novelraw Chapter 226 : Chapter 226
Chapter 226 : Chapter 226
Chapter 226: Torch (4)
Elaine.
That woman hears it.
Or knows it without needing to exchange words.
Because she's clever?
'As if.'
Dream and reality.
They merely live in different worlds, but that woman is ultimately Elaine and Ellen.
If Elaine had associated with Harad.
That woman was the her of such a world.
That is the only difference.
Their experiences and the time they lived through differ, but the rest is identical. They look the same, were born with the same personality and talents.
That is how they know.
Even without hearing, what the other is thinking.
"Fire doesn't go out as easily as one might think."
Why did Elaine make Torch her grudge?
Ellen thought she was hearing that answer now.
"Even if it seems extinguished, embers remain. For quite a long time."
Ellen heard that voice as a lullaby.
Or perhaps it was the Harad who came to mind at Elaine's words.
Harad had embers remaining.
When he had met Herbis once, Harad had welcomed that matchstick flame.
Because fire Origins were precious.
Ellen knew that was a lie.
Harad had asked Herbis about Torch.
Because the ember of revenge remained.
-......Lily.
The Harad in the dream had sobbed every day regardless of location.
Extremely many embers remained.
-Father, Mother.
They were pitiful, understandable embers.
To the North, they were also pathetic embers.
He should have been preparing revenge instead of wasting time sobbing.
-Cripple.
The future Grand Duke Elaine had looked at Harad even more pathetically.
However, she could not help being bothered by him.
If she had to trace the reason, well, perhaps curiosity? Because Harad was a Mage.
Perhaps it was because he had talent.
The knights had secretly tossed him beyond the barrier as a prank, yet he had come back alive.
-You were not an ordinary cripple, were you.
Those words were correct.
As time passed, the hostage Harad's posture changed.
The eyes that had been hunched over looking only at the ground eventually looked at people, and the eyes that had only wept gained venom.
-Piss off.
His mouth became as rough as the North's.
-Shut your trap, you bastard.
Elaine disciplined that mouth.
-You have talent.
-I know that too.
-Then what are you doing? You should use Magic. You have no talent for the sword.
She also corrected the direction of his venom.
Harad, though a Mage, had taken up the sword.
-Do your parents' faces still appear in your dreams? Do your parents resent you again when you use Magic? They are already dead, are they not?
The words were harsh, but the direction was correct.
Harad became a Mage. He also learned the sword from Elaine, but that was merely a side branch.
-Let's go.
Harad changed with each passing day.
When Iagar rose to mind, he spewed fire instead of tears. Each time he flared up frequently, he received Elaine's correction.
-Now, now.
-What. Is not all the North like this?
-Do not resemble the North, resemble me.
-Why?
-When I say do it, just do it.
His manner of speech became refined following Elaine.
Though he wore a sword at his waist, he was unmistakably a Mage.
That change—Ellen felt the embers remaining were going out one by one.
-What are you doing?
-Running away, because I do not want to work.
-Do not go. I will help you.
Eventually the hostage Harad became the escort knight Harad.
-Cripple.
-Why again?
-It is just that way.
The Grand Duke Elaine sometimes called Harad a cripple, but Ellen could not see him that way.
Harad who had become an escort knight was no longer a cripple. He was closer to reality than that.
Elaine had magnificently molded the Harad of the dream who had been a hostage and a cripple.
To her taste.
......Like the Harad of reality.
-If I find Torch, I will kill him.
The Harad bleeding from holes all over his body said.
Countless embers went out, and only the ember of revenge remained.
-It is my grudge.
However, fire tends to spread.
Before long, the same ember had formed in Elaine as well.
-It is my enemy.
-Then let us say it was the grudge of whoever killed him first.
Elaine burst out into reality to make the grudge called Torch her own.
Why reality?
The Harad Elaine loved was in the dream.
'Torch.'
However, the enemy is the same.
In the dream and in reality, Torch had burned Iagar.
The Harad of the dream had left only revenge among countless embers.
The Harad of reality's embers were only revenge.
Until it became that way, the Harad of the dream had taken over ten years.
For the Harad of reality, overnight was sufficient.
From the moment he became a hostage, he never cried. He was already a Mage.
'......Imja.'
The Elaine in the dream.
That woman covets reality.
They merely live in different worlds, but Elaine and she are the same.
'Only me?'
The Harad in the dream.
"Indeed. So your dream is like this."
Elaine said.
To her, the dream was reality.
"Not very pleasant, is it? When it is my memories with Harad."
Perhaps to Harad as well.
***
He had often felt urgency.
How strong was Torch? Was he getting stronger even at this moment? Had he caught up? When could he catch up?
Was he alive?
What if he had been caught by the Church? If he was alive, how long would he stay alive? Would he not be killed by someone?
Should I not find and kill him first before he is killed by someone?
Otherwise the Grand Duke Elaine would kill him.
-Then let us say it was the grudge of whoever killed him first.
In short, revenge was competition.
Whoever killed first won.
That is why the Harad of his previous life had felt urgency.
That urgency had revived after a long time.
And...... for the first time, his heart swelled.
"Do not step forward, Jis."
"......"
