novelraw Chapter 72 : Chapter 72
Chapter 72 : Chapter 72
Chapter 72: A Hymn for the Avenger (4)
“I didn't intend to lure you from the beginning, Professor.”
Fleur said with a faint smile.
She had thought it might be helpful. Because it seemed he was tracking Deserick.
But it was different. Everything changed from the moment she learned Abel’s identity. The Pope’s Shadow, the Sword Saint. The Sword Saint, whose very existence was doubted, was right before her eyes. Abel became an indispensable being to Fleur.
“It seemed you would be busy if Monika was involved.”
But it was unexpected.
To think you would have grasped the truth in such detail.
I knew you were tracking my father. I was also aware of the fact that you were keeping an eye on the murder case. But to think you knew about the Parousia Denomination. You must have been busy without my knowledge. It shouldn’t have been visible yet.
The existence of the Parousia Denomination…
“So I’m disappointed.”
Fleur’s head tilted slightly.
Her hair flowed down like a stream.
“If I had known this would happen, I shouldn't have called Monika. That child wouldn’t have had to see Raphael de Arcturus’s disgusting corpse.”
“I am disappointed as well.”
Abel’s brow furrowed.
“I could have realized it faster.”
That was right.
He could have realized it if he had wanted to. Because he had kept all possibilities within the range of calculation. The possibility that Deserick himself would slaughter the family members, and even the possibility that Fleur was hoping for the family’s annihilation.
But it was too late. It was endlessly late. Fleur had swallowed a monster’s core, and destroying it was impossible even for the Main Gods. There was no way to save that child. Why had it come to this? Abel also knew that reason clearly.
“...I hoped it wasn't you.”
That was probably all there was to it.
He had hoped that Fleur was not involved.
He had just hoped that she would not destroy herself.
“Tell me, Fleur.”
Abel held out the flower crown.
A flower crown that had withered, soaked in blood.
It was held out next to Fleur.
“Was it your mother’s death that made you like this?”
“How arrogant of you, Professor.”
Fleur picked up the flower crown.
She opened her mouth, holding the withered flower crown in her arms.
“Do you really think you could have stopped me?”
Don’t be ridiculous, she said.
Fleur whispered with a sneer.
“Please don’t think of me as the same kind of child as Emilio Mackenzie. I was not controlled by the Parousia Denomination. Everything was done by my own will. I know you are a strong person, Professor. But it’s a problem that doesn’t matter either way. Even the supreme swordsmanship cannot cut a grudge. Even the finest magic cannot change a resentment. Listen carefully, Professor.”
I have offered my life.
I intend to achieve my cherished desire by offering my life.
There was no way you could have stopped me in the first place.
“Am I wrong?”
Abel did not answer.
But he could not hide the sigh mixed in his breath.
Could no one have stopped it? Abel thought, looking behind him. A pile of blades. Flashing spectral lights. Numerous dead were aiming their swords at Abel. Some of them were people Abel remembered.
Although they had lost their selves, although they had lost their appearances, he could recognize them. Because life is imbued in swordsmanship. The knights he had cut down when he attended the White Night Ball. Most of them were mixed in with Fleur’s forces.
“Did none of them stop you?”
Abel bit his lower lip.
An army made of the dead. These must be the ones who died by Deserick de Saint-Pierre’s hand. Even if their skin rotted, their grudge would support their skeletons, and even if they had lost their selves, their resentment would be so clear that they would be moving.
And so it was not right. Abel thought it was not right. Fleur was too young to lead them. An absurdly young girl was leading an army. A grudge does not make a body grow, and a resentment does not make a mind mature.
<──I am ashamed.>
Suddenly, a blade was aimed at Abel’s neck.
Abel tilted his eyes. A certain dead man was whispering to Abel.
But it is right.
You are right, Abel.
We should have stopped it.
We should not have responded to the resuscitation ceremony. We should not have let Lady Fleur abandon her life. As a knight, as an adult, it was right to prevent it.
Revenge, revenge, revenge──!
The dead began to shout in unison.
They had lost their joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure. Their memories must have faded as well. And yet, the dead wanted revenge. Even if their selves had been clear, it would not have changed.
I will not deny it!
We were someone’s sons,
and someone’s husbands and fathers!
And yet, we were knights, but now we are sinners!
We are nothing more than bone fragments swept away by the desire for revenge!
Towards the shouting dead man,
“Sir Alberge Hildeberg.”
Squeeze.
Abel said, grabbing the blade.
As a stream of blood flowed down the blade,
“I was the one who cut your corpse.”
Abel’s aura penetrated the inside of the blade.
The claymore Alberge had been gripping scattered like snowflakes.
“You had been thoroughly humiliated. Your skeleton was replaced with iron and you were moving through a mana stone. I am sorry about that.”
Alberge made a laughing sound.
It sounded like a sob as well. It was impossible to guess because he had no expression.
<...Thanks to you, I feel a little more at ease.>
An unpleasant silence.
Abel shook off the blood that stained his hand.
He then looked back at Fleur. Fleur was now standing on the flooring.
Revenge, she said. Every time Fleur took a step, a whisper spread. Revenge, revenge, revenge, she said. The muttering of the dead gradually became clearer. Fleur stood in the center of it and faced Abel. Holding the flower crown tightly, with a smile.
