Chapter 63
Chapter 63
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 63
Chapter Title: A Deal with a Demon
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After leaving the events of the Necropolis behind, Lord Black galloped back to his castle in a hurry.
There, upon the throne in the great hall of the ducal castle, sat his son.
Seated on the throne that should exist solely for Duke Sachsen, the ‘Black Prince’ looked down upon his father.
“Father.”
“Dale.”
The father and son exchanged each other’s names.
*Shing!*
“We humbly greet Your Grace, the Duke!”
The Grave Guards knelt in unison, driving their swords into the ground before them.
“Mother and Lije are safe.”
Dale continued.
“Mother soothed Lije, and they have only just fallen asleep.”
“…I see.”
Lord Black said calmly.
“That is a relief.”
In any case, while a battle had raged here, at the Sachsen ducal castle, he, as the lord of the castle, could do nothing while it was under attack. His son alone had splendidly defended the home of House Sachsen.
Leading the people of the ducal house in his name. And after defending it, he now sat upon the castle’s throne.
“Your Grace.”
Dale slowly rose from the throne meant for Duke Sachsen, as if to say it was not yet his time to sit there.
“May we speak for a moment?”
After rising, Dale spoke. Duke Sachsen nodded wordlessly.
***
The top floor of the Sachsen ducal castle. Lord Black’s office.
The dim light of predawn seeped through the window where Duke Sachsen stood. Backlit by the encroaching dawn, a deep shadow was cast over him.
“You seem to have something you wish to say.”
“I faced an elder of the Black Magic Tower who attacked the castle and defeated him.”
Dale said. For a moment, a flicker of agitation crossed Lord Black’s expression.
“…Are you saying you fought a 6th-Circle mage alone and won?”
Even considering Dale’s absurd talent, there were limits. He had claimed victory against an elder of the Black Magic Tower, a mage who had reached the 6th Circle? It was impossible.
A realm that could not be explained away even with the title of the Empire’s greatest talent. But for Dale, this was no longer of any consequence.
“Yes.”
Dale nodded without denial.
“While fighting him, I caught a glimpse of the conceptual world he had built as a commander of the Black-Red Brigade.”
“…”
A mage’s psyche. The evil deeds of the Black-Red Brigade, an unforgivable demonic unit.
“And from his own lips, I heard the truth of the Black-Red Brigade.”
“…”
The true purpose the Empire was so desperate to hide.
“The Second Commander of the Black-Red Brigade, Duke Sachsen.”
Dale spoke.
He uttered the man’s past, the inescapable shackles of sin.
“Were all those words you spoke to me before lies?”
He recalled the weight of life his father had once spoken of.
“Was everything you told me, Father, nothing more than hideous hypocrisy?”
An undeniable emotional tremor laced Dale’s voice.
The man before him was not just anyone. He was the flesh and blood who had given birth to and raised him.
He had believed, without a doubt, that his father would never affirm the Empire’s justice.
“Were you, too, someone who could not escape the Empire’s foulness after all?”
“…”
A silence fell. It was an immeasurably heavy silence.
“That day, when the Empire’s grand army, led by the Hero from Another World, fought its decisive battle with the Demon King.”
After the silence, Duke Sachsen finally spoke.
“When the Empire’s strongest gathered and finally defeated the Demon King… a man came to see me.”
After the Demon King’s subjugation, while the Empire’s troops were stationed in the north, a man sought out the ruler of the north.
“Was it Marquis Yuriseu?”
“He made me a proposal.”
Duke Sachsen nodded.
“He said he was preparing a ‘certain large-scale experiment’ and asked for my cooperation.”
“That experiment being…”
“An experiment to reach the realm of the 9th Circle.”
From its very inception, the Black-Red Brigade had existed solely for that purpose.
“He threatened that if I refused his offer, he would mobilize the Imperial army, which had gathered in the north after defeating the Demon King… and crush the entire northern duchy.”
“…”
“The plan was to frame me for colluding with the Demon King and turn the army’s banners against me.”
That the great Lord Black would yield to the Empire’s threats was laughable. Yet he could not laugh.
The Empire’s grand army, gathered in the Sachsen Duchy under the pretext of subjugating the Demon King.
It was a cause that even Duke Sachsen could not dare refuse, and he vividly remembered the powerful individuals gathered there.
Lord Crimson, Lord White, the Holy Sword Master, the Demon Sword, and… the Hero from Another World.
The Dale of the past had been there.
With powerhouses that even the great Lord Black could not hope to face alone, all under the cause of defeating the Demon King and saving the Empire from the demon threat.
Resistance would have been meaningless when they had already entered the heart of the Sachsen Duchy.
“So you accepted their proposal?”
“The Pope and the elders of the White Magic Tower were present as witnesses. I was given the details of the experiment and had a Geas carved upon me to ensure my cooperation.”
The binding oath, a Geas. The ultimate contract magic of the White Magic Tower. And this one was a Geas carved by the Master of the White Magic Tower and all its elders combined.
