〈 Chapter 321 〉 Ashen Tower (4)
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Elder of Ashen, Krenbel Elenoa.
I know what kind of beliefs the person known as ‘Krenbel Elenoa’ holds. I am well aware of what kind of mage he is, what magic he pursues (??).
Krenbel Elenoa is a mage who sacrificed everything for the Ashen Tower. He gave up all the gains, responsibilities, power, and fame that should have returned to him.
Only for the Ashen Tower.
That’s why Krenbel’s life was the Ashen Tower itself, and that’s why he was called Elder (??). Knowing this, it was hard for me to believe in Krenbel’s possibility of betrayal.
“You didn’t choose this yourself, did you?”
“Haha. You speak with quite a lot of conviction.”
I said decisively to the Elder.
“I know you wouldn’t.”
He was a person who wanted to live rightly.
He was someone who didn’t forget the mage’s duty.
Such a person would not choose to betray out of his own will. That would be akin to denying his entire life.
“…So, Raniel must have said that.”
I silently nodded.
The Elder sighed and smiled bitterly.
“Indeed, it seems so, Rania.”
“Please, go on.”
“Do you know what it is that eats away at my body?”
Of course I do.
It has also been implanted in me.
I nodded in response.
“I do know.”
“At first, I thought it was a magic, but it turned out not to be. What do you think it is?”
Just as I was about to pronounce ‘shadow’, my tongue froze. The Elder is referring to something unrelated to the information. I took a short breath and continued.
“…It’s hard to explain in detail, but saying it’s different from magic is correct. It’s something much worse, sticky, and like a curse that cannot be purified.”
“Curse, curse…”
The Elder pondered the word curse, and I questioned him.
“How did it come to this?”
He did not know that this came from the Demon Lord. Naturally, he had never faced the Demon Lord. Yet, a curse had been planted in the Elder’s body.
Where, how, and why.
It was necessary to know the reason.
Slowly, the Elder opened his mouth in response to my question. However, what came out was not the answer I was expecting.
“Let me ask just one thing.”
The Elder answered a question with a question.
“Can you cure my illness?”
He looked directly at me.
His darkened eyes were returning to their original color.
“…”
I fell silent in front of those eyes.
Reflected in my eyes, the Elder’s body was already in a state that it couldn’t be separated from the shadow. The shadow spreading from the heart had already invaded the Elder’s brain. It was surprising he was still alive.
His soul had already turned black.
There was no way to return the soul that could no longer distinguish black from white.
‘…Even Cardi couldn’t find the answer.’
The answer I found was meaningless in this situation.
Even if I injected mana that devoured the shadow into the Elder’s body, it would burn his soul as well. While pondering how to explain this, the Elder smiled bitterly, as if he read my expression.
“It seems there’s no way.”
The Elder looked at me.
“If so, would you kill me?”
*
“Please kill me.”
At those words, Rania fell silent for a moment.
If asked whether it was possible, of course, it was possible. It was something that could be done by anyone. The important thing was the intention behind such a request.
Reading the Elder’s true intentions, Rania frowned, and the Elder continued.
“To be exact, thirty-seven… Ah, do you know how many days it has been since I awoke?”
“I know it has been four days.”
“Then it would be thirty-three days.”
The Elder stroked his chin as he spoke.
“Could you kill me in thirty-three days?”
“Why thirty-three days of all times?”
“Because it is the time given to me.”
What will happen after thirty-three days?
To that question, the Elder answered briefly.
“I will no longer be myself.”
The Elder smiled bitterly.
“I know it’s a difficult request. A difficult request indeed. But, I have no one else to ask but you.”
He raised his hand.
With the tip of his raised finger, he pointed at Rania’s heart.
“You seem to harbor something similar to what I have, and unlike me, you seem to have a way to fight it.”
Just as Rania felt the shadow that the Elder harbored, the Elder also felt something similar from Rania as they clasped hands. The Elder squinted and continued.
“So only you can kill me. It’s a difficult request, but it’s something only you can do.”
Even while discussing his own death, the Elder’s voice was eerily calm. It sounded as if he were discussing someone else’s death. Just as Rania was about to question that peculiarity, ding, ding.
The chime of bells rang out.
The bell, set to ring at hourly intervals, chimed, and the Elder slowly closed and opened his eyes. He looked at Rania with tired eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
He struggled to speak.
“Could you come back next time?”
2.
Leaving the Elder’s office, I began to sort out my thoughts. I mulled over what I had just heard from the Elder. But the answer still did not come.
Thirty-three days from now, he asked me to kill him.
He asked me to kill him when he no longer became himself.
This is something only you can do.
The Elder said that.
I couldn’t grasp the meaning behind those words. I didn’t know how to accept them, nor could I discern the origin of the shadow that was eating away at the Elder’s body.
‘…This is complicated.’
