Advent of the Three Calamities

Chapter 717: Letter [2]

I didn’t know how long I remained seated.

I just allowed the silence to take over my thoughts and surroundings. Basking in it for as long as I possibly could.

Silence always had different meanings to me.

At some points, silence signified loneliness.

It signified the lack of voices around me.

But after a certain point, silence became something else for me.

It became a sign of peace.

With all the chaos and everything that had been happening around me, the rare moments of silence became the rare moments of peace.

But…

“I wonder what it is I’m feeling right now…”

Was this silence loneliness?

…Or was this silence peace?

I couldn’t tell.

However, it felt like a mix of both.

Closing my eyes and letting the darkness take over my vision, I took several deep breaths in order to calm myself down before opening my eyes again and staring at the letter in my hands.

’I have no idea what you’ve planned, but I know that you’re probably going to be away for a very long time.’

It wasn’t like I didn’t see it coming.

I was ready for it.

…But the letter caught me off-guard.

It was as if I had suddenly been sucker punched by him.

“How annoying.”

Finally, a smile cracked my features.

I carefully folded the letter and put it in my ring.

I planned on framing it later.

“Hoof.”

I wiped my face a couple of times before looking around me.

Now that Noel was gone, I needed to think of a way to excuse his absence. The logical thing to do was to pretend that he was gone on a long trip. However, that wouldn’t really be believable considering the current situation with the Evenus family.

In that case…

“He either died or got injured.”

I frowned before thinking about the previous assassination attempt.

“…That could work.”

The excuse of him being injured by the assassination attempt could work.

At least in the short term.

I knew that I wouldn’t be able to keep up the excuse for very long.

Not that it mattered.

There were so many things that I needed to worry about at the moment.

’Now that my identity has been exposed, it wouldn’t be strange for those of the Inverted Sky to come find me. And they’re not just going to send people at the same level as me. Atlas… He could be the one to directly find me. And even if it isn’t him, it might be the other seats.’

This part worried me.

While I was strong, I was still nowhere near strong enough to not worry about them.

If they truly did come, then there’d be nothing I’d be able to do.

Unless…

’Noel already knew this in advance and prepared something for this situation.’

This seemed like a plausible situation.

There was no way that Noel wouldn’t think that something like this would happen.

“Well, I can worry about this later. Although it’s important, there are still a couple of more pressing matters that I need to take care of.”

I looked around Noel’s desk before grabbing a calendar.

Taking the fountain pen that rested not far from me, I circled two dates.

“Emperor Funeral, and Rite of Arms.”

In two days’ time, the Emperor’s and the Prince’s funerals were going to start. Those days were going to be extremely important.

…Not only would those days mark the start of the succession battle, but they would also mark the last day of peace within the Nurs Ancifa Empire.

I was almost certain that the other Empires were going to secretly help the other candidates in the fight for the throne.

This was going to be a long and bloody war.

One that I needed to be extremely careful of.

“The Rite is supposed to happen in a week’s time, but it might get pushed by a few days. I still need to find some extra people for help. So far, I’ve got a couple of people in mind.”

I was a little bit worried about the Rite.

However, I was also quite confident in winning it.

I just needed to be careful since there was a high chance some external forces could interfere in the matter.

In particular, the other Empires.

I was really worried about this part.

“But it’s not like they will send a Monarch in the fight. That would be overkill. My best guess is that they might send a quasi-monarch in the fight. Someone who is on the verge of becoming a Monarch. That will be their trump card. I need to think about a way to handle that.”

There was not only that, but I also needed to carefully study the Evenus forces. By now, everyone was aware that what the Evenus Household displayed was far from their real force.

Our financial power was staggering, and so were our troops.

But…

I knew nothing of the full extent of it.

That was why I planned on finding out about it now.

“But where exactly did he leave those files?”

I tapped around the desk, flipping over several dozen papers that were neatly stacked on each side of the desk. There were quite a lot of them, and just looking at them gave me a massive headache.

“No, wait.”

I paused after a moment.

In hindsight, there was no way Noel would leave such sensitive files out in the open.

