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chapter 35
For a while, silence hung heavily in the room.
“…….”
“…….”
Caesar looked down at the boy whose dark eyes seemed to embrace all the light in the world.
He slowly opened his mouth.
“Well, I don’t know.”
He was an adult.
“I don’t quite understand why you say that.”
And an adult is someone who can skillfully speak lies even in disadvantageous situations.
He wore a mask and took a step back, hinting that he wanted to end this conversation.
But Illei didn’t stop.
“This jewel was left behind by the Arcanse Lirian killed that day.”
A pause.
“I don’t know why the calamity, said to have been eradicated by the cult two years ago, reappeared in Zerkino. However…”
“…….”
“The problem is that awakened Lirian showed symptoms similar to that Arcanse.”
Illei raised his clear blue eyes and asked,
“Duke, do you know the answer?”
He thought to himself.
Audacious.
He sighed as he looked at the young wildling in front of him—angelic in appearance but clearly destined to have a strong personality when grown.
Truthfully, it didn’t seem like the child was even trying to hide it now.
Seeing him poke so openly at him like this confirmed that.
“Illei.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
“That’s not something you should be asking.”
Caesar drew a line.
Mentioning his name was a warning: stay out of family affairs.
But he didn’t notice how sharply Illei reacted, as if reopening an old wound.
Illei looked up at Caesar without a hint of agitation.
“Yes, that’s right.”
When he calmly acknowledged it, Caesar frowned.
“But there’s someone who needs to know.”
“What do you mean…”
Caesar paused as Illei’s gaze shifted toward the door behind him.
Through a small gap, something poked out.
Four small human-like figures.
At the very top, a sprout-like antenna swayed gently.
Whispered voices came from there.
“Liria, don’t move, you’ll fall.”
“But I can’t see!”
“Hey, tiny one! You grabbed my head?!”
“Not me!”
“Who else is on top of me besides you?!”
“Wait, if you two move like that…!”
“Ah!”
“Waaah!”
Crash—
The door burst open, and the four children stacked like a pancake tower toppled out.
Caesar’s lips parted slightly.
“What on earth….”
“I thought you’d notice from outside the door, but since you didn’t, I came in on behalf of the group.”
Illei revealed the truth.
The three who had left Yuri’s room recruited party members on their way to Caesar’s office.
That was Jeryl and Seran.
Since they were about to tackle a terrifying Demon Lord raid, the more members, the better.
But when they all arrived, Caesar was so lost in thought that he didn’t notice anyone outside.
So they had divided roles.
“That’s right! I knocked!”
“Liria… if you thrash around like that…”
“We’re going to die…”
Lirian proudly shouted while squashing her older brothers beneath her.
At the bottom, Seran and above him Yuri muttered in near-death voices.
Illei looked back at Caesar and said,
“I thought if I came along, you wouldn’t tell me.”
“…….”
“Sorry if I was rude.”
Caesar stared at the boy, who nodded politely.
The young wildling who had shown his claws had returned to a calm-faced boy.
Caesar let out a bitter laugh.
Surely… if even one of the four siblings were here, he wouldn’t have revealed his emotions; he would have hidden them desperately.
Because he was their father.
No parent can casually speak secrets about their children.
Especially when the secrets could signal tragedy.
“I… lost.”
Caesar declared a perfect K.O.
“But I can’t tell you about it. Sometimes, not knowing is better than knowing certain truths.”
Yet despite Caesar’s firm stance, everyone exchanged worried glances, silently asking, “What do we do?”
Step.
The final dealer arrived.
“I know the feeling of wanting to always protect your child, like a little one in your arms.”
“…Darling?”
“That’s the heart of a parent.”
Resa had entered the office.
She helped the fallen children up one by one.
Caesar’s pupils trembled strongly.
“But helping your children grow when they want to is also a parent’s role, isn’t it?”
Right, Kyle?
Caesar’s throat tightened suddenly. He called his wife in a low, husky voice.
“But… Resa.”
“Did you think I wouldn’t know? You’ve been wasting away day by day, so I knew something was up. And now the children already know, so don’t even try to deny it.”
Flinch.
“I’m ready.”
Sometimes, accepting a truth and speaking it require immense courage.
Resa spoke to herself, as if making a vow.
