Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 258
Kyle fixed his gaze on the First Prince, looking perfectly at ease.
The man’s face was sheet-white, and his fingers—which he didn’t even bother to hide—bore traces of blood.
Plainly, the rumors had driven him here.
‘No self-control at all.’
But to come scurrying straight to him.
Kyle let his disgust register inwardly as he propped his chin on one hand.
“Since you’ve made the estimable journey here, do at least attempt to speak.”
“You—!”
The First Prince barely choked down his surge of rage.
Under other circumstances, he would have been well within his rights to lay hands on this insolent bastard, but this was not the time.
“F-first of all… I apologize for coming here without listening to you.”
And he tendered an apology—something he had never uttered in his life, not even in ordinary times.
Since he’d never once apologized before, his tone was, of course, the height of arrogance.
“Do continue.”
Kyle felt it too, but he had become rather curious about what this idiot would say next.
Or rather, a stronger impulse had taken hold: let’s see how far he goes with this.
“I know you harbor ill feelings toward me.”
“And so?”
“I—I think it’s only natural that you would suspect me because of that matter.”
“And?”
“But this time, I didn’t do it!”
Terus gnawed at his lip as he watched the fellow remain utterly indifferent.
As expected, he realized, this much wouldn’t get through to him.
But—
Still—did he really have to suffer this additional humiliation at this wretch’s hands?
His petty pride, as towering as his survival instincts, hobbled him.
‘…Fine. Let’s start with this first.’
So before he could grovel, Terus brought up a bold topic.
“You know it too. The one behind all this is not me, but Mother. I am not the one you should be targeting!”
Kyle let out an empty laugh.
He had always known the man was scum.
But now he was trying to throw his own mother under the carriage in his place.
He didn’t exactly harbor good feelings toward the Empress, but this reprobate’s conduct was too absurd for words.
“Brother.”
“Th-there! Now you see? I am trying to help you this time.”
Oblivious to Kyle’s mood, Terus kept flapping his gums.
“Anyway, it’s Her Majesty, not me! And don’t forget that I am the one who told you this!”
Astoundingly, the long and short of it was: let me live just this once.
‘It seems the Empress intends to discard the First Prince.’
And this scoundrel’s survival instinct must have driven him all the way here.
In the past, one might have flattered it as a grand improvement, even if only in empty words.
“Why should I?”
“…What?”
Still without shifting his posture, Kyle spoke in an unhurried tone, his lips moving with elegance.
“Even if I do nothing, I am going to take it all anyway.”
“Am I not a factor that could threaten you?”
“What if a man who has never taken it all before announces he will take even that?”
There was no harm in swallowing it all down.
Indeed, discarding the First Prince and dealing directly with the Empress and her backer, Marquis Lepisent, would yield far greater profit.
‘What’s more, it could become a means to check the Archbishop.’
This time he offered help, but the Archbishop…
‘Is not an ally.’
Besides, the Archbishop likely had no interest whatsoever in the imperial court’s factional squabbles.
What he wanted was probably Lion Asteri.
‘This witless fool…!’
He was practically handing him everything, and still he was unmoved?
Truly, a wretch who crawled up from the gutter had thoughts that were far, far too short!
The First Prince ground his teeth inwardly, then tacked on one more offer.
In truth, this was the biggest card he held.
“Th-that curse. I will lift it for you as well.”
Lifting the curse.
He had a reasonably sound rationale for putting this condition forward.
It was because of his meeting with the Archbishop.
‘The fact that he came to find me first in this situation means that bastard son is not acceptable in the Temple’s eyes either.’
That was surely why they had not lifted the curse.
Then in the end, wouldn’t the Second Prince only become a free man if I were to lift the curse?
In a sense, they each held the other’s life in their hands… or so Terus imagined.
But why was there no reply?
Just as Terus was finding it strange—
“…To voice a plea for your life this insolently really is a remarkable talent of yours.”
Terus froze, unable to parse what Kyle had said.
“Haha.”
Kyle laughed dryly.
It was true that traveling with Lion Asteri had mellowed him somewhat.
But he did not have a good personality.
“If you were that desperate, shouldn’t you at least pretend to crawl on the floor?”
He rose slowly from his seat.
“I have endured my share of humiliation, you see.”
He stepped closer and pressed down lightly on the First Prince’s shoulder.
“Urk…!”
Under that firm force, Terus’s knees buckled naturally.
From his lowered vantage, he looked up at the wretch.
A powerful pressure bore down on him.
A gaze that seemed to swallow him whole sent terror surging through him—and just then, the hand pressing his shoulder lifted away.
“Still, the fact that you came scurrying over with important information is, I grant you, an immense step forward. So I shall let it pass this once. In exchange…”
Bring more precise information next time.
Evidence would be even better.
“Do that, and next time I shall receive you over there.”
In a chair, not on the floor.
* * *
After finishing his last meal with Elvia and bidding her farewell, Lion resumed his journey.
“We’ll be arriving soon.”
“That was fast.”
He’d learned by now that on top of the well-maintained roads, the carriage itself had Weight Reduction and Haste magic cast on it.
Though it did rattle somewhat thanks to the horses dashing along at speeds beyond their natural limit…
‘Still, it’s far quieter than an ordinary carriage.’
