Chapter 81
Chapter 81
Translator: XZY
Chapter 81: Siern (1)
***
There came a time in life when you had to accept your current reality, thinking, this must be my fate.
Siern had thought this was so self-evident that she had never particularly doubted it.
At a glance, a life of staining one's hands with blood and dying in this vast snowy plain seemed miserable, but if she accepted it, she could somehow endure it.
A life of strolling through flower fields in warm, fertile lands, like the Duplein or Beltus territories, was a life permitted only to people like Aiseline.
She was envious, but she did not covet it.
From time to in the time, as she stood atop the spire, touched by the snow, and looked down upon the northern territory, she had no choice but to clearly accept the fact that this land was her home.
Trees with gaunt branches exposed above the cold and lonely snowfield sprouted like thorns.
It was Siern's home, the Rochest Duchy.
<><><>
“Why… why are you alive?”
“I’m sorry for being alive… You must have been very shocked…?”
“Ah, no… I didn’t mean it like that… But… surely… by his blade…”
As Siern asked with a dumbfounded expression, Aiseline slowly explained what she had experienced.
The matter of Derek saying he would instigate Siern’s murder. The matter of him deceiving Aiseline and ambushing Siern.
And even the matter of him only pretending to stab Aiseline with a knife, using dye and confusion magic to create an illusion.
From the very beginning, Derek had not possessed even a single grain of intent to kill Siern; all of this was done to guide Siern and try to control her slaughter instinct.
It was easy to say, but it was something that required the resolve to withstand Siern’s attacks as she charged in with genuine rage.
There had never been a single teacher who had gone to such lengths to try and control Siern’s instinct.
Once they experienced Siern’s slaughter instinct, nine out of ten would try to flee, their eyes filled with terror.
“Why… why go to such lengths…?”
“Because that’s just the kind of person he is.”
In truth, there was the part where he had been promised a noble title, but Aiseline did not bother to mention that fact.
Even if there had not been a reward of that magnitude, Derek would likely have made the utmost effort to correct Siern to some extent.
That much was clear just from the fact that he had immediately started thinking of a method for correction as soon as he saw Siern’s true nature.
Whether Derek himself was aware of it, something akin to a professional consciousness as a magic teacher was already budding within him.
There was no such thing as a bad young lady in the world, only one who had not yet been taught enough.
If there was a person who was wandering a bit, he would try to lead them in a better direction. The way he thought of the methodology like a habit already made him a respectable teacher.
“A-anyway… I also came because I wanted to apologize. No matter how good the intention was, it ended up startling you, Lady Siern, and though it was unintentional, I ended up taking part in it…”
“…”
“And… as I said, I thought you might be very frustrated or sad… so I really wanted to tell you that you don’t have to be. I’m alive and well like this, and Mr. Derek has no intention of killing you, Lady Siern… well, that’s how it is.”
Aiseline let out a breath as if feeling a sense of emptiness, then finally smiled with the meaning that it was okay.
“We came to the north for you, Lady Siern. I just hope you’ll know that one fact.”
Seeing her, as if looking at the warm sunlight shining down on a meadow, Siern briefly bowed her head deeply.
The anger that had been soaring toward Derek now lost its direction and could only stagger. Rather than anger, only a slight sense of resentment remained.
If he had truly accepted the harsh role solely for Siern’s sake, where should her anger be directed?
Could it perhaps be toward herself? It was the moment she thought that.
“In any case, you did not kill anyone, Lady Siern. Even while entrusting your body to instinct and anger to that extent, you succeeded in regaining your reason again. If you’ve succeeded once, you can do it a second and third time.”
“...Do you think I can do that?”
“I’ll help you. As I said, it’s okay if you don’t trust me all the way to the end. It’s okay to think of just using me and throwing me away. So…”
“…No.”
Siern said in a voice that trailed off like a mosquito’s, hugging her knees tightly.
The way she buried her head as if embarrassed looked as if she was quite ashamed.
“I’ll try to believe you.”
