Chapter 31: Chapter 29: Conflicting Thoughts
Verner sheathed his sword in its scabbard.
Layla's expression grew fierce. How did he dare put down his sword like she wasn't worth fighting?
Verner didn't let her glare bother him; he simply stepped forward.
"Miss Layla, please let me through," he requested calmly.
"Do you think I'm a joke, Verner? Do you think I'm the kind of weakling who'd stand aside just because you asked?"
Layla was no weakling—that much was clear to anyone. Verner was very much aware of her greatness.
She was always by Ellize's side. Although the saint was so exceptional that her abilities outshone Layla's, the head of Ellize's guard was a force to be reckoned with in her own right. She wasn't invincible like the saints, and she couldn't eradicate an entire army of monsters in a split second like Ellize, much less perform miracles, but she was said to be just as powerful as the previous saint, Alexia. She'd risen to the position of head of the guard at twenty. It was unheard of, especially for a woman.
To say Layla was no weakling would be an understatement. Still, Verner didn't take out his sword as he continued to advance.
"You're not a weakling, but I do think you've grown weak."
Layla swiftly pointed her sword at Verner's neck. Eterna was right next to them, but Layla had moved so fast that she hadn't been able to follow the motion at all.
Verner didn't budge. He looked straight at Layla. "Miss Layla... I'm sure you're fully aware that you shouldn't be doing this. No knight should... But you don't need me to tell you any of this, do you? I know you've already found your answer."
"Shut up!"
"Even if I do, your heart won't. You can't silence your conscience."
The tip of Layla's sword quivered at Verner's words. He was right. Deep down, Layla already knew that she'd made a mistake.
No matter how many guards they brought, Ellize could've easily escaped the castle at any given moment... But she hadn't. Had she taken a liking to her current life and given up on leaving this place? Obviously not. Layla knew her master wasn't that kind of person. Hell would freeze over before she stayed cooped up here for such a ridiculous reason.
The answer was obvious: she'd stayed for Layla's sake. She was still convinced that Layla'd been taken as a hostage, and she'd resigned herself to her fate. Layla knew exactly how Ellize felt, yet she was using those very feelings against her.
Layla herself was the one who felt the weight of her treason the most. She realized just how sinful her conduct was.
"I know... Of course I do! But... I can't stop the anxiety that eats at me!"
The conversation she'd had with Ellize kept going round and round in her head. She'd said that fate could be changed, that she'd break the cycle with their generation, and that she had a way to defeat the witch without becoming one herself or dying. She'd promised to create a future where everyone would smile—a true happy ending.
At first, Layla had been overjoyed. The cycle could be broken without her beloved master dying! However, she'd started wondering...how did Ellize intend to achieve that? She'd refused to say a word about that. Although she'd asked Layla to trust her, doubts began to surface.
Just then, a sly man appeared in the castle corridor to take advantage of her suspicions once more.
"Dear, you're wavering, are you not? I believe I've told you many times that Lady Ellize was delusional. Such a convenient method does not exist," a white-haired man said, walking up to them.
Each of his steps echoed through the corridor. While the man was already past seventy, his body was still strong. He was fairly tall—170 centimeters or so—walked with his back straight, and had no need for a cane. His years of experience had marked his face, but had done nothing to dull the sharpness of his icy blue eyes. In a way, he reminded Verner of a bird of prey. The deep blue mantle—one of the symbols of King Aiz And Ai Bilberry XIII of the Bilberry Kingdom—fluttered with every one of his steps.
His frigid blueberry-colored eyes settled on Layla's face as he spoke. "I've witnessed the lives of four saints, including Lady Ellize. Trust me when I say there is no such method. I believe Lady Ellize intends to take her own life after defeating the witch... But don't you think a previous saint would have broken the cycle if it were that easy? And even if she were to somehow succeed, we would still lose her. Would that be acceptable to you?"
"Your...Majesty..."
"Believe me, Layla—there is no way to break the cycle. Lady Ellize lied to you in order to placate you. She treasures you. If you truly want to protect her...then you have no choice but to betray her. Help us keep her confined in this castle."
King Aiz's words led Layla astray. It was perfectly understandable—he'd watched over many saints and had lived through much more than she had. He also knew the entire truth about the tragic fate of the witch and the saint. His words carried weight.
Layla was also certain that he'd been the first to order Lady Alexia's murder after she'd slain the witch. She couldn't forgive him for that, but it also only lent more credence to his words. He understood more than anyone else how bleak the situation was...
As a result, it wasn't all that strange for Layla to believe him over Ellize's baseless claims.
