September 23, 2021
Craeyer’s pronunciation slipped due to his lips being pressed. Olivia bit her lower lip while pressing his twisted lips with her fingertips.
“Don’t make that face.”
“What?”
“You’re the most important! You started the war, and you’ll end it too! Whether you’re a slave or anything else! Whether it’s an ancient god or anything else! It’s you, you!”
Her trembling fingertips, pressing Craeyer’s lips, brushed against his lower lip and fell off with a tap. After a while of silence, Olivia, who had been swallowing her breath, faced Craeyer.
“It’s all my fault….”
“No!”
Olivia shook her head, and her flaming red hair waved like flames. She closed her eyes tightly, then opened them and stared straight at him.
“There must be a reason why you made the slave contract. If it was just borrowing the power of an ancient god, that sorcerer could have made the contract himself. But that wasn’t the case. You were chosen. Chosen to fulfill the contract. You, who died and came back to life?”
“Even before resurrection, I was just a knight.”
“Anything else you remember?”
Craeyer didn’t answer Olivia’s question. He couldn’t… couldn’t.
“No memories?”
“Well… yeah. That’s right. Memories…”
“You’ll be able to break the slave contract. No, you’ll break it. Find your past, even if it’s not the key!”
Craeyer touched the stamp on his collarbone. The scarce memories that came to mind were all from when the stamp was applied. The sorcerer prepared the stamp, but it was his daughter who actually stamped it.
‘… Heir. Chosen… together….’
And once again. Olivia’s hand overlapped Craeyer’s back of the hand. She didn’t know why he was stroking that spot. But feeling the emptiness in his eyes every time she touched his collarbone, she involuntarily reached out. Holding his hand tightly enough to make his back of the hand turn white, Olivia stared straight at him.
“I will survive. So you won’t start a war, nor will you hold the blood of the whole world in your hands.”
In Craeyer’s eyes, blacker than the night, small, almost imperceptible fragments stuck. They were remnants of hope, too small even for himself to recognize, fragments of hope that couldn’t be spoken of now.
* * *
As the night’s curtain fell and thick clouds covered the sky, even the moonlight was faint. Under a large tree where the owl wandered at dawn, someone was digging the ground frantically. Thud, thud. It was not a shovel or any other tool digging into the earth but someone’s bare hands. He dug and dug as if in a trance. It was fortunate that it was the outskirts of the imperial capital, where there were hardly any people around…
“Huh, huff, huff.”
Breathing heavily, his eyes barely blinking, the frantic manner in which he dug the ground was eerie beyond measure. If anyone had seen him, they would have screamed and fled before calling for security. How long had he been digging like that? By now, the ground had been dug to the size just right to bury one person, enough for a single person. The man’s hand abruptly stopped. He looked down at the muddy soil for a moment before lifting his gaze to the darker sky above. His hand, covered in black soil, had several nails missing and was bleeding, and his clothes were worn out. Now, he looked up at the sky rather than the ground. How long had passed while he looked up at the sky instead of the ground? Tch, thud. Somewhere, a bug’s crying could be heard, followed by the owl flying up, and the bug fell silent. The man’s fingers twitched. He turned his neck as if he were not human, looking at the death of the bug, which was invisible to his eyes. Eventually, his mouth split open, almost reaching his ears. He seemed to be laughing, but he was crying. Tears poured down his cheeks stained with dark spots, but the stains didn’t seem to fade away. Eventually, a sob-like voice flowed out of his wide-open mouth.
“Have mercy, O God.”
The man was genuinely praying for mercy. It’s just that the ‘God’ he sought wasn’t the ‘Gods’ spread across the continent. His God was an ancient deity that had been said to exist on the continent since ancient times. Not even the shape or name of the deity was properly remembered. Only the fact that this deity was much more powerful than the gods currently worshiped was passed down. And the man needed that strength. Desperately.
“Oh, God.”
Did the man’s call for the nameless god receive a response? Thud. As the owl flew up again, the moon, which had been briefly hidden behind the clouds, revealed its face. Moonlight fell around the man who fervently prayed. Underneath the hole with a foul stench of dirt gaping, there lay a human. No, it was a corpse. Joy filled the man’s face, which had been shrouded in darkness where nothing could be seen a moment ago.
“Oh, God.”
