Chapter 110
Sylbian.
She was so vigorous that it was hard to believe she was an elder over a hundred years old.
Even at a generous glance, she looked to be only in her sixties.
"An utterly useless old woman is actually making me happy for once."
"His Holiness the Pope is..."
"He must be wandering around my illusion array. It's an array devised solely to trap him, so he will never be able to escape. Don't worry, rest comfortably."
Sylbian's illusion array.
The one who researched holy relics, exponentially increased the potential of alchemy, and established a path of formations akin to magic known as Divine Arts was precisely Sylbian.
Even that magnificent Pope was trapped in her array, unable to do anything.
The Pope himself was proving just how incredible her skills were.
"You spoke of my death, did you?"
"Yes. I did."
"Don't take it harshly. I'm simply asking out of pure curiosity."
"Yes."
"When will I die?"
She seemed to have already attained enlightenment regarding death.
Her beaming smile was mischievous, as if she were playing a prank on a small child.
But I could not laugh.
"Someone close to you will appear. And you will die."
As early as tomorrow, by the day after at the latest.
She will die.
"I see."
She was calm.
How could she be so calm?
Knowing that she herself will die.
"What will happen when I die?"
"The Kingdom will be attacked."
"Oh my, how?"
"The moment your death is noticed, a civil war will break out in the royal palace."
But the civil war is not important.
What's important is what comes after.
"After that, massive spears will fly in using the beacon of the Empire's holy relic planted within the Kingdom."
That was a sort of beacon.
A pillar of light will rise from those massive spears, and the Empire's troops will appear in droves.
The Kingdom, unable to handle the Empire's Masters and troops, will flee.
And the Empire's army waiting at the border will swarm in, Carpe will be occupied, and placed under the Empire's control.
Eventually, it will lose its legitimacy, be absorbed by the Empire, and Carpe will disappear.
"I see. The Empire could certainly do that. Have you told anyone about this?"
"No. They wouldn't believe it."
"Right. You did well. Even if you told them, let alone believing it, they would just call you crazy."
Upon hearing my words, Sylbian seemed to ponder what she should do.
She seemed to entirely believe my words.
The words of someone she had just met for the first time.
Even as I spoke, I found it a bit absurd.
"Do you believe me?"
"Of course? Are you lying?"
"I'm not, but..."
"You don't look like you're telling lies, either. And you have no reason to."
"Even so..."
"I also used to make prophecies from time to time. I had memories punctured like dreams, and I saw many clearer futures. Why did I see such things? I still don't quite know. But usually, when one knows the future, they try to change it. In that respect, you and I are no different, so I believe you."
As expected.
Or should I say, she truly is Sylbian.
She is far from ordinary.
"What happens after that?"
"The Prince goes on a rampage."
"In a good way?"
"In a bad way. Because of his existence, the Kingdom will suffer a massive blow."
"Then what should I do?"
"I don't know either."
I had never established such a thing.
Her death was a given.
There was nothing Sylbian could do.
The reason I was telling her these facts was also the same.
'Because she's going to die.'
She was the starting point of the civil war.
And simultaneously, the precursor to the Empire's invasion.
Nevertheless, there was only one reason I came to see her.
"There is something I want."
"Speak."
"Please give me the Reverse Scale."
Sylbian looked truly surprised.
"You really do know everything."
"I only know what I know. I don't know everything."
"What a pity. If only I had met you sooner, there would have been so much I could have done."
"......"
I agreed with that.
I didn't know we would communicate so well.
If we had met earlier...
'Never mind. It's already in the past.'
Back then, no matter what I did, meeting Sylbian would have been near impossible.
Even meeting her like this today could be considered a miracle.
"The Reverse Scale. The reason you need it?"
"I must stop the Prince."
"Alright, I shall give it to you."
She didn't ask anything else.
She must have protected the Reverse Scale her whole life.
The Reverse Scale I asked for was that of the Berserk Dragon that attacked the Kingdom hundreds of years ago.
She must have spent her entire life protecting and researching it. To think she would give it up so easily when I asked for it.
"One thing. May I make a request?"
"Yes."
Sylbian handed me a thick book she had kept in her embrace.
"Please take care of Esther."
