Chapter 57
Chapter 57
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 56
Chapter Title: Cry
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*Thud.*
As soon as I returned to my room, my strength drained away, making it hard to even stand properly.
I forced myself to compose my body and sat on the edge of the bed. The Black Necromancer cautiously revealed herself.
She had witnessed everything by my side, so she must have empathized with the emotions I was feeling now.
[…….]
That was why the Black Necromancer didn’t say a word to me, lost in confusion. She simply waited silently.
Until I reached my own answer.
It didn’t take as long as I thought. As always, I remained calm, methodically dissecting the current situation in the silence, just like solving a problem step by step.
With my eyes closed and fingers interlaced, as I sorted through the tangled thoughts in my mind, the image of Elenoa persistently approaching me flickered in my head.
“Whew.”
I exhaled to steady myself and stood up. The Black Necromancer looked slightly surprised.
[You’re okay already?]
She noted that not even five minutes had passed. But the agitation I felt after so long lingered longer than expected.
“Yeah, I’m fine now.”
Even so, that was the end of it.
The sting was just a fleeting pain, and I was back to my usual self.
[Of course. Just to be thorough, since it seems best to confirm... The current Princess Elenoa is...]
“Yeah, it’s the entity from the dream we knew that’s taken over her body.”
[…….]
This much was certain, and the Black Necromancer and I shared no differing opinions.
She hadn’t asked if this was reality the moment she first saw me.
Nor had she responded to my code word as she was supposed to.
There were two reasons for that.
And now, the problem arose from here.
The Black Necromancer crossed her arms and asked tentatively.
[There’s no chance that the yokai Mac you created malfunctioned, right?]
“It worked perfectly at first. Mac devoured the nightmare and fulfilled its role completely before vanishing.”
The moment it consumed the dream, Mac performed its final task and disappeared.
The Black Necromancer stared at me with a troubled expression for a moment before replying glumly.
[Then there’s only one answer, isn’t there? The Elenoa we originally met was the nightmare itself.]
“…….”
[Honestly, it’s a bit surprising. Among evil spirits, there are often those who can’t accept their own death, right?]
Yeah, I’d seen far too many of those.
And there were even evil spirits that tried to possess bodies in reality.
[She didn’t realize she was a nightmare herself. In the end, Mac consumed the nightmare normally. After being possessed for so long, Princess Elenoa has finally found her freedom.]
“…….”
[Now that the original owner has returned to her body, we should congratulate her.]
The Black Necromancer spoke as if deliberately emphasizing to cut ties cleanly. I stood up and headed back to the teapot.
I began reheating the tea I had steeped in advance yesterday and answered.
“That’s impossible.”
I had initially wondered if the lively Elenoa was the nightmare.
But that couldn’t be.
[Pardon? Impossible?]
The teapot hissed as steam billowed out. I slowly poured the tea into a cup, and a warmth seeped into my hand as I held it.
Without sitting, I took a sip right there to wet my throat and replied.
“If the Elenoa we saw was some unknown fake, there’s no way we wouldn’t have noticed.”
Right now, the Black Necromancer was thinking too much from a necromancer’s perspective.
Unfortunately, Elenoa’s case was far removed from necromancy.
“For that to be possible, the premise would be that Elenoa was possessed by something. But we didn’t see anything like that.”
[Ah…….]
The Black Necromancer and I had kept saying it.
Nothing was visible around Elenoa.
Even the Saintess hadn’t properly identified the cause.
What surrounded Elenoa had nothing to do with external interference.
“What we need to look at is the nightmare itself.”
[The nightmare?]
“Mac ate the nightmare. But what exactly is a nightmare? We don’t know the concept precisely.”
[……So nightmares aren’t some absolute, fixed concept.]
“Exactly. And in this case, the concept is probably determined by the will of the one being consumed.”
To reiterate, Mac was akin to an AI made of mana. It could only act according to the thought patterns we provided.
We, who couldn’t properly define what a dream was, had only given Mac vague information about nightmares without a clear definition.
It was highly likely that it consumed what the subject, Elenoa, defined as the nightmare.
*Squeeze.*
A deep weight pressed from the object in my hand.
Now, the puzzle pieces finally clicked into place.
I admitted that I’d been too focused on solving the problem simply and missed a step.
But.
There was still a way to turn it back.
So, I intended to steer this incident back onto its proper track, no matter how twisted it had become.
I dumped the last of the thick, reheated tea into my mouth. Gazing at the now-empty cup, I began boiling fresh water.
This wasn’t an incident about nightmares.
It wasn’t about evil spirits or yokai possessing and tormenting a girl.
It wasn’t a mystery or a chilling ghost story.
It wasn’t a convoluted trick requiring a brilliant detective, nor an event needing unreal powers like necromancy or priesthood.
It wasn’t some trivial village drama about saving a little girl from evil clutches.
It wasn’t a judgment like Solomon’s, distinguishing true from false.
This was……
* * *
The evening party in the royal garden was far more lavish than imagined.
Virtually every noble in Graypond had been invited, all gathered to celebrate the princess’s recovery.
I’d wondered how they’d handle the nightmare story, but it was simply introduced as a childhood illness that had finally been cured.
And the one who cured it—me—had naturally been made known to the nobles.
Before revealing I was a necromancer, the king had laid the groundwork.
“There’s one final trial left, but for today, forget it and enjoy yourselves.”
The king’s words, delivered with a smile over my shoulder, were quite impressive.
In truth, I could say I had already earned King Orpheus’s trust.
I was confident about whatever final trial he had prepared, as I could roughly guess from recalling the game’s story.
Nobles, priests, knights—all of them.
