Chapter 238: Ragniel

“You do not cling to greed.”

The surging sea was reflected in Viburn’s black eyes. For an instant, it looked as though a massive wave rose inside him, but it was an illusion.

“Huh?”

Ren rubbed his cheek in confusion.

Tears streamed down endlessly without even giving him time to stop them.

‘Why am I crying! Stop crying!’

Both cheeks became soaked with tears in an instant.

“Just cry.”

Viburn gently pulled Ren closer. It was clearly an extremely weak force, yet Ren ended up tucked neatly into Viburn’s arms.

“No, I’m not crying...... it’s just...... suddenly coming out like snot or something.......”

“.......”

A faint sigh brushed over the crown of Ren’s head.

Mumbling, Ren eventually gave up trying to defend himself and buried his face against Viburn’s chest.

It felt as though the tightness clogging his heart loosened a little.

Only after pouring out tears for quite a while did Ren realize that Viburn’s gaze had reminded him of someone.

The owner of the voice that had called his name before he boarded the ship.

Those jewel-like eyes blazing brightly, then blurring as they became soaked with tears.

Ren thought he needed to sort through his memories faster.

Because he could not leave someone crying like that.

***

The atmosphere within the royal palace had become somewhat vicious.

The floor where the king’s former office was located had been completely sealed off, with knights standing guard while radiating killing intent.

It was because of the incident that had occurred one week earlier.

One week ago.

After hearing a vague testimony that a woman’s scream had come from the office, soldiers headed there. The Heroes had not stepped in because a considerable amount of time had already passed since the king’s office had been relocated.

And what the soldiers encountered was a maid collapsed on the floor, trembling violently and screaming.

Even when they shouted at her, demanding to know why she had forced open and entered a sealed office, the maid only repeated bizarre nonsense.

“The King came out of the mirror and trapped my friend! The King, the King strangled me!”

It was utter insanity that no sane person could possibly take seriously.

The mirrors in the room had all been shattered to pieces, as though something terrible had happened there. The only thing reflected in the sharp shards was the maid’s clothing.

More importantly, how dare she insult the King! It had not even been long since the kingdom achieved a great victory in Media. No matter how much the high-ranking nobles disregarded the King, how could words like that possibly apply to people of their status? It was something deserving execution!

But the soldiers were not entirely heartless. They already knew the dreadful rumor that ghosts repeatedly appeared on the floor where the king’s former office was located, so they judged that the maid had gone mad after being bewitched by that ghost. The locked office door opening must also have been the ghost’s doing. Everything was the ghost’s fault.

A report considering the maid’s circumstances was submitted, and astonishingly, it was approved easily. However, the mages responsible for sealing the office were summoned away. Still, that was beyond what people of the soldiers’ rank could know.

And the maid whose mind had supposedly broken after being possessed by a ghost was, unexpectedly, not dismissed. Instead, she was confined within a room inside the palace under the pretense of treatment. In a tiny room so deep that no one could possibly hear her voice, the maid was still screaming even now.

That the King had come out of the mirror, trapped her friend, and strangled her.

After reenacting the situation dozens of times, thin handprints had remained around the maid’s neck.

One week ago.

The palace watchtower.

Two people stood facing each other. The cool summer night air seemed to settle the atmosphere between them.

Without even wiping away the tears dripping down in beads, Ragniel stared at Giselle.

The hand that had been gripping his shoulder moved to cup Ragniel’s cheek.

Without yet giving an answer to whether he resented him.

Ragniel parted his lips, intending to ask the same thing again, but Giselle spoke first.

“How could I possibly resent you?”

It was a sticky, sweet voice like sugar clinging to the skin, yet it somehow carried the scent of something burnt at the end. Ragniel blinked slowly. The tears gathered in his eyes spilled down all at once.

“Because this is not something Ragniel did.”

“What...... do you mean?”

“Who are you?”

“......!”

“Who exactly dares to seize the King’s body— is that not what I’m asking?”

“Ghk!”

The hand holding his cheek slid down and clamped around the boy’s throat. He undoubtedly wore Ragniel’s appearance. His voice, the way he spoke, even his gaze were exactly the same as Ragniel’s. Yet Giselle sensed a bizarre strangeness from him that he had never once felt before.

“What is it that you hope to gain by stealing the King’s body?”

“Kgh......!”

