novelraw Chapter 299
Chapter 299
Chapter 299
A bitterly cold world.
Yurik quietly rested his head against the glass window of Gladheim, Asgard's royal castle where he had voluntarily confined himself.
It seemed quite a long time had passed since Yesung left, but the fact that there was still no news was strangely unpleasant.
Surely he would have achieved at least one of his goals, whether blocking the Leng Plateau or doing something else.
Then shouldn't he be coming to find him soon?
Of course, it might be difficult for Yesung to come directly,
But if he joined up with Yurik's companions, he could send quick news through Dardin.
Yet there was still no word at all.
Could it be that he had forgotten him again, like when he left Shambhala?No, no. That couldn't be. This time Yesung had personally promised, hadn't he?
Yurik repeatedly mulled over the promise Yesung had made in his mind, trying to shake off the anxiety that was creeping up.
He had said he would definitely come. He had said he would come no matter how many years it took, so he could endure in this cold country until then.
He was well-seasoned in waiting. He had endured time that felt like eternity to get Yesung back.
So compared to that, waiting a few months was really nothing, even though he knew this in his head.
He thought he had become like a baby animal that hadn't even been weaned.
From Shambhala until now, Yurik had truly met countless people.
Whether by choice or not, most of them had developed favorable feelings toward Yurik. But Yurik didn't treat them as individuals of the same species as himself.
It wasn't their personal problem. Yurik didn't think of himself and humans as the same species.
Things that looked similar on the outside but absolutely didn't belong to the same species.
Wolves and wild dogs, lions among cats.
Feeling that only he was different among so many people was a greater pain than he had expected.
If he had realized that he would be left alone forever like this, he might have gone insane.
While no one understood him and silently despairing at the terrible reality that no one could share the same time as him.
Living a terrifyingly tedious and boring eternal life. Wondering when this life would end, when exactly he could die would have been his daily routine.
He might have tried everything to really die.
But now it was different, wasn't it?
Yurik had a being who had been with him since childhood. A being who taught him to read, cherished him, slept with him, and sacrificed for him.
Of course... that being did jump around here and there quite a bit.
But in the end, hadn't he always returned to him?
Yurik thought only Yesung was his family. And family, no matter how troublesome, was still family.
He hadn't realized how precious shared meals, walks together, time sleeping together, and comfortable conversations without thinking about anything could be.
Just thinking about it made Yurik both happy and unhappy at the same time.
He felt deep and full happiness for the being he could call family,
And he was unhappy because that being was unfortunately a living being with intelligence and will, and because he couldn't think of a way to stop such a being.
But in the end, all life was a series of unhappiness and happiness,
And right now the weight of the scale was extremely tilted toward happiness.
So this current anxiety should be seen as a necessary process for becoming happy.
Yurik rested his chin on his hand and sighed.
His beautiful fingers scribbled letters on the glass that had become foggy from his breath.
The servants cleaning the room glanced at him as he suddenly acted melancholy,
But Yurik paid them no attention.
Of course, the servants didn't make any particular conversation either and quickly finished tidying up before leaving.
No one could ask a foreign royal "Why are you acting so pathetically with that grief-stricken face as if yearning for someone you've been separated from?"
While the servants were doing this, Yurik's interest shifted to 'Yesung who went to Aquilonia.'
Honestly, Yurik was worried that Yesung might sincerely do something strange.
He wouldn't go alone and act eccentric, would he? Like picking up and eating things from the road,
Or if not that, cutting his own throat again.
When Yurik realized that Yesung was someone who could come back from death, he felt relieved and anxious at the same time.
This was because Yurik couldn't even guess which direction Yesung's thoughts might roll.
He was curious what Yesung would do in Aquilonia. Maybe he should have forced himself to go together after all.
Wouldn't he be much, much more useful to Yesung than sending along that pale 'god' fellow?
To begin with, Yurik didn't believe in beings called gods.
This was probably because the ancient species that gave birth to him were outsiders who came from outer space,
And Ig, the father of countless serpents, was also a life form with flesh.
But his brother, who was rejected even by death, went around with the title of 'god.'
What exactly was that thing's identity that it needed Yesung?
Yurik needed to dig deeper into this situation. Of course, only when Yesung was sufficiently off guard.
It was when Yurik was alone in the quiet room, completely absorbed in his own longing.
-Knock knock.
"Who is it?"
"I've come to help you change your clothes."
Yurik reflexively looked down at his own clothes.
