Chapter 200
Chapter 200
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 200
Chapter Title: After the Curtain Falls (6)
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In the office of the First Princess, Luriel, located in the annex palace.
The room, cluttered with scattered documents here and there and filled with the scent of ink, was enveloped in an unexpected silence. The silence was broken by Luriel's short exhale.
"...Huh."
A look as if she'd taken a solid hit.
Luriel's lips parted slightly. A breath leaked from the gap.
"Hmm..."
Her eyebrows curved into an arc. Soon, she closed her eyes and bowed her head deeply. Her shoulders and back trembled slightly. What came out was laughter.
"That my personality is one I couldn't act even if I tried..."
Luriel lifted her head and curved her index finger to wipe the corner of her eye. There was a slight glimmer of moisture there. As if incredulous, she spoke in a voice laced with amusement.
"That's quite a sharp assessment, Professor."
"Oh... Is it?"
"Indeed. It's just phrased politely, but it feels like saying, 'Where in the world is there another lunatic like you?' doesn't it?"
Luriel playfully mimed slitting her throat.
"If anyone overheard, it would warrant hanging for insulting the royal family. But..."
She let out a short breath and finished her thought.
"I rather like it. I truly do prefer you. That honesty of yours is most appealing."
Unyielding behavior.
Words spoken straight from the mind.
A straightforward person whose inside matches their outside.
'A rare breed indeed.'
In the royal palace rife with schemes and intrigue, someone like the professor before her was exceedingly uncommon. It wasn't just rare in the palace. Honest people were rare anywhere.
'Those who live without pretense.'
Those true to themselves.
Those who possess confidence born from that honesty.
"People like you are truly one in a handful."
Precisely because they are so rare.
"That's what makes them so alluring."
Murmuring that, Luriel tapped the table lightly. A smile still lingered on her lips.
"Well, as you said, Professor, neither I nor lunatics like you are commonplace."
"Pardon? Why am I suddenly..."
"Didn't you know? You're quite the lunatic yourself."
He genuinely seemed unaware.
Watching the professor tilt his head and blink his blue eyes, Luriel unconsciously shook her head.
'A lunatic unaware of their own lunacy is the most dangerous kind...'
She kept the rest to herself.
Burying it in her heart, Luriel let out a long sigh. With that breath, she felt some tension ease.
"Hoo..."
The shoulders she'd been tensing, the corners of her eyes and lips she'd been carefully adjusting for expression— all felt utterly pointless before the professor.
"......"
Luriel silently gazed at Lania seated across from her. Watching her blink those blue eyes in utter confusion... a smile formed on her lips.
A honest person.
One who lives with honesty, so her words always carry truth.
To convince with lies requires a hundred words, but truth needs no such embellishments. A single impression, a line strung from a few words, suffices.
「That personality of yours... seems one you couldn't fake even if you tried...」
A single phrase, a single sentence.
"...Aha."
Luriel laughed aloud.
Her unique personality, the image she'd crafted since childhood to avoid being underestimated. Her one-of-a-kind trait that no one could easily imitate.
Was it too convenient to take pride in it as part of the life she'd built?
Luriel let out a chuckle.
'...The interpretation is grander than the dream.'
Her heart felt much lighter.
The direction was a bit off, but regardless, the professor trusted her. That fact pleased Luriel.
"...Thank you."
A small voice, barely audible, lingered in the air.
2.
"So, have you located my brother? I heard Knight Kalt has begun investigating."
Lania shook her head silently.
"No traces left at all, they say. It's impossible to find him."
"That's... unexpected."
Luriel touched her lips as she spoke.
"If even Knight Kalt can't find a trace... then yes, locating my brother is truly impossible. What do you plan to do now?"
"I'm thinking of approaching the most likely person connected to the current situation."
"You mean this kingdom's king."
Lania fell silent.
The silence signified affirmation.
"I wouldn't recommend it."
Luriel tapped the table with a thud.
"You won't gain anything from meeting him."
"...Nothing at all?"
"My father is little more than a puppet."
The image of her father as she'd grown up seeing.
Luriel recalled it and continued.
