Chapter 110
Chapter 110
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 110
Chapter Title: Sullivian's Demise
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Sullivian.
She was so hale and hearty that it was hard to believe she was over a hundred years old.
Even at a close glance, she looked no older than her sixties.
“To think the useless old bag who never helps anyone has finally made me happy for once.”
“Your Holiness…”
“He’s probably wandering lost in my illusion array. I designed it solely to trap him, so he’ll never escape. Don’t worry and relax.”
Sullivian’s illusion array.
It was she who had dramatically expanded alchemy’s potential through her research on holy relics and pioneered the path of divine arts, akin to magic.
Even the great pope was trapped in her array, helpless.
The pope himself was testifying to just how formidable her skills were.
“You spoke of my death?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“Don’t take it the wrong way. I’m asking purely out of curiosity.”
“Yes.”
“When will I die?”
She seemed utterly at peace with death.
Her beaming smile was mischievous, like a prank on a small child.
But I couldn’t smile.
“Someone close to you will appear. And you will die.”
As early as tomorrow, at latest the day after.
She would die.
“I see.”
She was serene.
How could she be so serene?
Even knowing her own death.
“What happens after I die?”
“The kingdom will be attacked.”
“Oh my, how so?”
“The moment they realize you’ve died, rebellion will erupt in the royal castle.”
But the rebellion wasn’t the key issue.
What mattered was what came next.
“Then, a massive spear will fly in, bearing the mark of the holy relic planted in the kingdom by the Empire.”
It was a kind of marker.
A pillar of light would rise from that spear, and Empire forces would pour in en masse.
The kingdom wouldn’t withstand the Empire’s master and troops, forcing them to flee.
Then the Empire’s army, waiting at the border, would swarm in, Carpe would fall under occupation, and slip under Empire control.
Gradually losing legitimacy, it would be absorbed by the Empire, and Carpe would vanish.
“I see. The Empire could pull that off. Have you told anyone else?”
“No. They wouldn’t believe it.”
“Right. Good call. Even if you did, they wouldn’t believe you—they’d just call you mad.”
Sullivian seemed to ponder what to do the moment she heard my words.
She appeared to fully believe me.
A total stranger she’d just met.
I felt a bit absurd even saying it.
“You believe me?”
“Of course? Are you lying?”
“No, but…”
“I don’t sense any deceit in you. No reason for it either.”
“Even so…”
“I’ve had visions of prophecy myself at times. Patchy memories like dreams, or vivid glimpses of the future. I still don’t know why I saw them. But people who know the future usually try to change it. You and I are no different, so I believe you.”
Indeed.
As expected of Sullivian.
She was far from ordinary.
“And after that?”
“The prince goes berserk.”
“For the better?”
“No, for the worse. His actions will deal a massive blow to the kingdom.”
“So what should I do?”
“I don’t know.”
Nothing like that was ever set.
Her death was a foregone conclusion.
There was nothing Sullivian could do.
The reason I told her these facts was the same.
‘Because she dies.’
She was the spark of the rebellion.
And the prelude to the Empire’s invasion.
Yet there was only one reason I came to see her.
“I have a request.”
“Out with it.”
“Give me the reverse scale.”
Sullivian looked genuinely shocked.
“You really do know everything.”
“I only know what I know. Not everything.”
“Pity. If only we’d met sooner, there’d have been so much more we could do.”
“…”
I agreed.
I hadn’t expected to connect with her like this.
If only we’d met earlier…
‘No point. It’s in the past.’
Back then, meeting Sullivian would’ve been impossible no matter what I did.
Meeting her today was a miracle in itself.
“The reverse scale. Why do you need it?”
“To stop the prince.”
“Very well, I’ll give it to you.”
She asked no further questions.
She’d guarded that reverse scale her entire life.
The one I requested was from the mad dragon that attacked the kingdom centuries ago.
She’d spent her life protecting and studying it. And now she was handing it over just like that.
“One thing. May I ask a favor?”
“Yes.”
Sullivian handed me a thick book from within her robes.
“Take care of Esther.”
I took the book and shook my head.
“…Esther and I aren’t like that.”
“I know.”
“Then why…”
“Because you can protect her. I have a feeling.”
Sullivian said that, then nodded at the book in my sight.
I opened it.
There lay the reverse scale.
Nestled grandly in a deeply carved groove.
I’d never imagined she’d store it like this.
“What will you do with the reverse scale? I kept it my whole life but never figured out how to use it.”
“I’ll eat it.”
“Just like that?”
Normally, it’d be impossible.
A reverse scale was tough and leathery.
Even if eaten, it wouldn’t digest—most would die trying.
A dragon’s scale harms humans.
But I could manage it.
“One last thing.”
“Go on.”
“Cast a divine seal on me.”
“What kind? Where?”
“Here. A binding.”
I pointed to my heart.
* * *
Creak. Thud.
After finishing her conversation with Kallias.
Sullivian flung open the door.
“Long time no see, Sullivian.”
“Yes, it has been.”
She dispelled the illusion array and guided Felice here.
“What made you let me in? You’ve hated the sight of me for decades.”
“I brought a boy you wanted to meet, and heard something amusing.”
“Amusing, you say?”
“They say I’m going to die.”
Felice’s face twisted for a moment.
But it soon turned indifferent.
“No one lives forever. We all die. You, me, everyone. Even the giants who lived ages or dragons—they all died in the end.”
Everyone dies.
It’s just a natural part of life.
Death is inevitable.
It exists for all, always breathing by our side.
We simply deny it.
“So while we’re alive and kicking, we ought to think hard about how to live. That’s why, Sullivian.”
“Yes.”
“I’m quitting as pope.”
“Is that so.”
“Quitting to live with you.”
“…I’d rather not.”
