<Episode 56>
‘When he was young, his family fell and he became a child wandering the streets. Your mother found him and brought him to me. I was also anxiously after knowing his story, so I took him in and raised him as my own…He was a child so I couldn’t leave him be…’
My grandfather said that Mariette found Meinhardt, who was wandering the streets after his family collapsed, and brought him in.
But why… did he keep from me the fact that Meinhard was from the Kandel family?
The cursed family.
The family that sent me the invitation and forcibly dragged me in this place with an unknown force.
And the boy I unexpectedly encountered, who must have been Meinhardt in his childhood…
“…….”
Even I couldn’t figure out exactly why I felt that way.
With empty eyes, as if even his soul was empty, he was quietly looking up at the carved figure of an unknown person located at the highest point.
With a straight, luscious long hair that flowed down to his feet.
And a robe that draped down the outline of his slender body.
Half of his face was covered by a mask that appeared to be made of the bones of an unknown animal with two huge horns, making it even harder to tell what it was… but it was clear that it was carved from some kind of beast.
The strange and eerie current that began to flow over the place around me made me tremble with fear.
Putting aside the sudden appearance of Meinhardt.
Was this really the start of human sacrifice?
What do I do?
No matter what I do now, I can’t escape this place
“Let the ritual begin!”
The people of the Kandel family stood around the outside of the magic ceremony located in the center of the huge hall and began chanting unintelligible words in unison.
A golden electric current began to burst out of the pitch black magic circle.
It’s so scary!
I stared at the sight of golden currents mixed with black rising from all over the floor with a loud roar.
I finally realized that the human sacrifice had begun
“……..!”
I couldn’t die like this.
It would have been better for me to take my own life than to be offered as a sacrifice to someone I don’t know and become a victim that fulfills the wishes of someone I have nothing to do with!
“Meinhardt….”
That boy was Meinhardt in his youth.
So there was no way he knew me.
“Meinhardt!”
But he was the only last rope I could hold on to.
Kreeeck–
A huge tremor was felt, as if the foundation of the Duke’s residence was shaking.
“Please, Meinhardt-!”
I closed my eyes tightly and desperately shouted his name.
The boy who was standing on the platform where the huge statue was located suddenly turned his head and looked down at me.
As I finally looked into the black eyes that met my eyes, I realized once again.
The boy who seemed so empty, was more scared than happy to meet someone who possibly knew him was definitely Meinhardt.
It could have been my imagination, but the moment the boy stared at me, I felt as if my stream of consciousness had slowed down a little.
“You can’t turn around!”
A blood relative of the Kandel family let out a sharp yell.
Soon, I started to feel someone running towards me with anger.
No way, if they come running to me for interfering with the progress of the offering, should I have even done it?
At that moment when I turned my head in fear….
Kuwang-!
“-!”
A blinding bolt of electricity struck right in front of me, accompanied by a huge roar.
A sudden shock came as if my heart was being squeezed.
I couldn’t even scream.
Kwaang-!
A bolt of electricity struck once again.
Even though the entire floor was shattered and the some fragments flew in countless directions, they did no harm to me and just bounced off my body.
I couldn’t even breathe properly at the moment, but I was so startled by the phenomenon that I stared at the scene with dazzled eyes.
Kugwa-
The final roar that shook the heavens and earth sounded.
“……..”
In the middle of the thick smoke, someone began to appear.
The veil of fog cleared and the identity of the person who appeared was a woman.
It was impossible to stop the passage of time, so it was immediately apparent that she was entering her middle age, but the years had left its mark on her so beautifully that not a single ugliness was visible for the onlookers.
The beautiful woman with such a gorgeous and captivating look held onto Meinhardt’s hand until it was crushed.
Her black eyes, which looked just like the boy’s, burned with anger and she let out a roar.
“What are you trying to do to this child?
As she poured out her fierce anger, an intense energy seemed to linger around her, like a brave lion swallowing a hot golden star that lit up the night sky.1I am sorry, but I am too stupid to understand this metaphor.
… But, who was she?
I suddenly came to my senses from her angry shout and stared at her hand that grabbed the hand of little Meinhardt with unbelievable strength…
I stared blankly at the woman who seemed to be protecting the boy for some reason.
“What you ***2No cursing, you can imagine what he said, but you better not.!”
At that moment, an old man who looked tall at first glance limped out, holding a black cane with a golden snake wrapped around it, and shouted.
“Judith Sephemia Kandel, what are you doing!”
…What?
I was stunned by the name the old man shouted out loud.
That woman standing here holding young Meinhardt’s hand was…Judith Sephemia Kandel?
