Chapter 128. Fragments of Memory
Seeing the undead felled by Herdin's magic, Kaligo swiftly ran toward the carriage.
Though it would take some time for them to recover, undead do not die from magic. He had to seize the carriage before they rose again.
Meanwhile, Herdin, who had approached Blair's group, dismounted and immediately checked on Blair's condition first.
"Are you hurt anywhere?"
Blair blankly looked up at him as he strode up to her.
Upon seeing his face, the strength drained from her body, which had been frozen with tension. At the same time, she found herself laughing at her own reaction.
To feel relieved and want to lean on the very man she had pushed away—what a weak-hearted fool she was. Her own calculating nature disgusted her.
"I'm fine—"
But contrary to her words, Blair fainted before she could even finish her sentence.
"Blair!"
Herdin quickly caught the collapsing Blair. As he rapidly scanned her condition, he discovered a bite wound from an undead on her arm and furrowed his brow.
The wound wasn't deep, but injuries caused by undead were dangerous because the flesh would rot if not quickly treated with holy water or divine power.
The reason for her fainting seemed less likely to be the wound itself and more likely the sudden release of tension from the shock of this incident.
For someone who had likely never seen such unholy things in her life to experience this while pregnant—it grated on his nerves.
"Your Excellency!"
Just then, Kaligo, who had gone to seize the carriage, approached.
Herdin loaded the unconscious Blair and the maid into the carriage and gave Kaligo instructions.
"When we return to the mansion, summon the priest there to treat the wounds, and call a doctor to check on the lady's condition."
He didn't want to accept Miela's help of all people, but now wasn't the time to be picky about such things.
Kaligo looked at him with worried eyes and asked.
"What will you do, Your Excellency?"
Herdin gestured with his chin toward one side and spoke.
"I need to block their path."
In the direction he indicated, the undead that had been struck down by magic were rising again. There were too many of them to simply evade without killing them.
"......Understood. Please be careful."
Kaligo immediately drove the carriage out of the plaza. At that moment, the newly risen undead began chasing after the carriage.
Seeing this, Herdin hardened his expression.
'Is it just my imagination, or are the undead targeting Blair?'
A possibility flashed through his mind, but he had no time to think deeply about it.
Herdin plunged his sword into the ground to cast a magic that would wipe out the undead chasing the carriage in one blow. A massive magic circle spread out centered on the sword. As it was a wide-area magic with a broad range, a much larger amount of mana was mobilized.
But as soon as he felt the flow of mana coursing through his body, a familiar headache struck.
"Ugh......"
This time, a horrific pain severe enough to momentarily steal his breath away crashed over him.
Along with that pain, the unidentified memories that had occasionally visited him surfaced all at once in rapid succession.
'Of all times, now......'
Herdin clenched his teeth, gripped his sword tighter, and continued channeling mana.
At that, the enormous mana inherent in his body undulated dangerously, and a black magic circle of dark light manifested on his back.
It was a black magic circle connecting the second restriction.
Herdin sensed something unusual in the mana flow, but he did not halt the activation of the magic. The surging mana amplified to the point where it could slip from his control at any moment.
Just as Herdin finally manifested the magic circle and was about to unleash the magic—
The undead that had been chasing the carriage and attacking people collapsed en masse.
Herdin let out a hollow laugh at the sudden change in circumstances and stared at the scene before him.
"What in the world......"
The undead that had been running amok just moments ago lay scattered about. Like puppets in a puppet show whose strings had been cut.
* * *
A dagger flew out of the darkness.
Gerard, who had been concentrating on his dark magic, sensed the sign and dodged the dagger by a hair's breadth.
The sharply honed dagger grazed past his shoulder, and the blood-red dark magic circle that had been illuminating the dark basement lost its light and deactivated.
Gerard glared into the darkness with piercing eyes.
There was only one entrance to the basement, and the outside was guarded by dark mages. The fact that an intruder had gotten past them and reached the basement meant they were a formidable opponent capable of subduing all of them.
"Who are you?"
As his voice echoed through the basement, a man wearing a black robe emerged from the darkness.
"I finally get to meet you."
Walking out leisurely, he removed his robe's hood.
Beneath the hood, vivid green eyes revealed themselves even in the darkness. Those coldly settled eyes resembled Gerard's.
"Father."
At the title that spilled from Mikhail's lips, Gerard's pupils began to shake violently.
Only then did it come back to him.
The stain on his life that he had forgotten—no, that he thought he had erased over ten years ago.
"How did you......?"
Mikhail was born in a brothel.
Like most children of the brothel, he grew up not knowing who his father was.
Then, the year he turned ten. When his mother was on the verge of death from illness, she went to find Gerard, worried about the son she would leave behind.
But that day, instead of the mother Mikhail had been waiting for late into the night, an assassin came for him.
A ruthless blade of paternity pierced the child.
However, at the moment death came for him, miraculously manifested divine power healed Mikhail.
