Chapter 100 - Power and Love (6)
Power and Love (6)
Translator: XZY
Chapter 100: Power and Love (6)
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“A letter came from the Baron of Ravencrow?”
Early in the morning, Lady Trisha, who was getting ready with the help of the mansion’s maid, wore a bewildered expression.
Not even ten days had passed since she had been rejected after trying to place a request with Derek.
Of course, the request itself was also a ploy to maintain a point of contact with Derek, the most renowned magic teacher in Ebelstein right now. However, it was a hard fact to deny that the task of finding the necromancer of Rodentz Island was important in itself.
It was a move that killed two birds with one stone, currying favor with the Head of the House, Viscountess Renuel, and maintaining contact with Derek, but it all came to nothing when he refused, saying the request itself was too dangerous.
However, Derek’s letter, which had flown in early in the morning, was making such events seem trivial.
— ‘I believe I have found a necromancer who appears to be a survivor from Rodentz Island.’
Looking at the letter that began with that single line, Lady Trisha couldn't help but harden her expression.
<><><>
Around the time ten days had passed since Elente’s house arrest began, the Margrave of Belmeade, who could no longer endure it, finally summoned the high-ranking retainers, direct family members, and the most trusted servants to his office in the count’s residence.
No matter how much they examined the clues that came out of Elente’s room, the conclusion drawn was ultimately only one, that Elente had researched necromancy.
“Your Excellency the Margrave…”
Briana observed the Margrave of Belmeade’s expression with a worried tone.
The Margrave of Belmeade’s expression was as haggard as Elente’s, as if he too had been driven into a corner.
As time passed, public opinion towards Elente gradually worsened.
Come to think of it, testimonies were also piling up that they had seen Elente wandering around the mansion in the dead of night when no one was around.
Looking at the facts, she had just come out to look up at the moon because she couldn't sleep.
Testimonies that she sometimes showed a tired appearance as if she had stayed up all night were also piling up. The suspicion was whether she had researched necromancy in the dead of night when everyone was asleep.
She had just stayed up all night to cultivate her knowledge, or her condition was just not good.
There were also many testimonies that she would hastily change the subject when the topic of necromancy was brought up.
She had just considered discussing necromancy a taboo.
Suspicion begat suspicion, and doubt begat new doubt.
Leonard, who was observing the situation from a corner with the retainers, subtly bowed his head so no one would see. He had to somehow endure the corners of his mouth from rising.
In fact, there were only two elements that could be called direct evidence of this frame-up. The laboratory that came out from under Elente’s room, and the letter that seemed to be written by Elente.
The laboratory was something Leonard had prepared.
The fact was that the Head of the House and high-ranking retainers already knew of the existence of that secret basement in the heir’s private room. Because it was a secret space for evacuating the body in case of an emergency.
However, since Belmeade’s prestige had not wavered even once over the decades, that room had also been quietly forgotten in the passage of time.
Leonard had slowly taken his time to change that room into a necromancy research lab, and had taken the opportunity when Elente was away to leave her traces there.
The letter was also something Leonard had fabricated, cleverly matching the circumstances.
Because he knew the fact that Elente had visited the Duplein family, he had appropriately mixed those many lies and truths to make it difficult to judge how much was truth and how much was fabricated lies.
Once he had planted suspicion in public opinion like that, all he had to do was wait. Circumstantial evidence had a nature of multiplying on its own.
Keep generating dirty gossip on the journey of Elente, who was the flower of the noble Margrave’s family.
It didn't matter whether it was accepted as truth or denied as a lie.
If you raised suspicion, constantly made them doubt the facts, and just made them confused about how much was true… surprisingly, just with that, half of the public would turn away.
That was the way to sway the public. Once that flow was created, it was easy from then on. Logic and reason were no longer important.
“Father.”
Leonard pushed through the gathered retainers and stepped forward.
The Margrave of Belmeade still remembered the image of Leonard, who had been on the path of a faithful clergyman.
He felt quite sorry that he was not being properly welcomed due to this gossip as soon as he returned from his pilgrimage, but in any case, Elente’s matter came first now.
“Leonard. You…”
“You may have to harden your heart, Father.”
Leonard said with what looked like a pained expression.
He was, to the public, just a lamb who followed only faith, with no interest in things like the family’s heirship.
It was a statement that other retainers could not bring up no matter what, but it was a statement that only Leonard, the only blood relative in this place, could make.
“Elente-noonim is also just one lamb. There are times when one gets lost… sometimes…”
“Leonard…!”
“It pains my heart to have to say such things. But… the situation is like this…!”
Leonard spoke, clenching his teeth and trembling his chest.
Seeing the complex and subtle emotions etched on his face, the Margrave of Belmeade held his breath.
“It might be a good thing… that we found out this early. You also remember the tragedy of the Duplein family, Father.”
