Volume 1 Chapter 73 The Melting Curse And The Lost Memories
Mr. Lucian quietly and diligently ate the meatballs and mashed potatoes on his plate.
The other men, too, removed their masks and took a bite of the food.
For some reason, their eyes, which had shone red──had now turned the same sky blue as Mr. Lucian's.
Sir Ciel, sitting next to me, whispered, "The Red Curse of the Moon..."
After finishing his meal, Mr. Lucian pressed his forehead with his palm, looking pained.
The other men, too, were either covering their mouths or holding their heads.
They all seemed to be in pain.
Why──?
I didn't make the food to cause them suffering.
It was as if the food had been poisoned, and those who ate it were suffering.
My body began to tremble.
What have I done?
I'm scared.
Sir Ciel, noticing my distress, placed a hand on my back to reassure me.
I felt a little relief through the fabric, from his body temperature.
"──I remember. Why have I forgotten all this time? I remember, Judal."
Mr. Lucian spoke in a low voice.
Judal was the name of the masked man who had attacked me.
Now, he had removed his mask, revealing his true face.
A man with a wrinkled face and sharp eyes, he looked quite elderly, but his red eyes, full of determination, gleamed fiercely.
"Everyone──how are you? Have you awakened from the illusion?"
In response to Mr. Lucian's call, voices rose from various places: "Yes, Your Highness," "Why were we," and "deceived all this time?"
"Judal. You were the chancellor of the castle. Before the war with the Bernard Kingdom──you were expelled from the castle after clashing with my father."
"What are you saying, Your Highness? That's not true. Nothing like that happened. I was in the castle and fought the hated Bernard people. To let Your Highness escape..."
"I've felt a sense of unease for a long time. Half a year ago, when I ate this food──I felt that something was wrong. Even though he has now become a foolish king, the king Zeere I knew was a good man. I doubt that he killed my parents in such a cruel way."
"No. The Bernard people ravaged our country. In a very cruel way."
"...My parents were moderates. They tried to dissuade you from invading the Bernard Kingdom and sought a path of reconciliation. They said, 'Don't hurt people needlessly. It's an act that takes many lives.'"
"──I saw it! Twenty years ago, I saw Judal, who was supposed to have been expelled, enter the underground waterway!"
Someone shouted.
Along with that voice, another voice rose, "Judal was the one who poisoned the waterway."
"At that time, before the war began. My father had given no orders, yet someone attacked the Bernard Kingdom's border town, killing many people and burning the town. Before my father could respond to the letter from King Zeere, requesting a meeting to talk instead of fighting, poison was poured into the waterway, and many people in the capital of Kirschtein fell victim to the poison."
Among the enraged men, Mr. Lucian alone calmly spoke.
"At that time──I was four years old. I thought I couldn't remember everything because I was so young. But I saw everything from beside my father. While he was busy dealing with the chaos in the town, Judal, you took advantage of the confusion──and kidnapped my mother. Right in front of my eyes."
As Mr. Lucian calmly confronted Judal with the facts, the man called Judal stood up from his chair with a start.
"What's going on? What is this? What's happening...! What are these feelings? This impulse to spill everything out..."
Judal spoke in a trembling voice.
Mr. Lucian calmly looked at him with eyes filled with pity and anger.
"Perhaps the gentle taste of our homeland's cuisine is bringing this about. You had cast a forgetting curse on us, for an eternity. It's no use saying anything now. I remember everything. When King Zeere attacked the palace, it was probably already a sea of blood."
Mr. Lucian stood up and drew his sword, pointing it at Judal. Sir Ciel and Sir Rail stepped forward to protect me.
"When the report came that King Zeere was leading his army to invade Kirschtein, you returned to the palace with my mother. At that time, my mother's behavior was strange. Her belly, swollen with child, was unusually large, and she said that the child within was the reincarnation of Lady Sylphina. To obtain the power of Sylphina──she said many souls were needed..."
"Yes, that's right. The queen was carrying a miraculous child. Lady Sylphina was supposed to reincarnate. To destroy the hated Bernard Kingdom and make the Kirschtein Kingdom the ruler of the continent, our goddess..."
"No one wanted such a thing! My parents wished for the peace of the people. At the forefront, you, who advocated for invasion, were suppressed, and they taught us to live peacefully in the land we had. I was proud of my kind parents."
"The king and queen were fools. The land of the Bernard Kingdom is ours! We will ease the sorrow of the unfortunate Lady Sylphina. The rule of the Bernard Kingdom is our wish..."
"For that reason, you──! You must have seen my father as an obstacle. So, you spread the lie that the Bernard Kingdom had poisoned the waterway, burned the Bernard Kingdom's town, and incited hatred. You kidnapped my mother──and destroyed her. But in her last moments, she was sane."
Mr. Lucian smiled sadly.
"Everyone, listen carefully. We were about to make another mistake. Our rebellion would have hurt many Kirschtein people. The Liberation War was a big mistake. Judal is a fool who hates the Bernard people and is obsessed with Sylphina."
The men in robes discarded their robes and took up swords.
The tips of their swords were pointed at Judal.
"Hatred breeds new hatred. Many have lost their partners and families due to the rule of the Kingdom of Bernard. However, in these 20 years──there must be many who can now picture the faces of their loved ones. ...When King Zeere appeared in the palace, my mother was in front of me, after killing my father."
I almost let out a small scream and covered my mouth with both hands.
Tears fell down my cheeks.
Thinking about what young Mr. Lucian saw makes me feel painful and sad.
I want to run over and hug him right now. I want to tell him that everything will be okay, to share some warmth with him.
But, I can't do that right now.
"My mother must have come back to her senses because of that. ...She clung to King Zeere, saying that the child in her womb was a vessel for a terrible witch that would bring chaos to the world. She wanted him to kill her and the child. ...And then she told me not to hate anyone. And King Zeere..."
"Ah, I hate it...! Everything should have gone well. If it weren't for the holy sword, Laevateinn, the queen wouldn't have been killed...!"
Judal slammed his fist on the table.
The plates shook and made a loud noise. Judal's plate still had most of the food left.
"And then, King Zeere fought you. Judal, you must have put some kind of curse on me at that time. Before I knew it, I was alone, crouching in the forest outside the palace. My memories were rewritten──I thought King Zeere had killed everyone in the palace."
Mr. Lucian easily jumped over the long table, placing his feet on it.
He quickly put a sword to Judal's neck.
Terrible things happened, and there were scary moments, but.
This will end here.
Judal seemed to be captured all alone, without any struggle.
But then, in a voice that crawled like the earth, Judal started to laugh, shaking his shoulders.
With his laughter, a sinister red magic circle appeared all over the room.
Sir Ciel caught me in his arms to protect me.
"Lucian, over here, hurry!"
Called by Sir Ciel, Mr. Lucian stepped back from Judal.
Sir Rail grabbed Mr. Lucian's clothes and dragged him over, as he hesitated to look our way.
It happened in an instant. An icy barrier appeared, wrapping around us.
Those outside Sir Ciel's protective wall fell to the floor, even though they had no visible injuries.
The walls shook, and the building trembled.
The wall behind Judar crumbled, revealing a large space.
In the back of that space, which seemed as big as a castle's dance hall, there was a pure white, monstrous figure.
Please bookmark this series and rate ☆☆☆☆☆ on here!
Donate me
Support Me with USDC
(ERC20)
Support Me with XLM
(Stellar Lumens)