Chapter 130
Chapter 130
Encouragement (2)
Fortunately, Noel did not simply cut off Aiden’s head on the spot.
……To be honest, the ominous aura flowing down my back made it feel like it wouldn’t have been strange at all if she had done exactly that, but in any case, the situation was urgent, so it strongly felt like she was letting it slide.
“By the way, Dame Noel.”
“Yes?”
“……Where on earth have you been all this time?”
Even if nothing else, I had to ask this.
While massive incidents were erupting everywhere with dragons bursting out, hadn’t this person failed to show herself anywhere?
And at that question, Noel’s face immediately crumpled.
“……Well, you see. I cannot remember either.”
“……Pardon?”
“I know it sounds strange…… but when I came to my senses, I had already arrived at this campsite.”
She stroked her chin as if she had met someone important— and seeing that, Aiden found himself at a loss for words.
‘……All that happened, and she remembers nothing?’
If someone asked him whether he believed what he had just heard or not, he would naturally say that he trusted Noel.
That only made it stranger.
It did not seem as though she had been struck from behind and knocked unconscious, nor were there any signs that she had engaged in battle anywhere.
It was as if her ‘memory had been cleanly cut out’ for a brief moment.
As though someone had kneaded her mind.
“……Are you truly all right? Is there anything wrong with you……?”
“……No. I do not feel anything of the sort at all.”
Leaving Noel tilting her head, Aiden swallowed dryly.
And if it was someone capable of exerting that sort of ‘ability,’ then even Aiden could roughly narrow down who might be behind the current situation.
-System Log
▶ The target ‘???’ is satisfied with you.
▶ The target’s Affection Level is already at maximum.
There had been someone before whose name appeared in the System Window as nothing but question marks. That would likely become the most promising clue to approaching this being’s identity.
The problem was—
‘……Is this really the one who is supposed to appear right now?’
If it was someone capable of freely tampering with the mind of a monster on Noel’s level, then that was a being meant to appear only in the very final stages of the scenario.
And if it was such a being, then it was equally questionable why its Affection Level toward Aiden was supposedly at maximum.
However, it was also true that the situation was so urgent that I did not even have the leisure to ponder that deeply.
“-Was the sea level always like that?”
The Grand Sanctuary was, to begin with, a terrain in the form of an island, and that meant it was surrounded by the sea on all sides.
Especially in the case of the Black Night incident, whose core was to circle along the island’s outer perimeter, it was only natural that we would encounter such a sight even more frequently.
However, the sea level was now surging and heaving like mad.
If the wind blew strongly, that might explain it, but the speed at which the sea level was ‘rising’ was becoming increasingly abnormal.
No, at this rate, it felt as though it would not be long before the land itself would be submerged.
It was equally ominous that razor-sharp winds had begun to sweep in beneath a sky covered in pitch-black darkness.
‘……A storm.’
Such a word naturally came to mind from these omens.
This, too, was one of the representative tales among the Seeker’s legends recorded in the scriptures.
The story of the First Seeker setting out on a journey on a pilgrimage night lashed by a storm.
Was it not the tale of crossing seas infested with fiends, demons, and ghosts, and traveling to the world of the dead?
‘If I interpret that literally.’
Aiden immediately arrived at a dizzying conclusion.
According to the scriptures, the world of the dead was set upon an island completely submerged and sunken beneath the waters.
And every incident that had unfolded so far had placed its emphasis on faithfully reenacting the Black Night ritual described in the scriptures.
Which meant—
“……Dame Noel.”
I opened my mouth while clutching my head with a groan.
“We need to move the people to higher ground. If we leave things as they are, something terrible will happen.”
“By something terrible, you mean?”
“The island itself could be submerged. At the very least, the outer region where we are.”
“…….”
“Everyone standing on land would be drowned alive.”
I did not know the method. To be honest, I did not even know whether such a thing was truly possible.
However,
Fortunately, Noel was someone who could quickly believe me even when I brought up something that sounded utterly absurd.
“If it is higher ground…… there are many mountainous areas nearby. If we move there, we might manage somehow.”
“Good. Let us head there first and buy some time—”
“……However, it will not be easy.”
Cutting me off mid-sentence, Noel spoke with a sigh as she looked toward the campsite where the royals and students were gathered.
“They are all afraid.”
“…….”
“When people are gripped by fear and find rational judgment difficult, they usually become aggressive. Especially considering that we are fundamentally in the position of competitors, whether they will listen to us—”
“If they will not listen, then we will make them.”
“……?”
“Have you forgotten what my previous occupation was, Dame?”
“……Pardon?”
I grinned.
“I am rather confident when it comes to talking.”
▣
Negative emotions were far more contagious than one might expect.
Especially when people were placed in extreme circumstances and had already suffered all manner of hardship, sensing such emotions made it even worse.
There was no strength in anyone’s faces. Among them, some even expressed that depression as aggression.
They were probably all exhausted. For the commoner students in particular, who could not even properly wield any supernatural abilities, the current situation must have felt like a nightmare.
Gloom spread thickly in all directions. Abnormal phenomena kept occurring one after another, yet there was no contact from the Grand Sanctuary’s side, nor any sign that the situation was improving.
Fear was spreading like a plague.
In that regard,
Alester stared at Bailey, who was yawning in the middle of the campsite, with curious eyes.
