I’m the one making Reinhild suffer.
Shocked by that truth, Xion couldn’t say a word and returned to the capital.
He thought Reinhild was wary of him because he was shaken. He assumed Reinhild was trying to distance himself from a hero who might be the root cause of all this.
But that wasn’t it.
Reinhild truly felt pain whenever the distance between him and Xion closed.
A pain like having his heart torn out while still alive.
‘If only I were the one feeling that pain instead.’
Even if his heart were ripped apart each time he touched Reinhild, he would still choose to stay by his side.
Even if he thrashed in agony as all the blood in his body dried up and he couldn’t breathe, he wanted to be with Reinhild.
But if Reinhild was the one feeling that pain, he could not.
He couldn’t hurt Reinhild.
Never.
‘Rein… Reinhild.’
Xion simply repeated Reinhild’s name in his heart, praying with all his might.
Let me remain by Reinhild’s side.
He didn’t care whether it was the High God or a demon god, whoever would grant this wish would do.
Xion had never once failed to obtain what he wanted. If there was something he wanted to do, he did it. If there was something he wanted to have, he took it.
Because of that, he had never sunk into this degree of defeat.
If there was a problem that could not be solved even by trying, what method was he supposed to choose?
For the first time since he was born, Xion despaired at his own powerlessness. He wanted to turn back time to before any of this happened, and, before Reinhild came to resent him, end his life by Reinhild’s hand.
He thought he would be happy to remain in Reinhild’s memory simply as “the hero who died by his hand.”
He longed to see Reinhild.
“Rein… Rein…”
“Uh, sorry to interrupt while you’re deep in your feels, but could you spare a moment, Mr. Hero?”
Crouched in a corner of the party’s lodgings, sobbing his heart out, Xion snapped his head up at the sudden presence.
He’d been so lost in despair he hadn’t even noticed someone entering the room.
He could have been stabbed where he sat.
‘Maybe being stabbed would have been better.’
A life that hurts Reinhild…
“First, wipe your tears.”
The mage, who had walked into the room uninvited, held out a handkerchief to Xion.
Xion didn’t take it. He didn’t deserve to wipe his tears.
“What a pitiful mess!”
Even at the mage’s blunt assessment, Xion didn’t respond.
All he wanted was to be alone. He wished the mage would get lost.
“It hasn’t been a week yet. Did the Duke catch on that someone was hiding in his room and you ran away?”
“What are you talking about? Today makes exactly a week. Don’t tell me… you’ve been holed up here crying, losing track of time?”
It felt like not even seven hours had passed, yet a week had gone by.
A week without seeing Reinhild…
Had Reinhild spent the last week in peace?
A peaceful week with no need to see the hero’s face, no need to suffer…
“I wondered why you looked so gaunt. So you haven’t been sleeping or eating. How are you supposed to smack the Duke on the back of the head like that?”
“I don’t need any of that anymore.”
“You will.”
“…”
“Aren’t you curious how I managed to finish dismantling the magic and get back safely when you didn’t do your job of keeping the Duke out of his room?”
“…”
“When the Duke tried to go downstairs, I hid myself with illusion magic. Watching him trigger the hidden magic circle made analyzing it easier. Since I figured you’d prefer it that way, I didn’t blow the Duke up or brainwash him.”
“…”
“I thought you’d want to be the one to blow him up.”
“…”
“And there was information about the current Demon King written down there.”
“What did it say?”
A hero who only reacts to the word “Demon King,” huh.
Quite interesting.
Grinning like he’d found a fun toy, the mage made a proposal to the lifeless hero.
“Why don’t you go check for yourself?”
There might be a way there to heal Reinhild’s pain.
At that thought, Xion bolted out of the lodgings at once.
“Wouldn’t it be better to sleep first?”
“I’m fine.”
“Eat something at least. You’ll die like that.”
“I’m fine.”
“If the Demon King saw you like this, he’d just love it, huh.”
“…You know about my relationship with Rein?”
“Weren’t you begging me to notice? Then let’s at least eat first.”