"He turned a blind eye to sibling rivalries, to overheated power struggles—everything. When I was very young, he still seemed within the realm of a 'normal' person, but..."
Not anymore.
Even before his daughter's death, he showed the same impassive face as always. He remained indifferent to the death of his own child.
"Now he's just a simple doll. Less a human, more a machine managing the kingdom."
"...Is that so?"
"That's my observation from watching him these past dozen years. My father now is incapable of human empathy. No information to gain there."
"Then for now..."
What should be done, and what do you plan to do?
Under Lania's gaze that seemed to ask as much, Luriel lowered her eyes. Her gaze fell on an empty teacup.
"Well."
Refilling the teacup, taking a sip, Luriel pondered her next course of action. The deliberation didn't last long.
"I need to cut it out."
"Cut it out?"
"Like pruning branches and uprooting rot."
Thud.
Setting down the teacup, Luriel narrowed her eyes.
"I see this as an opportunity, Professor."
Opportunity.
"The palace currently lacks a clear heir. The Second Prince is at the front lines, and Aila remains in Aphria. I'm all that's left here."
Tapping her nape lightly, Luriel smiled.
"Time for the unchained mad dog to bark."
From the kingdom's founding to now, Luriel knew nothing of the entity scheming behind the curtain. Nor what it desired after centuries of patience.
'I know none of it.'
But it didn't matter.
Her duty remained the same as always.
"What I've done until now—and what I'll do henceforth—is but one thing."
It was something Luriel had once mentioned. As the three-day mission ended, she spoke it again.
"Paving the way until that child ascends the throne—that's my role."
The vow made watching her sisters' deaths.
The potential seen in her last remaining sister.
Recalling them, Luriel smiled. Not a soft smile, but a seductive, challenging one that suited her image.
"Trust is a value sustained by mutual effort. I have my duty to do my utmost from my position."
Watching her, Lania thought.
'...I was doubtful at first.'
The Fourth Princess, Aila.
Lania hadn't fully grasped the potential in that girl whom Luriel trusted so deeply.
But now, after recent events and observing Aila...
She was undoubtedly special. Not merely her star-blessed talent. Rather, rejecting the stars made her value shine brighter.
Because she didn't rely on the stars.
Because she advanced by her own choices.
That single step she took held clear worth. She had proven her own value.
「One per generation skipped, a child of the royal blood bearing the stars' blessing inevitably appears.」
Unconsciously, Lania mulled over words she'd once dismissed lightly.
Because the royal family received the stars' blessing.
Because they were the bloodline chosen by the stars.
She'd accepted the rumors without thought. But now, Lania questioned what she'd taken for granted.
'The stars are providence. The most impartial rule.'
The stars symbolize the scales.
Fair scales must always remain level. If the stars always blessed the royals, perhaps it was to balance tilted scales.
The shadow over the royal family.
The light to dispel that shadow.
A blessing bestowed out of necessity.
'Then.'
If there's one to unveil the darkness over the royals.
'It would be that child alone.'
That was the stage granted to Stella.
Perhaps mere conjecture, but her intuition said it was right. Lania looked at Luriel across from her.
Conviction dwelled in those golden eyes.
Gazing at the princess who sensed the same possibility, Lania let out an involuntary smile.
"...Fitting of a princess."
"I'm trying to live true to myself."
As if on cue, they both extended hands.
Exchanging a light handshake, they rose from their seats.
Thus, they headed to their respective stages.
One curtain falls.
And another curtain rises.
Unknowing what hides beyond the stage, they simply give their all to what they can do now. As always.
3.
Amid Aphria's unexpected break, I was spending the day meeting various people one by one.
「Professor Lania, I brought coffee!」
Sometimes chatting with Aila, who arrived with irresistible bribes, answering her questions...
「Senior, I'm dying. The work won't end...! Submit one pile, and another comes flying in...!」
Patting Kalt's back as he screamed amid the deluge of documents, teasing him that as a near-superhuman, he could endure...
Of course, I helped with the paperwork afterward.
Seeing Kalt's earnest gaze of respect after so long was rather enjoyable.
「Just what the hell is that elf old-timer doing?」
Most memorable was the conversation with Yetual, the Black Mage Tower Lord, utterly exhausted by Cardi. To his complaints delivered through hollow eyes, I could only smile wryly.
