Chapter 60
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Chapter 60
Slender fingers traced slowly across Kieran's cheek.
As she brushed the frozen man's face, her voice emerged faint and fragile.
"Nothing...."
Kieran couldn't move.
As if someone had cast a binding spell upon him.
His rigid expression gradually softened, then a sharp laugh erupted from his lips.
It was a laugh so keen it could have drawn blood.
Kieran, laughing as though possessed, broke into a wide smile.
It was a beautiful smile, like a flower cradling poison.
"Then die before me."
He seized the hand touching his face.
Gripping those skeletal fingers, drained of flesh, he screamed.
"Die before me, I'm begging you!"
Kieran's cry tore from him like blood, his body convulsing.
In a room so hot from the fireplace and brazier that sweat poured down his skin.
He trembled alone as though cast into a winter's night, a blizzard raging across a frozen wasteland.
"Please...."
His voice shrank to nothing, a powerless plea.
"Please don't say you're leaving."
Karha stepped backward slowly.
I couldn't hear anymore.
No—I didn't want to hear.
My heart throbbed with unbearable pain.
Mother wants to leave?
Abandon us?
Father too, Belzeon, Ishuel—abandon us all?
My mind felt as though it would shatter.
The world spun before my eyes in agonizing vertigo, yet I couldn't fathom what to do.
When I regained awareness, I stood deep within the Black Forest.
Strange cries echoed through the forest's oppressive darkness.
The wails of monsters barely pulled Karha back to consciousness, and I gasped for breath.
A chill crept across my body, drenched in cold sweat.
Goosebumps erupted across my skin, and I trembled uncontrollably.
After struggling to steady my breathing for a long moment, I parted my lips.
"Why...."
An incomprehensible question fell between my lips.
But no answer came.
Only the sinister sounds of monsters crept slowly through the darkness.
I retraced the scene I had witnessed.
Kieran rubbed his face against Mother's hand in a desperate, pleading manner, appearing infinitely fragile.
No one would have recognized him as the arrogant ruler of the Black Forest.
Yet Mother remained unmoved.
She simply watched as Kieran cycled through madness—shouting wildly, begging, raging, imploring—without wavering.
Her gaze was serene.
Even as Kieran thrashed before her, she remained endlessly calm.
Karha had been blessed with an unusually keen instinct since birth.
Before logic or reason could take hold, I could perceive the truth through intuition.
It was an eye that would never waver.
Mother had steeled her resolve.
No matter what happened—even if the men of House Basilian took their own lives one by one before her—
Mother would not change her decision. She would leave Basilian.
"Ugh."
The world spun before my eyes.
I collapsed onto the dirt and vomited violently.
Everything I had eaten throughout the day poured out, until only bile remained.
Tears glistened from the violent retching.
I wiped my lips with the back of my hand and looked down at the ground.
The flower I had picked lay scattered.
Tangled together with vomit, rotting leaves, and black soil in a repulsive mess.
The flower was no longer fragrant or fresh.
'I cannot give this gift to Mother.'
That was my first thought.
And then another thought followed.
'What does that even matter?'
Perhaps Mother never wanted the gift at all.
Perhaps she only pretended to smile at forced affection.
It was mere speculation.
If Mother harbored any dislike when receiving my gifts,
my keen senses would have detected it long ago.
But I could not trust myself.
Perhaps my one-sided affection for Mother had blinded me, and I saw things wrongly.
Perhaps while she lived in a cold, colorless reality, I alone was lost in a rose-tinted dream.
"...."
Staring blankly at the ruined flower, I closed my eyes tightly and stepped back.
I leaned against a tree with a broken stem and tried to calm my raging heart and thoughts.
But soon I had to open my eyes again.
The Black Forest was not a place suited for quiet peace.
The growls of monsters drew steadily closer.
My instincts sent countless signals without ceasing.
From where, what, how much, and in what manner it approached.
My skin prickled with warnings pouring forth relentlessly.
Karha furrowed the bridge of his nose.
The intensifying stench of demonic creatures made my nostrils burn.
I rose slowly from my seat and drew my blade.
Gripping swords in both hands, I stared into the darkness.
Then, suddenly, I understood.
What I truly desired now was not peaceful tranquility, but something else entirely.
The Black Forest was the place that could give me what I needed most.
I did not weep.
Instead, I laughed.
Between my parted lips, my fangs gleamed with an unusual brilliance.
My small frame lunged forward in an instant.
***
The dead Countess had abandoned Count Basilian.
The story of House Basilian that Chesa had vaguely imagined was a beautiful tragedy.
A sorrowful yet beautiful tale of a sickly, fragile Countess parting from her husband and children through death.
Yet judging from Karha's words just now and Kieran's reaction today, something was terribly wrong.
"If only I hadn't done anything wrong...."
"Why did you abandon me?"
What memory from the past had Chesa's words stirred within him?
Kieran's already fragile mind shattered like a cookie.
Thanks to that, surrounded by countless Holy Knights, Holy Priests, and Heresy Inquisitors, he nearly unleashed a dazzling barrage of dark magic right there in the Holy Temple.
"Anyway, that's how it is."
Karha, who had detonated a verbal bomb no less effectively than Belzeon had destroyed Count Basilian's Residence, shrugged as if it were nothing.
"So let's take our brother and go home."
He concluded the matter entirely on his own terms with refreshing finality.
Belzeon, who had been keeping his mouth shut in bewilderment, slowly offered a rebuttal.
"...But the Heresy Inquisitor."
"If Father being a dark mage is exposed, wouldn't that be the end anyway?"
It was an entirely valid point.
While Belzeon's words caught in his throat, Ishuel picked up where Karha left off.
"Even if House Basilian faces annihilation, we can at least take responsibility for our brother and get him out safely."
Ishuel continued his persuasion in a calm, measured voice.
"Brother, how long do you intend to keep running like this? You saw it just now, didn't you? Father's really going to lose his mind. He's already not himself."
"That's right. Father can't possibly save him anyway, right? And I didn't want to say this, but honestly, since he's not even human, it's that much harder. This is definitely going to fail. I have a strong intuition about it."
The Twins chattered away enthusiastically together.
Listening to their coordinated persuasion, Chesa sensed something amiss.
'Wait.'
I raised one hand with a sharp gesture.
The chattering Twins fell silent.
"Your mother... isn't human?"
The words that had caught my ear made all three brothers' faces flash with alarm in unison.
"...Oh."
Karha, who had misspoken, began sweating profusely.
"The baby wouldn't know, of course."
Under the piercing gazes of his two other brothers, his eyes darted about before he suddenly began speaking with shameless confidence.
"But shouldn't the baby know now? We decided to become Basilian, after all."
We had absolutely never decided any such thing.
But since I was curious, I held back my objection and waited to hear what he would say.
Belzeon sighed and tilted his chin downward.
It was a gesture telling him to just speak.
"Actually, our mother..."
Karha shrugged and revealed the secret.
"She's a fairy."
"...?"
I blinked.
And before I could fully comprehend what I had just heard.
CRASH!
A tremendous explosion shook the Holy Temple.
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