“It doesn’t matter. Reinhild isn’t there.”
Seeing that nothing he said would reach Xion’s ears, the mage gave up trying to persuade him.
“I get that you’re in a hurry, but shouldn’t we go when the Duke’s out?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“What if he’s in the room?”
“I’ll throw him out.”
“You said we couldn’t blow him up or use mental magic, so when I told you to take the long way, you agreed—now what? Wasn’t it that you didn’t want to mess with your father?”
“The Duke is also a member of House West. I was being careful, because laying hands on someone of House West who are under the gods’ protection might draw the High God’s eye.”
And now that the High God had sniffed out his heart and the Duke had stepped in to interfere, there was no need to tiptoe anymore.
Whether god or duke, if anyone stood in his way, he had no intention of enduring it.
Though Xion was losing his judgment from the pain of being unable to be with Reinhild and from extreme lack of sleep, that only made him act more boldly than usual.
He had long known the Duke was the true culprit behind all of this.
And the High God who helped him was, in the end, an accomplice.
If the Duke blocked his path, he was willing to swing the hero’s sword.
If he cut down one blessed by the gods with the sword gifted by the gods, that would be ample revenge on the both of them.
‘I don’t know who the real Demon King is anymore.’
Swallowing what he wanted to say, the mage followed Xion.
The Duke was absent. Perhaps a relief for the Duke, if not for Xion.
“Have you come, Lord Rexion?”
“Oh my, Lord Rexion. You don’t look well. Shall I call the court physician?”
The ducal servants greeted or spoke to Xion, but no answer came back.
At that moment, their voices didn’t reach Xion at all.
His mind was a mess with the thought of seeing Reinhild again.
He didn’t want to think of anything else.
BAM!
Xion entered the Duke’s bedchamber with enough force to break down the door and put his hand to the magic circle.
He was so impatient he could hardly bear even the brief moment it took for the circle to activate.
“I’m going down.”
The hidden room was as clean as ever, not a thing out of place.
He wanted to burn this place the Duke treasured so deeply to the ground as wretchedly as Reinhild’s forest had burned.
But Xion didn’t.
Not because, if this place fell, the truth would be buried with the past. Simply because even sparing time to care about such things was a waste.
“Once you’ve tinkered with a magic circle, it’s easy to touch it up again. Watch closely.”
With a triumphant look, the mage placed his hand on the circle. Blue light burst from his fingertips and wrapped the circle.
The magic circle that had been invisible to Xion’s eyes because it was transparent became suffused with blue light, revealing its form just as it was.
‘An ancient magic circle?’
A form of magic that had already vanished from the world.
Lost in the flow of ages and the research of myriad forms of magic, difficult and exacting, but all the more powerful for it.
No one in this generation could use it.
It wasn’t strange that an ancient circle had appeared. Someone back when ancient magic existed could have created it, and it could simply have remained intact, unbroken ever since.
But to track the traces of a hidden ancient magic circle, analyze it, and even break it, that was impossible.
Unless an ancient mage had come back to life.
“…”
But Xion did not grow suspicious of the mage’s identity.
His head was so full of Reinhild that he had not even the slightest interest to spare for anyone else.
“There. Welcome to the most secret space in the ducal castle.”
The circle opened and a passage down appeared beneath it.
The mage guided Xion as if the place were his own home.
Following the passage down, they came to a wide space that looked like a cave refashioned.
“It might not look it, but this place is under such powerful magic that even if someone dug down from above, they’d never find it. Even if an earthquake collapsed the ducal castle entirely, this alone would remain unharmed. If something world-ending happens, hide down here. Even if the whole world dies, you could survive alone.”
“There’s no meaning in living in a world without Rein.”
“Severe case, huh.”
Stacks of parchment were piled in the Duke’s secret space. Like those upstairs, these must be the secrets the Duke had hidden.
Everything Xion did not know could be found here.
Perhaps even things about Reinhild.
With an icy face, Xion picked up the nearest sheet of parchment.
On it were written records about the hero and the Demon King that were unknown to the world.
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