He hit his forehead against the ground, calling out to countless gods and more. And when the moon disappeared behind the clouds again, the man’s eyes suddenly rolled strangely in their sockets. He crawled up the hole like a spider and reached out to the corpse. As his hook-like hand grabbed the corpse’s clothes and dragged it, the corpse rolled down into the pit. The man, who had been silently staring at the corpse, murmured tenderly.
“Just a little more.”
Just a little more, really. It was a fierce, almost violent desire. But desire is just desire. Now, the person who knew better than anyone else that the ritual of sacrifice had reached its limit was the man himself. Only ten or twenty sacrifices had been offered in the man’s hands so far. Now, as the rumors surrounding the area where he had searched and captured sacrifices became ominous, it became difficult to find sacrifices unless he killed someone. “This won’t be enough,” he muttered as he touched the loot from the corpse, making a scratching sound with his finger as the blood clots fell off his fingers.
“But the gods will always show the way.”
Eventually, the man scratched away the bloodstains on his face and sang a slow tune with a leisurely hum.
“Hm, hm, hm, hm.”
Contrary to the eerie situation that could induce vomiting, cheerful humming reminiscent of a spring outing echoed through the fetid night.
* * *
Some time had passed since the abrupt continental meeting ended. However, rumors about the empire’s sole princess being infatuated with an unnamed knight from the Norden Kingdom she saw at the continental meeting showed no signs of abating. On the contrary…
“We may be able to find someone with a similar face.”
“Find him! Find someone similar for now and place him somewhere noticeable to the princess!”
Whether it was to find someone similar to Craeyer to catch the princess’s eye…
“What’s his name? No, his name doesn’t matter. Go and find out everything about that knight. Especially his likes!”
There were also moves to catch Craeyer’s eye in Olivia’s eyes. Naturally, even in the palace, so-called “knights” from foreign countries were moving around to catch Olivia’s eye.
“Can you tell me where the princess’s walking route is?”
A man, who anyone would say was handsome, smiled, revealing his white teeth. He was confident, but he began to make excuses even though he hadn’t been asked.
“Because the path the princess takes is sure to be the most beautiful and spectacular, I want to go there if I go for a walk.”
The blond knight said so and sprinkled the servant with the smile he was most confident in. The servant blinked at him, and the knight leaned closer to her.
“I don’t have any other intentions. I just want to go for a walk.”
As the sweet voice sounded near her ear, the servant’s cheeks turned red, and the knight soon assured her that he would return. However, what came back was a completely unexpected answer.
“Come with me.”
Although he heard the answer, the blond knight did not understand it right away.
“Let’s go! For a walk!”
The servant of the palace, or more precisely, the servant of the princess’s palace, shouted with a bright smile. Not only did she shout, but she also grabbed the hem of the knight’s sleeve and pulled him vigorously.
“Why, why are you…?”
Although the bewildered knight took a step back, the servant approached him even more, smiling brightly.
“You said you wanted to go for a walk. I’m just trying to show you the way, what’s wrong with that? I’ll take you to the path the princess especially likes.”
The servant dragged the bewildered knight, who had lost his words, and similar incidents were happening all over the palace. Olivia’s walking route, her favorite food, favorite music, and preferred artworks. The knights from other countries were desperate to get even a piece of the princess’s attention in order to sit next to her. It was a fierce struggle akin to a brutal battle, no different from a rough fight.
* * *
While the blond knight was awkwardly walking along the promenade with the servant.
“Uh, okay.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Good. Let’s continue like this in the future.”
As Olivia nodded her head, the servant bowed deeply and disappeared. She began to organize documents meticulously, with an expression not of dislike, but rather of satisfaction. There were so many documents, not only about the affairs of the empire but also about the situations in other countries, that the amount was immeasurable. Olivia started to quickly scan through the documents with a proud expression. She had learned from her experiences of dying four times in the continental war. One of the things she learned was the importance of “information.” Knowing is power, as the saying passed down from generation to generation in the Bolshevik family lineage, but she had never truly felt it until before she died for the first time.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen someone enjoy their work so much.”
As Olivia’s hand, flipping through the documents, paused at the faint voice that seemed to echo deep in the hall. In Olivia’s eyes as she looked at Craeyer, who was leisurely stroking the sword handle, an indescribable emotion stirred. It was understandable. Olivia hadn’t enjoyed work like ordinary people did before she returned. No, even now, except for collecting and extracting information, it was more like she had to do everything. Just because she had experienced death four times, she could enjoy anything related to survival.
“Princess, princess?”
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Translator Note:
This chapter was translated by Bree.
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