Chapter 660: Temar’s Fifth Tomb (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 660: Temar’s Fifth Tomb (4)
Squelch—!
Black blood, tainted by chaos, splattered across both their faces.
Luntia, who had been swinging her sword relentlessly even as her body shattered, finally ceased her movements.
[Kugh…]
Behind her, the thread-like connection points flickered where they had been severed, frayed and writhing. They attempted to converge on Luntia again, only to be blocked by the sizzling, lightning-like scars left by the Pluto’s Sovereign Sword.
Between the rifts of the subspace, particles of chaos fell like black rain.
Jin had just stabbed a sister for whom he felt a deep kinship. Though the situation had left him no other choice, a sharp ache throbbed in his chest, as if something inside him had broken.
[I… lost.]
A raspy, metallic sound escaped Luntia’s throat.
Jin didn't twist the blade he had driven into her chest. If possible, he wanted to speak with his sister one last time—if Luntia, standing at the threshold of death, could shake off even a fraction of her madness.
“Sister Luntia.”
[Hahh…]
“Are you coming to your senses?”
[Youngest…]
Jin’s eyes widened. Her sanity was returning.
Luntia slowly reached out and grasped the blade of Bradamante. As her gaze shifted between the sword and Jin, her eyes were no longer stained with the black light of chaos. Overwhelmed by a sudden, shocking wave of emotion, Luntia squeezed her eyes shut for a moment.
[I have done such cruel things to you…]
With what little strength she had left, she began to push the blade out of her body. It wasn't an act of retaliation. Jin carefully helped her withdraw the sword. Every time she moved or exerted force, pieces of her flesh, hardened like stone, crumbled away.
Once the sword was fully removed, Luntia slowly steadied her breathing. Jin struggled to find the right words.
[Stabbing me was the only choice you had.]
Jin had only ever seen one person regain their sanity after being completely consumed by chaos: Ron Hairan, when he reached the Realm of Creation. But Luntia’s case felt different. She hadn't achieved Creation like Ron.
[There was likely no better way. If not for you, I would have had to endure meaningless years, ruled by this dark space and its chaos.]
“How… did it come to this?”
At his question, Luntia gave a bitter smile.
[Because of family.]
Family.
The “family” she spoke of likely didn't refer to Rosa or their other siblings. When a Runcandel used the term “family” to describe something precious, it rarely meant blood relatives. It meant a nanny who was more of a parent than their own, comrades they grew up with, someone they had given their heart to, or—in very rare cases—a sibling they had become exceptionally close to.
Thus, a single name immediately came to Jin’s mind.
“…Nanny Risham. Did Rosa and the Prophet take her hostage?”
Risham. She was Luntia Runcandel’s nanny. The reason Jin had asked if she was being blackmailed before the battle was because he had suspected Risham was involved from the start.
Luntia nodded.
[Nanny made a request of me.]
“Nanny Risham asked you… to accept the chaos?”
The Runcandel nannies Jin knew were devoted to a degree that was almost harrowing. They had no personal lives, existing solely for the children entrusted to them. They would never, under any circumstances, do anything to harm their charges.
Taimun Marius had deceived Luna and ultimately become Joshua’s dog, but even that was born from a twisted love for her ward. Neither Gilly nor even Taimun would have ever asked their child to embrace chaos. As far as Jin knew, Risham was the same kind of person—someone who would readily face death, or a price even more severe, for Luntia’s sake.
“Was Nanny Risham brainwashed?”
[No, Nanny was perfectly fine. It was just…]
Luntia’s eyes grew bloodshot.
[She told me she had a daughter.]
“Nanny Risham… had a daughter?”
A Runcandel nanny was forbidden from having children. Even the foster children Taimun raised in her orphanage were merely weapons to be used and discarded. If they had been Taimun’s biological children, the Runcandels would never have selected her as a nanny.
Yet, Risham had a biological child.
Even without hearing the rest, Jin could already guess the ugly story that would follow.
[When I was at Storm Castle, Nanny was away for about a year. She told me she gave birth to a daughter then…]
Risham should have paid a cruel price for violating the nannies’ laws. She, her newborn child, and her entire extended family were on the verge of being slaughtered. However, Risham had paid no such price.
