Chapter 243 : Chapter 243
Chapter 243: The Key (1)
“…….”
The silence was like a taut thread.
It was obvious that the moment someone started cutting it, every last one of them would spring to their feet.
Ellen kept clenching and unclenching her fists.
CRACKLE!
Sparks flew before Harad’s eyes.
His Origin, the sun, was responding to his emotions.
The people hiding in the room stared fixedly at those sparks.
They wanted Harad to cut the thread for them.
It meant they believed Harad’s judgment would be the right one here, and that they would follow it.
That was how much they trusted him.
Tap.
Harad’s index finger struck the table.
The spot blackened at once.
Each time he tapped it, the scorched part melted away a little further.
A hole the size of a fingerprint appeared.
‘Grand Duke Aratus is watching.’
The Aura lurking within the Inner Fortress had grown heavier than before.
He had realized that Shura was not coming back.
But that was all.
The Aura only grew heavier.
‘Grand Duke Aratus has an information network of his own.’
The Grand Duke was well informed about everything that happened in his territory.
He had always known everything Harad and Ellen did there.
‘Which means he still hasn’t found out.’
Even Grand Duke Aratus was cautious when a child was involved.
Children were the North’s reverse scales.
To lay a hand on a child in the North was a crime bordering on treason.
If someone had touched one, then the first person who ought to rage was the lord of the North.
If anyone was going to cut the thread, it had to be Grand Duke Aratus.
For Harad to unleash his fire now would be no different from insulting the Grand Duke.
All Harad could do for now was think.
“Was it only Arika?”
And retrace everything.
“The guard soldiers were deployed as well.”
Someone hiding in the kitchen poked his head out and answered.
It was Investigator Ferrard.
He was not close to Shura, but he too had helped prepare the surprise party.
Because Shura was a child.
“So that side stayed the same.”
The guard soldiers had long been stationed in the alleys Shura frequented.
‘This side is unchanged.’
If something had happened, it meant the other side had changed.
‘And who would that other side be?’
The first possibility that came to mind was the Rebellion Faction of the Liberation Tower.
The reason those soldiers had been stationed there in the first place was because a mage the Rebellion Faction sent had been targeting Kubel.
‘Now, of all times?’
It was too abrupt, too completely out of nowhere.
If they were going to strike, they should have targeted Harad, not Shura.
It had been Harad who seized the tunnel and dealt with Isotta the Masker and her superior, Kunlutsban of the Bone Awl.
When they had once returned to the North, it had been Jis who dealt with the mages who pursued them, but from their perspective Harad would be the culprit.
Which meant Kubel had long since been erased from the minds of the Rebellion Faction of the Liberation Tower.
As for his daughter, Shura, she would not exist to them at all.
‘The Otherworld?’
That was even more abrupt.
Shura was an unknown mage.
Shura had rarely manifested magic.
And when she had, it had only been inside the Inner Fortress.
There were no spies inside the Inner Fortress.
Serzila was that kind of land.
If there were one, Cassion would be sitting next to Harad right now, playing the idiot.
It was possible that she was simply late getting home.
That was a thought anyone could have.
Harad had to think beyond that.
That was his role.
‘There is a culprit.
If so, then that culprit must be a mage.’
Otherwise, who in Serzila would dare lay a hand on a child?
A child being guarded by Arika and armed soldiers, no less.
‘What changed?’
If it was not the Rebellion Faction of the Liberation Tower, then who was it?
There was not enough information.
That was something he could not make up for here inside the annex.
Grand Duke Aratus would have to fill that gap.
Or the person involved.
Ripple.
It was then that the world twisted.
For an instant, it felt as though the world had bent sideways.
The annex warped to the right along with it.
CREEEAK!
The annex screamed.
Within that grotesque pressure, Harad’s eyes sharpened.
Grand Duke Aratus had found out something.
Creeeak.
The warped door opened with difficulty.
