Chapter 313
Chapter 313
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 313
Chapter Title: The Wheel of Causality (5)
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Eliza’s sneer froze on her face.
“Your Majesty, I do not know what happened that day. The only thing I could see was the knife embedded in my blood-soaked son’s stomach. I couldn't think of anything else, and in the end, I committed an unforgivable offense against you.”
Eliza gripped the arms of her chair tightly.
“Hmph! How shameless! Then again, the commoners might say you’re right! All they have are their emotions! But I think differently! You nearly turned your son into a monster who would kill his own mother!”
“If that is what Shirone chose, then I must accept it.”
“Accept it? What a convenient way of thinking. No, it’s cowardly. Shirone tried to kill me. Are you saying I don’t even have the right to criticize him for it?”
“Parents do not have that right.”
Eliza stood up, grinding her teeth. She looked ready to order an execution on the spot.
Olina paid her no mind, continuing to speak with her gaze lowered.
“Parents only have the decade or so of time to teach their child not to commit such acts.”
Eliza’s mind went blank. She wanted to think of something, but her thoughts were a white void, and she collapsed back into her chair.
“Your Majesty, I was by Shirone’s side for eighteen years. So now, whatever my son has done, it is all my failing. Please, punish me.”
A parent has no right to reject their child’s decision. But they are granted countless moments in time to ensure such a decision is never made.
Tears welled in Eliza’s eyes. She never had that. The moment she abandoned her child, that precious time vanished along with him.
A royal guard broke the silence of the Grand Hall.
“Your Majesty, Shirone requests an audience.”
Olina looked toward the door in surprise.
She had heard that even Orkham didn’t know when Shirone would regain consciousness. After a moment of thought, the king gave a solemn command.
“Let him enter.”
Shirone, his face gaunt, walked in along the red carpet. Amy, Reina, and Vincent followed behind him. Vincent let out a sigh of relief upon confirming that Olina was safe.
“Yes, what is it? You don't look well. If it isn't urgent, you may rest and we can speak later.”
Shirone kept his reply brief. He had rushed here the moment he woke up and didn't think he could raise his voice much.
He approached as close to Orkham as he could and spoke bluntly.
“I will be leaving the palace… immediately.”
Amy, Reina, and his parents turned their heads in shock.
Even when he had insisted on seeing Orkham the moment he opened his eyes, they hadn't expected him to announce his departure so quickly.
“I’ve realized something since coming here. From this moment on, I have no other parents besides the ones standing beside me.”
It was a vow Shirone was staking his life on. It was also a declaration that he was severing all ties with Kazura.
Orkham, who had been lost in thought, opened his mouth.
“Permission granted.”
This time, everyone’s gaze turned to Orkham.
But he showed no particular emotion, as if he had already prepared himself for this. He simply met Shirone’s eyes with a steady gaze.
“Reina, please prepare a carriage. I’ll go back to my room and pack my things.”
As he left the Grand Hall, Shirone never once looked back. It was clear how utterly sick he was of this place.
Reina glanced at Eliza. With Orkham’s permission granted, she was hoping to let the matter with Olina slide as well.
Giving a charming eye-smile as a farewell, she was about to turn and lead the group away when Eliza’s cold voice pierced her back.
“Where do you think you’re going? I believe we still have matters to settle between us.”
Olina frowned and turned around. To be honest, her heart was pounding, but she didn't want to show any weakness now.
“The reason I summoned you is that I couldn’t decide on a punishment. I thought of executing you, but that didn’t seem like it would satisfy my anger. So at first, I considered having your eyes gouged out to make you blind, or your tongue torn out to make you mute.”
Vincent’s face flushed red. If she did anything of the sort, he was prepared to fight his way out of here with Olina, even if it meant leaving his bones in this palace.
“But even that wasn't satisfying enough. So I thought about it, and then it came to me. It was truly the perfect punishment. And that is…”
Everyone swallowed hard, waiting for her next words. Eliza watched their reactions with drowsy eyes before continuing.
“To just let you go.”
“…What?”
Amy asked before she could stop herself. The others were just as bewildered.
“If I were to harm you, Shirone would only look to you for the rest of his life. I found that distasteful. So I decided to let you go. To make you live your life forever weighing yourself against me, his biological mother and the queen of a nation. To make you envy me, be jealous of me, until the day you die.”
Everyone was at a loss for words. Regardless of the severity of the punishment, it was a venomous way of thinking.
Eliza, who had been radiating a terrifying killing intent, suddenly looked deflated and reached into her dress.
“But I thought that, on the off chance—and I truly believed it was impossible—that you managed to persuade me, I would give you this. And… you won.”
A crumpled piece of paper left Eliza’s hand and rolled across the floor.
Olina picked it up and slowly unfolded it. It was an official document containing the results of the paternity test between Orkham and Shirone. As the one who had taught Shirone to read, she could understand most of it, aside from the difficult terminology.
She quickly skimmed past the complex experimental details and turned her eyes to the most important part: the conclusion. Unable to wait, everyone’s gaze fixed on the document.
*After dissolving the blood samples of Subject 1 and Subject 2 in Oxtamine and storing them in a vacuum for three days, no changes in color, concentration, or sedimentation were observed. Therefore, based on the negative Oxtamine reaction, it is concluded that Subject 1 (Orkham) and Subject 2 (Shirone) are not biologically father and son.*
“Oh my god…”
Orkham and Shirone were not father and son. Biologically, they were complete strangers.
