Chapter 66
Seeing that he had calmed down far more than before, I quickly nodded.
“Yeah, somewhere else! Um, I’ll take you to a place you’ll like.”
“…You promised.”
With his voice softened, As rested his forehead against my shoulder.
I gave a small smile, stroked his head, then closed my eyes and focused.
Sharing senses with a spirit meant surrendering consciousness, leaving the one who performed it completely defenseless.
That was why, to ensure my safety, I decided to summon Eldimir alongside Undine.
The affinity with nature flowing through my body gathered at my will, gradually taking shape in the air.
The energy took the form of a serpent and a wolf, and soon enough, Undine and Eldimir appeared before me.
They came closer and rubbed their cheeks affectionately against me.
The cool yet refreshing sensation made me laugh.
After patting Eldimir’s fur once, I turned my gaze to Undine.
“Undine, I need your help. I want to check Dante’s study—can you show it to me?”
Nod.
Undine nodded, pressed her lips against my forehead, then melted into the air as if vanishing.
Gradually, another scene overlapped my vision.
Surrendering myself entirely to Undine’s sight, I slumped sideways.
Einra’s body lost balance and toppled over.
Aketh reached out, caught her, and laid her head gently upon his thigh.
Her wavy chestnut hair slipped sideways, spilling down with the tilt of her head, glistening in the moonlight.
“Einra.”
His voice, low for that of a child, echoed softly through the still air.
“I don’t have much patience.”
Rustle—
His small fingers brushed aside her disheveled hair.
“Waiting quietly… it’s not really my style.”
“…”
“I hope you’ve answered everything you wanted by now.”
Beside them, Eldimir sat, glaring sharply at the boy’s hand as though displeased.
But Aketh ignored the gaze and tilted his head ever so slightly.
“When dawn breaks tomorrow, there won’t be any more chances.”
The dead cannot answer questions, and ashes tell no tales.
He had already granted Einra a single day of grace.
For him, it was the utmost patience he could extend.
“You asked me, remember? What if I showed up in the form of a child?”
No answer came from the one who could not hear him.
Only the soft rustling of hair being stroked drifted into the silence.
“I wanted to come as myself, but the Emperor kept interfering. He said the Grand Duke of Serenia mustn’t show himself where you are. That it would give the nobles a pretext.”
“…”
“Of course, I didn’t come alone. I’ve hidden the knights around the Baharman Grand Duke’s estate. The moment dawn breaks, we’ll strike.”
He tilted his small head slightly, a curve not befitting a child forming upon his lips.
“I couldn’t possibly come alone to punish a traitor.”
Glancing briefly at the window where the knights lay in ambush, Aketh murmured.
“…Still, I’m troubled. I don’t want to kill the Grand Duke too easily.”
Just imagining the depths of depravity within that wretched mind was enough to drive him mad.
Though a languid killing intent glimmered in his eyes, his hand, as it stroked down from her hair to caress her cheek, was nothing but gentle.
His voice was almost tender when he added,
“Of course, a traitor must lose his head beneath the guillotine, before the eyes of all the people.”
My vision sharpened.
Gliding through the manor like swimming, Undine soon arrived at Dante’s study.
‘Finally, I can check…’
Taking a deep breath, I asked Undine to slip inside.
The interior was tidier than expected.
Numerous magical tools and potions, peculiar experimental equipment, stacks of organized documents on the desk, and a crystal sphere for communication.
Bookshelves lined with tomes stood by the wall near the window, beside which a small sofa and table were placed.
‘But… I feel traces of mana all over this room…’
I tilted my head but set the thought aside; searching the study came first.
I examined everything one by one.
But over half the tools were encrypted and unreadable, and the documents, when skimmed, contained only mundane contents.
‘As I thought… It’s too much for someone like me, who knows nothing about sorcery, to find a clue…’
A wave of discouragement washed over me.
After enduring such harsh mental strain just to cling on here, I’d discovered nothing.
‘Should I have brought Harner along instead?’
Just as that thought crossed my mind—
‘…Huh?’
A full-length mirror stood before me, one I hadn’t paid attention to earlier.
‘Was this here before?’
Maybe I’d overlooked it because the bookshelf beside it was so large.
Tilting my head inwardly, I approached the mirror with Undine.
Now I sensed a powerful mana radiating from it, one I hadn’t noticed before. Perhaps it was cloaked by magic until I consciously recognized its existence.
‘But this power is too strong for just a concealment spell.’
Perhaps Dante deliberately hid the mirror because of what lay within.
As Undine and I approached, her tail brushed the glass surface.
‘…!’
It passed through as though the mirror weren’t even there.
‘…What?’
Startled, I couldn’t stop myself—and slipped right through into the mirror.
Blinking blankly, I slowly looked around.
A small sofa and table. A large bookshelf by the window.
The communication crystal, stacks of documents, potions, experimental gear, magical tools.
It was a perfect mirror image of the room I’d just seen.
‘And… the mana that filled the study before is gone.’
Perhaps the mirror had been the device concealing the true study.
‘If that’s the case… maybe I can really find something here.’
I eagerly examined one of the magical tools.
As expected, there was no encryption at all.
‘Knew it.’
I grinned inwardly.
So that was it.
The reason mana had been seeping from every corner earlier was because the entire visible study was covered in illusion spells.
‘No one would bother encrypting items they use every day. It’s like setting your browser to auto-login.’
So, Dante had laid down an illusionary barrier instead—
a defense to stall any intruders.
The mirror’s magic had been keyed to activate only for mana of a certain strength and quality, which was why I hadn’t realized it before.
‘At last, the real space is revealed.’
Excited, I began searching.
‘Better to start with the desk papers than the magical tools that take ages to decipher.’
Sensing my intent, Undine moved toward the desk.
I scanned the documents, focusing first on anything about Belzesti.
After some time—
‘…A curse?’
I frowned as my eyes landed on a disturbing word.
The document described cursing a certain individual under specific conditions.
‘That wretched sorcerer—who is he planning to curse now?’
My eyes sharpened as I sped through the text.
‘Something’s… strange.’
I flipped to a referenced document cited at the bottom, then followed every linked record one after another.
The more I read, the colder a chill crept down my spine.
Unnatural phenomena reported at the Tomb of the Fallen Emperor… a vast, unidentified power that caused them.
Clues barely salvaged from ancient inscriptions.
Descriptions vague and hazy, but hinting at a dimension-scale, incomprehensible force.
A phenomenon utterly beyond human interference.
Reincarnators connected through their former corpses to that unfathomable power.
The lingering emotions of the dead, clinging like residue to their remains.
And research results claiming those emotions could be harnessed—used to curse the reincarnator through the corpse of their past life.
‘…What is this?’
My whole body trembled.
My mind went blank, unable to think straight.
‘Cursing a reincarnator through their past body?’
And there was only one person that curse could possibly target.
“…Harner.”
