Chapter 58
Chapter 58
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: I'll Try in Your Place
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"...So that's what it was."
Linbelle nodded blankly.
"You knew all along, didn't you, my lord?"
"Knew what?"
"Me,"
Now she understood.
The reason for his incomprehensible expectations, for the favor that had been almost burdensome.
The young master. Allen. He.
"You knew what my future would be."
"I suppose so."
Her voice sharpened.
"And you knew what I would accomplish."
"Yes."
What was there to hide?
Having said this much, there was no longer a need to conceal anything.
"So, do you despise me for it?"
Allen gave a dry smile.
"If that's how you feel, I apologize."
"No, no, that's not it."
It wasn't that.
The emotion she was feeling now was nothing of the sort.
After all, he had saved her, so she couldn't thank him enough.
But the reason her stomach was churning like this...
"Why."
The reason for such a sensitive reaction...
"Why... why do you look like that?"
"What?"
Yes. That was it.
"Why do you look as if it's all over?"
A face that looked as if everything had ended, exhausted and devoid of hope.
"You said you were going to save your brother. You said that's how you've lived, but... but why..."
She didn't want to see that look on his face.
The Allen she knew was always methodical and composed.
Not someone who floundered in despair.
"Are you giving up that easily?"
"Then what should I do?"
Keep going? At this, with no end in sight?
"You won't know unless you try."
'Allen' scoffed at her ignorance with a sarcastic tone.
"You want me to endlessly cling to something with a predetermined outcome?"
What should I sacrifice this time?
Allen's haggard face began to turn pale.
Rachel had committed suicide, and he had been stripped of his position as heir. He had sacrificed his youth for magic, and now he even suffered from periodic seizures. He relied on medicine to sleep and couldn't last a day without alcohol. His honor was in tatters, and everyone just pointed fingers, calling him insane. The servants avoided him, and even the fragile relationship with his family had crumbled.
From here, what more?
"Ghk..."
What more must I give up? What's next?
He couldn't breathe.
Feeling his throat tighten, he crushed the medicine he barely managed to grab and chewed it.
The outcome was set. But he couldn't completely give up either.
Because that bastard was still alive and well.
Yet there was no way to save his brother.
He was a death row inmate locked in a small room.
"My lord, are you all..."
Seeing him seize up, Linbelle hurried over.
Her well-kept black hair swayed as she spoke in a worried tone.
Allen squeezed out the words.
"I am."
He swatted her hand away.
"Not the man you knew."
He replied with a disdainful sneer.
"So don't bother trying to get close."
He quietly stood up and threw himself onto the bed in the corner of the small room.
He was giving up because there was no possibility.
If there had been even a sliver of hope, he would have made a pact with a demon.
But if failure was already certain.
"...I'll help you return, so you don't need to worry."
There was no need to face the coming terror.
No answer came.
...Nor the sound of her leaving the room.
Time began to flow.
Allen had completely given up on saving Julius.
All that remained for him were alcohol, cigarettes, and.
"My lord, look! It turned out quite delicious today."
A single maid.
She entered, carrying a dish she had cooked herself.
"I don't need it."
Allen finished the last of the liquor bottle.
She had become a member of the household, explaining that she hadn't died but had been recovering all this time.
"Who asked you to bring food? Not that I'm the real master anyway."
"Because I am your maid, my lord."
She replied as if it were the most natural thing.
Allen sneered.
"Nonsense. Do whatever you want."
As long as Julius was alive, he couldn't end his own life.
He was no different from a living corpse.
"Yes! I understand!"
She smiled brightly.
And she began to clean his room.
A month passed like that.
"Why are you still here? Didn't that bastard Julius come by?"
She was still by Allen's side.
"Wouldn't it be better for you to follow him if you want to go back?"
"Because you wouldn't want that, my lord."
Her devotion was warm.
So much so that for a moment, he wanted to lean on it.
"Ah, my lord. You said you'd grant my request, didn't you?"
"...Yes, I did."
He remembered nodding while drunk.
"Please summon people who have mastered prana."
Her eyes, filled with conviction, sparkled brightly like stars.
"As many as possible."
The starlight was comforting.
Enough to illuminate the darkness.
Two years had passed since she fell into this place.
Linbelle's daily routine was no longer confined to Allen's room.
"What's the point of training?"
Traces of her covered the entire training ground.
She had already figured out that this world was a space created by a divine beast's rampage.
"You won't even remember it properly unless you pass the trial."
"This is all I can do to help."
