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Chapter : 44
And Then, There Was Nothing.
It was dark.
“Where am I this time?”
My vision was cut off. Below me, everything was black.
“A volcanic region?”
The ground was oxidized, stained red, and yellow flames bloomed across it.
Grains of fire drifted through sulfurous air, and poisonous gas rose from everywhere.
Rotting corpses were tangled together and strewn across the ground.
The bodies of monsters lay scattered as they decayed, their bones melted into grotesque shapes.
Flags were planted throughout the land, and rusted armor and helmets lay abandoned in the sulfuric mire.
“Monsters?”
They were monster corpses. Their bones were buried deep, and the bodies were larger and more grotesque than those of ordinary monsters.
Horns sprouted from their skulls, and what looked like rib bones were embedded into the ground.
It was a grave made of bones.
Grrrk, grrk.
There was nothing.
Only blackness everywhere. No shape.
Just existence itself.
Charlophe passed between the graves.
And beside him—
An intangible pressure crushed down on Charles as if bending him.
“Ghk!”
It felt as if his lungs had filled with water; his chest tightened painfully. His vision flipped and twisted.
His breath caught in his throat.
When he clawed at the back of his neck, his skin tore away.
The torn flesh hung loose, and dark veins bulged vividly along his neck.
“Don’t bite your tongue.”
A low voice woke Charles.
Charlophe felt something foreign in his mouth. Blunt fingertips touched his tongue.
“Relax.”
His breathing trembled. His face went pale, one cheek twitching in a spasm.
His own arms were strangling his neck, his mouth gnawing at someone’s fingers.
“Charles. Relax your arms. Don’t choke yourself.”
Hah—Charlophe let out a shallow breath.
“You’ve calmed down a bit.”
“……”
“Are you all right?”
He grabbed Charles’s wrists and laid him flat.
“Lower your arms. Relax.”
His vision flipped once more.
Charlophe lay on his back staring at the ceiling, his wheezing breath trembling faintly.
“Stop biting.”
He was grinding his teeth against the foreign object in his mouth, and the fingertips twitched. Ah—he was still biting.
“You were biting your tongue, so I put my hand in as an emergency.”
Benjamin pulled his hand away, scratched by teeth.
“…What?”
“Focus on your breathing first. Your neck is stiff.”
A metallic taste of blood spread in his mouth.
It seemed he really had bitten his tongue.
Benjamin’s finger bore red scratches where Charles’s teeth had grazed it.
“Weren’t you in your office?”
His breath trembled sharply, his airway feeling constricted and blocked.
His skin turned pale, his face drained of color as his breathing faltered.
“…Why are you here?”
“The Taran delegation left, and you seemed to be sleeping for quite a while. I was about to wake you.”
Charlophe, rambling, suddenly realized—
The New Year’s festival is over.
The Taran delegation had all departed. By now, they must have already left Poputa Harbor.
Everything was finished.
He tried to sit up, but his arms buckled uselessly.
His body sank back into the blankets. His long hair tangled like a spider’s web.
“I’ll call the royal physician, so wait.”
“…It’s hard to breathe.”
After seeing off the delegation, his breathing still felt heavy.
He had felt this yesterday too—the sensation of being cut off from the world entirely.
“I saw a grave.”
A place piled with bones and corpses. Rotten fragments of bone were buried in ashes, and the entire place felt like one vast grave.
“That’s not something you should be able to see. Strange.”
His reply was vague.
As if he were asking why Charles had seen it at all.
“You saw the monsters’ grave.”
“…What kind of grave?”
“When the monster boundary zone enters its active phase, those sensitive to energy begin to sense it first. They are close to the rift, and when it opens, they unconsciously touch it. They were people who had fought monsters for a long time.”
His eyes sank low.
“…Why do you look like that?”
Instead of answering, he shook his head.
“You scratched yourself quite badly. I’ve applied scar ointment, so don’t touch it with your hands. Just be careful with your hands.”
Aaron wrapped a bandage around Charles’s neck.
“Be cautious about going outside today. The neck is a vital spot. You mustn’t let others see wounds there.”
“What about the other areas?”
“…That will require a private audience. May I request one?”
Benjamin spoke to Charlophe, who was leaning against the bed.
“Stay alone for a moment. Shall I call the head maid?”
“It’s fine. Just go.”
Benjamin led Aaron out.
When the bedroom door closed, Benjamin turned to face Aaron with his back against the door. Aaron bowed deeply, lowering himself.
“It’s exactly as recorded in the royal archives. Her Majesty truly glimpsed the monsters’ grave. Prepare yourselves. The active phase will begin soon.”
When the monsters’ active phase begins, they become even more violent and savage.
“A long campaign of subjugation, then.”
“The empire has only just regained stability. The timing is poor.”
“We expected it around this time. But this active phase is different. They’re clawing beneath the ground—it feels like things that should never crawl above the surface are doing so.”
The imperial family had long organized monster-hunting forces to reduce their numbers.
