, having lost her pair.
Cynthia would have stayed quietly in a corner with a dark face, having barely spoken.
But now both wore faces full of expectation as they gazed at Irene.
Irene herself had changed too.
Once she would have hidden in a corner of the fortress like a prison.
Now she sat in sunlight, facing friends she could call her own.
“Very well.”
Irene made her decision.
“Let’s do it.”
She would take it seriously.