◈ Episode 417. Pandora’s Box (2)
It was the moment the Emperor’s afterimage and voice flowed through my vision.
Tap-tap—!
Along with hurried footsteps, an urgent voice rang out.
“Captain Harkon!”
Should I call this a blessing in disguise……?
Yessica.
It seemed she had discovered something in the imperial palace.
At that moment, Harkon’s gaze turned to me.
The Emperor’s afterimage and voice were only valid for me, the one who had manifested it.
Now I feel needlessly guilty.
At around that point, I withdrew the manifestation of 『True Illusion』.
What question had he asked the former Emperor’s library, said to provide answers to every question, for the Emperor to say he had kept it completely hidden? And just what kind of answer had it been?
For him to smile so brightly at the very last moment……!‘This is deeply ominous.’With this, I had one more reason not to die an untimely death.
Because I did not have the courage to face the Emperor after dying.
At least.‘Until I can become indifferent to this dark history.’I had to survive fiercely, for the Emperor’s share as well.
It was the moment I made that vow.
Someone’s groan reached my ears.
“W-What in the world are these ghastly things?”
A guest room in the imperial palace.
Officials had gathered at its entrance.
Harkon spoke in a booming voice.
“Would everyone please make way?”
“Ooh, Captain Harkon!”
“They say this is the guest room where Pride stayed.”
Yessica’s guidance.
Following behind Harkon, I also stepped into the guest room.
For a demon, you sure have a lot of nerve, Pride.
He must have deceived the Emperor while being entertained in a place like this.
Harkon gritted his teeth.
“What a vicious insult.”
Blood smeared across the exterior wall of the guest room.
The vast wall was almost completely covered in blood. Whether it was the blood of a beast, a human, or a demon, I could not tell……. But merely looking at it was enough to make negative emotions surge up.
Matisse responded to Harkon’s anger-laced mutter.
“It is a curse that goes beyond an insult.”
As expected, you recognize it, Matisse.
Well, it was hardly surprising.
Back when Matisse wandered the Arcana Continent to establish black magic studies, he must have witnessed curses like this often. Of course, there would have been differences in the strength of the curses.
A mage of the healing school.
Bellier was naturally accustomed to blood.
Thanks to that, as though she felt no revulsion.
Bellier, who had been examining it closely, opened her mouth.
“These don’t seem to be letters used on the continent.”
“To think he insulted not only His Majesty, but even the imperial palace.”
“It is not a simple insult. A curse always contains intent.”
At Matisse’s final words, I nodded.
“That is correct. A curse is a message containing impure intent.”
From repeat quests back when Arcana was nothing more than a game.
To the curse left behind by the elder mage who had been a demon worshiper.
And [Understanding of Darkness]
as well.
Having experienced them firsthand, I was somewhat familiar with curses.
By now, I could tell at a glance.
Thanks to that, I answered with my usual overflowing confidence.
“However, this is not a message left for the Emperor, nor for you.”
“Then?”
“It is a message left for me.”
“……!”
Because it had been written clearly on the message flickering before me since earlier.[Curse: My One and Only Blood Kin]
Granfell, you absolutely cannot accept this, can you?
Being grouped together as Claudi with a guy like this, I mean.
But do not feel too wronged.
Because my mood is just as foul.
I heard the officials whispering among themselves.
“The length is different, but the hair is exactly the same.”
“A-Are they truly of the same Claudi clan?”
“He might know something about that man……?”
Harkon’s brow twisted.
The corners of his mouth twitched as though he were about to thunder at them at once.
However, my loose tongue was a little faster.
I looked toward the officials.
“You are correct.”
“……
A-As expected!!”
“He, too, was a Claudi.”
I added clearly.
“At the same time, he is a traitor of Claudi and a high criminal who colluded with the Empire’s previous emperor and drove Claudi to destruction. Of course, now, he is nothing more than my prey.”
“?!”
The previous emperor.
I was referring not to the Emperor served by Harkon and the officials here, but the emperor of the generation before that. Yes, there was a time difference between reality and the Arcana Continent, wasn’t there?‘It was more than ten years ago in real time when I was suffering from eighth-grade syndrome.’In Arcana Continent time, it had been several decades ago.
Anyway, with a single sentence, I had completely overturned the atmosphere. The suspicious looks directed toward me vanished, and now everyone looked as though they had no idea where to focus their eyes.
Of course, Harkon was no exception.
“Even while knowing that fact, Sir…….”
