Chapter 83
“Ah….”
Carlton’s eyes trembled uncontrollably at the sight of Velia, whom he hadn’t seen in such a long time.
After Vane took Velia away, Carlton and Karin could have left the mansion whenever they wanted.
Vane had abandoned the pocket space that contained the mansion.
Still, Carlton had not left the estate.
Karin sometimes tried to persuade him that if he abandoned Velia he could go, but he refused every time.
While Carlton, who had been longing for this moment, stared at Velia, Karin concentrated on completing the ritual to subdue Vane in Carlton’s stead.
Beside him, Carlton watched Velia lying on her knees, her face pale. Emotions swirled in his red eyes.
“…Hello…?”
It felt strange to hear his own voice for the first time in so long; Carlton, who had come of age several months ago, found his own voice unfamiliar.
He worried, absurdly, that if his tone—lower than before—was different, Velia might not recognize him.
Carlton reached out his gaunt hand and took Velia’s.
The hand that used to warm his memory was gone; only cold frost remained.
Carlton stared dully at Velia.
“It’s been a long time….”
Karin, sweating beside him while finishing the ritual, opened her mouth as if to speak, then sighed and kept working.
Carlton thought he heard a small mutter like, “Of course you would.”
“I should have found you sooner….”
Carlton’s words tumbled out incoherently, then he fell silent.
Velia’s clear eyes—the ones that used to look at him and smile—were tightly shut and unmoving.
Carlton slowly stroked Velia’s hand as life waned.
Over the past year, Carlton’s hands had darkened from reckless deeds.
The contrast between his pale, life-drained hand and the blackened hand that had done what it should not have was stark.
He looked stunned.
After Vane left, Carlton began to do to himself what Vane had done to him.
He had to grow stronger to find Velia; there was no other way.
The more Carlton drove himself to the brink, the more his senses and memory faded.
That’s why sometimes he didn’t remember—why Velia meant so much to him, what she had been, how he had felt about her.
Carlton wanted to remember why he had been blindly searching for and forgetting Velia.
“Why was it?”
Contrary to the tone of someone pondering, his face looked relaxed as if he had already found the answer.
Carlton closed his eyes gently.
Warm afterimages that did not fit with the terrible mansion washed over his mind.
“Velia.”
The sound of her name felt strange and pleasant when he said it out loud again after so long.
Why hadn’t he tried something so simple in the past year? he thought, and called Velia’s name quietly, again and again.
The more he called, the clearer his memories became.
“I missed you.”
Carlton spoke sincerely.
The reason he had been wandering in search of Velia was simple: he missed her and wanted to see her.
All of the few happy memories that rose instantly in his mind included Velia.
She had been the one to teach him many “firsts.”
He had been thirsty for the warmth she had given him, which was why he had blindly searched for her all along.
He wanted, even once, to take the hand she had once offered him.
Carlton gripped Velia’s hand with force.
“If you woke up now, you’d be angry, right…?”
He stared at Velia’s motionless face.
From the moment he discovered traces of Vane’s pocket space, he had pictured this instant: what to say, how Velia would speak when she saw him.
More than a touching reunion, Carlton expected Velia to be angry.
“Why didn’t you leave?”
If she were awake, she’d have raged and run wild—Carlton looked at her with pity.
“You weren’t here.”
Karin approached the still Velia.
“Carlton, it’s all complete….”
“I didn’t think you’d still be looking for me….”
Vane’s voice resonated through the hall, undoing the ritual Karin had painfully finished.
Karin’s face went blank with surprise at the miscalculation.
Unlike him, Carlton watched Vane without flinching.
“So this is the first time I’ve seen you be so attached, huh.”
Vane smiled faintly at Carlton.
“You’re quite the likable child.”
Karin, sensing Vane’s true intent, hurriedly whispered to Carlton.
“If you kill Vane, Velia will die too.”
Carlton, who’d suspected something from the moment they entered the hall, looked at Velia with despair in his eyes.
Velia, asleep and breathing shallowly, looked utterly exhausted.
Sealed off from her strength, it seemed she was only kept alive by the spell Vane had attached.
“Right. If I die, that one will die too. So, will you let me go? Then we can discuss how to save that child together.”
Carlton looked at Vane—unchanged from a year ago.
A tense silence hung like thin ice.
Carlton kept his gaze steady on Vane.
“You’ve changed a lot.”
Vane wiped the smile from his face.
In the tense atmosphere that felt like it could explode any moment, Carlton spoke calmly.
“It seems our goals differ.”
“Oh?”
“I can still see how desperately you crave Velia’s power. Enough to gnaw away at her life.”
At that moment Vane shifted his previously frozen arm.
Karin inhaled sharply at the movement.
“Hey, hey! What are you doing!”
Karin stamped his feet as Vane’s bindings were rapidly undone.
Perhaps he’d changed his mind—Vane focused on releasing the restraints.
Carlton looked at Karin.
“Start the ritual.”
“What?”
“That one—the thing I mentioned. Didn’t you memorize it?”
“Are you insane?!”
Karin blurted out, flustered.
Even with his reaction, Carlton looked composed.
“Do it.”
“You….”
“Do it.”
“I can’t.”
“If you don’t, neither of us will get anything.”
Carlton nodded toward Vane, who looked as if he would break free and move at any second.
“Do it. Try—there’s no hope for me anyway.”
Carlton rolled up his sleeve, showing his blackened arm.
“I….”
“Do it. I expected this. I’ll be alright.”
“I’m not okay. Hey, still—between you and me….”
Tears soon welled in Karin’s eyes.
“Thank you… Karin. For everything.”
Carlton’s gentle words—hard to believe he would utter them—stilled Karin’s sobs.
Carlton then turned back to Velia.
Perhaps she had already known the escape would fail.
Perhaps she had envisaged the worst and entrusted him with that sword for that reason.
A sword that bound her own power at the cost of her life.
When she had asked for the black-magic-stained blade, no one could have predicted she’d do what she did.
He had thought it would be a tool to attack Vane or a means to practice regenerative power.
But Velia, in defiance, engraved the curse’s ritual onto the blade and drove it into her own heart.
If it couldn’t be undone, she’d rather give nothing she wanted—this was Velia’s will.
“She’s alive because of my power, you know….”
Hearing Vane murmur, Carlton nodded lightly.
He had expected Vane would try to save Velia by any means; this was foreseen.
The shock of facing it in person, however, was beyond words.
“Now do it.”
“I’m not ready… I can’t… you….”
“Do it. Right now—if you’re late, she’ll die. All of us.”
At Carlton’s firm command, Karin squeezed his eyes shut.
“Do it. Karin, please.”
Karin trembled.
“Please.”
As Carlton activated his own magic, Karin began, very quietly and rapidly, to chant the ritual he had prepared.
Karin did not possess enough power to perform this rite.
But before coming here, Carlton had given him a magic orb filled with mana, making it possible.
Karin’s hand shook fiercely with the orb full of Carlton’s magic.
As he recited the ritual, he burst into tears.
When he’d received the orb and been taught the ritual, he had tried to deny reality; now confronting it, he despaired.
Not everyone could survive.
Karin increased the speed of his chant through sobs.
Soon a cluster of black light enveloped them.
Pain surged from his left shoulder, but Carlton gritted his teeth and endured it.
No one could dismantle the spell Velia had placed on herself.
A binding spell paid for with life could not be easily broken.
However, the cost of the ritual could be exchanged—at a far greater price than the original.
The curse’s ritual, hungry for the dwindling life force within Velia, would devour the two fresh lives now offered like a monster.
