Chapter 196
Chapter 196
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 196
Chapter Title: Confession in the Shadows
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Inside the shadows, where he had entered alone with Silea.
Leyzon sat facing her calmly.
Silea sat down on the shadow chair that Leyzon had created for her.
Even after entering this place, her composed posture—without so much as a twitch in her eyes—was truly impressive.
It must be due to the strict upbringing from her former High Elf guardian, Sylvriel.
"So, something about the young dragon has come to mind. Tell me."
"Yes. Could the young dragon you're referring to be Nermacardia?"
"You know that one?"
He was a bit surprised by the unexpected response.
He hadn't imagined she would know Nermacardia.
"Yes. I once visited Agrasil with Lord Jerome Makira."
Silea even mentioned the old dragon, Jerome Makira.
"Lord Jerome Makira was originally traveling to inspect the non-human tribes on imperial orders. He was their overseer, after all."
The old dragon had stepped down as the lord of the dragon tribe and was working for the imperial court.
Leyzon had thought he was just lounging around the palace, but it seemed he had a proper role.
"One day, he brought along a young dragon."
"That must have been Nermacardia."
Leyzon roughly pieced together the situation.
And he understood why Nermacardia had sought him out in the World Forest.
'The Abyss is a Half Dark Elf.'
Dark Elves had long gone extinct, and Half Dark Elves were rare.
So, Nermacardia had stopped by the World Forest that lingered in his memories to gather information.
'Nermacardia's goal is revenge.'
The old dragon was the one who killed Nermacardia's father and mother.
Yet, to Nermacardia, that old dragon was still the father figure who had raised him.
That father figure had left upon hearing news of him and was later found dead.
For Nermacardia, it was righteous vengeance.
"I was one of the youngest in the High Elf bloodline. So, when he visited Agrasil, I became his conversation partner."
Adult conversations held little interest for children anyway.
Thus, Silea had chatted with Nermacardia as his companion.
"Sylvriel didn't realize the young dragon was the culprit because..."
"Yes, she probably didn't pay much attention. And this might be an overinterpretation, but..."
Silea clasped her hands in front of her abdomen.
"Nermacardia deliberately killing both my adoptive grandfather and adoptive father might be my influence."
Leyzon slowly turned to look at Silea.
She kept her head bowed, unable to meet his eyes.
"Calling him adoptive father means you're not Sylvriel's biological child?"
"More precisely, I'm from a distant bloodline. My adoptive father was infertile."
This place had quite the tangled web of blood relations.
At the same time, Leyzon realized why Sylvriel had been so desperate.
'With the firstborn infertile, and the second suddenly marrying a Dark Elf.'
A half-blood born between an Elf and a Dark Elf.
Only Piran remained as the sole pure High Elf bloodline.
For Sylvriel, who valued tradition above all, it must have been maddening.
That was why Sylvriel had desperately searched for an alternative.
"I was from a High Elf bloodline exiled from Agrasil long ago."
"The descendant of someone who fought for the High Elf position at the time and lost, getting banished."
Sylvriel was already an old man, no longer able to sire children.
If things continued like this, the High Elf lineage would end immediately.
He absolutely could not pass the High Elf position to Piran, whose blood was mixed with Dark Elf.
So, Sylvriel had scoured the world like hunting a rat and found it.
A bloodline from a High Elf exiled from Agrasil.
"My family lived ordinarily in the southern forest, or so I've heard."
But soon, as if recalling a nightmare, Silea squeezed her eyes shut.
"Not long after, my adoptive grandfather appeared. He took me—a newborn at the time—from my mother and father."
Leyzon showed a stunned reaction.
Sylvriel was even more of a scoundrel than he'd thought.
"That's how I was raised by my adoptive grandfather and adoptive father."
"Others thought I was their child born from marriage."
"Still, I believed my parents were alive and well somewhere."
Leyzon's eyes gradually widened.
He had caught the meaning behind Silea's words.
"That day Lord Jerome Makira visited, when I told Nermacardia this story, he suggested we go see my parents ourselves."
Silea had unwittingly followed Nermacardia with a thrilled heart.
The night sky as she rode on his back and flew.
The night sky embroidered with stars that day was incredibly beautiful.
However, unlike that beauty, a new despair had come to her.
"In the crumbling house, only two old graves remained."
Her mother and father, robbed of their daughter.
Would such parents have stayed quiet?
Of course not—they would have returned to the World Forest to reclaim their daughter.
Sylvriel knew this.
And this fact could never be revealed to the other Elves.
So, Sylvriel had decisively made his choice without hesitation.
Eliminate the source of danger.
On the day Silea was taken, her mother and father met their deaths.
