Youngest 213
by CristaeEpisode 213
How much time had passed?
My feet began to move, slowly at first.
Toward the distant glow of the hut’s lamp.
The steady pace I’d kept quickened, and before I knew it, I was sprinting at full speed.
‘The coffin is empty.’
I knew it even without having to dig.
My magic does not lie. And…
Perhaps, I had sensed this outcome long before it came to pass.
“Haah, haah.”
My breath caught at my throat. A pain stabbed my head as if someone were wringing my brain. My nose stung, and my heart battered wildly against my chest.
“Why…”
I muttered as I ran madly across the memorial ground.
Suddenly, my legs gave out, and I tumbled messily onto the ground.
‘Why…!’
Ignoring the pain, I scrambled to my feet and ran on. Blood was running down my calf, but I had no time to notice.
Whether she saw me or the commotion, the door of the groundskeeper’s hut burst open.
It was Rosetta’s maid, Eina, coming out with a startled face.
“My lady? How did you even—!”
“Eina!”
I ran to her, grabbing both her arms tightly. Eina paled at the sight of the sporadic bloodstains I’d left on the floor.
“Why…”
When you spend years together, there are things you come to know whether you want to or not.
This was one of them.
Like how my mother, truthfully, is an incredibly strong person… and how her maid and the maids of this manor are all former mercenaries of terrifying strength.
“Why are you all protecting this place?”
My voice was ragged and broken, pleading as I asked.
“My lady? What are you—”
“Why do mother’s mercenaries take turns watching over this place?”
“Well…”
Eina furrowed her brow as she searched her memory.
“It’s because this place was attacked once in the past.”
Thud.
Something fell within me.
“Attacked?”
“A very long time ago… by magical beasts. Since then, we made this place our base, taking turns to guard it. But what’s… My lady!”
I hastily started stripping off my cloak.
Off came my coat, and even my indoor dress.
“What are you doing?!”
Eina shrieked, moving to cover me. With urgent hands I pulled up my thin chemise to check my side.
“…”
There, I found a scar so familiar I sometimes forgot it was there.
‘The scar I’d kept hidden alongside the Mage Kingdom’s sigil when I concealed the fact that I was a girl.’
I’d had it since I was very young, so I didn’t even remember how I’d gotten it.
‘This… now that I see it.’
My fingers slowly traced the scar along my side.
‘It’s a wound left by the claw or fang of a magical beast.’
I squeezed my eyes shut.
I had checked all that I could.
Every piece of evidence pointed toward one possibility.
‘That I…’
Perhaps…
Perhaps.
“Sigh.”
Balok set his glass down.
“I can’t even tell what it’s supposed to taste like!”
He grumbled roughly for no reason, then made his way to the window.
At the sight of the white moonlight, thoughts of Rubian arose unbidden.
‘I don’t know what’s troubling her, but…’
He had no regrets about hurrying back.
Half of Rubian’s reasoning for returning to Zelox—that it was because of the northern barrier—he didn’t quite believe. The rest, he’d accepted as respecting her choice.
But the Rubian who said she wanted to return to Zelox had not looked troubled; she looked like a general on the eve of war. She seemed like someone preparing herself before facing a great trial. Her eyes were clear, her voice resolute. All were signs she was fighting a desperate struggle.
“Patience!”
Balok shouted at himself as though giving an order.
He would keep watch with patience.
He believed in his granddaughter.
“Guess what! Do you know when I smile brightest in the whole world~?”
“Huh? When?”
“Grandpaaapa…”
“…?”
“—when I call you!”
My darling, nothing in the world could be dearer.
“…”
“Hmm, did you not like that? When I say ‘Graaanpa,’ the corners of your mouth go all the way up, turning your whole face into a smile. Is it not funny enough…? Awwp!”
“You little runt! Tiny as a mouse dropping!”
“Mercy! Grandmaaaa!”
Droplet, fuzz, chick, puppy—nothing among all the world’s small, pitiful things could express this ticklish affection I felt, this love for my adorable granddaughter.
‘Whatever you decide. Whatever you say.’
From the day Rubian stubbornly clung to my side,
‘This old man has always been on your side.’
Balok had resolved to be Rubian’s eternal ally.
“…Hm?”
Just then, the old man’s eyes narrowed.
He’d spotted an all-too-familiar figure, silver-haired and walking toward the castle in the distance.
“Patience…”
—I just told myself to have patience.
But that tiny grandchild of mine…
“Out in this cold without so much as a coat!”
