Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 351

351

‘Come to think of it, I did revert once.’

Sibelius looked at Asel with a strange feeling, belatedly recalling the thought. It had been a long time since he had taken on a human form, even if it was for proof. It was the first time he had changed of his own volition, not under duress. Perhaps it had already begun then. When he learned that the blood of the clan flowed in Asel’s veins, he thought he would never associate with him. If an ordinary human had approached out of curiosity, he might have treated them kindly, but as long as he was a descendant of the Unicorns, every action only aroused revulsion. He was even a descendant of the brother who had tormented him the most. He vowed not to care even if his life was in danger before his eyes.

However, the power of fate was strange, making the seemingly impossible happen. The discomfort that had risen every time they met was now barely felt even when sitting together like this. He was also proud of how well he had endured the difficult times alone and how well he was keeping up with the lessons.

He was unfamiliar with this side of himself, but it didn’t feel bad. Still, if it were the old him, he would never have opened his heart so easily. The reason he could change was that he had become more generous than before. Because now he was no longer alone.

The eyes that stared as if burning came to mind. The one with dazzling blonde hair and deep green eyes had a scent as good as his beautiful appearance. “I’m El,” he said, introducing himself and offering a handshake. That moment was still one of the unforgettable scenes. He was the first to get angry for him. He learned for the first time through him that he was worthy of respect.

Another El, with the exact same face and name, was also a precious being. He willingly forgave the mean Sibelius, teaching him how to forgive. It was all thanks to him that he met good children like Isana and Alisa. If it weren’t for him, he would have lived his whole life without knowing that the demons were better guys than he thought.

“……”

Sibelius sighed bitterly at the hateful voice that came to mind when he was about to forget it. Every time he recalled it, his heart felt heavy as if a stone had been placed on it, but time was a medicine, and he was able to get over it with a little composure. When he first heard it, he felt like he had been hit right on the mark. That feeling of guilt or anxiety, he didn’t know what it was. Now, it was a remnant of the past that he never wanted to look back on, leaving only terrible scars.

That day when he was so surprised that his heart sank. The Earth Spirit King, whom he had reunited with in an unexpected way, was still a hateful little brat. Still, the sight of him standing with Eluien reminded him of a scene from the past, and his heart ached. He didn’t say it because he knew he would make a face he didn’t like.

‘To think that I was glad to see those two. I really have changed.’

Sibelius chuckled and shook his head. Now he might be able to treat the Elder well even if he met him. If he greeted him with a smile, wouldn’t the other side think he was crazy? Just as he was about to burst into laughter again and finish his meal, he felt a sudden reverberation.

-……S.

Sibelius stopped when he felt the reverberation. Alisa, who had almost finished her meal, looked at him as he looked around.

“What’s wrong, Sibelius?”

“Hmm. Did anyone call me just now?”

“Really? I didn’t hear anything.”

“I didn’t hear anything either.”

Asel also answered, looking bewildered, following Alisa. The two also held their breath, following Sibelius, who was quietly concentrating, but the surroundings were as quiet as a mouse.

“That’s strange. I thought I heard my name.”

“Maybe someone outside was talking about Sibelius? Sibelius has better hearing than us.”

“Hmm, maybe.”

“It’s a shame that El or someone else wasn’t here to identify it at times like this.”

“Well, if someone’s looking for me, I’ll hear from them soon.”

Sibelius shrugged nonchalantly. He was thinking of going outside, but it wasn’t curious enough to move in the middle of a meal. In fact, it felt like it was almost fleeting, so he wasn’t even sure if it was actually a sound or not. It was about time for the soldiers who had finished their meals to start cleaning up the barracks, so he might have mistaken the sound that rang out there.

After that, the same sensation did not occur again, and no one came to visit, so the matter was soon forgotten. It was the beginning of an ordinary day.

