<Episode 62>
[It’s been a while since we met, Oried, and… you too.]
Ignis, the Spirit King of Light, chanted in an elegant voice and looked at me with a gentle smile.
There was something strange about his tone, but I was so dazed by the appearance of an unexpected being that I didn’t notice it.
[How did you get here…..]
[I felt Arkane’s energy particularly strong, but I never expected that such a scene would await me.]
Ignis, who responded softly, raised his pale white hand and shook it lightly.
[The power that has held you at this time seems to be the power of Arkane…….Let me neutralize it. Then you will be able to return to your original time zone right away.]
[Thanks, I will repay this debt later.]
As I was staring at Ignis, the gaze of Ignis, who had been talking to Oried, suddenly turned to me again.
[Debt, is it? This gave me new confidence….]
What was reflected in his kind, incomprehensible gaze at me was a brightly shining trustworthiness.
A feeling of affection for no reason…
[May the blessings of light be upon your future.]
Lastly, I saw Ignis looking at me and smiling gently.
A pure and sacred radiance colored my vision with a brilliant golden light, as if washing away all the anguish that was corrosive to the soul and sending it falling into the abyss, leading us to nothing but primordial silence.
Thus, the curtain finally came to a close on a series of plays that were grotesque and distorted by greed and pride, but were also engraved with unforgettable, sorrowful sadness and left a bitter aftertaste.
***
“Ugh……….”
I am tired.
I stretched out on the bed and let out a helpless sigh.
[The matter seems to have been roughly settled, so I must return to the spirit world and check on Arkane’s movements.]
And without any time to rest, the name ‘Arkane’ popped up in front of me again, disrupting my resting process.
[If he was bound by the prohibition, we wouldn’t be holding our breath like this… But he is engaging in dirty tricks again and again.]
Oried muttered softly with a hint of anger in his voice.
I was dragged back to reality, sighed, and said,
“……Instead of just watching what’s going on, can’t we just prevent him from doing anything again for hundreds of years?”
I said this with a sincere heart because I didn’t want to experience something like this again.
[…… I am the one who wants that more than anyone else.]
Oried slowly removed the branches that had stuck to us during the sculptural day.
[Stop talking nonsense and get some rest.]
As always, he responded in an extremely indifferent voice, stretched out his finger and tapped my forehead.
Sighing, I covered my forehead and stepped back.
The heavy golden eyes that made it impossible to even guess what state of mind he was in contained this image of myself.
Then his presence completely disappeared, creating an optical illusion as if the space was shaking.
“…….”
I lowered my eyes with mixed feelings.
“I guess you realized this after what happened.”
At that moment, Meinhardt’s voice was heard.
“It is a wise choice not to touch objects of unknown identity, even if you have a Spirit King nearby.”
“…Meinhardt?”
Before I knew it, Meinhardt was staring at me, holding the invitation in question that was still present in his hand.
“!”
The moment I raised my gaze towards him, the piece of paper, which had already been stained black and seemed to be rotting away, burned as if writhing in the lightning that bloomed in his grasp.
“I will leave now. Please do not forget this experience.”
I stared at the place where his hand was and watched the slowly falling black ash.
Just like last night, I suddenly saw him trying to leave and quickly got up.
Thump-
“Oh, no!”
“……….?”
Leaving behind a loud noise, I ran, gathering all my strength and held on to the blood-stained hem of his robe, which made Meinhardt looke down at me with puzzled eyes.
……Again, he’s probably trying to leave.
He will hide so tightly that there will no way to find him, and when danger approaches, he will suddenly appear like a ghost.
Unsolicited help and undesired sacrifices will be freely given.
“……Do not go.”
After hesitating slightly, I felt him pause at the words I finally spoke.
“Now that I know who you are, is there any reason you have to leave again?”
Why?
“Why do you keep leaving?….. I want to at least keep you by my side!”
The only blood relative left behind by Judith Sephemia Kandel, the great spiritist of the past who was a close friend of his grandfather.
Also, someone who was Mariette’s close associate….
The only person who can uncover the truth of the past covered in an incomprehensible fog.
“………”
So I will never miss him again.
I looked up at him with determination.
The man, who was not disturbed this greatly by any situation, turned as lifeless as a living statue, and his expression of embarrassment was clearly visible.
“You said you would protect me, right?”
‘… I swore to Mariette that I will protect her child no matter what happens. So I’m just trying to keep that oath.’
The words he said still ring loud in my ears.
He said that he promised my mother, Mariette, to protect me no matter what.
“Then stay right next to me!”
As I shouted out of frustration, Meinhardt’s face turned into embarrassment.
“Look at what happened today. I was acting like I was going to hide and protect myself, but I couldn’t stop my rash choices and it’s been only four months since the last incident!”
“That….”
“Stop, don’t argue. Do you know that I hate that the most in the world? It’s just frustrating!”
So, if you really want to protect me…..
“So from now on, don’t even think about going anywhere! You are staying with me.”
“……..”
“Please do so.”
He is someone who holds a clue to Mariette’s hidden past.
