CHAPTER 93………………………
He looked as if he might punch Kaas in the face at any moment — his expression was menacing.
But Kaas did not fight back.
He did not raise his voice either.
Instead, in a flat, even tone he said, “The Lord of the Ivory Tower…”
Kaas clenched his molars tight. “Please let me speak with the Tower Lord.”
“Don’t change the subject.”
Ricardo glared at Kaas threateningly.
Kaas’s eyes were different from usual, but Ricardo — half-driven mad by emotion himself — didn’t notice.
“You’re a knight approved by Duke Obel. Then why do you take up a sword if you can’t even protect one person?”
“……”
“Even if knights can lose their heads sometimes, you and Linaria were lovers. If you truly loved her, you should have protected her.”
“……”
“Even if it meant you died in her place.”
Harsh words poured out at Kaas.
Yet Ricardo felt miserable — because he knew he was blaming Kaas solely for being the one who had been at Linaria’s side.
“It might be possible to fix her.”
“What do you mean by that?”
No matter how great the Ivory Tower Lord was, he couldn’t bring the dead back to life.
It sounded ridiculous.
“There’s no time. I beg you.” Kaas’s request was polite.
Still, darkness shimmered and coiled up the arm that gripped Ricardo’s collar like a snake.
It was the power of a divine beast.
Only then did Ricardo feel something strange about Kaas.
“…I can’t promise whether I’ll be able to call the Tower Lord, but I’ll try to contact the Ivory Tower immediately. Don’t get your hopes up.”
Kaas was not in his right mind.
It wasn’t just the dust and blood that made him look that way.
His golden eyes shone with a strangely piercing light.
He truly believed he could bring Linaria back.
“Linaria.”
Magnus arrived at the Obel seat almost immediately.
It had been less than an hour since they’d made contact.
Ricardo had never seen Magnus before.
It was surprising that the famous Lord of the Ivory Tower took the form of someone so boyish.
Duke Obel and the Tower Lord had come together, and when the Lord of the Ivory Tower saw Linaria he could not hide his sorrow — it was clear how much he cared for her.
But Ricardo had no energy left to be surprised by any of it.
“Linaria, Linaria. How many times did I tell you not to die somewhere I don’t know about… and yet you…”
Dante, beside Magnus, said nothing; he only stroked his daughter’s cheek. He was cold.
“There are traces of a contract-holder,” Magnus said.
“I see.”
Suddenly Magnus seemed to collect himself. “Wait. If that’s so, doesn’t it mean the contract-holder was not taken?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
It was said that those who contracted with the Time Divine Beast could turn back time repeatedly, regardless of how many times.
There were even people who claimed they had reversed time tens or hundreds of times — all of them mad, perhaps, but they said the same thing:
Death.
Even so, if one had a contract with the Time Divine Beast, one might be able to go back.
“Although we may never meet in this life again, perhaps we could face each other once more.”
The death of a contract-holder does not rewind the world like a clock’s hands clicking backwards; the death ends that person’s world, but not the world itself.
Those left behind keep living in the present. So you could view Linaria’s death as a point where the timeline split.
“I will have to live without my daughter, then,” Dante said.
He grasped at the way the power of time worked and understood it immediately.
He nodded and looked at Kaas.
“This area should be safe — what happened to my daughter?”
“There was an assassin’s attack.”
“Putting aside why the assassin targeted Linaria, a mere ambush wouldn’t have ended like this.”
“……”
“Don’t hide anything. She’s my only daughter.”
The gentle Dante was gone.
With a steely look, he ordered Kaas.
Kaas told the truth.
He confessed that they had secretly moved to the villa, that the reason for moving was to inspect the mine, that Lambda had tried to collapse the mine to ensure Linaria’s death, and even that Linaria was the head of the Luna Company.
“If you’d needed money, I would gladly have given you the family,” Dante said.
He had actually once given Linaria the signet ring.
He couldn’t understand why she’d kept things secret and acted covertly. Being her father didn’t mean she had to hide her life from him.
Dante had no intention of seizing Linaria’s efforts or earnings.
So the only explanation for her secrecy was that she lacked sufficient trust — otherwise, nothing reasonable came to mind.
“Was it because I wasn’t a reliable father and she couldn’t trust me?” he asked.
“Your Grace, I don’t think that’s it.”
Ricardo stepped forward to comfort Dante.
Meanwhile Kaas approached Magnus and asked, “Can you cure her?”
“You fool. If I could raise the dead, why would I be wearing a human’s skin instead of being a god? Say something that makes sense.”
“……”
“I’ve been disgusted with my own incompetence once before — this will be the second time.”
“You must cure her. You have to.”
Magnus stared bewildered.
“You heard what I just said, didn’t you? The dead cannot be brought back—”
“She’s still breathing.”
A chill ran down Magnus’s spine.
Now that he thought about it, Kaas hadn’t been asking whether she could be healed — he’d asked whether she could be fixed, as if Linaria were badly injured rather than dead.
“Riri said: the Tower Lord cannot fail to heal someone. So you must not say you can’t.”
No matter how many times they told Kaas that Linaria was dead, he wouldn’t hear it.
Until Linaria returned alive, he would deny death over and over.
Magnus sighed, produced a small vial from his robe, and splashed its liquid over Linaria’s body.
“This is the extent of the little tricks I can perform.”
The wreck of a corpse became clean, as if untouched by injury — even a broken leg.
“What use is a whole body without a soul? It’s a useless parlor trick.”
Kaas stared blankly at Linaria’s face.
It looked as if she might open her eyes at any second.
Having believed he could repair her when she was so battered, seeing her unscarred made the reality of her death hit him.
Kaas, who had been gazing at her with the quiet, hammered-down intensity of a nail, suddenly stood up.
“Where are you going?” Magnus asked, sensing something ominous.
Kaas answered expressionlessly, “I’m going to carry out her final command.”
“Final command?”
“Did Riri ask you to do something before she died? Tell me.”
Dante grabbed Kaas urgently.
“She wanted the Crown Prince’s head.”
Linaria and Maximilian had recently broken their engagement, and aside from dancing together at a victory banquet, there had been little to indicate a relationship that would provoke such lethal hatred in a partner’s final moments.
But Dante understood the truth at once.
“Riri… you did.”
She had died once before.
And that death had been at the Crown Prince’s hands.
Only then did all of his daughter’s past behavior fall into place in Dante’s mind.
He had to accept that Linaria’s death now was not the first.
It was a truth he had repeatedly ignored.
“I’ll help you.”
Dante told Kaas, “I too want to grant my daughter’s last wish.”
He took out his tobacco pipe out of habit and added, “And not only that — we will deal with everyone who killed Riri. You don’t think this ends simply because the assassins are dead, do you?”
Most people who contracted with the Time Divine Beast met violent ends. There was a superstition that only the Time Divine Beast could kill a contract-holder and take their contract.
But Linaria had not had her contract taken.
That meant she hadn’t been killed for the contract.
So perhaps someone had targeted Linaria Obel personally?
Dante reviewed the circumstances and concluded otherwise.
Linaria had moved without telling anyone; yet rumors that the Luna Company master would inspect the mine had reached Dante’s ears.
Therefore, the assassins’ true target was more likely the master of the Luna Company.
If they pursued that premise, they could trace the backers.
‘Linaria, my beloved daughter.’
His daughter would go back and live in the past.
Even so, the fact remained that he had lost his daughter now.
So Dante declared he would help Kaas — for his daughter’s sake, and for his own, he would seek revenge.