* * *

The march of the Imperial Army, which had begun in the morning, stopped around late afternoon. The magnificent walls, towering high beyond the hill, greeted them. It was Martin Castle, the last gateway to defend the capital. Beyond that, there was a standing army, but it was not comparable to Martin Castle in terms of size or manpower. Duke Wekan’s cavalry, the largest force in the Grand Army, was also there. In fact, it was to be the last battleground between the Imperial Army and the Grand Army.

“We’ve finally made it this far, Your Majesty.”

“Yes, Brother. We have.”

“Just wait a little longer, and everything will be over. It’s time for everything that went wrong to return to normal.”

Duke Cawarell, who was looking at the front with Isana, could not hide his excitement. Isana nodded at his determined words. The Central Army had already joined the advance party, and the remaining rearguard was scheduled to arrive around dawn tomorrow.

“The pigeons have cut off several supply routes, so everyone’s morale must be low.”

“……Let’s hold a banquet tonight. As noisy as possible. It would be good to grill meat.”

“I understand what you mean. I should ask Viscount Zello for help. His wind spirits will deliver vivid sounds and smells to those guys over there.”

Duke Cawarell smiled mischievously, realizing his intention. Isana laughed with him. Despite the age difference, they were quite the compatible cousins.

Even after the shocking incident of the Emperor being kidnapped from his own camp, there was no problem with the morale of the Imperial Army. In the first place, not many people knew about it. The Imperial Guard, fearing confusion, thoroughly concealed the situation. Even after Isana returned, he did not inform them for the same reason, so even Duke Cawarell did not know. The kidnapping period was short, and it was easy to cover up because it was during the early morning hours. However, just because they were doing so externally did not mean that they were doing nothing internally. Isana had no intention of simply letting this incident pass.

During the scheduled banquet, the Imperial Guard entered the Emperor’s camp. They were escorting two men with their arms tied with ropes. The two men who were dragged in looked very shabby, as if they had not been washed or fed for days. As soon as they entered the camp, they were forced to kneel. The two, who had bent their bodies without resistance, looked around with fearful expressions, and when they found Isana sitting in a chair, they quickly lowered their heads. Until then, Isana had only been skimming through the documents. He did not even look at the two kneeling men and said,

“Confess.”

“They are Baron Liam from the Eastern Elder Territory and his servant, Gilbert.”

At the same time as the knight answered, the men who were lying flat on the ground trembled. Only then did Isana take his eyes off the documents and look down at them.

It was a daring kidnapping that took place in the middle of the camp. The one who planned the job was among his attendants, as Crown Prince Raonhizen had guessed. He was the one who had been quiet and unremarkable among the two bodyguards, and he revealed his identity by immediately trying to escape as soon as the Crown Prince returned safely. He killed himself as soon as he was caught, so he could not be interrogated. However, everyone agreed that it was impossible for an outsider to plan a perfect route alone. Therefore, it was determined that there was another accomplice inside, and a covert operation to find the spy was underway. Those who were dragged in were those who had been caught for attempting to desert on the day of the incident.

“We found evidence of external communication in their tents and belongings. We have also confirmed that the soldier who leaked false information to the Crown Prince and Alisa on the day of the incident was a private soldier of the Baron. We have prioritized those whose actions were suspicious in their usual relationship and placed them under surveillance.”

While Sibelius was tracking the kidnapped party, Kei, the captain of the Imperial Guard, began to grasp the movements within the camp. He had them distinguish between those who were not in the camp and those who were, and ordered them to report anyone who had deviated from their original location or outside the camp, even slightly. Thanks to this, they were able to capture Baron Liam, who was trying to sneak out with his private soldiers. It was his misjudgment that the Imperial Guard would be too busy looking for the Emperor for a while.

“It’s a pity, Baron. Instead of trying to run away so quickly, why didn’t you watch the situation a little longer? Then you wouldn’t have been caught so quickly. But you would have been caught in the end anyway.”

Isana looked down at the documents again with a nonchalant expression. The Baron’s face turned pale at the Emperor’s expression, which did not reveal any emotion at all. He had been dragged away as soon as his desertion attempt was discovered, and had been confined to a cart with no light for days. He was afraid that he would be tortured by the angry Emperor while coming here, but the indifferent reaction, which was impossible to know what he was thinking, was just as frightening.

