EP.215 The Traces of Cataclysm (2)
I stepped on the rubble of the collapsed castle wall and moved my feet beyond it. Even if half of it had fallen, the wall was enormous, and it would take a while to get over it.
Tududuk.
Standing at the edge of the ruined wall, I looked down. Cardi said that beyond the wall would be the capital of Arcadia.
“…Hey, Cardi.”
I called out to Cardi.
Cardi, who had climbed over the wall a beat later than me, dusted off his robe and replied.
“What?”
“This is the capital?”
“Yeah. It’s the heart of Arcadia. This was once the site of a royal castle, and it was indeed called the capital.”
“…This?”
I pointed beyond the wall.
“This was the capital?”
What I saw was a ruin.
The ground cracked wide open, with fragments of buildings and towers hovering in the air. The debris floating above showed not a single tremor.
It’s like it’s been preserved just like this.
There were hundreds, if not thousands, of such things.
I swallowed hard and directed my gaze further down. Below the fragments and the cracked ground, something was seeping out.
Fog.
A gray mist resembling dark clouds.
The thick mist seeping from the crevice crawled along the ground, and flashes of light burst from it at regular intervals.
Kwa-rung!
A flash erupted, quickly followed by a deafening roar. The thunderclap assaulted my eardrums. Startled by the sudden thunder, I flinched and trembled.
“…Lightning?”
Lightning struck upward from the ground.
Not blue or white but a dark, ominous lightning. A streak of black light lingered in the air like an afterimage.
It was an unimaginable sight.
A place where providence did not apply.
I stretched my hand out to read the flow of mana existing beyond the wall.
Magic energy.
Thick magic energy vibrated all around.
The flow of mana swallowed by magic energy was extremely sharp, and if the arrangement of mana were to falter, it would surely be ripped apart in an instant.
Not to mention if Cardi had no mana…
It was quite a difficult environment for me.
“Hah…”
Magic territory.
That word that first popped into my head made me swallow hard. The thick magic energy vibrating here, where I was supposed to be the capital of Arcadia, reminded me of horrifying memories.
Just recalling it made me feel queasy.
Just trying to trace that memory felt like phantom pains in my heart.
The black plains.
The endless plains where I faced the Demon Lord.
That place also exuded the same atmosphere as what I was seeing now. Just walking felt like I was confronted with death.
The only difference is…
I slowly looked up at the sky.
That there’s no Demon Lord.
As I looked up at the sky, I recalled the day I faced the Demon Lord. There was no sky there.
A black sludge that devoured the sky.
Something unknowable that obscured the light.
That day, from the moment we set foot on the plains, rain poured from the sky, and the endlessly falling black raindrops began to collect in the furrows carved into the meadows.
Clumps formed from the sludge that gathered and pooled together.
The shape of something created from the torrent falling from the sky.
『■■, ■. ■■■■■■.』
That mass of sludge that emitted an incomprehensible noise was, thankfully, not here.
Though the surroundings were dark, it was not because starlight did not reach here; it was because nothing devouring the sky existed in this place.
“Why is it so beyond imagination?”
As I swallowed hard, Cardi threw in a joke. I looked at Cardi with a bitter smile.
“Well, the view of the capital is quite avant-garde. Looks like the architect had a unique way of thinking?”
“Like you’re any different.”
“What?”
Pfft, Cardi chuckled.
“Let’s go then.”
We jumped off the wall and landed on the nearest floating fragment. With Kwa-rung echoing behind us like thunder, we continued jumping.
Tap.
Though Cardi didn’t explain anything, I instinctively knew where our destination was. My sight was now set on a massive castle shrouded in mist.
The ancient royal palace.
The royal castle located at the center of the ancient kingdom that had turned into a magic territory. It resembled the White Night Palace I saw in the North but was several times larger.
That place engulfed in fog would surely be our destination.
And…
If we could reach there.
I should learn something.
What Cardi wanted to tell me.
What I had to see and realize with my own eyes.
It was certain that it lay within that castle.
—
2.
As I broke out of the main church of Deloheim, trying to escape the land of ashes, Kyle stopped his steps as if enchanted and looked back.
“…”
The traces of a fallen kingdom.
Where those traces led, there was a huge castle wall. Though it was far away, Kyle felt an ominous presence from the ‘something’ beyond that wall.
A sensation like something crawling up his spine.
A feeling as though his throat were burning.
It was a sensation he had felt long ago. Kyle recalled the moment he experienced that feeling. It was an unforgettable memory.
…The Demon Lord.
It was the sensation he felt in his encounter with that monster. Kyle absently fiddled with the hilt of the Holy Sword.
“Kyle, what are you doing?”
“…Nothing.”
Remia, who was walking ahead, turned back.
Kyle shook his head. Whatever sensation he felt had nothing to do with him. After all, he had no intention of going beyond that wall.
“…Kyle, you know.”
As they resumed walking, Remia trotted up to Kyle’s side. Then, she whispered softly in his ear.
“Sarah looks really upset.”
“…Does she?”
“Maybe you should do something. If you leave her alone like last time, she’ll probably sulk for weeks.”
Kyle looked ahead.
The back of Sarah, who was stomping forward as if smashing the remnants of buildings, caught his eye.
“…I’ll try to make an effort.”
“Sarah’s simple, so a small gift should do the trick, right? By the way, grab one for me while you’re at it?”
