Duchess Maria (2)
Duchess Maria (2)
Even after I overcame the effects of her inherited ability, Duchess Maria was still beautiful.
Though I could no longer sense the angelic beauty of her smile, her striking features remained—but right now, that beauty was barely perceptible.
It wasn't the passage of time that had changed her.
Perhaps because she had taken good care of herself, neither her skin nor her facial structure had changed much.
But the wrinkles on her face completely obscured that beauty.
Several long furrows were carved into her forehead, and deep creases had formed between her eyebrows.
It was as if the scowls she had worn for years had permanently hardened into wrinkles.
"No way... you're that Alex?"
Duchess Maria spoke, her wrinkles deepening even further.
With my sword still in hand, I gave her a polite bow.
"It has been a long time."
No matter how I looked at it, the seat the Duchess was sitting in was meant for the Lord.
Yet her sitting there seemed incredibly natural.
She had been sitting in it for so long that it had become the norm.
Leaning back comfortably in her seat, the Duchess scanned me from head to toe.
"It really has been a long time. I never imagined you'd grow up this much."
Her words carried the distinct implication that she hadn't expected me to live long enough to grow up this much.
In turn, I asked after her well-being.
"Have you been well?"
At my question, the wrinkles that had smoothed out slightly deepened once more.
"Does it look like I've been well to you? There's no way I could be well after spending all this time in a prison like this."
If someone lost their ability and was banished to their spouse's family estate in such a remote basin, it might certainly feel like a prison.
But the way the Duchess was living now looked far too luxurious for a prison.
"You seem perfectly fine now, though."
"Hmph, it's only because I barely managed to regain my ability. Do you have any idea how long I was locked inside this house, unable to even step past the front door?"
Finally, the information I was curious about came to light.
I had heard that before the Duchess left the estate, the Duke of Gracia had stripped her of her ability.
If what she had just said was true, then the Duke had indeed stripped her of her ability, and she had somehow managed to regain it.
Or, since it wasn't exactly the same ability, had she awakened a new one?
Just then, text floated above the Duchess's head.
< Mental-type Hero Ability User >
< Active Ability >
- Puppet (Level Unidentifiable): A mutated variation of Affinity Enhancement.
Mutated upon being forcibly recovered.
Extremely unstable state.
Come to think of it, I had the ability to see the skills of other ability users.
Since I had to be close and focus to see them, I hadn't paid much attention to it before.
But seeing it now, I realized it was actually quite helpful.
But, forced recovery?
Does that mean she restored what the Duke had destroyed? How?
I was full of questions, but unfortunately, the Duchess didn't seem to have any intention of answering them.
"So, why did you come here?"
Instead, she asked why I had come.
She had clearly been listening to what I said to the knight earlier.
Yet the Duchess was pretending to be completely oblivious.
"I came because there was no response to the Duke's estate's proposal."
When I said that, the Duchess smirked. Then she raised her hand and pointed to the old man lying down.
"Don't tell me you mean the letter sent to my father, who's collapsed over there? Why would anyone send a reply to such useless nonsense?"
Since he used a similar ability, I had wondered if they were related. But was he truly the Duchess's father, Viscount Ibiza?
"If the Duke—no, if Andres had told me to return home, that would be one thing. But I sent back all those useless documents addressed to that old man. It was a great mercy that I didn't kill the messenger."
The Duchess giggled to herself as she spoke.
She no longer carried herself with a noble's dignity, or even bothered to act like one.
And just as the status window had shown, her emotional state seemed highly unstable.
"If you're here to talk about such useless things, just go back. Neither my father nor my brother will have anything to say to you."
So the collapsed old man was her father, and the one slumped over with a shattered sword was her brother.
Which meant even her own family had become her puppets.
Her family, who possessed similar abilities, all the servants in the mansion, the knights who had awakened mana, and even every single resident of this town.
The number of people she had turned into puppets was far too vast.
It had become far too powerful to call it a mere variation of her former ability.
"While there was the matter of the Duke's estate, I also had my own reasons for seeing you, Duchess."
"Hmph, what business could a wretch like you possibly have with me? You're nothing but the Duke's puppet."
Because I was so young back then, the Duchess, like everyone else, believed the Duke had orchestrated everything.
If she had known that I was the one behind it all, we wouldn't even be having this conversation.
Or rather, since I had already defeated her knights and crossed swords with her family, were we not already in the middle of a battle?
But I couldn't understand why she was acting so relaxed in front of me.
She must have clearly seen that her ability didn't work on me. And neither her knights nor her family had been able to stop me.
Although the townspeople were swarming outside, none of them could actually do anything to me.
Their sheer numbers would be annoying, and it would probably weigh on my conscience to kill innocent people.
But that was all.
There was absolutely nothing that could stop me from killing her right here.
"You must find it strange that I'm so relaxed, don't you?"
She smirked as she read the expression on my face.
"Actually, this works out perfectly. I was getting tired of waiting anyway. Instead of waiting any longer, it's better if I go there myself. Seeing your skills, it might be quite amusing to march into the Duke's estate with you leading the way."
I couldn't quite understand what the Duchess meant.
Although her mana was still making my head throb, I was definitely managing to block it.
