novelraw Chapter 212 : Chapter 212
Chapter 212 : Chapter 212
Chapter 212: Folly (3)
Ellen ground the pulverized crystal orb for quite some time.
I didn't know from where she had heard about it, but she seemed to truly despise the Moon Tower.
It was somewhat upsetting.
Of all places, this was the Inner Fortress.
For Ellen, it must have been hard to bear. The Moon Tower. It meant the Otherworld had infiltrated.
"Why are you of the Moon Tower?"
Ellen changed her target.
I shrugged my shoulders.
"How would I know what that crazy woman thinks?"
"You didn't tempt her, did you? Or seduce her?"
"That's unlikely."
I shook my head.
"If you hadn't done it, I would have smashed it."
The reason the Moon Tower had attacked in the village of Embers was to make me absorb Embers.
But whatever the intention, an attack was an attack. I had no intention of meekly following the Moon Tower's words.
"You looked like you were about to kiss the crystal orb."
"I was entranced. It seems I'm incompatible with the Moon Tower. It might have pressed down on me with Rank."
The Moon Tower was probably at the 6th Rank.
I had made such a speculation once before. It was because the distance the Moon Tower's magic could cross was tremendous.
"This place is farther than the village. I would have snapped out of it soon. And then smashed it."
Ellen nodded slowly.
She seemed convinced, but her expression didn't relax.
"But why didn't you let me come?"
So that remained.
"I never did that."
"You had Kubel stop me."
"It wasn't to stop you. I just told him to play with you if you happened to come out."
"That's the same thing."
I had heard the Moon Tower's voice.
Yet I came alone.
Ellen was pointing out the current situation and glaring at me.
"Why did you come alone? When you knew the other party was the Moon Tower?"
"Because the Moon Tower would be provoked that way."
"Then you would be in danger. Have you already forgotten?"
The Moon Tower had once thrown a fit in the village of Embers.
As a result, the Manifestation of the Sun Tower had been shattered, and I had nearly died at Kandenkel's hands.
"I haven't. But just now, I needed to be in danger."
"Why?"
"Because that would be an opportunity."
Ellen narrowed her brow.
"If I had been in danger. If things had escalated, His Grace the Grand Duke Aratus would have come. Because this is the Inner Fortress."
It wasn't a problem I particularly needed to solve.
The same went for Ellen. The Inner Fortress was the domain of Grand Duke Aratus.
That was why I had told Kubel to stop Ellen.
Perhaps he got too close. I only told him to watch from a distance to see if she came out or not.
It seemed he had been discovered right away.
Because the other party was Ellen. Kubel couldn't be harsh with people he was close to.
"Well, in the end it turned out disappointing. Because the Moon Tower didn't come in person."
So I had hoped that, as long as it happened, a great Mage like Kandenkel would come.
Someone so great that Jis wouldn't notice.
Things needed to escalate for Grand Duke Aratus to move.
"Disappointingly, it wasn't even a person."
The Moon Tower had used not a person but a toad.
I clicked my tongue softly. It had been a chance to chip away at the Moon Tower's forces.
So I should avoid Grand Duke Aratus as much as possible.
Indeed, the Moon Tower was not a stupid woman.
"Crazy bastard."
Benus, who had been listening quietly, shook her head with a pallid look.
"How dare you think of using His Grace the Grand Duke?"
"Using? Isn't that His Grace's job? The Inner Fortress is the center of the North."
The Inner Fortress was the center of the North.
If he wouldn't step forward even here, what matter would he step forward for?
Grand Duke Aratus was a trump card that could only be used in the Inner Fortress, or only against the Moon Tower.
"He should do his job. Instead of just sitting in a chair."
"......"
"His Grace would probably be delighted. He loves anything related to the Moon Tower to death."
Suddenly Benus whipped her head around.
It was the direction where the Grand Duke's residence lay.
"It's fine. He can't hear this far."
"......Crazy bastard."
"Though he seems to sense presences."
There was no reaction.
Did he not sense it, or is he ignoring it?
I thought it was the former.
The one who had brought the crystal orb was probably the toad.
If I become stronger, Fireball becomes stronger too.
The same would be true for the Moon Tower.
The toad would be as formidable as the Moon Tower itself.
"But if it wasn't even a person who brought it, what was it?"
