Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 316

316.

“It’s sealed with magic. Seems like there’s something inside. Are you trying to get in here? Is there someone who needs to be moved inside?”

“Yeah. Do you think you can get inside? I can get in by myself, but I don’t know if I can use magic to move [someone].”

“It’s tricky, but not impossible. What is there that I can’t get into? If all else fails, I can just break the seal.”

“Is that possible? It seems like a pretty strong seal.”

“It’s high-level magic. But there’s no seal I can’t break.”

His smiling face had never looked so reliable as it did at that moment. Soon, Lapis began to draw something on the rock with his finger, as if doodling. He seemed to be creating a magic circle. It wasn’t often that he drew a magic circle, even a simple one, so I held my breath slightly. It was high-level magic, as he said, and he seemed to be approaching it differently than usual.

“300 Esna of 20 Deca. Mildesi of the Ki. 500 Alpora.”

Surprisingly, he even recited a spell, something he was usually bad at memorizing. Lapis covered the magic circle with his palm. Then, a red light burst out from underneath and began to spread across the surface of the rock like flowing water.

“Destruction.”

A single word, like an order, fell from his lips as he stared indifferently. It was a monotonous voice, but its effect was anything but. The rock cracked as if glass were breaking, and then crumbled to the ground.

“Okay, done.”

Lapis turned around and said, looking as if he had just done some light exercise after a meal. I wondered if I was the only one who thought it was amazing, but judging by the dumbfounded expressions on Deron and As, that didn’t seem to be the case. Thinking about it now, I might have been more fortunate to contract with him. Of course, I would never say that out loud.

Where the thick rock had disappeared, there was now a gaping cave. Since we had already guessed as much, my companions and I entered without hesitation. The inside was as dark as midnight, but not enough to obstruct our vision. What was more disturbing was the smell that permeated the area. A terrible stench, like something from a garbage dump, filled the air. The source of the stench was soon revealed. It was impossible not to miss. The cause filled the cave so completely that it was impossible to miss.

“……”

“……”

It was a mountain of rotting corpses. Hundreds of bodies, by rough estimate, were mixed together in a disorderly pile, decaying. Shapeless, mushy forms and skeletons with unidentifiable parts. Maggots and rats swarmed in every open hole. Some were relatively intact, but that didn’t change the fact that they were corpses. However, whether they were properly formed or not, the corpses piled up here had one thing in common. All of them had noticeably small skeletons, evidence that most were children who had not reached adulthood.

“They were disposing of the sacrifices’ bodies here.”

Even the unflappable Lapis seemed taken aback by the sight, his expression hardening.

“Great Father, are you okay?”

As quickly grabbed me as I staggered. He was the youngest one here, yet he didn’t seem to be affected at all by the horrific sight before him. I was relieved by his calm demeanor, but I also felt uneasy about showing this to a child. In fact, I seemed to be the one having the hardest time with the situation. The stench and the poison emanating from the corpses made me feel nauseous and unbearable. I desperately wanted to turn back, but I gritted my teeth and calmly scanned the surroundings.

“……Found it.”

It didn’t take long to find what I was looking for. A boy was lying in a corner a little away from the mountain of corpses. He was not decayed and looked intact, as if he had not been here long. I slowly walked over and stopped in front of him. The boy, who was closing his eyes as if he was asleep, looked familiar. So did the shape of the necklace around his neck. It was definitely the boy I had given water to and saved back then.

“Ray.”

I carefully mouthed the boy’s name. The boy seemed to have been wounded near his chest, with red bloodstains. In fact, it was a common scar among all the corpses here. I bent down and gently touched the boy’s chest with my trembling hand. A cold chill lingered on the skin I touched.

“What? You came to find that corpse?”

Lapis asked in a sullen tone, watching what I was doing. I slowly shook my head.

“Not a corpse.”

“What?”

“I said it’s not a corpse.”