….. Someone who I could not bear to leave him alone.
“…I will do that.”
After a long silence,
The man, who was as stubborn as a rock, finally gave in to my will and gave me an answer.
I smiled brightly, looking at the man who had both brilliance and darkness.
***
“Starting today, he will be staying together in my palace……he is an honored guest, so say hello.”
“Well, Grand Princess. It’s natural for your maternal grandfather to stay, but this one….”
As she held the hand of the large man who suddenly appeared and explained that they would be living together from now on, the maids’ expressions were colored with confusion and surprise
They had all the reasons to feel so.
Currently, Meinhardt was dressed in such a manner that anyone who saw him would be horrified, with so much dried dark red blood on his clothes.
“He knows my grandfather as well. If there’s a problem in the future, I’ll take care of it, so don’t worry.”
“But…….”
“…… I am called Meinhard Ciel Astrape. I am indebted to the Grand Princess for the time being, so please be kind to me.”
However, the maids slowly realized that the unfamiliar man had an extremely rare and handsome appearance, greeting them in a polite tone that revealed his naturally noble status.
“……No, you are the Grand Princess’s honored guest, so to us, you are no different from a host that we must serve.”
Each person answered kindly with a shy blush on their face.
After ordering them to bring my grandfather, I opened my mouth as a thought occurred to me.
“By the way, Meinhardt.”
“Please speak.”
“How were you able to find me within the invitation?”
Even Oried, the spirit king of the earth, had no other choice but to awaken his vicious personality that was sealed with a ban.
So how was Meinhard able to find me and enter the world created as an illusion?
“……Although it was Arkane’s doing.”
Meinhardt, who was silent for a moment, answered quickly as he took off his blood-stained robe.
“All the magic that exists in the world is a product created by Arkane, and the Kandel family wanted me to be able to fully control magic, so I had to learn it from a young age. So I was able to find blind spots without difficulty.”
The moment he brought up the name Kandel again, I fell silent as some memories came to mind.
I couldn’t even imagine that a man who was merely described as a non-essential confidant of a villainess in the original work would have such a shocking past.
“……Meinhardt, I think you are a very talented person.”
I tried to smile brightly and remind myself to maintain a calm atmosphere.
Meinhardt, who was looking down at me with his eyes without a single ray of light, answered slowly.
“That’s too much praise.”
-Outside. the night the stars disappeared.
Siorn Archaic Bastevan was stripped of his title.
The voices of the people of the empire, pitying or mocking him, were so loud that they seemed to pierce the walls of the imperial palace, saying that all the honor he had built up so far and his life as a hero had been ruined because of his daughter, whom he had favored more than necessary and raised to be extremely arrogant.
Although it had become somewhat gray, Duke Bastevan’s hair, which had some bright red as if all his youthful grandeur had not disappeared, became so white that no trace of its previous appearance was visible in just three days after he was stripped of his title and sentenced to exile. The rumor about that added fuel to the fire.
In this way, the father’s prestige had fallen to the abyss, so was the daughter’s situation any different?
Princess Mariette Bastevan, who enjoyed a high position and power comparable to that of the royal family of the Roshan Empire under the name of the hero’s daughter, was also deprived of everything and had only one day left before being expelled from the capital.
She suffered the humiliation of losing her fiancé, who was revered as the new hero of the empire after Duke Bastevan, to a widow from a commoner, and the resulting jealousy and anger led to a miserable fall with even her own father implicated in the crime of committing evil.
People as much as Duke Bastevan, no, even more than that, were gloating about Princess Bastevan’s fall.
The older people, whose lives were saved by the hero, cursed the daughter for causing her father’s downfall through her wanton acts, while the younger men made fun of the daughter, asking if they had an opportunity to approach the princess, who was said to be so beautiful.
At least a few young women seemed to understand how she felt about losing her fiancé.
But most women were enthusiastic about the story of Chastia, a commoner with a child from another man who fell in sincere love with a young and beautiful Archduke and rose in social status.
The people, engulfed in provocative rumors, further distorted the ‘evil deeds’ committed by Princess Bastevan in order to oust the hero of the past on the grounds that the Duck had grown to the point where that even the emperor’s authority was at stake.
Amid the noise of countless voices, the truths that had not yet been realized were buried in cold, still silence, waiting endlessly for them to be revealed to the world one day.
“Meinhardt.”
Even though I knew the truth that had sunk beneath the waves of secrets, I was not even allowed to utter a single word, experiencing seething anger and helplessness that ate away at my soul.
“……Mariette.”
In the middle of Duke Bastevan’s blue rose garden, Meinhardt, who was staring at the figure of a slender woman turning away from him, answered the call by softly chanting her name.
The cool sensation that seemed to overflow my field of vision created the illusion that even the blowing wind was coldly frozen.
Shooaaa-
“I have one last thing to say.”
With her calm yet elegant voice and light purple hair blowing in the wind, she faced the approaching tragedy with such an unchanging attitude.
***
TL:
I hope you enjoyed your time, please point out any mistakes if you notice them.
See you next time ~
