Amelia
Amelia
"......Rion."
Freya had her face buried in her hands for a long time, then finally lowered them and looked at me.
"The contents of that treaty...... you spoke of, are they truly the truth? Without a single word of a lie?"
"What benefit would I gain from lying?"
Her lips had already drained of color and turned deathly pale, and she must have bitten them too hard, as a thin trickle of blood was flowing down her chin.
"Everything you said...... if it's true."
Freya's voice rasped sadly, like chewing on sand.
"You are not a criminal. On the contrary, you are a victim who upheld the Empire's laws and the Goddess's treaty to the very end. ......And my sister and those children......"
She couldn't continue.
It seemed the responsibility as the Knight Commander and her lingering attachment as an older sister were tightening around her throat.
Watching that scene, I simply stared at her disheveled bangs as if reading a boring play script written by someone else.
"......I will release you soon. The Blue Magic Stone in this room is not good for your mana circuits, so I will have you moved to another interrogation room of the Order to rest for now. Soon, I...... will verify the authenticity of all statements with the Order's priests using Mind Scan. If it turns out to be true, I will immediately remove the restraints holding you and offer a formal apology."
"Thank you for your consideration."
When I answered calmly, Freya-nuna flinched greatly, as if stabbed by a sharp awl.
"Just a little...... just rest for a little while, Rion."
She fled the interrogation room as if running away.
Click, I heard the sound of the door locking from the outside, but it didn't bother me.
On the pile of remaining statements and documents, her tear stains had dried in round marks.
All that remained in the room was the cold sensation of the magic restraints binding me, and the heavy silence filling the space.
I leaned my head against the wall and closed my eyes.
The air in the windowless underground was stale, and every time I breathed quietly, I felt a dry, scratching sensation deep inside my chest.
But I wasn't distressed. Rather, this perfect isolation was the only resting place I had found in a long time.
In fact, the stillness provided by this narrow, enclosed space gave me an undeserved sense of peace.
Then, suddenly, a woman's silhouette appeared in the darkness.
Master.
The world called her a cold-hearted genius, or the arrogant pinnacle of magic, but to me, she was simply a massive wall I had spent my whole life looking up to and walking toward, and my only guide.
"Haha......."
My dry laughter spread softly through the empty interrogation room.
If Master saw my magic, would she praise me? Or would she slap my cheek, calling me fallen?
The next morning. Or perhaps it was lunch.
A very faint vibration traveled through the air from afar.
At first, I thought it was the footsteps of the Order's knights, but the vibration was gradually growing stronger.
Thud! Thuuud—!
Urgent footsteps heard from afar. And the roaring sound of heavy iron doors being violently opened and closed in succession.
What's going on?
I slowly opened my closed eyes. The Order's underground interrogation room is a place close to a sanctuary that even the Empire's nobles cannot easily intrude upon.
Unless it was the Emperor's order, it was nearly impossible for a disturbance to occur here.
But the noise grew louder and louder.
Bang! Bang!
The vibration transmitted through the walls was unusual.
A destructive wave of mana, as if someone were walking through while breaking the underground barriers one by one by force, pierced through the Blue Magic Stone and stung my skin.
And I heard a voice slowly approaching from very far away.
"Move aside."
The moment I heard that voice, my heart sank with a loud thud for the first time in a very long time.
"Whether you are the Knight Commander or an agent of the Papal See, I don't care. If you don't open the door to where my disciple is right now, I will erase this place."
It was Master.
The Master of the Magic Tower, Amelia Blanche.
My Master, who had never once raised her voice or expressed anger toward others while I was learning magic under her.
Her voice was now twisted with a terrible amount of emotion and rage.
"Tower Master Amelia! Please calm down! This is the Order's jurisdiction! Rion is currently a key witness in the case, and his statement......"
Freya-nuna's urgent voice followed.
Although she was also a high-ranking official of the Order, it was clear she had no way to deal with the overwhelming mana of the Magic Tower Master, who was called the Empire's strategic weapon.
"A witness?"
I heard Master's scoff.
"I have confirmed the contents of the treaty. Freya. I have read with my own eyes the statement detailing what your sister and those filthy bitches did to my disciple."
Thud!
Once again, a massive shockwave erupted outside the door.
Fine cracks began to form on the wall of Blue Magic Stone.
Even the magic stone that blocks mana could not withstand Master's rage-filled mana and was screaming.
"That child is not a criminal. On the contrary, he is the biggest victim of that filthy play, and a righteous person who kept his oath to the end. Yet, you locked such a child...... in this musty, dirty underground floor with restraints on?"
Master's voice grew closer and closer. She was right in front of the door.
"Who are you people to judge my disciple's well-being? Why must my disciple pay the price for the sins your sister Serin committed in this cold prison!"
