The Trap at the Top of the Tower
His friend, Flin, looked up at Seya and Mir with wide, startled eyes. "You came back? All the way back here?"
"Of course we did. And since we have to go right back out, put some strength into those legs of yours!" Seya hauled the Young Duke upward, as if there was absolutely no time to waste on emotional reunions.
"Wait, hold on. I think I can walk on my own." After being dragged up about six steps, a sudden, fierce desire to stand on his own two feet surged within the Young Duke. He realized that if he indulged in any more sentimentality, his perfectly fine heels would be scraped raw against the stone.
"Fine. Now, where's the idiot who fell down the stairs?" Seya turned his head, scanning for his next target.
"No, I can walk just fine!" the child who had been listening to the Young Duke being dragged like a sack of potatoes squeaked in terror. Unfortunately, his protest only served to pinpoint his location. Seya scooped the child up in an instant and bolted.
"I can't carry you like that, so you'll have to keep up on your own." Left alone with Flin, Mir's voice grew even colder. Yet, the Young Duke found he didn't mind the chill as he began to move his feet.
As they climbed in silence, Mir finally spoke. "Why do you keep trying to save us?" His voice carried a sharp edge. At the question, the Young Duke hesitated. "Well, that's..."
"And don't say it's because of your promise to Seya. Nobles aren't the type to risk themselves over things like that." Cut off so decisively, the Young Duke stared at the faint silhouette of the back of Mir's head before offering a slower, more honest answer.
"The promise is part of it, truly. My father taught me that a promise must always be kept. But... perhaps you're right, Mir. Maybe it isn't just because of the promise."
Perhaps it was because the darkness hid their faces, or perhaps because his body was too exhausted for guarded thoughts. The Young Duke poured his heart out quietly, treating the boy who refused to look back as if he were a silent doll meant to swallow secrets.
"Up until now, there hasn't been much I could do. Everyone works so hard for me, hides things to protect me, and risks their lives for my sake... but I can never do anything for them in return."
"You sound like the very model of a perfect noble. Aren't you being a bit too humble?" Mir retorted. It was hard to tell if he was mocking or praising him, but the Young Duke let out a soft chuckle.
"Being good at studies is different from handling things well as the heir to a ducal house. As an heir, I'm pathetic. I always ruin everything. Everyone just ends up getting hurt. That's... that's why I came."
That single "why" carried all the clumsy, unspoken yearnings of the young boy. He needed proof that he deserved his position; he wanted to be of some help to Tollin and the people of the duchy; he wanted to save someone, just as his father had. Mir found no words to offer, listening in silence. He privately thought this noble boy, who chose the hardest path over the easiest one, was far stupider than he looked. Though, he knew Seya would never think of him that way.
When they were perhaps ten paces from the exit, Mir suddenly stopped and turned to face the Young Duke in the dark. Startled by the sudden halt, the Young Duke looked at him, wondering what was wrong. Though Mir was shorter, standing two steps higher on the staircase allowed him to meet the older boy's eyes.
"Promise me one thing." As the Young Duke waited for him to continue, Mir spoke. "Once we get out of here, never look for us again."
"Alright." The answer came without a moment's hesitation, causing Mir to scowl in the darkness. "For someone who dragged himself all the way here, you sure agree easily."
"I only came because I knew it was dangerous. Besides, if I disappear, too many things change." That's true, Mir thought, nodding in the dark. With the heir of the Feedus family missing, the world outside must be in an uproar. If the Feedus family was involved in this, everything would grind to a halt; if they weren't, their private soldiers and the city guards would be tearing the Capital apart to find him.
Taking his silence as agreement, the Young Duke continued. "And maybe I won't even need to look for you in the future. After all, you came looking for me this time, didn't you?" Mir scowled, unable to let that slide. "That was only because we owed you our lives. From that room. Have you forgotten already?"
"So if I help you first, you'll come looking for me." Mir racked his brain, trying to think of a sharper, more biting retort. "That sounds a lot like making friends to me," the Young Duke added. But Mir couldn't think of anything half as stupidly profound as what the noble boy had just said.
"...You really are incredibly annoying." In the end, only another childish insult slipped out. "I suppose I'll just have to accept that I'm unlucky this time," the Young Duke replied. Fortunately, any chance for Mir to snap back in irritation vanished as a half-open door at the top of the stairs came into view.
It was the exit they had desperately sought, but the fact that no one was waiting there set Mir's nerves on edge. "That's strange. Seya definitely told us to wait once we reached the door." Moreover, if Seya had gone out on his own, there was no way the outside would be this quiet. Mir and the Young Duke quickened their pace up the stairs. Creeeak. Mir pushed the door open, a cold dread pooling in his stomach.
"Ah, it seems you two are the last." Mir had prided himself on imagining every possible danger that might await them beyond that door. An ambush by enemies, another prison cell, or even—by some microscopic margin of possibility—finding themselves in an entirely different country. But the reality waiting for them was something he could never have anticipated, even in his wildest nightmares.