Tch. The pope smacked his lips awkwardly.
“Come on. Aren’t we past the age for stubbornness?”
“I have work to do.”
“Work? Besides lying around lately, what work?”
“Your Holiness.”
Sullivian’s brows furrowed.
“Hey now, I said I’m quitting pope. Call me Felice like old times.”
“Sir Felice.”
“What’s with the stiff ‘sir’?”
“You already abandoned me once. How dare you say that now? I told you not to become pope.”
He ignored my words and stubbornly went ahead.
“That’s all in the past.”
“If you’d listened, we’d have children by now, and I’d have seen my grandchildren. Life wouldn’t have been peaceful with your constant antics, but it would’ve been happy enough.”
That was why.
Why she hated him.
Why she avoided his face.
“True, it’s late, but even now—”
“Yesterday never returns. Go.”
“Bi-anne.”
Sullivian fully turned away.
If she kept looking at him.
She might really want to live.
* * *
A short while later.
In Sullivian’s room after the pope left, another man’s shadow fell.
A middle-aged man in a hood.
He pulled back his snow-white hood and called to her sadly.
“Mother.”
“Busy day for visitors. You’re the third man already. Even at my age, this popularity… What a tiring life, eh?”
“I need my answer now.”
Ignoring her playful question, the man demanded his own.
“Alhamtra.”
Alhamtra du Rohan Vallus.
The boy called archbishop of the church.
“The first visitor warned me you’d come. Even told me of my death. So I can’t give you an answer.”
“…Have you still not changed your mind?”
“Why would I? A dying woman like me.”
“I’ll prevent your death, Mother. The Empire is ready.”
The Empire. That damned Empire.
How did this boy change so much?
Time was cruel.
Why were men so spineless?
Old or young, all the same.
“Living longer wouldn’t make my life worthwhile.”
But Alhamtra shook his head vehemently.
“You’re more valuable than anyone in the kingdom, Mother. It’s one reason the Empire covets it. You’ve fought the fallen ones more fiercely and lifelong than anyone. The Empire will unify the continent and eradicate the fallen. That mythical saga! The end of the fallen! You’ll write it, Mother!”
Sullivian sighed softly.
“I raised you like my own son.”
“And I’ve always seen you as my mother.”
His eyes still looked innocent when shut.
She’d brought the crying boy from fallen lands, fed and clothed him.
He’d vowed to live for Carpe, for the church—but though his body grew, those eyes were gone.
“But now I don’t want to see you as my son.”
“Mother…!”
“My answer is no.”
“Carpe is already done for. Why cling to a doomed nation…”
“You incited the nobles, didn’t you.”
“Yes, Carpe will be engulfed in civil war. And then…”
“The Empire’s knights will come.”
“Impressive foresight.”
Yet he came to her.
“And you’ve come to drag me away by force.”
“To escort you.”
“I see. Now I understand.”
Now she thought she grasped the boy’s words. Her own death.
“What…”
“I’ve chosen my death.”
In that instant, Sullivian drew her sword.
The blade she’d wielded her whole life.
“…Mother?”
The archbishop’s face went blank.
But she raised the sword.
And plunged it into her own heart.
Splurt!
“Motheeer!!”
The archbishop’s scream echoed out.
It was too fast to stop.
How could she drive a blade into her own heart without hesitation!
“Why! Why!!”
The archbishop wept in grief.
He’d never imagined she’d do it.
Sullivian, of all people.
His own mother.
“My… death will protect Carpe…”
“Why!! Why throw your life away for a crumbling ruin of a kingdom!”
“Crumbled or ruined, this is my home. Just as I am yours.”
My son.
Catching the slumping Sullivian, Alhamtra tearfully laid her on the bed.
“…”
Her hand, losing warmth.
Clutching it, Alhamtra’s arms trembled.
“…You loved Carpe that much.”
Enough to casually throw away her life. To choose suicide before the son she’d named.
“Long ago, you said.”
When her time came to die.
Follow in my footsteps and stop the demons.
“Today, I will destroy Carpe. That is my path to honoring your will.”
No more retreat.
Carpe falls today.
* * *
“As expected.”
Kallias gripped the Empire’s hidden holy relic.
The massive hexagonal shield-like relic resembled a turtle shell.
“The Empire’s coming is inevitable.”
They were already prepared.
Deeply rooted in the kingdom, with the archbishop—a national leader—ready to open the gates.
Even as a count, Kallias had limits to what he could block.
He’d tried at first, but soon had to accept it.
[Scenario Quest]
『Carpe Kingdom’s Civil War』
Progress – 99.5%
It wouldn’t drop no matter what he did.
Seeing the percentage climb steeply, Kallias was certain.
No matter what, civil war was unavoidable.
He couldn’t stop the Empire, nor the war engulfing the nation—it was fate.
“I’ve done everything I could.”
He’d prepared as best he could, now only praying the timeline hadn’t twisted too much.
“Rebellion!!”
Screams erupted everywhere.
But Kallias ignored them, pushing through the crowd.
“Lady Sullivian!”
“Lady Sullivian has passed!!”
Kallias’s eyes grew heavy.
Yet he pressed on, swimming against the tide of fleeing people.
His destination was where everyone ran from.
The royal castle, where rebellion raged.
Rebellion had broken out, even Sullivian dead—but today’s events were mere prelude.
“They’re coming.”
Shrieeeek!
Like shooting stars plummeting.
Five massive spears rent the night sky red, crashing toward the castle.
Boom!!
Earth-shaking spear barrage.
With eerie divinity flowing from the grotesque spears.
Thud!!
A crimson beam pierced the sky like a supporting pillar.
Clank. Clank.
From within the light pillar, spearmen knights emerged, all shouting.
“For God Lactus!!”
The Empire’s invasion had begun.