He was still in the black pajama gown he had put on in the morning, but since he was half-confined in a foreign country, there were no plans for external activities.
He hadn't heard that this country's king had summoned him either.
"Come in."
When permission was given, a servant entered.
Carrying simple clothes to change into on his arm, he politely bowed when the door closed.
"I greet His Highness the 3rd Prince Yurik den Aquilonia, the small sun of Aquilonia."
"You're not a palace servant of Asgard."
"I've come to deliver news received yesterday from Aquilonia's sapling."
Sapling. The spies Dardin had planted were spread widely not only in Aquilonia's royal castle, but also in Asgard and Vanaheim.
He didn't know what methods Dardin used, but he was surely collecting information at a level that would make even Yurik stick out his tongue.
Like the daily meetings before Yesung came, and knowing international affairs in excessive detail.
Yurik accepted the pearl-lustrous shirt the servant handed him.
His fingers fumbling inside the shirt sleeve pulled out a long, thin piece of paper.
After reading it, Yurik frowned briefly then read it once more slowly.
Yurik, who had been glaring as if he would chew over every single letter, burned the note in the fireplace and handed the shirt back to the servant.
"Different clothes would be better. Since I plan to have an audience with His Majesty the King, bring attire suitable for that. Black gloves as well."
* * *
Dardin, Valter, Cellinne, and Eva, who were charged with sedition, were classified as political prisoners.
They were confined in the tower of Aquilonia's royal castle under strict surveillance.
They couldn't bring anything with them when they entered,
But the white box Cellinne was holding was an exception.
Even when Cellinne tried to put down the box herself, her arms wouldn't release as if frozen,
And when guards or other people rushed in to try to take it away, they all fell backward.
In the end, Cellinne entered the tower with twice as many surveillance personnel as the others.
Dardin, seated at the very top of the tower, was lost in thought inside the iron bars.
First, getting out of here was urgent. But the problem was that they were all not ordinary criminals.
Unlike general prisoners, political prisoners couldn't leave even for illness or emergencies.
If he could feign illness to gain even a brief opportunity, that would be good,
But in the current case, there was a high possibility they would call a physician here instead.
If a physician said there was nothing wrong with his body, he would surely be suspected. If there was a method with any possibility, it would be...
After all, the only option was to aim for when he could leave the tower for interrogation.
Dardin quietly waited for the time. Patiently and calmly.
He showed no reaction even when guards glanced at him.
Only after such a long, long time passed was Dardin able to meet the soldiers who came for him.
-Clank.
Dragged from the prison where not a single ray of light entered, Dardin went down stairs covered with moss.
Each time he went down a floor, he tried to check how the others were doing,
But the guards on each floor were guarding the doors like iron walls, so he couldn't see even a glimpse of them, let alone their faces.
When he stepped outside the tower with no gain, cool night wind brushed past Dardin's head.
The area around the tower that confined political prisoners was quiet. Probably, even if the royal castle exploded, the sound wouldn't reach here.
Only torches attached to the outer walls of buildings of unknown purpose illuminated the darkness.
After winding through complex paths, the place Dardin arrived at was not the interrogation room he had expected.
Rather, arriving at a small garden where a high-ranking lady might enjoy a stroll, Dardin was frozen in confusion for a moment.
"This place."
Why had he come here? Wasn't it supposed to be an interrogation?
Then, someone answered Dardin's muttering.
"When you arrange a garden like this, it's surely used someday."
"-You are!"
This voice. It was definitely memorable. Dardin reflexively raised his head, but a strong hand pressed his head down.
-Thud!
"Not knowing your place, what are you doing not kneeling!"
The guard who had kicked the back of Dardin's knees as he stood dazed scolded him.
With his forehead touching the grass and teeth clenched, the sound of rustling footsteps approached him.
"Baronet Dardin Hessen. How long has it been since we've seen each other's faces? How have you been?"
"Your Majesty... the Queen."
"Ah. You don't need to answer. While receiving news of my son, I've been hearing about you as well."
"I'm relieved that Your Majesty the Queen seems to be as well as ever."
"Is that so? You seem to have enjoyed yourself quite a bit too. Your face is a little gaunt though. Or have you been in this state continuously since your father Baron Hessen died?"
Fire flared up in Dardin's chest.
When he looked up defiantly, there stood a woman adorned with nobility and arrogance instead of jewels.