They dispatched mercenary companies and imperial knights to minimize damage and established a system to aid monster extermination.
“I’m also concerned about the monsters’ grave.”
Someone who had never even had contact with monsters had glimpsed it.
“…That doesn’t sound like a good omen.”
“How is she?”
“For now, her energy is unstable. It seems she realized she touched something she shouldn’t have and instinctively tried to protect herself.”
“This is difficult.”
“…Her Majesty touched a place she should not have.”
Aaron recalled Charles as a child.
He had watched her grow, and even now she retained that same 모습.
“She’s lived her life on the edge since childhood.”
“Is that so?”
“The boundary zone is both the grave of ancient monsters and a remnant of ancient covenants. Ordinary people can’t even touch those graves.”
Aaron added carefully,
“Only those who have brushed against death can barely reach them.”
Those who had faced death.
Those who had crossed the line because of monsters.
“They were former mercenaries—people who spent their lives with monsters, and whose deaths were also with monsters.”
“And how did they end?”
“They died young.”
Those who fought monsters.
Those who lived alongside such vile beings met the same end.
“They were closest to death, and even that death was unlucky. And no one really remembers how they ended.”
“Keep this confidential. Make sure nothing leaks outside.”
After that, they exchanged a few more brief words—mostly cautions.
“And also… no, never mind.”
“Is there more?”
“It may not be related.”
“Speak. I’ll decide.”
“In the past, Her Majesty once asked me about Luppertic disease.”
Benjamin asked if it was the same disease he knew.
“The endemic illness among southern continent miners?”
“…It’s not well known in the empire. You’re quite informed.”
“Go on.”
“Luppertic disease gradually stiffens the muscles, and eventually the lungs harden, leading to death. The cause was the toxicity of a mineral known as ‘luppertic.’”
Because of it, hundreds of miners died in the past.
Southern miners often contracted it.
Many blacksmiths who processed the mineral also died.
“In the past, Her Majesty once asked me whether I knew about this disease.”
“Why?”
“Isn’t it strange? It was a miners’ disease. For someone from the empire’s central nobility to take interest…”
Aaron added with difficulty,
“This may sound irreverent…”
“Say it.”
“Her eyes looked resigned.”
The look of someone who believed death was inevitable.
It would be best to keep this to myself.
The weight of emotion felt different. He had thought it was due to the death of her birth mother—but perhaps that wasn’t all.
“It felt as though something had been lost. Like sand slipping through one’s fingers—there was even a sense of emptiness.”
That emptiness was faint, yet deep.
Within it, he sensed suppressed resentment—dense and distant, buried deep in her bones.
“There are still many unclear points. But I thought Your Majesty should know.”
Aaron bowed deeply.
“You may go for today.”
Benjamin pressed his temples.
Something felt trampled—something left behind, yet impossible to define.
He touched his neck. The muscles at the nape tightened and stood rigid.
“Then I’ll take my leave.”
Aaron had gone.
“Hm. This feels bad.”
Requesting a private audience—that alone was troubling.
A monsters’ grave… This was something he had never experienced even in his past life.
Things have changed too much from my previous life.
It was time to retrace everything.
Tap, tap. Charlophe drummed the bedside table with his fingertips.
Was this the time I was supposed to be bound by an engagement?
By now, Charlophe should have been engaged, tied up as a marriage prospect.
The day my life hit rock bottom, a completely ruined life came crashing down.
Luppertic disease was only one part of that life.
There was no room to look outward; I was confined at home, my life severely limited.
There was no one.
There was no one on my side in the estate, and all relationships were severed.
Just surviving was all I could manage.
Knock, knock.
Around then, Benjamin returned.
“Are you done talking with Aaron?”
“Just finished.”
“It took a while.”
“It ran a bit longer than expected.”
A brief exchange followed. Their gazes pierced into each other, digging relentlessly into what lay inside.
“I’ll ask a few questions just to confirm facts. If it’s hard to answer, you can say yes or no. But don’t lie.”
“…All right.”
“When you were young, were you ever injured by a monster?”
His dark gaze fixed on Charlophe.
She shook her head.
“I was the only daughter of the Tuteur family. I lived only in the Tuteur estate as a child and never encountered monsters.”
“…Then have you ever glimpsed a monsters’ grave before?”
“No. It was my first time.”
“Are you sure?”
“I wasn’t in an environment where I could encounter monsters.”
That was the most puzzling part.
It was something that hadn’t happened in her previous life.
“Were you ever sick as a child?”
“No.”
“…None?”
“Yes. You can ask Aaron.”
That wasn’t a lie—at least, not in childhood.
And the death from her previous life no longer existed.
“I’ve never deceived myself with lies.”
“I can see that too. You look calm, as if nothing’s wrong—yet why do I keep feeling like I’m about to lose you, Charles?”
Their gazes crossed at an angle.
He stared straight down at her.
“Don’t avoid my eyes.”
Benjamin fixed her wandering gaze squarely on himself.
“If you keep avoiding them, it looks like you’re hiding something from me.”