[At that time, Father covered up the matter himself.]
Back then, Cyron had pardoned Risham’s sin with a single word, sparing her child and her kin. In Cyron’s era, it was unprecedented for a nanny to break the family laws, and just as unprecedented for him to cover it up.
In exchange, Risham could never see her daughter or her family again. They were all exiled from Huphester and moved to a small city in the Lutero Magic Federation.
—…The reason the Patriarch forgave me back then was likely because of you, My Lady.
—Because of me?
—You were very fond of me when you were young. Of course, you still are.
—If it were Father, he would have seen that as a lack of will and fighting spirit. He would never have let you and your bloodline live for my sake.
—But I am alive, My Lady. And though I am old now with little time left… I heard that my daughter, whom I haven't seen once since that day, has started a family and is living an ordinary life. An ordinary and happy life.
—Ha…
—Lady Rosa said she would kill them all now. Since the Patriarch himself suppressed the matter, even she supposedly didn't know where they lived… but she said Lady Ilina found them.
—What do you mean, Ilina? Get up, Nanny. Why are you doing this?
—I have been devoted to you my whole life. I gave my youth and my entire life to you. So just once… can you not show this pathetic old woman mercy, just this once?
—I’ll try to stop Mother. Get up, don't be like this!
—That alone won't save my daughter and grandchildren…
The condition Rosa offered was for Luntia to “replace” the master of this subspace—to take the place of its original ruler.
Luntia had accepted.
As Luntia explained these details, Jin’s head throbbed while he struggled to suppress the hatred for Rosa rising in his chest.
[She said it would be for a year. That I only had to replace the original master of this subspace for exactly one year. Sir Padler Runcandel, one of the former Ten Great Knights—he was the original master here.]
Jin had suspected the Prophet had taken Padler from his grave, but he had never imagined Luntia would end up replacing him. He hadn't even known such a thing was possible.
“That goddamn…!”
[But as soon as I replaced Sir Padler through Ilina’s ability, I realized it was a lie. I would never be able to leave this place, not in a year, not in a hundred. The Prophet might have some method I don't know about, but I was certain. I had become completely one with the subspace.]
That was why Luntia had been able to regain her sanity despite being consumed by chaos. She was no longer the human Luntia Runcandel; she had become the subspace itself. Therefore, as the subspace’s chaotic energy was consumed, the chaos consuming her also receded.
This also meant that the moment the subspace collapsed, Luntia would meet her end. Even now, the subspace was crumbling, shedding a black rain of chaos.
Jin’s gaze fell upon the connection points.
“If I reconnect those to you, can you live?”
[I suppose so, since the entire subspace hasn't been destroyed yet. But I don't want that, Youngest. It feels better to end it like this, while my mind is my own and I can die as myself.]
“How did you get in here? I doubt the Prophet knows how to enter this place again, even if she could make you Sir Padler’s replacement.”
[That might be true. But does it matter? Her goal was likely to use Sir Padler, who was here in my stead, as a weapon anyway.]
“I know a sure way to get back in here. As long as you're alive, I can come back for you when I'm able to save you. I can't cure complete consumption or cases like yours yet, but I know a way to purify chaos.”
[If I am reconnected to those, I will go mad again.]
“I don't want to lose you like this. If you can just endure, I will make sure purification is possible. If you disappear now, we can't get revenge on them, Sister. And there’s no guarantee they’ve spared Nanny Risham’s daughter.”
[True, there is no such guarantee. There was only Mother’s promise. If Nanny had told me before her family was taken hostage, we might have found another way. But back then, I had no choice. I couldn't turn my back on her.]
“I wouldn't have been able to turn my back on Gilly, either. I will find and protect Nanny Risham’s family, so please, wait for me.”
Luntia hesitated for a moment before nodding.
[Fine. I’m already caught in a trap anyway… But why go this far for me? It wouldn't be so bad for you to just let me die here.]
“Then we can become a better family, can't we? You and I.”
Jin grasped the connection points.
[Jin, if I receive the power of the subspace again now…]
“I’ll connect them after we find Hister. If you have enough strength to move, please help me. You said Hister is hiding somewhere in this subspace.”
[I will.]