“You’re interfering in the family’s important affairs, so get out of here!”
I looked up at her in shock.
She, Judith, burst into unnaturally excited laughter at the old man’s yelling.
“It looks like old age has finally done its work on you, brother”
Then she stopped laughing and quietly muttered.
Considering that she was his sister… she looked too young, but the old man who was her brother shouted, distorting his wrinkled face in an ugly way.
“Get out of the way, it’s all for the family!”
“What? It’s for the family… So you were going to offer a nine-year-old child as a living sacrifice to the Spirit King of Darkness?”3What!!!
I was shocked by the question Judith asked wearing an indifferent smile.
He was trying to offer Meinhardt, who was presumed to be a blood relative of the Kandel family, as a living sacrifice to the Dark Spirit King?
Then, the human sacrifice just now…
“And what are all those bone fragments? Explain to me, brother.”
At the sound of Judith’s voice, I looked back to where the people who had been sacrificed with me were.
“…….!”
I covered my mouth and swallowed the scream that was about to burst out.
The people who seemed to have more than a hundred had suddenly turned into hundreds of bones and were spread out on the floor.
“By making people who have nothing to do with us the victims of this horrible ritual… are you saying you are going to defend yourself because this is also for the good of your family?”
“How dare you..!”
Judith was muttering in a soft voice, but it did not fit the current situation and seemed rather creepy. Soon, her red and bloodshot eyes widened and she shouted at the old man who she called brother.
“Have you forgotten why I, your blood relative, earned the name hero?”
Her trembling hands clenched into fists so tightly that I felt like she was going to break her skin.
“I have to deal with the descendants of Arkane who are rushing to tear my skin, grind my bones, and plunge my soul into the mud! ……Oh my god, with what kind of heart did I endure it!”
The scream, a mixture of indescribable sadness and burning anger, colored the minds of those who heard it pure white.
“Shouldn’t you have been afraid for me? Due to endless threats, my mind became tattered and my body continues to wear down and also… Because there’s only me.”
Why did her voice shaking with anger sound more like sobbing?
“If I give up, it is clear that this world will eventually enter the path of destruction, and… you, my blood relatives, will not be left intact! So, how could you do this? I survive that hellish time, endured and protected this empire and the world!”
As she screamed in an increasingly violent tone, tears mixed with blood fell from her eyes and blood red teardrops rolled down her face.
“What is that *** thing you are doing? Taking this child’s life completely in order to obtain a more perfect hero…By sacrificing an innocent life, you want to summon Arkane, and no one else….. How dare you make a wish and then do the opposite?”4Really, what is he thinking?
As she laughed and cried, shedding bloody tears, a deep hatred-filled madness hung over her face.
“And yet, are you really human?”
I stared at her, her despair clearly visible, feeling dumbfounded.
“…….”
Judith spoke softly to the old man she called her brother, who was completely overwhelmed, his whole body was shaking like an aspen tree, and he was unable to utter a word.
“I can no longer allow you disgusting people who have given up on being human to set foot on this earth and live.”
I can’t forget it, not even in my dreams.
The moment when the words engraved with burning hatred, word by word, came to an end.
Both my eyes went blind.
Kugwa-!
No, I ‘felt’ like they were blinded.
I was robbed of my soul by the dazzling flashes of light exploding from all directions and the frenzy of golden lightning.
“……..!”
“Ah……………!”
The screams of insignificant humans were swallowed up by the majestic wrath of the sky without even leaving a trace.
How much time has passed?
Around me, who was half conscious, there were things that had turned into pitch-black ashes, no trace of their former appearance, were lying down here and there.
The once splendid and extravagant mansion was transformed into ruins in just a moment, as if thousands of years had passed.
“…Don’t cry.”
As I looked around, unable to even breathe, I heard a small whisper in my ear.
When I suddenly turned my gaze, I saw young Meinhardt looking up at someone with fearful eyes.
The person standing precariously in front of the boy was Judith.
I realized that her entire body had been burned by the electric current and it looked as if she would crumble into ashes at any moment.
She had gone beyond her limits in order to do what she just did.
She had brought out all the powers that humans should not have possessed.
In the end, she even burned herself in the scorching thunderstorm.
“But…….”
Young Meinhard muttered softly as tears flowed endlessly down his empty face.
Judith, who was looking down at the child, spoke with a faint smile on her face that seemed ready to break at any moment.
“………Live your life without being bound by petty feelings like mine. Live freely, without sacrificing yourself in the name of standing for anything.”
Between the black eyelids, all the light of life was lost and the darkened eyes disappeared.
“At the end of the sacrifice, what is left is… in the end, there was nothing left.”