Verner tried to speak up. "Lady Ellize told you she could break the cycle? Then—"
"I've already told you that is impossible, child. You're just like Layla—you refuse to let go of your hopeless fantasies," the king cut in, preventing Verner from asking him why they couldn't simply trust Ellize. He spoke with so much confidence that neither Layla nor Verner dared to question him. A nostalgic look appeared on his face as he continued, "When I was four, Griselda, the saint at the time, defeated the witch and turned into the new one. I was a naive child then, and I also believed there had to be a way to prevent such a horrible thing from happening."
Even a man like Aiz who was ready to lock up Ellize for the rest of her life for the sake of the world had been an immature child once. Verner was looking intently at the king, and for a split second, he saw Aiz's sorrow.
The king quickly steeled his expression before continuing his story. "After her came another saint, Lilia. I was nine when she was born, and she was just like a little sister to me. After I inherited the throne, I swore I wouldn't let her end up like Griselda. When she turned nineteen, I told her the truth. I was still young and foolish then... I could hardly look at the bigger picture. I simply did what I thought was right—I didn't yet have the wisdom to consider the consequences of such a choice. Well, I made a terrible mistake. What do you think happened? Lilia dedicated herself to fighting monsters without rest. She drove herself to her own brutal death. While she did not become a witch herself, Griselda was still well and alive. The situation had not improved one bit, and with no one left to oppose the witch, the world fell into a lengthy dark age. Lilia's death taught me two things: the witch does not age—she will not die until a saint slays her—and the truth is nothing but poison to the saint."
Verner had heard that the saint before Alexia had been killed by monsters, but he hadn't known the entire story until now. She'd done what she could to fight her destiny, but she hadn't been strong enough to continue fighting head-on... She must've been unable to stand the idea of becoming the witch, so she'd chosen death at the hands of the monsters instead.
If the witch had eventually died of old age, her sacrifice wouldn't have been in vain. Sadly, the witch didn't grow older.
Her death was meaningless, Verner couldn't stop himself from thinking.
She'd died without even giving the people a few years of peace like the other saints had. Because of her actions, Lilia had been almost completely erased from collective memory. In fact, Verner had heard her name for the very first time in class, after he'd joined the academy.
"When I was forty-eight," the king said, "The previous saint, Alexia, fulfilled her duty. I knew for a fact that saints could be killed by monsters—after all, I'd never forgotten what had happened to Lilia. I decided to trap Alexia in this very castle and release monsters into her prison. I felt guilty about her and Dias, but I believed that this was the way to break the cycle."
"How could you..." Verner uttered, barely bothering to hide his disgust. That's no way to treat someone who'd dedicated her life to saving humanity.
Aiz didn't seem to mind his hostility. He simply carried on. "Do you despise me? I understand. My actions did not even yield any results. I betrayed Alexia, yet I have nothing to show for it. The monsters I'd gathered did not touch a hair on Alexia's head—they submitted to her and helped her escape instead. I failed humanity that day... After she escaped, the world was once again governed by fear. I'll be honest with you... When that happened, I gave up. I'd tried everything I could think of, but nothing had worked. The world had not changed. I truly believed that lasting peace would forever be an impossible dream."
Verner wanted to scream at him that he was completely missing the point. The king was convinced that he ought to be scorned for failing to kill Alexia, but that wasn't why Verner was angry. He was outraged that he'd even thought of betraying Alexia in the first place!
Aiz didn't seem to notice anything. "As for Ellize... Well, you already know the story. No other saint could ever compare to her. She makes me wonder how the others could be so different. Whenever I hear of another one of her accomplishments, that feeling grows stronger. This time, the power dynamic between the saint and the witch is completely different. While the previous saints were strong enough to defeat the witch, it came with great sacrifices. They had to avoid large swarms of monsters and hide from archmonsters. They had to conserve their strength so they could use every last bit of energy they had on the witch. On top of that, past witches never stopped terrorizing the population until they'd been killed; they never hid."
Before Ellize came along, peace was only ever graced to this world for a scant few years—from the moment a witch was killed to the moment when the next lost her sanity. The presence of a saint didn't do much to deter the witch. After all, she'd had plenty of time to grow her army of monsters and archmonsters while the saint grew up.
If the saint tried to fight every monster she could find, she'd soon be overpowered and killed. That was why saints usually focused on creating a breach in the witch's forces—a gap only big enough to get to her—without taking on too many monsters in the process. Unfortunately, even that came at a price—many innocent lives were lost to create that opportunity for the saint. That was the only way they knew how to perform the greatest miracle of all: ridding the world of the witch.
Up until now, their methods had never changed. Generations of saints and knights had devoted their blood, sweat, and tears to this oh-so-precious glimmer of peace.
However, Ellize had changed everything.