A man stood there. His brilliant, platinum-blonde hair fluttered gently in the breeze. With a sudden, violent shock that felt like a physical blow to his mind, Mir lost consciousness and collapsed.
Among the fallen children, only the Young Duke remained standing, staring directly at the man. He looked around in utter disbelief. The vast stone chamber was adorned with a pristine altar and small statues. Slowly, his gaze drifted to the side of the door he had just exited. The boy gasped, his breath catching in his throat. A colossal statue of Sierra the Great towered over him, looking down with cold stone eyes.
Through the high windows, the sprawling Capital lay stretched out below. This was a tower—a sacred monument visible to anyone who simply looked up at the sky. Unable to comprehend how such a holy place could be connected to a dungeon where children were kidnapped and slaughtered, he turned his eyes back to the beautiful imperial prince.
"It really was you, Your Highness." "Indeed. I thought your aide understood my warning," Ditto Abaran said, taking slow, deliberate steps toward the Young Duke. He looked up at the massive stone statue and smiled. "But seeing you here, I suppose he didn't."
The Young Duke sank to the floor, as if caught in an invisible trap. Facing the speechless boy, Ditto smiled playfully. "Ah, you're finally here." Behind them, Priest Gude and his men had finished climbing the stairs and were crossing the threshold.
"H-Heavens! I greet the Second Prince!" Gude, panting heavily as he entered, threw himself to the floor the moment he laid eyes on Ditto. The men following him scrambled to do the same.
"To think you couldn't even manage a few children and let them climb all the way up here... You really are useless trash." "T-The children used some strange tools, and—Aaaargh!" One of the men desperately tried to excuse himself, but his words were cut short by a bloodcurdling shriek. A burst of flame had instantly engulfed his head.
Gude and the remaining men pressed their foreheads even harder against the stone, not daring to make a sound. The Young Duke averted his eyes from the gruesome sight. But as he did, he met Ditto's smiling face. The man's screams abruptly ceased as his charred body collapsed to the floor.
"Ugh...!" The sickening stench of burning flesh and hair made the Young Duke gag. The Second Prince merely looked down at him, his expression placid. Forcing himself to stay conscious, the boy looked up.
"Did you... did Your Highness really kill those children?" "Asking a question when you already know the answer is a fool's errand. The clever heir of the Feedus family shouldn't behave like that." Under that piercing gaze, the Young Duke lost his last shred of denial and bowed his head.
"Why? Why would you do such a thing?" "I have done far more than you could ever imagine. Simply because it benefits me." Could that really be a reason? For someone who held all the wealth and glory of the empire to slaughter children who barely survived day to day? As if reading the confusion in the Young Duke's eyes, Ditto slowly walked closer.
"These things are no different from pebbles kicked along the roadside." Step by step, he drew nearer. The sheer pressure was suffocating. "They are like trash—no one cares if they are broken or if they disappear entirely."
As he spoke, Ditto began to kick the unconscious children out of his path, clearing a way between himself and the Young Duke. "But... if you discover that there are gems hidden among those pebbles, you have no choice but to gather them up, don't you?" Finally, he stopped in front of Seya and a smaller child who lay tangled together. It was the child with the injured leg. Though the kid's face was deathly pale, Ditto didn't seem to care in the slightest.
"Stop!" The Young Duke's breath hitched as he screamed his plea. Ditto slowly lowered his raised foot and stared at him. Meeting those glassy, inorganic eyes made the boy's entire body tremble, but he forced himself to speak. "They'll die if you do that. Please, stop."
Ditto laughed, as if he had just heard a hilarious joke. "I won't kill them yet. They are far too precious as ingredients." As the Young Duke's mind raced, the word the prince kept using finally took on its true, horrifying meaning. Ingredients. Raw materials used to create something. "What... what on earth are you trying to make?"
When the Young Duke asked, Ditto seemed to ponder for a moment before speaking casually. "Six years ago, children in the Capital began experiencing strange phenomena during the Tinas Ritual. Not many. Perhaps one or two out of a thousand."
He continued, ignoring the confusion of the Young Duke, who didn't know how to respond to this sudden shift in topic. "When their hands touch the Cor Holy Water, something unbelievable happens." Dipping one's hands into the Cor Holy Water was the most crucial part of the Tinas Ritual. For a tiny fraction of children, a white light would glow the moment their hands touched the liquid. This meant the child possessed Manis—a phenomenon rare even among high-ranking nobility. Naturally, the Young Duke had heard of this. His own father had experienced it and had told him the story countless times.
"But that is..." "Exactly. It is a power that commoners should never possess. And that is why they must disappear." He spoke of them as if they were cockroaches, to be crushed simply because they were filthy.
