Chapter 118
Chapter 118
When they returned to the little fief, it was already at dusk.
Arzeon stretched and yawned, then glanced at the others.
“Now I can go to rest.”
“That’s right. I can put you in a cage while you are sleeping and send it to the Tower.”
Gillard raised an evil eyebrow.
“……Even if I go to the Tower, I’ll just get in trouble as my powers are the way they are now.”
Stopping the bickering of both grown-up men, Luciel said.
“I promised to release Arzeon’s seal, so I think it is okay to let him stay here for a while. And thank you for today. Thanks to you, I met Rupdell.”
Arzeon folded his arms and nodded while listening to Luciel’s thanks.
“You are better than your grandfather. You’re not discouraged against Rupdell, you’re good. Well done.”
Arzeon softly smiled and stroked Luciel’s head as if giving her a prize.
“Because the two of you were together with me, I got courage.”
“It seems like we heard about something serious, so let’s discuss the matter first.”
“Yes.”
Luciel nodded her head and began to speak to Gillard with a rather serious face.
However, maybe it was because her young body’s stamina was exhausted from staying up all night. Luciel’s eyelids also became heavy and drowsy, and her mind was confused by sleepiness.
“Grandpa…we have to tell all of this to father-in-law……and about the one who brought down Bellstein…so to the office…”
Seeing the face of the child who was so sleepy that she couldn’t even finish a word, Gillard smiled and held Luciel in his arms.
“Think about that after you sleep, Luciel.”
Luciel, apparently very tired, fell asleep as soon as he patted her back a couple of times.
‘I know even if you don’t tell me. It was Prince Reynold who broke down Bellstein’s Black Wall, wasn’t he?’
‘Ah, I saw a sword like that…it had twelve grooves. They put my jewels in the groove, and the sword gained tremendous power. A power strong enough to destroy a strong family, or perhaps even a country.’
‘……I only remember part of the dream, but the Black Wall had fallen.’
Gillard recalled what Luciel had said to Rupdell and her words about a foresight dream that the black wall was collapsing.
Linking it with the recent suspicious movements of the Prince, it was not difficult to infer that he was responsible for the past harm to Bellstein.
The Prince of the past seemed to be an evil that was full of sins that one could not even imagine being the same human being.
All of a sudden, Gillard’s red eyes exploded in the color of flames, then quickly subsided.
First of all, he opened a mobile portal to the private residence with the idea to put the child to sleep comfortably.
He smiled pleasantly when he found the sock tree occupying a cozy and cute interior decoration.
Just as he was about to leave Luciel on the bed, his upset grandson was waiting in the parlor.
“Grandfather! Luciel is….”
Kizef stopped talking in a loud voice when he saw Luciel sleeping.
Hearing that she had gone with Gillard to supplement her wand, Kizef was expecting them to be coming back soon, but she had not returned until dawn, and he could hardly stand still while training.
He tried teleporting with the wedding ring just in case, but it didn’t work.
“What the hell is going on? Is it really about only the wand?”
“First of all, let’s go leave the child in the bed.”
At his words, Kizef opened the door to Luciel’s bedroom. After laying Luciel down, and closing the door tightly, Gillard came out to the parlor while holding Kizef’s hand.
“We went to the blacksmith, the dwarf Rupdell, to find a way to craft jewels on Luciel’s wand.”
“As I know, he lives in a dangerous place….”
“As you can see, she came back safely. Do you think I will put Luciel in danger when she’s with me? You don’t seem to have slept either, so you better take a break.”
Kizef dropped his head, wondering if he had been too sensitive.
“What about Grandfather?”
“I must speak to your father.”
“Is it…about Luciel?”
“Now, it’s about all of us.”
“Then I will go with you. I have something to tell him too.”
“Then there is nothing I can do. Let’s go.”
Gillard nodded his head in reply, and Kizef followed him.
* * *
Meanwhile, the light in the Duke’s office was brightly lit. Although he trusted Gillard and entrusted Luciel, the Duke could not sleep.
The Demon Realm was a place where tracking magic didn’t work, so the only way was to wait until they came back.
When he finally felt the presence of people outside, the Duke opened the door and faced his father. Seeing that his face was bright, he confirmed that Luciel had also returned safely.
“…You are very late.”
“Somehow, the conversation got long. It looks like everyone hasn’t slept.”
Not only the Duke but also Ellington and the aides were all awake in the Duke’s Office.
“Look at this, you all can go back now. You shouldn’t be here until this late .”
“It’s nothing, sir.”
“Did the Little Madam also come back safely?”
Both aides and Ellington had been awake until now not because of the Duke’s compulsion, but because they were worried about Luciel.
“Of course. I took Luciel back to her room without hurting even a single strand of hair.”
“I am so glad.”
“Then we can leave the office in peace.”
Ellington shook his head as he watched the aides leave the office with bright faces.
“They are too tactless.”
After all, it’s time to go to work in four hours, so if you hold on just a little longer, both trust and salary will rise sharply.
The Duke grinned slowly as he patted Ellington on the shoulder, who was alone in his delusions.
“You go back, too.”
