4. Betrayal
Sernil, prim and buttoned-up in her priestess vestments, fidgeted her way to a halt and barred my path.
"Hwarin. Are you going to see Carniel? You can't. Zieghart told you not to, remember?"
"Even so… the vision I saw keeps gnawing at me."
"The vision you saw earlier could be wrong, you know. If it were right, Carniel would have warned us ahead of time, wouldn't he?"
"I know, I know… but my gut doesn't feel right about this."
"Hwarin… if you fall out of Zieghart's favor, you'll be in danger too. Didn't you see what happened to Carniel?"
"……."
"Comrade in the Hero's Party or not, you still have to watch yourself."
"……."
Sernil had a point — more than enough of one. So I stopped to weigh it over.
Carniel. A powerhouse so overwhelming he had toppled the Demon King single-handedly. But right now he was bound in Mana Restraints, no different from any ordinary man. And with Mahodelne vanished and Magellini having succeeded to the Tower Master's seat, there wasn't a single faction left to stand behind him.
Zieghart. Second prince of Hellision, the foremost kingdom on the Solios Continent — and the Hero besides. The power of royal blood; the glory of the Hero. He wasn't a man you necessarily needed to be close with, but he was absolutely not a man you could afford as an enemy.
And yet.
"As a spiritist, I can't ignore the spirits' counsel. I have to talk to Carniel."
"…Do you really have to go?"
"The demons might appear again. We may have to fight another war."
"…Even if they do, isn't this moment more important?"
"Sernil."
"…Yes?"
"Move."
"…You're really going?"
"I need Carniel to confirm with his prophecy magic whether the vision I saw was real or not."
Chelliana trudged along with her head hung low, a sullen look plastered across her face.
"What's the matter? Is it because Carniel's been thrown in a cell?"
"Oh. Hello, Mister Brakan."
Chelliana heaved a sigh.
"That's part of it, but… haah… Life really doesn't go the way you want it to, does it? Not in a single thing."
"Hahahaha! To hear a young lass sighing like an old dwarf who's already seen everything the world's got!"
"……Mister. I'm in a foul mood right now, so kindly stop laughing at me."
"Don't fret yourself so. Sooner or later Carniel will realize how you feel about him, and he'll take you up on it."
"L-Like him? I-I've never once felt that way about anyone!"
"Tender affection is nothing to be ashamed of. And I'd wager every soul in our party already knows — everyone but Carniel himself, that is."
"O-Only the person themselves can know their own heart…! Don't go speculating on your own!"
Chelliana's face had turned cherry red. She hurried to change the subject.
"Where are you headed, by any chance? Don't tell me you're off to see Master too, Mister Brakan?"
"Why would I go look at a man's face? It's not as if we're sweethearts. Besides, we'll all be seeing him at the trial anyway."
"You really are a heartless one, aren't you?"
"Oh, hush now! Between men, this is just how it goes."
"I think Master would be rather hurt to hear you say that, though?"
"Hurt, my foot! It's not as if we're a couple of girls, you know…… oh! Wait — that reminds me!"
"……?"
"Chelly."
"Yes? Go ahead."
"Tracking people down is my specialty, remember?"
"…That it is?"
"Princess Ardel came asking me to find you. Said the two of you had something important to discuss."
A faint shadow fell across Chelliana's face.
"None of my business, mind… but weren't the two of you always at each other's throats? Don't tell me you patched things up behind my back?"
The me of old would have slaughtered every last demon and gone straight home to my kingdom.
Perhaps it was from traveling so long in the company of humans and a dwarf. Somewhere along the way, it seemed I had grown fond of these people I'd never once cared about — without even noticing it happen.
How absurd.
If the Queen ever learned that I was sitting here among the Hero's Party instead of returning to my homeland, she would click her tongue without a doubt.
"Didn't I say everyone was to gather before the trial? Sernil — where on earth is Hwarin?"
"……She went to see Carniel."
"Haah…"
Ziegh scrunched up his face and sighed.
"Whether Hwarin sits here or not is Hwarin's own affair."
"…Lunaelin."
Ziegh glared at me, ferocious as a beast robbed of its mate.
Have you not always embraced your comrades, as befits the Hero? Then why…
The image of Ziegh running to King Walter with the news that Carniel and Ardel had shared a bed. It had been a thoroughly ugly sight.
And as a result, our comrade now sits in a cell. I wonder… does the Ziegh of this very moment savor the situation?
Of course, I knew. I knew Carniel had promised to bring Ardel and Ziegh together.
And yet.
Ardel holds no interest in Ziegh whatsoever… so why is he the only one who cannot see it?
Ardel was not an object. She was a person, free to decide for herself whom to love and what choices to make. Drinking with Carniel had been Ardel's own choice — and the two of them sharing a bed was the same. Ardel had not the slightest intention of accepting Ziegh.
So what right did Ziegh have to rage? Was that what Ardel wanted? Had he grown so drunk on a love that existed only inside his own head that he believed himself entitled to dictate her actions? Truly, it was laughable.