Saying that, Remia quickly distanced herself from Kyle. By the time she reached Sarah, who had gotten quite a distance ahead, Remia draped her arm around Sarah’s neck and whispered in her ear.
Although they were far apart, and her voice was soft… Kyle’s sharpened hearing caught onto every little sound.
“I’ve said it nicely. If you show a hint of wanting something, Kyle will probably buy it for you. So, take this chance…”
“…Really?”
“Yeah. Do you have something in mind?”
“Ah, speaking of that… the design from the Black Tower this time is really pretty…”
“Isn’t that the one with no functionality at all, but the design and fabric are nice?”
…This bounty from the expedition will be completely squandered again.
“Haa…”
Kyle sighed as he fiddled with the hilt.
When he closed his eyes, the image of the girl I had encountered earlier flashed before him. The girl who had viciously shot back, breaking ribs and bruising shins.
A girl resembling Raniel.
But, the girl who said she was not Raniel.
Her identity kept gnawing at Kyle’s mind. However, he felt strongly that any further involvement would lead to no good for either of them.
Ashen-haired, blue-eyed.
Distinctive, yet not resembling that other one.
Everything about her, aside from her appearance, was similar to that other one.
“Different.”
No matter how many times he asked, she would only respond that way. As he sighed, Kyle shoved his hand that had been fiddling with the hilt into his pocket.
“You will become a replacement for the Hero Party.”
The girl’s last words lingered in Kyle’s ears. The plan Raniel was supposedly establishing echoed in his mind. When he heard those words, what came to mind was, amusingly, the feelings he had experienced over the past five years.
It’s still the same.
Truly, unchanged.
That guy was still thinking of capturing the Demon Lord even in this situation. After sacrificing half of his lifespan, he still wanted to chase the very Demon Lord who had just fled…
It wasn’t a daydream.
It wasn’t an illusion either.
What everyone said was impossible, that guy achieved it all. He defeated the ancient lich that had lived for centuries with magic and succeeded in creating a class that overcame the weaknesses of mages.
“Always, always like this.”
While everyone sang his praises, Kyle knew better than anyone else. That his being special was not solely due to his own abilities.
Raniel van Trias, the Ashen Mage.
Even though he hadn’t been chosen by the girl, hadn’t been blessed with anything special, and hadn’t been born with any racial strengths, he achieved feats because there existed someone like him.
He would not break.
He had never known how to break.
Even in the face of death, he remained the same as always.
“Unlike me, differently than me.”
That tortured Kyle.
Kyle absently stared at his palm. It was clean now, but there was a time when it was covered with calluses.
There were days when he trained so much that scars remained on the body of a hero that shouldn’t bear scars.
Recalling those days that now felt like ages ago, Kyle let out a bitter smile. Even if he adorned it with dozens of lines, it was, in the end, an incredibly simple story.
“I have changed.”
But he hasn’t changed.
He still hasn’t changed up to this very day.
Kyle found that fact both abominable and yet delightfully comforting.
“It should be like that.”
It should be because it’s you.
That’s how I’ve always seen you.
“You must, absolutely.”
Kyle muttered.
That mutter lingered in the air before fading away. Only the girl heard that voice.
—
3.
“You were so energetic earlier, weren’t you?”
“I was.”
“So, I thought you could run around even in this magic territory. Wow, even if the mana is gone, your physical abilities remain! Truly a Grand Magus! I was impressed thinking that.”
“Regretfully, I thought so too.”
Raniel looked coldly at Cardi with an icy gaze. Right now, Cardi was dangling from the chain that Raniel held, far from any display of the grandeur befitting a Grand Magus.
To summarize the situation, it was as follows.
Cardi, who had been leaping energetically, tripped just as the royal castle was within arm’s reach and fell headfirst. Raniel had wrapped him in chains and left him hanging there.
“Hey, Cardi…”
Looking down at Cardi, who was hanging from the chain, Raniel spoke in a voice that held a hint of pity.
“You look so pathetic right now…”
It was indeed the truth, so he couldn’t disagree.
Cardi let out a deep sigh and opened his mouth.
“It’s not about my physical abilities. I possess the bodily abilities typical of elves, and through repeated training, I haven’t reached superhuman levels, but I’ve ascended to a similar realm. So it doesn’t mean I make clumsy mistakes like tripping.”
“Then why now?”
“…It’s the effect of the contract.”
Oh, that again?
Feeling a bit ashamed under Raniel’s condescending gaze, Cardi replied.
“It’s a penalty of the contract. If I try to intervene in anything related to the Demon Lord, I become hopelessly helpless.”
“…Are you just embarrassing yourself and saying anything? You just tripped, didn’t you?”
“No.”
The seriousness in his voice led Raniel to stop questioning. Silently, she pulled on the chain and hoisted Cardi up like fishing bait.
“It seems something is indeed there.”
Feeling like a fish hooked on a fishing line, Cardi gazed toward the castle. Just as they were about to enter, or rather, just as they tried to intervene in the barrier surrounding the castle… his body felt utterly drained of strength.
There’s something inside that.
Something that had not existed here when he last visited hundreds of years ago… was now wriggling inside that castle.
“I’m feeling uneasy.”
“Oh, I truly feel uneasy. By any chance, am I supposed to carry you around?”
They both felt unease for different reasons.
