If It Weren't for Lord Elverhart
“There!”
At my shout, the princess’s golden light struck first.
A beam of light plummeted straight down and pierced the front of the auxiliary core.
Almost simultaneously, the lady’s pale blue mana spread along the edges of the floor patterns. Ice stretched thin and long, encircling the auxiliary core like a ring.
Crack.
It split. But that would not be the end of it.
The black stain inside the auxiliary core seethed as if it were alive. The dark energy trapped within scraped madly against the inner face of the crystal wall. Through the cracks, jet-black threads shot out and raced along the floor patterns.
I shouted at once.
“Not yet! If you only break the top, it’ll escape!”
The princess’s eyes narrowed.
“Where do we hold it?”
I looked down. Far too many lines ran from beneath the auxiliary core—main fortress well, storage water, outer watch posts, waterway management office. On top of those, two old waterways I had never even seen before were layered in.
Whoever built this was vicious. Sever one line and the others would feed on the backlash and thrash free.
“Third knot, lower left!”
The lady moved at once.
“Confirmed.”
Pale blue light stretched toward the point I indicated. Ice slid into the gaps of the floor patterns like water and sank deep. One of the thrashing black lines froze solid right there.
The princess spoke shortly.
“Next.”
I steadied my breath and read the center of the auxiliary core. Deeper than the surface. The outside was bait. The real thing was the inverted line embedded inside the crystal pillar—a thin thread that twisted the barrier’s supporting flow just enough to reverse it.
That had to be cut first.
“Not the front. There’s a line twisted the opposite way on the inside.”
“You can see it?”
“No. I can feel it.”
The corner of the princess’s mouth twisted, barely perceptible.
“So once again we’re gambling on your word, my lord.”
Before she finished speaking, the interior of the auxiliary core boomed.
Thud.
The ground underfoot shook. The walls of the pumping station above rattled and spilled dust. Dein gritted his teeth and edged closer to the rim.
“Young Master, we can’t hold much longer!”
“…I know.”
Below, Bren spat a blood-flecked breath onto the ice.
“Stop… if you break it now…”
I looked down at him.
“I asked you earlier—does it really hurt that much to lose it?”
Bren’s eyes wavered. This time the fear on his face was genuine. Watching the end of the rope you have been hanging from finally snap is never easy. I liked that honesty.
The princess looked down and spoke coldly.
“Bren Theo. If you want to live from this moment on, open your mouth.”
“…You’re asking that now?”
“Yes. Because while you talk, Lord Elverhart still has to keep reading the situation.”
Bren let out a hollow laugh. Even now, every inch the imperial princess.
Without looking my way, the lady said,
“Lord Elverhart. It’s shaking.”
“I know.”
The problem was not time. If the cut was not precise, the contamination lines rooted in the main fortress would feed on the backlash and leap elsewhere. Everything we had saved tonight would start rotting again tomorrow.
I clenched my teeth and dropped into the space below.
“Young Master!”
“Lord Elverhart!”
Dein and the princess called out together from above. But I had to go down. The weakest knot had to be seen up close.
The moment I landed on the old stone floor my ankle throbbed, but there was no time to care. I closed the distance to the auxiliary core and reached out. It felt unpleasantly slick. Something writhed inside the crystal.
I muttered low.
“They really jammed every kind of filth in here.”
The princess asked from above.
“…Have you found it?”
“Give me a moment.”
A grain caught under my palm. Different from the old flow I had felt in the main fortress’s underground core. This was something someone had newly overlaid. They had lifted the original line just enough and slipped another beneath it. Not improvised work. Whoever did this knew barriers intimately.
In that instant the black stain inside the auxiliary core surged toward my hand all at once. A chill ran down my spine. I twisted my hand on reflex.
Crack!
A black thorn-like spike shot from inside the crystal and stabbed the spot I had just touched. Half a beat slower and it would have punched straight through the back of my hand.
Dein swore from above.
“Damn it!”
The lady’s voice dropped lower.
“Lord Elverhart, no more. Fall back.”
“Not yet.”
I cut my breath short. Now I understood. It functioned like a fixing pin—pressing the contamination deep inside the auxiliary core and only releasing it along the lines when needed. That was why the lines toward the main fortress had never collapsed all at once, but had rotted slowly, over a long time. Vicious, and efficient. Perfect for long-term use.
Whether Edgar Roen had done it himself or someone above him, they understood people very well.
Without lifting my head I said,
“Your Highness.”
“Did you find something?”
“Strike once more. Not wide this time—like an awl.”
“Where?”
“I’ll mark it.”
The lady asked at once.
“And me?”
“Block the side the backlash will come from in advance. Floor to the right of the auxiliary core. I’ll count three breaths—hold it on three.”
A brief silence. The princess answered first.
“Very well.”
The lady took it up immediately.
“Understood.”
I traced the knot beneath the crystal with my fingertips.
One. The outer line.
Two. The twisted line beneath it.
