Chapter 274: I'm Quite Good at Setting Traps (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 274: I'm Quite Good at Setting Traps (3)
In my narrow world, I was the only one who hadn't gone mad.
Franz frowned at the conclusion he had reached after weighing the situation by an extremely—truly, extremely—objective standard.
“A bet.”
“Yes, Vice-Commander. The same bet Dame Hill lost yesterday.”
“So you wagered my brother.”
What Franz hated most was excuses. What he hated second most was evasion. The Valkan members, knowing that opening their mouths now would only earn them one of Franz’s bright, innocent smiles, kept their heads bowed and their lips sealed.
As the one who always had to suffer in these situations, Needlen stepped forward to speak for the silent members.
“I am sorry, Vice-Commander.”
They had made a bet on who could go longer without eating meat: Siona or the Valkan members. If Siona lost, she was supposed to teach them the fighting style of the Wolves of the Great Desert.
Sure. That much was fine.
It really would have been fine, if only they hadn’t promised to arrange a duel between Calian and Siona if she won. To be precise, Siona had proposed the terms and the Valkan members had accepted, but either way, they had sold out his younger brother, the Third Prince.
Duels between Sword Masters were not arranged lightly. One might think there was no risk to one’s life since it wasn’t a real battle, but that simply wasn’t true. When Suleiman dueled Teilan, his chest had been slashed open.
“This isn’t the royal palace. You knew my brother, who is responsible for the lives of forty-one men, wouldn’t want to duel that chicken-eating elf again.”
And yet, that was exactly what they had wagered.
There were only two ways Calian would react upon finding out.
He would either laugh, find it amusing, and draw his sword—or he would laugh, find it amusing, and try to kill them all. The end result would be more or less the same, a fact the Valkan members knew all too well.
“I asked why you did it.”
“We were too curious about who would win, so we accepted the bet.”
“For that reason.”
“It’s the truth, Vice-Commander.”
Even if they hadn’t insisted, Franz knew it was the truth, which only made him feel like he was genuinely going mad.
“You’ve all lost your minds.”
Hearing this, Needlen offered a faint smile.
Everyone was crazy.
It was nothing new for the mages to be unhinged, but now even the knights had been infected.
Standing alone amidst the lunatics, Franz swept back a stray lock of hair. Remembering he had already exhausted his patience three times over yesterday, he decided to let it slide for today. He was so accustomed to the Valkan members’ antics that he could dismiss this incident without expending even a single ounce of his patience.
—Oh dear. You were caught already? How on earth did that happen?
Franz had painstakingly managed to infuse his mana, all while trying to ignore the words “yap” and “shook” that kept popping up in his brilliant mind—a mind that didn’t even know how to forget. But then he’d had to endure those words from the bird-loving, purple-eyed Crown Prince, who claimed he was only checking the connection. Thanks to that, Franz had already used up his patience once this morning.
—It would have been better if you had been a bit more careful, Prince Franz.
No.
He had used it up twice.
“Anyway, don’t be so angry. I lost, so it doesn’t matter, does it? By the way, it seems your brother and your men aren’t that close. They sold him out without a moment’s hesitation. I thought they must be quite friendly.”
While Franz was recalling Chase’s words, the chicken-eating elf chimed in from beside him. Feeling another notch of his patience chip away, Franz’s eyes narrowed.
“Let’s go train!” Needlen shouted, seeing that smile return.
Without exception, everyone scrambled toward the sandy beach. They all knew that when Franz looked like that, it was best to step up and take the beating first.
Before long, forty soldiers in pure white were running on the same beach where only three had run the day before.
Watching the heartwarming sight from a distance, Siona muttered, “Should I be running, too?”
“Shut up,” Franz replied, his voice laced with irritation. He remained in place, watching the Valkan members.
Siona glanced at Franz, a sudden curiosity in her eyes. “I heard you ran with them yesterday, but you aren’t going today.”
“Because I don’t know what my brother might do.”
“What do you mean, what he might do?”