"No matter what happens. Absolutely not."
He knew little about Torch.
However, about Iagar, he could talk for ages.
No matter how much time passed, even if he regressed several more times from here, he could not forget.
Whenever he thought of it, it was always vivid as if it were yesterday.
Severan.
He should have resembled that thick, prestigious family.
Iagar was the complete opposite.
Harad was a coward, and Iagar was foolish land that embraced a coward.
Though it was an erudite and wise scholarly family, the current count and his wife were incomparably foolish.
Like lord, like retainer, they were all foolish alike.
That foolishness was becoming more vivid as time passed.
-Your Majesty, I shall have an audience at the Sanctuary of Fire.
The penmanship was elegant, the content refined.
The stationery was scorched.
That scorching, Harad felt, was familiar.
It was a sea of fire.
People burned to death within it.
He did not know from where on their bodies they had burned, but he remembered their screams and names.
The fire that killed them and the fire that scorched this stationery were the same.
Father and Mother had their hearts ripped out and devoured while still alive.
That scene, Harad remembered vividly.
And it was becoming more vivid.
"I had seen it."
He had simply erased it from his memory.
If it was trauma, it was trauma.
He had regressed after that.
"I had seen it."
Then.
Harad had seen Torch's face.
-Aah! O Great King!
Torch had smiled hideously toward Harad hiding in the hidden space beneath the floor.
......That face and that mug were the same.
"It has been a while."
So Harad smiled brightly.
"It will be two years soon."
Torch smiled in return.
Though it was disgusting as in memory, Harad felt it was welcome.
"As if."
As if it were only two years.
To Harad, it had been incomparably long.
Perhaps he had thought of Torch longer than Elaine.
"I am Aten of the extinguished Torch."
Torch, Aten, introduced himself while kneeling on one knee.
His presence was faint.
Whether Torch or not, in ordinary times he was extinguished.
That was why Badelots could not catch him and was rather caught. It would also be why the Intelligence Bureau had not grasped Seria yet.
"Why did you want to meet here?"
Harad did not introduce himself.
The earth was cracked, and the air was dry. The world was unbearably hot. The Sanctuary of Fire. A place where fire caught better than anywhere else.
"It is the sanctuary where the King of the past was born. That one announced the Sun from this place."
Embers originating from Harad spread in all directions.
Each of those embers resembled the Sun.
"Now it is Your Majesty's turn to announce it."
In fact, fire was not even necessary.
From long ago, Torch had known the Sun.
"How did you know?"
"Having become a retainer, how could I not recognize you?"
Aten's attitude was as refined as his penmanship.
"You did not easily recognize me though."
"Loyal retainers are few."
Aten called himself a loyal retainer.
It also meant he was capable. He had recognized faster than anyone that Harad's Origin was the Sun.
"Are all Dreamers loyal retainers?"
Aten of the extinguished Torch is a Dreamer.
The fact that he called Harad king was proof of that.
"Someday all fire will acknowledge Your Majesty as Your Majesty."
He was denying the Moon's prophecy.
-There will be fire you want.
The Moon's voice was heard like an auditory hallucination.
-Take it as you please.
It was not pointing to just any Dreamer.
It meant Torch. That is why it was a gift.
"Me, a king. That is your dream."
"It is a future that will be realized."
The extinguished Torch became hot.
As if just thinking about it was good, fire sparked.
"What do you think of the Moon's prophecy?"
"How could a mere retainer prophesy about their master?"
Perhaps that is why the Moon had let him hear the voice.
It could be a scheme to gain without effort.
However, Harad could never refuse.
That was indeed a gift.
"Iagar."
"Ah! It was land where fire struggled to burn. An unfortunate environment."
Tsk.
Aten clicked his tongue as if thinking about it again, he found it regrettable.
"Did you realize after setting the fire?"
"A laborious act. An unnecessary action to avoid on the continent."
Dreamers who went out to the continent searching for the Sun.
They had to be cautious unlike fire.
"I set the fire because Your Majesty was there."
Like a beacon fire, the fire they possessed should only rise when certain.
"To fix the unfortunate environment Your Majesty was in."
Knowing that Harad was the Sun.
Aten had set Torch's fire to Iagar.
"Fire needs firewood. The better the firewood, the faster, more fiercely, and longer it burns."
"......"
"You have grown. In such a short time."
Like a teacher.
Aten smiled gently. Pride could be glimpsed.
It was brief.
Aten soon showed regret.
"I am somewhat regretting it now."
"......"
"Iagar certainly became excellent firewood...... but looking back, I could have used it better."
Aten's tongue licked his lips.
It was a familiar act.
Savoring the taste while recalling what was eaten.
"Two hearts eaten...... I should have presented them to Your Majesty. I ate that which had no efficacy for nothing."
Ptui.
Aten spat on the ground.
Harad saw it as red.
It looked not like saliva but something else.
"......So. Did you come to feed me your heart?"
"I came to serve you, Your Majesty."
"Bullshit."
The embers spread in all directions swelled in size.
They transformed into a single sea of fire. Aten's pupils rippled following the flames.
"I brought a priest, a wench as a gift. Are you not curious?"
"Does it matter?"
The fire overflowed.