Chapter 20 - Regret Leads to Madness
"No time, no time."
In the long, winding canyon, Yuru kept muttering, dragging something clutched in her hand.
"Gasp! Ugh!"
What she held was none other than Crown Prince Neville's head by the back of his hair.
After he had once tried to escape and was caught, she showed him no mercy.
No, rather, she abused him.
"This is an unforgivable act!"
Originally, to prevent Neville from escaping again, she had broken both of his legs.
But he was under a blessing.
His injuries immediately healed.
As long as he didn't completely lose his life, he could revive at any time.
So she grabbed him by the back of his head.
That's how he ended up in this state.
'Too strong!'
Among the blessings he received was one that strengthened his body for self-protection.
He received immense holy power through prayer, but he could only gain that power by performing all the prescribed rituals.
He truly had to perform genuine prayers.
Not just perfunctory actions.
'In this state, I can't do anything...'
Neville cried out to Yuru, who was dragging him by the back of his head.
"Tower Master! Are you listening to me?!"
Stop.
Yuru's steps halted.
But it wasn't because Neville's shout reached her.
"I can't do anything like this. I have to think of a way..."
"Tower Master?"
"Ah."
Yuru's eyes widened as if something occurred to her, staring into space.
"Yes, that's the place."
Whoosh!
Yuru immediately pushed off the ground and soared into the air.
"Gah?!"
Neville, still clutched by her, was dragged along with her.
Whump!
She kicked off the air once more and landed with Neville in front of a graveyard.
Neville's expression froze solid as he saw the place lined with countless tombstones.
'What is she going to do here...'
He had a bad feeling.
Thump, thump.
"Tower Master, what exactly are you planning?"
Neville asked with a pale face, but Yuru didn't answer.
She was simply thinking, looking at the many tombstones.
'That Tia girl wouldn't have made any preparations, would she?'
It was only natural, as she had even tried to send a carrier pigeon to Kratia, saying, 'You can do such disgusting things yourself.'
In that case, materials were lacking.
To create what was needed to neutralize Yaganel's Blessing, which protected Neville's soul among his other blessings.
'For Clay's soul to settle, Neville's soul-protecting blessing absolutely must be erased.'
The remaining blessings would be of immense help for Clay's soul to settle and recover.
Yuru tossed Neville onto the ground as if discarding him.
"Ugh!"
Whoosh.
As Neville groaned, Yuru put her hands together and etched a spell into the air.
"Knock, knock."
A blue glow filled her eyes.
"Is there anyone dead beyond the door?"
Rumble, rumble, rumble.
Everything began to vibrate.
Seeing this strange phenomenon, Neville staggered to his feet, as if needing to escape this place.
"If so, answer me. I have prepared bodies for you, for all of you."
"Aaaaaaaah!"
Neville ran.
Without a destination, just to survive.
"Just reach the path I guide you to."
She pointed at Neville and cried out.
"Si-ravas!"
FLASH!
Countless translucent bubbles rose from the gravestones.
They were all the souls of the dead who had crossed over through the door she had created.
There he is.
We can go back.
I'll go first!
The ghosts all shot towards Neville.
"Ughaaaaaah!"
Neville, looking horrified by the unprecedented Dark Magic, tried to run faster but couldn't outrun the ghosts.
CRASH!
One of the ghosts touched Neville's body.
But it couldn't enter his body.
Screeeech!
Yaganel's Blessing, which protected Neville's soul, activated.
Engulfed in the flames caused by that blessing, the ghost struggled wildly and then vanished.
It's mine!
Get out of the wayyyyy!
But even seeing that, the other ghosts didn't stop.
They were already entranced by Yuru's magic.
They merely became tools to rush for a body and exhaust Yaganel's Blessing.
"Cough!"
Blood spurted from Yuru's mouth.
"I-I can endure it."
Attempting to draw souls from the world of the dead in a desired way using only magic and putting them into another body was an unreasonably strenuous task for the caster.
It was fundamentally different from creating and controlling undead, which were just empty shells without souls.
If the Sage's Scroll inside her body hadn't helped her manage the magi, she, having attempted such a feat without proper preparation, would have collapsed immediately.
"Go!"
She yelled at the ghosts.
"Go and destroy it all!"
CRASH! BAM! CRASH!
"Gasp! Ugh?!"
As the ghosts continuously followed the trajectory Yuru had created, colliding with Neville's soul, Yaganel's Blessing protecting his soul also became overloaded.
"Tower Master, stop...!"
Neville already realized that she intended to obliterate his soul and immediately insert an unguarded ghost into its place to maintain the body's vitality.
"Even if you take this body, the probability of achieving what you want is low!"
Regardless of what preparations she had made afterwards, the sight of her spitting blood simply from attempting to seize his body, going against the natural order, was clearly etched in his eyes.