Calian had gone to meet the Mother Tree alone.
“Sword fights. Explosions.”
The Mother Tree was, after all, an elf. There was no telling how she might grate on Calian’s nerves. If that happened, there was no telling how Calian might destroy the Mother Tree from within. That was why Franz was keeping an eye on things instead of running with his men, even as he punished them.
“Ah. Right.”
Surprisingly, Siona understood. She nodded in agreement, staring at the men running hard in the distance. “It’s a difference in mindset. Humans get to live, but elves have to survive. There are twisted ones like that elder your brother met, but I don’t think most of them act out of malice. To humans, though, it must seem selfish.”
Hearing this, Franz turned his head toward her. “Weren’t you angry because you couldn’t get treated?”
“Knowing and understanding are two different things, aren’t they?” the elf replied with a sheepish smile, acknowledging that while she understood her kind’s selfishness, she had still taken her anger out on Calian.
“Chicken-eating elf,” Franz said, addressing Siona.
Blinking, Siona pointed to herself. “Me?”
“Is there anyone else?”
“Siona Hill.”
“I know.”
“Oh. Right. Glad to hear it.”
The strange prince—who ate his greens and peas, though that hardly seemed to explain his peculiar personality—spoke again.
“Have you ever met her?”
“Who?”
“The Mother Tree.”
“No, never.”
Franz nodded. It was a sign he had no further questions, but Siona explained anyway.
“Occasionally, elves are born at the hour when spirits awaken. They say those elves meet the Mother Tree in person and receive a long name. For most others, unless they become an elder, they have no reason to meet the Mother Tree in their lifetime.”
“I see.”
“I hear the Mother Tree sees through many things. I doubt anything you need to worry about will happen.”
“She wouldn’t know.”
Could anyone truly understand what goes on inside that man’s head?
With that thought, Franz curled one corner of his mouth into a slight smile.
“Shouldn’t you tell your men to stop running? If you’re on standby because you don’t know what might happen, you should conserve your strength.”
“The pink-haired mage who eats salted food will take care of that.”
Hearing the amusing nickname, Siona chuckled. “May I ask why you call people that?”
“Because there are two pink-haired mages.”
“They have names, so why go out of your way to do that?” Siona asked the question that others didn’t dare, and that Calian had no need to. If the Valkan members had been nearby, they would have strained their ears, but unfortunately, they were still running.
“Because I’m afraid I’ll forget them if I only remember their names.”
He couldn’t risk forgetting everything Calian had built.
“Hmm.”
Siona, whose ears had been bleeding for days from stories of the Vice-Commander’s brilliant mind, fell silent and pondered for a moment. She concluded that while Franz’s answer didn’t refer to simple memory, she couldn’t quite grasp what he meant.
“But you call your brother by his name,” she pointed out.
Franz looked at the sky, smelled the sea, and felt the wind before replying in a low voice, “Because I know I won’t forget.”
Lucy, Anne, Hina…
And his one and only brother.
*
In my vast world, I was the only one who was slowly going mad.
Calian lowered his eyes, taking a slow, deep breath. The rising memories stole the air from his lungs, and he struggled for a long moment just to breathe.
He stood on a vast, desolate land with nothing to lean on. In that place, he poured all his strength into the simple act of breathing.
He had fallen into this state not long after arriving.
—I thought the Mother Tree’s true form would be at the highest point. This is unexpected.
—Is the foundation of life not in the roots?
He hadn’t expected an underground space. He had assumed meeting the Mother Tree would mean ascending somewhere even higher than the Grand Elder’s chamber, but instead, they had descended into the earth.
It was a dark, black, and strangely cozy space. There was nothing to see, yet it didn’t feel suffocating. He couldn’t even tell where Grand Elder Narzan was, but he followed with familiar steps. He felt that if he were left alone, he could find the Mother Tree on his own. And if he wished to leave, he knew the way out instinctively.
—Fascinating.
—I find it more fascinating that you rejected the Mother Tree’s summons in such a manner.