“Are you telling me to suspect Elente?”
“Elente-noonim was a sublime person who spared no effort to seize power. However, when walking the right path, there are times when one is led by a personal shortcut and falls into a trap.”
Learning necromancy was to commit a taboo as a mage, but as a person of power, it was to equip oneself with a weapon that no one else could know.
Handling corpses, overcoming death, and controlling spirits meant that one could engage in intrigue and schemes without being noticed by anyone’s eyes.
When advancing on the journey towards power, the temptation to take such a secret power frequently came.
“She just made a mistake for a moment. All we have to do is accept that fact and make efforts to pick it up again. Turning away from the reality at hand will only make things worse…!”
“Leonard…!”
“Father. Please, listen to my earnest advice…!”
Leonard pushed through the crowd again and respectfully bowed his head in front of the office desk.
“The position of heir? I have no greed for such things. Let anyone else take it. You could even call Brother Linus back and make him the heir.”
Linus would never return to the Belmeade family.
In any case, once Elente was also removed, no matter how much he agonized and wandered, the Margrave of Belmeade would have no choice but to make Leonard the heir in the end.
It was a bluff he could make because he knew that fact well. Leonard was perfectly and cleanly acting the part of a lamb with no greed for the position of heir.
“You must correct it now. That is… the way to prevent even a little more damage from coming to the Belmeade family…”
Leonard distorted his expression as if offering a bitter piece of advice.
The Margrave of Belmeade, who was watching that appearance, could not bring himself to raise his voice. Most of the mansion’s servants already harbored a seed of suspicion towards Elente.
If he, the master of this family, also turned his head at this point, there was no telling how the situation would proceed.
The Margrave of Belmeade wore a face of agony for a long time like that… then finally wiped his face and spoke.
“Still, I have to hear Elente’s excuse.”
As a father, the Margrave of Belmeade could not turn his back on Elente in the end.
“Briana. When the sun rises tomorrow, I will personally take the evidence and interrogate Elente. I will decide Elente’s future treatment there. We have been keeping all the investigation results secret, but as of tomorrow, Elente will also come to know all the investigation results.”
Seeing the Margrave of Belmeade who did not erase his cautious appearance until the end, Leonard couldn't help but click his tongue inwardly.
However, Leonard knew.
He had already been coming and going from the Margrave’s residence and observing Elente’s situation several times.
She was pretending she wasn’t, but she was already driven into a corner as much as she could be.
<><><>
“Huuuk, huu.”
It felt like a thick liquid was flowing at the top of her head.
She realized for the first time that this was the sensation of her mind becoming hazy. Elente, sitting in her private room, felt her breath catching in her throat every time she took a breath.
It would have been a different story if it were complete confinement.
When she went out under surveillance during mealtimes, received the suspicious gazes of everyone, heard the whispering in the garden, and felt the vanity of all the power that had pierced the sky.
And when she had to endure and endure for days on end in that anxiety. A person feels a strange sensation as if their vision is blurring.
Late at night, an evening when even the sound of insects had subsided.
The sound of something buzzing in her ears, the shadow of a candle flickering once in a while, darkness, and again darkness.
She was a girl who reached for the stars in the sky, and because she had sprinted her whole life in an upward trajectory, she did not know the pain of falling.
She did not know that the retainers and aides who had looked up to and followed her for her whole life were, in the end, just a crowd swayed by power and public opinion.
She had no opportunity to learn how to distinguish what was a real connection that would stay by her side, and what was a byproduct that had followed, drawn by vain power.
One who has not been thrown to the bottom does not know how to distinguish who is truly on their side.
When one wanders in the gap of confusion and doubt like that, one feels as if the entire world surrounding them is shrouded in fog.
At some point, she no longer combed her hair. She did not rub her haggard eyes. In the process of slowly withering, the things called self-assurance and confidence became deficient.
An extraordinary brain, quick wit, outstanding magic skills, a noble appearance… the one thing the girl who had all of that lacked was experience.
It was the worldly wisdom to be able to stand straight with both feet planted in front of everyone who was shooting looks at her.
“Ridiculous… you think I, I would be shaken by a dirty trick like this…?”
Words repeated with haggard eyes while biting her nails. There was no vitality left, and now only a paltry pride barely remained, holding on.
The girl realizes. The support of the fickle crowd is as fleeting as a daydream.
That fleeting support that would disappear like the wind if she fell was just a facade.
“Right, it seems like they’re trying to buy time and slowly spread the seeds of doubt, but… if I can just get in touch with the Duplein side… just get in touch… Uuk…”
A dry heave with not even a trace of dignity rises. Elente collapsed right there.
Has she ever been this broken?
Neither the authority that seemed to pierce the sky, nor the magic skills that made one’s jaw drop just by looking, nor the rivals who couldn't even compare to her had pushed Elente into this pit of despair.