Aiseline clasped her own two hands and then smiled, stars pouring from her eyes. It seemed she was quite happy that Siern, who had been as cold as a sheet of ice, was finally beginning to open her heart.
Quickly approaching her side and sitting on the edge of the bed, Aiseline spoke in a gentle voice.
“Thank you, Lady Siern. I’m so happy.”
“Y-you don’t have to be that happy. It’s not that big of a deal for a person called the Flower of the Duplein family to gain the trust of a monster like me.”
“What are you saying, Lady Siern? It’s such a great honor.”
Placing her slender hand over one of Siern’s, she spoke with a warm smile.
“Actually, I also have a younger sister who is about your age, Lady Siern. That child also had a time when she was wandering a bit, but she met a good person and is now leading many and trying to become a monarch. I’m sure you could become good friends.”
“R-really…?”
“Yes. I remember her childhood when she used to follow me around calling me Unnie, Unnie, but now she has become so dependable, I can’t tell you how proud I am every time I see her. You too, Lady Siern, may seem to be wandering now, but you will be able to splendidly control that blood and be reborn as a great mage.”
Comforting Siern and giving her a lot of encouraging words. That was the role Derek had wanted from Aiseline.
In fact, before talking about roles and what not, Aiseline as a person was just that kind of individual.
“You know…”
Siern, who was still burying her head while hugging her knees, spoke in a hesitant tone.
Her voice was so small that one had to strain their ears to hear it.
“Th-then, can I… try calling you Unnie too…?”
Upon hearing those words, Aiseline’s expression filled with joy, and an unbearable excitement welled up.
It was as if she were watching a wounded stray cat cautiously approach her.
<><><>
Head Maid Serena was swallowing dryly as she wrapped a bandage around Derek’s wound.
He was sitting with an indifferent expression, but the various scratches on his body were at a level where it would not be strange for them to be quite painful.
However, perhaps this level of injury was commonplace for mercenaries who roamed battlefields… or perhaps Derek himself just had a strong mentality…
Sitting on a sofa in a corner of the private room and holding out his arm, Derek’s face was completely still.
“The scratches and tears on your right arm have all been treated. We just need to treat your ankle and lower back.”
“Yes, you are going through a lot of trouble. Thank you.”
“Not at all. You are the one going through more trouble, Mr. Derek.”
Serena had also suffered much from Siern’s abuse, but it did not seem to have been to this extent.
An atmosphere of acknowledging Derek was already flowing among the servants of the Rochest mansion. It was because they had all watched him fight tooth and nail with the rampaging Lady Siern in the middle of the mansion.
Watching him somehow control her, who was practically a disaster for the mansion, a light of hope that perhaps he could take responsibility for Siern began to shine.
In any case, the only thing she could do for now was to treat his wounds.
It was the moment Serena took out a new bundle of bandages and began to unwrap it.
Creeak—
Thud, thud—
The door to Derek’s private room opened without even a knock.
Turning her head, she saw Melverot entering, well-dressed in the fur-lined attire of a northern noble.
It was the moment Serena flinched and, putting down the bandage, tried to stand up.
“Don’t bother. Continue with the treatment.”
Derek, too, had been about to stand up but, receiving Melverot’s instruction, sat back down on the sofa.
Melverot walked straight into the private room, passed the sofa where Derek was sitting, and perched on the table by the window.
He stared silently at the scenery outside the window where snow was softly falling, then finally crossed his arms and spoke quietly.
“I saw you making a scene in the garden.”
“I damaged some property. I apologize.”
“That kind of chump change is nothing. However, Siern did indeed regain her reason.”
Being led by a light instinct and then regaining one’s reason was nothing.
However, Siern had truly succeeded in regaining her own reason from between the raging anger and the rampaging slaughter instinct.
Although it was a success thanks to Derek holding on and enduring, it was a giant leap forward.
Compared to the time when he had just been keeping Siern without any hope, it was a rather meaningful change.
However, Melverot did not show any particular sign of being pleased. He was merely praising Derek’s achievement.