A miserable end, coupled with the grief of losing their daughter.
"At that time..."
Silea pressed hard on her chest.
"I truly hated everything."
Even if she had been a newborn, they were her parents.
She was the fruit of the love they had shared.
Silea knew this better than anyone.
That was why the world felt so resentful.
She pitied her parents and loathed Sylvriel to madness.
"So, I unwittingly blurted it out. That I wanted to burn Agrasil, my adoptive grandfather—everything."
Leyzon fell silent.
Nermacardia had no reason to burn the World Forest.
No reason to kill Sylvriel and his entourage.
Yet he had done so anyway.
"Nermacardia said he would do it for me. I was too young, so I got swept up in my emotions without thinking."
To keep a promise with a young girl like himself.
"I was too young then. I didn't realize how terrifying those words were and made the request on impulse."
Time passed like that, leading to today.
Nermacardia had fulfilled Silea's wish.
"This is my karma. Nermacardia bears no real fault."
Silea rose from her chair.
She then carefully bowed her head to Leyzon.
"Lord Abyss, if you're connected to Nermacardia in any way, could you spare him just once?"
Silea's shoulders trembled faintly.
She had sensed that Leyzon and Nermacardia had some bad blood between them.
"Nermacardia is still a child who would fulfill my foolish promise."
Nermacardia had taken revenge in her stead.
Even if it was words she spat in blind rage.
To Nermacardia, it was a promise to keep.
"It's shameless, but I beg you."
Leyzon looked at Silea.
She was far too small a girl to bear the responsibility of the Elves.
Yet she had been forced to become an adult.
And she hoped the immature young dragon would make no more mistakes.
"Silea, I'm one of the people who contributed to killing Jerome Makira."
Leyzon confided the truth to her.
"Nermacardia is hunting me. To him, I'm the object of his grudge."
The Judgment Sovereign had ultimately finished off the evil dragon and the old dragon.
Nermacardia had already killed the Judgment Sovereign.
Next was Leyzon, who had empowered it.
"If it were you, could you let Sylvriel—who killed your parents—go without killing him?"
Silea gripped the hem of her skirt tightly.
To her, Sylvriel was an arch-enemy.
Leyzon was to Nermacardia as Sylvriel was to her.
Yet she knew this grudge had to end.
Leyzon would kill Nermacardia.
He wasn't the type to let enemies who opposed him slide.
"Yes."
Silea lifted her head.
Her eyes shone transparently.
"Rather than meeting death because of revenge, I hope he lives on."
Better to live than to be consumed by vengeance and turn to ashes.
She wished he would continue living on this land.
"Because he's the dragon who avenged me."
The heart is always full of contradictions.
Silea hoped for her own revenge to be carried out.
But she didn't want Nermacardia to die fulfilling that revenge.
Even if it meant she lived without personally avenging herself.
She wanted Nermacardia to live.
"Just once."
So, he decided to grant her that chance.
"I'll give you a chance to meet Nermacardia next time."
With that, Leyzon rose from the shadow chair.
Leyzon and the old dragon were enemies.
He had attacked Leyzon's undead, the Death Dragon Estelle Aragon.
Given that the old dragon was on the imperial side, the battle was unavoidable.
Just as that battle was justified, so was Nermacardia's thirst for revenge.
Thus, this one chance.
"If you can persuade him then, I'll let it go."
But the chance was only once.
If Nermacardia couldn't abandon his revenge, Leyzon would kill him without mercy.
"Yes, I understand."
He hoped Silea would make good use of that one chance.
"I'm only granting this request because you're kin to my undead, Silea."
Silea's eyes widened round.
Apparently, she hadn't known about Piran.
"When we meet next, say hello."
The world of shadows crumbled away.
Silea was suddenly back on the surface.
Leyzon was no longer there.
He was truly someone who appeared and vanished like the wind.
"Lady Silea!"
The Elf warriors rushed toward her in panic.
Did they know?
That the reason their former High Elf leader died was because of them.
'This is my karma.'
The karma of the vengeful heart she had harbored inside.
All the fault lay with Sylvriel.
The ones whose homes burned and who suffered calamity through no fault of their own were blameless.
Among them were those who couldn't escape the flames and lost their families.
Silea bore responsibility for their deaths.
Revenge comes with a price.
That's why vengeance begets more vengeance in an endless chain.
She had only realized this truth today.
'Nermacardia.'
She hoped he wouldn't be caught in the same cycle of revenge as she had.
With that, she lifted her head proudly.
"Let's return. We have to rebuild Agrasil."
She decided to accept her karma.
It was a world where she couldn't remain a child forever.