“Is that why you cooperated with the darkness of the Black-Red Brigade? Out of necessity, to protect the Sachsen Duchy?”
“…”
He could have tried to defend him desperately, if he put his mind to it. He could have said it was an unavoidable decision made to protect what he had to, that even Lord Black was ultimately a weak being who could not defy such power.
He could have said it wasn't his father's fault.
But he did not. He could not. Silence simply descended.
“I could have resolved to die and fight them.”
After the silence, Lord Black spoke.
“Even if I could not win, I could have used the Death Order and all my other powers to inflict an irreversible wound.”
But he did not. No, he could not.
“But ridiculously enough… I thought of Elena.”
Elena, Dale’s mother. The woman Duke Sachsen loved.
“So you yielded?”
Duke Sachsen nodded wordlessly. After nodding, he continued.
“I was afraid of losing Elena.”
His voice trembled faintly. It was the first time Dale had seen his father show weakness.
“I was afraid I would not see the child born between her and me.”
The child to be born between Duke Sachsen and her.
“So I cooperated with the Black-Red Brigade’s experiment. I knelt before the Empire and the Red Magic Tower, submitted to the justice of power, and bowed my head in a cowardly, pathetic way.”
Duke Sachsen continued, his voice laced with self-mockery.
“Through the black and red bond that seeks power and truth, all to reach the state of the 9th Circle…”
The forbidden experiment to achieve the 9th Circle.
“By condensing the thoughts of pain and despair into a special barrier…”
The details of that very experiment flowed from Lord Black’s lips.
“It was a process of creating a gate connected to the World of Truth through the negative energy that arose from it.”
“And by reaching that world, you can achieve the 9th Circle?”
“There was no certainty.”
Lord Black answered.
“The architect of the experiment was Lord Crimson. I was merely a collaborator.”
But the experiment would have been impossible without the power of the Black Magic Tower, which pursued truth, and by extension, Lord Black himself. That was why Lord Crimson had been so desperate to emphasize the new black and red bond to Dale.
Not to Lord Black, but to Dale, who would one day become the Master of the Black Magic Tower. That meant only one thing.
“In the end, the experiment failed.”
“You failed to reach the World of Truth?”
“No, we succeeded in reaching the World of Truth itself.”
The two leaders of the Black-Red Brigade. As two of the five mages standing at the pinnacle of magic, Lord Black and Lord Crimson had succeeded in entering the ‘World of Truth’ that day.
“Then why did it fail?”
Wasn’t that practically a success? Dale asked again, unable to understand, and Lord Black answered.
“Because I stood in that man’s way.”
“…!”
“I could not stand by and watch his ambition be realized.”
If a man filled with malice and ambition were to obtain the power of the 9th Circle, if he were to become a being known as a Demon God.
Lord Black was not ignorant of what would befall this world.
“But the Geas…”
Lord Black stopping Lord Crimson’s ambition was an act of obstructing the ‘cooperation of the experiment,’ and the Geas would not have remained silent. Was it not a Geas carved directly onto Lord Black’s heart by the Master of the White Magic Tower himself?
“Even the binding oath the White Magic Tower prides itself on had no effect in that world.”
Lord Black continued with a bitter smile.
“Have you seen the World of Truth?”
Dale shook his head wordlessly.
“In that world, the common sense and logic we know are meaningless.”
An unknown realm that could not be explained, no matter how one tried.
“I simply stood in his way, and that was all.”
With the truth that mages so desperately crave right before their eyes, they failed to grasp it.
“Did you fight and win against Lord Crimson?”
To Dale’s question, Lord Black nodded. At least in that world, even Lord Crimson was no match for him.
“Then why, Father, did you leave that world without gaining anything?”
Dale asked again. At that question, Lord Black smiled bitterly, inadvertently thinking of his old friend.
“That day, in that world…”
It was the same question, and so the same answer returned.
“Do you truly think I returned with nothing in my hands?”
***
The light of dawn broke, and Duke Sachsen was in the ducal couple’s bedroom.
His sleeping wife, Elena, and their daughter, Lije. His beloved family.
The things he had to protect, even if it meant sacrificing his all.
He remembered that day, a white and dark winter night, when his son, Dale, was born.
The image of that small, lovely being crying in Elena’s arms was still vivid.
At the same time, he recalled the darkness of the Black-Red Brigade, that horrific living hell. The unforgivable evil deeds. The inescapable darkness of the past.
The wheels were already in motion, and there was nothing that could be undone.
That was why he recalled what he had obtained from beyond the World of Truth.
By dedicating his all to protect the ones he loved from the Empire, mad with blood and insanity, and furthermore, to right the sins of his past.
That day, in that place, leaving Lord Crimson behind, Duke Sachsen made a deal with a demon. This was no simple metaphor. It wasn't even a being like the demons or the Demon King that the White Magic Tower constantly preached about.
A being from beyond the conceptual boundary… within the World of Truth, who had extended a hand for a deal.
The Demon truly existed, and it gladly accepted the deal.
Some time later, on a white and dark winter night, a life was born.
His most beloved son in all the world.