Chapter 40
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: The First Sense (1)
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"Then I'll take my leave for now. Erzena, I'll see you tomorrow morning."
- Click.
With the sound of the door closing, the Central Officer left the office.
Carton and Haillin watched him go with complicated expressions before letting out heavy sighs.
"Yeah... On a day like this, he'd want to talk to the Visual Officer."
"The living have words they can't share with the dead."
Erzena stared blankly at the closed door for a moment.
Only after the sound of his footsteps faded completely did she turn to the two in the office.
"Who is this Visual Officer?"
"Ah, you wouldn't know, Erzena. Have you met the examiners at the southern border? They're called the Five Senses Officers."
She thought back for a moment.
She remembered meeting them at the border during her pilgrimage.
The blood-maddened howl of a certain werewolf.
The little nomad girl hopping about playfully.
The elf who had set a wine glass on the table.
And the Tactile Officer, whose face she hadn't seen but who had sent the cargo manifest.
'The Five Senses Officers must be titles based on the sense organs.'
That meant there should be five in total.
But she only knew of four.
"I've heard of them once or twice. But not the Visual Officer..."
"That makes sense. He wouldn't have mentioned it unless the Central Officer brought it up himself."
Haillin nodded as if she understood.
Then, in a subdued voice, she continued.
"The Visual Officer died in the line of duty a few years ago."
"Died in the line of duty?"
The news was so sudden that Erzena found herself repeating it.
"An immigration examiner dying on duty—what on earth happened..."
Suddenly, she recalled a major story from a few years back that had dominated headlines even in the Mahalan Kingdom.
It was such an unprecedented event that even Erzena, who paid little attention to worldly affairs, remembered it clearly.
- At the Crossroad Kingdom's southern border, a fairy's mana went berserk, killing dozens in an unprecedented disaster...
Mana rampage.
A phenomenon where abnormally accumulated mana in the body erupts in uncontrollable, violent energy.
A horrific symptom causing energy storms stronger than an enraged spirit to chain-react inside the victim.
The result leads to massive mana discharge outward, wreaking natural disaster-level destruction.
There were only two ways to control a mana rampage.
Wait for the victim's life force to burn out,
Or kill them.
'Could that have been the Visual Officer?'
Was that incident connected to this?
A foreboding feeling crept in.
But she couldn't ask.
"..."
"..."
The two men's gazes already said it all.
So instead, Erzena asked the one thing she was most curious about.
"Then... what was the Visual Officer to you, Central Officer?"
What kind of existence could make him go alone like that?
If she had just been a subordinate, the two wouldn't react with such regret.
Yet the Minister and the Immigration Control Director spoke as if the Central Officer had lost someone precious.
And when Erzena had offered to go with him, he had flatly refused.
- No. I want to meet her alone.
She could tell from his expression.
It wasn't a mere professional tie.
Longing, regret, guilt—and a faint smile all at once.
Emotions that couldn't come from a simple working relationship.
Erzena asked cautiously.
"Were you... in love?"
Did he miss a lost lover from the past?
If so, what should she do?
"Love?"
But the two frowned as if pondering the word, then gave bitter smiles.
"Well, can you even call it love?"
"Far more complicated than that. Closer than husband and wife, but not as deep as lovers."
Confused by the twisted description, she stammered.
"I-I don't understand what you mean."
Haillin stood and gazed out the window at the cemetery beyond, speaking softly.
"Visual Officer Rene Illia was Nathan Kell's first junior—and his direct superior. This was before Nathan Kell became Central Officer."
First junior.
Direct superior.
Contradictory words that defined her.
No matter if flowers bloomed across the world, greenery sprouted, leaves fell, or snow blanketed the earth.
No matter if the winds of time eroded all and birthed new life.
There was one place that never changed.
A space eternally desolate, as if time itself had stopped.
I turned my steps toward it.
A handful of freshly picked white mistflowers in hand.
A stone pillar greeted me with its merciless inscription.
[Royal Cemetery: Remember those who fell for this kingdom]
My gaze lingered on the final line.
"...Remember."
I entered.
Dozens, hundreds of gray tombstones stood tall like a dense forest.
