Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 280

Chapter 280

“By the way, why did you do that earlier?”

“Pardon?”

“My clothes. You were holding onto them.”

“Ah, I apologize. I felt like you were going to disappear any second, so I unconsciously…”

“Hmm?”

I half-expected it, but the answer I got was exactly what I had guessed. My perspective of him changed in an instant. Even Ciel was looking at him with unusual eyes this time. It was a very fleeting moment, and I hadn’t even properly activated the Spirit Speech. But he recognized it?

I strode up to Asel, grabbed his chin, and examined his face from side to side. Asel’s face, initially bewildered, soon flushed bright red.

“U-um?”

“He’s not a Spiritist. He has a slightly stronger connection to the earth’s energy than the average person, but it’s not particularly pronounced. It doesn’t seem like precognition… You have very good eyes? Do you see a lot usually?”

“……Yes?”

“Don’t you see things that others don’t?”

“How did you know…….”

“Ciel, I think he’s in the same category as you?”

I said, turning to Ciel, whose expression became strange. As he approached, Asel stiffened even more.

“……It’s true. It’s a weak Spirit Eye.”

“Ah, really?”

“Why does a human have a Spirit Eye? This is a unique ability of unicorns. I’ve heard it can appear in hybrids, but…”

“Then isn’t he a hybrid? Like a throwback gene?”

“It’s not an impossible story, but… wasn’t the human race destroyed once after the unicorns migrated to the Divine Realm? Then all the blood would have been cut off.”

“You can gain similar power by absorbing a unicorn’s eye, right? Could it have been passed down that way?”

“That’s unlikely. The power gained that way is temporary and doesn’t affect reproduction.”

“Then someone briefly came down to the Mortal Realm?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Demons come and go, so why couldn’t unicorns?”

“Hmm…….”

Ciel’s expression turned serious, as if he thought it was plausible. An unexpected thing happened next. Asel, who had been blankly listening to the conversation, suddenly started to shed tears.

“Eek? Asel? Why are you crying?”

“I… no one ever believed me.”

“Yes?”

“There was a legend that my family’s founder was a unicorn… Everyone laughed when I said that…”

“……!”

Ciel and I reflexively looked at each other. We guessed, and we were right. The situation was so sudden that I felt more bewildered than happy that we were right. Ciel, in particular, had a complicated expression. After waking up after 4,000 years, he unexpectedly discovered traces of his clan that he thought he could no longer find, so it was understandable that he was taken aback.

“What’s your name?”

“Asel. Asel Rigleo.”

Asel quickly wiped away the tears streaming down his face as he answered. Ciel made an even more dumbfounded expression.

“……Ha.”

“Ciel, what’s wrong?”

“Rigleo, you said.”

“Is it a name you know?”

I asked cautiously, and he nodded. Asel also widened his eyes in surprise, and Ciel’s voice continued.

“Rigleo Rune.”

The face that answered calmly wore a twisted smile that I had never seen before.

“He’s my brother.”

* * *

“……What?”

The world felt like it stopped for a moment.

I stared blankly at Ciel with a frozen face. His tone was so calm that I initially thought I had misheard. No matter how many times I replayed it in my mind, it still didn’t feel real. Asel was just blinking, so he seemed to be in a similar state to me. In the tense atmosphere where no one could speak, only Ciel, who had dropped the bomb, remained calm. He scratched his chin and asked nonchalantly.

“But where are Alisa and Isana right now? Shouldn’t we go see them?”

“Huh? Yeah, we should. We’re going, but wait a minute. I don’t think that’s the important thing right now, is it?”

“Wow, there’s something El thinks is more important than Isana?”

“Don’t change the subject in a weird way. You’re the one who made the situation like this.”

“What did I do…….”

“Brother? Did you just say brother? Not just an acquaintance, but a real brother? Blood-related?”

I grabbed him and pressed him for answers, and Ciel avoided my gaze for a moment before reluctantly nodding.

“Yeah, well. We were born to the same parents, so he’s my real brother.”

“Huh?”

So, they’re really family?