Someone red as blood stood outside.
Looking closer, it was Arika.
She was drenched from head to toe in blood.
The blood was probably what the Grand Duke had sensed.
He must have noticed it the moment Arika entered the Inner Fortress.
“……Brother Harad.”
No.
What had agitated the Grand Duke’s Aura lurking in the Inner Fortress was lower than that.
“I’m sorry.”
The trembling voice was frail to anyone who heard it.
That was why the pressure of that Aura weakened the moment the door opened.
“Duke.”
Arika was unconscious.
Duke had carried her back on his back, soaked in blood.
“Are you alright?”
Arika, unconscious, was gasping for breath.
Harad was asking after Duke.
“Shura was taken.”
Duke was not concerned about himself.
“I couldn’t stop them. There were four in total.”
He was Glacier, and Harad thought that voice sounded terribly cold.
It did not seem heartless.
When Harad grew hot with anger, Duke became more like a glacier.
“I let two get away.”
Duke, bent over under Arika’s weight, carefully pulled something from inside his clothes.
It was ice without a hilt.
A blade, and also Duke’s magic.
It was also a murder weapon.
Blood stained the two blades of ice magic.
They looked as though they had just been dipped into a pool of blood.
‘He stabbed deep.
Did he touch their bodies and manifest the spell straight from his palm?’
That had to be it.
A child’s strength could not have driven it in that deeply.
It had been excellent improvisation.
“I ambushed them from behind while Big Sister Arika was fighting.”
“…….”
Glacier.
Harad understood Duke’s Origin anew.
That child had killed two people.
And instead of drowning in whatever emotions that might have brought, he was coldly enraged over letting two escape and losing Shura.
“Is that bad?”
“The situation is what determines the value.”
A child had been dragged into this.
He ought to pity him and be furious.
But there were priorities.
“I’m sorry to say this, but right now, you’re my only lead.”
The only ones who had returned were Arika and Duke.
They had to find Shura.
“I want to come too.”
Harad had been about to tell him to calm down.
Instead, he smiled bitterly.
Right now, the calmest person here was probably Duke.
This was the North, and Harad’s Origin was the sun.
Duke’s Origin was Glacier.
Of all the Origins of water the regressed Harad knew, it was the coldest, and the greatest.
“How dare they.”
It was then that the voice sounded.
It was no one’s voice from inside the annex.
But everyone there knew whose voice it was.
The surroundings darkened.
Jet-black coiled around Kubel’s annex.
Proof that every word Duke had spoken had been heard.
Grand Duke Aratus was enraged.
Even though this was outside the territory of the ducal residence.
‘So if he concentrates, he really can hear everything.’
The Grand Duke had more patience than Harad thought.
Which meant he normally was not eavesdropping on Harad and Ellen.
“Do not leave even a single drop of blood.”
That Grand Duke, who usually endured, had finally issued an order.
That was what children meant in the North.
‘And he still isn’t stepping out himself.’
It had been the same earlier.
He had not come in person, but sent Cassion to deliver a note.
Even though he must have been livid.
‘Because he has tremendous patience?
As if.’
Do not leave even a single drop of blood.
The Grand Duke wanted annihilation.
‘He’s a monster that cannot leave the Inner Fortress.’
Only then was Harad certain.
Grand Duke Aratus, too, had something akin to a restriction.
And it was closer to a rule he had imposed upon himself.
Something tied to the essence of the man called Aratus Serzila.
“May I do that?”
Harad asked the empty air.
It was called an order, but in truth it meant carrying out Serzila’s judgment.
That was not permission given to just anyone.
“You are a mage of Serzila.”
Harad was the chief man responsible for the mages of Serzila.
‘A mage of Serzila.’
Harad thought those words suited him terribly poorly.
Which meant he had to carry it out.
***
Shura was a mature, lovable child.
Now she had become a lovable child in a truly childlike way.
She was lovable no matter what she did, and to everyone.
