Chapter 184
Creak, click.
The door closed, and Emily's expression, following behind Callius, crumbled.
Various emotions were revealed on her face.
It was a face that didn't know what expression to make.
Callius's footsteps stopped.
In the middle of the dark corridor. As Emily flinched, nearly burying her face into Callius's back.
His voice made the candles flickering in the corridor tremble.
"You were with the Empire's saintess."
"Ah, yeah."
"What did you talk about?"
"N-nothing much. Just—Are you really my mother. Why can't you remember. Why did you abandon me. Why did you become the Empire's saintess. I asked things like that."
She was trying hard to act as if it was nothing.
Callius looked at his daughter with his usual expressionless face and answered.
"What did she say."
"She said she doesn't remember. She said she came to her senses after collapsing near the border, and was captured by the Imperial army but escaped. She said it was really hard because she was young and weak back then."
"I see."
"Is she really... my mother?"
"...."
Callius was silent for a long time.
Whoosh. Only the rough northern night wind seeped into the silence.
Emily waited in silence.
Blaming herself for asking a pointless question, she still waited. Even though she already knew the answer, she wanted a definite confirmation.
Because she didn't know what to do.
Because she didn't know what was right and wrong.
Even though she thought she knew the way of the sword, the way of family was also awkward for Emily.
At least in matters like this, she wanted to rely on her only father.
Unlike on the battlefield, at times like this, that expressionless face was quite annoying.
"What a parent is, is decided by the child. It is not for the parent to decide."
"......I decide?"
"Yes."
Can one be called a parent just because they gave birth? Just because they raised? Callius thought not.
Callius birthed Emily but did not truly birth her, raised her but did not truly raise her.
If asked whether he truly had the qualification to be called a parent, he could not answer easily.
And regardless of how things turned out.
Whatever the reason may have been.
"She is the one who abandoned you and left."
She is also the one who has become the saintess of an enemy nation. Whether to treat her as a mother.
Or as an enemy, was up to Emily.
Emily clenched her trembling fists and asked back. Looking up at Callius with sparkling eyes.
"What about you, Dad? No, Father? Father, didn't you miss the Saintess?"
"...."
"You loved each other, right? Isn't that why you had me?"
Emily's earnestness reflected in Callius's gray eyes.
Eyes that would be hurt if told otherwise.
Even if she hadn't received her parents' love, they were eyes that wanted to hear that she was a child born from love.
Even though she seemed so mature, a child is still a child, perhaps.
'No, no matter how much one ages, wanting to be loved is the same for everyone, perhaps.'
Callius raised his head and cast his gaze at the door where she would be.
After looking for a long time, he met Emily's gaze and nodded.
"Yes. It was love."
"T-then...!"
But Callius shook his head.
"If she cannot remember, that is enough."
"Ah...."
Callius stroked Emily's head as she let out a sigh, then turned his back.
Emily looked at her father's back with a pained expression for a long time.
* * *
At the same time.
The Empire's saintess, lifting her teacup with trembling hands, took a sip of the already cold tea with a deeply flushed face.
And then she muttered to herself.
"The North is quite hot...."
Rattle, rattle.
The window shaking in the north wind swayed as if representing her anxious heart.
* * *
Pururur.
In the freezing cold, the horse snorts and exhales white breath.
The northern dawn is cold.
With each breath in, the lungs seem to freeze, and with each breath out, white breath extends long.
However, those covered in black robes atop the horse didn't feel much of the cold.
"Who goes there...."
"Open it."
As he casually slipped off the black hood.
The castle gate guards were startled, saluted, and quickly opened the castle gate.
He passed through on horseback through the quietly opened gap in the gate.
No, Callius looked down at the guards and spoke solemnly.
"Consider this unseen."
The guards quickly closed the castle gate.
As if nothing had passed through.
A moment later.
The horse that had been running for a while began to walk slowly.
"Where are you going suddenly in the middle of the night?"
And behind him, a girl tightly gripping Callius's waist.
It was Emily.
Emily was puzzled watching Callius moving secretly.
Since this entire land was practically hers, it was strange why he was heading somewhere as quiet as a mouse. As if, it shouldn't be seen by anyone.