'A millennial old-timer; of course he's beyond reason.'
Even the king of thousand-year-old elves calls him a 'brat.' Contemplating the essence of a millennium's worth of old-timer antics makes one's vision blur.
"Old-timers gonna old-timer."
"What was that, Raniel?"
"Nothing."
I bantered while eyeing the person before me.
Someone I had to meet, delayed until my body recovered as instructed.
"Cardi."
The ancient elf.
The great sage of old, Cardi van Armiel.
"How long are you gonna make me drink this green tea?"
Gazing at him, I pointed to the teacup on the table. Thick green liquid inside. Cardi insisted it was traditional elven green tea, but to me, it absolutely wasn't.
"Can't you just give me water?"
"It's good for you. Drink it."
"Argh, damn it..."
I pushed the teacup far away.
No matter how healthy, that stuff was too much.
"Sudden thought."
Before Cardi could add anything, I changed the subject.
"If I were Aphria's dean, I'd probably go bald too. That's what I've been thinking lately."
What nonsense is this now?
To Cardi's look, I shrugged and continued.
"Think about it, Cardi."
"Think what?"
"Incidents popping up every other day, building repairs twice in under a year... Disasters hitting Aphria twice in one year?"
Skeletons show up often, but that's battlefield talk.
"A month after opening, another closure. Knights swarming from everywhere, combing Aphria with fire in their eyes... Wouldn't you go bald?"
"So what's your point, Raniel?"
"Just... that."
A rundown shop.
Leaning back in the now-familiar creaky chair, I propped my chin.
"Lots of incidents this past year, right?"
"True."
"And now preparing to handle the aftermath one by one?"
"Aftermath?"
"Yeah, aftermath."
I pointed to my eyes.
"Need to heal Kalt's eyes, uncover the shadow behind the royals... All this thinking's messing with my head. Aftermath is the most annoying part. Always has been."
"So you're empathizing with the dean's plight."
"Something like that. Not sure if I'd actually go bald."
Sighing, I slumped over the table.
Tapping the foul-tasting green tea cup, Cardi spoke.
"...Body feeling better?"
"Can't complain. Recovering fine. The potions you dumped into me could build a mansion; gotta be okay."
"Good to hear."
Cardi set down the glass he was polishing.
Then he walked off somewhere. The shop's storeroom, dusty and piled high.
Pat pat.
Soon, brushing dust from his clothes, he returned. In his hand, a box. I pointed at it.
"What's that?"
"Clothes I wore long ago."
Creak, the box opened.
Inside was a robe. Cardi shook it out in the air and draped it over his shoulders.
"Oh, that..."
My eyes widened.
A robe I'd seen before.
"The inaugural Mage Tower Lord's robe... Lord Armiel's...!"
The one displayed in the Ashen Mage Tower's top-floor artifact vault. The symbol of the Ashen Mage Tower, called the Phantom Robe because no one could replicate its design despite efforts...
As I eyed the robe gleaming, Cardi's head tilted slowly.
"...Lord Armiel?"
Cardi narrowed his eyes at me. I covered my mouth and looked down slightly.
"No, uh..."
"What honorific is that? Raniel."
"Not to you. Plenty of mages revere the first Mage Tower Lord..."
I was one of them.
Before knowing Cardi was Armiel.
'Of course, he's worthy of respect...'
But a millennial old-timer as a role model? Eh.
'Anyway...'
I glanced up at the robe Cardi wore. No wonder it was the Phantom Robe. Flawless design beyond any I'd seen.
Gulp.
Enthralled by the robe, Cardi tapped the table.
"Raniel."
"Yeah? Uh-huh?"
"Ever thought of taking a month's leave from your professorship?"
"Leave? Suddenly?"
"Got a place we need to go."
I tilted my head.
"Place we need to go?"
"Yes. Since your body's better now."
"Well, leave isn't impossible, but..."
I asked.
"Where that takes a whole month?"
The answer was beyond my imagination.
"The land of ashes."
Cardi said.
"My homeland, Arcadia, reduced to ashes centuries ago."