No, in some ways, it might be similar. At the same time as my answer, my eyes began to itch. The tears that had stopped for a while were welling up again.

The voice whispering with fervent wishes came to mind. It was the last message Nias had left me in a distant sensation. I was pained by the sense of loss as a part of me fell away, but that was why I could never turn a blind eye.

I placed my hand on the boy’s chest and breathed into him. Then, the body that had been stiff without movement heaved greatly, and life began to return to his pale face. The eyes of my companions widened in surprise.

“See? He’s still alive.”

“……What did you do?”

“I wonder. What did I do?”

A self-deprecating smile escaped my lips. In fact, I didn’t do much. I just properly reconnected a weak connection. That was nothing compared to what my little one had accomplished.

The little spirit and the boy were good friends. One day, the boy was dragged away by a demon and had his heart stolen. To save his heartless friend, the little spirit made a crucial decision. A decision to give his entire life.

—To become the boy’s heart himself.

Tears kept falling, making it hard to see. I hugged the boy, who had just started breathing properly, and cried for a long time. It was a lament for the poor boy who had to lose his heart because of the power I had given him, and tears of mourning for my poor spirit who had willingly chosen death for the boy.

* * *

The cave began to fill with acrid smoke. The numerous corpses that had been left unattended were long since swallowed up in the steadily spreading red flames. The temperature of the air touching my skin was as hot as a heated furnace. It was a heat that would not go out for a while.

“Is this enough?”

Lapis, who had created this entire scene with a single word, turned to me as if seeking confirmation. I took my eyes off what I had been staring blankly at and slowly nodded.

“Yeah. Thank you.”

It was I who had asked him to burn the entire cave. There was no custom of cremation in this country. Even the tombs were just underground chambers where the bodies were placed, not structures that were completely buried in the ground.

So this was just my own funeral procedure. I wanted to collect each and every corpse, but there were too many, and many were not intact, making it difficult to touch them. But I couldn’t just leave them to rot in their abandoned state.

I guessed it would be difficult to find the children’s hometowns. The Archduke had been gathering victims not only from his own country but also from abroad. Given the internationally entangled situation, if this incident were revealed to the world, Swalt would clearly no longer be able to function as an empire. Aside from the enormous compensation, there was a possibility of war breaking out over it. In a world where the people living in a land were branded as criminals when their ruler committed a wrong, the treatment that the people of the Swalt Empire would receive in the future was obvious. No matter how much Isana wanted to, I thought this was something she would have to bury. Even when publicly announcing the crimes committed by the Archduke at the departure ceremony, she couldn’t mention the evil god. I couldn’t say it was right, but I understood her feelings to a great extent. Isana had already lost her father because of it. I didn’t want to put more weight on her heavy shoulders now. So I had to do what I could here now, to soothe the souls of the children even a little, to prevent their dead bodies from being abandoned like mere garbage.

“May you all rest in peace. I’m sorry. Nothing can compensate for it, but the person who killed you will surely pay the price. I promise.”

The thoughts that had been clinging to the cave twitched. I smiled bitterly at the reaction, as if they understood my words. I could feel the boy’s heavy breathing in my arms. That alone was the only comfort in this terrible situation.

* * *

After confirming that the cave was completely burned down, my companions and I moved to the village. Contrary to my expectation that the atmosphere would be lively since it was the capital, the streets were surprisingly deserted. The people who were coming and going also looked uneasy, as if they were tense. I had heard that the Archduke was thoroughly controlling information, but even so, the effects of the war seemed to be starting to reach this place as well. After securing an inn and laying the boy down, I felt a thick fatigue washing over me all at once. My companions sat down as I sat down on the chair. Deron kept glancing at the sleeping Ray. He seemed to be amazed that the boy had survived even after losing his heart.

“A spirit becoming a human’s heart. I never knew that was possible.”