Ellen pointed at the powder that had been ground so finely from being trampled so thoroughly.
"It was a toad."
"A toad?"
"The Moon Tower's Divine Beast."
"Ah."
Ellen opened her mouth slightly.
"The toad probably spat out the crystal orb and left."
It wasn't a person.
A toad had sneaked in, spat out the crystal orb, and left.
That was what the circumstances suggested.
"The rabbit is a sword. The toad is a means. Manoa said so. That means seems similar to Jis."
The toad seemed to be a means of transport.
It could also move objects. Perhaps even people? I looked down at the shadow.
"I'm not a toad."
Just as Jis said.
The words were similar, but Jis and the toad were completely different.
Jis was a Mage who could perform various roles. Transportation was only a very small role.
But that role would probably be most of what the toad did.
Because it was called a means.
"It'll probably come again. Maybe frequently."
The Moon Tower wanted me to grow.
She also wanted to win my favor.
Mine.
The Moon Tower had spoken as if quoting a prophecy.
Has the Moon Tower realized?
The prophecy the Otherworld knew and the prophecy Grand Duke Aratus knew were different.
The Moon Tower had recognized that difference. That was why she was tempting me instead of fulfilling the prophecy.
Or so I had thought.
This is a problem only Grand Duke Aratus can solve.
It was a problem only someone who knew the prophecy could touch.
If I ask... will she tell me?
I looked down at the powder that had been a crystal orb.
The Moon Tower had used her Divine Beast to deliver the crystal orb.
She had also used Kandenkel as a sacrificial piece to make me absorb Embers.
The Moon Tower was quite devoted.
It might be worth asking, even if I'm being deceived.
In any case, the worst that could happen was breaking even.
I wanted to see the toad.
Could I even capture it?
It was then.
"You're thinking strange thoughts right now, aren't you?"
"I'm not."
"You were."
Ellen was gazing at me drowsily.
It was that uncanny intuition she showed from time to time.
"Don't think about doing anything to the Moon Tower."
Ellen was very conscious of the Moon Tower.
Probably because I had nearly died because of the Moon Tower.
"I'll only do it when you're around. In the safest way possible."
"I'll let that much slide."
Ellen's uncanny intuition had only caught on to the Moon Tower.
Did it go over well?
Ellen was someone who showed everything.
If she hadn't shaken off her suspicions yet, she wouldn't be acting like this.
Benus, whose eyes met mine, nodded slightly.
It meant I had fooled Ellen well.
I passed completely.
Arika had been wrong, and Benus and I had been right.
Ellen was easier than expected.
"Are you sleeping here?"
"I was thinking about it, but it'll be difficult now."
The powder that had been the crystal orb was scattered on my bed as well.
Ellen's fist had been that powerful.
"Then let's go."
"Let's."
I left the Annex following Ellen.
Ellen was at the very front, and Benus at the very back.
It was a position as if she were monitoring us.
If you even hold hands, I'll kill you.
It probably meant I had deceived her so well there was no need to be pure.
Benus seemed to prefer maintaining the status quo rather than progressing any further.
Though I don't think it matters.
As I thought, it wasn't a problem for Benus to decide.
Ellen leading the way was proof of that.
"Then I'll go to bed now."
"What are you saying?"
Ellen grabbed the wrist of me as I was about to enter Kubel's Annex and forcibly dragged me along.
"The Moon Tower came."
"Technically it was the toad."
"Either way. Who knows what the Moon Tower will do next?"
It was a valid point.
She was the woman who had used the Tower Master of the Tower of Meteoric Iron as a sacrificial piece to make me eat Embers.
"If you sleep there, Kubel and Shura might get caught up in it."
"That could happen."
It was a proper point.
There was nothing wrong with assuming the worst.
"What about me?"
"No. Jis, you have to protect Shura."
"Good!"
Ellen dropped Jis and Fireball off in front of Kubel's Annex.
I followed Ellen as she walked.
Ellen didn't let go of my wrist. The back of my head grew hot under Benus's gaze.
However, there was no restraint.
The reins that were Benus had already loosened this much.
How much time had passed when Ellen let go of my wrist?
"Sleep here for the time being. Until repairs on your Annex are finished."
"Isn't this the Grand Heir's house?"
