Imperial Capital – Military Air Port → Holy Temple
The military air port of the Holy Empire was alive with restrained urgency.
Runic lights pulsed along the hull of a massive imperial airship as soldiers moved in practiced silence, loading supplies, weapons, and sealed crystal cores. This was not a ceremonial vessel—it was a warship, fully armed and provisioned, prepared for a hunt already underway.
The hunt for the Demon King's child.
---
The scene shifted.
---
The Holy Temple of Lumina Sancta – Inner Halls
Soft golden light poured through towering stained-glass windows, bathing the long marble corridor in a muted glow. Every step echoed faintly against the sacred stone.
A young woman walked alone.
She had golden eyes, sharp and unwavering, and brown hair tied back neatly to keep it from interfering with her armor. The plate she wore was not decorative—its edges bore signs of use, its surface etched with holy sigils meant for battle, not ceremony.
This was Princess Aurelia Galewyn.
The First—and only—Princess of the Holy Empire.
She walked with her hands relaxed at her sides, posture straight, expression unreadable.
---
She had not been present when the Queen's funeral was held.
She arrived only after it had ended.
After the armies had already marched.
After the airships had departed for the hunt.
After the world had been told that a new Demon King existed.
And before any of them returned.
Now, she was here for something else entirely.
---
Aurelia's gaze flickered briefly toward a side hall as she passed— one that led deeper into the temple, toward the memorial grounds.
Today was not for royalty.
Today was for the dead.
Those who had fallen in the campaign.
Those whose bodies had never been recovered.
---
There would be no coffins.
No remains to bury.
Only engraved stone pillars, arranged in solemn rows beneath the open sky—each bearing a name, a rank, and a date of death.
Lives ended far from home.
Consumed by battle.
Erased without even ashes to return.
---
Aurelia slowed slightly.
Not stopping.
Not bowing her head.
But her steps grew quieter.
She had come too late to mourn her mother.
And now, she had come just in time to stand before the graves of soldiers who would never know peace.
Her golden eyes hardened.
This was the cost of the hunt.
And it was not finished yet.
---
The Holy Temple – Inner Sanctum
Princess Aurelia Galewyn had not come to the temple only to mourn.
She had come seeking answers.
After hearing the full report of how the battle had unfolded— the collapse of formations,
the deaths of high-ranking clergy,
and the sudden disappearance of the Demon King's child—
She had made her decision.
---
Inside the inner sanctum, the air was thick with incense and holy light. Golden runes hovered faintly above the floor, forming a vast circular array. At its center stood several high priests, their hands resting on crystal reliquaries as they chanted in low, controlled voices.
Aurelia stood at the edge of the circle, armored, silent, watching.
This was a tracking rite.
One meant to lock onto the brand placed upon the demon child.
The very same mark that was supposed to make escape impossible.
---
Minutes passed.
Then longer.
The crystals trembled.
The runes flickered.
And then—nothing.
The light died.
The circle collapsed into silence.
---
One of the priests staggered back a step, eyes wide.
"…That's impossible."
Another turned to Aurelia, disbelief etched across his face.
"We can't locate him. Not the child. Not the brand."
Aurelia's gaze sharpened.
"You're saying the mark failed?" she asked calmly.
The priest hesitated.
"No, Your Highness. The mark still exists."
"But it's… unreachable. Obscured. Folded in on itself, perhaps—or shielded by something we have never encountered before."
A third priest spoke, his voice uneasy.
"We have never seen a branded target vanish like this. Not once."
---
Silence fell.
Aurelia understood immediately.
If the Holy Church could track him, they wouldn't need anyone else.
Their forces alone would have been enough.
Entire legions could have descended on his location within days.
But now—
They were blind.
---
That was why the empire had done something it never liked to do.
Something humiliating.
Something desperate.
---
They had opened the hunt to the world.
A worldwide bounty.
100,000 gold.
Dead or alive.
Not because they lacked strength.
But because, for the first time, they lacked certainty.
---
Aurelia turned away from the shattered ritual circle.
"So even the mark can no longer guide you," she said.
The priests lowered their heads in shame.
"Yes, Your Highness."
Her golden eyes hardened—not with fear, but with resolve.
"Then I'll find him without it."
---
She had missed her mother's funeral.
She had arrived too late to join the war.
But she would not arrive late to the hunt.
---
The Holy Temple – Outer Gates
So that's the reason.
Aurelia Galewyn walked without slowing, her boots echoing against the polished stone as she passed through the towering gates of the Holy Temple.
The tracking had failed.
Not weakened.
Not delayed.
Gone.
Her golden eyes narrowed slightly.
If even a divine brand can't lead them to him…
Then he's far more dangerous than the reports say.
That only hardened her resolve.
---
She did not look back at the priests.
She had already decided.
Then I'll track him myself.
No reliance on holy marks.
No dependence on rituals that could be broken.
No assumptions.
She would hunt him the old way.
---
Outside the temple, the capital's air was heavy with mourning bells, their echoes still fading into the distance. At the base of the wide marble steps, several imperial knights stood waiting, already mounted on their arcsteel motors—sleek, rune-engraved machines humming softly with contained mana.
The moment Aurelia appeared, they straightened.
Without a word, she descended the steps.
Her cloak shifted in the wind as she approached her own vehicle.
She placed one armored hand on the handle.
No shortcuts, she thought.
No mercy.
She swung herself onto the motor, settling into place with practiced ease.
The engine flared to life.
Behind her, the knights mounted up in unison.