“…….”
Caesar, lost for words, slowly looked around the room.
He saw those who could both support and break him.
Illei noticed the atmosphere and quietly tried to step aside.
But then Lirian suddenly approached and grabbed the cookie she had left unfinished, leaving Illei horrified.
“What are you doing? Eat the new one.”
“I grabbed it first! It’s mine, so Illei can have another one.”
“No, I said eat the new one! Why the leftover…!”
Caesar watched the children squabble and laughed heartily.
“Ah, Daddy smiled!”
Lirian shouted as she munched on the cookie.
Caesar quickly picked up his daughter, kissed her, and said,
“That was for Illei. What if Liria eats it?”
“Gasp.”
Lirian rolled her eyes, stuffed the rest of the cookie into her mouth, and puffed her cheeks in denial.
“All gone. Not left.”
“Sigh…”
Illei exhaled.
Caesar misunderstood, thinking Illei was upset because Lirian had taken the cookie.
“She must have been nervous since she’s still adjusting. And I even scolded her.”
Of course, it was a complete misunderstanding, but Caesar felt even more apologetic.
“I’m sorry, Illei. I’ll give you something better. Just this once.”
“Me too!”
“Liria, you need to reflect for stealing your brother’s cookie.”
“Waaah!”
Illei wanted to explain it wasn’t that, it was another reason.
‘Just now, that was indirect… indirect…’
But the words got stuck, so he gave up.
“Okay….”
Eventually, they received a large cookie, still wrapped with ribbon.
“King Cookie!”
Lirian’s eyes sparkled as drool flowed like a waterfall.
“Can I have just one bite?”
“One bite won’t be just one bite.”
“Tch. Illei is quick-witted.”
Lirian grumbled. Illei couldn’t help but laugh at her.
“Come on, kids, sit here.”
The Duke and Duchess decided to start by telling the children very old stories.
The children sat on the rug or sofa, finding comfortable spots.
Illei had to split a cookie for Lirian, who wouldn’t let go, and she happily took it with a crunch from his hand.
As he panicked in surprise, Caesar began to speak.
“You all know the founding myth, but long ago, this land had both light and darkness.”
The light was the Morning Star, the darkness the Abyssal Dragon.
“When the Morning Star lifted the darkness of the Abyssal Dragon from the continent, the Age of Radiance began. But here’s the problem: before the gods descended, what existed in a continent full of darkness?”
The children’s eyes sparkled with curiosity.
“I wonder, was there life back then?”
“Homunculi?”
“I don’t know.”
“Nom nom.”
Illei quickly fed Lirian the remaining cookie, hiding his reddened ears, and couldn’t answer.
“The answer is… the Old Civilization.”
Even though he had lived once more through time, Lirian’s antenna twitched at the unfamiliar term, “Old Civilization.”
A civilization of a bygone era, long destroyed and lost to history.
But the founding myth starts the continent’s history from the Age of Radiance.
Everything before was essentially forgotten.
“And humans called them fairies, beastfolk, and dwarves.”
In the distant past, when no light shone on this land, even the gods paid no attention.
Non-human beings lived on the continent.
Recorders called them “different races.”
Records of the Old Civilization were mostly lost.
Thus, after humanity was completely destroyed in the Abyss, there was no way to access information about it.
But now, twenty years before humanity’s demise, a few clues remained.
“The Four Great Prohibitions. Three of them still hold remnants of the Old Civilization.”
“And they are also habitats of the different races.”
The Great Mountains, the Arctic Ocean, the Illusory Desert, the White Beast Forest.
These are the Four Great Prohibitions.
In the future, one more was added:
<The Black Abyss>
This was where the Abyss first occurred.
“The Arctic Ocean is home to fairies, the Illusory Desert to beastfolk, and the White Beast Forest to dwarves… Right, Seran? Any questions?”
“I heard that the Prohibitions are areas where ‘anomalies’ occur and normal humans can’t survive. But how did you know they were habitats?”
“Good question.”
Caesar nodded.
Then he dropped a bomb.
“That’s because my wife, your mother, is a fairy.”
“…What?”
“Of course, I’m human. But technically, you’re second-generation fairies too. The blood continues in you.”
Lirian dropped her cookie piece in surprise.
