Chapter 15
The next day. In front of the audience chamber door deep within Echoing Castle, I was undergoing the same body search as yesterday. The sensation of shadows slithering into my body like living snakes, wriggling around inside, was utterly bizarre.
"We shall escort you."
The queen's attendants surrounded me just like before and led me inside. Unlike yesterday, there was no shadowy veil in the audience chamber. I could immediately face Mirien, the dark elf queen seated on her wooden throne.
On the surface, Mirien exuded regal dignity. Charisma, perhaps. Even her simplest gestures overflowed with the confidence of a monarch. But now I knew it was all a facade. I knew exactly what festered beneath.
"Approach me. I permit you to meet my gaze."
The same words as yesterday. But I didn't move toward Mirien.
"Please dismiss your attendants."
At my words, Mirien gestured with her hand, and the attendants were instantly enveloped by shadows, vanishing from sight. But I shook my head.
"Have them leave the room entirely. I wish to be alone with Your Majesty."
Mirien's expression twitched slightly. But I didn't yield an inch, staring straight at her.
"That cannot be done."
Mirien refused firmly, but...
"I may need to say things your attendants shouldn't hear."
I knew exactly what words would work on someone in the late stages of paranoia. Mirien's eyes narrowed faintly.
"Can a mere mortal whose only skill is fortune-telling harm the contractor of the spirit king? Just for the duration of the reading. Please."
At my immediate follow-up, Mirien seemed to hesitate, then waved her hand. No sound reached my ears, no vibration at all, but I knew the five dark elves who had been lurking in the darkness, overlooking the room, had vanished.
"Now it is just I and you. Satisfied?"
I approached her. The queen stared intently into my eyes. I met her gaze head-on.
"I have a question for you."
The moment Mirien spoke, I answered the question she hadn't even voiced yet.
"The ones who poisoned Your Majesty are the chieftains of the five great tribes known as Kaien's Five Pillars. They did it through the three grand sorcerers who forced the Trial Flame on you a few days ago."
Mirien's eyes widened at my words.
"You... knew?"
"I caught a glimpse of Your Majesty's countenance yesterday. That's when I learned."
Mirien continued impassively, but I could easily sense the tremor beneath.
"What poison was used?"
"The seed of the Angui Flower. Venom from the leaping spider. A mixture with despair weed and Juyeop soil. It's a poison that slowly eats away at the body, inflicting endless agony. The five chieftains passed it to the three grand sorcerers, who administered it to Your Majesty."
"When exactly?"
"The first time Your Majesty met those three after they ascended to grand sorcerers."
A crunching sound came from Mirien's hand. Her slender fingers exerted force beyond that of an average adult man.
"If you know the formula, do you know the antidote?"
"Go to the home of the eldest among the five chieftains, the chieftain of the Deep Root Tribe. His confidant, Sargal, will know the antidote."
"I see."
The queen began to laugh. Her giggling was chilling and terrifying.
"Well done, great sage. But how do I know your words are true?"
"Bring the Trial Flame and test me."
"The Trial Flame can be manipulated. Didn't you reveal that yourself? You could be lying on the orders of a rival tribe trying to dismantle the Five Pillars. Isn't that possible?"
Slowly, shadows began climbing my body. The queen watched me with an emotionless face.
"I saw the human who came with you yesterday buying special ingredients in the market. He hid them meticulously enough to fool my attendants... but I knew. About the medicine concealed in your sleeve cuff. What is its purpose?"
The shadows lifted me into the air. They began wrapping around my neck. One flick of the queen's finger, and my neck would snap. But I didn't flinch.
"You can read others' futures but not your own, foolish great sage."
"No one can see their own future. Not even the greatest prophet. You can't cut open your own insides to look, after all."
"Which chieftain sent you? What's the medicine in your sleeve for? Speak the truth. If not, I swear you'll suffer worse than death."
In a situation where death was imminent, I didn't look at her with fear. I looked at her with pity.
"Even if I told you the truth, you'd be too scared to take a single step, dooming yourself. You've stirred up dust to obscure the right path yourself. How could you not be unhappy?"
Watching me speak calmly even on the brink of death, a flicker of doubt crossed Mirien's face. The shadows around my neck tightened slightly.
"You mock my words. Dodging won't work. This is your last chance. Who sent you?"
I didn't answer that question.
"Soon, these shadow bonds will release you."
Instead, I said that.
"Ridiculous... mph!"
