Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 311

311

Huff, after swallowing my breath, I hurriedly asked.

“Is the Archduke trying to postpone the fight with Isana?”

“Well, it doesn’t seem like he’s even conscious of Isana, from my perspective.”

“If not Isana, then who?”

“Obviously, who else but you.”

“……Huh?”

“There’s a Spirit King here right now. The Archduke knows that too. Do you think he’s worried about Isana right now? He probably doesn’t care about the war itself. He’s probably focused on awakening the Evil God.”

“Hmm, but if that’s the case, isn’t he being too passive? Blocking the advance won’t tie me down.”

“He must have thought that since you’re a spirit, you can’t leave your contractor’s side. Even if that’s not the case, if there’s a commotion on Isana’s side, your attention will be focused there. Actually, you’ve been the busiest with things here lately, right?”

I had nothing to say because everything he said was right. I was dumbfounded that I was only realizing this now. All those ambushes were actually to distract me.

“In short, there’s something they need to hide from me right now.”

My mind rapidly turned cold. I was always keeping an eye on the Archduke’s situation. Because of the Sword of Wind, it was hard to see when he was in contact with Charybdis, but I thought I was mostly keeping track. But now, that belief was starting to crumble. The Archduke knew how to keep me in check better than I thought. Then, wasn’t it possible that the fact that he seemed to be doing nothing until now wasn’t true? Maybe he’s still sacrificing somewhere, avoiding my gaze……

Koo-oong.

“……Hah!”

At that moment, I suddenly felt like something was sinking inside my body. It was a dizzying sensation, like the floor was collapsing and I was falling straight down. I quickly gasped and clutched my chest.

“Godfather!”

“What’s wrong?”

Ast and Lapis, startled, rushed towards me. They seemed flustered because the person least likely to suffer from illness was acting like they were in pain. Of course, I was the most flustered.

“Ugh. I don’t know. What’s wrong with me? I suddenly feel strange.”

“Strange how?”

“I don’t know how to explain it. It feels like something is being suppressed, like my heart is being paralyzed……”

The energy pressing down on my chest wasn’t disappearing even at this moment. It felt like a tingling pain, and I felt like I was trembling with a bad premonition. But suddenly, Ast and Deron gasped loudly. They looked as if they had seen something they shouldn’t have. I was bewildered when I saw Lapis frowning.

“What are you doing right now?”

“Huh? What?”

“You’re crying.”

“……Huh?”

The moment I blinked, I felt something falling. I raised my hand and touched my eyes, and a damp feeling was conveyed. Tears were welling up and falling without my control.

“Oh, what’s wrong with me?”

It felt like something was constantly surging from within. I was tormented as if my insides were burning, and I felt nauseous enough to throw up. But strangely, it didn’t feel real. It was as if someone else was crying, not me……

“Ah.”

I blankly raised my head. The tears that had begun to pour down flowed down my cheeks along the tilted angle. I didn’t even think about wiping them away because they didn’t seem like they would stop anyway.

“The spirit…… is crying.”

“What?”

“Naias is crying. She’s in pain and suffering. That pain…… is being conveyed to me……”

“……”

Lapis’s eyes calmly sank. Ast and Deron exchanged bewildered glances, as if they didn’t understand the meaning. I could feel them looking at me, wanting an explanation, but I couldn’t come to my senses because I was busy calming the sadness that had taken over my chest and the image of someone that was filling my head.

Skinny arms and legs, a gaunt face with sunken cheeks came to mind. Was it not long after Isana summoned me? A woman holding a small, unconscious child preciously. The scene of giving the woman a necklace, telling her to come to the Imperial Palace later, naturally came to mind and continued. The spirit who was suffering now was Naias, the one who had been put inside that necklace.

‘Ah, right. That child died.’

Everything that had been blocking my eyes became clear. My hands were trembling so much that I barely managed to clench them. As a sense of loss filled me, it felt like all the strength was draining from my body. I met Lapis’s eyes. He was probably staring intently at my face, which had become very pale. As if he already knew what I was going to say next.