—It’s rude to suddenly tell someone to come out in the middle of the night.
—You humans are truly an insolent race.
—And you elves are truly a selfish race.
One might have expected Calian to be overwhelmed into silence by the dark and cozy atmosphere, but he was not.
At least, not until then.
In the end, Narzan’s chuckle echoed in response to Calian, who refused to give an inch.
—Do you truly believe the King of Secritia will come here?
—It depends on which wins: his desperation or his suspicion. Whichever he chooses, you’ll be buying time, so it doesn’t seem like a bad deal for you.
—That is not incorrect, but…
—Of course, the best option would be to evacuate the residents before Secritia burns down the Bridget Forest. If you open the Forest Path, they can escape. Why not open it?
—Because it is not permitted.
—Meaning you’ve already spoken to the Mother Tree?
—That was the very first thing I did.
The Mother Tree, who had opened the Forest Path for Calian’s group, had blocked her own people’s path to survival. As Calian was wondering at Narzan’s faith that there must be a reason for this, he felt the Grand Elder’s footsteps stop.
—We shall finish our conversation upon your return.
With those words, Narzan’s presence vanished. To be precise, it wasn’t that Narzan had disappeared, but that Calian had been drawn somewhere else—just as he had been when he first set foot on the hill where Sispanian once stayed.
The difference from that time, however, was…
“If you were curious about my life, you should have just asked.”
Standing in a place where no one was present, Calian spoke once more. To be precise, he stood in a place where no living soul remained.
The sky was filled with twinkling red stars. They floated in the endless expanse above, yet he knew they were not stars. They were the dust of countless crushed red gems.
Yes.
It was a kaleidoscope.
A breathy sigh escaped Calian’s lips as he tore his gaze from the twinkling red stars and looked down.
“You didn’t have to show me this.”
These were things he had lived with, things he had never forgotten. Scenes he had never even thought of forgetting.
He saw the one whose life had ended at his fingertips on a night when blue stars fell.
Step. Step.
Inhaling sharply, Calian moved his feet. One by one, he walked past the corpses of those he had never forgotten. He walked past so many. He saw nobles. He saw knights. He saw their vassals.
He saw a young child, and he saw an old man.
Facing each and every one of them, he kept walking, step by step.
He saw Eila.
He saw Kyrie.
He saw a burning Secreta. He saw the royal palace. He saw mages in pure white robes standing in formation. He saw Cain. He saw Needlen.
—That which your life protected.
He saw Arsen.
He saw a pure white sword shattering into pieces.
He saw the long, bluish-silver hair of the one who was fading away, having lost an arm.
—Behold the tragedy.
Calian’s steps slowed.
Calian stopped.
Repeating the voice’s final word, he bent at the waist. He bent his knees. The red cloak of his formal attire brushed against the ground.
He reached out toward the one who had tried to protect only one thing in his life but had ultimately failed. He caressed the one who had closed his eyes, his head turned toward the spire where someone who looked so much like him would have been standing. There was nothing to feel beneath his fingertips.
“Was it a tragedy?”
He simply caressed him for a long time, as if lulling him to sleep, as if comforting him.
Someone approached.
He looked up instinctively.
He saw lightless, pale green eyes that held not a single shred of life. He stared into them. He stared blankly, not knowing how he was supposed to see this person.
The lifeless one walked toward the one who had lost his life.
He set down the sword in his hand.
The black name etched upon the ash-gray blade came into view. Calian’s red eyes trembled for a moment. They wavered violently. A storm raged within them.
Ah.
You came that day.
You saw me.
“What a foolish pea, as always.”
Really.
What a foolish older brother, as always.
What were you thinking, throwing away your sword on the battlefield? Just because you couldn’t forget that one sentence.
A long smile played on Calian’s lips.
For he had now seen the other side of that tearful tragedy: the days lived by the one who alone did not go mad, and the one who alone was slowly going mad.
“You offered it up.”
He took a breath.