Amy looked at Orkham. Now she finally understood why he had been so indifferent earlier.
“How can this be?”
“I don’t know. And I don’t need to. You can rest assured the possibility of it being fabricated is zero percent. In any case, since he is not my son, you may take the document. I doubt it will be of any use, though.”
Eliza added.
“Shirone doesn’t know yet. Whether you tell him the truth or not, I’ll leave that to your judgment. Considering your insolence two days ago, I’d love to remain Shirone’s real mother forever, but I’ll consider what you did as taking care of my duty, and forgive you just this once.”
Olina looked up, her expression one of shock.
Perhaps it was her imagination, but for a fleeting moment, she thought she saw Eliza smile.
“You may go now. Shirone is your son.”
***
The third basement level of the Kazura Royal Palace was an underground prison where countless political prisoners had been thrown during a time of internal turmoil. They hadn’t seen sunlight in decades, and they likely never would again.
One nobleman had married the person who tortured him. Gender was irrelevant. It was a love that transcended the barriers of sex, a pure union between living beings. At least, in their minds.
What did it matter? To them, the end of the world was the wall of their underground prison. And this place was another society, completely isolated from the world of men.
Uorin walked across the dirt floor, thick with the smell of pus. Countless subterranean creatures scattered to either side with her every step. They were the daily bread of the isolated.
“Uuuuhhh. Uuuuhhh.”
Strange sounds leaked from the doors set into the walls. They sounded like pain, yet also like pleasure. They sounded like weeping, yet somehow, you got the feeling they were laughing.
The Kingdom of Kazura had neglected this place for five years.
Though they had been reduced to useless lives now, some might have endured the torture and could be biding their time, holding onto information as dangerous as a bomb. There was no need to drag them to the surface and stir up trouble. It was best to just let them rot here forever.
Uorin recalled the plot of a novel her predecessor had read eighty years ago.
The protagonist was a child born in an underground prison that had been abandoned for a staggering seventy years.
In that novel, the prison was depicted like an ant colony. Women were valued for their ability to bear children, while boys, upon birth, were either used as food or became slaves, forced to labor for their entire lives.
The protagonist was born as Food No. 141. But with the help of the oldest man in the prison, he was able to become a slave instead.
The old man had been a high-ranking noble seventy years ago and was the only one who knew of the outside world. Knowing his life was short, he passed on all his knowledge to the protagonist.
When the protagonist turned fifteen, a rebellion broke out in the kingdom. The underground prison was opened for the first time in eighty-five years, and the protagonist, having escaped into the world, quelled the rebellion and became king.
Uorin’s lips curled into a smile.
A novel was just a novel, but who knew? Perhaps a miracle like that would happen for Jion, and he would one day leave this place.
When she found Jion in the food pantry, he had been clinging to life with the help of Armang’s recovery program.
If she had left him, he would have died. And perhaps, that would have been a happier fate.
Jion would never know. Who saved him. Who ordered his torture the moment he regained consciousness. Who threw him into this underground prison the moment he confessed what had happened in Shirone’s mind.
Jion was sitting slumped in a crude wooden cell.
He knew just how miserable the underground prison was. His eyelids were swollen, as if he had cried all night, and he wore the dazed expression of someone who had lost their mind.
Hearing footsteps, he instinctively curled his limbs. But then, seeing Uorin’s face in the faint torchlight, his expression brightened, and he scrambled to the wooden bars.
“Uorin! Here, I’m here! Get me out! Where the hell have you been? Some weirdos tortured me and then threw me in here!”
Even seeing Jion whining like a baby begging for milk, Uorin felt not a shred of maternal affection.
Teraje’s ability did not manifest in her sons. To her, a being who existed through self-replication, a son was nothing more than a shell that merely resembled her.
Jion’s tortured face was a mess. Scabs had formed over his wounds, and his eyes were bruised black. His ribs were broken, and his torso was tightly wrapped in bandages.
Seeing him struggle so desperately despite being barely able to move, the fear of the prison must have been very real.
“You’re a mess. How did my big, successful brother end up like this?”
Jion’s eyes lit up when he saw the sword at Uorin’s hip.
Though it was sheathed, the hilt was unmistakably that of the Magic Sword Armang. She must have brought it to break him out.
“Damn it! That bastard, I won’t let him get away with this. Shirone’s still in the palace, right? No, it doesn’t matter. I’ll find him and kill him myself.”
Jion reached his hand through the bars, trying to grab Armang.
Uorin took a step back. When Jion looked at her, puzzled, she smiled slyly and showed him the prison key.
“What? Has my release already been ordered? You should have told me sooner.”
As soon as the lock clicked open, Jion kicked the cell door and rushed out. At the same moment, Uorin grabbed him by the neck and shoved him back inside.
“Gack…!”
Jion, his head slammed against the wall, slumped to the floor. Uorin kept her hand on his throat as she leaned in close.
“Still haven’t grasped the situation, you pathetic creature?”
“U-Uorin…! What are you doing…!”
“Do you know why I didn’t kill you?”
Jion was one of the few humans who had reached the first layer of Shirone’s subconscious. She had already heard much from his lips, but he might prove useful someday.
“What you saw, what you heard, what you experienced. You are not to speak of any of it. If you remember something, I will destroy your brain. If you try to do something, I will destroy your limbs.”
From Uorin’s icy tone, Jion understood. It was like hearing his mother’s cold voice.