“Your Majesty confessed your love to Deculein.”
Rohakan’s words. That voice, so clear it sounded utterly idiotic, disturbed the darkness of the bedchamber.
“……What.”
Not bewilderment, but sheer absurdity. A mad remark that left one dumbfounded.
The red moonlight seeping in through the window stained Sophien’s face. Like a blush.
“You wretch, lower than a beast. I’ll tear apart that mouth of yours for spouting such lunacy—”
Muttering so, the Emperor approached Rohakan once more.
Eyes wide open. A body swaying like a ghost. A chilling ghostly aura that sprang up, and within it……
—Your Majesty! It is Gawain!
The shouts of the knights who had arrived at some point rang noisily. They were stamping their feet outside the bedchamber door.
—Your Majesty! If you do not answer, we shall ent—
“Stand down.”
Sophien stopped them with a single word.
“If any of you dare set foot in my bedchamber, you shall all be beheaded.”
—…….
“Leave.”
—Yes. We beg your pardon. We suddenly sensed a surge of mana……
“It is nothing.”
—Yes. By your command.
The sound of footsteps descending the stairs once more. Silence settled over the space, and Sophien again glared at Rohakan, who was hidden in the dark.
Click—
Rohakan switched on the lamp. In the brightened bedchamber, that hateful face was revealed.
It was a face far younger than before. The wrinkles that had once covered it were gone, and there was no trace of an old man left.
“Did you sell your soul to a demon? That nonsense about seeing the future, and that younger face of yours—if that were the case, it would explain both.”
“Would I dare do such a thing, Your Majesty…… Tsk.”
At that moment, Rohakan clicked his tongue. In an instant, Sophien’s [Runic Binding] that had shackled him evaporated.
“This formality is damned uncomfortable. Far too uncomfortable, is what I’m saying.”
Then he sat in a chair. With the same slovenly and insolent attitude as before.
“I’ll drop it. The law of the desert has no place for this sort of formality. No matter if you’ve become Emperor. It’s been a while, Sophien.”
Sophien’s eyes went bloodshot. Formality and etiquette had always been bothersome to her as well, but when she actually faced a man showing such disgraceful insolence before the supreme Emperor of all people, rage welled up within her.
“……The only reason I do not kill you here and now is because, in some measure, you have succeeded in piquing my interest.”
Rohakan saw the murderous intent flickering around Sophien’s body.
“However, I am not so cheerful a person. Be careful that my desire to kill you does not overcome my curiosity. From now on, answer only the questions I ask.”
A smile appeared at the corners of Rohakan’s mouth.
That little child had become such a stern sovereign.
“Rohakan. Did you truly see the future?”
“I did. Means my life doesn’t have much left. Seems I have a peculiar constitution—my talent blooms the closer I come to the end of my days.”
The glow of the setting sun.
A trait that ran through Rohakan’s life.
“The sun shines brightest just before it sets. My death is right before my nose, and the me of now may well be greater than Demakan.”
Rohakan insolently brought up Demakan’s name, yet Sophien could tell. She sensed it instinctively. The brilliant essence coursing through Rohakan’s entire body, and the transcendent enlightenment wavering in his eyes.
Rohakan grinned.
“I’ll say it to preserve your curiosity. Sophien, you will come to love Deculein.”
Sophien closed her eyes for a moment. Even with those simple words, heat surged up. A hot rush of blood struck the crown of her head.
……It was an unfamiliar emotion.
Had she ever been this angry, even after dying hundreds of times?
Rohakan continued.
“Sophien, I don’t know how you could come to love a person either. You probably don’t know yourself. But……”
A faint smile rose to Rohakan’s lips.
“I saw your face as you spoke of love to Deculein. Sophien, unable to sit still because of the first emotion you had ever felt in your life—”
“Do not spout such fucking nonsense! Do you think such childish romance remains within me?”
“It does, though? Like a single blossom.”
“…….”
Sophien’s complexion turned cold. Her eyes narrowed languidly. Her face twisted at a slant.
She asked in a murderous tone.
“Is that the reason you risked your life to seek me out? To warn me to beware an emotion impossible for me?”
Rohakan gazed steadily at Sophien. Then he smiled bitterly and shook his head.
“Sophien. You know it too.”
His voice sank low.
“Everyone who remains by your side becomes unhappy. Without a single exception.”
Sophien’s murderous intent stopped.
Her eyes, which had hardened like stone, trembled faintly for the briefest instant.
“That is the curse you were born with. Because you know that, don’t you deliberately keep Creto from being too close? Was that not why I had no choice but to kill your mother?”
Rohakan looked at the table before him. On top of it sat a snow globe.
“I did not come to warn you about your emotions. I came here to protect Deculein, that brat.”
As he spoke of Deculein, he thought of Deculein.
A brat with no talent, hated by his father, and possessing nothing but pride.
Such a brat had climbed to that position through effort alone, and admirably enough, had even saved his master’s life once, and discovered a remarkable talent named Epherene.