Foolish Carniel. Making a promise beyond his authority that he had no way to keep — never realizing that a person's heart can turn on the smallest of triggers.
How like a mage — overtrusting his own knowledge and judgment, and this is where it lands him.
Only today did I understand, once again, why the Queen had warned me not to consort with humans.
"……I'll deal with Hwarin separately, later. First, let me tell you why I called everyone here."
Ziegh spoke, his voice heavy.
"Carniel broke the promise he made to me, and went so far as to defile the honor of the Fernian royal house. As one of royal blood myself, I cannot simply let this pass. He will pay a price befitting his crime."
The usual gentle warmth had vanished from Ziegh's face.
"I say this not as your friend — but as the Prince of Hellision. You would do well not to utter a single word in Carniel's defense at the trial. Chelliana, you especially…"
The trial began.
Perhaps because this was the reckoning of the hero who had saved the continent, even this hastily convened proceeding had managed to put on a decent show of form. King Walter sat with the ministers of Fernia. The members of the Hero's Party, Hwarin excepted, occupied their seats as representatives of their respective kingdoms. Magellini attended as well, dispatched from the Magic Tower in defense of its neutrality. At least on the surface, it passed for a fairly proper trial.
Ardel isn't here.
Not that I'd expected her to come. The Ardel I knew would have slipped in for a visit even if she'd had to dodge the King's eyes to manage it — and her absence made it plain enough that Walter had her feet bound fast.
"The accused, Carniel."
"Before we begin, regarding Hwarin's vision that the demons may appear again — we ought to deliber—"
"SILENCE!!"
The judge roared as if to rebuke me.
"We will now commence the trial of the crime you have committed: 'forcibly taking Princess Ardel against her will, and impregnating Her Highness.'"
I'd had some inkling the trial would be railroaded, but I never dreamed they'd go so far as pregnancy.
It was too absurd.
"Hold on a moment. Pregnancy, you say?"
The words left my mouth of their own accord.
"The accused has not been granted leave to speak! Open your mouth unbidden again, and you will have profaned this court!"
The judge barked at me once more.
—Shing!
The knight at my side pressed the point of his blade to my throat. So this was a knifepoint negotiation now, was it?
"Acting on behalf of the Holy See, Lady Sernil will now testify, for all assembled here, to the facts she personally verified."
Sernil rose from her seat. I looked her dead in the eye. Sernil averted her gaze.
"……I, Sernil, priestess of the Goddess, swear upon Her name that I shall speak no falsehood."
Sernil pressed on, her face stiff as stone.
"Traces of disturbed mana were found within Lady Ardel's body. And upon examining her with my holy power, I further confirmed that a new life has taken root within her."
That part was true — the traces of disturbed mana. Before the restraints were clasped around me, I had examined Ardel's condition with my own hands.
But the pregnancy could not be certain. Even if she truly had conceived, not a single day had passed since we had lain together. Judging whether or not she was with child at this point was flatly impossible — everyone knew, the Hero's Party included, that weeks at the very least had to pass before such a thing could be known. It was common knowledge.
Yet not one person raised an objection to Sernil's testimony.
Swearing on the Goddess while running a smear job. To think I'd only ever pegged her as the cheeky type.
The Holy See made its home in Hellision, Zieghart's homeland — it took no great leap to guess that Sernil, as one of its own clergy, was dancing to Zieghart's tune.
…And with everyone else holding their tongues. It leaves a bitter taste.
Lunaelin, of all people, should at least have furrowed her brow at a lie like that. Old man Brakan would sooner have exploded in fury than sat in silence — it simply wasn't in his nature. And Chelliana most of all. She was the disciple who had smiled and promised to respect my decision not to run. With her master being slandered before her very eyes, there was no world in which she stayed quiet.
So it comes down to one of two things. Either someone has a leash on her — or she fucking hates me.
…Not that the second one would bother me.
I had never asked for every soul in the world to like me. My character might be up for debate, but at football I was GOAT-tier. Being adored by everyone had never been possible to begin with — even Shin Doo-hyung had his share of people tearing him down.
But that didn't mean I intended to forgive the ones sitting on their hands while I was framed on false charges. Understanding with the head and forgiving with the heart are two different things.
What mattered most right now—
Just what did they have over her, to make her act like this?
I'd been too rattled to notice anything when I first woke in Ardel's bed. Only after Zieghart fainted — while I was explaining the situation to Ardel — did I finally take stock of my own body. And there, in my body too, I found the traces of twisted mana.
It was absolutely not magic. No matter how pleasantly fuzz-drunk I'd been, I would have sensed it if someone had cast a spell on me. Which left one possibility: someone had slipped a potion into the drink Ardel handed me.
It could have been Ardel herself… or it could have been someone else. Chelliana the alchemist was the prime suspect — but every other member of the party had their own means of brewing a potion as well.
Demons — stay out of this. Unless you're tired of living. First things first: I need to find out exactly who dared to play games with me.