I received the book and shook my head.
"...Esther and I are not in that kind of relationship."
"I know."
"Then why..."
"Because you will be able to protect her. I just had that feeling."
Saying so, Sylbian looked at the book and nodded.
So I immediately opened the book.
And there lay the Reverse Scale.
Its majestic form was nested within a deeply carved groove.
To think she kept the Reverse Scale stored like this.
I hadn't imagined it.
"How will you use the Reverse Scale? I've kept it my whole life, but I could never figure out how to use it."
"I will eat it."
"With such a simple method?"
Normally, it would be impossible to eat.
Even if it's a Reverse Scale, it is hard and tough.
Even if one somehow managed to swallow it, let alone digesting it, they would simply die.
A dragon's scales are harmful to humans.
But I can do it.
"One last thing."
"Speak."
"Please cast a Divine Art on me."
"What kind? Where?"
"Here, a restraint."
I pointed to my heart.
* * *
Creak. Thud.
After finishing the conversation with Callius.
Sylbian opened the door wide.
"It's been a while, Sylbian."
"Yes, it has been a while."
She withdrew the illusion array and led Felice inside.
"What made you allow it? You've been saying you didn't want to see my face for decades."
"I brought a child I wanted to meet, and I heard something interesting."
"Something interesting?"
"That I'm going to die."
Felice's face crumpled for a moment.
But it soon turned indifferent.
"Is there anyone who doesn't die? Everyone dies. You die, I die. No one lives for eternity. Even the giants and dragons who lived for so long eventually died, right?"
Everyone dies.
It's just a natural occurrence.
Death is a natural thing.
It exists for everyone, always breathing beside them.
We just always deny it.
"So, while we're alive and breathing, shouldn't we think carefully about how to live? That's why I'm saying this, Sylbian."
"Yes."
"I'm thinking of quitting being the Pope."
"Are you now."
"I'm going to quit and live with you."
"...I don't want to, though?"
Smack. The Pope smacked his lips awkwardly.
"Don't be like that. Haven't we passed the age to be so stubborn?"
"I have work to do."
"Work? What have you been doing lately other than lying down?"
"Your Holiness."
Sylbian's brows furrowed.
"Ahem, I told you I'm quitting the papacy? Call me Felice like the old days."
"Sir Felice."
"Why so stiff with the 'Sir'?"
"You already abandoned me once. What right do you have to say that? I told you not to become the Pope."
You didn't listen to me and just insisted on your own way.
"It's all in the past."
"If you had listened to me, we would have had a child between us, and I would have seen a granddaughter. Thanks to you always causing trouble, it wouldn't have been peaceful, but I still would have led a somewhat happy life."
That was why.
That was why I hated you.
And so, I didn't see your face.
"Right, it's late, but even now..."
"A day that has passed never comes again. Please leave."
"Vianne."
Sylbian turned her head away completely.
If she kept looking at him.
She would truly want to live.
* * *
A moment later.
Another man's shadow fell over Sylbian's room after the Pope had withdrawn.
A middle-aged man with his hood pulled up.
He pulled down his pure white hood and called out to her with a sorrowful voice.
"Mother."
"There are a lot of guests today. You're already the third man. To be this popular even at my age... what a tiresome life, right?"
"I must hear your answer now."
The man, ignoring her playful question, was intent on hearing his own answer.
"Alhamtra."
Alhamtra du Rohan Valus.
He was the boy called the Archbishop of the Order.
"The child who visited earlier told me you were coming. He even told me of my death. Therefore, I cannot give you an answer."
"...Have your thoughts still not changed?"
"How could they be? What change could there be for someone who is about to die?"
"I will prevent your death. The Empire is prepared for it."
Empire. That damn Empire.
How did this child change so much?
Time was truly heartless.
Why do men have such a lack of conviction?
The old bastard and the less old bastard were all the same.
"It is not a life that holds more value by living it longer."
But Alhamtra shook his head as if to absolutely disagree.
"Mother, you are more valuable than anyone else in the Kingdom. One of the reasons the Empire covets the Kingdom is precisely because of you. Have you not fought the Corrupted more fiercely than anyone, and for your entire life? The Empire will unify the continent and annihilate the Corrupted. The story of that mythical campaign! The end of the Corrupted! You will be the one to write it!"