With his own insight, he had realized that the true threat to this world was not the Red Rift, but the Altar.
“Of course, as a master, I did nothing for him, and if anything, I’m a no-good bastard who only received from him. But that brat is one of the few disciples I have.”
“…….”
“With no children of my own, and with nothing left but to die, if I am to do something at the end, it ought to be for my disciple.”
Rohakan quietly stared at Sophien.
Crevheim’s daughter, yet a child born with a fate that was not human. A monster bearing a shackle no different from a curse.
“The fact that you will come to love Deculein is dangerous because the one who loves him is you.”
Sophien’s mana rippled.
The lamp dimmed, and red moonlight drenched the bedchamber.
“Sophien. You must never love anyone.”
Rohakan slowly rewound the future he had witnessed.
“You conveyed your heart to Deculein.”
Whether it was some distant future or a day close at hand, Sophien confessed her feelings to Deculein……
And after a little more time had passed.
“With your own hands, you killed him.”
Rohakan had seen Sophien killing Deculein.
“I am telling you because I cannot stand by and watch that happen.”
Sophien stared straight at him without emotion.
“Sophien. If you truly cherish Deculein, or if you come to love him, then I ask this of you.”
The air grew heavy. A thick current clung to the skin.
The darkness of silence wound around the two of them.
“Please, stay away from him.”
Even in that moment, the Emperor’s complexion did not change.
As though nothing was wrong, she merely asked Rohakan in return.
“You claim to be doing this for Deculein with nothing more than that half-baked shaman’s prattle?”
At that, Rohakan smiled brightly.
“I came here risking my life, didn’t I?”
……Though he said that, there was one more thing left to give that Deculein brat.
“Then I’ll be going now.”
“Stop. Do you think you can flee as you please?”
Sophien murmured runes toward Rohakan again, but Rohakan dispelled them with a single gesture.
“There is no need to be so hasty, Sophien.”
The neck of the continent’s worst criminal.
The remaining days of a miserable old man who had little time left.
“We will meet again before long.”
The end of the man named Rohakan…… Rohakan would hand it over to Deculein.
* * *
……Reccordak in the North.
The demonic beasts’ southward advance was continuing at its fiercest.
“Arrows! Are there no more arrows?!”
Now, two weeks after the war had begun in earnest, Reccordak’s situation could not be called good, even as a lie.
“Arrows! Bring up the arrows!”
The automatic crossbows atop the wall had no bolts, and the mages were running short on mana.
The knights and prisoners outside the wall were in much the same situation.
“Knight Yulie! Are you all right?!”
The Land of Annihilation, a forest swarming with demonic energy.
Rayleigh, an adventurer and mage, shouted. In the middle of the battlefield, Yulie, who had been cutting down, freezing, and smashing demonic beasts, calmly looked back at her.
“I am fine. However……”
There were many prisoners strewn across the nearby road.
Their breath had already been cut off long ago.
They had died fighting desperately, mace in one hand, or sword in one hand.
“……There’s no need for you to pity them, Sir Knight.”
Rayleigh placed a hand on her shoulder.
“They were condemned criminals anyway.”
Yulie nodded as well.
She was right. Their lives had been a succession of harm.
However, she closed her eyes for a moment and murmured quietly.
“Even if theirs were lives of nothing but sin, their deaths held at least a sliver of worth. May they walk another path of atonement in that place.”
They were not deaths so worthless that even that small mourning was unnecessary.
At Yulie’s words, Rayleigh also observed a brief silence.
“……Are you the only noble one here?”
Then came a mocking voice. When she looked back, Delric and the Imperial Knights were there.
All their complexions were dark. Their faces were haggard with fatigue and hunger.
“Delric. Are you all right?”
“As if I could be. I haven’t slept even four hours in a week. Damn it.”
They trudged closer and began with complaints.
With the southward advance continuing without the slightest rest, the knights’ stamina had dropped sharply, and thirty percent of Reccordak’s prisoners had already fallen in battle.
Delric asked.
“Knight Yulie. You aren’t going to run?”
“No.”
“Hmph. Then you’ll die here. No, Deculein will be the one killing you.”
Yulie frowned.
Delric had somehow become a cynical man. She understood that he was exhausted by this extreme situation, but such a flippant attitude was of no help at all.
“In that case, Sir Delric, do you intend to run?”
“If the wall collapses, I’ll have to. Looking at it now, it seems only a matter of time. Look at that wall.”
Delric pointed to a part of the wall.
“The right side is crumpled. Reccordak’s wall is made of stonemesh iron, so artificial maintenance is nearly impossible, but it has a self-repair function. However, with demonic beasts continuing to swarm in like this, it won’t be easy for it to hold.”
Even to Yulie’s eyes, the dented portion was clear. Rayleigh opened her eyes wide.
“Mother. Why didn’t I know?”
“Three days. There are three days left. Until that collapses.”
Delric held up three fingers.
