EP.183 Omen (2)
Where there is light, a shadow follows.
The stronger the light, the darker the shadow that is cast. It is an undeniable truth, a natural principle. Yet there exist beings unconstrained by such truths.
Star.
People referred to it as a star.
The star is beautiful. It shines brilliantly. Being a being that escapes natural law, the star’s other name is God.
“Isn’t it funny?”
There is one who mocks that god.
“While you demand that nothing oppose the natural law, you yourself are outside of it. The star you believe in is a contradictory existence.”
The law imposed by the star.
A rule that cannot be broken.
“Can we really call an imperfect and contradictory being a god? I don’t think so.”
Going against it, a woman called Gletus smiled.
“Moreover.”
Once, there were humans bowing their heads to her, remnants of filth. As she walked, Gletus stepped on their heads. Where she was headed was clear.
“Considering such things exist, can we really think of the star as a pure being?”
She captures that thought.
What she drew out of the fog was a human. Under the assumption that a being spewing black smoke from its eyes and mouth could be called human, it was indeed a human.
“It must have been a precious child to you.”
Gletus held the hair of that being and presented it to a man kneeling before her. The man’s face distorted. Flames ignited in his eyes.
“It must have been a beloved child of the star.”
Crackle, sizzle.
“Unfortunately, the outcome is always like this.”
Gletus smiled at the man.
As if in love, as if overwhelmed with affection.
“You’ve seen it, so you must understand.”
She tilted her head.
Tilting her head, she grasped the man’s chin. As she gazed into the flames igniting behind his eyes, she whispered.
“Now that you understand, you too must harbor thoughts like mine. How about we play a guessing game?”
Madness and madness faced each other.
The Braver recognized another Braver.
“The star should not exist. It should be dragged down and buried in the mire. From an endlessly beautiful and radiant thing, all beauty and brilliance must be stripped away and reduced to something meaningless — it must be done.”
A sticky, elongated voice.
“You must think so.”
The woman who had lived in madness for centuries smiled at the birth of a new Braver. Encountering kin, she burst into an ecstatic laugh.
“Just like me.”
At her whisper, the man screamed.
His fury erupted, emotions spilling forth. Gletus could only smile at his reaction. With a grin, she said.
“Yes. You resemble me, dear child.”
That one line stayed etched in the man’s mind.
He remembers the curse that seeped into his ears.
Even now, a hundred years later.
“······.”
The Braver, Kelharlem, opened his eyes.
Looking out the window, he could see the landscape of Apuria. It was small in scale, but it evoked memories of the academic city Artiya he once managed.
A place resembling the academic city, Artiya.
A gathering place for children blessed by the star.
And, a girl resembling Celestia.
All of this felt like a revelation to Kelharlem. He caressed his neck. Clink, clink, the sound of chains echoed. Listening closely to the sound only he could hear… Kelharlem simply waited.
For the coming end.
2.
“As Artiya once was.”
“A shadow will also come here.”
“You must not approach it.”
I pondered over those three lines.
Kelharlem remained silent. For days, I had tried to question him again, even resorting to threats and challenging him to duels, but he only responded with silence.
“I have nothing more to say.”
Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t.
This attitude was reminiscent of Cardi. I didn’t expect to hear anything different.
‘This nonsense can’t last long.’
After three days of this crap, strange rumors began circulating among the students.
“Look, the professor is at it again…!”
“He’s been grabbing by the collar and shaking them. I think he was threatening just now…”
“I think I heard the word duel. Is he challenging again…?”
The rumors were filled with inaccuracies, but I had no time to care about them. Regardless, I stopped the absurd antics, allowing for plenty of time alone to think.
“The shadow is coming.”
A shadow is coming to Apuria.
“And I must not approach it.”
I stroked my chin.
As far as I knew, a shadow was the opposite concept of a star. And the existence it pointed to was singular.
‘Demon Lord.’
A being that had lost the qualifications of a king, now merely a demon. Cardi referred to this being as a shadow.
‘A shadow is coming to Apuria.’
In other words, it meant the Demon Lord would appear in Apuria. However, interpreting it that way left many unresolved questions.
“I doubt he would have said that the Demon Lord was coming.”
He wouldn’t have used the word shadow unnecessarily.
The shadow Kelharlem spoke of felt more like a phenomenon rather than a specific being.
‘He said it had come to Artiya as well, right?’
I recalled the information I had about Artiya. I didn’t know much. Kelharlem never spoke of his past.
The academic city, Artiya.
Reduced to ashes overnight by Gletus.
‘So, Kelharlem hates Gletus.’
Then does that mean Gletus is coming to Apuria?
“That’s impossible.”
I furrowed my brow.
Months ago, I expelled Gletus when she entered the city of night. During that encounter, she implied that she would no longer set foot in the royal capital.
‘As if chased by something.’
She referred to it as her last chance.
I clearly saw the moment when the star that erupted from her heart was taken by Balance. That was a sort of constraint.
‘I expected it, but that’s when I was sure.’
The disasters other than Skebal.
In other words, those who were once heroes cannot enter the royal capital. They are bound by some sort of constraint. Thus, they were excluded from the line of dragons.
From the start, all beings with such names were excluded from that line.
“Phenomenon.”
The shadow that Kelharlem described is a phenomenon.