Each bore a name.
The brave who died, those who made noble sacrifices, those who served the nation.
I passed them by.
I reached the farthest corner.
The fairies' graves.
I stood before the last one there.
Smaller than the others.
A wooden marker barely reaching my waist.
- Thud.
I knelt on one knee, eye level with the stone.
Etched in fairy script:
[In memory of Rene Illia]
Today wasn't her death anniversary.
Nor the day of the incident, nor her commissioning date.
Yet no day had made me want to see her more.
"It's been a while, Visual Officer."
I murmured after a long gaze.
No reply came.
Only rustling leaves in the wind broke the silence.
'Visual Officer Rene Illia.'
The fairy with silver wings.
My first junior when I was a lowly examiner.
[Ah, hello! I'm Rene Illia, immigration examiner as of yesterday! Please take care of me, senior!]
Her overflowing enthusiasm contrasting her rigid tension—I still remembered it vividly.
The words I drilled into her dozens of times.
- Now, repeat after me. Immigration examiners do not compromise. Always follow principles and rules.
- A true examiner doesn't bend to any external pressure.
Platitudes from my new role as senior.
She listened for hours.
'We toiled as lowly examiners together for so long.'
Back then, we worked diligently under dozens of examiners.
Striving to aid the nation and the office.
Then one day, sudden news of her promotion.
[S-Senior. I'm becoming Visual Officer. But then you...]
Rene, who became my direct superior soon after commissioning.
Her rise to Visual Officer was natural.
Fairies were extremely sensitive to mana, able to see invisible flows of energy.
It fit her abilities perfectly. And with her quick learning, no reason she couldn't.
No complaints. Just... regret.
I spoke quietly to the stone.
"Lately, so much has happened. As much as what you went through."
"I faced the same temptation as Gerard. From the Pope."
"As I was about to yield and stamp it, thoughts of you came."
After becoming Visual Officer, Rene saw, learned, and endured much.
Until she saw what she shouldn't have.
[Wh-what is this? Gerard?]
Gerard Monarch.
My predecessor as Central Officer.
The man who seized the post right after the previous one was executed.
She witnessed him smuggling illegal mana rampage drugs.
Followed by the Visual Officer's disappearance.
When I saw her distress signal, he told me:
[You saw nothing. So as a lowly examiner, just do as I say. Got it?]
[Report to superiors and we're all dead. Heads will roll! You trying to bring a bloodbath to the southern border!?]
[Ignore the distress signal. Shut up! I'm in charge here. Want to be executed for defiance!? That idiot girl, I told her to look the other way, why can't she...!]
That was when I knew.
Gerard had long colluded with smugglers.
And was tied to Rene's disappearance.
But I, a lowly examiner, submitted to him.
Powerless.
Terrified by his threats and warnings of mass death.
The tragedy didn't end there.
Rene reappeared eventually.
As a rampaging fairy in mana overload.
Her body fiercely burning amid pillars of flame in the dark organization's lair.
I closed my eyes.
Her voice echoed clearer in my mind.
[Senior... don't cry... To me... you're the Central Officer... Not someone like Gerard...]
Even as her body shattered from the rampaging mana, she worried for me.
Higher rank than me, yet calling me senior to the end.
[I... didn't compromise... Did I do well...? Just like you said... senior...]
She died in my arms.
Her flesh not even left, force-fed too much rampage drug by the dark group.
I remember.
How could I forget?
The resolve from that day.
The feeling when the dying Visual Officer echoed back my own platitudes.
How could I forget?
I held her slowly charring body and swore.
If the world was this twisted,
If I couldn't protect even one good person,
If bowing to this damned world led here,
I'd never bow again.
Never compromise with anything.
And those bastards who did this to you—I won't leave a single one.
- Immigration examiners do not compromise. Always follow principles and rules.
- A true examiner doesn't bend to any external pressure.
The principles I taught you, I etch back into myself.
[Gerard...]
I call the name of the one who did this.
[Gerard Monarch...!!!]
I recall his voice ordering obedience, calling himself Central Officer.
The voice of one meant to guard the border, protect those under him.
I won't forget the voice of the man who sold Rene to the dark group for his own safety.