"Why? They didn't commit any crime. They were just born that way." The Young Duke's voice grew quieter. The Second Prince's cold eyes pierced through him—the exact same freezing gaze that had stared him down in the drawing-room of the Feedus estate. Ditto tilted his head and asked, "Why is it not a crime? To possess a power far above one's station. To dare lay claim to the power of the gods."
"It's wrong to punish them just for having it. They are... they are just like us..." They are human. A sudden instinct warned the Young Duke that he must not finish that sentence. Staring at the tight-lipped boy, Ditto turned his gaze back to the fallen children as if nothing had happened.
"I am merely gathering sinners who are destined to die anyway. Since they are so rare, they make excellent ingredients." The Young Duke realized Ditto would never reveal what those ingredients were for. He couldn't fathom what grand creation could possibly justify kidnapping so many children. As the faces of the children—who had laughed so brightly at a mere squirrel—flashed through his mind, a hot wave of anger surged within him.
"But these children aren't pebbles, and they aren't 'high-quality ingredients.' They are living people." At the boy's whisper, Ditto's smile widened. "It seems spending time with them has made them precious to you. How foolish. You are just like your father."
That playful voice dragged the Young Duke back into the drawing-room of his memories. "You people always seem to think that throwing away your pathetic lives will save something. In reality, it only brings about worse consequences." Ditto was a man who pried open your heart, only to ruthlessly punish you for what he found inside. Terrified by the memory, the boy clamped his mouth shut.
Seemingly pleased by the boy's silence, Ditto slowly scanned the children scattered across the floor. "None of these brats will survive the night. Normally, they wouldn't have been wiped out like this. Who do you think is to blame?" When the boy failed to answer, Ditto tilted his head.
"If that's too hard to answer, let me change the question. Why do you think I came here in person today?" The Young Duke lifted his head. Reading the rising horror and despair in the boy's eyes, Ditto spoke again. "I told you before. It's all because of you. Because of your useless meddling, everyone here is going to die."
He was right. No, perhaps he had ruined things even more than the prince claimed. The prince said the children's lives were cut short because of him, but the Young Duke knew the truth. If it had just been Seya and Mir, they would have had a high chance of escaping if the Second Prince hadn't arrived. If Ditto hadn't come, the children would already be outside, breathing the air of freedom.
I ruined it again. They could have survived without my help. Flin Feedus bit his lip so hard his jaw ached, fighting back tears. Even so, he had to keep talking. He had to buy time until help arrived.
"The city guards and the Feedus family's private soldiers are searching for me all over the Capital. Please, release the children now." Ditto burst into laughter at Flin's words. The Young Duke swallowed hard, chilled by the prince's sheer amusement.
Why was he so relaxed? He wasn't scrambling to destroy evidence, nor was he making any move to flee. Nothing had changed. The captured children remained unconscious, and Ditto stayed where he was, idly playing with a pouch Priest Gude had left behind. Even though he surely knew Tollin was aware of his deeds and was heading to the temple at this very moment, he casually gazed out the window at the Capital.
Tapping his finger against the windowpane, Ditto suddenly turned around. He pointed a finger at Seya. "Let's start with the tall one over there." Only then did the Young Duke realize what the Second Prince intended to do. He's going to continue this mad experiment right now.
"Wait! Shouldn't you be running away? Tollin and the soldiers will be here any minute. You don't have time to continue the experiment—" "Those pests would never dare lay a hand on me," Ditto interrupted.
"Then why did you kidnap these children in secret? No matter if you are an imperial prince, if people find out you did this, they won't stand for it!" Ditto stared at the Young Duke's earnest face before laughing as if he had heard the most ridiculous thing. "Haha, what a hilarious thing to say. Why would I ever fear those insects?"
Then what was he afraid of that made him kidnap children in secret? His words made no sense. Seeing the boy bite his lip, Ditto continued, "I suppose showing you would be faster." At a nod from the Second Prince, one of the men splashed water directly onto Seya's face as he lay beside the Young Duke.
"Pffft-cough!" Sputtering out the water that had filled his nose and mouth, Seya's eyes snapped open. "You bastard!" He immediately lunged at the man who had clearly thrown the water. Watching the man clutch his bruised jaw was admittedly satisfying, but if Seya caused any more of a scene, there was no telling what the Second Prince would do.
"Seya, calm down!" At the Young Duke's shout, Seya hesitated, releasing his teeth from the man's arm. "Truly, no different from a beast," Ditto chuckled, as if watching an amusing show. Hearing the blatant mockery in his voice, the Young Duke braced himself to hold Seya back from lunging at the prince.
But the confrontation he feared never came. Seya didn't get angry, nor did he look frightened in the way he had when he first saw the Young Duke. The Young Duke gasped as he watched tears well up in Seya's usually bright eyes. Though no one was holding him down, the boy slowly fell to his knees and pressed his forehead against the cold floor. He looked like a person who couldn't bear to exist unless he subjected himself to the deepest, most absolute self-abasement.