73. Past Revealed (5)
“You have to find Rihanna first.”
I spoke out in the calmest voice possible, but it was a conclusion I came to after much thought to the extent that I could experience an eternity of time.
It was true that Maria, as Cassandra said, was concerned. Otherwise it would be false However, the comfort of Rihanna, who had maintained a good relationship, was more important than Maria, who was not in front of me right away, and Maria who participated in abandoning me. In the first place, she was timid and helpless, so she didn’t know what kind of anger she would face if she stayed by Leon’s side.
“Yeah, I knew you would make such a stupid choice. I gave you a chance to know the truth, and then you kick it away.”
Upon hearing my answer, Cassandra mocked me with a fishy sneer as if she knew everything.
She didn’t have to react. It’s not that I’m not angry, but I’m used to what will happen next. No, rather, I was able to find myself hoping for him.
As if to prove my prediction was correct, as soon as Cassandra spat out insults at me, Olivia’s angry voice rang out as if she had been waiting for that moment.
“Hey, didn’t I tell Dad to be careful with his words?”
Olivia poked an arrow into Cassandra’s side and glared at her fiercely.
Cassandra’s red blood flowed through her arrows, and it was only felt as a sign that no further slips of the tongue were allowed.
There’s no way Cassandra didn’t know that, but she still provoked Olivia with a grin.
“Now he is openly trying to kill me in front of Ain. Has she already given up on being a good daughter?”
The answer to her words belonged to Stella, who kept her cool attitude from beginning to end, instead of Olivia, whose face turned red from a fever.
“Yeah, those trivial things are fine now. Because Dad has the belief that no matter what we do, he won’t abandon us.”
Without listening to her answer, Stella grabbed Cassandra by the collar and threw her roughly onto the floor. Stella trampled on her wriggling head and opened her mouth again in a cold tone.
“I don’t care what you say to us. But seeing that you keep talking nonsense about your father, it looks like you haven’t seen any blood yet?”
Elia squatted down in front of Cassandra’s head, then she grabbed her hair roughly and lifted her head.
Cassandra’s bloodstained face still showed a cheeky attitude. She was beaten, and although she servilely begged for her life for a while, she could not break her essential will deep in her heart.
Elia let out a deep sigh, pressed Cassandra’s face to the floor, widened her eyes terrifyingly, and lowered her voice.
“Are you coming out with this attitude because you think we can’t kill you?”
Cassandra spat bloody saliva on her floor and glared at Elia with a ferocious gaze.
“Yes, I have given up on everything now. Don’t you have any intention of letting go anyway? I have no intention of playing as you please. Are you the only memory or knowledge that can intimidate me? Even if you lose that stuff, you can fill it up again.”
With that attitude, cooperation could no longer be expected. I didn’t expect such a thing from the woman who was united by her pride in the first place, but it meant that I couldn’t get even the slightest clue like before.
Rule through fear, all-consuming terror is effective, but it is a double-edged sword.
When the leash of fear suppression that controls people was lost, there was no way to get it back. Rather, the sword was headed this way due to the repulsiveness that had accumulated up until now.
But Elia smiled silently on her face as if it was so funny. Her infinitely gentle Elia smile was not meant for Cassandra.
Elia smiled and brought her mouth close to Cassandra’s ear and whispered something in a very low voice.
The voice was so small that even I couldn’t hear it, so I didn’t know what it was about, but judging by Cassandra’s increasingly bluish face, I was sure it wasn’t a good thing.
After the short story, Elia slowly got up from her seat and opened her mouth.
“Dad, it’s all over.”
Elia’s way of saying that and giving me a bright smile was so different from the way she treated Cassandra before, so I couldn’t get used to it. She
She was terrified, not quite the expression I could put into words. There was a hint of pity in Cassandra’s expression, as if she had lost all will to fight, but when I thought of what she had done to me, that pity quickly faded, as if someone had trampled on it.
I approached Cassandra and asked in a firm voice.
“Cassandra, where is Leon?”
After hearing what Elia had to say, Cassandra seemed more cooperative than before.
I felt sorry for her trembling, but I decided not to bother about the ghosts of the past that haunted me.
Swallowing her saliva, Cassandra manages to give me the answer I’ve been waiting for.
“Demon King… Maybe Leon will be there.”
That was something I couldn’t believe easily. I doubted my ears and asked Cassandra.
“What? Demon King?”
There was no way he was there. Even if it was someone else, there was no way Leon, Cassandra, or the members of the party would go there. With such a certainty in my head, I couldn’t believe Cassandra’s words at first.
