Chapter 111
I Don’t Want to Give Up
Erembalt was still on his way back to House Rosnova.
Sitting inside the carriage, he thought to himself,
Yes. This is enough.
He had made the right choice by declaring a complete severance of ties.
Those days when Erdes’s scrutiny and harassment had made his hair fall out by the handful were finally over.
Now that he had received confirmation that Ferda no longer had anything to do with him, they were strangers.
No—if anything, Erembalt would be remembered as the victim.
“I’ll never have to get involved with that damned lunatic again. This is enough.”
“What lunatic?”
“Ugh!”
At the familiar voice, Erembalt jerked his head up.
He was inside his carriage.
The seat opposite him should have been empty.
Yet a teenage girl was sitting there.
Platinum-blonde hair and blue eyes brimming with mana.
Her name was Erdes Roton.
Chairwoman of the Cerdes Continental Magic Association, a living calamity, and a magic-wielding lunatic.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
She grinned like a mischievous child.
“Say what you just said again. I’m curious who you were talking about.”
“I-I have committed a grave offense. I spoke insolently of you, Chairwoman—”
“Do you think I came here to hear your confession over some petty gossip behind my back?”
She was indeed notorious for holding grudges.
But that was genuinely not why Erdes had come.
“Tell me what you discussed with the regent.”
“It was nothing significant.”
“Nothing significant, my ass. If it was nothing, why are the regent and Valdrova’s attendant traveling together?”
Erembalt’s eyes widened.
“W-Where are they going?”
“No idea. Judging by the direction, somewhere around House Rosnova, I think.”
She grinned.
“Maybe he’s planning to wipe out the entire family himself.”
Erembalt visibly flinched.
Cold sweat poured down his face.
Erdes had only been talking nonsense, but his reaction startled even her.
“What? Why are you reacting like that?”
“It’s... nothing.”
“Of course it isn’t. You reacted that way because you thought I might be right. Sounds like quite an intense conversation took place.”
“It was nothing. I simply spoke with Regent Valdrova and told him that he was no longer connected to our family. He was the one who overreacted.”
“...What?”
At those words, Erdes neither grinned nor became angry.
She merely stared at Erembalt with a blank expression.
That was far more terrifying.
“As I told you, Regent Ferda does not carry our blood. Other than his gray hair, there is not a single feature he shares with us. I informed him of that.”
“So you disowned him?”
“That is correct.”
“Hmm...”
After hearing his answer, Erdes merely tapped her chin with her index finger.
Erembalt felt compelled to say something—anything—to break the uncomfortable silence.
“And... it is certain that Ferda uses side magic.”
“...Why?”
“When I told him we were severing our ties, he used side magic to create a hand! He intended to strangle me with it.”
Erembalt had pretended not to notice until the very end.
Had he acknowledged it then, he was certain he would have died on the spot.
Erdes’s eyes shifted slightly.
“So, did he strangle you?”
“No... He withdrew it before doing so.”
“What a good boy.”
“Pardon?”
Erembalt stared at her in confusion.
She hated side magic more than anyone, yet she seemed completely uninterested in the fact that Ferda had used it.
“He didn’t even strangle the father who came to sever ties with him. What a good boy.”
No.
She was not merely ignoring it.
She was defending him.
Unable to endure it any longer, Erembalt asked her directly.
“What do you intend to do about Regent Ferda?”
“Do about him? Nothing.”
“He tried to kill me with dark magic, and you will still do nothing?”
“Yeah. Whether you die or not has fuck-all to do with me.”
The arrogant young woman let out a long sigh.
“Ah, seriously. I keep missing the mark so badly that it’s giving me one hell of an existential crisis. Heaven itself must be helping that brat.”
Erdes rose from her seat.
“I’m sick of you. Stay out of my sight from now on. If I catch you trying anything stupid, even I don’t know what I might do. Understood?”
“Yes. I will... live humbly.”
As though he were no longer worth speaking to, Erdes left.
Silence returned to the inside of Erembalt’s carriage.
“Whew...”
Without realizing it, Erembalt placed a hand against his neck.
Only after confirming that his head was still attached did he let out a sigh of relief.
He did feel a trace of guilt for casting out his son.
But it vanished like a passing breeze.