"There is something I need to check."
"Check?"
"You'll know when we get there. There's also something to give."
Where on earth was he going.
The day is cold, the night is dark.
'It's somewhat warm.'
Human body temperature is surprisingly warm.
At the moment she was having such thoughts.
Callius, who had pulled the reins to stop, looked at Emily.
"Get off."
"Ah, uh. Yeah."
Only after jumping down did she look around.
"This is the Sinking Forest."
"Yes."
"You came here in the middle of the night? After the war ended, this place has already been completely cleaned up."
"I know."
Expressionless.
Around the time Emily's brow furrowed at that cynical expression and short answers.
A large hand was offered to Emily.
"I'm not a kid anymore. I'm fine."
"It's the Sinking Forest. Hold on."
"I told you that much is fine."
"Hold on."
"I said I'm fine...."
The corners of Emily's mouth, who took his hand as if unable to refuse, relaxed slightly.
Her father's hand was warm.
And hard.
The calluses embedded here and there made her guess how much training and tempering had produced them.
Emily's smart head could guess the location and cause of the calluses, enough to make her recall future training content.
"Be careful."
"Yeah."
Emily jumping closer to her father's side, and Callius embracing his daughter in his arms in case she might get hurt.
A father and daughter that looked good to anyone watching.
The two, who had been crossing the forest in silence for a long time, soon stopped at one place.
"This is that place."
"It's where I fell. Fortunately, the traces remain, which is a relief."
Emily, who was about to ask why they came here, soon closed her mouth.
Because Callius had reached out and spread the wings of Leteti.
"Hold on."
"...Yeah."
Flutter.
With fine snow-like powder swirling, Callius and Emily, who rose slightly, soon fell through the gap in the forest at a rapid speed.
But perhaps because it was an abyss that no one wanted to approach, even after descending for a long time, no end could be seen.
"Emily. Do you remember what I said before?"
"That you caught a troll here?"
"Yes."
"Yeah."
She remembered.
Because the sword used against the military commander in the Northern war was made from a troll.
While others might have doubted it at least once, Emily didn't doubt it.
Since by now, the invasion of the North had proven it wasn't false.
"However, there is one fact I didn't mention. There is a holy ground beneath here."
"Holy ground?"
"Yes. Three years ago. I discovered the holy ground, and there I planted what I had obtained."
Even now, how he obtained Valterus's Tears remained a question.
But thinking about it now, there were many things in this world that he hadn't set up.
It was reasonable to assume that after his death, someone had tampered with the settings or the world itself had come alive and changed something.
Like Emily.
'Come to think of it, there should have been goblins there originally, but there weren't.'
Ablepix.
Where the Fairy's Tomb was, goblins should have originally been there.
If his memory was correct, they should have been there.
But there weren't.
'While goblins do have a habit of leaving their place once a deal is completed, the Fairy's Tomb is....'
He must have been the first to enter.
Without youkai power, one wouldn't be able to pass through the barrier. The same reason Junis couldn't enter.
Then why were there no goblins?
Truly something he didn't know.
"Dad?"
"Hmm, since they captured the troll and dragged it up, there's a possibility it was discovered. But I consider that probability to be minimal."
"Because you hid the holy ground?"
"Yes. They only showed interest in the troll, they wouldn't have thought there was a holy ground there."
They would have been people who came here only knowing that there was a troll in the first place.
Whoooosh—
The wings of Leteti folded.
The speed of descent began to increase exponentially.
"I planted the Holy Flower in that place."
The sacred flower. Valterus's Tears.
"But I will leave the North again. I cannot stay long."
"Again? Why?"
"I am being pursued."
"Father is being pursued?"
Despite being that strong?
"Is it the Empire? Because of that... saintess?"
Emily's expression was complex and subtle.
It seemed she was concerned about that matter.
"No. If it were the Empire pursuing me, I would have gladly fought."
"Then...."
"You don't need to know right now. Just know that as I am now, it is difficult to handle all of them."
"Even Father...?"
Emily could hardly even imagine.
To her, the most powerful enemy was the Empire first and foremost, and the Empire second.
Yet her father said that even if not the Empire, he couldn't handle them, so how narrow was her world.