Even when numerous young ladies collapsed, unable to overcome the burden and pressure, Elente had never lost that will.
However, it was just rumors, suspicion, and time.
It was not some great evil, nor a grand cause that seemed to cover the world, nor a fated rival. It was just things like that.
That the shallow trust of the crowd that follows power was something that was swept away and disappeared by just things like that.
Even the retainers with whom she had spent her whole life building trust now sent her suspicious glances.
To that fact, she couldn't even express any complaint.
The play she had seen at the Kalimpod Theater in her childhood came to mind. It was the day Elente had left the theater with a scoff.
The mournful singing voice of the protagonist on stage who chose love even if it meant throwing away all power tickled her ears.
Had the playwright realized it implicitly? There were no flowers that bloomed forever, and that it was the nature of the flower called power to eventually fall.
For her whole life, she had lived chasing the facade called power.
The beings who strolled leisurely on the throne looked so admirable that she too wanted to sit next to them.
Pitter, patter—
The rain that had started to fall at some point hit the window.
At first, it just hit the window glass intermittently, but soon the downpour that began to pour endlessly started to represent Elente’s heart.
What had she lived for? Why had she been so obsessed with the sand that would scatter through her fingers if she clenched her fist?
She didn't know. She didn't know anything. The girl who had run without hesitation on a well-paved and straight road experienced the wandering of the bottom for the first time. It left a void in the girl’s chest so large that she couldn't even think of the false accusation of necromancy currently placed on her.
Whoooooosh—
It was when the rain outside the window had become completely fierce, and lightning had even begun to strike intermittently.
Suddenly, a ceremonial dagger that was in the corner of the room came into the girl’s sight.
If she, unable to overcome her misery here, were to put the blade to her own neck, would the retainers understand her innocence?
If she was discovered in the morning as a cold body, and they discovered that tears of bitterness were flowing from her eyes, would the retainers then come to understand Elente’s unfairness?
For that impulse to arise was not a matter of reason.
How could she end a noble life over a single false accusation like this? The cost-benefit did not match at all.
However, that forbidden impulse was something that always came without regard for understanding or reason.
Those who end their own lives do not calculate everything and act.
It is just that they fail to overcome the shock of that moment, that dark impulse that came into their heart right then, for a very short time, leading to a result that cannot be taken back.
Even though there might be a hole to rise through if they just overcame the shock of that moment, countless people choose to end the immediate pain.
Driving a heart into a corner was that kind of thing.
It was when Elente, with her blurred pupils, picked up the dagger and was staring at it.
The red eyes that had burned like fire had at some point become ashen, and it seemed as if there was no strength left to burn anymore.
It was when her fingertips were trembling.
Before long, she squeezed her eyes shut.
— ‘Lady Elente, as you clash with various enemies in the noble world, there will surely come a time when you too trip on a stone, and a time when you buy the suspicion and ridicule of all people, at least once. Even if it’s not a crisis big enough to shake your life like mine, it could push Lady Elente’s heart and mind into a corner.’
It was words spoken by a certain young lady who was in a pain so great it would make an ordeal like this seem laughable, sitting in the corridor of Elfontaine Hall.
She smiled brightly and held out her fist to Elente.
— ‘That is the time to look around.’
Crash— !
Whoooooosh! Thooom— !
In an instant, the window shattered, and the rain poured into the room.
Elente’s room was guarded by numerous escorts, so no one could easily enter.
However, that uninvited guest had created an auditory hallucination of a lightning strike with illusion-type magic to erase the sound of the window shattering, and then came in by breaking the window from the outer wall as if asking what the big deal was.
Whether that man was accustomed to moving in such bad weather, he let his rain-soaked cloak hang down as if it were nothing and got up inside the room.
And without even a hint of hesitation, he firmly gripped the blade of the dagger in the girl’s hand.
Drip, drip—
Red blood flowed down from the blade of the dagger.
Elente was so surprised she couldn't even scream.
“…”
Clang! Kang— !
The man snatched the dagger like that and threw it to the floor, then pushed Elente away.
As Elente’s posture collapsed helplessly, the man dusted off his hands and took out letters from his bosom, placing them on the table in Elente’s room.
There were two letters. ── One stamped with the seal of the Duplein family, and one stamped with the seal of the Renuel family.
“Huh, eok…”
While Elente was barely catching her breath, the white-haired man roughly shook off his blood-stained hand and straightened his posture.
Lightning struck, and his red eyes shone clearly.
If one could be confident that they had lived a valuable life.
Even if everyone turned their backs, there was surely a person who remained.
As if to prove that fact, the man stood firmly with the downpour behind him.
He hadn't explained any circumstances yet, but the haggard girl, who had fallen to the floor with her eyes wide open, could feel it by intuition.
She didn't know the reason, but she had such a thought.
This man was Elente’s ally.