My words became reality at once. The shadows binding me dissolved. I landed safely on the ground. Mirien's hands gripped the throne's armrests tightly. Her eyes were wide. She tried to maintain her dignity, her majesty, but the mask soon cracked.
"Gah!"
Blood spewed from her mouth. Trembling violently, she collapsed from the throne.
"N-no... this can't..."
Mirien tried to right herself urgently but convulsed, slumping to the floor as paralysis set in. Her pupils contracted and dilated wildly, her breaths ragged from her mouth. And only then did I see the wound on her back that she'd hidden. The shadows had concealed it well, but with her control over the spirits failing, it was exposed in gruesome clarity. The purple wound had spread across her entire back, red pus blooming atop it like beautiful flowers.
I approached her slowly. Mirien writhed on the floor, desperately trying to do something.
"Shurga... Ditel... h-help... me."
Her voice was so thin and frail. Her attendants waiting outside the audience chamber couldn't hear.
"Summon... if I summon..."
She tried to summon the spirit king, but her body and mind were beyond her control. No spirits answered. Mirien vomited more blood.
"Ahh..."
She looked at me. Eyes like a child's, filled with terror and fear. I was now close enough to touch her with an outstretched hand. Slowly, I grasped Mirien's body and lifted her up. Carefully, I began extracting the antidote hidden in my sleeve cuff, prepared by Guild Master Cornac. It was tucked thinly between fabric layers, so it took a moment to pull out without damaging it.
Watching me tear the cloth gingerly to preserve the herbs, Mirien spoke in a weak voice.
"So it comes to this after all. I tried so hard to avoid it. In the end, the same fate as Father."
She smiled bitterly. Mirien was crying. In her helpless state, facing death, she seemed honest with herself for the first time.
"Before I die, tell me. Who sent you? Whose orders to kill me?"
"No one sent me."
"Lying to the end."
"It's the truth, Your Majesty. There's a proper measure for everything. Exceed it, and even the best thing becomes poison. Your suspicion is just that."
I tore the cuff fully and pulled out the herbs. Slowly, I placed them in my palms, rolling them into a ball.
"You've cast out loyal vassals who served you out of suspicion. Even to those bound by Blood Oath, you've kept silent about the wound on your back. Endless secrets. Endless suspicion. It led to isolation, and that isolation worsened the poison's effects dramatically."
I placed the rounded herbs into Mirien's mouth. She tried to resist to the end. But with paralysis making it hard to even move her head, refusal was impossible. The medicine entered her mouth. I covered her mouth as she tried to spit it out, forcing her to swallow. As it slid down her throat, Mirien began to laugh.
"A medicine to worsen the poison? Or one to amplify the pain?"
"It's the antidote."
"Lying to the end."
"No lies. I've never told Your Majesty a single falsehood."
"Right. Of course. Now what? Mock my pathetic death? Or violate my dying body?"
I looked down at Mirien with pity. I embraced her tightly.
"The detoxification will make you extremely tired. Sleep well. When you wake, you'll feel much better."
The trembling in Mirien's body began to subside. Her eyes blinked heavily with fatigue. Her already faint voice grew even softer. But the audience chamber was deathly quiet, so I could make out her words.
"It really was the antidote?"
"Yes, truly."
"Then why... hide it to bring it in?"
"If I'd said I brought the antidote and offered it, would you have taken it?"
Mirien blinked sleepily and let out a faint giggle.
"No. I absolutely wouldn't have."
"That's why I had no choice but to hide it. This was the only way to get you to take the antidote."
"You knew I'd collapse."
"I told you. I can see people's pasts and futures."
"You came before me knowing you could die. One mistake from me, and your neck really would have snapped."
"I know."
"Why do something so foolish?"
A terminal paranoia patient. Someone who'd lived her life trembling in fear and terror. To Mirien, my actions must have been utterly incomprehensible.
"I'm in the same boat as you—living in anxiety with a rare disease that could kill me anytime. That's why I understand your fear. So I wanted to help."
"You wanted to help... that's all?"
"Yes."
"Foolish. So foolish, great sage."
Mirien's eyes were nearly closed. The antidote was finally coursing through her, healing the wound.
"That foolishness is saving you right now. Seeing the world as only beautiful is a problem, but viewing it only pessimistically is unwise too. The world is gray, Your Majesty. There is white and black. Don't just stare at the black—know that white exists too."
I stroked Mirien's hair.
"Set aside your worries and sleep. Not just your body, but your mind needs rest sometimes too."
At my words, Mirien's hand dropped limply to the floor. And quietly, steady breathing began to emanate from her mouth. I held her in my arms until she woke.