They had to be in a safe place.

I drummed my finger over the table before turning around and staring at the massive bookshelf behind me.

“Can it be…?”

If there was one thing that I was aware of about Noel, it was that he had always loved spy movies when young.

He especially loved things like secret rooms and stuff.

And if my guesses weren’t wrong—

Click!

Pulling one of the books back, a faint clicking sound echoed, and the library moved apart, giving way to a small door. One that appeared to be password-protected.

“….”

I didn’t even say a thing.

I just…

’Even after so many years, he really hasn’t changed.’

I felt both happy and sad.

Of all the things that didn’t change..

“Never mind.”

I looked at the password and paused. Knowing my brother well, I inputted a code into the keypad that was constructed using runes, and the door opened a few seconds later.

“…My date of birth. As expected.”

Noel was really predictable with regards to stuff like this.

A small flight of stairs greeted my sight the moment the door opened, and as I looked down, the lights on the side of the walls lit up and a room soon appeared before me.

The moment I crossed into the room, I paused.

“….”

There were no words that truly captured the place.

It wasn’t massive, but it was certainly large, roughly the size of two tennis courts placed side by side.

Stone walls enclosed the space, and tall wooden pillars rose at intervals, supporting the ceiling above. Neatly arranged desks filled the room, all containing files and documents that were neatly arranged together.

Massive libraries stood by the sides of the walls at the back, all containing numerous books and files that felt like they would take forever to read.

The air felt rather fresh, and besides the smell of stone that lingered around the area, the smell of the place wasn’t bad.

“…He really didn’t hold back when making this place.”

Taking in the sight before me for the next several seconds, I eventually moved towards the desks. There were five in total, and each one of them had a label on it.

This felt a little surprising, but then I realized something.

’He probably left them for me.’

The first table said,

[History]

The second table said,

[Evenus Household. Territory, and worth.]

The third table said,

[Empires and their layout.]

The fourth table said,

[The Four Organizations. Layout, seats, and roots.]

…And the fifth table said,

[Everything I know about the Outer Beings.]

“…..”

Staring at the numerous files and papers on each table, and then the labels, my heart skipped a beat.

This…

This was massive.

***

“….”

It had been a couple of days since the death of her father and brother.

And yet… it still felt as though everything had happened just a few minutes ago.

The haunting images lingered in her mind, preventing her from getting any sleep. Every time she closed her eyes, they returned. She’d snap them open again, heart pounding, as if that alone could keep them at bay.

Aoife’s gaze was blank.

Her steps were slow.

Before she knew it, she found herself in front of a certain room.

It was her brother’s room.

“….”

Her gaze wandered over the room before she reached for it and opened it.

Creaaak!

The door creaked open, and his room came into view.

It was finely decorated. It wasn’t much different from hers, besides the massive desk that sat by the window. On it sat several bottles of medicine, neatly arranged beside picture frames. Inside them were photos of her… and him.

Her heart clenched as she moved towards the desk.

This was the first time she had been to his desk.

Sitting in his seat, she smelt his familiar scent. The one of lavender.

Her lips trembled, but no tears came out.

Her tears…

They had all dried up.

But only the tears.

The pain hadn’t. In fact, it only grew stronger with each second that she passed in the room, feeling as though it was trying to rip her chest apart.

This was the first time she had ever felt this much pain at once.

It made her feel numb to everything.

And yet…

Despite knowing it was bad, she couldn’t stop herself.

She reached for her brother’s drawers and looked through all of his stuff.

The more she sifted through his things, the deeper the ache grew. Especially when she found the empty medicine bottles. So many of them. Dried blood hidden around file edges. Crumpled papers scattered across the desk… Each one felt like a quiet reminder of just how much pain he lived in every day.

She felt her heart ache even more at the realization, and as she looked through another drawer and she took out another paper, Aoife paused.

Her hollow, numb gaze wavered as it landed on the paper, a faint flicker of something breaking through the emptiness.

———

[Jovinc award]

Vote : Aoife K. Megrail

———

“W… what?”