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EP.466 To Become an Empire (5)
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Humans are foolish and pitiable beings.
By thinking, striving to achieve something with a meager body, and being buried in unattainable dreams, human life is often doomed to unhappiness.
“I must find it.”
Chasing dreams that I cannot achieve with this frail body of mine, humans feel helpless. Feeling helpless, they blame themselves. Blaming themselves, human life falls into despair.
“I must find it.”
Because humans are such beings.
Even knowing there is no meaning in life, even knowing that a life that has not been completed is worthless, even knowing that most lives end that way.
“The answer.”
Humans yearn for their own life to be fulfilled. They are foolish beings who wish to become a work of art, craving unattainable dreams.
“To find the answer…”
Here stands a foolish human.
He possesses no martial talent. He has no magical abilities. He does not have a brilliant mind that could be called genius. He is neither a born politician nor a great orator. He is simply someone who is better at observing and recording than others.
“I must fulfill the task entrusted to me by the queen.”
Rugran Clen Cartedia.
Or, Rugran Clen Arcadia.
“Before my life ends.”
He hoped and hoped.
That there was something meaningful in his life.
*
Years of research continued.
His back hunched. His hair turned completely white.
His granddaughter was nearing adulthood. Youth had long left his side, and death was approaching to occupy the place youth had vacated. Under the impending death, he grew anxious. He felt rushed.
His only thoughts were filled with the need to see some results, which was perhaps only natural.
He did not possess the uniqueness of the queen he served. Unlike her, he had only this one life. With that one life, he had something to prove. An answer he needed to pass down to future generations.
‘How to kill the First Light.’
The answer the queen could never find.
To find that answer, he set aside his duties. He gave up ruling. He delegated all tasks he was supposed to carry out as a king and immersed himself in research. In the early days of the nation, he was called the current king, but now people whispered that he was possessed by a ghost.
It wasn’t surprising. As one ages, they should grow wiser and more composed, yet he was going in the opposite direction. But he didn’t care what they said.
He had work to do.
Every day, he researched the peculiarities of Stella and the Watcher with his granddaughter. Based on the writings left by the queen, he explored the true value of this talent. After repeated digging, clues began to emerge.
The Watcher reads the context of stars.
In the moment of seeing, it understands and pierces the essence. It does not matter what the object is. As long as the owner’s brain can endure, it “understands” all information in an instant.
Stella acts like a ruler.
Before a child loved by the stars, all flows simply kneel. It dominates, suppresses, and wields power as it pleases.
The queen was proficient in both talents but could not uproot the Light. This was because she could not grasp their true essence. There was no method to erase the immortality of the Light that would continue to shift its life.
“But then, why?”
I ask why.
“Knowing it would be a threat, why did she leave the queen alive?”
I focused on it.
Why did the Light leave the queen alive? The only being that could harm them, why did they spare her? It was hard to see it as mere amusement. The Light was a meticulous being.
…What is the purpose of the Light, to begin with?
The Light gave birth to the Master of the Demon Lord.
It summoned a false god to this land.
The false god’s purpose is to bring down the stars in the sky. What can be gained by bringing down the stars…
I searched through historical texts.
I uncovered what are called forbidden books.
I collected ancient texts possessed by elves, and forbidden tomes found in forgotten cities, in all possible ways. I gathered and scrutinized them. As a result, I was nearing the purpose of the Light.
“Ah…”
I realized it. For the Light, the queen was both a danger and a necessary existence in their plans. Stella and the Watcher were mere pawns.
The beginning was just a small pawn.
However, that pawn could become anything.
If it reaches the edge of the chessboard, the pawn can be promoted to whatever it desires. Bishop, rook, knight… But in most games, the promoted pawn becomes the most powerful piece, the one that guards the king.
Queen.
The edge of the chessboard, the edge of the world.
There, the Light planned to promote the chess piece to their queen. And the precedent was already near me. My queen was that example.
The Master of the Demon Lord, transformed into that existence, was being used by the Light to fulfill their own purpose. However, that purpose was thwarted by my friends, including Ganikalt. So, would the Light give up on that purpose?
“Of course not.”
Just as I cling to my purpose, the Light would also live a life consumed by their own goals. For hundreds of years. They wouldn’t give up so easily. Especially now that they had already seen its feasibility.
I realized the purpose of the Light.
The moment I grasped the purpose, my research gained momentum.
I was getting closer to finding a way to kill the Light, a way to discover their true essence. I even realized ways to use the Light’s purposes against them. And thus, one day when I was nearing the answer…
“I saw a shadow.”
My granddaughter, soon to be an adult, said.
Trembling with fear, she implored me.
“The shadow, the shadow, the shadow…”
Poison seeped into Cartedia too.
In my kingdom, poison had seeped in.
“Ah, oh, oh…”
My granddaughter’s eyes rolled back.
She spat black blood and began to die. As my dying granddaughter stood before me, something arose. It was the Balance. The contract made by the queen with the stars.
flump.
