CFCF 123

Episode 123

Leander gulped.

He remembered his master, who had contacted the Magic Tower several times saying he had something to apologize for.

Weren’t the two friends?

Had their relationship deteriorated so completely that the Tower Lord would take the heir of Babenberg hostage?

It was impossible to know.

Following his master’s order, Leander activated the emergency communication line connected to the Magic Tower.

It was a network kept open for the Northern Wall defense, so they received an immediate response even at this late hour.

Leander hoped the Tower Lord would be indignant at the absurd false accusation and come to their aid, but from the communication line, only a young-voiced mage responded with puzzlement.

—Huh? Not the Northern Wall, but an emergency in Edessa? Ah, the Tower Lord has been secluded in the infirmary all this time… Please wait a moment.

But even after an eternity of that ‘moment’ passed, only the mage’s bewildered voice continued.

—Huh? The one who’s been by Sir Moghold’s side for weeks is gone without a word? Where did he go?

After exchanging a glance with Leander, Callisteon threw the communication device away.

—CRACK!

The glass communication device shattered into pieces.

Belatedly, he remembered the gift from the Tower Lord that he had given to his only daughter.

“It has a protection spell, so when I leave, have the baby wear it immediately.”

Callisteon’s parted lips trembled violently.

His careless assumption that the necklace merely contained a simple protection spell was his fatal mistake.

The necklace must have had tracking and summoning functions.

‘The ultimate shield the continent’s greatest mage would give to protect his bloodline would, of course, be himself.’

The question was whether the Tower Lord would become a shield for the baby, who was not his own blood, or not.

I stood alone by the window, looking up at the black night sky.

There was no way I could see the situation in Edessa or Babenberg through the window, yet I felt strangely restless and found it hard to sit still.

‘Have they left by now? Probably not yet?’

The plan to use the temporary gate when Frilis was in deep sleep was known not only to me but also to Rurik.

So Rurik must be discreetly keeping an eye on it too.

Then, a vibrating sound came from somewhere.

—HUM, HUM!

Thinking it was a communication device, I looked in the drawers and on the desk one by one, but all communication devices were silent.

The source of the sound was, unexpectedly, the jewelry box.

With trembling hands, I opened the jewelry box and froze, my thoughts halting abruptly at the sight of the small white stone vibrating mercilessly.

‘…Frillis!’

The white stone wasn’t a means to contact anyone, and it should never have rung.

On the very first day I arrived in Edessa, Callisteon had quietly given it to me in secret, saying:

“If an emergency occurs, your room and the nursery will be isolated from the outside. At that time, this protection stone will sound a kind of alarm. And once the barrier is activated, it can only be deactivated with this protection stone.”

I had already experienced Ren’s barrier by then.

The square stone was as small as a necklace pendant, yet it could perform such functions without a mage.

As I rolled the stone on my palm in wonder, Callisteon chuckled and said,

“But the one I’m giving you is just a memento. You’ll be safely protected inside this room, so it’s an unnecessary item for you. I have the remaining protection stones, so if the barrier activates, I’ll be there before you even notice. Don’t worry.”

I had pretended it was nothing and joked, feeling grateful to him.

“Karl must misunderstand that I’m a terribly important person…”

“What in the world could be more important to me than you?”

Callisteon had avoided my gaze as if embarrassed, yet he had said that…

After that, I had put the white stone in the jewelry box and had almost forgotten its existence lately.

As Callisteon said, the protection stone had been like a mere memento to me until now, and I had never imagined the day would come when it would sound an alarm.

I ran to Rurik in my indoor dress, panting as I spoke.

“Frilies is in danger, Brother. Please let me return to Edessa.”

When I finally persuaded my brother and returned to the Edessa hotel, I encountered a deathly pale Callisteon.

“…Karl?”

I desperately hoped he would tell me he was holding Frilis, that our baby was safe, that nothing was wrong.

Callisteon, his face white, moved his lips and then lowered his gaze, apologizing to me.

“I’m sorry, Lu. It seems inside the room…”

“…It seems? It seems what? Th-the barrier didn’t work? Is our baby hurt? Is she? Where’s Phoebe?”

I was already losing my mind.

Callisteon, startled, grabbed my shoulders.

“No, Lu. That’s not it…”

He spoke with difficulty.

“It seems the Tower Lord is here. He has control of the barrier, so we can’t see the situation inside.”

“…What?”

Callisteon’s large hand swept over his own face in agony.

“I tried to contact him several times to reveal the truth, but he never answered. It’s too crude to think he orchestrated this from the beginning…”

Tears fell drop by drop.

Ren hadn’t been answering my calls lately, just like Callisteon’s.

After my brother unexpectedly arrived in Edessa, everything had flowed too abruptly.

The fact that I couldn’t seek Len’s forgiveness and understanding before things came to this was entirely my fault.

If he was angry with me, I could understand.

I had let him hear the news of the national wedding without properly rejecting Ren’s feelings, so I would beg for his forgiveness for as long as it took for his anger to subside.

But I couldn’t even imagine that Ren, however angry, would come to harm Frilis.

“That’s impossible.”

I spoke indignantly, but everyone around me avoided my gaze.

Their eyes seemed to suggest I was avoiding an obvious fact.

“He.”

My lips trembled, but I continued clearly.

“Len has protected me all this time. He protected me and our baby, through all those events. How could Len…”

I ran to the door of my former room.

It seemed covered by a semi-transparent membrane, isolated from the building.

“Ren.”

Knowing he probably couldn’t hear me, I anxiously knocked on the door.

“Ren, are you in there?”

I refuse to imagine, even as a remote possibility, that he would harm my baby.

“I’m sorry, Ren.”

Still, I apologized.

There was no response from inside, and several knights lay collapsed in the hallway.

Someone had done this, something had happened here, and my child was still inside that room.

She couldn’t even speak a word yet.

She couldn’t even roll over once, let alone talk.

She could do nothing, so how could she be at fault?

“Aah, Frilly…”

Just imagining something happening to the baby was too painful.

It felt like thorns were densely embedded all over my body, then simultaneously pulled out, leaving me bleeding profusely.

“Aah…!”

I collapsed weakly before the door in agony, when sandy memories poured over me from my wounded whole being.

“Argh!”

The pain was so intense I clutched my head with both hands.

Memories surged wildly.

My crying childhood, my sickly girlhood, finally that night when I was loved, and the day I realized I was with child…

The remaining time on my fate was a mere month, so my heart felt torn apart with pain back then.

‘I shouldn’t have been greedy.’

Wishes like wanting to reach him, even for a single day, should have been taken to hell.

Not knowing what to do in my solitary anguish, I ended up summoning Moghold again.

Because I remembered the spatial transfer magic he had taught me for fun in my childhood.

“Please help me, Sir Moghold. Please help me…”

Moghold shook his head.

“It cannot be, Your Highness. That magic is merely theoretical. The success rate is low, and the cost and side effects are far too great. If you do that, you will never be yourself anymore!”

Gasping, I knelt before him.