A phenomenon that cannot be named precisely as a being, only referred to as a shadow. What in the world could that phenomenon be? No matter how much I think, I could find no answer.
‘What exactly is it that I must not approach?’
I had no idea.
“Ugh…”
I let out a suppressed groan and shook my head. Eventually, it seemed like contemplating wouldn’t lead to any answers.
『Just as Artiya once was.』
In the end, I could only hope for hints within that statement.
‘Kalt should have sorted it out well.’
From the moment Kelharlem revealed his purpose for visiting Apuria, Kalt gathered all the materials he could find regarding Kelharlem. I thought I would borrow some of that information.
-Kalt.
I wrote a note in the letter I had exchanged with Kalt.
It wasn’t long before Kalt replied.
“Yes, senior.”
“The data organized about Kelharlem, can I have a look? I’m concerned about something.”
“I will prepare it. Would it be alright to find it in the usual place in about an hour?”
“Yeah. Let’s do that.”
“I happened to have something to ask you, so this worked out well. Let’s meet in about an hour.”
Something to ask?
I tilted my head.
“I’ll know when I go.”
3.
“Oh, you’re here, senior?”
As I spotted Rania among the trees, Kalt waved his hand. She plopped down onto a stump opposite Kalt.
“Huuh…”
She immediately let out a sigh.
Up close, I could see that her expression wasn’t pleasant. She seemed troubled with thoughts.
‘Is she still sulking over the duel?’
Her pride is quite strong.
With that thought, Kalt took the initiative to speak.
“I’ve organized what you mentioned. I’ve cleared out all the classified documents regarding Kelharlem, so I shouldn’t have missed anything.”
“Thanks. So, what do you want to ask?”
Rania asked in response to receiving the documents.
Kalt hesitated for a moment before speaking.
“Um, it’s about something…”
“What is it? Spit it out.”
“I have a question about magical tools. Senior, do magical tools ever just disappear overnight?”
“···Disappear?”
“Yes, disappear.”
Kalt nodded.
“A few days ago, one of my subordinates found a magical tool in the underground waterway, and for some reason, I have no idea what it’s used for. So, I thought I’d ask you, after briefly keeping it in my coat while monitoring a task.”
Kalt fluttered the hem of his coat.
It was a coat enchanted with expansion magic.
“And then, it… um… disappeared for a moment.”
“···Disappeared?”
“Yes. There are no traces. I thought something might have gone wrong with the expansion spell on the coat, but it didn’t. Everything else is fine.”
Rania stroked her chin.
Kalt sighed and continued. Honestly, he was quite bewildered by this event.
“I wanted to bring the actual item and ask about it, but the missing magical tool just hasn’t shown up.”
“···There shouldn’t be cases of magical tools disappearing. So, what did it look like?”
“Oh, um…”
Kalt drew a circle in the air with his fingers.
“Do you know one of those round crystal orbs about this size? It’s exactly that size.”
“Does it look like black crystals? Does it have to be just one or two of those? The basic form of magical tools is usually a crystal, right? What exactly does it look like?”
“It was black. Really pitch black. And it seemed empty inside, just like it was meant to hold something…”
“···Pitch black?”
Rania’s eyes narrowed.
“Yes, black. About this size…”
“Wait a minute.”
She interrupted Kalt. With a deliberately serious voice, Rania pointed to Kalt’s coat.
“Take that off and show me.”
“The coat?”
“Yeah. Hurry.”
Kalt took off the coat and handed it to Rania.
She brought the hem of the coat, where the expansion circuit was drawn, close to her chest. As Kalt was about to ask what she was doing…
Zzap!
A spark flew between the coat’s hem and Rania’s chest. Followed by a sizzle, a burning sound echoed.
“What the hell…?”
Rania pressed her chest, her head bowing. Blood dripped from the corner of her mouth. Kalt’s eyes widened in shock.
“S-Senior, are you alright?”
“Let go.”
Shoving Kalt’s panicked hands away, Rania spat out blood. The dark red blood dropped onto the shrubs. She wiped the blood off her mouth with her palm, mumbling.
“So that’s what it meant by not approaching…”
In her hand was a black crystal orb.
What she held was the same one Kalt had seen before. However, unlike then, the orb was glowing brightly.
‘As if it had been activated.’
It looked like it was ‘reacting’ to something in its surroundings and ‘attracting’ it. Rania placed the orb on the ground and pressed her palm against her chest.
“Huuh…”
Her breathing was uneven.
After taking a moment to steady her breath, she slowly opened her mouth.
“Listen well. It seems the situation has gotten a bit tangled, alright? Right now…”
That was the moment she spoke.
Boom!, the orb vibrated. Rania’s pupils began to shake violently. Clutching her chest, she collapsed to the floor.
“Khak, guh!”
“Senior!”
She coughed up blood.
Kalt quickly reached out toward the magical tool. Just as he drew his dagger to shatter it…
“Don’t break that! If you do, you’ll mess it up. Don’t shatter it…”
Her voice, fragmenting, reached Kalt.
“Just wait a bit, just a bit longer, and…”
Her voice did not continue.
The fading sound stopped completely.
“Senior! Senior!”
Kalt shook Rania’s shoulder.
Rania showed no sign of opening her eyes.
