127. The Witch Who Dreams of Reunion
127. The Witch Who Dreams of Reunion
Demons and the undead, beastkin and vampires....
In an age when countless forces plunged the world into chaos, humanity had no choice but to crave salvation in every waking moment.
The Orion Empire was the singular hope found by those who had wandered in search of it.
Everyone believed that by gathering their strength here, where civilization still stood firm, they would surely break free from all the dangers that hunted them.
-Knock, knock.
The deepest chamber on the first floor of the Imperial Castle, where the Empire's leaders resided.
There, a lady-in-waiting carrying a tray of food knocked softly on the door. Tense, she addressed the figure beyond it.
"E-Excuse me, Lady Vivian. Pardon the intrusion. Are you inside?"
Vivian Platonice.
A VIP personally invited from the Mage Tower by the Imperial family, the masters of the Empire themselves. She was someone they had defined as "humanity's hope."
Yet despite being a figure who might aptly be called a savior, what the servant felt upon opening the door and stepping inside was closer to fear.
"E-Excuse me.... La-Lady Vivian?"
-Clatter.
"Eeek!!"
The moment she entered, something collapsed. Terrified the noise might have been an attack, the lady-in-waiting screamed, then hastily clamped a hand over her own mouth and scanned the room.
A room so dark that even in broad daylight, she could barely see an inch ahead.
The curtains were drawn, and every crevice where light might seep through was blocked by piles of books and documents.
The sound just now must have been a stack of books near the entrance toppling over.
-Creak.
But the real issue wasn't the source of the sound—it was the possibility that the outcome might have offended the room's occupant.
-Creak, creak.
The interior, cluttered with mountains of paper.
A figure sat at the desk, chair tilted halfway back, body swaying. It almost looked as though she found her current circumstances tedious.
No—it was more as if she had lost her mind entirely.
With her unkempt hair, dull eyes, and pallid skin, she gave off the unmistakable impression of a living corpse.
"E-E-Excuse me..."
"Leave it there."
The servant flinched and froze at the reply that suddenly emerged from that listless state.
Vivian, who had briefly stopped rocking her chair, slowly shifted her gaze toward the lady-in-waiting, who stood rooted in place, staring back.
"What you brought. I said leave it there."
There wasn't even a trace of displeasure in her dry, lifeless voice.
Realizing that she hadn't, at the very least, provoked the woman's ire, the servant silently obeyed and set the meal down on the table.
That was, until her eyes landed on the numerous other trays that had apparently been delivered earlier.
'She hasn't eaten a thing?'
As befit a meal served by the Imperial House, the dishes were lavishly prepared. Yet there wasn't a single trace that she had touched the food. They had clearly been left for some time; the moisture had evaporated, and a foul odor was beginning to rise.
There had been no word of her ever leaving the room. Could she really have been so consumed by her work that she'd been skipping meals for days?
"Aren't you leaving?"
"Y-Yes, ma'am! M-My apologies!"
Right. A being like this was none of her concern.
Fearing unwarranted retaliation, the lady-in-waiting shut the door and fled. Her destination was the embrace of her fellow servants, who had been waiting anxiously in the corridor, hearts in their throats.
"H-How did it go? Are you hurt?"
"Did she take any limbs?!"
"Y-Yeah. F-Fortunately..."
Every question was drenched in bloody worry.
But the lady-in-waiting who had delivered the food knew better than anyone that their fears were far from baseless.
In fact, some of those who had visited her room before had been carried out as corpses. And the vast majority of those cases were because they had "incurred her displeasure."
Not just nobles, but even the knights sent to quell the disturbances they caused. Even a Hero who had resented the attention she was receiving more than he did...
"Didn't I hear that just recently, a Hero barged into her room and the lower half of his body vanished in the blink of an eye?"
"U-Uh, yeah. I saw it. He was screaming with his legs gone, and then... then his head disappeared too...!"
"H-Hiik. Why would the Imperial family bring someone so dangerous into the palace? Shouldn't she be thrown in prison immediately?"
"She's beyond that. Seeing as she faces no consequences even for killing nobles or Heroes, it seems she's been granted full immunity..."
Starting with the lady-in-waiting who had miraculously survived, a collective murmur spread.
It was a testament to just how miraculous her survival was considered. But even this fervent mix of relief and horror was soon cut short.
-Clank, clank.
The sound of clashing armor approached before anyone realized it.
It came from the other end of the corridor: soldiers rushing somewhere in a hurry.