“How about now, Professor Argento?”
A light tiptoe.
Fleur stood on her heels.
“What kind of person do I look like to you, Professor?”
“A girl who has not yet come of age.”
Abel’s answer did not change.
Nothing else was changing. Fleur was ultimately young. Abel thought that she should be regarded as such.
It was received differently by Fleur. Abel’s answer felt somewhat arrogant. It was inevitable. It was all sorts of death that had made up Fleur’s side. She had witnessed her mother’s death, she had considered the deaths of the knights, and she was representing the lives that had died under the family’s banner.
What a truly ridiculous story.
How could that be the life of a girl?
“Was that the best you could do, Fleur?”
That was why Fleur felt it.
That Abel Argento was a clumsy man.
“Did you have no choice but to bear it all alone?”
Although there was not a single gap in his expression,
what made up that man was pure self-loathing.
“Did you seek to achieve revenge even if it meant giving up your life?”
He despises himself and takes responsibility for all incidents.
As if he were a god. And so, what was in Abel’s mouth was not words. The question to Fleur was not important. The answer was already decided. As if everything was his own fault, he was just biting his lips and eating himself up.
“If you had told me, I would have taken your place…”
“──You.”
That was exactly why.
Fleur could never forgive Abel.
“What right do you lot have to take my place?”
Wiping the smile from her lips,
Fleur revealed the expression she had long hidden.
“Who let him live? Who tolerated Deserick de Saint-Pierre? Who on earth did not purge the Saint-Pierre family? The emperor? Or the frivolous nobles? It doesn’t matter either way!”
It was you lot anyway!
You lot let Deserick live!
Why? Was his achievement as an inventor useful?
Gathering in the imperial palace like a bunch of vermin, was whispering that Deserick was a dangerous person the best you could do? Was pretending not to know until his use value disappeared all you could do? Was that your role?
You’re going to ask for my sin now?
Go on, try it.
“Recite the charges to the tombstones of the dead! The charges of the members of the Saint-Pierre family, and your charges as well, must be mixed in!”
It collapsed.
Everything about Fleur.
Her eyes trembled and her brow distorted. Her lips, which had always held a smile, were just twisted. Moisture formed in her eyes and the bridge of her nose turned red. Fleur was speaking, suppressing the soaring sobs.
“...My mother died. She hanged herself and died.”
It must have always been like that.
She must have hidden it by making her eyes sparkle, by hardening her expression, by putting strength into the corners of her mouth.
The desire for revenge that had aged like a rotting corpse.
“Monika’s parents also died. Too many people died. Countless people died, but…”
Squeeze.
Fleur hugged the withered flower crown.
“what on earth were you doing?”
It was as if a flower was withering.
Fleur’s skin became dotted with black, and firmly sprouted blood vessels adorned her soft skin. And so, her chest began to glow crimson. The monster’s core that resided in her body was consuming her body. She could control it for now, but she didn't have much time left. Both Fleur and Abel knew that fact all too well.
“Do not reprimand my army.”
Sob, sob…
Fleur said, gasping for breath.
“All of this was my will. It was all my will to incite the dead to revenge, and to receive support from the Parousia Denomination.”
I am the one…
I am the avenger.
“I am the filthiest being.”
Abel held his breath.
Fleur’s words didn’t matter. They should be considered as something that didn’t matter. He should neither affirm nor deny them. Abel had no authority. The appearance of a flower that had withered in a pot. He had no right to impose right and wrong on a child who had become so weakened.
That was exactly why.
“Tell me, Fleur.”
And so, he embraced her.
Abel held Fleur in his arms.
“You need me, don't you? You made me reach the truth because you needed me, didn't you? That’s why I’m here.”
Fleur’s eyes trembled slightly.
She couldn’t feel any warmth. Abel’s embrace was exceptionally cold. It must be because I swallowed a monster’s core. Fleur thought with a faint sneer. The sensory system that made up her body was collapsing. Because she had swallowed a monster’s core, she had become a body that could not feel a human’s warmth.
“Tell me what you want.”
Anything is fine.
I will gladly grant it.
At the same time as Abel whispered so,
“I am not hoping for salvation.”
Fleur’s body gradually recovered.
The body that had mutated like a monster returned to its original state.
And so, she reached out her hand. After gently pushing Abel’s embrace away, Fleur chanted in a delicate tone.
A small light, residing in Fleur’s hand.
That was right. From the moment she saw that, Fleur had suspected Abel’s identity. Who is Abel Argento? Now that the question she had contemplated over and over again was resolved, Abel was an indispensable being to Fleur.
“I would like to request a deal, Professor Argento.”
Help me.
Then I will give you information.
Everything I know about the Parousia Denomination.
I will share it all with you, Professor. We were just using each other; I have never agreed with their intentions.
“So, Professor Argento.”
Deserick’s head is mine, she said.
Fleur whispered into Abel’s ear.
“I will achieve revenge with my own hands, so Professor, by all means…”
not as a professor of CIAR,
not as a mere commander of the Papacy,
you must act according to your original duty.
“I ask of you.”
The reason the Parousia Denomination contacted me,
was because they were after the Saint-Pierre estate in the first place.
The citizens who live there must not die.
So please protect them.
“──Sword Saint, Sir Abel Argento.”