“……What? No, I’d rather stay here than go back to work in four hours.”
“Come to work around two o’clock in the afternoon.”
“What……? I hope you are not going to clean my desk, are you? I still have to make a lot of money, sir.”
“Go back while I’m sending you out.”
“……Sir!”
Ellington soon realized that the Duke had really cared for him, and left the office in a hurry.
“Then, I’ll see you later.”
Ellington smiled sweetly as he walked away, and then Kizef came in as well. Gillard entered the quiet office and sat down on the sofa before opening his mouth.
“Louis, I have something to tell you.”
“I have something to tell you, too. I promised Luciel that I would tell you about it.” (Kizef)
As he sat on the sofa next to his grandfather, Kizef looked at the grown-ups.
“Well…Who should I start with?”
Louivid also went to the sofa across from them, sat down, and said so. Gillard quietly yielded his turn to Kizef. He nodded his head and began to tell what he had seen with Luciel.
The fact that it was Prince Reynold who put Luciel’s jewel into a sword destroying the Black Wall with it and leading all of Bellstein to ruin.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you in advance. It was painful, so….”
Kizef’s eyes went blank and he lost focus. Now it seemed like he finally lifted a little of the heavy burden on his back.
He had been embracing that fact for a long time too. He wished no one knew about this terrifying fact, so much so that even if it meant using Raven’s powers he would try to keep Bellstein safe on his own.
In fact, if it hadn’t been for Luciel, he would have been carrying that fact alone to this day. His eyes reddened as he recalled the tragic moment of facing the corpses of his family in the past.
The Duke approached the son without a word and hugged him with a big embrace. In his Father’s arms, Kizef wept silently. Louivid messed up his son’s head with his large hand and let it go.
“You haven’t become a man yet.”
No matter how big he pretended to be, Kizef only looked like a child in his father’s eyes. Louivid said so while looking at Kizef with affectionate eyes.
Gillard also held Kizef’s hand tightly and comforted him.
“……Kizef. Thanks for letting me know now. It was too big for you to handle it on your own.”
Having said that, Gillard nodded his head by himself.
“However, my prediction was correct. Prince Reynold, as a matter of fact, I was going to tell you about him now.”
The Duke moistening his dry lips with his tongue said so. In the meantime, the Prince has shown suspicious movements and tried to learn the secrets of the Black Wall by planting a spy.
This was clear proof that they were targeting Bellstein.
“I expect that the end of the Prince’s vision is to overthrow Bellstein…It may have been possible in the past.”
“This time, it’s not even worth half a penny.”
“We have to pluck the sprouts before they grow.”
The two nodded, and their red eyes that resembled each other lit up in fire. There was more to talk about from now on.
* * *
Nine hours later.
As soon as Luciel woke up, she rushed to the Duke’s office to tell everything, the seat had already been vacated and only the Duke was there.
“Father-in-law! I have something to tell you…!”
“What is it?”
The Duke who was sitting in the office and looking down at Luciel with a sluggish face asked her.
“The truth is…There’s something I haven’t told you. In the past, Prince Reynold brought down the Black Wall killing everyone and destroying Bellstein.”
Although Luciel struggled to confess, the Duke was not surprised.
“I had already heard from Kizef and from father around this morning. It was somewhat predictable……”
“Ah……really? I feel sleep before coming over, I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you in advance.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry of, Luciel. I’m touched by the fact that you came over here right after you woke up, without even being able to take care of yourself properly.”
“Oh……!”
As Luciel hid her face in shame, the Duke gently wiped her eyes with a handkerchief. At his friendly words and actions, Luciel calmed down and said.
“So, you should be wary of the Prince and reinforce the Black Wall.”
“It should be. Now that Gallius is also backed by Bellstein, we will be able to reinforce the wall in the future. Wait……did you have that in mind in advance?”
“Ah… It wasn’t like that from the beginning, but I knew that Gallius was a great architect, and I thought it would be a good thing for Bellstein if he could help in reinforcing the wall.”
When Luciel spoke with her sparkling eyes, the Duke said with a satisfied expression.
“Right. Well done.”
He stroked Luciel’s hair.
“By the way, how did the Crown Prince attack Bellstein?”
At the Duke’s question, Luciel managed to part her heavy lips.
The Crown Prince had a sword with strong magical powers even before it was completed with her jewels.
“The Prince put my jewels in his sword and made it even stronger, he united with the nobles and defeated Bellstein.”
“From the beginning, it wasn’t an ordinary sword.”
“Yes. It was a sword with a long blue blade.”
“Something like a magic sword, or a holy sword?”
Luciel nodded her head at the Duke’s guess.
“Perhaps. At that time, the Prince already had the sword. Perhaps it was a treasure of the Imperial Family?”
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(Note: To explain. The sword they saw in the book was not the Prince’s sword. They saw another sword that had the same type of groove in the blade. What they learned was the method of sacrificing souls to the devil to make it stronger and make grooves for the jewels. In that way, even if the real sword the Prince holds was to be a holy sword, once is tainted by the sacrificed souls, it became a demonic soul eater.)