Chapter 64
Chapter 64
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: Each One's Secrets - 3
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Dame shouted before Jenia could even finish speaking.
“That’s not it!”
Ophelia was Jenia’s best friend, but she was also a subordinate Dame cherished deeply.
No matter how much it was for the Empire, he hadn’t fallen so far as to lay a hand on his daughter’s friend.
Jenia watched his expression closely, then nodded.
“While I was waiting for Father, I thought about the worst-case, middle, and best-case scenarios. Fortunately, it wasn’t the worst.”
“......”
“Then what about Ophelia?”
“I don’t know. She vanished completely during a mission, just like that. She was an executive-level member of the Knights of Light. For someone of that stature to disappear suddenly, and the Knights of Light unable to find her...”
“It must have damaged their image. So you borrowed the name of the Witch of Atrocities.”
“Yeah.”
Jenia nodded and stood from her seat.
She bowed politely.
“It wasn’t the worst, so I’ll greet you like this.”
“What would you have done if it was the worst?”
“Grabbed you by the collar?”
Dame chuckled.
“What was the best-case scenario?”
“Father accepting my words and stepping down as Captain.”
“If that had happened, how would you have greeted me?”
Jenia replied with a gentle smile.
“I would have hugged you, Father. To thank you for listening.”
“Disappointing.”
“Yeah.”
Her eyes gazed off into the distance.
“Really.”
Neril had contacted Jenia, and Jenia said she’d return right away.
I couldn’t help but interject, puzzled by how she answered without a moment’s hesitation.
“Haven’t you settled things yet?”
-No. It’s done.
“Huh?”
-Pfft. Why are you so surprised?
“Well, I thought it’d take at least two weeks. I figured we’d barely make it before the Black Sun rises.”
Jenia responded in a soft voice.
-I hoped it might end quicker than I thought. I didn’t say it just in case.
“Why?”
-Father’s always listened to me well.
Neril smirked.
“He must be weak when it comes to his daughter.”
-Yes, exactly. So I couldn’t be too harsh with him.
“......”
-Anyway, it wasn’t the absolute worst. I’ll explain in detail when I get back.
Click.
A light silence hung in the air after the communication orb cut off.
Neril spoke up.
“I saw an unexpected side of that bastard Dame. Well, he’s still a bad guy to me.”
“You mean that weakness of his?”
“Yeah. But strictly speaking, it’s not entirely Dame’s fault. He didn’t steal the weakness from me.”
“Of course not. As if that guy could take anything from you with his skills.”
“Heh.”
She smiled, looking a bit pleased.
Some time later, Jenia returned.
“Ta-da. I brought some food. Want some?”
Jenia smiled quite brightly.
Perhaps because her talk with Dame had gone better than expected, she looked upbeat.
But we couldn’t cheer along with her.
“Good timing. Sit down first.”
“Yes. The mood feels a bit heavy, though.”
“......”
“Don’t worry. Maide, and all of us—we’ve overcome every kind of obstacle so far. This’ll be fine too.”
“This time, it involves you.”
“Huh?”
I opened my mouth with a sigh.
“Dame’s life is on the line with this.”
After hearing the full story, Jenia’s face grew incredibly pale.
Her expression was so dark that Adwin fidgeted and spoke up.
“Jenia sis, don’t make that face. If we put our heads together, we’ll definitely find a way. We always have.”
“......”
“Oh, right! You haven’t eaten yet, have you? Shall we unpack the food you bought?”
“No appetite.”
At those words, it felt like we’d witnessed the end of the world.
Especially me—I even stuttered.
“C-Calm down. Don’t think bad thoughts.”
“......?”
“Nothing’s happened yet. Don’t do anything rash.”
“No, I just said I have no appetite?”
“You eat two portions’ worth even before battling the Demon King.”
Jenia shrieked.
“It’s not that bad!”
No, before regression, it really was.
I was 100% serious, but everyone chuckled, taking it as a joke to lighten the mood.
And the atmosphere did soften a bit.
Offense spoke.
“To harm Patrick without hurting him, explode the jewel without going berserk, and extract it... Is that even possible?”
“Who knows. I don’t know much about this stuff either. What do you think, Neril?”
