Chapter 131
Chapter 131 – Same Yet Different
Calix remained silent for a long time instead of answering. Adrian set down the bottle and swept his left palm across the frost-covered tabletop.
"They put ice in the commander's quarters? Feels like I've wandered into the Latia court. Perfect for wooing ladies on a summer night."
"……."
"A joke, a joke. No need for that murderous expression. You're as cold as they come, ahaha!"
A cheerful air, a light laugh. Even so, not a single corner of Calix's mouth moved. Beneath the complicated feelings, only a faint irritation seeped through.
Looking back, the two of them had always been like this.
His Neural Accelerator dealt in 'luck'. Calix, on the other hand, looked at reality. Their perspectives differed, yet the one thing they shared was an inability to fully understand each other.
"You get more interesting the more I learn about you. The power of Legion Commander Midra, no less. It's remarkable enough that you drove that monster away, but you're wielding the authority of Cold as though it were your own."
"……It's nothing more than a fragment."
"Is that truly so? Only a piece of it? I think differently."
Adrian fixed his gaze on the young man before him. As though the teasing had never happened, he met his eyes in silence with an expressionless face.
"You're special. I don't say that because you can use Falling Fire—I'm talking about the essence within you. You have an extraordinary quality ill-suited to your young age, and you make even the most acclaimed swordsmen in the world look like ordinary talents."
"I am—"
"Excessive humility is a vice. It's nothing but an act of self-destruction to lessen one's sense of responsibility. It's not desirable for yourself or for those around you."
Calix recalled once more the reason he had found the man unsettling from their very first meeting.
'It feels as though he can read right through me.'
It wasn't as though there was a great gap in experience between them, the way there was with Gregor or Royce—and yet, instinctively, he found himself putting emotional distance between them.
"Hmm, the mood has gone quite bleak. Moments like this are actually perfect for dredging up the old days."
Perhaps it was something closer to a loathing of one's own kind.
"As you know, I was born a prince of the Republic. My father was so incompetent he couldn't tell his own children were plotting against him, and my mother demanded wealth and power in the name of love. If you can't trust your own blood, how could you trust any other person? Perhaps that's why—I grew up trusting only 'circumstances'."
The two of them shared a common ground.
An unhappy childhood.
"I gave when it was time to give, and I never declined what I could take. I survived every brush with death, and without fail, I collected the price for it. And at last, I established a single conviction."
"What conviction?"
"Pursuing goodwill is right—but the moment you depend on it, you become incompetent."
"……."
And yet, at the same time, they had walked entirely different paths.
Calix furrowed his brow, then carefully opened his mouth.
"But if you only trust circumstances—what about those who remain by my side? We survived because we trusted one another."
"Well, rare cases like that do exist."
In the early dawn hours, not even sunlight reached the outside of the tent. On the surface, it was a soft exchange—but between the two of them, there was a gap that could not be closed.
"Because of that, you raised a great cause. You built an alliance, and now you seek to become the savior of the Niboria Empire. But if you cling to that cause and turn away from reality, you will ultimately lose."
"What reality?"
"You can't ignore the desires of the high nobles of the Empire—especially those with military power in their grip."
At that, he listened carefully to what the other man had to say. In search of an answer to his unbalanced Core and wavering heart, he was willing to seek counsel.
Adrian, as if he had been waiting, offered his reply.
"Those who hold power are suspicious and exclusionary by nature, and they turn at the drop of a hat. They rarely raise their own blade, but when the opportunity comes, they never miss it. The situation the Mountain Rabbits find themselves in is just the same. It's not a state where either side has the upper hand, is it?"
"……By contrast, time is short."
"Exactly. That's precisely the problem. Not Legion Commander Kohtan—the high nobles of the Empire know that fact. They're wondering whether your attention might be consumed by the bigger picture, whether there might be some advantage to be seized in that gap. They'll be pulling all manner of schemes."
Surprisingly, it was helpful.
From an entirely opposite perspective, he was pointing out aspects Calix hadn't thought to consider.
'He's not wrong. He simply thinks about things differently than I do.'
Calix then leaned forward and asked in return.
"Is Imran Akran's authority not enough? He is a Master."
"Not enough, you ask? No—that much is sufficient to keep the high nobles in check. But it's not sufficient to control them according to your will."
"……I need to take direct action?"
"That's right."
But the answer that followed surpassed all expectation.
"Calix, you need to press Imran Akran down yourself."
"……."
For a moment, Calix's breath caught. He held the other man's low, settled gaze and scraped through every meaning contained within it.
"His authority…… Crush it?"
"Precisely. You can't kill a Master. But you can oppose him politically. As long as one single thing is made perfectly clear."
He already knew what came next.
"……Follow, or be abandoned."
"That's it. The urgent one isn't us. It's the Niboria Empire."
Cold and resolute. Yet there was nothing to fault. Adrian Deconti's eyes radiated a chilling light.
They were pointing toward the path ahead.
"To shed less blood, this method is the best option. Their side will know it too, and have no choice but to accept it. So……."
"……."
"Don't rush too much. Don't handle it clumsily. Don't be swayed, and don't leave openings. Push hard and relentlessly, and seize what you want. That is what's best for everyone."