“Y-Your Majesty. I was wrong. Please save me.”

“Why should I?”

“I didn’t want to do it. I was threatened… I was threatened.”

“Threatened?”

“My younger sister’s family lives in the capital. They said they would kill them if I didn’t do as they said. I had no choice.”

The Baron pleaded desperately. He tried to place his hopes on the Emperor’s gentle and kind nature. But what came back was an icy, indifferent gaze. The Baron, seeing a cold-hearted monarch completely different from what he usually knew, closed his mouth, which had been making excuses.

“It’s ridiculous to seek mercy even after colluding with the enemy. You are already subject to immediate execution just for attempting to desert. What you should be asking me for is not your life.”

“Y-Your Majesty.”

“If you were worried about your sister’s family, you should have made a wiser choice. There would have been plenty of ways to secretly inform me that you were being threatened. The Baron’s excuse is nothing more than proof that he didn’t trust me that much.”

“……”

“I will give you one last chance to protect your honor. You’d better answer everything you know. Unless you want your heads to be displayed with the traitors after this war is over.”

Baron Liam’s eyes lost their light and became dim. They were the eyes of someone who had realized a future they could not escape. He hesitated for a long time, then bit his lip and lowered his head.

“Ask me, Your Majesty.”

* * *

The interrogation continued for a long time. Baron Liam had almost no useful information, as he was used as a disposable pawn from the beginning. The main points were the person who delivered the instructions, the place where he mainly contacted them, and the method. The only gain was that he was able to figure out what name the person who gave the instructions was called.

‘Iliya, he said.’

Even after repeatedly going over it, it was a name he didn’t remember. The group escorting the carriage at the time of the kidnapping must have belonged to that place. All of their bodies had already been collected and investigated. According to the Imperial Guard’s report, three of them had the same tattoo on their shoulders. It was a pattern reminiscent of a human eye, the symbolic pattern of Kraze, the god of hell and revenge. There was no temple of Kraze on the continent, so there was no way they could be his followers, and it seemed that the group called Iliya had adopted his pattern as a symbol. He was the Grand Duke who treated the Holy Knights of the Evil God like private soldiers, but he had not considered the possibility that he was raising other private soldiers. But they seemed more like assassins than soldiers. He had no idea how long they had been preparing.

“I will execute them tomorrow morning.”

Kei said after sending the two men out after the interrogation. Isana nodded and suddenly looked at him. His expression had been particularly stiff since Baron Liam had pleaded. Isana’s mood also sank because he could guess the reason.

“Kei, have you found your family?”

“……I’m still looking.”

“……I see.”

The Emperor’s Imperial Guard is composed of people selected from all over the country. It was the Imperial Family’s long-standing policy to promote integration between regions and discover talented people, while at the same time checking and monitoring the great lords of the provinces. Therefore, most of the Imperial Guard knights had left their families and come to the capital alone. However, Kei, the captain, was born in the capital from the beginning, so all of his family members were in the capital.

On that day when everything started, the families of the other Imperial Guards who lived far away were spared, but Kei’s family was left in the middle of the civil war. He was so focused on protecting the Emperor that he had no time to take care of his own family. All he did was send a message to his servant to flee, and he had no way of knowing if it had even reached them properly. Later, he tried to find out, but all he heard was that he didn’t know where they were. He didn’t know if they had been dragged away by the Grand Duke or if they had escaped safely. In the early stages of the war, he also received letters threatening him with his family as hostages, just like Baron Liam. But every time he ignored them and tracked down the person who delivered the letters, the attempts to contact him completely stopped at some point. That was why Isana had treated Baron Liam more harshly.

“Don’t worry. They’ll all be safe.”

“Yes, I’m not worried. Thank you, Your Majesty.”

If his family was really being held hostage, the Grand Duke’s army would have already hung their bodies on the walls. They were repeatedly losing battles in every battle they fought. There was no way they would have kept hostages alive who were of no value, now that they were so angry. So Kei firmly believed that his family was alive.