Neril crossed her arms.
“As I said before, I have to see it to know.”
“Then let’s see. Right now.”
“Huh?”
“Let’s go to Patrick. If we can’t kidnap him, we’ll have to go directly.”
“Do you even know where he is?”
Jenia jumped in quickly.
“I’ll find him by coordinating sight with Agril.”
“Oh, right, that.”
“Yes. Sorry, but can we move now?”
She seemed quite anxious.
Understanding her feelings, we stood up promptly.
Jenia located Patrick in five minutes.
She grimaced fiercely and told us.
“That Patrick guy is almost as much trash as Kaild?”
“That bad?”
“Hmm... On second thought, maybe not quite.”
“Anyway, what did you see?”
Jenia answered.
“He was spitting on some grave.”
The grave’s owner that Patrick spat on was, surprisingly, Crots’s.
To Patrick, he was his grandfather—and a man with a “fleeting” connection to Neril.
[You’re emphasizing the “fleeting” part a bit.]
‘Shut up.’
We hid in a perfect vantage point Offense had chosen, one where we absolutely wouldn’t be spotted, and watched his actions.
“Kekeke. Are you watching from the afterlife? You damn grandpa.”
“......”
“You were popular and all, but Vice-Captain was your limit. Meanwhile, I became Captain. I surpassed you, you bastard!”
Neril muttered.
“Does that guy have an inferiority complex toward Crots?”
“Looks like it.”
“Puts me in a bad mood. He’s not worth that trash spitting on him. Crots.”
Crots must have truly been someone special.
For Neril, who basically disliked people, to acknowledge him that much.
“Anyway, is this distance good enough for investigation?”
“Yeah. Plenty.”
Neril closed her eyes and lightly formed hand seals.
Analysis magic.
A spell that revealed the causes, phenomena, and solutions of all events influenced by mana.
After focusing briefly, she opened her eyes.
Drip.
A bead of cold sweat trickled down Neril’s nose.
“Why, too hard?”
“It’s not just hard. It’s impossible.”
“......”
“I underestimated it thinking of the Withering Jewel, but this one has messages embedded very meticulously.”
Neril hesitated before continuing.
“If I have to find a hopeful angle, unlike with the Martial King, this jewel is connected to Patrick?”
“How is that hopeful?”
“It means Patrick is the one judging harm. Not the jewel itself.”
Easier to fool Patrick than the jewel, I suppose.
It was a more dire situation than expected, so I swallowed a groan.
‘Come to think of it...’
Before regression, the rampage did happen.
The Black Sun over the capital was proof the corrupted jewel had gone berserk.
‘Who harmed Patrick back then?’
Pre-regression events can’t be seen even with the Eye of Omniscience.
But there was one guess.
I closed my eyes briefly and recalled that memory.
Before regression, one night.
We’d messed up the schedule and were camping out.
Someone woke me from deep sleep.
“Maide. Wake up. It’s your turn.”
It was Jenia, my predecessor on watch.
I yawned widely and looked at her.
Her eyes were completely red and swollen.
Her voice when waking me had been thick with tears.
“Were you crying?”
“No.”
“You think I’ll believe ‘no’ with that face?”
“Sigh. Yes. I was.”
She quickly wiped the tear stains with her sleeve.
I sat up and said.
“Bad dream?”
“I was on watch. Can’t dream then.”
“Then why cry?”
“......Don’t you care about your comrades, Maide?”
True, before regression, I didn’t pry into party members’ personal lives.
But I wouldn’t ignore a comrade crying at midnight without asking why.
“I do now.”
“Sigh. I just got some news from the capital.”
“The capital?”
“Come to think of it, you don’t know about ‘that incident’ at all. You joined last.”
“Yeah. I don’t. So explain kindly and in detail.”
“Weren’t you trying to comfort me?”
“Need the details to comfort.”
She smiled faintly.
It was such a forced smile that it looked sadder than crying outright.
“It’s nothing. Not worth explaining now.”
“......”
“Take watch. I’ll be right back.”
“Gonna come back crying more?”
“Argh, seriously. You’re so unpopular, Maide.”
Her sudden jab left me speechless for a moment.