"It's just murder!"
Pummeled by countless ghosts, Neville could no longer take another step and shouted.
"You'll just become a murderer!"
And with that, Neville collapsed.
The ghosts completely surrounded Neville, as if jackals were pouncing on prey.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The explosions continued.
At this rate, Neville's soul might be completely overwhelmed.
'Hero-nim.'
Neville gritted his teeth.
'You told me not to forget that I'm a strong person, didn't you?'
Although he couldn't do anything until his death, Neville remembered what he had said.
That when one reaches the end of pain, there comes a moment when the pain becomes completely dull.
At that point, if one could accept death and take just one more step forward, paradoxically, they would prove they could survive.
Crunch.
Neville gritted his teeth so hard they almost cracked.
The back of the Hero's figure, who had been everyone's savior, flickered before Neville for a moment.
"I pray."
He clasped his hands tightly.
♧
"Beatrice, I have something to ask."
The news of the Crown Prince's kidnapping by Yuru had been conveyed to everyone.
Clay took only Beatrice inside the Demon King's Castle and spoke.
"Although the plan is to use Yuru to cause chaos, I want to secure Neville first. Do you think that's possible?"
"Neville?"
Beatrice tilted her head.
"Neville is the legitimate heir of Holy Kratia, isn't he? He should be your enemy. Do you want to play the Hero again?"
"No."
Clay recalled Neville's bright and intelligent demeanor.
Neville truly was an unusual human.
He had heard that Neville had opposed his execution as the Hero.
Given his personality, he would probably think he hadn't done enough.
In any case, unlike the Emperor of Kratia, he was an intelligent and benevolent individual, but Clay had no intention of saving him for personal reasons.
"Neville is Kratia's legitimate heir, as you said. Of course, the Emperor of Kratia might not have loved the Crown Prince much, but when it comes to honor, the story changes."
Putting everything else aside, Neville was the next successor to Kratia, the top nation of the Holy State Alliance.
If they couldn't recover such a successor, Kratia's honor would be damaged.
"Even to protect their prestige, they will try to get him back in some form."
Even if it's just a corpse.
"If we bring him here, he'll be a useful bargaining chip."
"It could also be the trigger for Kratia to become aware of our existence and invade."
Beatrice expressed concern.
"Isn't it too early?"
"It is. But if we succeed in bringing him, it will be a great strength for us."
Clay confided what he knew to her.
"Beatrice, why do you think the Holy State Alliance rushed my execution so much?"
"Huh? Well, because your presence was troublesome, right? You were stronger than anyone else."
"That's right. But it's not just because I was strong. I knew too much."
Clay said softly.
"For example, the Kratia Emperor's weakness."
"Weakness?"
"I can't tell you that right now."
He opened his mouth and showed her his tongue.
"...!"
Beatrice frowned.
Clay, seeing her reaction, casually put his tongue back in his mouth.
"See? There's even a seal of prohibition branded on the tip of my tongue. I can't speak certain words. Neither with my mouth nor any other part of my body."
"They really went to great lengths."
She let out a sigh of exasperation.
"Those guys really don't deserve any mercy."
Her eyes blazed as if on fire.
Clay looked at her with a troubled expression and spoke.
"For now, securing Kratia's Crown Prince is enough."
Anything more was not immediately necessary.
'Neville.'
Clay recalled Neville, who owed him his life.
'He was intelligent.'
He was different from Emperor Lutan.
He loved people and highly valued the Hero's courage; he was truly one of the capable individuals who could govern the nation gently.
But it was unlikely he would ever ascend the throne.
'That person will never relinquish power.'
Lutan was preparing to enjoy power for eternity.
He had overheard the priests' conversations just before his death, when he received the seal of prohibition.
He was trying to remove the heart of a long-lived species and use it as a substitute for his own.
One could feel his determination to seize the overwhelming lifespan of a long-lived species for himself.
'Yuru must have been very flustered when things got to that point.'
Although he couldn't tell Beatrice, Neville was one of the most powerful weapons against Lutan.
This was because Lutan's weakness was his bloodline.
Magic that used the holy power manifested by someone of the same bloodline as a medium could not be defended against even by him.
That's why he had branded all his relatives so they couldn't attack him.
Lutan was that kind of human.
"Can you help?"
Clay asked Beatrice again.
"Neville could become my weapon."
"Hmm."
"Of course, it would require a bit of luck."
Beatrice sighed.
"Honestly, I don't want to push you too hard until you regain your strength. But there must be a reason for you to ask me like this."
She understood Clay's intentions.
"If he can become your weapon, I'll try to secure him somehow."
"And there's one more thing."
'Didn't you say it was just one request?'
Beatrice's eyes widened in protest.
"I need to directly participate in taking Neville from Yuru."
But what he said next was enough to leave Beatrice stunned.