The divine power inherited from the father saved the child who nearly died by the father's hand. What an exquisite contradiction.
His mother, whom he had waited for even as he lay dying, was found as a corpse by the river the next day. Cause of death: accidental fall.
On the day his mother went to meet his father, an assassin came, and she returned as a cold corpse.
That his father was involved in her death was something even a ten-year-old child could deduce. It was simply a reality he didn't want to accept.
Mikhail rummaged through drawers and discovered his father's identity. He was said to be a priest of the temple.
There was so much he wanted to ask his heartless father.
Why did you kill my mother? She would have died soon anyway even if you hadn't killed her.
Why did you try to kill me? If you had just left me alone, I would have lived as if you never existed for the rest of my life......
Mikhail, spewing grievances he could never voice, fled the capital without even being able to hold his mother's funeral.
From the threat of death, and from the murderous desire to kill his father.
With his current strength, he couldn't take revenge on his father. Appearing before him would only result in a meaningless death.
So first, he had to survive.
Having survived thus, Mikhail became the master of a guild and gathered information about Gerard. It was then that he learned of his connection to the Delmark Ducal House as well.
But he never imagined that his father would have killed Duke Delmark, nor that he was planning to kill Herdin using the same method.
He only began to suspect the truth when he investigated Kaligo at Blair's request, and learned the exact facts after acquiring Esmeralda's documents.
Mikhail, having hidden that truth, tried to turn Blair's heart and undo the imprint between the two, but failed.
However, there was one more way to break the imprint.
An imprint ultimately formed through dark magic.
All magic is canceled if the caster is killed. In other words......
'If I kill the Pope, the imprint will be severed as well.'
Mikhail intuited it.
That this was the way to achieve his revenge and the only path to pay the price for hiding the truth from Blair.
He drew his sword, approached Gerard, and said in a low voice.
"I've come to erase the greatest stain of my life."
Just as you did to me and my mother.
* * *
"This way."
Miela, who had received an urgent summons, crossed over to the annex with Ruth.
Ruth led her straight to the bedroom. There lay Blair, unconscious.
"Then...... I'll leave her in your hands, Priest."
As Ruth, who couldn't remain long in a noblewoman's bedroom, was about to leave, Miela grabbed him.
"Has the Duke not returned?"
"He's dealing with the undead in the plaza, so it seems it will take some time. He should return soon."
The news that undead had appeared in the plaza had already thrown the Nerha Lord's mansion into an uproar, so Miela was aware of it as well.
"I see...... I should finish treating the lady and go provide support as well."
"If you would do that, it would be a great help to everyone. Then, I'll leave her in your care."
After Ruth left, Miela immediately approached Blair. The maids who had been nursing her quietly stepped back.
Miela found the wound on Blair's arm at a glance. The surface was already beginning to rot slightly. Rotten flesh could not be treated with healing magic.
Miela took a medical dagger from her bosom, lightly excised the wound, and immediately used healing magic.
But the wound did not heal.
'What? Why isn't the healing magic working—'
Feeling puzzled, Miela examined Blair's condition and discovered a magic circle emitting a vivid red light near her collarbone.
'What is this......?'
Miela's pupils shook violently as she realized what it was.
Around the time Miela had just finished treating Blair with stronger divine power, the door opened and Herdin entered. He dismissed the maids who were on standby.
"I'll stay here, so all of you may leave."
After the maids left, Herdin stumbled toward the bed. After heavily channeling mana in the plaza, unknown memories were surfacing in fragments along with a horrific headache.
What drove him to overcome that pain and confusion and make it here was solely the will to confirm Blair's safety.
Miela, finding his condition suspicious, strode up to him.
"Your Excellency, are you alright? Your complexion—"
Herdin avoided Miela's hand reaching for him and checked Blair's condition first.
"Blair...... no. How is the lady's condition?"
"I excised the rotten flesh and healed the wound. She should be fine as far as injuries go."
Hearing Miela's words, Herdin finally breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed onto the bed as if falling. Just as he was about to tell her to leave, Miela spoke first.
"More importantly, are you aware of it as well, Your Excellency?"
"......Of what?"
"The dark magic circle on the lady's body."
"......Dark magic circle?"
"I don't know much about dark magic, but it seems to be a dark magic related to mana...... If you stay by the lady's side, it might affect your mana as well."
As Miela spoke, the red magic circle engraved on Blair's collarbone began to resonate with his mana.
Then, a unfamiliar memory that had surfaced once before manifested in Herdin's mind.
'You must stay away from the Duchess. If you remain by her side, you too will......'
Starting with that, countless memories flooded back. Along with them, emotions began to surge wildly.
'What in the world are these memories......'
Herdin clamped his hand over his mouth, clenching his teeth to suppress the rising nausea. Amid the torrent of memories rushing in like a broken dam, Blair's face smiling at him vividly came to mind.
The moment he recalled her face, Herdin intuited it.
These were all his memories. Ones he had temporarily forgotten.