Chapter 241: A Night When the Sun Did Not Seem Like It Would Rise

Ragniel made a different decision inside.

It was a decision he had not told even Giselle.

It is time to fulfill an old wish.

A voice sounded from inside him. It whispered that it was time to switch with him now, that it would finish everything for him, tempting him.

As he looked at Giselle for a long while, Giselle opened his mouth.

“Even if the unrevealed star appears, nothing will change, Ragniel.”

“......!”

Ragniel flinched in surprise.

It felt as though the inside of him had been seen through. His toes curled, and shame surged up.

Pretending not to notice the wavering in his eyes, Giselle smiled softly and held out his hand.

“Your Majesty. The night air is cold. Shall we go inside?”

Ragniel reluctantly nodded.

***

After escorting Ragniel to his bedroom, Giselle headed to his own room.

Giselle tried to gauge the point when he had become strange. The sound of his finger tapping the table rang out regularly.

Tap. Tap.

Knock knock.

“Come in.”

“Lord Giselle.”

The servant bowed politely before entering, then stood before Giselle at his gesture.

“The royal physician says there is nothing wrong. The mages also say they cannot see anything unusual in His Majesty.......”

“I see. Understood.”

With a word telling him he had done well, Giselle dismissed him, and the servant left the room. The sound of the door closing followed.

Giselle stroked his chin.

“The blessing of Saint Leviantehnuk—!”

“May my sons truly return as warriors!”

Giselle narrowed his eyes and recalled the past.

The departure ceremony...... had that been the moment Ragniel shattered the mirror?

Saint Leviantehnuk.

The name Ragniel had chosen for the soldiers departing for the land of Media had been an unexpected one.

When Ragniel usually offered words of blessing to those heading to the battlefield, he would recite the name of Oerne, the blood-red goddess of victory from scripture.

He had never once bestowed a blessing in the name of a saint.

It was an unexpected choice, but since the people of the kingdom had gone wild with enthusiasm, the ministers had not bothered to take issue with it. Even without tormenting him over something like that, there were plenty of things with which they could torment Ragniel. In any case, they had no interest in a congratulatory speech for a war they did not doubt the Heroes would lead to victory. They merely treated Ragniel as king on that day, while he gave the speech.

But Giselle had listened closely to Ragniel’s congratulatory speech.

What Ragniel desired likely had not changed.

Was that decision making him ill?

It must have been Ren who made that decision harden.

After seeing how Temar and Luman treated that child, something must have grown in Ragniel’s heart.

A human heart, most likely.

A heart fatal to them.

Giselle rose from his chair and headed to the terrace. His large, long hand drew back the curtain and opened the door. Night air, as if heavy with dew, greeted him. He stood in the center of the railing and looked down at the objects swallowed by darkness with an emotionless gaze.

“Do you wish to overcome it?”

As a human?

Had he recited the saint’s blessing because he wished to reject the path God had given him?

It was a difficult problem. One Giselle could not solve. He only followed Ragniel’s will.

And yet it was not a problem he could simply watch.

Giselle pondered. How to solve this problem.

The mages in the royal palace were very old beings.

Giselle’s form vanished in an instant.

The place where he appeared was before the western barrier of the royal palace. It was a path ordinary people could not come to, and a sight that could never be seen entered his eyes.

Giselle passed through the barrier as if it were nothing. The barrier did not push him away either, but naturally let him inside.

Once he passed through the barrier, pleasant air greeted him. What stood before Giselle was a magic tower.

On the western side of the royal palace, inside the old barrier, there was a seven-story magic tower. It was called a magic tower, but one could not expect the glory of the past from it. Now, it was merely a dormitory and laboratory where the few remaining old mages stayed while researching and developing magic that retained only traces of the past.

After Giselle stood there for a short while, the tower door opened and someone walked out. It was an old man whose eyes shone fiercely. He was bald, his mouth looked ill-tempered, and his hooked nose stood out. His body was gaunt, but his gaze alone shone like that of a young man in his twenties.

“What brings you here?”

His tone did not sound particularly welcoming. But the old man’s tone had always been like that. Giselle gave a light bow, then asked briefly after his well-being.

“Is the tower livable? If there is anything you need, please send word through a servant.”

“Where could there be a better place than this? They bring anything I need before I can even properly ask for it. No need to talk in circles. You must have a reason for coming here, no?”

He had intended to keep the sealing of the office simple. Because he had thought the thoughts dwelling there were affecting Ragniel. Old objects sometimes possessed a single lingering thought and affected living things. At times, such things also transformed into magical creatures, and there were often things like that in the royal palace. Another name for such things was “ghosts.” Humans liked to lump incomprehensible creatures together under one name.

