Chapter 19
Chapter 19
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: The Flower Language of the Winter Flower is Salvation (3)
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While Cecilia was completely lost in the flowers, bouncing around excitedly.
Lucas had called Karin to the back of the garden, and the two were standing at a distance far too intimate for siblings.
"How was life in the capital?"
Lucas flashed a fake smile as he stroked Karin's cheek with his hand.
A touch so cloyingly sticky it was bizarre for a brother to give his little sister.
Karin's lifeless eyes turned toward her brother, who was caressing her.
"Yes... Life in the capital was certainly good."
"Even without me?"
The hand stroking her cheek slowly drifted downward, caressing her neck.
"Eek... Get... get your filthy hand off me."
A spark of resistance she'd never shown before.
Normally, she wouldn't have even dreamed of defying him, but having grown stronger under Yuri's guidance, Karin glared at Lucas for the first time in her life.
With enough killing intent that she could have drawn the sword at her waist and thrust it at him right then and there.
But her first act of defiance in her life ended pathetically.
Slap!
Lucas's hand cut through the air, striking Karin's cheek.
A strike so powerful and swift that the friction of skin against skin rang out.
At the pinnacle realm, Karin might have been able to block it, but she couldn't bring herself to.
"So you're the former Sword Saint's disciple, huh? I can see the difference. For you to defy me like this."
A dry voice and a murderous atmosphere.
This was a side of him no one who knew the usual Lucas could imagine.
"......Ah."
"Whatever. Doesn't matter. I can just let out all the urges I've been holding back this time."
Karin couldn't help but feel revulsion again at the sight of Lucas smacking his lips as he said it.
Perhaps it felt even more disgusting because memories of the kind and gentle Lucas from just a few years ago flashed through her mind.
'Just... when did things go wrong?'
She could no longer even feel his hand groping her.
Karin stared into space with hollow, lifeless eyes, lost in old memories.
The happiest, best times.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ When we were little, we were definitely close siblings.
I followed my big brother well, and he took good care of me.
Twins who resembled each other in everything from our lack of magical talent to our appearances.
We relied on each other and never doubted we would forever.
"I'm going to marry big brother when I grow up!"
Even I, who now despises men intensely, said things like that back then—we were that close.
But the bond between close siblings shattered in an instant.
On a day like any other, when I was excited to read a picture book with my brother.
Grandfather shouted at me in a voice more vibrant and bright than I'd ever heard.
"Karin!! Your brother has finally learned magic!!"
"What...!? For real!?"
To the young Karin back then, those were words of pure salvation.
Salvation that maybe she, with the same constitution as her brother, could use magic too.
Salvation that her brother, who had suffered just like her, was finally being rewarded.
It was salvation.
"Waaah... Big brother can use magic..."
I couldn't contain my joy at the salvation that had come to me and my brother.
Unaware that what had come to me wasn't salvation, but hell.
And hell arrived soon enough.
After the whole family rejoiced at the news that my brother could use magic and the celebrations ended.
I was purely enchanted by my brother's magic and spent time alone with him in our room as usual.
Normally, we'd read picture books or chat idly.
But that day was different, perhaps because my brother had awakened to magic.
"Big brother! You can really use magic?"
A purely innocent question born of curiosity.
In response... Lucas nodded with a bright smile.
That must have been when it started.
When Lucas began wearing that fake smile and gradually became harder to understand.
"Want me to show you some magic?"
"Yeah!"
As I answered energetically, Lucas ignited a flame in his palm.
Without a single chant or any sign of strain, he activated the spell.
Whoosh!!
Illuminating the room where we were alone together were black flames.
"What do you think? Cool, right?"
"Waaah... But why is the flame black?"
The color of flames produced by normal mages is consistent.
Usually red flames, and advanced mages produce blue ones.
Even without being able to use magic myself, as a descendant of the Extreme Archmage bloodline, I knew that much.
"This? It means I'm special. Anyway, since I showed you my magic, there's something I want you to do for me."
"Huh? What?"
"Come here for a sec?"
And from then on, whenever we were alone, Lucas started touching me.
At first, it was definitely in exchange for showing me magic, but at some point, he began caressing me without reason.
Of course, as I grew older, my desire to resist gradually grew.
But at some point, I couldn't even speak properly in front of Lucas.
That went on for years.
One day, while enduring his violations, I clenched my teeth and spoke up.
"...Big brother. Can't we stop this now?"
The first time I expressed refusal to him.
That day, I experienced hell.
Lucas's mental magic ravaged my mind, and his hand struck my cheek over and over.
If there was any risk of scarring, he'd heal it with magic and strike again.
After the acts repeated countless times.
I could no longer even think of defying Lucas.
'That must have been when it started.'
From that day when Lucas tortured me nearly to death.
My hatred and distrust of men only grew, and my disgust and revulsion toward Lucas piled up higher and higher.
I barely overcame it... with the time spent with my master...
"Whatever. Doesn't matter. I can just let out all the urges I've been holding back this time."
Struck across the cheek by Lucas again after months or who knows how long, I trembled with the same helplessness and fear as back then.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ It had already been five days since arriving in the North.
'This girl's gonna die soon...'
With each passing day, Karin's face grew more gaunt and haggard—it was obvious at a glance.
Her eyes utterly hollow, as if she could drop dead any moment, her disheveled appearance.
'Damn it... If I could, I'd slice him up myself.'
You might think evidence doesn't matter and I could just handle it, but the opponent wasn't Lucas—it was the demon possessing his body.
Even if I killed Lucas, if the demon escaped without revealing itself by ripping open his belly or something, that'd be the end.
And if that happened, Karin wouldn't be the issue; it would spark a war between me and Bergil.
No matter how close Bergil and I are as comrades who've shared life and death, to him, his grandson Lucas matters more.
In fact, the family had almost no suspicions that Lucas was possessed by a demon right now.
In the end, to convince Bergil and deal with Lucas, I needed solid proof.
That's why.
I proposed the Snow Dragon subjugation campaign.
"So, you're saying there's a demon, and you want to hunt the Snow Dragon?"
Bergil asked me again, as if he couldn't believe it.
Well, it was unbelievable. A demon was more important than some Snow Dragon, after all.
"Well... The demons aren't going to reveal themselves first anyway. Wasn't it a headache for the North regardless?"
"...True, but."
The thing that had plagued the North in recent years was the Snow Dragon, Pers.
Not a high-rank dragon, but one worthy enough to bear the name of dragon.
Bergil probably wanted to handle it himself, but that was impossible.
And bringing in a full dragon-hunting party? Pers wasn't that much of a pushover.
'A mage and a dragon...'
Before becoming the Extreme Archmage, Bergil had made a pact with the Dragon King.
The No-Dragon-Slaying deal.
In exchange for the dragon teaching him draconic magic, the mage Bergil was forbidden from slaying dragons.
It was undoubtedly a mutually beneficial deal at the time.
But looking back now, it was meaningless.
Even without draconic magic, Bergil would have reached where he was.
"Anyway, you can't hunt it because of the No-Dragon-Slaying pact, right?"
"...Yeah. So, can't you just go and quickly take it down?"
"Not planning to. The leads are your grandson and granddaughter, Lucas and Karin. Don't you want to see how far your grandkids have grown?"
Karin, who had reached great heights as my disciple, the former Sword Saint.
And Lucas, who had reached great heights as the grandson of Bergil, the former Extreme Archmage.
Both highly rated, without a doubt.
But there hadn't been a real chance to test their skills yet.
Lucas probably planned to show his true power this time and solidify his position as the young lord.
That's why I could make this proposal.
To bait Bergil and bait Lucas.