Everyone in the Inner Fortress would have nodded if they had heard the question Shura threw in her heart.
Shura was loved by the Inner Fortress as much as Elaine and Ellen were, and she loved the Inner Fortress just as much.
Still, no matter how close people were, secrets existed.
From that point of view, the fact that Arika was unconscious and Duke was awake was almost a stroke of heaven’s luck.
“I can use this kind of magic now.”
Ice shot out from Duke’s outstretched palm.
It was fast.
The sight resembled a trap mechanism going off.
It was an unmistakable achievement.
Duke, a 1st Rank mage, was growing more polished within his own Rank.
“So that’s how you killed them.”
“Yes.”
Duke seemed numb to killing.
That was how Origins biased the Vessel.
As with Harad, he needed correction.
That was not what had to be done now.
Embarrassingly enough, Harad was relying on that skewed temperament at the moment.
“Shura can use new magic too.”
Harad’s eyes sharpened.
What had changed?
Duke had the answer.
“What kind of magic?”
“She can ask one more question now.”
Shura cast a question in her heart and saw the answer in her eyes, which were her Origin.
Is my daddy alright?
That had been the only question Shura had been able to ask.
“‘Are they our enemies?’”
Now she had one more.
“Our?”
Instead of answering, Duke looked around the room.
“So, Serzila.”
Was it an enemy of Serzila?
That was the question Shura could ask now.
Proof that the child regarded Serzila as home.
“There were four of them.
And those things nodded?”
“Yes.”
“So that’s why you chased after them?”
“I’m sorry. Yes. That’s right.”
Duke lowered his head deeply, and though he apologized, he answered honestly.
He knew better than anyone that this was the time to do so.
“It was an understandable decision.”
Harad spoke soothingly.
On Serzila’s soil, they had answered yes to being Serzila’s enemy.
Of course Shura would have chased them.
“But it was not your place.”
“…….”
“You didn’t tell Arika, did you?”
“No.”
Duke answered shortly, took a breath, and went on.
“I lied to Big Sister Arika. I told her Big Sister Ocellin was looking for us.”
For Arika, it had been bait she could not help but bite.
Ocellin was handling the Grand Heir’s work in his stead.
If one wanted to call it careless, then it was careless.
But it was also understandable.
Who would have imagined that Shura, of all people, would decide to secretly trail mages?
“Why go that far?”
“…….”
Instead of answering, Duke fidgeted with his fingers.
Harad changed the question.
“Why did you manifest magic outside?”
Duke was a rational child.
He had become more childlike at last, but Shura too had always been a mature child.
There was no way he would forget that magic was not to be manifested outside.
“……She said she wanted to help.
Like last time.”
Like when they found Rick the Tunnel-Digger and Isotta the Masker.
“Help whom?”
“Us.”
Serzila.
CLENCH.
A heavy sound rang out.
It was the sound of Kubel clenching his enormous fist.
There came the cold hiss of steel as well.
Cassion and Ellen were half-drawing and sheathing their blameless swords.
“Four of them. Were they mages?”
“Yes. After she was caught, they discovered Shura’s magic. They said it was a valuable Origin.”
They had coveted Shura’s Origin—her eyes.
“There wasn’t anyone from the Tower of the Deep Sea.”
“Why do you think that?”
“They showed no interest in my magic.”
“So you showed your magic on purpose.”
Duke truly was a rational and clever child.
At the same time he had intended to kill those Cursed Beasts, he had also planned to shift their target onto himself if he failed.
‘They coveted Shura’s eyes, yet showed no interest in Glacier.’
In terms of value, Glacier ought to have ranked far higher.
“I should have protected her.”
Tears were running down Duke’s face.
And yet his voice remained as cold as ever.
He looked ready to throw himself at those Cursed Beasts until he died if only he could meet them again.
At that moment, Kubel’s hand covered Duke’s head.
The father who had lost his daughter said nothing, only shook his head once.
