“What do you mean by ‘about my father’?”
At Alastor’s sudden words, I tilted my head for a moment, then immediately put on an expression as if I didn’t understand and asked him back.
“It’s about your father, who has been carrying out a top-secret mission for a year under the Emperor’s orders.”
“Hmm…”
“Do you perhaps know where he is?”
But as I listened to him speak, it seemed that, for some reason, he knew quite a bit about my father’s whereabouts.
“My father is in a good place right now.”
“Well, I don’t think it’s exactly a good place.”
“Then you know where my father is, don’t you?”
Still looking cautious, I spoke up with an excuse I once used with Cecil, but in return, I asked Alastor a question.
“My hometown, the cursed land. The frozen ground.”
“Pardon?”
“That’s where your father is.”
His response was quite unexpected.
“That place is…”
“It’s the ancient domain of the dragons.”
His eyes, which looked at me as I was slightly taken aback, were as cold as usual, but there was something meaningful in them.
“The Emperor’s behavior has been unusual lately.”
“…”
“Though I don’t know the reason why your father, under the Emperor’s orders, went there…”
As I quietly stared into his eyes, his voice, which was slightly cracking after a long time of being silent, dug into my ears.
“You should be careful.”
“…Pardon?”
“If the dragons get involved in the current situation, the balance might collapse.”
Despite how heavy it seemed, the conclusion felt rather deflated. Nevertheless, I nodded and observed Alastor carefully.
By now, I had more or less guessed who Alastor really was, someone hidden in a veil in the original work.
“Sir Alastor doesn’t often mention this kind of thing. I’ve only heard about it a few times myself.”
“…Even you?”
Sure enough, after finishing his words, Alastor quietly stepped back, and while we were having this conversation, Salem, who had been silently listening, cautiously spoke to me.
“When I first became an elder, Sir Alastor was still part of the council, just like that.”
“That sounds like a pretty eerie rumor.”
“I believe you understand what I mean.”
Through this conversation with him, I was completely certain of Alastor’s true identity.
“Being under the dragon’s gaze is no small matter.”
“Haha…”
A polymorphic dragon as an elder in a group… Lumen Ordo truly is a strange place, the more you dig into it.
“I suppose something big will happen soon. I hope Count Lingard returns safely…”
And if such a person has been made to speak, I wonder what mission my father has been assigned.
Once this is over, I’ll have to look into this more seriously.
“By the way, will you just stay quiet like this?”
“Pardon?”
“Now that the story is over, you should hurry and follow your fiancée.”
“…Ah.”
Of course, I need to first resolve the situation in front of me.
***
“Hah, hah.”
Meanwhile, at the entrance to Lumen Ordo, a carriage had come to a stop.
“I must be crazy.”
Meredia, having arrived at an unbelievable speed, climbed into the carriage, covered her face with her hands, and muttered in regret.
“I must have completely lost my mind…”
As her face gradually turned red with time, suddenly, a hurried knock sounded from outside the carriage.
“…Come in.”
Meredia, quickly fixing her expression, turned toward the window and spoke coldly.
“Hah, hah…”
“Wait, who are you?”
Contrary to her expectations, the one who opened the carriage door wasn’t Whitney but Tiffany Astelaid, his childhood friend.
“How dare you… how dare you interfere with the fateful meeting between me and the hero! Fool, you have no idea how laughable your ignorance is.”
“…..”
“With my cursed, sealed power, I shall drag your soul into eternal agony. Kneel before me, the true light and guardian of balance, and repent as you scream in despair…”
After a brief pause to catch her breath while still holding the door open, Tiffany began to spout these cringe-worthy lines, as if waiting for this moment.
Meredia’s eyebrows twitched quietly.
“Don’t you get tired of saying things like that?”
“…!!”
“You’re probably struggling, so just speak normally, Guardian of Radiance.”
After a deep sigh, Meredia, still maintaining a polite tone, asked her.
“That voice really rings in your ears, doesn’t it? Truly, you possess the insight to understand the language of darkness… But how dare you give orders to me, the Sovereign? Your recklessness is so laughable…”
“…Sigh.”
“My speech is the ancient language passed down from the primal chaos. No one can command me to change it. You, kneel before my wisdom, as deep as the abyss, and tremble in awe. I shall cleanse your soul in the language of darkness…”
Once again, Tiffany’s bizarre words filled the carriage, and at last, Meredia’s cold and sharp voice cut through the air.
“You can deceive others, but not my eyes.”
“…What?”
“I can tell you’re forcing those words out.”
Hearing this, Tiffany’s expression stiffened slightly.
“I’ve often done things out of obligation for others. So I can easily recognize such clumsy acting.”
“…”
“So, let me warn you. Speak normally, or I might get really annoyed.”
Meanwhile, as Meredia’s verbal abuse continued, Tiffany, who had become completely sulking, spoke up.
“…I admit, I’m forcing it, but no one told me to do this.”
She began to speak in a completely normal tone, not the one she had been using before.
“It’s just… when I was little, Whitney liked this tone, so I kept using it.”
“……”
“So, even when people looked at me weirdly, I stubbornly kept it up. We promised to meet again.”