Today, they set aside their intrigues and laughed together, celebrating the princess’s recovery.
“Excellent work.”
Right now, I was with the grand magus Rockpellican. Drunk as he was, he kept patting my shoulder, tempting me to become his disciple.
“Oh dear, Master!”
“Goodness, you’re so drunk you’re saying nonsense!”
His disciples hurriedly dragged him away, trying to pass it off as drunken ramblings. Their pathetic attempts to cover it up were unsightly.
Not that I had any intention of becoming his disciple anyway.
[He’s my disciple.]
The Black Necromancer grumbled irritably. Everyone else wore formal attire, but she looked like a fortune-teller, impossible to ignore even if I wanted to.
The fortunate part was that only I could see her.
“Where’s the princess?”
[On the balcony. You’ll need to go inside the palace.]
Thanks to having her scout Princess Elenoa in advance, I avoided wasting time.
Even though the party’s protagonist had slipped away, no one seemed to notice.
These events were always hectic at first, then everyone did their own thing.
I headed straight inside the palace. This area was reserved for high nobles, and stern knights blocked the entrance right away.
“You know who I am.”
The king had already introduced me once, so I assumed I’d pass easily, but they didn’t budge.
“The princess commanded us. Block Deus Verdi if he comes.”
“…….”
She was being quite direct.
Just as I was about to find another way, since this would waste time unintentionally—
A massive hand landed on my shoulder. Heavy and brimming with power, it was hard to believe it belonged to someone who’d been hospitalized just days ago.
Magic Judge Tairn All Bellocus stood solidly behind me.
“Let him through.”
He demanded of the knights forcefully.
The knights panicked at Tairn defying the princess’s order, but he thumped his chest and declared.
“I’ll take responsibility. Or I can just knock you all out here if needed.”
“…….”
“…….”
As the knights hesitated awkwardly, Tairn roughly shoved my back and positioned himself between me and them.
“S-Sir Tairn!”
“This is a form of treason!”
“You all saw the troubled look on the young princess’s face, didn’t you? This man is trying to resolve it, even if it means defying orders.”
Tairn declared with his chest puffed out.
“That can be seen as a twisted form of loyalty.”
I glanced at him sidelong. Tairn shot me a look, snorted derisively with a grin, and said.
“Next time, I won’t lose.”
[Ugh, I absolutely don’t want to fight again.]
Buoyed by the burly man’s bizarre encouragement, I climbed the stairs.
With each step, my mind felt clearer and refreshed.
In life, one can’t always walk the righteous path.
The original Deus Verdi had always taken wrong turns, and Kim Shin-woo had walked more wrong paths than right ones.
But now, I was certain.
I was undoubtedly walking the right path.
I reached the dark balcony.
Below, dazzling lights and laughter rang endlessly, yet strangely, they didn’t reach this place.
Even with the glittering scene unfolding beneath a star-studded sky, the golden-haired girl gazed up at the unusually dark night sky.
“I didn’t know what this place was called. They say it’s a balcony. It doesn’t suit me as much as I thought.”
Elenoa Luden Griffin, murmuring calmly, slowly turned to look at me.
“I figured you’d come eventually, Deus. I even practiced imitating the previous Elenoa, but it wouldn’t fool you.”
A cold voice I’d never heard before.
Convinced her true nature was exposed, she had no intention of acting as the former princess Elenoa.
In her eyes burned conviction, fierce self-belief, and ambition for power.
And that was exactly it—the kingdom’s traitor I’d seen in the game.
The usurper who killed her brother, King Orpheus, and seized the throne.
The fallen princess,
Elenoa Luden Griffin.
“How does it feel? The Elenoa you knew is dead. She’s no longer in here.”
Elenoa declared triumphantly with a laugh, spreading her arms.
“Did you want to save her? Too bad—I won! I did! In the end, I won! How’s that? The one you toyed with has become the princess after all.”
*Step.*
“…….”
*Step.*
“It’s your defeat, Deus Verdi.”
*Step.*
“The princess who once sought your salvation is nowhere now.”
*Step.*
Now standing before her, I silently gazed at Elenoa.
She smirked arrogantly up at me, chin tilted as if daring me to speak.
“You don’t need to say all that.”
Don’t spout such nonsense, I consoled her.
“I already know.”
“What are you…….”
“You can’t complain even if you want to, beg even if you want to, wail even if you want to, or collapse shamefully even if you want to.”
“…….”
“That’s the ideal image of someone bearing the rights and duties you’ve carried since birth.”
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
Elenoa gritted her teeth and tried to push me away, but her hand lacked strength.
“No need to hide your feelings with sharp words. If you can’t say anything else, silence is fine too.”
Before coming here, Tairn All Bellocus had said this.
Serving one’s lord even by defying orders is also loyalty.
I couldn’t fully agree.
At the very least, for Elenoa—who couldn’t voice her true feelings,
No, who had become unable to voice them—
My current actions couldn’t be defined as loyalty.
This was my clutch play to correct my own mistake.
Not a situation unfolding in the rigid roles of royalty and nobility.
This was time as a professor with his student.
“I’m sorry I didn’t notice sooner.”
Elenoa glared at me as if she’d devour me any moment, furious at the perceived insult.
But at the corner of her eye, a tiny teardrop welled up.
I didn’t miss it, carefully reaching out to wipe it away.
The girl’s body trembled faintly.
“True or fake—there was no need to distinguish in the first place.”
It wasn’t a nightmare, evil spirit, yokai, riddle, demon, incident, or ghost story.
It was nothing of the sort.
It was merely a cry.
“You were just Elenoa Luden Griffin, after all.”
What a crying girl needed was comfort and an embrace.