Soldiers, racing through the interior of the Imperial Castle rather than a battlefield. Wasn't that more than enough to suggest that something grave was unfolding?
****
"This isn't it."
Vivian, for her part, couldn't have cared less about the clamor outside the door.
The Imperial House, the Mage Tower she belonged to, even the very future of humanity—none of it mattered to her in the slightest.
Her sole objective was to complete her research and expand the passageway connecting to other dimensions.
Her cooperation with humanity was purely for the sake of that research. She had absolutely no sense of obligation to interfere in the Empire's problems.
Yes, that was why she had moved her laboratory here, seeking support beyond just the Mage Tower from the Imperial House. And yet...
"...This isn't it. This isn't it."
At some point, her research had ground to a halt. It just kept spinning its wheels, as if completely roadblocked.
No matter how many texts she combed through or equations she formulated, building anything better than her current summoning formula felt impossible...
"Everything's wrong. With this kind of thing..."
she could produce no results.
Opening a path to another world—her very goal—was impossible.
With those days stretching on for months, her unorganized mind filled with nothing but hazy fog.
A fog so thick that she could no longer even recall the original objective she had set out with.
'...What was I doing this research for?'
It must have been important. The reason she'd been maniacally obsessed with her research since waking was surely because that goal was so critical.
But now, when she actually tried to remember, that supposedly crucial goal wouldn't surface.
Was it because she hadn't slept for days, thanks to the lack of progress? Or because she was hungry?
-Growl.
And thinking requires energy.
Feeling her hollow stomach amplify her frustration, Vivian remembered the plate the servant had brought earlier and reached for it.
A sandwich, made with high-quality, fresh ingredients and carefully prepared by the Imperial head chef.
Just as she was about to take a bite, Vivian dropped it to the floor and let out a deep sigh.
"...I don't want to eat it."
Wasn't that strange?
Despite being a dish made with the finest ingredients by the finest chefs, presented with the highest hospitality.
She couldn't even muster the minimal appetite needed to replenish her body.
'When was the last time I had a proper meal?'
And yet, prompted by her growing hunger, Vivian rummaged through her foggy mind.
A flash of light beamed into the room as the window opened, right around when those lingering afterimages in her memory were starting to sharpen.
-Clatter!
Yes, someone had broken in through the window.
Vivian's senses snapped to full alert, and she turned her gaze to see a figure backlit by the sunlight pouring through the parted curtains.
A masked man in a black cape and tailcoat, dressed like a gentleman.
"Oh my. I only slipped in here to hide for a moment, but I see the room was already occupied?"
"...Who are you?"
"Merely an uninvited guest passing through. I'm not nearly grand enough a figure to warrant a self-introduction, so I'd prefer to leave it at that for now..."
A suspicious man by anyone's standards.
After stepping down from the windowsill, he began casually scanning the cluttered interior of the room.
As if it were his habit to survey any new location he entered.
"...Did you come to interfere with my research?"
The moment his gaze landed on the fruits of her labor, her hand reflexively lifted.
With a flick of that hand, the space around him would be isolated, and parts of his physical body would be dragged into a dimensional rift and annihilated.
If she targeted his limbs, his limbs would be severed. If she targeted his head, his life would end right there...
"That's not it. As I said, I simply dropped in to hide."
The unidentified man, seemingly oblivious to that lurking danger, inclined his head toward Vivian in apology.
"But that is my own circumstance, and not something you need concern yourself with. If I've disturbed your work, then allow me to apologize."
A polite attitude, distinct from the troublemakers who had come before.
Of course, she could still find him annoying and use her power, but she didn't feel like doing so at the moment.
With her research stalled and her concentration shattered, a visitor now could hardly be called a disturbance.
"Ah, n-no... it's fine. I'm just res, resting right now... So it's not really a disturbance."
"Heh heh, I appreciate you letting it go. I'm grateful for your consideration."
The intruder seemed relieved to have successfully gained her understanding.
Afterward, his masked face turned to look around the room again, and he began examining the research materials one by one.
Complex yet incredibly precise formulas. Even without any relevant knowledge, anyone could deduce at a glance that she was a tremendous scholar.
If he were to take just a few of these pages to the black market, scholars from the Mage Tower might pay a fortune for the chance to buy them.
"Now that I think of it, I did hear there was a scholar personally invited by the Imperial family... Hmm?"
His budding interest in her identity paused. His eyes, which had been skimming through documents, were drawn to a newspaper buried among them.