And she couldn't help but be shocked at how wide his world was.
"Don't worry. We'll be together for a while."
"That's not what I was worried about."
Flutter—!
The folded wings of Leteti spread open.
The falling body suddenly gained buoyancy, and Callius's toes touched the ground.
Tap.
At the same time.
Red glows from the abyss quietly appeared and looked at them.
Emily immediately tried to draw the sword at her waist, but.
Callius's hand stopped her.
"Scram."
Whoooosh—!
When Callius emitted killing intent as if annoyed, the demonic beasts of the abyss were startled, squeaking, and ran away frantically.
The difference in class.
Because they were beasts, they would have felt it more clearly and fled.
Even so, there were many still secretly hiding.
Their numbers had clearly increased significantly compared to before. Callius, who stopped walking, looked at Emily.
"Emily. From now on, I'd like you to come here once in a while."
"Me?"
"I need someone to manage the Holy Flower planted in the holy ground. I cannot stay long in the North, in Carpe."
Remember this path well.
Walking the path with a light sphere made of divine power floating, Callius easily found the cave the troll had made before.
"As expected, they couldn't touch this far."
An empty cave.
The pile of collapsed rocks on one side.
Because there were many large rocks as if one side of the ground had collapsed, they probably didn't even dare to touch it.
They would have been obsessed with catching the troll in the first place, so they probably didn't pay attention to this side.
"Step back."
"Do we need to clear this?"
"Yes."
Callius's eyes were dyed purple.
Soon, massive youkai power flowed out.
He then reached out his hand and used Silvian-style divine arts to return the rocks to their original positions and make the wall even smoother.
Rumble.
As if time had been turned back, the rocks rose into the sky and gathered toward the ceiling, then became a ceiling and wall without a single scratch and were absorbed.
At the same time, the hole in the wall was filled, and it transformed into a door with a rectangular gap.
When Callius placed his hand on the door.
Srrrrk.
An intaglio like a magic circle slowly began to emerge from his fingertips, decorating the door of the holy ground.
Although bizarre patterns were carved, the intaglio embroidered based on a certain law took the role of a spell formula and completed the barrier.
This was a barrier combining divine arts and fairy magic.
If one did not possess divinity and youkai power.
Unless one was permitted by Callius, it would become a door that would never open.
'If I make one on the outside this time, unnecessary incidents won't happen.'
If someone had seen it, he would have displayed a divine aura as if he were a god, but Callius took out the Iron Lord with a natural attitude and summoned one knight.
"Gavvi."
[Groooooh!]
The ash-gray knight surging from the black shadow.
His physique was over 7 meters, suitable for this cave, his entire body covered in black armor, and between his eyes and gaps, ash-gray energy swirled.
However, if one saw the stake-like club he held, one could immediately know his identity.
"Dad, this is..."
"It's an enhanced troll. It has now become my knight."
The enhanced troll Gavvi.
Now he had become a general-grade knight. Gavvi.
Most of the trolls had not died intact. To make them into swords, the original state of their flesh had to be intact, and even to sell as materials for sacred gold arts, it was better if blood, flesh, and bones were not damaged.
Therefore, those who were burned away or severed, Callius decided to make his knights and use them.
Trolls themselves were originally strong, but the trolls enhanced by them possessed the class of a general level as soon as they were raised.
One out of five would be fine to leave as the gatekeeper guarding this place.
"Guard this place."
[Groh!]
Seeing Gavvi standing firmly, his mind was now much more at ease.
Even a decently strong person would find it difficult to withstand Gavvi's blow.
"Let's go in."
When he pushed the door.
Grrrrrr.
The stone door opened as if spitting out a scream.
And what immediately enveloped them was divine power as rich as it was enchanting.
And the statue standing tall within it and the Holy Flowers filling the surroundings.
Valterus's Tears were in bloom.
"Wow...."
Callius, who stopped Emily's movement to go ahead, suddenly drew his sword.
"Who is it."
Someone was there.
An aquiline nose and upturned eyes.
Green skin.
A hunched back and small stature.
"A goblin?"
The intruder of the holy ground was none other than a goblin.
A goblin holding a sack.