I slowly closed my eyes. Tears poured down again. This time, they were tears that I shed with my own will. My heart hurt so much that it was hard. It was a painful and terrible feeling that I never wanted to feel again.

“I have to go to the Imperial Palace. It seems like there’s a lot I need to do.”

* * *

“It is an honor to meet you, Duke.”

Charybdis looked at the group that was politely greeting him. The people who met at the appointed place were dressed in all black from head to toe. They all had unremarkable appearances that seemed like they had been seen somewhere, but in reality, there was not a single person he knew.

Where did the Archduke get these people? He had grasped all the people he was employing. There was no such group among them. As if noticing the reason why Charybdis’s gaze was strange, the person who appeared to be the leader of the group gave a subtle smile.

“I’m sure you have many questions about us. You may find us untrustworthy, but you don’t have to worry. We have never neglected the tasks we have been given. I can assure you that you will achieve results beyond your expectations.”

“……How long have you been by His Highness’s side?”

“It’s probably been longer than you think. If you, Duke, are His Highness’s light, we were his shadow. We have always admired you, Duke. I can’t tell you how happy I am to be able to serve you like this today.”

“……”

Is it possible to laugh when you’re too dumbfounded? Charybdis chuckled quietly.

He had spent his entire life as the Archduke’s shadow, taking on ugly tasks that he couldn’t tell others about. The position of ruling the world was a thorny path full of threats. It was impossible to always walk on the sunny side. In order to protect his lord’s nobility, he had to stain his hands with blood. Whether it was his or someone else’s. Even innocent people were killed if they got in his way. He crushed, suppressed, and uprooted them, wiping them all out. If necessary, he did not hesitate to use any cowardly method. Even the noble position of Duke was just a means to effectively enjoy that power. From one day on, the stench of blood that had permeated his body did not disappear no matter how much he washed it. He sympathized with the words that people whispered when they saw him, rather than being angry that his humble birth was inevitable. He himself thought that he was no different from a hitman. And yet, they call him the light. They said that they were the real shadows.

“You’re saying interesting things.”

A fierce chill flowed from his whole body. However, the men in black calmly accepted the reaction. Seeing the unwavering atmosphere, Charybdis felt his head cooling down again. Indeed, they were people who had become chronic in malice and murderous intent enough to pride themselves on being shadows. On the other hand, he couldn’t feel any energy from them. It was proof that they had been professionally trained to thoroughly hide their presence and intentions.

“How many more of you are there like you?”

“Not many. You can assume that the main force is only as large as the number of people here now.”

“About thirty people. That’s quite small.”

“The training process is so difficult that not many survive.”

Something came to mind when he heard that. Charybdis’s expression relaxed for a moment. When the late Emperor was still alive, the Archduke’s position was isolated due to his checks, and he became increasingly unable to trust anyone. In the end, he wanted to create a secret army to protect himself, and he secretly gathered children from all over the country with the intention of raising them loyally from a young age. However, no one knew what happened to those children after that. There were children who were said to have been called to the Archduke, but none of them were confirmed to be alive. Because of that, malicious rumors were circulating. Hadn’t he once confirmed it directly with the Archduke? At the time, the Archduke said that most of the children had died because they couldn’t withstand the training process.

“Then you are……”

Is that so? Was that the truth?

Charybdis unknowingly let out a shallow breath. The discomfort that had been weighing heavily on one corner of his heart disappeared and a sense of relief filled him. He seemed to have suspected the Archduke. No, he had suspected him. From the very moment he accidentally learned about the dangerous spell written in a book that he had spread out on his desk.

He was willing to walk into hell for the Archduke, but that spell was not something he could handle alone. It was a terrible spell completed in the midst of countless blood of innocent people and the curses of the gods. If he tried such a thing, the Archduke would surely have his soul destroyed and would never be saved. How desperately he wanted it not to be that. So he was sincerely happy at this moment.

