Chapter 121
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Chapter 121
9. Our Story
Moments earlier, in the Underground Chamber of the Abandoned Crown Prince's Palace.
"What is your partner doing hiding over there? Intruder."
The man who discovered me toppled the bookshelf I was concealed behind directly toward me.
"Vivian!"
The instant Lahedis moved to reach me, the man seized that opening and attacked him.
Lahedis barely deflected the dagger boring toward his neck, but he couldn't evade the man's incoming kick.
"Ugh..."
The impact of striking the wall dislodged the mask covering Lahedis's face, sending it clattering across the floor.
In that moment, I narrowly dodged the collapsing bookshelf, but before me stood...
"Surely you're not thinking of abandoning your ally and fleeing alone like a coward?"
Another man who had entered with the first blocked my path.
Enemy ahead, wall behind.
A situation with no escape in either direction.
Moreover, my opponent was a man far larger than myself.
'I cannot use magic here, so I cannot summon Kamang either...'
A spirit summoner without the ability to summon spirits is no different from an ordinary person.
'I will only be a burden to Lahedis like this.'
Since summoning Kamang, a terrible helplessness I hadn't felt in the past ten years pressed down upon me with crushing weight.
"Right, there's no point in prolonging a meaningless fight."
The man before me judged that I had fallen into complete despair and approached me with confident strides.
That instant.
Thwack—!
"Aaaah!"
A thick book flew through the air, striking the man's forehead squarely.
Behind it stood Lahedis, who had just kicked his opponent far away.
"Insolent intruder!"
The man, staggering from the previous attack, drew a dagger from his belt.
But his gaze was directed not at Lahedis, but at me.
'He intends to take me hostage!'
Realizing this, I quickly grabbed fallen books and hurled them at the man.
"Die! Die, you villain!"
"Damn it—!"
As the man blocked my barrage of books with his arms and closed in on me, it happened.
"Here! There are intruders here!"
As if misfortune piled upon misfortune, the Archive Room door burst open and masked figures flooded in.
Crack—
In my ears, panicked by the hopeless situation, came a sound like glass fracturing.
I instinctively looked down at my feet where the sound originated.
'...A magic circle?'
Somehow, a magic circle had begun to materialize beneath my feet.
'Magic shouldn't be possible within the Imperial Palace's Barrier...?'
I instinctively recognized who had shattered the Imperial Palace's Barrier and drawn this magic circle, and I turned around.
The moment my eyes met Lahedis's.
Boom―!
A heavy, resonant explosion accompanied what felt like the Barrier shattering, and brilliant blue light erupted from the magic circle beneath my feet.
Only then did I understand.
Lahedis had used a teleportation spell to save me.
"Lahedis―"
Before I could even speak, a blinding blue light enveloped me.
And when I opened my eyes again....
I found myself alone, outside the hole through which we'd entered the Abandoned Crown Prince's Palace.
"Lahedis...!"
Lahedis had sent me to safety and remained behind alone.
My heart sank at that realization.
"No, Lahedis!"
Just as I tried to climb back through the hole.
Boom!
A violent tremor erupted from the ground, stopping me in my tracks.
A moment too late, I realized that the tremor spreading from the Underground Chamber was Lahedis's magic.
In that instant, I recalled what Lahedis had said with his lips just before the teleportation—the moment our eyes had met.
I traced the shape of his words from memory and spoke them aloud.
"Save Father...."
Hearing those words, reason returned and the situation became clear.
Lahedis had shattered the Imperial Palace's Barrier, and if I returned, I would only hinder the battle.
Which meant....
'I have to stop Father.'
Another tremor began to ripple from the Underground Chamber, but I turned away from it and rushed toward the Forest before me.
So that the time Lahedis had bought me would not be wasted.
* * *
"...Vivian?"
Dain stared blankly at Vivian, who had appeared before him like a miracle.
Had his last lingering hope conjured an illusion?
The moment he thought that, tears began to fall from Vivian's large eyes as she gazed at him.
Seeing the child weeping so sorrowfully at the sight of me, my heart plummeted.
My feet moved of their own accord.
Even if this were an illusion, I could not turn away from a crying child.
But the moment he took a step toward Vivian.
Vivian rushed forward and embraced him tightly.
That warmth was no illusion.
Dain instinctively embraced the weeping child who threw herself into his arms, then immediately examined her complexion with a parent's concern.
As he always had.
"Vivian, what's wrong―"
"...Why."
Vivian barely choked back her rising sobs, her voice trembling as she asked.
"Why do you keep trying to die alone...?"
At her question, a tremor rippled through Dain's eyes as he looked at her.
The plan he'd desperately hoped she would never discover—Vivian had finally seen through it.
"Do you really think Mother would want Father to sacrifice his life for revenge?"
"...."
"If it were me, even if I died, I'd want the person I love to be happy...."
"...."
"Is that really what you're doing for Mother?"
Dain could only stare blankly at Vivian as she spoke, her words tumbling out like sobs.
He couldn't refute what she said.
The wife he'd loved would surely have spoken the same words as Vivian.
She would have wished for happiness, having cast aside all those terrible emotions—revenge and the like.
But....
"...Your mother wouldn't want another war to break out and put you in danger either. To prevent war―"
"No. That's a cowardly excuse."
Vivian cut him off before he could finish.
"Why do you insist on bearing everything alone...?"
Vivian's eyes looking at him were wet with tears, yet they burned with anger and resentment.
Emotions he'd never wanted her to feel.
And it was no one but himself who had planted those feelings in those beloved eyes.
Only then did he truly realize his plan had been wrong.
"I'm here."
"...."
"Aunt is here, the Duke is here, Lahedis is here."
"...."
"We can do it together...."
The moment Dain heard Vivian's words, he remembered what Igraine had once told him.
[This isn't just your burden. It's 'ours'.]
Lahedis, Kaltz, Igraine.
And now, the child who had grown so much.
There were always people beside me who would fight together if I reached out my hand.
Yet I hadn't been able to grasp that hand readily....
"Father."
"...."
"Can't you stop hating yourself now, Father?"
I realize it's this terrible hatred filling me that's the problem.
That hatred isn't directed at anyone else—it's aimed at himself for failing to protect his wife back then.
The moment he grasps this truth, tears spill from his eyes as well.
"Can't you forgive yourself now... and let this go?"
Vivian weeps.
Hating herself for hating the father she loves, resenting herself, pitying herself all at once.
Dain, who had been staring blankly at Vivian crying for his sake, suddenly understood with crystalline clarity.
He would spend his entire life—no, perhaps eternity.
Unable to overcome this child.
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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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