198 – Duty-1
Celia quickly fell asleep. I don’t know exactly what her condition is, but she won’t be fine.
Once, it’s over. If you keep this place well, there will be no other variables.
The black fog slowly dissipated. I tried to go out and check the situation, but I could see that someone was waiting for me at the door.
“…Eleanor?”
Goosebumps all over the body.
different. Her determination and determination are incomparably huge and overwhelming.
I feel pressure from the sword at my waist. After gaining the power of a hero, there weren’t many times I felt this much anxiety.
Her lips opened cautiously.
“Enerel…”
You shouldn’t fall into anxiety. I gritted my teeth and acted out my natural attitude.
“Um, yes. Long time no see. What’s up?”
I didn’t expect her not to be involved.
Even if it’s not a special material like a phoenix feather, the magic ingredients needed for my return ritual are overflowing.
There was no way the Magic Tower and Farseer could solve the problem alone. The emperor who supported me is dead.
I need someone who can force the rest of the empire’s officials to use the empire’s resources for my return ritual.
Common sense meant that Eleanor was the only person capable of carrying out the mission.
“Nothing’s wrong. But could you please come out of here for a moment?”
“after…”
“This cabin is too small.”
It was wide enough for a conversation, but not if she was thinking of a fight.
I don’t want Celia to die. Eleanor did not want Celia to die at the hands of anyone other than the Demon Dragon.
Maybe, I thought that I might be cooperating with them ‘inevitably’. Farseer and Celia are the ringleaders, and Eleanor may just be following them.
However, that was my delusion. Eleanor, more stubbornly and stronger than anyone else, wanted my return.
“…Guide me.”
It seemed difficult to end well. After leaving the cabin, Eleanor walked to a nearby clearing.
The moonlight was shining on her. Her steady face was clearly visible.
It is Eleanor who tries to do the ‘right thing’ she thinks without any hesitation, agony, or regret.
The strength of the warrior is not the problem. Now she was the Eleanor I had seen when she was a warrior.
At some distance, she and I stood side by side.
Common sense tells me I shouldn’t be afraid.
The holy sword is in my hand. The warrior’s power also dwells in me.
There is no way that she, an ordinary human being, could fight me and win.
But, is it really so?
Even when she fought with the might of a hero who had not fully blossomed, it wasn’t always a fight she could win.
However, everyone believed her. She believed she would never be defeated.
And, Eleanor always lived up to those expectations. With eyes like that, she didn’t lose no matter who she fought. It didn’t seem like losing.
“Are you going to interfere?”
“If I had to argue, it would be the other way round. Not long left. Enerel, the long-held plan for your return.”
The resolution is different. The tenacity is different. The concentration, depth, and size of life are different.
strong. This is the sincere Eleanor. She is willing to give up everything for her goal.
“Because saying the same thing one by one takes turns, it gets tiring? Couldn’t we just get together a little at a time?”
“I’m sorry, but it’s okay. This will be the last one.”
It’s cold.
The only time she and I had fought outside of sparring was at the imperial palace.
Receiving the power of the goddess of vengeance, losing reason in the pain of a failed resurrection, he fought and won against the confused Eleanor.
However, this is not the case.
“It’s okay. We’ve already come to a conclusion while talking about it… and I’ve decided to give up.”
Eleanor closed her eyes for a moment.
“May I ask for condensed milk?”
“No, I don’t have anything to do after going back anyway. Watching what you guys are doing because of that, I thought I could just give up.”
Actually, no.
Not all lingering feelings disappeared. The magic ingredients I’ve been collecting, the things I’ve done to get back home.
It’s too wasteful. It’s dizzy and painful, like having my blood drawn out.
However, it’s just that I can’t kill the person in front of me right now.
“Are you saying that?”
Eleanor quietly drew her sword.
I could feel it as soon as I saw it. it’s a murder sword
It is different from the holy sword. The function of the sword that the holy sword possesses is just an ordinary ‘hard sword that does not break’.
Its main use is more like a tool that condenses, amplifies, and releases the warrior’s power rather than a sword. Just like Eleanor did when she was a warrior.
However, that is different. The sword itself has power.
And, Eleanor twists and suppresses even the power of the sword, using it to realize her will.
“Why are you so obsessed with my return?”
“Because that was the reward you were promised. It was the oath I swore.”
Eleanor glared at me intensely, as if looking right through my body.
“So far…”
“Duty must be fulfilled.”
Even though her huge emotions seemed to be gushing out, Eleanor’s face in my eyes was so peaceful and serene.
“I was not my father’s real daughter.”
“…”
There were rumors like that, but I didn’t believe them.
I am the one who met the emperor in person. I was the one who shared lodging with Eleanor.
I couldn’t believe how similar the two of them were. There was no way she wouldn’t know how much the Emperor loved Eleanor and how much Eleanor loved the Emperor.
“My mother, who loved me, abandoned her duty. Perhaps…my father whispered love to her. Deceived to give up her duty, she met a terrible end.”
“It’s your mother.”
It wasn’t Eleanor who used to talk about her family often, but she was smiling a little when she talked about her mother every once in a while, a word or two.
Right now, Eleanor wasn’t smiling.
“Sure, I still love him. But that doesn’t mean I did right what wasn’t right.”
solid The thoughts created within her block me like a huge wall.
“My father… His Majesty the Emperor, his adoptive father, did the same. He neglected his duty to set up the right heir and keep his wife in check.”
I didn’t expect that her sharp words would spill out even towards the emperor.
Because I was the one who knew better than anyone else how much Eleanor respected and loved the emperor and how much loyalty she had shown.
“Because I loved my mother so much.”
“…”
“A person that was so good, a person that was so strong, and a person that was so great just did it once. I couldn’t stand a single temptation, so I made it this way.”
“What are you talking about…”
Eleanor’s dry words slowly mixed with emotions.
Boiling pain and unbearable anger.
“Look at the empire now. The unqualified imperial family is now uniting and continuing the fight.”
It wasn’t my main concern, but it wasn’t a subject I could turn away from or avoid.
If even I, who normally searched for Farsi, could feel the confusion, she, standing in the middle of politics, would have felt it more terribly and painfully.
“If this chaos continues, if someone doesn’t sort it out… maybe, he could become the last Emperor of the Empire.”
“I can’t…”
“Isn’t it miserable? He was the one who thought of the people before anyone else. He was the one who put the country ahead of his own body.”
Screams, futility, accusations, anger, fear.
A lot of emotions were buried in her words.
“The emperor who drove out foreign enemies and the demon army with more stable rule than any other emperor in the history of the empire, the emperor who alone accomplished reforms that could change this empire and the world! At last, because of that little warmth!”
I had heard of how popular the emperor was. Except for things about me.
He may have been the perfect emperor.
“For the love of wanting to make my mother happy, for the weakness of wanting to make me, the product of a dirty run, his daughter!”
The hand holding the sword began to tremble.
“Neither the flimsy lie about stealing your powers to create fake champions, nor your wrath and the division of the empire. None of this would have happened had he not renounced his duty.”
I didn’t say anything, just staring at Eleanor’s self-tortured expression.
“Neither did I. It was deceit that robbed you of your glory and power.”
“It couldn’t be helped then. I agreed…”
“I broke the rules for efficiency reasons. I abandoned my duty to protect others.”
Eleanor’s unwavering eyes were staring at me.
“I will never do that again.”
Sharper and stronger than the sword she wields.