Three. The deepest, thinnest place inside.
There.
I lowered my voice.
“One.”
The auxiliary core shook harder. The floor trembled; stone chips rained from the pumping-station ceiling above. Frozen Bren gasped and twisted his body.
“Stop… that’s…!”
I ignored the same plea.
“Two.”
The lady’s ice climbed the floor to the right of the auxiliary core. One jet-black line locked in place. Perfect. The princess’s golden light still had not fallen. I felt the held breath. Isabella, imperial princess, was not the sort of human whose hands shook at moments like this.
I marked the innermost knot with a fingertip, as if pressing a seal.
“Three!”
The light fell. A golden strike pierced the exact spot I had marked. At the same instant the lady’s ice surged up from beneath the floor and seized the backlash line.
The auxiliary core shuddered as if screaming.
Crack—!
A massive fissure split the center of the crystal pillar. Black energy erupted from within all at once. Like a beast’s final death cry, the contamination buried beneath the auxiliary core tried to spray in every direction.
I clenched my teeth and slammed my palm flat against the crystal wall.
“Now! Once more!”
The princess’s eyes flashed. A second golden light fell—far deeper this time. The lady’s ice rose to match it, freezing the underside of the crystal and the floor patterns together.
And the next moment, the auxiliary core burst.
Boom—!
Light, ice, and black shards exploded outward together. My ears rang. The world flashed white, then went black. I was thrown backward and slammed my shoulder into the stone floor. Breath locked in my throat. Sensation fled from my fingertips.
Even so, I knew. It was cut. The first line that had run to the main fortress had been severed here. The filthy sensation that had been crawling up my hand a moment ago was gone. One by one the contamination lines under the floor fell silent. Far away, something seemed to collapse in successive tremors, then quiet returned.
It was over. At least here.
I pushed myself up, coughing. Dust and cold air flooded my lungs together. Blood tasted in my mouth.
Dein called urgently from above.
“Young Master!”
“…I’m alive.”
My rough answer drew a short release of breath from above. Whether it was Dein or the lady, I could not tell.
The princess looked down first.
“Can you stand?”
“Yes. For now. Though I expect to collapse soon.”
Before the words finished, Bren, still stuck to the ice below, suddenly convulsed hard. I turned. His pupils were unfocused. It was not only the wound through his shoulder. Thin black cracks had spread down from the base of his neck. Connected to the auxiliary core as he was, he had taken the full backlash when it shattered.
The lady said coldly,
“So he was linked to it.”
“Seems so.”
Bren’s lips moved. The sound was almost a death rattle. I crouched in front of him.
“Talk.”
For a long time Bren could not open his mouth. Blood ran down his chin. His eyes lost focus, then barely returned.
“I… can’t.”
He smiled, very faintly. The princess asked at once from above.
“Where did Edgar Roen go?”
Bren’s eyes slowly turned to me. The gaze was unpleasant—as if confirming something already done. I spoke low.
“Open your mouth.”
Bren’s lips moved. Then dark red blood spilled down his chin. A wet, catching sound came from inside his throat. The breath that had been heaving his shoulders broke and resumed a few times.
The princess asked coldly from above,
“Can you answer?”
Only after a long while did Bren manage something like a smile.
“…To the end… filthy luck.”
“Answer the question.”
“Even if I answer… it’s too late.”
I frowned. That line again. I seized Bren by the collar as if to haul him up.
“Cut the nonsense and leave something useful.”
Bren’s eyes flickered once. Then, very slowly, his gaze slid not to my hand but toward the right-hand wall—down low among the broken stone, a small box half-wedged in a gap.
Bren murmured with blood on his lips.
“…Young Master.”
That was all. Strength left his body. His jaw dropped; the light went out of his eyes. I looked down at that face for a while.
The princess asked,
“Is he dead?”
“…Yes.”
The lady exhaled shortly and shifted her gaze at once to the stone wall.
“There will be something in that box.”
“Yes. The last place Bren looked.”
The pumping-station ceiling above shook hard again. Debris rained down. Dein nearly shouted.
“Young Master, we really have to get out now!”
The core was cut; there was no reason left to stay. I moved toward the box. The moment I bent to pull it free, my fingertips throbbed. The hand that had gripped the auxiliary core would not obey properly.
Seeing it, the lady dropped down at once.
“I’ll take it.”
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine.”
Her usually even voice had dropped a fraction. Not scolding—simply stating she would take it. In the end I handed the box over without a word. She accepted it without comment, roughly brushed dirt and blood from the iron sides with her gloved hand, then looked up.
“Your Highness. We should climb.”
The princess first ordered the knights.
“Lower the ropes. Bring Lord Elverhart up first.”
“I can come up later.”
She cut me off at once.
“I don’t understand why you insist on being stubborn even now. If you collapse here, I am the one inconvenienced.”
However she phrased it, the meaning was that she would extract me first. I did not argue. I no longer had the strength for it.