His eyes conveyed both gratitude and apology.
“The blame always lies with the perpetrator.”
Harad felt the same.
Duke was being consumed by misplaced guilt.
“Did you see their magic?”
“I didn’t see two of them. The two who died used magic like trees and grass.”
Arika and the guard soldiers had been taken down by those spells.
‘The Tower of Earthquakes?’
Harad frowned.
When mages with similar Origins traveled together, it was usually the Otherworld.
Continental mages had neither the scale nor the spare strength for that.
“Did you see where they went?”
“They disappeared. It felt like magic.”
Duke explained a little more.
It was near the alley where they usually played.
At a dead end, they vanished in front of a wall.
“It was magic, but it didn’t feel like their magic. It felt like a tool. A Magical Item, a Magical Item.”
“What kind of tool was it? If you didn’t see the item itself, then one movement of theirs would do.”
“It looked like a key.”
Duke pinched an imaginary key between his index and middle fingers.
Then he stuck it into empty air and turned his wrist at a right angle.
At that, Harad rose to his feet at once.
Ignoring every eye fixed on him, he left Kubel’s annex.
***
“Was it this?”
Soon Harad returned and held out his hand to Duke.
Duke’s eyes widened at what lay upon it.
“That’s it.”
What Harad held was a heavy gray key he had brought from his annex.
The escape Magical Item once carried by Loisia, 4th Rank of the Tower of Earthquakes, the Dancing Tree.
“So it was the Tower of Earthquakes.”
The Cursed Beasts had been from the Tower of Earthquakes.
‘The Tower of Earthquakes took Shura? Why?’
If it had been the Ivory Tower, he could at least have understood it.
It was a useless question.
First he had to find Shura and leave not a single drop of blood behind….
GURK.
It was then that a strange sound came from upstairs.
Something rolled, then came the light sound of it bouncing down.
It grew closer and closer.
It tumbled down the stairs to the first floor and rolled to a stop before Harad’s feet.
It was the Moon’s Crystal Ball.
It was a thoroughly bizarre and sinister sight.
Duke and Kubel froze stiff.
Cassion, with his hair bristling upright, stared with both eyes wide, and Ellen drew her sword.
“Hah.”
Harad let out a hollow laugh.
He reached out and stopped Ellen, who looked ready to cut the crystal ball in two at once.
“Didn’t you say you couldn’t see as far as Serzila?”
-I can’t. But I had a feeling this might happen.
The crystal ball flickered as if it had been waiting for that question.
It was that sweet voice, as sickeningly vague as ever.
‘It can’t see as far as Serzila.’
But it does know the movements of the Tower of Earthquakes.
That was how it sounded in Harad’s ears.
“This is good timing. I just came back from telling the Grand Duke about you.”
-What did you say?
“That tomorrow he intends to march out and kill you.”
-Good.
The Moon sneered.
That old bitch seemed absolutely convinced the Grand Duke could not march north.
She believed that, even if he could cross the Boundary alone, he could not start a war.
“I see. So the Grand Duke’s target is only you. Not the Otherworld.”
If he truly wished it, the Grand Duke could start a war.
He merely wanted to focus all that power on the Moon alone.
-Did you like the gift?
The Moon changed the subject.
Which likely meant Harad had hit the mark.
“I did. Now get lost.”
She meant Aten, the Extinguished Torch.
Harad ignored her and thrust the key into empty air.
-If you use the key, you’ll die.
At that, the Moon offered her advice.
That was why she had sent the crystal ball to run this errand.
“Would it trouble you if I died?”
-Yes.
“Because you don’t have much time left?”
-Yes. You are mine.
That old bitch already took it for granted that Harad belonged to her.
‘The Moon wants to possess me.’
If he died, she could not have him.
“Then you’d better guard me well.”
Harad turned the key he had inserted into empty air at a right angle.
The sound of a door opening rang out.
Creeeak.