She smiled brilliantly.
A smile that contrasted with the pure black sword in her hand.
"It's a useless act."
Allen belittled her efforts.
Humoring her was merely a fleeting amusement.
"You will fail."
"You never know what might happen if I don't give up, right? I'll try in your place, my lord. As many times as it takes."
Allen didn't respond.
In front of him, where he sat slumped, a black trajectory drew a picture in the air.
She still couldn't wield prana.
But her expression remained unchanged.
At some point, her requests to summon people lessened.
Whenever he glanced at her, she was often meditating.
"Linbelle, what are you doing?"
"Pledging a noble chivalry, making a sublime vow, and upholding an unfulfilled promise."
She didn't hear Allen's words.
"Why does prana contain emotion?"
Since when had it been like that?
Mana, divine power, and aura all have a source.
"But why is only prana noble? Are the other powers insignificant? Why does prana react to emotion?"
She delved into the essence of the power called prana.
The reason it came to contain such things.
"Prana is influenced by emotion. Why?"
It gains power through intense, blind emotion, and the magnitude of that power changes with the concentration of the emotion.
"But what if it contains no emotion at all?"
She began to swing her sword.
A sword that contained nothing.
"It is blind because it is deficient, and lacking because it is finite."
A shadow danced with the sword.
The pure blackness resonated and vibrated.
"Because it cannot be drawn out in an ordinary state."
Contain it. Be contained.
If it is not whole, then sever it.
"Restrict your actions. Vow revenge. Cling to your desire. Wager your life. And..."
Fall into the abyss.
Yearn, and yearn again. Earnestly, more desperately.
"A wish, an expectation, a hope, a desire, a yearning."
In the few years she had been here, she had seen and experienced many things.
The knight who restricted himself to uphold his chivalry,
The king who made a public declaration to not forget his pledge,
The warrior who promised to protect his family's wish.
"Until only a single emotion remains."
She conversed with the knight.
She heard rumors of the king.
She sparred with the warrior.
And.
"Thus, when you yearn through complete immersion, eternity resides there."
She learned the end of the other 'her' who had lost her mother and vowed revenge.
"This is supposed to be a noble power?"
She let out a hollow laugh.
A power rife with deficiencies and difficult conditions for use?
"There was no need to despair just because I couldn't use this."
She let go of the sword.
No, the obsession that had bound her.
"...Any progress?"
"Not yet, but... are you looking forward to it? Hehe."
"Hah, how absurd."
Allen still couldn't understand Linbelle.
"You'll never reach it."
"Don't worry. I won't give up."
Time flowed even faster.
Julius's name grew more renowned by the day, while Allen's reputation plummeted.
To the bottom, and even lower.
From a certain point, she started spending more time with Allen.
Meaningless moments together piled up.
Allen prepared for the end.
The end of a fleeting, meaningless life.
"What will you do?"
Julius was said to be coming alone to investigate the precursor to a disaster that had appeared in the mountains.
"We don't know what effect dying here will actually have."
If I can't save him, I'll kill him.
And since I can't live, I'll die.
"I'll go with you."
"You should be able to leave this place soon."
"Because I am your maid, my lord."
Allen replied with a desolate smile.
"...Do as you please."
The ambush on Julius, unsurprisingly, did not succeed.
Every attack was easily blocked, and most of the traps were destroyed before they could even be used.
Unlike the information he'd gathered, the bastard had companions.
A severed arm and horrific full-body burns.
That was the price for attacking him.
'So this is how it ends.'
In truth, he had known.
That the ambush would fail.
And yet, he had acted.
'Because I couldn't endure it any longer.'
Once he lost his life's milestone, the hope he had struggled to maintain vanished in an instant.
'Julius, my brother. I'll see you soon.'
Does the afterlife exist even in an illusion?
He closed his eyes, awaiting his approaching death.
"...Kyaaah! Laniel! How could you!"
A high-pitched scream echoed across the mountainside.
It was the voice of one of the subordinates Julius had brought.
"Lin, Linbelle, how could you do this! Laniel was so good to you before!"
"My lord."
She ignored the voice and called to Allen.
"What."
"Are you still thinking the same thing?"
"Of course."
Hasn't she given up yet?
"Give up and run. I've barely managed to tie up that bastard Julius."
Allen muttered calmly, listening to the explosions erupting in the distance.
"Is that so?"
"Yes, run. Hide until someone finishes the trial."
She answered with a faint smile.
"Then, I'll show you."