As he lowered his guard, the faces of the men also turned slightly brighter. They were pretending to be calm, but it was not easy not to be nervous by the force exuded by him, a Sword Master. Even though their positions and paths were different, their ultimate goal was one: to fulfill the will of their lord, the Archduke. The leader’s attitude also became a little more friendly.

“It seems you’ve heard about us. Well, you’re someone His Highness trusts so much that he calls you his right-hand man, so that’s only natural. His Highness calls us ‘Iliya’.”

“Iliya?”

“Yes, our Iliya is largely divided into search teams and hunting teams. We are the team in charge of hunting. You could say that we are the practical power of Iliya.”

He didn’t listen properly to the following explanation. More than that, what Charybdis paid attention to was the name itself. It felt somehow familiar, as if he had heard it somewhere before. Charybdis, who had been chewing it over in his mind, soon recalled the source of the name. The hunting dog that the Archduke’s closest brother, Prince Seolize, cherished had such a name. The unusually loyal dog did not put a drop of water in its mouth and starved to death when its owner died. The Archduke tried to save it somehow, but it never turned its eyes to another owner.

“……Is that so. Iliya, huh.”

The taste lingering in his mouth was bitter. A lot of time had already passed and many things had changed, but the Archduke may still be stuck in those days. Charybdis, who had escaped from his thoughts, slowly scanned the men in front of him again.

“But are only cripples gathered in Iliya like you?”

At first, he didn’t pay much attention to it, but now that he knew that they were weapons that the Archduke had raised himself, the characteristics that had passed by began to catch his eye. The members of Iliya all had prominent scars. The leader alone was one-eyed with one eye missing. There were also those with cut ears or deformed appearances.

“Haha. You are the first to mention that directly, Duke. Everyone else just looks at us and doesn’t ask until the end.”

“Is it an injury sustained during training?”

“No. Most of them are congenital [present from birth]. Even if they are acquired, they all occurred before becoming Iliya.”

“Is that so? It must have been harder to endure training with an uncomfortable body.”

“No. Rather, it was fortunate for us to have such a body. Thanks to that, we got a chance to live.”

“……A chance to live?”

“Ah, don’t misunderstand. We are only truly loyal to Archduke. My parents sold me off at a cheap price because I was missing one eye. They didn’t know that Archduke was only gathering children without any flaws. Everyone here is like that. To Archduke, we would have been trash that he could have just killed. We are just grateful for the grace of giving us value and giving us an excuse to live.”

“……”

It was natural to select children with healthy bodies to raise them as soldiers, but there was a strange sense of incongruity in that explanation. The Archduke gathered children without flaws. Even though he wasn’t interested because the rumors were so widespread, Charybdis also knew the conditions: young, without flaws, and clean. The more beautiful they were, the better. But now, the people in front of him said that they had gained the opportunity thanks to ‘this body,’ that they were lucky to have been able to live.

“Were you gathering sacrifices?”

The question was somewhat impulsive. Even he himself thought it was a very disorganized and absurd statement. He thought that the other person would not understand at all, that they would ask what he meant. But the answer that came back lightly betrayed his expectations.

“The mundane ones are the work of the cult, and we are in charge of more special sacrifices. Did you know that sacrificing those with abilities is more effective? The search team selects and identifies the target, and we hunt them.”

Ah, my lord.

For a moment, his vision flickered and returned to normal. It was like rising to a high place and then falling quickly. His mind was wide awake as if he had been hit with cold water. He forcibly suppressed the surging emotions so that they would not be revealed. Fortunately, hiding his emotions was quite easy for him. He didn’t really like his blunt face, which didn’t express his inner feelings well, but he was grateful for it now.

“……I was ordered to assassinate the Emperor, but the mission you are in charge of seems to be different from mine. I don’t care what you do, but it would be difficult if you interfere with what I’m doing.”

When he replied as if it were nothing, the leader of Iliya, who had been subtly watching him, made a relieved expression. It seemed that his answer was a passing grade. Charybdis did not miss the fact that he took something out and then secretly hid it again.