“What is the plan going forward?”
“Since she has tried controlling her instinct once, I plan to have her try it again. I need to have her keep repeating it based on the successful experience. I’m also thinking of teaching her some simple calming magic before the next slaughter instinct wells up…”
“Do you think Siern will follow you?”
“It may take some time for her to follow me, but with Lady Aiseline, there is not much to worry about.”
Aiseline had the ability to open a person’s heart.
As if Melverot also agreed with that opinion, he did not voice any particular disagreement.
Derek held out his other arm to the head maid. The head maid quickly applied medicine and began to wrap the bandage.
“I acknowledge it. You are better than the riff-raff armchair scholars who came claiming they would teach Siern. I am glad that Siern also seems to be changing.”
“Thank you. However… you do not seem that pleased.”
“Because I told you from the beginning, didn’t I? Siern is merely a subject for me to study for my magical realm. How could I love the detestable blood of Noir? It is a demonic beast that brought about the great disaster of the Dawn War.”
“…”
Derek was silently looking at his arm as the bandage was being wrapped, then he glanced at the head maid’s expression.
It seemed she was tense at the sight of Derek conversing so casually with Melverot, the ruler of the north.
In fact, the difference in their statuses was so vast that comparing it to the sky and the earth would not be enough.
However, Derek thought he should add a word.
“While teaching Lady Siern this time, I had a thought. It is certainly not a job anyone can do. There are not many practical-minded individuals who can withstand magic that rushes in like that, avoid injuring Lady Siern as much as possible, preserve their own life, and calmly carry out a battle.”
“Right. Do you wish to highlight your achievement?”
“Well. At least within this Rochest mansion, there would be no one. Except for one person, Lord Melverot.”
Derek spoke quietly, looking down at his bandaged arm.
Melverot, too, was just looking out the window at the fluttering snowflakes.
“But… it seems you were not able to go that far. I had a thought that there might be a reason why Lord Melverot, a great mage who has reached the 6-Star level, could not reach out himself.”
“…”
“In fact, to go this far, one must push Lady Siern to the absolute limit. And, one must be prepared to earn Lady Siern’s hatred and resentment in earnest. To push someone off a cliff to teach them is that kind of thing.”
Derek carried out that role without a second thought.
The Derek that Siern saw was the very source of evil, a monster that would not be enough even if he were killed and eliminated from the world immediately.
Receiving such a gaze was nothing. When doing great things, such things were a matter of course.
There was no way a person of Melverot’s stature would not know that.
Derek was silent for a moment.
In the quiet private room, only the sound of the head maid wrapping the bandage flowed, and he just looked at the sight of snow landing on the windowpane.
“You said you saw a fragment of the 7-Star realm in Lady Siern. However, when I rode out on a horse and looked around the nearby high-level labyrinths, there were no traces of subjugation or research. Even after searching quite diligently, I could not find even a trace.”
If one intended to research the magic of demonic beasts, exploring labyrinths was not an option but a necessity. This was because demonic beasts like liches and reapers that wielded various kinds of magic only appeared in high-level labyrinths.
There were quite a few traces of the low-level labyrinths around the mansion being subjugated for the sake of maintaining public order, but the high-level labyrinths deep inside did not even have traces of people having passed through.
He said he was interested in Siern’s magical power, but in reality, he had no interest whatsoever in the magic of demonic beasts. Melverot was that kind of man.
“Are you truly… glimpsing the realm of the 7-Star, Lord Melverot?”
“What are you trying to say?”
“In fact, it was a rather meaningless nosiness.”
Derek spoke with his head bowed slightly.
“Your name is renowned as a hero who saved the country, Lord Melverot. When you realized that Lady Siern had received the blood of Noir, I could only imagine… that the burden from that lofty honor must have been considerable.”
“…”
“That is all I have to say.”
Derek spoke only up to that point and gently closed his eyes.
After that… there was nothing more to explain.
That day, when Siern opened her eyes amidst the mangled pack of wolves.