She moved as if she didn't need an answer.
Allen's mind was blank.
'How foolish.'
To speak of an unattainable hope at the very end.
"That bitch has been brainwashed by him. Just kill her!"
"A comrade is dead. No need to keep her alive."
"Avenge Laniel!"
A rain of fire and steel fell.
A warrior in heavy armor charged like an arrow.
"You said it yourself, my lord. That the future is set. That this place is just a fake, a projection of the past."
Her feet moved with light, quick steps.
"But you were wrong. This is merely a trial created by the power of a divine beast."
The cool, snowy wind cooled her heated skin.
"One that can be overcome."
Nearby, a battle-hardened veteran raised a thick axe.
Her sword still held nothing.
"Die!!"
The pure black sword drew a semicircle.
*Pshht-*
"...Kaden!"
"H-How did she get through the defensive magic...!"
The warrior's body crumbles.
"If you don't give up, anything is possible. I'll show you."
Dozens of spells rained down from the sky.
"Right here, right now."
The essence in progress, the core in hope.
Her steps shimmered like a heat haze.
'Ah.'
With every flurry of the sword, a life was extinguished.
"Why isn't the magic hitting her!"
"Quickly, quickly, warriors, block her! Block her!"
An expensive shield gleamed, blocking the path before a blue barrier.
Her sword held nothing, yet paradoxically, that was what set her apart from them.
*-Kwang! Kwang!*
Perhaps sensing something amiss from the screams, the explosions from where the bastard was tied down grew stronger.
"I get it, I get it, so just run away now."
"There's no need to offer anything, no need to sacrifice."
Her blade began to cleave the necks of those who fled.
Red blood stained the white snow.
"Whatever method you used, you won't be able to reach him!"
"I will reach him."
Her whisper pierced his ears.
"...Why."
Allen's face contorted.
"Why, why are you going this far? I'm not the real 'Allen' anyway, so why."
"Because I know, too."
Over the cooling bodies, her voice shone upon him.
"The desperation for something unattainable."
*-Thud, thud-*
"Because that desperation, at least, is eternal."
"Linbelle."
At the chillingly cold voice, she turned her head and saw him.
An aura of mixed arrogance and spirit.
Artifacts that couldn't even be made in this era adorned him.
A deep blue current swirled around his body, and with a single step, the surrounding snowfield evaporated.
His confident demeanor revealed a presence that could lead others.
A face several years older than the one she knew.
"...Did you do this?"
Julius said softly, looking around with a face that didn't hide his irritation.
*Crackle-*
"Yes, Young Master."
At her confirmation, the air grew heavy.
Allen struggled to open his eyes wide.
"Is that so?"
Julius didn't say much.
"It seems I've taken in a dog that doesn't recognize its master."
Julius raised his sword.
Magnificent dark clouds gathered in the sky, and space itself trembled.
The ability to control the weather.
He drew out everything he had, as if to end it all in a single blow.
"I think I was fortunate to have gone to Lord Allen."
A mismatched answer.
But Julius paid it no mind.
Since they would never see each other again anyway.
"...Is that so? Then you're useless."
Hundreds of lightning bolts fell from the sky, shattering the space and delivering heaven's judgment.
The sword descended, and the world was dyed in white light.
'I was too late.'
A flash of lightning filled his vision as it fell.
The bastard who wielded lightning and commanded the clouds was reminiscent of a thunder god.
*Cr-crack-crack-CRACKLE-!*
Steam exploded.
In an instant, the snow melted away, and the entire mountain was shrouded in mist.
*Thud-*
He heard the sound of her body collapsing.
"Reach him, my ass..."
She had been defeated in a single blow.
He forced down the hope that had welled up for a moment.
Now, everything was over.
Linbelle would escape the trial, and he would go to meet his brother.
The hallucinations that had gnawed at him his entire life crept closer.
"...My lord, you're not dead yet, are you?"
Through his muddled hearing, he heard Linbelle's voice.
Allen's expression was one of disbelief.
Through the shimmering steam, a figure was standing up.
"You're... alive?"
Julius, too, looked surprised and let out a hollow laugh.
"...Hah, so you do have the skill to kill my men, is that it?"
"I wouldn't have attacked otherwise, would I?"
A rather bold reply.
Her entire body was marred by lightning-shaped burns.
Julius's eyes flashed as he properly took his stance.
"Can't you come back to my side, even now? With that level of skill, I can overlook this."
"I'm sorry."
She smiled playfully.
"I only have one master."