🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 63
As soon as Erin left, Helix looked at Isis with questioning eyes. He knew his sibling well.
Isis had no faith in humans.
Growing up in the imperial palace, they had seen and heard countless misdeeds committed by royalty and nobles.
If you showed weakness, you were taken advantage of. In a world where you couldn’t trust even friends or family, Helix had gradually grown numb.
Isis wearing a mask was for much the same reason.
“Isis, what are you thinking? This mission is dangerous. It might be hard to fight while also protecting you.”
“Just what I said. I want to see for myself if she’s truly a villain like the Emperor.”
“But weren’t you already certain of that? Why bother…?”
“You know the royals and nobles. They’re skilled at inventing lies. It’s not something to believe so easily.”
“That’s true, but…”
For Helix, the only important thing was Ferdin. Whoever tagged along didn’t matter—he just needed to focus on whether he could find any clues about the orphanage.
Still, Erin bothered him. He recalled how people at the academy treated her.
Their eyes toward Erin were filled with trust, not contempt—hardly how you would look at a villain.
“I’m afraid, Helix.”
“……”
“I think the day the Saint spoke of is approaching. The day when everyone dies, and even Prince Ferdin falls.”
“That day will never come.”
“I want to believe that too. But for now, we need to deal with what’s right in front of us.”
Isis shook their head.
“Erin Recess’s promotion duel is just an excuse. She’s probably here to keep an eye on us.”
The western region didn’t have much habitable land. Once you left the “safe zones,” survival practically required holy power or mana, and you risked hallucinations and monster attacks.
No matter how skilled, even a knight couldn’t leave a safe zone alone without extreme danger.
“What will you do with Erin Recess?”
“She’ll accompany us on the mission. After all, it’s true we need to head there anyway.”
“……”
“And I’ll judge her with my own eyes. What happens after that… I’ll decide then.”
Isis walked to the window. The western lands, ruined by the strange phenomena that had begun some time ago, stretched out beyond. Starving people.
The burden of having to protect the citizens of the Holy Kingdom weighed heavily on Isis’s shoulders.
“Or perhaps… she isn’t the villain we think she is.”
But their eyes held no real expectation—just dryness.
In the dungeon beneath House Recess.
Corelia had brought in a chair and sat comfortably.
Before her, behind iron bars, the Marquis of Recess was bound and imprisoned.
Through the crystal installed in the western region, she could see what it showed as well.
Helix, heading with Erin into the dangerous western lands.
“So even Isis the priest is with them,” Corelia muttered softly.
“Dogs of Ferdin Rexia.”
At those words, the Marquis, who had been sitting despondently, snapped his eyes open wide.
“Dogs of Ferdin Rexia?”
“Your daughter and those temple brats from the west.”
Corelia sneered at him.
“They’ve finally entered the danger zone.”
Hearing “western danger zone,” the Marquis began trembling with rage. He glared furiously at Corelia.
“The west?! What are you planning to do to Erin? What’s your purpose in doing this to us?!”
“Now you worry about your daughter? Don’t fret. She won’t be lonely—I’ll send them all to her one by one.”
“Why? Why are you doing this?! If there’s something you want, tell me. Leave my daughter out of this!”
Corelia gave a hollow laugh.
“You’re still useful, so that won’t do. Once Duke Asili is dealt with, then I’ll send you to your daughter.”
Leaving only those words, Corelia departed the dungeon.
Alone, the Marquis’s face twisted in despair.
The situation was hopeless. He couldn’t tell how Corelia had taken over his house, nor what her true scheme was.
But Erin’s face kept coming to mind. His daughter, Erin…
So all of this… wasn’t Erin’s doing…
Guarding the northern border was never easy. The Marquis barely had any days off, and even those were consumed with work piling up in the capital.
After his wife died, he buried himself in daily duties to forget the pain of loss.
At some point, he realized the children needed guidance and protection when he wasn’t home.
That was why he accepted the Emperor’s proposal to remarry. He believed everything he did was for the children’s sake.
For them, he guarded the Empire more fiercely and worked to strengthen House Recess.
When did it all go wrong?
He recalled how it began. Once or twice a year, when he managed to return home, Corelia would cling to his hand and plead:
“Lloyd, don’t worry about the children’s education. I’ll take responsibility.”
“Erin seems to need time alone. She says so herself, so please restrain yourself from visiting, just once.”
He believed her words. Each time he returned, he prepared gifts for Erin, but time spent with her kept shrinking.
He would be lying if he said he never wondered why his daughter avoided him.
He remembered Erin, young and sorrowful-eyed, clinging to his hand.
She had always looked at him that way, as if desperately hoping he’d notice something.
Each time, he tried to ask her what was wrong, but she never told him.
“Perhaps lately…”
“Lloyd, since you’re finally home, could you watch how much Caron’s swordsmanship has improved this afternoon? He’s been working so hard.”
And then, at some point, Erin stopped looking at him altogether.
Come to think of it, Corelia was always by her side. The Marquis thought it was out of affection.
But it wasn’t. Corelia had deliberately kept him and Erin from speaking.
Now he realized what Erin had been trying to say when she grabbed his hand.
His face went pale. Thinking about what that vile woman might have done to Erin all those years while hiding her true nature filled him with unbearable regret.
Helix had several reasons for thinking Erin wasn’t the “one” they were seeking.
The biggest was her reputation as a villainess. Isis argued rumors couldn’t be trusted, but still—the entire Empire knew her as such.
Another was how different she was from the Saint’s description.
“She’ll be a gentle girl, quick to tears.”
But nothing about Erin matched that.
Even now, walking at the front, Erin coolly slashed away branches blocking her path with an expressionless face.
There was no gentleness in her eyes.
Erin Recess, shedding tears?
Impossible to imagine.
Watching her stride forward without hesitation, Helix let out a faint laugh at his own foolish thought.
Then suddenly, the air shifted. They had crossed beyond the safe zone.
In the west, for some unknown reason, a miasma of death had begun seeping out. Trees withered. The land dried up.
The Emperor claimed it was because God abandoned the Holy Kingdom’s people.
Isis’s face lost its smile as they looked at the ruined land.
And in this land, monsters swarmed. Stronger than those anywhere else. No wonder the west was considered so dangerous.
Isis studied Erin. He and Helix had holy power, but she didn’t.
Here, surviving comfortably required mana control.
Yet Erin followed silently without a single sign of struggle. It puzzled Isis.
She can’t even handle mana yet. So why doesn’t she seem strained at all?
He moved closer to her, speaking coldly.
“For someone raised comfortably in the capital, this must be a strange sight. The west is the harshest land in the Empire.”
“……”
“As you’ve surely noticed, it’s best not to push yourself here. We’re used to it, but you’re not. You’re free to run away if you like. Even breathing must be hard for you.”
“You needn’t concern yourself.”