[You are no Central Officer...]
[You don't deserve that name...!!!]
[If the entire southern border is rotten, filled with scum like you!]
[I'll tear it all down and rebuild!]
Retribution.
This is my retribution.
For killing you. For closing my eyes.
For your eyes that will never open again.
So I never forget the name Visual Officer.
For you, my first sense.
I won't compromise with the world.
On that cursed, pouring rain day.
The fire in my heart didn't extinguish.
From that day, lowly examiner Nathan Kell vanished.
Only Central Officer Nathan Kell remained.
I opened my eyes, and the gravestone replaced that moment's Rene.
"It's thanks to you."
I whispered.
"I remember every word you said back then, Rene."
"Don't compromise. Don't bend. Don't bow."
"Words I said as your senior, that you returned to me."
I hesitated, then slowly spoke.
"Thank you."
Words heavy with meaning.
Words I never said to her.
Words I'd longed to say.
I gently placed the flowers before the stone.
White mistflowers symbolize death and promise.
And sorrow.
Flower language cruelly fitting for Rene.
"...I miss you so much, Rene."
I laid down the deepest truth I'd kept hidden.
Your place is still empty.
I lack the courage to give it to another.
My vision blurs.
Ah, why does this heart tear so?
Even in death, you support me, yet I can give you nothing—it stings coldly.
Why do the departed carve their names into the living before leaving?
Stopped time feels so cold.
Even these falling tears can't reach you.
Pent-up emotions pour out.
All suppressed feelings erupt.
So here, where no one comes, I mourn you.
Here, the only place I can bare my true heart.
I call your name aloud.
How much time passed?
As turbulent emotions settled and tears dried on my cheeks.
- Rustle.
A presence from behind.
A woman in fine dress crossed the stones toward somewhere.
'At this twilight hour, few visit the cemetery.'
I glanced where she headed.
Far off, a grander, more solemn section.
[Royal Tombs]
'Who could it be?'
A noble lady heading to the royal tombs without guards.
Incomprehensible.
A highborn daughter would have escorts.
If not, no reason for the royal tombs.
I slowly rose.
No need to follow.
I didn't even know who.
Besides, the destination unrelated to me—royal tombs.
But with King Leo awakened, curiosity stirred.
'Does the wrathful king still miss him?'
As I miss the Visual Officer.
I slowly followed.
Perhaps visiting Prince Lassen's tomb would tell.
Meanwhile, anxious murmurs filled the queen's receiving room.
"What do we do now?"
"If His Majesty resumes state affairs..."
"What are they saying at the Church?"
The queen's retainers' faces showed tension and confusion.
The situation had shifted too abruptly; even their usual composure cracked, leaving them repeating meaningless words.
The Pope's sudden silence, the king's fury.
And the trial's invalidation.
Three massive blows at once left even the queen fanning her face in deep thought.
"If this continues..."
Irritation boiled.
The Pope's promised blessing concerned Princess Elaine Castor's talent awakening.
Considering her prior rampage, she needed power to control it.
'That was the Pope's blessing.'
Now the Pope had vanished completely.
And for unknown reasons, the king raged as if resuming duties imminently.
The queen's plans crumbled.
The Saintess had sided with the Central Officer entirely—no borrowing her holy power now.
Politically at odds meant bowing to reconcile.
She hated that intensely.
How could royalty bow to a mere examiner?
She snapped irritably.
"Where is Elaine? Where's Elaine?!"
Unless she vented this unease on her daughter, it wouldn't calm.
The girl who killed her brother.
The one who killed my son.
Time to remind her again. No—she must.
Only then would her heart settle.
She who couldn't control her own power needed that sin etched anew.
But an unexpected reply came.
"She went out."
"Where to!?"
"Well..."
The hesitant retainer.
The queen snapped her fan shut, threatening.
"I told you—report everything Elaine does or goes, no matter what!"
"Th-the trial was ongoing, so I couldn't relay immediately."
"Then you can now! Where is that girl!?"
Emotionally cornered, the queen shrieked near a scream.
The retainer finally spoke.
"T-to Prince Lassen's tomb."
Helena Castor's face twisted.