“If anything, it’s strange that it has held out this long. So, during the time we have left, you’d do well to think carefully……”
Just then, a small plume of smoke rose from Reccordak. It meant the meal was ready.
Yulie’s face brightened.
“They say food is ready.”
“……Damn it. They only serve that fucking dogshit food, and you’re that happy?”
For a knight, food was essential. Just as an elephant needed an enormous amount of food to move its massive body, a knight was not much different.
Each knight consumed nearly as much as ten ordinary people, but at Reccordak, it was difficult to maintain quality, so they were being fed nothing but barley rice and tough meat.
“Do they think we’re livestock?”
“Sir Delric, this is not the Imperial Palace. Supplies are lacking, so it cannot be helped.”
“Hmph! For all that, they say Deculein is stuffing himself with every delicacy in his mansion.”
“……Did you see that yourself?”
At Yulie’s question, Delric sneered.
“It’s obvious! That mansion is the only place that smells especially luxurious. His mouth must be high-class, is that it?”
Delric glared at Deculein’s mansion amid Reccordak. Yulie followed his gaze.
“Very well. I will ask the Professor about it. If it is true, then it is something he must restrain himself from. Sir Delric, you and the knights should go eat now.”
“……Hmph.”
Delric and the knights trudged down the mountain path. None of them were physically sound. Each limped on their legs, had bandages wrapped around their arms, and their armor was covered in all kinds of scratches.
“……There really is a rumor like that going around. That only Deculein eats good food. It smells especially delicious only around there.”
Rayleigh spoke cautiously.
Yulie nodded quietly.
“We will know if we ask.”
* * *
[Concave Reccordak is filled with the aura of death. Food is slowly drying up, and the fighting never ceases.
Ice Crystal Wolves, trolls, ogres, Darklings, gargoyles, winged fiends, mammoths, and tigers and white bears.
Monsters rarely seen even in the Imperial Capital are pounding against the barrier. The hearts of those standing against them in battle are breaking. The mountain folk, knowing nothing, simply lean on us.
Today, on a night wrapped in a blizzard, we harvested the barley from the garrison fields. It was enough to last about three days. We boiled barley porridge and fed it to the residents.
The knights were fed meat from beasts hunted in the forest, along with the rice and wheat bread that arrived as supplies.
However, since the mages, who expend both mana and mental strength, would need food of higher quality, I provided the mijo fish I had caught.
The fish I had caught whenever I found the time had, before I knew it, numbered in the hundreds, so if we supplied one every two days, they should be able to last at least a week…….]
I am writing the southward march journal. It is both a report to Sophien and a means of gaining some political advantage by describing the events here in detail and with honesty.
I had learned to some extent, through the previous memorial, how to win another’s heart with writing.
“……About three weeks left.”
However, the remaining time is the problem. Even if we cut rations as much as possible, two weeks is the limit, and Reccordak has tens of thousands of people.
Whether they starve to death inside these walls, abandon Reccordak and die while fleeing, or die to the monsters that break through the barrier and swarm in—
There are many ways to die, but only one way for us all to live.
To defend Reccordak.
Knock, knock—
Just then, a voice came with a knock.
—Professor. The mijo fish has been prepared.
It was the resident I had taken on as my secretary.
* * *
At the same time, Julie, who had come to Deculein’s mansion, smelled a savory aroma spreading from beyond the door.
Sniff, sniff— sniff, sniff—
It was an absurdly delicious smell. One that made her brow furrow all on its own.
“……What is this?”
Julie was disappointed once again.
She had truly thought the last disappointment would be the final one, yet to think she would be disappointed even by his gluttony again.
Indeed, if such a smell was spreading only around this place, it was only natural for the knights to be dissatisfied.
Julie flung open the mansion door.
“Professor Deculein!”
……the moment she shouted that.
Her eyes met Epherene’s right in front of her. Holding a stack of plates in her arms, Epherene tilted her head as she looked at Julie.
“……Sir Knight?”
“……Miss Epherene.”
Julie hardened her expression and said,
“I have something to suggest to the professor.”
“A suggestion?”
“Yes. Regarding the smell of food spreading through this mansion right now—”
“Ah~ this? This is a special meal for the mages.”
“……Pardon?”
At Epherene’s words, Julie’s eyes widened.
“……A special meal, you say.”
“Yes. The professor said that for high-level personnel like mages, participating in battle every day is, in itself, overwork that ‘could drive them mad’…… so once every two days, he calls them all to the mansion and feeds them fish.”
“…….”
“Should I have told you in advance?”
Julie cleared her throat for no reason. After all, this time, it seemed she had misunderstood without knowing the situation properly.
She quietly changed the subject.
“……It was my fault for misunderstanding too hastily. Then, has the professor been eating properly all this time?”
“Ah, the professor? Yes, well. The professor…… the professor……”
The professor…… the professor……
Epherene’s voice trailed off mid-sentence.
She pondered something for a moment, then, as if realizing something, murmured with a rather startled expression.
“Wait. I don’t think the professor has eaten anything for the past week……?”
“……Pardon?”