At any rate, they had reached their destination in considerable comfort.
Lion looked out the window.
Everything felt different from the day before.
Unlike yesterday’s bright sunshine, gloomy dark clouds now hung overhead, and outside the window the dreadful howl of the wind sounded like a lament.
More than anything…
‘That’s it.’
The Great Barrier was visible.
Countless magic circles and, layered atop them, an energy he assumed to be divine power.
The vast curtain stretched out enormously, as if encircling an entire mass of land.
-Whoa…
-This is my first time seeing it up close. The humans must have put in quite the effort, hmm?
-Even if the aesthetics are appallingly lacking!
At least in terms of sheer performance, the scale was enough to earn acknowledgment even from Tiamatrak, a dragon.
Now that he saw it in person, its majesty was all the more impressive.
Lion stared at the Great Barrier for a long while.
“Are you worried?”
Petrick asked.
The question probably carried several meanings.
It was the mightiest bulwark protecting the people, but also one of the most dangerous places, where demons frequently appeared.
‘He must be wondering what will happen to me there.’
In truth, Lion couldn’t answer that with certainty, either.
The place where his grandfather had last found a trace of the Hero was precisely here, in the north—
near the Great Barrier, or so Petrick had said.
He was certainly plunging into something far larger than usual.
“I’m fine.”
Even so, Lion answered calmly.
‘Actually, I’m feeling fairly secure.’
An Archmage, a Spirit King, a Demonic Beast.
On top of that, a dragon’s soul, and if things got urgent, he could even borrow the power of a Witch.
Was that all?
‘I’ve collected a fair number of items, too.’
Lion recalled the items neatly stored away in his inventory and grinned.
Truth be told, he was confident.
“But where are we supposed to stay near the Great Barrier?”
From the knowledge Lion possessed, no one could live near the Great Barrier.
With no villages or territories, there would naturally be no inns, either.
At Lion’s question, Petrick let out a small laugh.
Was it that the boy was so grounded and practical, or should he say, “Did you think I would let you go hungry?”
He had never once let him go hungry since the day he was born.
In any case, grandson or not, the lad was nothing if not peculiar.
“We’ll sort that out over there.”
Petrick pointed out the window with a finger.
“Hmm?”
What’s over there?
Lion pressed himself close to the window and stared hard in the direction his grandfather indicated.
Maybe because of the low-hanging dark clouds and the peculiar energy of the Great Barrier, he couldn’t see anything clearly.
-Oh. There is something there.
What? I don’t see anything.
Surely not there.
-Hm? That’s exactly what I just saw.
“…”
Just then—perhaps because Tiamatrak had spotted it first—she took hold of Lion’s face and adjusted his line of sight.
Only then did Lion lock eyes with the thing he had been overlooking.
Hidden among the thick clouds and mist…
“There?”
“Yes. It’s an old castle no one uses anymore.”
“…Truly?”
Lion moved his lips but stopped.
‘No, seriously, you stayed there?’
It made sense that he would react this way; he knew that place well.
More precisely, he had watched the process by which that castle had become a ruined keep.
‘It’s also the reason the Grand Ducal house no longer exists.’
Even back in the days of <In the World>, the castle’s master had been present.
Grand Duke Dragnas.
The Grand Duke who guarded the frigid North.
Throughout the entire game story, Grand Duke Dragnas appeared as the greatest ally.
He would show up in moments of crisis, hold off the enemy, or help the player escape.
His personality, too, was uncharacteristically open and generous for an aristocrat, making him a favorite character among all the players.
…But here, one twist occurred.
‘It was ruined.’
The once-mighty House of Grand Duke Dragnas had been annihilated completely.
And by none other than Grand Duke Dragnas himself.
The cause: a demonic incursion and the contamination of a wound he sustained during it.
Thus tainted by Demonic Energy, Grand Duke Dragnas had brandished a greatsword dripping with Demonic Energy at his entire household and the Hero’s party.
‘Even I was shocked back then.’
Even Lion, who could barely remember storylines, had felt the back of his head sting at this gut-punch of a plot development.
The Grand Duke had even appeared as an 8-player Hard Raid and tormented players considerably.
…Not that he remembered him only for that reason.
In any case, from Lion’s perspective, the Grand Duke Dragnas’s mansion was a raid map, not exactly a comfortable place to call a lodging.
“Do you dislike it?”
Snapping back to attention at Petrick’s question, Lion laughed awkwardly and answered.
“Ha ha ha… It’s not that I dislike it. I’m just a bit taken aback. That’s the famous old castle, isn’t it—the haunted one that appears in so many tales.”
The exact fate of Grand Duke Dragnas’s house was unknown, but everyone in the empire knew it had collapsed overnight.
Though now, fifty years later, it seemed to have been relegated to a kind of “ghost story.”
“Don’t be too frightened. No magical problems have been detected at all, and the priests regularly offer prayers to lay the spirits to rest.”
Petrick added offhandedly.
“…Though, come to think of it, I do sometimes hear talk of Grand Duke Dragnas’s ghost being sighted about the old keep.
Since you can see the soul of a dragon, you might well encounter him.”
“Ha, ha ha. The dragon was surely a special case.”
Lion did his best to brush those words aside.
But less than five minutes later, he was forced to accept the reality of it.
…Because he saw something!