Chapter 143. The Bloody Banquet (1)
“I don’t like it.”
The silver-haired girl was furrowing her eyebrows.
“Still, it’s a ceremonial dress personally delivered by the Saintess. Shouldn’t it be a little more splendid?”
Iselin was personally preparing a ceremonial dress for her cousin, Blanc, the Seeker of the Blue Star.
Using Blanc’s upcoming birthday as an excuse, Iselin intended to remind him of the duty that came with being the Seeker of the Blue Star.
To be precise, her intention was to make him think of her by reminding him of his connection to the Order.
It was Blanc who had brought her to a strange place and left her alone.
Even the young phoenix that had been with her had flown off to Norington, so it was perhaps natural for a sense of disappointment towards Blanc to sprout in her young heart.
“Please try this on next, Sir Jonas.”
“...Yes, Your Holiness.”
Although Jonas was also her cousin, just like Blanc, Iselin treated him merely as ‘Sir’ and dealt with him like a subordinate rather than family.
Jonas, who fully understood why and for what reason, had no choice but to accept it.
It was Jonas who, though unintentionally, had driven Iselin to her death.
Therefore, he knew well that the only way to atone for his mistake was to protect her with the heart of a sinner until Iselin forgave him.
The two people treated each other in a subtly strained relationship.
And there was a gaze watching them from a distance.
“He’s doing well.”
A small smile appeared on the lips of Bartomyu, who was quietly watching Jonas and Iselin from afar.
As Bartomyu had intended, Iselin had gained a loyal knight who would risk his life to protect her, and Jonas, who had been lost and wandering, was granted the right to stand by the side of the shining Saintess.
“Please continue to take good care of Jonas, Sir Trez.”
Trez, who was following Bartomyu like a shadow from behind, replied.
“He is moving well on his own. Both in training and on duty.”
Seeing his eldest grandson who had finally come to his senses at the last chance in his life, Bartomyu finally looked relieved.
However, Bartomyu had no time to rest.
Those who stood in high places and looked far into the distance always had to prepare for many things.
“What has become of the Maximilian matter?”
Bartomyu wiped away the smile he had just been wearing and returned to his original, cold expression.
“I could not look into the internal affairs of the family, but...”
Although Bartomyu’s gaze was still on his grandchildren, all his other senses were focused on Trez.
Because his sharply honed senses felt that Trez had brought something.
“The blood relatives of the Maximilian family, who were scattered throughout the Kingdom of Anton, are returning to their domain. And...”
Trez quietly approached and whispered in Bartomyu’s ear.
“They are quickly disposing of their assets in Moirai.”
“Hmm...”
The foundation the Maximilian Family had built in Moirai was like their history itself.
And yet, they were not only disposing of it but also quickly wrapping it up while accepting losses.
“...”
Hearing Trez’s words, Bartomyu’s mind began to become complicated.
Numerous possibilities flashed through his mind, but even so, Bartomyu did not take his eyes off.
His gaze on the young one playing in front of him.
“...When you get old, you become like that. You worry about everything in the world.”
Bartomyu, who seemed to have organized his thoughts after a short deliberation, continued to speak in a calm tone.
“In that sense, there’s something I want to ask... Do you happen to have a plan assuming the worst-case scenario?”
Trez understood exactly what Bartomyu intended with his current words.
“A plan has been established in conjunction with the Torch Knights to ensure the safety of the Saintess, the Pope, and the Cardinals.”
Trez replied, looking at the silver-haired girl over Bartomyu’s shoulder.
Did she know?
That the old lion’s sturdy shoulders were blocking the things rushing at her with malice.
“And that plan was likely already known to Carlo Maximilian, wasn’t it?”
And that she was hiding herself behind his safe back.
That it had always been that way.
“That is likely. Sir Carlo, as an Honorary Canon of the Goddess Order, had the authority to access Level 1 security.”
Time had taken away the sharp teeth and claws Bartomyu had in his youth, but it had given him something else in return.
“I see...”
Bartomyu’s dry eyes, which had seen many things in his life, were recalling something.
“...In that case, I would like to arrange a new route that only you and I know.”
Bartomyu said with a smile, stroking his chin as if it were no big deal, but the intention behind his words was heavy.
Bartomyu was preparing for a possible worst-case scenario.
“I understand, my lord.”
Trez, understanding Bartomyu’s intention, quietly bowed his head and retreated.
Bartomyu stood with his hands behind his back and watched Trez’s back as he walked out the door.
Between the door and the room.
Between the warm, shining sunlight and the dark shadows.
Bartomyu always stood on the borderline between them.
He had placed a wall called himself between the approaching enemies and everything he had to protect.
“When you get old, that’s all you think about.”
Bartomyu turned his head and looked at the youngest Tolome, his most beloved granddaughter.
“Worrying about the ones who will be left behind.”
In the warm, shining sunlight, there was something he had to protect.
“...I should call Edwin.”
The time of the old is fading, but it is not yet over.
Those with things left to do cannot rest easily.
***
Blanc stared blankly at the report in front of him.
“I hope this decision comes as a gift for your upcoming birthday.”
Ciella, without caring about Blanc’s blank reaction, simply kissed his cheek.
Watching her wave her hand while holding the doorknob until the very end, Blanc could only manage an awkward smile.
“Mint...”
The report Ciella had made was a business report on the mint derivatives she had been developing.
The gist of the plan was to import mint from Baron Baum of High River and mix the images of Neudorf and Cadmus.
“The potential is certainly there.”
Blanc knew well the utility of mint through his experience in his previous life.