While I was hauled upward the floor below gave way once more. The long sound of stone shattering rose from underfoot. The instant I cleared the rim, the floor I had just stood on split wide open. Dein gritted his teeth and seized my arm.
“Young Master, please.”
“I’m alive, aren’t I?”
“That’s the problem. You keep coming back like this.”
Before I could answer, the lady climbed up with the box, and the princess was the last to clear the edge. When we emerged from the pumping station the night air stabbed cold. Only then did the sense that it was finished settle a little. The collapsing sounds faded behind us.
The princess held out her hand.
“The box.”
The lady passed it without hesitation. The princess examined the seal and narrowed her eyes.
“Not that man’s personal seal.”
I stepped closer. The stamp on the iron box’s side was unfamiliar, yet far above the grade a field operative like Bren would use. Clean and new.
The lady said quietly,
“It looks like the imperial palace’s Correction Bureau line.”
The princess’s expression hardened cold. She broke the seal at once. Inside were a few ledgers, a short report, and an unsigned expenditure statement. I took the top ledger and scanned it. Barrier-maintenance ore, auxiliary locks, transport laborers, night-passage permits. Only the necessities, moved multiple times.
“Evidence.”
The princess nodded.
“Yes. Filthy, but clean evidence.”
The lady drew out another sheet.
“Every date is around today. They never meant to drag it out.”
“Or they meant to clean it up in a hurry before it dragged on.”
The moment the words left me, my legs suddenly lost strength. Breath locked once. My fingertips were past tingling—my whole arm felt heavy. Dein noticed at once.
“Young Master?”
I meant to say I was fine, but my body swayed first. I do not know who moved sooner. A cold hand caught my elbow on one side; on the other a hand settled on my shoulder as if taking the weight. The lady and the princess. Precisely, the lady caught me first and the princess steadied me so I would not tip further.
I closed my eyes briefly, then opened them. I had not wanted to make this kind of spectacle.
The princess said low,
“Lord Elverhart.”
“…Yes.”
“You turn out to be a rather high-maintenance man.”
“What kind of thing is that to say to a man whose engagement was just broken?”
The corner of her mouth moved, very faintly. Whether it was a smile I could not tell. The lady still had not released my arm.
“You still have strength left for jokes, I see.”
“I don’t.”
“Then stop talking and lean properly.”
For a moment I had no reply. Adelaide was not someone who spoke that way. I stopped fighting and let some of my weight rest against her. Even through the glove her hand felt cold.
The princess glanced over the two of us and gave a short order.
“We won’t reach the viscounty. Summon a physician, and keep anyone not involved in today’s work away.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“And this box comes with me.”
Dein muttered beside me.
“No going home tonight, then.”
“I wasn’t planning on it anyway.”
“You know that and still always answer back.”
“Answer back? You’re getting bold.”
We were moved to a side room next to the pumping station. An old management room—nothing grand—but it had a stove and still held warmth. The physician frowned at my hand.
“…You’ve left this untreated until now?”
“I have two hands.”
“Are you always like this, my lord?”
That was the lady. I looked up at her from the chair I was leaning against. Adelaide had already stripped off her wet gloves. The tips of her fingers were a little red—probably from drawing ice too hastily when she caught my hand earlier.
I said,
“Your hands don’t look good either, my lady.”
“My hands are my hands. Yours are currently torn open.”
“Quite firm about it.”
“I don’t believe you have the right to say that.”
The tone was as indifferent as ever, yet somehow closer than before. While the physician bandaged me I sat half-dazed. Exhaustion rolled in. The inside of my body felt hollow and heavy.
Then the door opened and I lifted my head. The princess. The moment she entered she scanned the physician and knights.
“If the emergency treatment is finished, leave.”
“Your Highness?”
“It means wait outside.”
Once they filed out the room fell quiet at once. Only the soft crackle of the stove remained. The princess set the cup she was carrying in front of me. Warm medicinal tea. I looked from the cup to her.
“I didn’t expect Your Highness to bring something like this yourself.”
“Then who should bring it? After working you nearly to death, should I begrudge a single cup of tea as well?”
“I’d like to believe you’re not that stingy a person.”
Instead of answering she looked at me once. The gaze lingered strangely long—the look of someone watching a man who had thrown himself into danger several times in one night.
“Lord Elverhart.”
“Please speak.”
“If you had not been here today, the empire would have faced a grave crisis.”
I could not even smile as I lifted the cup.
“May I take that as praise?”
“As you like.”
Even after saying so she did not look away. I know now that moments when she lets silence stretch this long are rare for her.
It was the lady who broke it.
“Your Highness. I think it would be better for Lord Elverhart to sleep now.”
“I agree.”
I muttered in a half-drained voice,
“If the two of you are this much in agreement, I suppose I have no choice.”
The lady’s mouth curved, barely.
“Now you understand.”
The princess turned as she spoke.
“Especially tonight.”