Where in the world is there a fool who insists on staying in a defeated region? Cassandra read the question that came to my face and, without my asking, she was the first to open up and begin to explain.
“It’s where Leon usually stays since that day. Maybe Rihanna was there too? And I have no intention of fooling you. I never cheated on you in the first place.”
Confused.
I stepped back for a moment, then asked Cassandra again.
“What is that… Aren’t you guys kicked out because you challenged the demon lord and were defeated? Why in such a dangerous place….”
Wriggling, she got up from her seat, brushed her hair slightly, and tidied up her bangs. Cassandra looked me straight in the eyes and opened her mouth.
“Yes, on the surface, that’s how it works.”
“On the surface? So you’re saying that’s not the case?”
Cassandra had no arms, so only her shoulders shrugged and shook her head.
“Well, I don’t know the details because Leon doesn’t tell me at all. But in the room where the demon king’s throne is, I couldn’t feel any trace of battle. Half a day passed, and when Leon came out, everything was over. Leon only said he lost and then he brought us out. That’s it. Isn’t something strange? Leon, who came out without a single wound and declared defeat? Don’t you know more about his personality than I do?”
Well, that doesn’t make sense.
Leon, who hates losing more than anyone else, accepts defeat so meekly, and is living in a castle where the opponent who defeated him is not enough?
Something was going terribly wrong. An unfavorable feeling pervades the whole body. I had to go to Leon’s place as soon as possible.
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Fortunately, the demon castle was near the Great Forest. If you leave right now, you will arrive in time.
I got up, packed my things again, and told the children.
“Guys, let’s go now.”
“Yes, are you going to take this woman too?”
There were some things that got caught, but there was nothing wrong with taking them. In that state, they wouldn’t be able to harm us, and since the conversation I had with Elia in the first place, Cassandra actually looked like a disabled person.
But he is good at answering questions, so if you take him as a guide, there will be no big problem.
“Okay, let’s take it.”
Cassandra didn’t complain too much about her being treated as a burden. She knows very well that her situation is no different from her burden.
Before leaving, I spoke to the children in a rather serious voice.
“Guys, promise me one thing.”
The children looked straight at me with clear eyes and tilted their heads.
“Huh? What?”
“If you find Leon in the castle, don’t rush at him in excitement. At least give me time to talk to Leon.”
The children looked at each other’s faces, nodded their heads vigorously, and finished the short answer, “Yes!”
Now I knew that behind that innocent smile lay an unruly force, but at least it was fortunate that it wasn’t directed at me.
After getting the promise from the children, I opened the map to the Devil Castle.
But for some reason, Elia carefully grabbed my wrist and shook her head from side to side.
“Dad, you don’t need to use that.”
“What do you mean by that?”
It is said that the Great Forest and the Demon Castle are close, but the road to it was a rough forest.
If you don’t look at the map and carefully check the route, you will become lost in an instant and lose your life.
Elia lightly gestured as if to erase my doubts, and the space began to distort, and a portal was created that emits brilliant blue light.
A kind of teleportation, or even more advanced magic. You could tell just by looking at Cassandra’s expression how great it was. Cassandra wriggled her way and she went near the portal, her mouth wide open in disbelief, and she started looking around.
“This level of magic is barely a hand gesture? How the hell… ?”
Even I, who was unfamiliar with magic, could feel the energy I felt from the portal, so I knew for sure that this was no ordinary magic. Conscious of my gaze, Elia smiled shyly, scratched her head lightly, and spoke in a shy tone.
“Anyway, since I come back to my hometown, my strength seems to come back little by little.”
After she finished her words, Elia hurriedly put her arms around her and whispered to me in a soothing voice, coquettishly pressing her chest as she normally did.
“Dad, can we go now?”
Elia thrust her foot into her portal, following her powers leading her, and in the blink of an eye the scenery changed.
It took time for the eyes to adjust to the changed scenery in an instant. It was a hazy feeling, like dreaming, but the other children seemed to be used to it and quickly got used to it.
After rubbing my eyes several times, I finally had time to look around.
‘I never dreamed that I would come here again….’
Seeing them face-to-face brings back the nightmare of that day.
However, it was impossible for her to undermine my self-esteem by being caught up in the past forever.
This was an opportunity. A chance to escape the nightmares that haunt me. I made up my mind and decided not to miss this opportunity.
I couldn’t move forward unless I met Leon and asked him about the truth of the day.
With such a resolution, I stepped on the sticky unpleasant feeling that began to rise from my toes and moved to the place where the castle was located.