“Your Majesty, it’s Alec.”

At that moment, a presence was felt outside the camp, and the voice of Alec, an Imperial Guard knight, was heard. He had a very bewildered expression on his face as he came in with permission.

“What’s wrong?”

“Umm, Your Majesty. And Captain. Someone has come to see you, and I think you should meet them.”

“Who came to see us?”

“Yes. Umm, that is… El sent them.”

Isana and Kei’s eyes widened at the name that appeared unexpectedly. Alec couldn’t help but think the scene was funny, but he couldn’t laugh. It was because he knew the weight of the words that would follow better than anyone else. He took a deep breath and glanced at Kei. It was when Kei, who was wondering why, was giving him a look.

“That… He says he knows where the Captain’s family is.”

* * *

Anika de Stiel. As the only daughter of a military family, she was now having the most confusing experience of her life. Thanks to the mysterious girl she met at the banquet hall, the reason that had been temporarily lost returned the moment she arrived at her home. When she came to her senses, she could not understand her actions, believing in something of the girl she had met for the first time today and doing as she was told. But for some reason, she didn’t think she should go back to the banquet hall. In the end, she decided to take a gamble on her life. As the girl had said, she immediately packed her bags and left the capital, encouraging her bewildered mother and nanny, and arrived in Zion Village. Then she was able to hear news of the Imperial Army. A few days later, soldiers from the Imperial Army camp visited the village and advised the village chief to evacuate. It was exactly on the third day, as the girl had told her.

While the frightened villagers were hastily packing their evacuation bags, Anika went to find the Imperial Army. She revealed her identity to the sentry blocking her way and tried to have an audience with the Emperor, but it didn’t work. After hesitating, she used the method the girl had told her this time as well. Tell them that she came because ‘El’ sent her. Then, as if by magic, the spear that had been firmly blocking her way was lifted and the front opened up. Even the Emperor’s Imperial Guard came out to greet her in person. Most of them were familiar faces, so she couldn’t help but recognize them.

Her heart was racing as she was guided inside. The sprouts of hope that had been sprouting little by little swelled up in an instant, forming a thicket. That belief was rewarded as it was. As she was requesting an audience and waiting for permission, someone ran out of the camp as if bouncing. The moment Anika confirmed the figure, she gathered her hands and covered her mouth.

‘Oh, my God…….’

The miracle she had been longing for was happening before her eyes.

As soon as he heard the news, Kei ran out almost flying. The moment he left the camp, he saw two men and women. They looked like a noblewoman and a warrior escorting her. Among them, the woman’s appearance was somehow familiar. Kei soon recognized who she was.

“Young Lady Stiel?”

“……Count Serik.”

The woman was unable to take her eyes off him. Her eyes, which were covering her mouth with both hands, were shaking as if she was about to cry.

“How did the Young Lady get here…….”

Tears finally flowed down her face, unable to hide her excitement. Kei was embarrassed but also puzzled. He had been maintaining a good relationship with Baron Stiel, as they were both warriors. He had often greeted his daughter, Anika, and had been closer to her than other noblewomen. However, he had heard that Baron Stiel had joined the Grand Duke’s army. He had also obtained information that Baron Stiel and his successor were in Martin Castle, which was about to face a fierce battle. He had been secretly bitter at the thought that he would never be able to return to the good old days. But Anika, his daughter, had come to find the Imperial Army, so he couldn’t guess how the situation was going.

“I’m glad you’re alive. I’m really glad.”

Kei made an awkward expression as he looked at her, wiping away tears. He knew well enough that Anika was sincerely happy, and he was grateful for that.

But as a warrior who was more accustomed to communicating with his body than with words, he didn’t know what to say in this situation. In particular, he didn’t know how to comfort a crying woman at all.

“You’re a familiar Young Lady.”

Just in time, a voice of salvation came from behind his stiff back. It was Isana who had followed him out of the camp. Anika immediately came to her senses and paid her respects at the Emperor’s appearance.

“I greet the Emperor.”