Sylbian let out a small sigh.
"I raised you like a son."
"And I have thought of you as my mother my entire life."
It was still vivid if she closed her eyes.
Bringing the crying child from the corrupted land to the Order, feeding and clothing him.
The one who said he would live for Carpe and the Order had grown in body, but he no longer had the same eyes.
"But now, I do not want to think of you as my son."
"Mother...!"
"My answer is refusal."
"Carpe is already finished. Why do you care so much for a doomed nation..."
"You must have incited the nobles."
"Yes, Carpe will be engulfed in civil war. And..."
"The Empire's knights will come."
"What extraordinary insight."
The fact that he still came to her despite that meant...
"And you came to drag me away no matter what."
"I came to escort you."
"Right. I understand now."
Now she felt she could somewhat understand that child's words. She felt like she knew of her own death.
"What do you..."
"I chose my own death."
In an instant, Sylbian drew her sword.
Her sword that she had spent her entire life with.
"...Mother?"
The Archbishop's face went blank.
But the sword she raised...
She plunged into her own heart.
Squelch!
"Motheeer!!"
The Archbishop's scream rang out.
It was an unstoppable speed.
How could she plunge a sword into her own heart so without hesitation!
"Ah, why! Why!!"
The Archbishop shed tears of sorrow.
He had never imagined she would stab her own heart.
Sylbian, of all people.
His own mother.
"Because... my death... will protect Carpe..."
"Why!! Why do you throw away your life for a crumbling, ruined nation!"
"Whether it crumbles, whether it's a ruined nation, this place is my home. Just as your home is me."
My son.
Alhamtra caught the collapsing Sylbian and, shedding tears, slowly laid her on the bed.
"......"
Sylbian's hand, losing its warmth.
Grasping it, Alhamtra's arm trembled.
"...Did you love Carpe that much?"
Enough to throw away her life so casually. Enough to choose death right in front of the one who called her mother,
"A long time ago, you told me."
That if she ever died.
I should follow in her footsteps and stop the demons.
"I will bring down Carpe today. That is my path to carrying on your will."
There was nowhere left to retreat.
Carpe would fall today.
* * *
"So it is as I thought."
Callius gripped the Empire's holy relic that had been secretly hidden.
The holy relic, shaped like a massive hexagonal shield, looked somewhat like a turtle's shell.
"The Empire's arrival is inevitable."
They were already prepared.
The Empire was deeply rooted within the Kingdom, and the one trying to throw the doors open to the Empire was the Archbishop, a member of the state's leadership.
Even if Callius was a Count, there were limits to what he could stop.
At first, he had tried to prevent this, but he soon had to understand.
[Scenario Quest]
『Civil War of the Carpe Dynasty』
Progress - 99.5%
A number that didn't decrease no matter how much he tried to stop it.
Seeing the percentage climbing steeply instead, Callius was certain.
No matter what he did, the civil war was unavoidable.
He couldn't stop the Empire from coming, and the nation being engulfed in war was no different from fate.
"I've done everything I could."
He had prepared as best as he could, so he could only pray that he hadn't twisted things too much.
"It's a rebellion!!"
Screams erupted from all directions.
But Callius ignored them and pushed through the crowd.
"S-Sylbian has!"
"Sylbian has passed away!!"
Callius's eyes grew heavy.
But he paid it no mind and stepped forward. He walked through the throng of people as if swimming against the current.
His destination was the very place everyone was fleeing from.
The royal palace, where the rebellion had erupted.
The rebellion had broken out, and even Sylbian had died, but what was happening today was merely a precursor.
"Is it coming."
Swiiiiish!
Like meteors falling from the sky.
Five massive spears dyeing the night sky red crashed down upon the royal palace.
Booooom!!
The earth-shaking bombardment of the massive spears.
And along with the divine power flowing from the bizarre spears.
Thoom!!
A red beam of light formed like a pillar supporting the sky.
Clank. Clank.
Knights wielding spears emerged from within that pillar of light, and they all...
"For God Lactus!!"
Cried out the name of their god.
The Empire's invasion had begun.