The office was a space that had begun with the dynasty itself. Three times wherever the foot touched, five times along the fixed path. That was magic spread across the kingdom’s entire land. For a space that had begun together with the kingdom’s history, devouring a human who had not even lived half a century was an easy thing.

“I heard there is magic that can imprison private feelings.”

“.......”

The old man shut his mouth tightly. His eyes looked as though he was considering the magic Giselle had mentioned.

But it seemed simply sealing the office would not be enough.

Since Ragniel had already been considerably affected, it seemed better to drive out the private feelings dwelling in him and seal them away together with magic.

After several years passed, once Ragniel found stability, undoing the seal would be appropriate.

By then, Ragniel would be able to bear it.

His own decision.

While Giselle reached that conclusion, the old man also seemed to have finished thinking.

“There is.”

“Please.”

“......Is the target His Majesty?”

“That is correct. It seems an old space has invaded him.”

“.......”

The old man’s expression turned grave. The old mages staying in the royal palace knew the internal circumstances ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) of the palace well. He also immediately understood what Giselle meant by an old space. A legacy left by the previous generations, the “moving office” that could be passed down and opened only through blood.......

“I will prepare thoroughly.”

“Please drive the private things out of His Majesty’s body.”

The old man nodded and turned his back. He had only taken a single step forward, yet the old man vanished into the magic tower in an instant.

Giselle’s form, having passed through the barrier magic, also vanished in an instant.

The west side of the royal palace, hidden by magic, was only silent, as though nothing had happened. What people could see was only tree branches occasionally shaking in the wind.

A few days after that.

At last, the day came to seal the office.

Inside the office were Ragniel and Giselle.

“I know your headaches have been severe lately. If you do not wish to do this, you may refuse. Though I would like to recommend it.”

Giselle spoke softly.

Ragniel’s complexion was dark. His face had reddened, and he kept fidgeting with his hands as though anxious.

“Should I be satisfied with sealing the office?”

Just as Giselle was about to bend his own will.

“I’ll do it.”

“Will you be all right?”

“When it is over...... you will open the door for me, won’t you?”

“Yes. Of course, Ragniel.”

Even if, by some chance, the magic went wrong and the moving office swallowed Ragniel and vanished without a trace, Giselle could find him. There was a clue Giselle had attached to Ragniel’s sleeve. A silver thread mixed into the fibers glowed so faintly that only a Hero’s eyes could see it.

“Then that is enough.”

He heard the mages say that the preparations were complete. Giselle glanced at Ragniel and left the room, and soon after, the great office door closed. He did not see Ragniel looking pitifully at his back and shedding tears.

The space of the office always moved. It was extremely difficult to fasten and seal in place an office that had formed an intimate magic with the ancient ritual spread across the entire land of the kingdom.

Since Ragniel was in the office now, they could grasp its form and seal it, but even with several mages working on it, three years would be the maximum at best. However, Giselle thought that much would be appropriate.

Soon after, chains began to be laid across the office door.

“After the ritual ends, I will open the door.”

At Giselle’s words as the signal, the mages’ spell began.

***

Seeing Ragniel walk out with a composed face, Giselle judged that the ritual had been effective.

“It would be better to seal it once more, more firmly.”

At Ragniel’s order, the mages, their faces full of cold sweat, said they would do it the next day.

“There is no need for you to trouble yourself by coming out. Tomorrow, I alone will watch.”

Looking at Ragniel, who seemed to have found peace, Giselle answered that he understood. And so the problem seemed to have been solved.

But Giselle had to face his own misjudgment for the first time in his life.

And in the cruelest way.

The eeriness of the summer night tightened around Giselle’s heart.

What had been disturbing Ragniel was not something as trivial as a lingering thought.

Giselle recalled an old prophecy and story.

A face exactly like his, a dynasty that did not acknowledge twins.

What had been tormenting Ragniel was the twin who had been imprisoned before he could even be born into the world. The office had been the imprisoned twin’s cradle and prison, and he had been aiming for Ragniel at every moment.

The ritual Giselle had carried out had not imprisoned a lingering thought, but merely helped Ragniel and that twin switch places.

His wrong judgment had led to this situation now.

Giselle’s face grew paler and paler.

With lips drained white, he used his authority without pause.

Ra. Ersi. Ether. El.......

You were supposed to cast off your fetters and stand before death, just as you wished.

I was supposed to lay your decision beneath your feet.

Then why, as if appearing like a flash of light, did you take the sword in my place?

Ragniel, tell me what your true heart is.

Ra. Ersi. Ether. El.......

Until I hear it properly, I will never let go of your breath.

His hands and embrace were wet with blood.

It was a night when the sun did not seem like it would ever rise.