That very day, when the slaughter instinct that had bloomed for the first time revealed itself to the world, what thoughts had gone through Melverot’s mind when he first discovered her?
That was something only Melverot himself would know. If he did not speak of it, no one in the world could know.
However, one could deduce.
The daughter left behind by a colleague who had died.
During the several years he spent with the daughter they had left behind, what kind of feelings had Melverot harbored?
Watching Siern, who had grown up with this snowy plain as her cradle, slowly become a lady, what had Melverot thought?
And when he finally realized that the blooming slaughter instinct was the blood of Noir, what kind of expression had he made?
Melverot was the hero who had saved the country by killing Noir.
He would know better than anyone the wounds that Noir had left on this land. An unbelievable number of people had died, and his most cherished colleagues had all died because of that Noir.
To be unable to overcome paltry personal feelings and leave behind a trace of that Noir, which could become the seed of a disaster, in the world was something his ego as a hero could never accept.
Therefore, he needed another reason.
He had to provide another, more national reason to keep Siern alive, not such a private and personal feeling.
He had to create any reason whatsoever to persuade not just anyone, but himself.
That might have been the passion for the ‘7--Star magic’ that would be remembered for a long, long time in the history of magic.
A mage before being a hero. A mage before being a father.
The legendary realm left behind by the great mage Adelbert, who would bring a new wind to this great history of magic. If it was that, it was a sufficient reason.
Nevertheless, there was a person he could not deceive.
Even though he deceived the people of the world and even himself, there was one person he could not deceive.
“Lady Siern left a final message. She asked me to be sure to deliver it to her father.”
“A final message?”
“Because Lady Siern herself thought she would die today.”
— ‘Tell my father. That he went through a lot, embracing and trying to take responsibility for a daughter like me. At least I… do not resent… my father… for trying to love a monster like this as a daughter until the end… thank you…’
It was the message that the daughter, who had decided to accept death while shedding tears in the middle of the snowy plain, had wanted to leave at the very, very end.
Since she asked him to deliver it, he was just delivering it. Since he was only conveying a message, there was nothing for Derek to hesitate about.
“…”
Hearing those words, Melverot did not particularly look toward Derek.
As he had been doing all this time, he was just silently looking out the window at the falling snow.
If he closed his eyes, he would probably remember it from time to time.
The sight of Siern standing among the wolf corpses.
The day when, despite his hand going to the sword at his waist, he could not help but grab that wrist and return to the mansion.
In any case, that daughter would have been tightly gripping his arm as she followed him across the cold snowy plain.
On the path from the middle of the snowy plain to the mansion, the footprints left on the snowfield were for two people.
Ever since that day, it must have been like that.
“You know, you are a competent and smart person, but… you talk too much for your own good.”
“I apologize for that.”
“Don’t bother. If you intend to teach Siern, that must be a necessary quality.”
Lord Melverot, who had been looking out the snowy window without a word for a long time, finally let out a small voice.
Derek apologized appropriately and accepted his words casually.
Like that, the two of them just sat silently for a long time.
“There is a region on the Rodelen side with a small vineyard.”
Melverot, who had been maintaining silence again, finally spoke.
“It’s a place famous for its wine. Its location is quite good as it directly borders the Beltus Duchy and the Delois plains, and the trade route isn’t bad, but the scale is too small and it’s relatively on the outskirts, so the central nobles seem to consider it almost a place of exile.”
“…Is that so?”
Derek replied indifferently, raised his completely healed arm, and clenched his fist tightly.
“It may be a place of exile for some, but for others, it may not be. Even if it’s the size of a rat’s tail, it’s still a territory, and there is a need to control the people of the territory. That’s why there’s not enough justification to entrust its management to someone who isn’t a titled noble. They say it’s a troublesome region where you have to seat at least a baron of the lowest rank.”
Melverot turned his head and asked.
“Do you like wine?”
“Even if I dislike it, I must like it.”
“Good.”
He stood up from the spot where he had been perched, and then let out an arrogant smile.
No matter what, it seemed his arrogant demeanor would never disappear.