No, it’s not like you should misunderstand it that way either.‘The thing is.’I had not known from the very beginning either. Why, I had expected that countless forces had been involved in the destruction of Claudi. But it was only recently that I heard the concrete story.
—“Please forgive me for standing by, Dark Dragon.”
The hatchling who loved to chatter.
Through that fledgling, Prosnax.
After hearing everything, I understood.‘Indeed, unless the Empire permitted it.’The Shadow Mercenary Corps, public enemies that they were, could not have roamed the Arcana Continent openly in broad daylight, and Scavengers could not have moved around in swarms.
Emilio had also said something about it in passing.
—“Even if the Empire, the continent, and the world abandoned Claudi, I was told from long ago that we Scavengers alone must not betray Claudi.”
But naturally.
Harkon and the others could not know what was in my heart.
Somehow, the looks they were giving me were all extraordinary.‘……
This is burdensome, truly.’Their gazes were as though they were looking beyond a magnanimous man, toward a saint.
Was I saying that I did not consider past grudges?
That I was showing mercy when taking revenge would not have been enough?
How prideful.‘Well, that must be the kind of nonsense they’re thinking.’One might have been embarrassed.
But this iron hide of mine did not even register it.
As always, I merely stated the main point calmly.
“I ask for your understanding. I would like to be alone for now.”
Was it because of the bombshell declaration I had just made?
Including Harkon, Matisse, and Bellier.
Not a single person complained as they withdrew from the guest room.
The reason I suddenly declared that I wanted to be alone was simple. I had to purify this curse that looked ominous just by looking at it, didn’t I? In the process, there was no telling what I would see or what nonsense I would spout.‘Why, even within Understanding of Darkness last time.’I had to kill them all.
The memory of muttering that so brutally was still vivid.
I refused to invite unnecessary misunderstandings one after another.
Click—I immediately approached the curse Pride had left behind.[You are entering the curse, ‘My One and Only Blood Kin.’]
“Never again speak of blood ties with that foul mouth.”
I responded to the flickering message in an icy voice.
“Vermin.”*Was it not dangerous?
Let me ask you in return.
When had I ever not been in danger?‘It was a hair-trigger situation from the very beginning, so what’s new?’I was the one who had somehow survived upright even while fighting demons several times higher in level than I was. So even within an unfamiliar curse, I was not confused.
I could look directly at it.
Pride.
At the man from his human days, from whom I could not sense even the slightest scent of a demon.
By the way, the background was familiar. Looking at it now, it looked exactly like the Claudi mansion restored through reversal magic. I was watching Pride climb the stairs inside the Claudi mansion.
Step, step.
Pride, who had been heading upstairs, suddenly looked at me.
“Congratulations, Granfell.”
Congratulations?
I wondered if something good had happened.
But at the words that followed, I flinched.
“My beloved younger brother.”
As expected, he really was the elder in the family line?
So he had held a grudge against Granfell, who had been chosen as the next head of the house.
And then committed something outrageous.‘Perhaps I might be able to grasp a concrete clue.’I had only just steadied my heart.
Beneath the pouring moonlight.
His silver hair shone even more brilliantly.
Pride continued speaking.
“However, I cannot help but feel doubt. Whether you can truly bear the weight of Claudi, that is. My younger brother, what do you think?”
Look at the way that bastard talks.
I do not know how many years older he was than Granfell.
But I, Lee Hoyeol, had three elder sisters.
I could distinguish between love-hate and plain hatred with frightening accuracy.‘His words are gentle, but the meaning inside is blatantly obvious, isn’t it?’If it were me, older brother or not, I would have talked back.
Was it to observe that damned decorum even in the past?
Granfell answered politely.
“I will bear it.”
Yes, even if I conceded a hundred times, if your younger sibling answered like that.
Then tell him to do his best.
Even empty words of encouragement would have been natural.
“Bear it? Hahahaha!”
That insolent bastard was laughing so hard he nearly lost his breath.
“Unlike usual, you even know how to joke. No, perhaps now that you have taken the position of the next head of the house, that composure allows such words to slip out naturally?”
Granfell did not answer.
Neither did I.
There was no need to answer, was there?
Because Pride’s temperament was exactly as expected.
It seemed the silence displeased him.
“I quite like that look in your eyes as you glare at me as well, Granfell. Yes, perhaps the one with the qualities more fitting to become the head of Claudi than I is you.”