Jenia giggled at my blank face and vanished into the darkness.
As I scratched my head, rustling came from behind.
It was Neril.
“You’re unpopular, yeah.”
“What do you know. Mercenary guild masters would line up around the castle to serve me.”
“Not that kind of popularity.”
“Why’d you wake up?”
“You two were too noisy.”
She sat up sleepily, glanced where Jenia went, and said.
“Leave her be for a while. She’s probably distraught.”
“Seems like there’s a lot in our party I don’t know.”
“You don’t try to find out. Show a bit more interest? Then you might’ve been leader.”
Her half-joking, half-serious words made me chuckle.
Neril smiled back, then continued seriously.
“She’s probably worried about her father.”
“Father? Dame Side?”
“Yeah. Sometime... Oh, around when we recruited little Adwin, there was trouble in the capital.”
“The Black Sun?”
“Right. Jenia asked Kaild then. To put off Reynus territory and head to the capital. To handle the Black Sun that rose there together.”
Even now post-regression—and back then—I could guess Kaild’s response.
“He refused.”
“Yeah. Reynus was more urgent, he said. Fair enough, we did recruit Adwin there, so it was big.”
“......”
“The Black Sun turned nearly 30% of the capital’s people into monsters. If we’d chosen the capital then, maybe we could’ve stopped it.”
I scratched my head.
We chose Reynus over the capital, and there Jenia used the great spell ‘Purification,’ losing some lifespan.
If done in the capital, it surely would’ve lessened the tragedy.
Not about which tragedy was lighter...
“Anyone would want to prevent disaster where their family is. Makes sense.”
“......”
“But no need to worry about Dame, right? Knights of Light are still intact.”
“You know he retired?”
I tilted my head.
“He did?”
“Yeah. After the Black Sun, retired citing age. Abel’s interim Captain now.”
“Well, Black Sun was huge. Maybe he overdid it.”
“Dunno.”
She whispered lowly.
“I know the Knights of Light well. They’re geniuses at covering up incidents.”
“What’re you getting at?”
“I think Dame might’ve fallen to the Black Sun too. The Knights are hiding their monster Captain.”
“To cover the shame of their Captain becoming a monster?”
“Plausible, right? That’s why Jenia’s crying like that.”
Neril added evidence.
Jenia’s increased capital contacts under the Black Sun incident.
Witnessing her sob like that a few times.
Her meals halved recently.
“Third one counts as evidence?”
“Of course.”
“......”
“Well, all speculation. Keep it to yourself. Don’t tell others.”
“Why tell me? Tell Kaild instead.”
Neril paused, then answered.
“I would’ve originally.”
“Originally? What?”
She murmured softly.
“Before meeting someone more trustworthy.”
I ended the recollection.
The vivid pre-regression memory gave me certainty.
‘As expected, pre-regression Black Sun happened because Dame killed Patrick.’
[Yeah. Circumstantially.]
‘I think I know why Dame killed Patrick too.’
The threat from Patrick via Eye of Omniscience.
Step down and put your daughter in your place—that threat must’ve moved Dame.
‘Meaning it could happen again...’
Gotta be careful.
Dame loves his daughter, gotta give him that.
Trail asked.
[Pre-regression, your party washed hands of the Black Sun, right?]
‘Yeah. Heard it later since I joined late.’
[Jenia must’ve been disappointed.]
‘......’
Yeah.
After that, maybe deep down pre-regression Jenia didn’t trust Kaild either.
Like Offense subtly did.
Like Neril openly did.
Did other members have their own issues?
Sudden regret hit.
Maybe I shouldn’t have focused only on my retirement life...
[Don’t dwell on the past.]
‘Is calling pre-regression “past” grammatically correct?’
[Arguing semantics means it’s bothering you.]
‘......’
[Even if you’d stepped up, it wouldn’t have mattered. Again, the fame gap between you and Kaild was overwhelming. Back then, you couldn’t be Hero even resurrected.]
‘Resurrected and I became one.’
[Ugh.]
I chuckled.
‘Thanks for the comfort.’
[Ahem.]
Trail’s right.
Not time to regret past—time to move forward.
For a different ending than before.