Although there were many unknowns.
Still, there are a few things I can be sure of.
The Elder desires death.
He has accepted his own death.
He waits for death, resigned to life.
The voice of someone who seemed to have prepared for death for a long time is chillingly calm. That voice kept ringing in my ears, causing me to frown. The Elder I remembered was a passionate person, so why?
“What on earth happened…?”
As I was mumbling while walking.
I met Resti’s eyes waiting for me at the end of the hallway. Resti hurriedly approached me.
“Did you have a good talk?”
I looked at Resti.
I saw Resti looking brighter and more energetic than usual.
“Is it because I talked too much about the professor? It seems the Elder is also very…”
Every time she spoke about the Elder, Resti tended to ramble. Perhaps she had too much to say, with her sentences lacking coherence and repeating similar stories multiple times.
I walked while listening to her talk.
Resti followed me and looked happy, giggling a few times. Originally, Resti wasn’t one to laugh much, but when talking about the Elder, she seemed to laugh easily.
A light laugh, like she had unloaded some burden.
The laugh that seemed to convey that the situation was enjoyable.
I couldn’t look at that laugh carefree. The Elder’s voice was still echoing in my ears.
“It’s truly amazing that the Elder has woken up…”
「Please.」
“Really, I feel like every day has been enjoyable lately.”
「Would you kill me in thirty-three days?」
Though I joined in her laughter at Resti’s words, I kept mulling over the Elder’s words in my mind. I walked feeling as if my throat was tightly blocked.
“Professor Rania.”
Just as I was about to exit the Ashen Tower, Resti suddenly stopped and called me. I turned to look at her.
“Thank you.”
She smiled at me.
That smile was similar to the one she had given me in the gardens of Apuria long ago. Then, the breeze felt like spring, but now the wind blowing was the hot wind of summer.
A humid, unpleasant wind.
Resti’s hair fluttered in the wind blowing from the open door of the tower.
“I think I could come this far thanks to what you said about not regretting what I do. I can stand proudly in front of the Elder with my eyes open.”
Resti Elenoa smiled brightly.
“Thanks to you, Professor.”
A bright smile and a voice filled with sincerity.
At that moment, when I saw that smile, I couldn’t recall how I had responded. I think I remembered saying something like “I’m glad, I’ll support you.”
“…”
Now I couldn’t bring myself to say that.
I bit my lip but couldn’t find the words.
I merely nodded slightly, turned my back to Resti, and resumed walking.
The summer wind is blowing.
Whether it was due to the humid and hot wind, or just the damn hot weather… breathing felt a little difficult. It felt as though my insides were completely blocked.
3.
Thud.
Upon returning to the mansion, I closed the door and threw my clothes off. I roughly unbuttoned my damp shirt and plopped down onto a chair.
“Phew…”
I could have used magic to cool off, but my mind was too tangled to do even that simple task.
“Will you kill me, Rani…”
The Elder’s request to me.
It wasn’t the first time I had faced requests to take someone’s life. Such incidents were common on the battlefield. For those wishing for a comfortable death, I willingly granted their wishes.
So, killing the Elder wouldn’t be a difficult task. However, Resti’s joyful, laughing visage, as she spoke of the Elder over and over, lingered in my mind.
“…”
My head drooped low.
Plop, plop. The sound of droplet hitting the ground resonated.
As I looked down at the dripping sweat, I contemplated.
If the Elder died, what would happen to Resti?
It was simple to predict the changes she would go through. Resti has many traits similar to mine. Therefore, in a situation similar to hers, how would I react?
I began to consider a hypothetical situation.
Assuming the Elder were my Master, and in the same situation, I were in Resti’s place. Then, if the same situation were to happen now…
If ultimately, my Master were to die.
How would I respond, and what actions would I take?
“If I were to kill my Master…”
Just as I mumbled that.
Clink.
The sound of a glass shattering came from behind me.
I jumped and turned to see my Master standing there, having just entered through the door.
“Uh, Master? When did you arrive?”
“…”
My question was met with silence from my Master.
My Master looked at me with trembling eyes and hesitantly continued with a shaky voice.
“What did you just say…?”
Kill? You would kill me?
My Master cast a shocked expression and staggered back a step. It dawned on me what I had mumbled just now.
“Ah.”
I quickly stood up from my seat.
“N-No, that’s not it…”
“D-Don’t come any closer.”
My Master flinched and took a step back.
I stepped forward to clarify the misunderstanding, and my Master took another step back. The distance between us was not closing, and my Master’s expression grew increasingly serious.
“What wrong did I do to you…?”
“You did nothing wrong. No, it’s just that I wanted to talk a bit…”
“If I did nothing wrong, then why…!”
“It’s not like that…!”
Even though my mind was already complicated, I found myself sweating from the effort to clear my Master’s misunderstanding for a while.
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