Among all these documents of immense academic value, the only printed material meant to convey news of the outside world. How could he not grow curious?
'The Hero Killer, the Hero Hunter... And the war that broke out a month ago at the Dragon's Tomb.'
The moment he realized that every piece of news in the paper led back to a single individual.
A strange light flickered in the eyes behind his mask as his gaze shifted back toward Vivian.
"You, by any chance... do you know of a man called Woo Hyosung?"
-Clatter!
The chair she'd been sitting on all this time tipped over.
Her body tumbled to the floor, and pain surged through her, but Vivian paid her own condition no heed. Her attention had locked onto him in a flash.
"U, U-hyo...?"
"I asked if you know a man called Woo Hyosung."
"Y-Y-Y-You. D-Do you... know him?"
Vivian crawled toward him, her hands trembling uncontrollably.
The image of herself crawling and looking up at him was beyond unsightly—it was utterly pitiful. But the two eyes fixed on him were undeniably bright with color.
"Well, he's a friend I knew for a short while. He once acted as my porter, you see."
"P-Porter...?"
"Yes, he used to carry my luggage when we entered dungeons. Did you perhaps receive similar help?"
"Y-Yeah. U-hyo helped me... a lot. D-Did a lot. Cooked, cleaned for me... Ehehe."
Her face flushed shyly, and she placed a hand over her pounding heart.
Facing her timid smile, the intruder quietly pressed down on his top hat and frankly voiced what he was feeling.
"Your expression has brightened considerably."
"H-Huh?"
"When I first saw you, you had the face of someone watching the world fall apart. Was it your desire to meet him that drove you to collect news about him?"
At his question, Vivian fell silent for a moment, a blank look on her face.
Did that mean she hadn't understood what he was saying?
That she hadn't realized why she was buried in piles of papers, yet carefully clipping and saving only the news related to him?
-Boom, boom!
As they exchanged those words, a violent crash came from the entrance.
It didn't take long to realize it was the ones chasing him.
"Lady Vivian! Are you inside?!"
"The leader of the Rebel Army has infiltrated the Imperial Castle! We are entering to investigate, so please grant us your understanding!!"
Yes, the intruder here was one of the Empire's most notorious wanted men.
There was a risk that forcing their way into the room might incur her wrath, and yet the soldiers displayed a fierce resolve to enter, risking their very lives.
She was a figure so important that the fate of humanity itself might depend on her, and protecting her was a duty they had to fulfill, even at the cost of massive sacrifices.
"Excuse me... Mmph!"
"At least make sure you eat proper meals."
Just as Vivian, not comprehending the situation, was about to say something else, the intruder stuffed the sandwich into her open mouth.
Even that action brimmed with the same grace and courtesy as his attire.
"If you haven't earned his resentment, seeing you in this state would likely make him sad."
"Mmph?"
"Wouldn't you guess the same, having seen the news? If he's distinguished himself, then surely the Imperial Castle would take an interest in him."
Considering the news she'd gathered so far, the Imperial House was undoubtedly keeping an eye on him.
He was vastly different from the man he once knew, but if fate allowed, he believed they would meet again someday. A faint sense of anticipation even rose within him.
Meeting someone with whom he could share this sense of connection, however briefly, was one of the small gains from his infiltration.
"I'm not in a position to reveal myself publicly, but if by any chance you meet that friend of mine, do pass on my regards. Tell him that his old friend wholeheartedly congratulates him on his success."
The moment he revealed that familiarity and leaped out the window, the door burst open with a thunderous clatter!
But by then, the intruder had already vanished. Only Vivian remained, sitting blankly in the room with a sandwich held in her mouth.
Of course, from the Imperial House's perspective, she was a VIP considered more important than even the highest-ranking nobles.
There was no telling if displeasing her here might cost them their heads, but as guardians of the Imperial Castle, their first priority had to be confirming her safety.
"Lady Vivian, are you unharmed? The intruder..."
"...Heh, hehe."
Just as they tensely approached, a small giggle slipped from her lips.
"Eheh, hehehehe~"
"L-Lady Vivian?"
"Th-This... after I eat all this..."
Vivian gently set down the sandwich she had taken a bite of and turned to look at them.
The moment their eyes met her face, their breath caught in their throats. Because something they never thought possible had just unfolded.
"Ah, so if I eat well from now on... I'll be able to meet him again, right~?"
The monster who used to dismember anyone who annoyed her, all with a deadpan expression... was now smiling with such visible delight.
How could they not feel a chill run down their spines?