The second time didn’t make the shock any less. I just gaped, then scanned Ciel up and down with a strange feeling. But why is this guy reacting like this? If that’s true, then Asel in front of me is his brother’s bloodline. Shouldn’t he be more surprised and flustered in this situation? Numerous questions that I couldn’t bring myself to say swirled rapidly in my head. Ciel seemed to read those thoughts in my eyes. He smiled a little bitterly.

“It’s not that big of a deal, El. To be honest, it’s just ‘brother’ in name only. I barely remember him.”

“……What do you mean?”

“My brother left the village when I was very young. I only know his name; I don’t even remember his face well. My parents both passed away before that, so I grew up in the hands of caretakers. We’re just blood-related in name only, no different from strangers.”

I had never heard any of this before, so I quietly swallowed my breath. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ciel mention his family before. He was already an independent adult, and he seemed to have a complicated relationship with his clan, so I didn’t really ask or wonder about it. But I never imagined he had such a story.

When I think about it, he said that ‘El’ the human was his first friend, even though he had lived for so long. His relationship with his clan must have been strained as well. I felt like I could understand a little better why he was so fixated on ‘El’. ‘El’ was his family.

“Why are you making that face?”

Ciel looked embarrassed, as if my face had unknowingly contorted. I didn’t know how to start the conversation, so I closed my mouth, and the air became even more awkward.

“Um…….”

The atmosphere was changed thanks to Asel. It was only when I heard him speak that I remembered his presence, and that I had forgotten their existence and carelessly blurted things out. Asel’s face was stiff.

“Let’s talk for a moment. I’ve been listening since earlier, and I don’t know what you’re talking about. ‘Brother this,’ ‘brother that,’ who is whose brother? Are you perhaps claiming to be my founder’s brother? Are you trying to claim that you’re a unicorn right now?”

He glared at Ciel with an aggressive gaze. Ciel shrugged with an ambiguous attitude, neither affirming nor denying. His gaze towards Asel was quite complicated at first, but he seemed to have sorted out his feelings in the meantime, and his face was completely that of treating a stranger.

“I think they call it Saint Beast now.”

“Does that mean you admit it?”

“What if I do?”

“I, I can’t believe it. Show me proof.”

“Proof? Why should I?”

“Because, if you’re going to claim something, you have to take responsibility! Spouting claims that you can’t prove is something only scammers do!”

“Just think whatever you want.”

“W-what did you say?”

Asel’s face contorted at the insincere attitude. The group behind him stopped him as he began to lean forward as if to press him further. A man with a lion-like shaggy head stepped forward and grabbed Asel’s shoulder. His name was Serium, I think. He was the rough-looking man who had been scolded by Asel when he joined us late.

“Asel, stop it. It’s obviously a lie. Why are you getting caught up in such a bad joke?”

“Serium-nim…….”

Asel looked back hesitantly. The man named Serium possessed a wild energy as fierce as his impression. Black eyes under thick gray hair flickered as if they were about to burst into flames. He drew a greatsword from behind his back and pointed it at us.

“Unicorn? You have to say something that makes sense. You deliberately targeted Asel’s weakness for such talk, didn’t you? It seems like you knew who we were from the start and approached us, but you won’t get away with such a shallow trick! Come to think of it, I thought it was suspicious from the beginning. Does it make sense for a contracted spirit who is forcibly bound to be wandering around in a place like this? Everything you said about seeing the future from the beginning was all an act, wasn’t it? Tell me honestly. Who sent you guys?”

It seemed he suspected that we had deliberately approached them with a purpose. The others seemed to have made similar decisions, and they were readjusting their weapons. Only Asel couldn’t shake off his confused expression and looked back and forth between him and us.

“Wait a minute, Serium-nim. That might not be the case. Let’s talk a little more…….”

“You’re the one who needs to come to your senses, Asel! How long are you going to cling to that ridiculous legend? Because you keep talking nonsense, these guys are easily throwing bait!”

Asel closed his mouth at the sharply raised rebuke. Serium scanned him with a look of disdain.

