Destroying My Own Novel

Gerrard pulled the bowstring and shot the Jester with [Hellfire] arrow, but a barrier stopped the arrow before it could reach the stairs where the Jester was standing. The Jester laughed maniacally as he slapped his left knee with his right hand and held his stomach with his left hand.

“You won’t be able to hurt me! I’m here as he ordered to entertain the guests, and with that being said, you won’t be able to do anything to me!” The Jester said as he kept laughing.

The Jester giggled as he wiped his eyes, and then took a deep breath as he looked at them.

“I know that you’re here to kill the King, but first, you have to win the game first if you want to leave this place,” The Jester said as he snapped his fingers, and then the door behind them was tightly closed.

They didn’t even bother to check it out because they already knew that the barrier would prevent them from leaving. They realized already that each castle represented each floor of the Mahazel Tower.

“Oh~ I’m glad that you all cooperate immediately, I like the guests already!” The Jester said as he giggled mischievously. “Now! How about you get to know the residents of this beautiful palace? But as you have seen before, not all the residence are nice,”

“What do you want?” Agnez asked as she nodded her head up.

“As a new guest, don’t you think it’s rude to not introduce yourself to them? Let’s just say, you need to introduce yourself to them, by interacting with them,” Jester answered with a mischievous smile.

‘Do you still don’t want to use your sword for this, Jeanne? This is the best time for you to use it. We are running out of time, and we might not be able to defeat the demon lord if we lose a lot of our skill level,” Agnez asked as she stared at Jeanne from the corner of her eyes.

Jeanne looked at Brynhilde who was still coughing and holding her neck. She then unsheathed the Soul Catcher sword.

“You want us to introduce ourselves? Then let me introduce myself,” Jeanne said as she walked toward the dancing spirits.

Jeanne sucked all the spirits from left to right and back to front so quickly. The Jester was shocked that it didn’t go as he wanted, and he looked annoyed, angry, and frustrated at the same time. Jeanne then stabbed her sword on the floor and looked at the Jester with her eyebrow raised.

“What’s wrong, clown? You don’t like it?” Rozan taunted as he walked to the middle of the hall.

The Jester suddenly smiled again and started giggling.

“How foolish, I was surprised, but now I’m entertained!” The Jester said as he started to dance weirdly. “Now, since you have introduced yourself to the residence, then you should know their stories by now,” The Jester continued.

Everyone furrowed their eyebrows and was a bit confused by what the Jester said.

“Now, let’s start the guessing game!” The Jester clapped his hands.

“Who’s the master that I served?” The Jester asked.

“Lord Cirgius,” Agnez answered.

“Oh! Do you know about this already? How interesting,” The Jester replied as he rubbed his chin and stared at Agnez with his eyes squinted. “Next question. What’s my master’s favorite song?” The Jester asked as he walked down the stairs and leaned against the railing.

“Masquerade Suite Waltz,” Rozan answered.

“Correct, but that should be obvious since we are playing this song right now,” The Jester said, and then he hummed. “Next question. From all the women that were here dancing to the song, how many of them slept with my master?” The Jester asked.

Everyone looked at each other and there was no information about it in the book. Although it was mentioned about Cirgius slept with a lot of young women, they had no idea how many exactly and didn’t pay attention to how many women were in the hall.

“Looks like someone was being rude to the residents and for some reason made them all disappear,” The Jester said as he chuckled.

“What happens if we don’t know the answer?” Asmond asked.

“Right! I haven’t told you what kind of punishment you will get! Oh well, since I forgot to tell you, I will give you an extra guess!” The Jester said as he made a weird pose.

“And what’s the punishment?” Asmond asked again.

“You will be stuck here, forever. You will die of starvation, and become like them, a property for my master,” The Jester answered as he sat on the railing.

Gunnar grabbed the book and hoped Bernurtus had something to help them, but unfortunately, there was nothing. It started to make everyone panic because they made a grave mistake by using the Soul Catcher sword rather than playing along with the Jester.

“Take your time, I can wait for as long as you want,” The Jester said with his sharp gaze and stared at all of them.

“Seventy-nine,” Lillith answered.