From my collapsed granddaughter’s body, shadows seeped out. The shadows grasped the Balance that had risen into the sky. Interfering with the platinum-colored Balance, they wormed into the gaps of the contract.
tsk, creak.
The contract twisted.
The starlight my granddaughter had contained split into two. The talents of Stella and the Watcher had been separated. Among the separated talents, the starlight resembling an eye shattered and disappeared somewhere. The contract had been distorted.
…Just when I was on the brink of fulfilling my goal, everything I had built collapsed in an instant. So easily.
, . *.
The shadow inhabiting my granddaughter burst into laughter. Her chin trembled, and her body shook as she emitted a strange laugh. The laughter began in the laboratory and echoed down the halls of the royal castle.
thud,
As the laughter ceased, a multitude of people rushed into the laboratory. My son, who had been handling state affairs in my stead, was also there. The moment he saw my granddaughter, who had spat black blood and was facing death, his gaze turned to me.
“What have you done?”
My son glared at me.
“What have you done?”
I explained the circumstances, but no one was listening to me. To them, I was already a half-mad old man, and they believed that a mad old man had broken his granddaughter.
…I could no longer remain in the castle.
I left the royal castle, leaving behind my last words.
Deep within the royal family, poison resides. If that poison is not removed, Cartedia cannot become an empire. Thus, I left the castle quietly after leaving my last words.
“……..”
With little time left in my life, the place I arrived at was where my homeland was located. That place had already become a Phantom Territory, no longer a place for people to approach. Without entering Arcadia, I wandered the vicinity.
A small village near Arcadia.
From a corner of that village, which no longer had people living in it, I began to write the final record. Holding the memoir bequeathed to me by the queen, I dipped my quill into ink.
“I have failed.”
At the very end of the memoir. The last remaining page.
What was written there, along with the results of my research, was a letter left by Rugran Clen Arcadia for future generations.
“I have failed.
To be more precise, we have failed.
The queen trusted and entrusted us, but we have all failed. Abaddon, Tristan, Akelm, Ganikalt, Gleria, Belial, we all failed.
Arcadia has been destroyed.
The hundreds of years the queen built have collapsed.
Though we established Cartedia following the will of Arcadia, now no one remembers Arcadia. My homeland has been forgotten by all. Therefore, we have failed. We utterly failed, and it is embarrassing to say that we were here, but…
Still, I dare to say it.
There was a country called Arcadia. In that place, there was a queen who sought to thwart the plans of the Light that meddled with the history of humanity. There, heroes who wished to become lights themselves, following the queen’s will, existed. Those who remained loyal to the queen until the end.
Though they ultimately may have failed.
I hope their lives were not meaningless.
Therefore, I dedicated my life to them. Though insignificant compared to theirs, though pathetic it may be, I found my own answer in my own way. I will write the answer I found here.
………..
…
…
…No matter whether you, the reader of this text, are a descendant bearing the name of Cartedia, a hero enjoying that era, or some other being, I can only hope for one thing.
That my struggles had value.
That our failure, may it hold some meaning.”
Raniel squinted.
The answer found by one human had credibility. It possessed persuasiveness. As she glimpsed the human’s determination, Raniel let out a long sigh.
“There is a possibility. No, high probability.”
This was a method she had never imagined.
No, it wasn’t that she hadn’t imagined it, but rather, she had never approached the problem in this manner. To be honest, it was surprising. For someone who was ignorant of magic, the answer was so exquisitely crafted that it was hard to believe. A mere ordinary person proved potential through their life.
“Remarkable.”
Raniel clicked her tongue inwardly.
“I never thought we could pinpoint the location of the true essence of the Light in such a way.”
Ayla smiled bitterly.
Smiling bitterly, she gestured towards the memoir.
“Shall we take a look at the last page? The gap there?”
“….Are you talking about here?”
Raniel examined the last page of the memoir closely.
Upon closer inspection, there was a gap between the cover and the last page of the memoir. A previously opened tear. Carefully inserting her fingernail into the gap, she opened it to find someone’s name written inside.
“Acriel Clen Arcadia.”
“To my beloved queen.”
The name was written in the queen’s handwriting.
What was penned beneath the name was written in Rugran’s hand.
“It seems to be the queen’s real name.”
“It seems that way.”
Though her name had changed several times over her long life, that name would be the root of her identity.
“It seems the queen anticipated it would be her last life and wrote that name as her final one.”
Ayla stated.
“Thus, the name of the last queen of Arcadia is Acriel Clen Arcadia. The name of the First Queen is also Acriel Clen Arcadia.”
There were no queens before her.
Looking at the name of the queen, who shared both the prosperity and downfall of Arcadia, Raniel let out a long, very long sigh.
‘…Cardi is someone worth showing respect to.’
Excluding her comrades, Cardi was someone who rarely praised others. Yet, he never withheld respect for the queen he served until the end. There was indeed a reason for that, Raniel mused inwardly.
“So,”
Raniel clapped the memoir shut.
“Shall we talk about what comes next?”
Having seen the stories entangled in the past.
Having observed the present that stemmed from the past.
The next thing to look at was the future.
“Regarding the extermination of the Light.”