“You’re bright and decisive in other things, so why do you lose your mind and cling to the story of your ancestor’s legend? It would be more realistic if you said dragon or demon. What’s a unicorn? That’s an animal that only comes out in legends! It’s literally a legend! It’s just a story that people made up! You’re even trying to believe the crazy talk that he’s a unicorn? He’s just openly playing with you!”

‘I’m really a unicorn, though.’

I was just telling the truth, but I’m being treated like a scammer. If I revealed that I was the Spirit King, they would immediately throw me into a mental hospital (though I don’t know if they have such a thing here). Believing only what you can see is the same in any world. Still, I was a little taken aback to see that a clan that once resided on this land was being treated so thoroughly as a fictional existence.

Four thousand years after the unicorn clan migrated to the Divine Realm, the people here seemed to have completely forgotten them. Even though dragons and demons were within the scope of ‘reality,’ unicorns were not even considered as a possibility. That meant that their clan had completely erased their traces and left, which made me a little bitter.

“So tell me straight! What are you up to with us? Are you from Ilya’s side? Did you come all the way here to harass Asel?”

“Ilya?”

“Pretending you don’t know, treating Asel like a scammer…… It’s obvious when you’re deliberately using a method that Asel would fall for! I know very well how much you guys look down on Asel, but I’m really sick of it! Even so, where did you learn to pull off a scam that even a snot-nosed kid wouldn’t fall for? Unicorn my ass! If you’re a unicorn, then I’m a dragon grandpa!”

The man who had lost his mind fearlessly provoked us. It was a good thing that Lapis wasn’t here. I wondered what would happen if Ciel turned into his true form in this situation. I glanced at Ciel’s reaction, and surprisingly, he had a nonchalant expression. He just stared at Asel, who was biting his lip, for a moment. He soon turned to me with a calm face.

“Are you going to stay here? Let’s go, El.”

“……Are you sure you don’t want to talk more?”

“About what?”

“You…….”

“Yeah?”

“……No, never mind. Let’s talk again later. I think it’s better to go now. To be honest, I was scared of what would come out of that person’s mouth if we left him alone any longer.”

Ciel chuckled as I muttered with a click of my tongue. He seemed similar to usual, but his reaction was less energetic than usual. It was clear that he was feeling down, even if he didn’t show it. I said as if I was deliberately hurrying.

“Let’s go quickly. I think we should check on the injured person’s condition soon.”

“Injured person? Who got hurt?”

“Ah, Alisa was with some guy. He seemed to have been hit by an arrow.”

“Someone El doesn’t know?”

“Yeah, his hair color was quite unique. I’ve never seen such a color before. To put it bluntly, it was like a pink blossom. A deep magenta?”

“W-wait a minute!”

We were talking when a sudden call came. I turned around and saw Serium and his group standing with stiff faces. Were they angry that we ignored them? I hoped they wouldn’t provoke Ciel any further, but I was worried because they didn’t seem to have that kind of sense. I was feeling anxious, anticipating the reactions that would follow.

“Did you just say magenta?”

* * *

“Isana!”

When we arrived at our destination, the scene was in the midst of being cleaned up. Most of the assailants who had attacked Alisa were dead, and some were unconscious and tied up. Seciel was nowhere to be seen, so he must have already been sent back. Instead, the puddles of water soaking the floor clearly revealed his performance.

“El! Ciel-nim!”

Isana waved his hand with a bright smile when he found us. His face was clearly visible from afar because he wasn’t trying to hide it. The group of Asel who were following behind swallowed hard.

“Good heavens. It’s really Emperor Isana.”

“What, is that real?”

“I participated in the delegation during the coronation. I saw it clearly then. It’s definitely him.”

“He certainly looks a lot like Duke Yucarite…… Crazy, what is this? What’s going on?”

They had been unable to hide their distrustful gazes throughout the journey here. They had followed us, thinking they would humor us, but they seemed even more flustered when they actually met the real Isana. While Asel and Serium were quickly whispering, Ciel and I ran to Isana in one breath. Ferris and the royal knights who were scattered around also stopped what they were doing and gathered around.