Unable to breathe, the boy struck Giselle’s arm desperately. But Giselle’s expression did not waver in the slightest. His purple eyes merely observed him calmly.

“Do you intend to dismantle the Seven Stars?”

That boy wearing Ragniel’s face had climbed the watchtower together with Giselle.

The staircase they had stepped upon was the same ritual Giselle had performed on Ren.

The first ritual for entering the Forest of Aked, for erasing one’s existence.

However, Giselle had not stepped onto the final stair.

The ritual remained incomplete, and the boy’s throat was still trapped in Giselle’s grip.

Those narrow eyes carefully examined him. By the time the face deprived of blood flow from being strangled had first turned red, then eventually pale white, Giselle finally loosened his grip.

With violent coughing, the boy collapsed onto the floor. The sound of his frail body striking the stone echoed through the tower. Even while watching the boy tremble violently, clutch his throat, drool, and cough helplessly, Giselle remained composed.

“What Ragniel desires is our safety, not dismantlement—”

“N-no. Hahk, hahk...... you’re wrong.”

Dragging in ragged breaths, the boy raised his head. Hollow cheeks and blazing eyes stared at Giselle.

Giselle silently observed the trembling shoulders and the chest repeatedly swelling and collapsing before speaking.

“I wonder. What exactly is it that you wish to say?”

“The one who handed this body over to me was him.”

The boy spoke hoarsely, yet gently. That sense of incongruity Giselle had often felt while conversing with him resurfaced once more.

“Are you telling me to believe you?”

Fragments of the shattered mirror from the office flashed through his mind. The pitiful King writhing in agony, stomping his feet, curling himself upon the carpet.

This must have been something foreseen long ago.

“Whether you believe me or not is your choice.”

“.......”

The boy, barely suppressing his ragged breathing, answered calmly. There was no trace of mockery toward Giselle on his face.

After carefully studying his expression as though assessing the truth, Giselle nodded.

“I see.”

His long hair fluttered messily in the wind. Suddenly, Giselle lifted his head and looked up at the sky. The stars were so numerous they seemed ready to pour down. It was an unusually bright night. A terrible night for spilling blood in many ways. But sentiments like that could not ruin a great undertaking.

At the edge of Giselle’s vision, he caught sight of a sudden flash of light. Yet Giselle pretended not to notice and continued gazing at the stars.

“That child loves all of you terribly.”

He probably never realized that love would bind all of you together like a noose.

A bitter voice echoed out. Giselle sensed the faint movement of the boy shifting.

THRKK.

The horrifying sound of a blade tearing through flesh and piercing straight through an abdomen rang out.

Giselle’s eyes widened sharply.

***

Ragniel realized something was wrong when he became aware that he was screaming silently.

“So this is the hallway where the ghost appears?”

“That’s what they say! They say sobbing echoes all through the corridor every night.”

“Ugh, that’s terrifying. I’m never walking this way again.”

Ragniel rubbed his cheek, but he could feel nothing. It was as though he were submerged entirely in water; only the sluggish sensation of cutting through liquid reached him. In this place, he could neither feel nor see anything. All Ragniel could do was imagine what lay beyond the darkness covering his vision.

He could not even tell whether he was crying or not, yet Ragniel knew he was the “ghost” those people were referring to. During the day his consciousness was hazy, and only at night did his mind briefly clear. The sobs escaping his mouth were no different from the loudest scream he could produce.

The liquid surrounding him swallowed his screams whole, yet seemed unable to block the sound of his crying.

And so Ragniel had no choice but to remain there, crying as the ghost of the sealed office.

Until someone came for him.

The booming sound of drums and roaring cheers seemed to echo from far away, along with his own voice loudly calling out their names.

‘Ah, the Heroes have returned.’

They returned safely.

Relief spread through his chest. But what followed immediately afterward was anxiety.

‘I chose wrong, I, I.......’

Ragniel squeezed his eyes shut.

The moment he closed them, their faces surfaced before him.

What have I done? I only made the best choice for them.

Ragniel clutched his head.

It was as confusing and terrifying as when he had first confronted his own form.

All he had wanted was to fulfill the wish he had carried in his heart for so long. To free them from their shackles.

Yet doubt surfaced once again.

Would the Heroes also welcome Ragniel’s choice? Had it simply been his arrogant self-righteousness?

Inside that sealed space, a human mind was consumed rapidly.