“To be exact, it’s not a heart, but a mass of mana [magical energy]. It’s just playing the role of a heart. Spirit swords are created on a similar principle. A spirit gives up its original form by its own will and becomes a completely different form. But unlike spirit swords, which are independent entities, becoming part of the body is not easy. You have to give up everything but your power, even your ego and soul.”

“So you’re saying they die in the end.”

“That’s right. It couldn’t have been an easy decision, so isn’t it amazing? This child must have valued Nias very much, enough to willingly sacrifice himself.”

“Then you’re saying you can do something like that too?”

Lapis, who had been listening quietly, suddenly interjected. I was puzzled by his somehow dissatisfied expression, but I answered readily.

“Well, yeah. But if I became a heart, it would be stronger than a dragon’s mana heart. I wonder if there’s even a human who could withstand that power.”

“Hey, you……”

“Huh? Why?”

“……No, it’s nothing. Just don’t take my questions so seriously.”

Then shouldn’t he not have asked in the first place? I was dumbfounded that the one who asked the question was acting like that after I had bothered to answer. Still, I didn’t want to argue with the guy who seemed strangely displeased, so I quietly continued the previous conversation.

“Anyway, Ray now has Nias’s power inside him. He won’t be able to live a normal life from now on. Honestly, I don’t know if this is really the best decision for this child. Nias wanted to save his friend at all costs, but…”

“He would have been a spiritist anyway. Is it different from that?”

“It’s very different. It’s like his race has changed completely. This child can no longer be called human, but he’s not a spirit either.”

“I see.”

Deron’s expression as he stared at Ray became more intense. I could guess what he was thinking at this point, so I wasn’t very curious—something like how much stronger he would become when he grew up, or whether he could compete with him, unproductive questions like that. “He’s at the level of a low-level spirit. He’s much weaker than Deron.” As expected, he immediately drooped his shoulders at those words. He was a really easy-to-read demon.

“What are you planning to do now?”

Deron asked me. In fact, that was what I had been agonizing over all along.

What should I do from now on? With the question that had taken over my mind, I looked out the window. Coincidentally, it was facing the Imperial Palace. The innkeeper had actively recommended it, saying it was the room with the best view, so that must have been what he meant. In fact, the Imperial Palace, which could be seen from afar, was quite beautiful—a color that seemed to be a mixture of ivory and red coral, intricately carved stone statues and sculptures, the gold trim around each decoration giving a dazzling feeling whenever it was reflected in the light. I had heard that the luxurious and sophisticated architecture was the pride of the capital. Even paintings of the Imperial Palace were traded at high prices. I would have wanted to enjoy it leisurely at another time, if only there wasn’t someone living inside.

Somewhere inside there, the Archduke would still be alive and breathing, the culprit who killed the countless children in that cave and made my little spirit choose death. Just thinking about that makes a cruel impulse start to boil. Getting rid of him is quite simple. I can just go there as I am now, grab his neck, and break it. That ugly human will struggle without even resisting properly and soon breathe his last.

A human’s life was so weak that it could be easily snuffed out with just a few gestures. So it can’t be now. Right now, my mind was too cold. If I see him, I will definitely kill him. There would be no problem even if I dealt with him, but I had promised Isana that I would give her one last chance to talk to the Archduke. To keep that promise, I needed to calm down a bit. Besides, it doesn’t seem right to just kill a guy who committed such terrible acts. Dying with a broken neck is too easy. That guy has to receive all the pain he can receive while alive and then die in the most miserable way. Definitely.

“Hey, you’re giving off murderous intent.”

Only after hearing Lapis’s voice, as if spitting it out, did the thoughts that had been stretching out endlessly stop. After blinking a few times, I realized that I had been entrusting my feelings to a rather violent impulse. It seemed that my true nature had awakened. Now, I had become so accustomed to this feeling that I wouldn’t be aware of it unless I looked back. As’s eyes, staring at me intently, seemed more sparkling than usual, which made me feel even more guilty.