Then, quietly biting her lower lip, she stopped speaking and stared at Meredia in front of her.
“But you, you…”
Before long, tears began to well up in Tiffany Astelaid’s eyes.
“You mean as his fiancée. I went to ask the maidservants. That means you promised to marry him, right?”
……
“Does that mean Whitney Lingard is going to be your husband?”
After staring at Meredia with tearful eyes for a long time, Tiffany continued with a quivering voice.
“You saw it clearly, didn’t you?”
But Meredia, without flinching, replied with a calm expression.
“As long as this damn curse is on me, that won’t happen, so don’t worry.”
“……Ha.”
“I won’t make him marry again in a miserable way. For now, we’re just promised to marry, not actually married yet…”
But as her words continued, they gradually became more unclear.
“Then you don’t love Whitney Lingard?”
In that situation, Tiffany’s cold voice suddenly cut through.
“You just made that promise to use him before you die?”
Her voice was still choked with tears, but her expression was more serious than ever. Meredia opened her mouth, ready to answer, but
“…That’s…”
For some reason, she couldn’t get the words out.
“That is…”
Was it because she had just admitted her feelings only a few minutes ago? Unable to continue, Meredia stared blankly.
“See? I told you it’s not true.”
“…What are you trying to say?”
As Tiffany glared back at her, Meredia sat across from her and began speaking again.
“With my hidden eye, I can see people’s destinies.”
“What?”
“I can read the flow of the stars. If the saint of the Holy Kingdom serves a goddess, I serve the stars.”
Meredia, who had been listening blankly to her sudden story, widened her eyes in surprise.
“And according to what I’ve seen, Whitney shouldn’t be alive at this point.”
Tiffany’s words, which were impossible to ignore, made Meredia’s heart skip a beat.
“He was supposed to have died already.”
“……What?”
“That’s why I haven’t met Whitney until now. I’ve been praying to the stars, locked away in my room, trying to twist fate.”
Tiffany, whose tears had nearly stopped, now looked far more weary than the carefree appearance she had shown before.
“And when I heard that Whitney became a hero, I thought I had finally changed fate.”
Meredia, who had been silent at the drastic change in Tiffany’s appearance, quietly gazed at the Guardian of Radiance sitting across from her.
“But now I see, Whitney’s fate is tightly connected to yours, not mine.”
“……”
“For some reason, it almost broke, but luckily it’s now firmly tied together.”
Tiffany Astelaid’s eyes, once again glowing white, gazed at Meredia.
“…If that’s the miracle the stars gave me, I guess I’ll have to follow it.”
In that state, as if resigned, Tiffany spoke, and Meredia, who had been staring at her, found her more mysterious than ever.
“I don’t really understand what you’re saying, but my lifespan is only a year…”
“With Whitney, you can escape your destined fate.”
Despite Meredia’s efforts to deny her words, Tiffany’s assertion quietly made her eyes waver.
“…Alright, let’s say you’re right. But what about Whitney’s fate?”
“……”
“Even if I escape my fate with his help, if he becomes the Demon King, it’s all useless.”
A while later, after avoiding her gaze for a while, Meredia finally looked Tiffany in the eye and poured out her feelings.
“I’ve lived with just one purpose. To slaughter all the black mages in the world and take revenge on those who made me like this.”
“…..”
“…Before I met him.”
After hearing this, Tiffany’s expression darkened slightly, but she didn’t show much change.
“So, you’ve lived your whole life only ever receiving wounds, and now it’s the first time someone loves you.”
“…..”
“It’s all written on your soul. I’m sorry.”
She said this in a slightly sulky tone, but quickly apologized after seeing Meredia’s cold glare.
—
“I never thought there would be anything more important than myself in this world.”
“…I see.”
“Yeah… So… Hah. What am I even saying? Have I really gone mad?”
In that moment, as Meredia murmured absentmindedly, she clutched her now blushing face and lowered her head.
“Remember.”
Watching this quietly, Tiffany suddenly closed her eyes as if making a decision and spoke.
“Just as Whitney reached out his hand to you, one day, you’ll have to reach out your hand to him.”
“……?”
“You’re not the only one who needs salvation.”
After Tiffany’s words, Meredia, feeling as though she had heard a cryptic message from Hestia, tilted her head.
“…Right, Whitney?”
“Oh, you startled me. What are you doing here?”
Tiffany, having just opened her eyes, spoke to Whitney, who had entered the carriage, with a slightly wistful expression.
“No, rather than that Lady Meredia… cough!”
For a moment, Whitney, who had been looking at Tiffany in confusion, shifted his gaze toward Meredia and smiled, but as soon as he did, Tiffany, unable to hold back her anger, punched him in the stomach.
“Ugh…”
“You bastard.”
Though it wasn’t as powerful as Meredia’s gem-like barrier, Tiffany’s punch still packed enough force to make Whitney stumble and fall to the carriage floor.
“Live well.”
….???
After glaring at him with clenched teeth, Tiffany left the carriage, leaving those words behind. Tears welled up in her eyes once again.
Cliche Novel 