All of them looked at Lillith with their eyebrows raised.

Agnez and the others were surprised that Lillith sounded confident about it. Agnez raised her eyebrows, and Lillith nodded her head because she could read the Jester’s memories. That only meant one thing, and the Jester wasn’t a demon if Lillith could read his memories.

The Jester’s smile disappeared, and he looked a bit unfazed.

“Correct…” The Jester said in an uninterested voice. “That’s really a lucky guess,” The Jester continued as he stared at Lillith.

Lillith didn’t say anything and didn’t show any expression as she kept staring at the Jester. She didn’t want to be cocky while their lives were at risk and tried to be as clueless as possible to fool the Jester.

“Let’s go to the next question,” The Jester said as he stood straight and put his hands on the back of his waist.

The Jester asked so many questions, and Lillith answered everything without any problems. Asmond and his team were amazed by her knowledge, but then Asmond thought that it might not be because of her knowledge. He thought that Lillith might have a skill that could read people’s minds.

Thanks to Jester’s questions and Lillith’s answers, everything understood what happened to Cirgius and his castle. He was blinded by greed and lust so he ended up in a situation where he became the most hated man in the kingdom.

The people stopped coming to his palace, and it made Cirgius furious. He ended up sending the Jester and telling the people that Cirgius wanted to give away his wealth to whoever could entertain him.

It worked, and it worked so well that a minister came because of the invitation. The minister’s name was Alaric, the most handsome man in the Kastihel Kingdom.

Alaric’s presence enlivened the party, and everyone was dancing all night without stopping to win the prize. The night was still long, and slowly everyone stopped caring about the prize and more focused on pleasing Alaric.

Out of jealousy, Cirgius ordered the Jester to get rid of Alaric, and as his loyal servant, the Jester walked down to do what his master told him to do. Alaric understood and left, and because of his visible jealousy, all the people who attended the party started to point their hateful gazes at Cirgius.

“After everything that happened, my master, he died,” The Jester shed a tear and said in a trembling voice. “Someone poisoned him!” The Jester continued as he glared in anger with his whole face shaken.

“Now, I want you to find the culprit. Who poisoned him and how they did do that,” The Jester asked with a lazy eye.

“You did,” Lillith answered without hesitation.

The Jester slowly looked down and didn’t say a word nor move a muscle with his arms hanging down.

“You’re the only one who was close to him, and you’re the only person he trusted. Your loyalty to him made him who he was, but you couldn’t accept the fact that your master had become someone that you hated the most. Aleric offered you a way out, he gave you an idea, an idea to free your master from his slumber,” Lillith answered.

“You didn’t want to see him suffer, and you didn’t want to see him angry or sad. Your only reason to live is to make him laugh and smile, but you knew back then that there was no turning back, and so you decided to end his life before he become so much worse than that,” Lillith continued as she stared at the Jester.

“You’re the most loyal person that I have ever seen, Miulle. You did what you can do, and now you’re no longer trapped here,” Lillith said.

The Jester slowly lifted his head and stared at Lillith. He then showed his genuine smile with sorrow in his eyes.

“Thank you, for understanding me,” Miulle said as he bowed his head down with his right hand on his chest. “You have won the game. You’re free to go, and thank you for freeing me from this misery,” Miulle continued, and then disappeared into thin air.

A piano was heard, and it was echoed throughout the whole palace.

“When I found out that Miulle was the one who poisoned his own master years later, I thought to myself if I could do something like that if the lord that I served had become like Cirgius. I remember that not even a single knight or people of Cirgius cared about his death anymore,” Gunnar said as he read the book.

“I was there with him because nobody else attended Cirgius’ funeral. He buried the body of his master on his own with a sorrowful and most painful expression that I had ever seen,” Gunnar turned the page.

“The Calish castle became lordless until Minister Alaric took it, and ever since that day, there were no more waltz parties. Miulle played the piano and created a masterpiece called March Funebre. People loved that song until Miulle said the song was to remember his master, Cirgius, then everyone hated that song, and Miulle,” Gunnar was so focused reading the book.

“He ended up killing himself after he drank a poison, and his last message was, For you, my master,” Gunnar said and closed the book.