The smile vanished from his face in an instant.
“However, keep this in mind, younger brother. You know nothing. The weight Claudi bears. You know nothing of that cruel burden.”
I do not know about anything else, but this one sentence felt sincere.
Past Granfell must have felt the same.
Granfell’s mouth opened.
“Even so, I will bear it.”
Of course, there were no further words. Pride, too, seemed to realize at that point that there was no point in speaking with Granfell any longer. Soon, Pride climbed the stairs and added briefly.
“You are ever arrogant, Granfell.”...[You have purified the curse, ‘My One and Only Blood Kin.’][Your relationship with Akshan has increased.][Your influence within Akshan has increased.]
I recalled Matisse’s words.
Every curse contained intent.
Good, let us think about the examiner’s intent.‘It is not as though he is trying to sell me memories at this point.’Then it was simple.‘Is he warning me of the trials and storms that will befall me from now on?’The weight of Claudi, so cruel that it could not be borne.
Now that I had declared Claudi’s return to the Arcana Continent. I could not even guess how the aftermath would come back to me. But even so, I had no intention whatsoever of shrinking back according to your intent, Pride.
I, Lee Hoyeol.
Whether I intended it or not, thanks to struggling desperately to survive.
Granfell was no longer alone.
It was different from “that day” when he had been abandoned by the continent.
It meant there were allies who would stand with him even through harsh trials and storms.
So this time, it was my turn to set a question.
Pride, who had left Antonium in ruins and departed.
To the bastard who was watching from somewhere.
I meant to return it to him with intent of my own.
“It amounts to nothing but a meaningless act.”
I murmured while looking at the now spotless outer wall.
“In the past, in the present, and in the future.”*The overflowing thorny vines.
The buildings that had collapsed because of them were restored through reversal magic. The imperial mage, Nash, watched with his own two eyes and took notes on the structure of reversal magic, yet still could not believe it.
“B-Brother. Is this really the magic I know?!”
Bensh nodded slowly.
“Do not blame yourself, my younger brother. Even in the Magic Tower, only two mages understand reversal magic: the Chief and the Tower Master. It is not for nothing that it is evaluated as the most abstruse in the history of magic.”
“Even you do not understand it, Brother Bensh?!”
“……
Ahem, I cannot even exchange empty words in front of the Chief.”
A survivor of Dredsen.
Ransha looked at Hoyeol from a distance.
Suddenly, Gardner spoke to her.
“This reality is not so bad either, Ransha.”
“Isn’t it?”
“Yes, though it is a shame he is so far away…….”
Was that not only natural?
From the beginning, the fact that Hoyeol’s hand had reached Dredsen Village itself had been a miracle. Especially considering that villages and cities incomparably larger than Dredsen had been destroyed by demons.
Ransha clasped her hands again.‘Please, may the Goddess’s mercy be with you.’Soon, it was the moment she opened her eyes.
Had her earnest prayer been answered?
The Goddess was before her eyes.
No, to be exact.
“L-Lady Hiel?!”
At a glance, it would not have been strange to mistake her for a goddess. Hiel stood there with an elegant bearing. Hiel lightly nodded in response to Ransha’s greeting, then opened her mouth.
“My lord is curious.”
“About what?”
“Is everyone in Dredsen Village safe?”……
She had overlooked it.
Even if they were far away.
That person was watching over them from anywhere.
With a face overflowing with emotion, Ransha nodded.
“Yes, all thanks to him!!”
Antonium did not look as though it had been driven to the brink of collapse.
No matter what scheme had been plotted.
It seemed to say that it was meaningless.
Yes, as if nothing had happened at all.
The examiner’s intent was conveyed clearly.
“A single ray of light…….”
To Pride, of course.
“Is this really Antonium……?”
“Didn’t they say it was under lockdown and in the middle of a war?”
“A war? Isn’t this a festival?!”
And even to the players who had gathered late.
However, even in the midst of peace.
There was one person who had not forgotten the burden he bore.
It was Harkon.
“I have something to say to you.”
Once again, I am deeply sorry, Your Majesty.
However, all of this is for the Empire.
Please, I beg you, forgive this change of heart.
“From this moment on, the Lionheart Knights will follow His Majesty’s will.”
He continued speaking solemnly before the officials.
“We intend to enthrone the adventurer, Sir Lee Hoyeol, as the new Emperor of the Empire.”
“……!!!”
It was as though the sound of eyeballs rolling could be heard.