Yet she was going to use me to lead the way?
I had many questions, but it seemed impossible to get any more answers out of her.
I tightened my grip on my sword, and just as I was about to swing—
Rumble.
The floor rippled.
"I was planning to end this quickly, but a much more interesting ingredient has arrived. It seems you had a girl traveling with you?"
The Duchess beamed as she watched me steady myself on the undulating floor.
She glanced to the side. As she did, a large window swung wide open on its own.
As the window opened, the noisy din of footsteps, farming tools, weapons, and people clashing against one another echoed inside.
The sound came from the townspeople surrounding the mansion.
Tense, I glared at the open window.
It wasn't because of the townspeople gathering at the mansion.
Hum.
Thick tree branches crept in through the open window.
As if carrying someone, the branches gently lowered themselves to the floor.
Balea stepped down from the branches and walked inside.
Balea's expression was different from before.
Her face was completely expressionless, just like the other townspeople. She, too, had fallen under the Duchess's control.
"I left her far away precisely because I feared this would happen..."
The Duchess's ability was far stronger than I had anticipated.
Balea stepped down from the branches and stood beside the Duchess, as if trying to protect her.
"She's pretty. And young, too. So even a wretch like you is Andres's son, huh? Did you plan to travel alone with the woman you love, just like Andres did?"
The Duchess's eyes, which had been scanning Balea, drifted toward the empty air. Her gaze seemed to look back into the past.
"I was truly happy back then. The time I spent traveling alone with Andres... I didn't have to think about that bitch Brivia, and that bitch Amanda hadn't even appeared yet."
Then a smile bloomed on her lips. I did not like her smile one bit.
"You didn't even truly love him anyway; you just brainwashed him with your ability..."
"How dare you!"
How dare me, my foot.
To think she expected me to show her respect after binding Balea like that. That was incredibly shameless of her.
"Hmph. Before I watch a father kill his son, it wouldn't hurt to watch a pair of lovers fight. Now, go and kill him."
At the Duchess's command, Balea tilted her head.
"Why should I kill Alex?"
The Duchess's face contorted once more.
"No way... you're resisting that? Go and kill him right now!"
Mana erupted from the Duchess's body.
Ugh.
The headache was no joke. It was incredibly difficult to withstand.
"I... I shouldn't kill him..."
With a distorted expression, Balea raised her hand.
Her mouth still refused to obey the command, but her ability obeyed the Duchess's will.
Rumble.
The floor surged upward, and the walls writhed.
It was no different from when I had fought Balea at her house in the past.
To think she could do this much without even preparing her territory.
Balea had definitely grown much stronger than before.
At the same time, chairs and furniture moved to conceal the Duchess from view.
Balea certainly knew me well.
With the Duchess hidden, I couldn't locate her.
It wasn't that the mana the Duchess was emitting had vanished.
It was just that I could feel her mana coming from all directions, making it impossible to pinpoint her exact location.
It seemed I would have to completely demolish the walls and the floor to find her.
But before that, I had to block Balea's attacks.
The walls surged forward like waves, and spears erupted from the floor.
Even as I sliced through them with my sword and dodged, every object in the vicinity relentlessly pursued me.
Balea stood right in the center of the room.
She wasn't making any attempt to dodge.
I couldn't tell if the Duchess had left her there on purpose, or if Balea was holding her ground.
"Please kill me. Then the attacks will stop."
Since she was asking me to kill her, it seemed her consciousness was still intact.
But I couldn't help but smirk.
Balea asking me to kill her? There was no way.
The Duchess did not know Balea.
That aside, it seemed she had now completely taken control of Balea.
And it would be difficult to find the Duchess immediately.
It looked like I had to take a gamble right now.
I returned my sword to its sheath at my waist and drew another sword from my relic pouch.
Then, slicing through the flying debris, I dashed toward Balea.
The ground rippled and the walls tried to swallow me, but such tricks could not stop me.
After only a few strides, I was in front of Balea. She stared blankly at me and asked me to kill her.
Standing before her, I channeled mana into my sword.
I watched Balea closely until the very last second, but her expression did not change.
If that was how it was going to be, I had no choice.
Prepared to take a potentially suicidal risk, I thrust the sword into Balea's abdomen.
Thunk.
The sound of a blade piercing flesh and sinking deep echoed.
I had cut down countless people, but I had never felt as wretched as I did right now.
"Ah."
With a soft gasp, Balea's body collapsed.
At that exact moment, the distorted world reverted to normal.
The floor flattened out once more, and the walls returned to their original state.
The furniture, too, returned to its proper place and shape, and the Duchess burst into laughter from where she had been sitting earlier.
"Hohoho! You actually killed her. You really aren't Andres's son, are you? To think you'd kill the woman you love."
No, I didn't kill her.
Balea's ability hadn't vanished because she was dead; she had voluntarily withdrawn her power.
With the sword still embedded in her abdomen, Balea was staring up at me.
Her face was no longer blank; she was grimacing in pain, yet smiling at me—this was the real Balea.
The sword currently thrust into her abdomen was the Knight's Sword, a lost national treasure of this kingdom.
That sword was a blade that blocked all mental attacks.