If it was a business with sufficient potential, it was something he should allow, even as a reward for Ciella who had sacrificed so much for him until now.
“Hah...”
However, looking down at the report, Blanc could not help but sigh.
The sigh he let out was not simply created from an aversion to mint.
Anxiety about the future.
It was a sigh created by that.
In his previous life, the utility of mint was widely known to mercenaries, but it had not reached the culture of the nobility.
But in this life, its influence was reaching the nobles, and the one leading it was his own family, Cadmus.
“I am definitely twisting something, aren't I?”
Blanc was trying to twist reality and change the coming future to prevent the destined ruin.
The various butterfly effects that started from his struggles were spreading into reality in various forms.
Blanc, who had been looking at Ciella’s report, stood up and looked out the window.
“I can’t even see it anymore.”
It was the place where the first Void Tree had been, but now it had been uprooted by the dwarves, leaving not even a trace.
He had done it.
He couldn't do it in his previous life, but he had done it in this life, and as a result, he had succeeded in slightly twisting the flow towards ruin.
“...I am doing the right thing, aren't I?”
Blanc tried to find comfort by tracing the now-invisible traces of the Void.
Hoping that the things he, as a singularity, was creating would be helpful to humanity.
Hoping that his regression was not in vain.
***
It was filled with red.
The hair color of the man sitting in the highest place.
The drops of blood flowing from the sword he held.
The things flowing on the floor, the things splattered on the wall.
Everything that met the eyes of the kneeling people was stained a gruesome red.
“Prince Aleid! Do you not know that what you are doing now is crossing the line!”
An old man who looked like he had been tortured, with no part of him left unscathed.
But his spirit was not bent at all, because he had a strong belief.
A strong belief that the red man before him could not do anything to him.
“...Prince?”
Aleid was looking down from the throne at the people kneeling.
“You should call me king now, Cardinal.”
Prince Aleid, holding a blood-soaked sword, descended the stairs at the cardinal’s shout.
Every time he took a step, a squelching sound came from the carpet soaked with blood.
The sight of Aleid descending on the blood-soaked carpet towards the lobby brightly lit by red candles somehow gave off the feeling of something beyond human.
“...”
As Aleid came closer and closer with his grotesque and overwhelming presence, the kneeling people squeezed their eyes shut.
But among them, there was one who held his head high.
He was a cardinal dispatched by the Order to each royal family.
He was confident that Aleid could not kill him recklessly.
Because if he were to kill him, he would be crossing an irreversible river with the Goddess Order.
In the space filled with red, only the cardinal’s angry shout echoed.
“Heaven knows, the earth knows, and the Goddesses know that you, with your lowly blood, are not the rightful successor!”
Aleid, who was quietly taking in the cardinal’s words, just smiled silently.
“That’s right. The Goddesses must have been watching everything.”
His expression, hidden in the dark shadows, was not visible.
Only one thing was visible.
His smiling lips.
“So they must have been watching back then, too.”
Every time he moved, an ominous squelching sound was made.
“When my mother was unjustly framed as a witch and burned to death.”
Only when Aleid came close enough to feel his breath could the cardinal see his hidden face.
“When my mother’s tribe was exterminated, and the few pitiful survivors were driven out to the Red Desert.”
Though he was smiling with his lips, tears were flowing from Aleid’s eyes.
Anger, joy, pain, pleasure, sadness...
Every emotion that existed in this world was melted into his expression.
“Of course, they must have been watching.”
The cardinal could not help but shut his mouth upon seeing Aleid’s face, which was smiling while grimacing.
Because his face was filled with madness.
“When they colluded with the royal power to burn the innocent to death and trampled them in the name of the Order, didn’t the Goddesses just watch?”
“Y-you blasphemer!”
The cardinal was about to roar at Aleid for uttering such insulting words to the Goddesses, but.
He could not continue his next words.
“You said this dog-like tongue was their will.”
Because Aleid was holding his tongue.
“Mmph... Mmph!”
The cardinal looked at Aleid with a horrified expression, but all he could do was let out meaningless groans.
“Isn’t that right?”
Rip—.
Along with Aleid’s quiet shout, something long and red was scattered on the floor.
“Huuuuaaaaggh-!”
The cardinal, whose tongue was pulled out, could not even scream properly.
As his muffled scream echoed, the people kneeling nearby finally spewed out the fear they had been holding in.
“Please spare us! Your Highness!”
“We were just doing as we were told!”
Because his ruined state would soon be their own.
Amidst the cries of those awaiting death, a red line was drawn from the tip of Aleid’s sword.
That line reached precisely the end of the cardinal’s neck, and.
“Gack!”
The cardinal, seeing the suddenly reversing scene, made a face of disbelief.
He saw the red floor and the gold-adorned ceiling.
The red floor, the golden ceiling, the red floor, the golden ceiling, the red floor, the golden ceiling.
It spun round and round.
That was the last sight the cardinal saw in this world.
“...”
Aleid picked up the cardinal’s head, which still had a horrified expression as if it could not believe its own death.
“The Goddesses must be watching this too.”
Aleid roughly threw the cardinal’s head he was holding to the floor.
The cardinal’s head rolled pathetically.
It was filled with red.
The hair color of the man sitting in the highest place.
The drops of blood flowing from the sword he held.
Everything in the room.
In the previous life, Aleid had ultimately self-destructed due to the endlessly spreading Void, but this life was different.
Blanc had succeeded in blocking the Void by cutting down the first Void Tree, but that had, in turn, given Aleid the clues and time to control the Void.
“Perhaps this is also the will of the Goddesses. What do you all think?”
Perhaps all the red spread throughout this room was something Blanc had created.