Ch#126
* * *
Alexander carefully laid Tie on the bed.
As he covered him with the blanket, the child immediately curled up his body.
Beneath his tightly shut eyelids.
He could see the child's thick eyelashes trembling faintly.
‘……No wonder he's exhausted.’
In truth, the memory of the previous night surfaced, when Valentis had confessed the true identity of the Necromancer King to his three young lords.
The first emotion that had struck him then was apprehension.
‘You plan to keep this from the Church? In other words, you're saying that the moment it's discovered, all hell will break loose, aren't you?’
‘That's right, Father. Why go to the trouble of scheming something like this? Forming unnecessary bonds with mercenaries—the risks are far too great.’
The Imperial Family was prickly and rigid.
At its core were the Emperor, who was prone to rash decisions in fits of anger, and the Empress, who whispered only sweet nothings in his ear.
Even that Imperial Family, however, found certain adversaries difficult to handle.
The Church, based on the Central Continent.
Assisting the Necromancer King was an act that could turn even the Church into an enemy.
Just before the Subspace incident erupted in the Weaponless Zone, the Church had already made contact with Luminen using the Necromancer King as a pretext.
[Take this opportunity to look into that Necromancer King for us. See if there's anything suspicious about him, like if his power feels strange or unnatural, and...]
‘…….’
[anything that could give us a pretext to summon him to the Central Continent.]
The Church.
Especially the Cardinals, who rarely ever intervened personally in any matters.
Yet for some reason, recently they had issued orders to Valentis to monitor the Necromancer King.
As if they were desperate to create any pretext at all just to get a close look at him.
At first, Valentis appeared to comply obediently with the Church's commands.
But after returning from the Weaponless Zone, he suddenly began acting strangely.
‘He possesses an unauthorized Holy Artifact. He didn't seem to know the activation conditions for it. Considering he tried to manipulate my memories.’
‘Doesn't matter, does it? My memories are intact in the end.’
The Holy Artifact that the Necromancer King possessed without permission.
Oblivion's Sanctity, which could serve as the perfect ‘pretext’ the Church desired—and Valentis intended to turn a blind eye to it.
And it didn't stop there.
‘Does the Church know about this?’
‘No. They don't. And I plan to keep it that way from now on.’
He was now even willing to violate holy laws to find ways to help the Necromancer King.
Not alone, but mobilizing the entire family.
‘Let me say it again. This is madness.’
Given the circumstances, it was only natural that Leonardo had objected vehemently.
Edmund and Alexander felt the same.
‘Think of the family's duty! Luminen serves the Imperial Family and the Church—we have no place meddling in such personal affairs!’
‘Personal affairs? What gives you the right to judge the weight of matters for the family?’
‘……Father.’
‘I am the head of Luminen. And I have already decided to help the Necromancer King. What more is needed?’
But Valentis remained obstinate to the very end.
To his sons, he seemed at first glance like a father blindly forcing his will upon them.
Yet as the conversation deepened, the three young lords came to realize it.
Who it was that Valentis saw in the Necromancer King—no, in the solitary Astie.
‘……You're thinking of Theseus.’
‘Yes.’
That day, in the banquet hall after Valentis had left.
The young lords could only sigh in heavy silence.
Theseus Luminen.
The young fourth son, dragged away by the Church at age four and sealed of his mana.
For some reason, Astie shared many similarities with Theseus from back then.
Having manifested mana and thus falling under the Church's watch.
Having been separated from his parents and left alone.
And finally,
‘That child doesn't know how to express his own pain. He only knows how to endure and hold on. He suppresses it so much that it tears at the hearts of those who watch, bearing it again and again.’
Before leaving the banquet hall, Valentis's eyes had been bloodshot.
‘Do you think it's normal for a child to suppress his pain like that?’
‘…….’
‘He's a pitiful, heartbreaking child. If Luminen is truly a family that safeguards the Empire, then we must help him. We mustn't worsen the situation and corner a child.’
Throughout his words, Valentis's eyes were steeped in deep regret.