The Queen, accompanied by even one of her closest associates, the Royal Guard Captain, looked down at Dardin as always like a fragile, naive noblewoman who knew nothing of the world,
But he could glimpse the ruler's characteristic coldness in the Queen's eyes.
"Let's bury past matters in the past. Right now my son is more of a problem."
"Has some misfortune befallen His Highness the 3rd Prince?"
"Misfortune. Wouldn't you know better? Baronet Hessen. I prefer to use time effectively. So I'll ask once."
The Queen waved a fan made of white and blue silk.
"My impudent son and his unknown companion. And the reason for requesting the opening of a teleportation magic passage to Asgard. Since then, neither has returned. It's not recorded in the royal teleportation magic records."
"That is."
"And you were discovered as survivors of the disaster that blew away part of the Kingdom of Aquilonia."
"You misunderstand."
"I think there's a very big... secret between you and my son."
The Queen said. Her downcast eyes looked only chaste and virtuous, but sweat was flowing down Dardin's spine.
"Tell me. Baronet Hessen. What exactly were you, Lady Primavera, and whatever riffraff from who knows where doing? Treason? Conspiracy? Forbidden magic research? The reason for summoning an ominous star?"
"None of those make sense, Your Majesty the Queen. We merely assisted His Highness the 3rd Prince wholeheartedly."
"I don't think that child only received your care. That's not his nature either."
"What I'm saying is only the truth. Please ask the others."
"You know they're all not in their right minds. Baronet, unfortunately you're the only one I can have a conversation with."
It was natural.
Dardin recalled the people who had been in poor condition right up until entering the tower.
Cellinne, who sat blankly clutching the white box,
Eva, who was carried out on a stretcher, unable to regain consciousness.
Valter, who still couldn't get up because his wounds had reopened and he hadn't received prompt treatment.
It was fortunate that only he could face the Queen.
Moreover, the Queen seemed to have failed to figure out what the 3rd Prince was doing despite sending assassins.
It was natural. They had killed all the spies and assassins.
Dardin took a deep breath so she wouldn't notice.
"He is not that kind of person. Though not connected by blood, he truly fulfilled his duties as a son to His Majesty the King and Your Majesty the Queen, and his duties as a subject."
"You think so."
"This time too, when there was said to be severe damage from bandits in border villages, he personally went to care for the kingdom's people out of concern for Aquilonia. I believe Your Majesty the Queen will surely understand."
"Yes. I believe it. He's my son, so of course I'd believe it. Even though he and I find each other detestable, we're ultimately bound together in the same country."
"Then please release us-"
"But you see."
The Queen smiled slightly behind her fan.
"Still, there's no guarantee that my son won't be a threat to the future royal heir, is there? Baronet Hessen, I'm going to send you to Asgard from now on."
"To... Asgard?"
"Yes. There are two things you must do. First, bring the 3rd Prince before me. And second, advise the 3rd Prince. Whether he'll inherit the throne in a way that satisfies everyone, or whether he'll persist in opposing me."
Dardin swallowed dry saliva.
"By a way that satisfies everyone, you mean."
"A method where you, the 3rd Prince, and I all avoid bloodshed. Are you curious what that is?"
"...May I dare ask?"
The Queen's eyes curved slightly.
It was one of the expressions royal family members could use to show pleasure.
She bent down and whispered to the cornered mouse.
"He adopts my unborn child. As the legitimate guardian of my child, and as my political collaborator until that child comes of age, he inherits the throne."
Dardin's breath caught.
Adopting royal blood - the 3rd Prince had been adopted too, so it wasn't a big problem.
Moreover, if the 3rd Prince could wear the crown under the tacit protection of the Queen and her supporters, there was no better method.
However, this was like crawling into a lion's mouth to pick up a piece of rotten meat.
A throne gained by borrowing others' power could never be comfortable.
The Queen was trying to put forward the 3rd Prince as her child's guardian,
Use him as a legal shield,
A tool to strengthen the royal authority her child would inherit,
And simultaneously a stepping stone for the Queen herself to reign as an unofficial regent.
At this rate, wouldn't the 3rd Prince enter the royal castle with all his limbs cut off!
"That's... impossible. Your Majesty the Queen. That can absolutely never happen."
"Baronet Hessen. There's no such thing as something that can't happen. And, for reference, let me hint."
The gentle voice reached Dardin's ear. He got goosebumps.
"His Majesty the King will pass away within a few days, so bring the 3rd Prince before me before then. Understand?"