“Are you all right?”
While others were nearly on the verge of losing their minds, she alone not only maintained her composure but even seemed almost bored, so he asked out of genuine curiosity.
Bailey, however, did not even bother to answer and simply sipped the hot tea in her mug with a soft slurp.
“…….”
“…….”
For some reason, his student was particularly cold compared to the others.
While Alester was thinking that, one of the other people nearby approached him with unsteady steps.
It was one of the other royals who had been traveling with him.
“……Your Highness Alester.”
“Yes. What is it?”
“Will we…… be all right?”
“…….”
An attempt to seek reassurance from him, because they were anxious and exhausted.
In that case, the answer he should give was already decided.
“……We will be fine.”
As for why they would be fine, even Alester himself could not provide a clear answer.
That was only natural. He did not know in the first place how any of this was unfolding.
And the perceptive were always the first to sense such uncertainty. The royal, having realized that he too had no proper countermeasure, had their eyes tremble violently.
“…….”
Even so, Alester could not conjure up a solution that did not exist.
The royal, who had been staring silently at him as he kept his mouth shut, eventually lowered their shoulders and turned away.
“……How pathetic.”
And then,
Bailey, who had been quietly watching that scene, spoke as if mocking him.
“What?”
“Those who stand above others must, whether through lies or deception, use whatever means necessary to keep the situation under their control. Did you think it was good to show everything honestly? How naive.”
“…….”
“Naivety, at least for a ruler, is a packaged sin. Did you not even know something so simple?”
Alester blinked blankly, having lived long enough to be evaluated on his qualifications as a leader by a commoner student.
No, beyond being evaluated, was this not practically a sudden dismemberment of his pride…….
“There is a perfect counterexample right there, is there not?”
And before he could even feel any humiliation or anger at her assessment, Alester’s gaze followed the direction Bailey pointed.
“A person whose desire to keep the situation under their control by any means necessary is filled to the very bottom of his heart.”
There was someone walking steadily into the very center of the campsite.
Everyone was staring at him as if bewitched.
It was not as though he had performed any particularly special action or displayed something extraordinary, but at the very least, everyone was aware that their attention was naturally being drawn toward him.
That was only natural.
-Skill Info
◆ Unique Ability: Royal Bloodline
Members of the Royal House born with noble blood inherently exert a natural charisma that captivates the masses. When standing out before a large number of eyes, their ‘Charm’ increases explosively.
Additionally, they automatically resist certain forms of mental interference, and while this effect is active, certain ‘actions’ are triggered automatically.
Aiden possessed the ability to replicate, in situations like this, the charisma of those who stood at the very pinnacle of a nation.
However, simply gathering their attention would not immediately cause some dramatic reversal. He had merely drawn their ‘attention’; their circumstances had not improved at once.
Seeing all those gazes, reminiscent of dead fish eyes, converge on him, Aiden brushed back his hair, which was gradually becoming drenched by the rain falling from the sky, and spoke.
“Idiots.”
“…….”
“Pathetic bastards.”
“…….”
“Weren’t you all strutting around the Holy Crown Kingdom, flaunting yourselves as royals? What the hell are you all doing here?”
……It was clear he had no intention of beginning with words of encouragement meant to raise morale.
At the sudden barrage of insults, everyone blinked blankly. It was obvious that before anger or anything else, what they felt first was bewilderment.
But before even that bewilderment could fully settle in, the mockery spilling from Aiden’s mouth only grew harsher.
“Didn’t you all enter the succession ceremony of your own will because you had something you wanted to achieve? What, you came outside and it’s a little cold and tough, so now you want to go home? Miss your parents?”
“……Hey, wait.”
Julius, who had been listening from not far away, finally spoke in a voice that was beginning to lose its composure.
He likely meant to stop him, as if to say he was going too far, but Aiden’s words continued without the slightest concern.
“Then just give up.”
“……What?”
“At your level, that suits you perfectly. Losers licking each other’s wounds pitifully, saying later ‘there was nothing we could do back then,’ and consoling yourselves.”
“…….”
“I killed the dragon anyway, and all you did was suck your thumbs, right? I took first place in the Tournament, first place in the Burnt Offering ritual, and I’ll take first place in the Black Night ritual too. Isn’t that right?”
Alester, who had been listening quietly, began to open his eyes wider and wider.
This man, right now—
He was anchoring the core on the premise that the ‘succession ceremony’ was still ongoing.
Whether that was true or not did not matter. What mattered was making the people here believe it.
Make them angry. Make them furious. Cloud their judgment in a surge of intense emotion.
So that he could keep the situation under his control.
He was deliberately insulting them for that very reason.
“I’ll take the Pontiff’s seat, so you losers can just stand there sucking your thumbs.”
As Aiden grinned and raised his middle finger, discontented voices finally began to erupt from the surrounding royals.
But, in other words—
It was clearly working.
In the eyes of those who had been eroded by gloom, fear, anxiety, and helplessness, a spark of vitality began to take root.
And as Aiden watched that scene quietly, his own eyes sank endlessly deep.
Everything up to this point had been the reaction he anticipated.
As if intending to use this to move on to yet another ‘next stage.’
‘……This man.’
He was about to cause something again.
Sensing that instinctively, Alester let out a groan inwardly.