The three young lords knew exactly what he was recalling.
Valentis was reminiscing about a past that felt both distant and all too near—four years ago.
The day Theseus had just turned the perfect age of sixteen.
When massive Mana Stones erupted in the barren outskirts of the capital, sending the Imperial Family into an uproar.
And thus, even the young Holy Knights fresh from training were mobilized en masse to the battlefield that day.
The three young lords still remembered the scene from that day.
The flames of mana that seemed to devour the entire land.
The screams of people, and the terrifying scars left in the wake of the surging waves.
It was a catastrophe.
A great disaster that had reduced everything in its radius to ashes and nearly obliterated the capital's First Gate in one go.
But when it was all over, there were no fatalities.
Because in the midst of the explosion, Eleonora had embraced the rampaging Theseus without a moment's hesitation.
She neutralized his mana with her own body entirely.
And in the end, she crumbled to dust.
A futile death, where not even a corpse could be found.
Under the Emperor's direction, the cleanup began soon after.
Theseus's rampage was classified as top secret.
His name was erased from the Holy Knight Order's records, and the explosion was fabricated as being caused by the massive Mana Stones.
It could not be revealed to the outside that a ‘defect’ like Theseus had emerged from Luminen.
Time flowed on mercilessly.
Reports were forged to state that Theseus had never participated in that siege.
Instead, rumors began to circulate that his whereabouts had become unknown.
All who remained in the Luminen family knew the truth.
That after the Imperial Family, even the Church had decided to erase Theseus from Luminen.
Theseus had quietly departed the family at some point.
Though Valentis conducted searches, he never found his son.
And so several more years passed, until the three young lords and Valentis finally rediscovered Theseus.
Theseus was no longer Theseus.
He had taken the nickname Eleonora had affectionately called him in life, ‘Tese tan,’ as his new name and become a mercenary.
Before his reunited brothers and father after so long, Theseus's words were brief.
‘Please announce that I am dead.’
‘……Theseus!’
‘Say that the fourth young lord of Luminen is dead. This is my final request.’
The three young lords never saw Theseus again after that.
Because Theseus deliberately avoided Duke Luminen's estate.
In the end, they only encountered him through rumors and sightings.
Of course, with his altered attire, flippant speech, sun-darkened skin, and the barbaric aura of a killer that emanated even when still.
The Theseus of the rumors was, as he had said, no longer the fourth young lord of Luminen.
Meanwhile, Valentis had crumbled.
‘I regret it.’
‘Father…….’
‘Back then. When Tese tan was seized in the estate's central courtyard and taken away. If only I had stopped them, would things have been different?’
‘…….’
‘If I had abandoned everything then and held that child, if I had fulfilled my role properly... If I had been a father who proudly shielded my young son...’
But by his side, there was no longer even Eleonora to hold his hand.
Valentis tried to forget Theseus in order to live on.
Otherwise, regret and remorse tormented him every single day.
And around that time.
Valentis's ‘Sacred Poem Awakening’ evolved one step further.
No longer limited to reading holy power and mana, it advanced to sense others' emotions and pain.
Thus, on the day Valentis met Astie, he thought.
That perhaps his power had grown for that very moment.
In the past, Valentis had always blamed himself.
For not knowing Theseus's instability.
For failing to recognize his pain.
But this time was different.
The moment Astie wiped away tears with a handkerchief, he had seen the sorrow and longing overflowing in the child's heart.
‘I don't want to turn a blind eye anymore. I don't want to repeat that bone-deep regret... not twice.’
In the end, the three young lords had no choice but to follow Valentis's will.
Because, ultimately, they were the same as him.
In that they harbored buried emotions deep in their hearts, like a fan tucked away.
* * *
The next day.
Tie opened his eyes in a hazy, half-awake state.
Morning sunlight streamed in through the parted curtains.
“You're awake.”
A gentle voice came from ahead.
Soon, he saw someone seated in an armchair.
Alexander set the book he had been holding on the side table and smiled faintly.
As if he had kept watch by the sleeping Tie's side all night.