"Amelia-nim! The level of private sanction Rion committed at the inn was too cruel, so the Order is currently coordinating procedures internally! Please calm down!"
"Cruel?"
Master's voice completely subsided. It was a bizarre calmness, like the moment right before a storm hits.
"My disciple, my only child whom I personally carved with my own hands...... is locked up in this gloomy underground floor wearing restraints, even though he is not a criminal."
Master's footsteps heard from beyond the door were like magic, with every single step shaking the earth.
"And that, too, while his body and mind were shredded by the betrayal of all sorts of filthy, sludge-like bitches."
"Amelia! Watch your tongue! Serin and those children were under a curse—"
"That bitch who calls herself a Holy Knight!!! Blinded by her own desires, she spat on my child's face, and that whore-like bitch who called herself a sage and learned magic under my disciple defiled my magic just to receive the semen of some rat bastard named Jack! The demi-human bitch who became an old man's slut isn't even worth mentioning!"
"......Regarding that part, I also confirmed Rion's innocence and am in the process of transfer—"
"Procedures? My child is withering away to death in there, and you're talking about procedures?"
Not a single shred of her usual gentleness or calmness remained in her voice.
"Compared to the hell my disciple must have felt, what those pieces of trash suffered is excessive mercy. If I had been there, I would have thrown even their souls into an eternally burning flame."
Click!
With the sound of the doorknob being destroyed, the tightly shut iron door of the interrogation room was violently pushed open inward.
What poured in along with the dust was a wave of starlight mana that overwhelmed everything.
And at the center of it stood my Master, whom I had missed so dearly.
Long, dark navy hair that looked like the night sky had been melted down, and bright blue eyes that shone coldly like starlight.
Her beautiful face was frozen coldly, and her starlight eyes were brimming with so much emotion that red blood vessels were visible.
Master's gaze slowly scanned the room before landing on the restraints on my bound wrists.
"......Rion."
Master called my name.
That affectionate voice, which used to stroke my hair and call me her admirable disciple, was now trembling as if it would break at any moment.
I moved my hands bound by the restraints slightly and smiled very faintly at her.
"Master...... you've come."
Amelia, who had always been deep and calm as if containing the mysteries of the universe, shook uncontrollably the moment she saw my condition and stumbled toward me, crumbling.
"......Ah."
A very faint moan leaked from between Master's lips.
Her gaze touched my hollow, sunken eyes and my fingertips, which had turned white and flaky because mana wasn't flowing through them.
"I, I will release you right now......."
Where had her usual composure gone? She stumbled toward me like a child who had discovered that the most precious treasure in the world had been broken.
And with trembling hands, she grabbed the Blue Magic Stone restraints wrapped around my wrists.
Crunch!
As she concentrated her mana, the sturdy magic restraints crumbled futilely and scattered in all directions.
On my now-freed wrists, red marks remained vividly.
Master carefully stroked those marks, and eventually, a stream of tears flowed down.
"I'm sorry...... I came too late. While you were enduring alone in that hellish place...... this incompetent Master knew nothing."
A single drop of her tears fell on the back of my hand.
Master's warm tears spread over my cold skin.
I looked down quietly at her tears on the back of my hand and opened my mouth very slowly.
"I am sorry to greet you in such a shabby state."
At that answer, Master's shoulders began to tremble even more violently.
"You've lost weight, Rion."
Her eyes looked quietly into mine.
As if trying to read the emotions I had felt and the traces of what I felt toward them within them.
"......Did you see hell?"
"No, Master."
I shook my head quietly and showed a calm smile at the corners of my mouth.
"Hell ended a long time ago. The treaty has been lifted, and the revenge is finished. I am fine......."
Upon hearing my answer, Master's eyelids trembled finely.
She seemed to have noticed the void in my heart hidden behind my smile.
"You are not fine!"
Master cut off my words and pulled my body into a rough embrace.
"Your heart has become like this, your once-clear eyes have turned this colorless... how can you say you are fine? Rion, my poor disciple......."
Amelia slowly took my hand.
"Let's go, Rion. Let's go back to the Magic Tower."
Master covered my shoulders with her thick magic cloak.
"I have cleaned your room exactly as it was before. I have also prepared plenty of the tea you like. So......."
On Amelia's face, which had always been calm, there was a sense of desperation and pleading I had never seen before in my life.
"I, your Master, will wash away everything in your heart that those children defiled...... so please, do not look at the world with such eyes."
I stared quietly at her face. A very small arc was drawn at the corners of my mouth.
It was not the empty smile I had shown Serin and the children at the inn. But it was not a purely warm smile like before, either.
It was merely the slightly twisted relief of someone who had grabbed the last lifeline that would save them.
"Yes, Master. Let's go back. To the Magic Tower."