A moment later. Calix nodded quietly, and Adrian shrugged and immediately rose from his seat. Calix reflexively opened his mouth.
"Is that all?"
"Why?"
"……."
"Ah, should I have thrown a fit and demanded to know why you're wielding Midra's power? But that would be too embarrassing. I'd do it if I thought I could win in a fight—but that's not the case either."
The fact that they were entirely different people was precisely what gave him something to learn from. That was why there was something he absolutely had to ask.
"……Why did you join the Mountain Rabbits? Did that 'luck' of yours tell you to stay with us?"
He was new to the group, but no weakling. He wasn't the kind of man who would lean on something out of grief or pain.
Adrian didn't deny this fact either.
"No, the choice was mine."
"Was it worth it?"
"As of yet…… It seems to be."
To that final question, Adrian answered with the tent flap half drawn back. Sunlight crept slowly forward, tickling at his feet.
"So please—don't disappoint me."
* * *
When the morning mist lifted, the Silver Shield Legion and the Mountain Rabbits stretched out in a long procession. What was different from before was that hundreds of wandering refugees had gathered along the roadside.
"Please help us!"
"Sir Dakar Raihe is leading the capital garrison forces in resistance!"
The drifters trembled with hunger, exhaustion, and fear, and in the eyes that looked upon the Alliance's banners, hope and despair were intertwined.
But the mercenaries, too, had little room left in their hearts.
At some point, the majority had stopped being able to sleep. With each passing day, the aura of darkness had grown denser, and at times, they broke out in goosebumps for no reason, every nerve standing on end at the smallest of sounds.
"Something's wrong……."
With a grim foreboding, the hand holding the spoon trembled finely, and appetite had fled so thoroughly that not a single bowl of soup could be finished. And since even the breathing of comrades standing in line ahead and behind had become grating, quarrels broke out all too easily.
Had a certain someone not been radiating his distinctive presence, they would have collapsed in no time.
Calix was at the very front of the procession.
Crackle.
The weeds caught underfoot by the warhorse's hooves shattered like glass. When he breathed in, shadows flowed inward; when he breathed out, solidified vapor scattered apart. His fingertips were as cold as though submerged in ice water, yet from his whole body, a violent heat instead swirled and churned.
At first, he had taken it for temporary aftereffects—but he soon realized that was not the case.
'……I'm continuously absorbing the darkness.'
Cold—it was merely a manifestation of the authority, not the fundamental cause. After the fierce battle with Legion Commander Midra, he had belatedly realized that a fracture had opened within himself.
'Chaos has been holding it back until now, but it's slowly reaching its limit.'
Calix's Core evolves ceaselessly. It consumes divine power, and by absorbing shadow, it awakens new strength.
The problem was that it had no self-restraint.
The closer they drew to Legion Commander Kohtan's domain, the denser the aura of darkness became—and all that mana became fodder.
[Core Instability Increasing]
[Source of Mana – Darkness 8% Rising, Currently 79%]
[Divinity 10% Declining, Currently 42%]
The merits and drawbacks were clear.
The size of his Core increased with every passing moment, and those beside him were relatively less affected by the anomalous phenomenon.
On the other hand—
'Chaos remains as it is. Divinity and Darkness only cancel each other out—they cannot merge into one.'
He clenched his hand then opened it; minute ice crystals formed. His body grew stronger, while somewhere inside him, something was withering away.
'……There is a chance I myself could become corrupted.'
He could not tell where he was headed, nor what he was becoming. And yet the reason he was able to endure……was thanks to his companions.
"O Kriya, grant me a small flame so that I may not lose my way."
The cleric Ella continued to recite her prayer. When the brief sacred incantation ended, a thread of warmth brushed across his chest.
She neither looked at him nor spoke to him. But Calix knew she had noticed his change.
[Divinity 6% Rising, Currently 48%]
She was simply flowing divine power toward him—without any price at all.
"Hmm, stragglers."
"Should we take them in?"
"……Only a few. I have a bad feeling about this."
The others were no different. Adrian was in the middle of the procession, sorting through the wanderers and guiding them along. When their eyes happened to meet, he gave a light lift of the corner of his mouth.
Captain Royce focused on commanding the force. Quarrels among soldiers were permitted up to a point, but conduct that disrupted order—like theft—was not tolerated.
Volga was quietly tidying up the flag covers. Everyone, without complaint, was enduring the harsh conditions in their own way.
"Palmern!"
And before long, a commotion broke out ahead.
Palmern was a small fortress located to the southwest, near the Empire's capital. Under ordinary circumstances, it would have been nothing more than a strategic military point—but the encampment had spread all the way beyond the outer walls.
Before long, banners of many colors fluttered on the horizon. Gold and crimson, black as pitch—crests of noble houses. A countless host of troops filled everything from the river to the hills.
"They've come properly. That's Count Harald Lugar's army."
"……The great lord of the west has graced us with his presence?"
The eyes of the Mountain Rabbits turned toward the heavily armored cavalry. The other side, too, had apparently caught wind of their arrival—thick clouds of dust rose here and there throughout the encampment.
Calix slowly drew in a breath.
Creatures forged from blood, power, and ambition stood before them.
'No concessions.'
In his eyes, a blazing intensity was vividly reflected. Without question, he had absolutely no intention of being played by their scheming.