The power balance had been overturned thanks to her. The saint—who used to be the most sheltered person in the world—did not require any protection. She could instantly wipe out entire armies of monsters, heal the worst injuries, rejuvenate barren lands, and replenish dried-up rivers. She'd even regrown forests that had burned down and summoned rain in regions suffering from droughts. Ellize also refused to give up on anyone. She relentlessly traveled throughout the land, saving everyone she could reach. The witch was hiding in fear, and the world was finally full of hope and light.
This golden age had already lasted for seven years. It was an anomaly—such a thing had never happened in the past. Everyone believed that as long as Ellize was around, the special bargain sale on peace would never run out of stock.
"And then it hit me," Aiz said. "We need to preserve this era—this saint—for as long as possible. This is the one and only miracle we will ever get. Never again will another Ellize be given to us... Do you know how long the forest she easily regrew would have taken to heal if it had been left to its own devices? Hundreds of years. Do you have any idea how long the previous kings and saints spent trying to reclaim the land Ellize took back from the monsters in a mere three days? Countless lives were lost without success. How many soldiers do you think would have been needed to save the Lutein Kingdom from the grim fate that awaited it?"
Aiz let out a strained laugh. He seemed to be mocking himself for his futile past endeavors and, at the same time, despairing at the cruel irony of his situation. He had to live to this age to finally witness such a miracle.
"Do you finally get it? A single year of Ellize's life is worth more than the entire lives of ten saints! Letting her fight the witch would be absurd! We need to make sure that this golden age continues for as long as possible! Every year is precious! This is our duty!"
◇
"Brother, are you sure we should go through with this?"
Three shadows were sneaking around inside the castle, taking advantage of the confusion created by the intruders. They were King Aiz's three sons.
The remaining royal families had already departed—they couldn't afford to leave their duties for too long—but Aiz and his sons had remained in the castle to look over Ellize.
The one who'd just asked his older brother a question to ease his anxiety was the youngest, Prince Maca. He was a young man of fourteen whose face still retained some youthful features, but it was already plain to see he would grow to be a beautiful man.
The eldest prince, Turmeric, scoffed. "Go back to your room if you're so scared! We won't get another chance to see her up close," he shot back before letting out a vulgar laugh.
Prince Turmeric was already nineteen, and the years of opulence he'd enjoyed were starting to show—he was quite plump. Even though people still regularly died of hunger in this world, he'd somehow managed to grow over a hundred kilograms. It went to show how little regard he had for anything else but his own stomach.
"The more beautiful the flower, the more I want to see it plucked. Her guards must be busy right now... Needless to say, this is a grave sin, brothers. Our status won't save us if we're caught. And yet...just the thought of putting my hands on her pure white skin makes all the risks well worth it!"
The one who'd just said the most vile, preposterous things without batting an eye was Prince Amino. At seventeen years old, he was a handsome youth. Unfortunately, the words that came out of his mouth betrayed his awful personality.
As for what the three teenagers were trying to achieve... Well, they were hoping to sneak into Ellize's room while her guards were preoccupied and have their way with her.
Of course, if they succeeded in their endeavor, they'd be committing one of the most serious crimes of all. They'd certainly be sentenced to death, tortured, and paraded through town before their executions. However, they'd lost their minds. The only thought in their brains was Ellize's beauty. They revered her, adored her, yearned for her...and lusted for her.
They desired nothing more than to thread their fingers through her golden strands, to lay their hands on her pale skin...
Ellize was gorgeous, and it wasn't all that strange for men who laid eyes upon her to feel such urges. However, most did not take it to the extent that the princes did. The majority never even entertained the possibility of a carnal relationship with her—they were simply thankful whenever they got to look at her. In a way, they didn't truly see Ellize as a human—she was like an otherworldly being, a goddess, that they could only gaze at from afar. While they certainly admired her beauty, they didn't lust after her.
On the other hand, the princes had seen countless pretty girls and boys at parties. Nobles ate and slept much better than peasants did, so they naturally had better skin and hair. The ladies also wore makeup and worked on their appearance. While the girls the princes had seen still didn't hold a candle to Ellize, mingling with such people on a daily basis meant they had different standards in regards to beauty. As such, they saw Ellize as a woman—the most gorgeous one alive.
Her charms had gotten to them, filling their heads with such insatiable lust that they didn't even treasure their own lives anymore. They'd lost all rationality.
It was probably for that very reason that another peculiar individual—someone who'd lost their reason long ago—picked up on their intentions so quickly.
"What an interesting conversation. I'd love to hear more."
The three princes flinched as they heard a voice behind them. They turned around at once, but they couldn't make out the expression of the man who'd just spoken.
Supple Ment was standing with his back to the light, and his glasses sparkled mysteriously.
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