This cannot stand!
Balok exclaimed and hurried away.
A chill wind slapped my cheeks.
Eina kept asking what in the world was going on, but I didn’t stop. I was half-running back to the manor.
“To be precise, I can’t say if the attack on the memorial was by magical beasts or just hungry wild ones at the time.”
“…”
“It’s just—the man who was the groundskeeper then died, and the place was left in disarray. But the graves themselves weren’t badly disturbed.”
‘But the infant grave in the little garden, being so new, the earth would not have set firm.’
Even if someone had dug it up and restored it, no one would really have noticed.
‘Especially if magic was used.’
If someone had staged a magical beast attack as a cover, and then stolen the baby’s corpse from the little garden’s grave…
‘And that baby…’
If I were in their place.
I broke into an all-out sprint once more. My knees ached, but that was not important now.
“Hazel was the first to start guarding after that, and in time, we all took turns. Eventually it just became the base. To keep people away, we spread all sorts of chilling rumors.”
“How did no one notice the magical beast attack? Not the senior knights, not Father—they couldn’t have missed it.”
“Back then…”
Eina held her words as if recalling something horrific.
“Back then, everyone was barely themselves… It was the time when magical beasts appeared in greatest numbers throughout the north, not just at the memorial.”
“…”
“And most of all, Lady Rosetta’s stillbirth was just a few days past. His Lordship was, quite literally…”
“…”
“No longer human.”
They said that at the time, Father poured himself into slaying magical beasts as if nothing else existed. He became someone who knew no other purpose in the world.
Neither Sir Leon nor the other lieutenants could stop him.
Eina said that by the end, covered in blood and gore, he was so disfigured it was impossible to tell man from beast.
“Back then, truly… blood from magical beasts flowed like rivers through the north. In the end, Lord Balok had to drag his lordship out from the center of that bloodbath.”
Father, soaked in blood, collapsed after uttering only a single word.
“…Father.”
“Leviathan!”
“I cannot wake from this dream.”
“Damn…”
I stopped where I was and rubbed at my eyes fiercely. But the burning tears would not stop flowing.
Swallowing the emotion, I forced myself to look up again.
‘Get it together.’
I had checked everything I could.
‘And given that Wizeria has remained silent until now…’
It seemed my conclusion was not wholly mistaken.
‘Wizeria, you knew, didn’t you.’
My footsteps carried me on.
The power hidden within me, as if possessed of a will of its own, always gave me exactly the information I needed, just when I needed it.
‘Were you just waiting for me to come of age?’
I had been too young, with too many things to resolve at the time, too weak and helpless to confront the truth.
A voice from the depths of my buried memories rose. The Mage King, patting my head and cheeks, would speak with pride.
The jewel that was stolen from me.
All of this happened before I’d ever remembered this world as a novel, so it must have been a memory left in my body.
The puzzle pieces were falling into place. Some corners were still blank, but—
‘Yes, this is how it is…’
The shape had emerged. Now I had to accept it—and move on to what came next.
Before long, I’d reached the manor’s lobby.
“You!”
I came face to face with Grandfather, who’d hurried down the stairs. It seemed he’d not returned to the annex out of concern for me.
“Ruby? I knew it! No wonder you weren’t in your room!”
Void appeared right after.
“What are you doing running around in the middle of the night? What’s with the blood on your leg—”
Grandfather’s arms were piled with thick blankets, coats, scarves, gloves, all sorts of things.
“What’s gotten into her!”
At his icy shout, Eina seemed to be shaking her head behind me.
All the staff were asleep—it was the dead of night.
I strode across the lobby to stand before Grandfather.
“Grandfather, I need to go south.”
His thick brows knit deeply.
“I need to see Father in the south, then go to Arcadia.”
“What on earth are you— Come here first. We need to get a physician—!”
“The potion reacted at the lake.”
“What?”
Grandfather, who’d been about to drop his coat and pile another layer over me, froze.
Void, anxious at my side, was still.
I clenched my trembling hands and spoke slowly, with deliberate effort.
“The Princess Severena’s potion. When I fell in the lake, my blood and Father’s reacted— I saw them mix. And I’ve just checked the memorial.”
“…”
“…The coffin in the little garden is empty.”
Despite myself, my voice trembled slightly.
“What are you even… saying…”
“Grandfather. I think, perhaps—”
I fought hard to keep my composure.
It was what needed to be done. There was no point in weeping or creating a scene.
“I think I may have been the child buried in that little garden.”