"If I tell him to vacate, he'll vacate."
"Then where will the Grand Heir sleep?"
"He'll sleep anywhere."
"......"
Having shaken off her suspicions, Ellen had become shameless again.
She could at least pretend to hide it.
Ellen was someone who couldn't help but show everything.
I glanced and met Benus's eyes.
We covered it well.
She seemed to be thinking the same thing.
***
As soon as I woke up.
"Hah."
I let out a hollow laugh.
It was because I had dreamed.
It must have been the dream that Ellen, who had suddenly collapsed yesterday, had.
A dream.
It reflected both me and Elaine.
Sometimes it reflected only me, and sometimes only Elaine.
It wouldn't have been a function the creator intended.
It was probably a singularity that occurred because I had ingested the stone that belonged to Elaine.
"Did such a thing really happen?"
Recalling the dream, I laughed again.
To Ellen, Benus was an aunt in name only, but no different from a mother.
Yet who would have thought she had threatened to kill that very Benus?
—Ah. I also have credit. I was the one who protected you from your aunt.
What Elaine of my previous life had said was true.
"I should have thanked her more grandly."
Instead of just pouring drinks beside her, I should have drunk with her.
Elaine of my previous life had been even crazier than I thought.
She had cared for me more than I had known.
......I only realized that fact after regressing.
And even that was by relying on Ellen's dreams.
"How troublesome."
Both Ellen and Elaine.
They seemed well-practiced at making people uncomfortable.
I smiled bitterly and got up from the bed.
The sun had risen a while ago, yet the surroundings were dark. It was because all the windows of the Grand Heir's residence faced north.
The same was true of the Grand Duke's residence.
Unlike the Annex, Serzila's windows opened toward the borders and the Otherworld.
"This is why people become strange."
For me, whose Origin was the sun, it was an unwelcome structure.
Of course, it wasn't particularly hindering.
My eyes could see through most darkness.
In fact, even if I couldn't see, it wouldn't matter.
Having regressed, I could walk around my Annex, the Grand Heir's residence, and the Grand Duke's residence with my eyes closed.
I had experienced it to the point of being sick of it in my previous life.
This was a guest room.
It was the guest room Benus had forcibly shoved me into last night. Ellen had tried to drag me into her bedroom.
"It's my first time sleeping here."
It was called a guest room, but it had almost never been used.
Grand Heir Elaine didn't particularly have anyone who could be called a guest.
There was no way visitors to Serzila would be allowed to stay in the same space as the Grand Heir.
Besides, Elaine had no friends.
It meant the guest room was usually used as a resting space for servants.
THUD. Someone flung the door open and rushed in.
Then, upon discovering me, she froze like she had turned to stone.
"Hic?"
It was a maid, and her face was familiar.
"Hi-Hiren. It's been a while."
"It's Hiren!"
Hiren reflexively shouted.
"Why are you here?"
There was no tension in that question.
When I had seen her last time, she had been clearly tense.
"Ellen forcibly dragged me here and made me sleep here last night."
"Gasp."
Hiren covered her wide-open mouth.
"Was the rumor true?"
"What rumor?"
"That you and Lady Ellen are in that kind of relationship......"
"If that were the case, I would have slept with her. Not here."
"Gasp."
Hiren opened her mouth even wider than before.
She had been an entertaining maid since my previous life.
"Actually, it's not Ellen but the Grand Heir and......"
"GASP!"
"I'm joking. I like women."
"Gasp."
Hiren covered her body.
"Sorry. My standards are high."
"Mine are high too."
"Who's your ideal type?"
"Sir Gullen?"
"......?"
I blinked.
"Ah. Gurt of the 2nd Knights is decent-looking."
"No. Sir Gullen of the 1st Knights."
"......"
Hiren's standards seemed high in a strange direction.
"He grew his hair out and he became handsome."
I see.
So that was what the difference from my previous life was.
"Are you perhaps close with Sir Gullen?"
"No. We don't know each other."
"Huh? I thought you were close......"
"Where is Ellen?"
I decided to pretend I hadn't heard that.
"Why Lady Ellen?"
Small and large fires will return.
The Moon Tower had said so.
"I was thinking of going to see the sea."
I wanted to see them directly once.
The tribe called Dreamers.