More than anything, he was relieved that he would never again have to face that lunatic or the filthy thing attached to him.
***
The office of the Chairwoman of the Cerdes Continental Magic Association.
A circular gate opened, and Erdes stepped through it.
Naturally, her secretary, Lu, was sitting in the chairwoman’s seat and doing her work for her.
“Where did you go this time after abandoning all your work?”
Lu asked with dark circles beneath her eyes.
Erdes whipped her head around and glared at her.
Her expression was irritable.
“I went to help solidify the Far East’s foundations. Why?”
“Didn’t you despise that regent?”
“Exactly. Fucking hell. What kind of idiotic bullshit am I doing?”
Cursing violently, Erdes threw herself onto the sofa.
It had been a good idea to entice the workers into forming a labor union and turn them into an opposing force.
But the other side had proven far stronger than she had imagined.
“Stephan Pascal... Wasn’t that guy supposed to be a nobody?”
“He is going to become chairman of the Pascal Company.”
“What?”
Erdes lifted her head.
She looked as though this was the first she had heard of it.
“Since when? More importantly, weren’t there two formidable rivals ahead of him?”
“How long ago are you talking about? The eldest daughter disappeared into a western village with her husband, and the eldest son caused a scene about becoming independent before handing control of the mercenary company over to Stephan.”
“Why didn’t I know about this?”
“Because it was an area you were never interested in?”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because it was an area you were never interested in?”
Erdes shot her a vicious glare.
Lu, who had merely agreed with her, looked uncomfortable.
“Um... Is that somehow my fault?”
“If you’re a secretary, shouldn’t you handle things neatly on your own? Even if I say I’m not interested, you should shove it in front of me and say, ‘Please look at this just once.’”
“What are you, a baby who needs to be spoon-fed...? Fine. Understood. I’ll begin studying mind-reading magic immediately.”
Lu answered with an incredulous expression.
“And Erembalt!”
The second source of Erdes’s irritation.
“How could that bastard be such a coward? He comes from a knightly family, yet he was frightened of a single mage?”
“Those who weren’t frightened tended to die by your hand, Chairwoman. You should try to understand.”
“Even so, how does it make any sense to cast out your own son?”
“Didn’t he say Ferda did not share his blood? He already has two perfectly healthy sons as well. Besides, he was willing to offer Ferda up as a sacrifice. Showing paternal affection now would be rather strange.”
Erdes folded her arms and grumbled in displeasure.
“Even so, after living together for eighteen years, shouldn’t there be at least some attachment? If it were me, I’d have grown attached to someone after living with them that long.”
Lu’s eyes widened in shock.
“You would, Chairwoman?”
“Why? You don’t believe me? Do you think you survived all this time while constantly talking back because you’re just that competent?”
Lu immediately shrank back.
“Anyway, because of that, I couldn’t find any weakness to exploit. If there had been even the slightest paternal affection or family bond, I could have turned it into that brat’s weakness and threatened him with it.”
Instead, all she had learned was how miserable his life had been.
Erdes did not like that.
“Blue.”
“Why are you calling me?”
“Am I really that bad at judging people?”
“Have you finally opened your eyes?”
“Do you seriously want to die?”
“To answer honestly... you’re not particularly good at it.”
“The Association runs perfectly well, doesn’t it? Is that because I’m good at my job?”
“That’s because you cut off people’s heads whenever it doesn’t. Everyone is terrified, so they somehow keep things running.”
“Hmm. So that was it. I see. Then perhaps it’s time for a change.”
“Yes. You should reorganize the personnel and replace everyone in one clean sweep. Just like when you brought me in.”
Lu subtly made the suggestion.
Erdes stared at his face.
“No matter how you phrase it, I’m never lifting your lifetime appointment as my secretary.”
“Damn it.”
Lu, secretary to the Chairwoman of the Magic Association, failed to escape yet again today.
***
After confessing his fears, Ferda returned to work.
The wound Erembalt had left behind had calmed somewhat, but its aftereffects continued to circle his mind in the form of uncertainty.
Whatever the case, it is true that my power is unstable.
It was unprecedented for his power to be driven not merely by one emotion, but for another emotion to intervene as well.
Had this been Ferda before his regression, he would have welcomed it and done everything possible to put it to use.
For a mage with a Red Circle, emotions other than the one fueling it were little more than brakes.
Ferda understood that balance well.
Losing control will lead to tragedy.
He would act against Valdrova’s wishes, and Luri, as her attendant, would make him pay for his crimes.
Being killed by Luri would undoubtedly be tragic.
But something even more tragic would be...
Killing Luri when she came to kill him.
If I killed the one person Valdrova trusts...
The loneliness Valdrova had endured rose vividly within him.
After the Dragon-Demon War, she had lived for one hundred and fifty years burdened by guilt and isolation.
Yet there had still been a trace of hope.
Valdrova knew that Luri remained on her side.
In his previous life, however, Luri had disappeared.
That meant there had been no one left in Valdrova’s life.
Only despair.
If it were me, I would have gone mad long ago.
But she had not.
In the end, she had even given her heart to Ferda, the man who hated her.
It had not been an act of despairing surrender.
It had been one final sacrifice, made in the hope of creating something new.
How could I abandon a woman like that?
How could he hurt her?
It felt as though she remained inside a pit of despair, unaware that the rope he had thrown down to her was already rotten.
Rather than saving her, he might only leave her with an even deeper wound.
Just like the version of himself in the dream, his hands wrapped around her throat.
Don’t be afraid.
Whenever such thoughts came, a sweet voice slipped into his ears.
There is no reason to worry.
You are strong.
Just do what you do best.
Ferda did not respond.
He ignored the voice again and again until it subsided.
I need to remain clearheaded.
He had to steady himself so that he would not yield to that overwhelming temptation.
Ferda Valdrova.
He had always been a man who found answers to everything.
He chose to believe that he would find one this time as well.
In the worst case...
He could give up his life as a mage.
That would be far better than carrying a bomb that might explode at any moment.
But if I do that, what will I have left?
Luri had demanded one thing from Ferda.
That he become a fiancé worthy of Valdrova’s stature.
He had once believed that time would make him more capable.
Instead, he had only become increasingly aware of how insignificant he was.
All he possessed was a pitiful amount of knowledge about the future and some magical expertise.
By Luri’s standards, he failed to qualify.
It was a wretched situation.
The moment he abandoned either side, the balance would collapse and everything would fall apart.
He did not want to give up.
Just as she had never abandoned him, no matter the circumstances...
Ferda did not want to abandon her either.
BOOM!
At that moment, a tremendous vibration shook the entire castle.
Valdrova’s bloodlust?
No.
The tremor traveling through the floor felt different.
This vibration had originated inside the castle.
It seemed someone had caused an enormous accident.
Was there any experiment large enough to create a tremor like this?
Ferda rose and headed toward the research wing.
The corridors were already filled with confused people.
“What is this commotion?”
“We came out because we were wondering the same thing.”
“Didn’t the explosion come from one of your laboratories?”
“Our laboratory couldn’t possibly produce an explosion of that scale.”
Every person capable of causing such an explosion wore an equally bewildered expression.
Even Ferda had naturally assumed it had come from Burnell’s laboratory.
If it wasn’t here...
There was only one other place where such an explosion could occur.
“Lord Ferda.”
Luri approached and made her report.
“There was an enormous surge of mana. The location was—”
“The library?”
“How did you know?”
Luri narrowed her eyes.
Her expression clearly asked whether Ferda had caused it.
“If it wasn’t here, Echidna is the only person capable of creating an explosion of that scale.”
This week, Echidna was responsible for Mori.
She should have been in the library, thoroughly indulging in Mori’s knowledge.
Ferda and Luri headed there together.
When they opened the library door, they found the interior in complete chaos.
Mori was sitting in the middle of it.
She silently continued her work while brushing aside sheets of paper that had fallen around her like late-autumn leaves.
She seemed completely unconcerned by the enormous explosion.
“Mori.”
Hearing her name, Mori stopped her pen and raised her head.
Her eyes still shone with pure innocence.
No—
There was something strangely refreshed about her expression.
“What happened?”
Mori wrote her answer on a sheet of paper.
—Echidna has been annihilated.
The explanation was neat and concise.
The meaning behind it, however, was extremely grave.