Chapter 27
“Grand Duke!”
The Crown Prince’s face went pale when he instinctively guessed Leonhardt’s intent.
“I apologize.”
Leonhardt showed no trace of remorse.
“Attacking a member of the royal family isn’t something you can slip away from like your usual skirmishes. I understand your motive, but your temper’s out of control.”
“…Sir Pavel.”
Leonhardt ground his teeth as he spoke. His hand still gripped Rashir firmly.
“He was being controlled by someone.”
“I’ve had reports of the same.”
“Who do you think was controlling him?”
“…?”
“If Lord Pavel had stayed still and simply undergone Rashir’s test, he could have survived. Instead he overran himself and… was killed by me.”
Leonhardt paused to steady his breath. He felt a little dizzy, probably from the tension.
“It was as if… he had to die.”
“What are you implying, Grand Duke?”
“If I hadn’t been close to the Crown Prince once, I might not have read the silence as confirmation.” Leonhardt could tell the Prince’s silence was effectively an assent.
“Lord Pavel discovered something he shouldn’t have while digging into the mark of black magic,” Leonhardt continued.
“But the cover-up seems excessively ostentatious. If the goal was simply to silence him, killing him quietly would have sufficed. So I thought: who benefits most if Lord Pavel had to die by my hand…?”
“Are you saying I’m the culprit?”
Leonhardt answered coolly.
“If I truly believed Your Highness was the black magician, I would already have surrendered as the murderer of a royal.”
“How comforting,” the Crown Prince scoffed.
Feeling he had explained enough, Leonhardt stepped closer in silence.
“You’re impudent, Leonhardt.”
“I know.”
Leonhardt’s gaze was as piercing as Rashir’s had been.
“But I must verify one thing.”
“Verify?!” The Crown Prince reached to ring the bell for a servant—
—Crack!
Leonhardt sliced the bell along with its desk and set both lightly on the floor.
“Grand Duke, the North will pay for your arrogance!” the Crown Prince shouted, and at the same moment a flash of light leapt—
‘…!’
Leonhardt’s body went rigid.
The blood forming on the back of the Crown Prince’s hand was red.
When news broke that Leonhardt Bernui had been imprisoned, Celine was feeding a mana stone to Rue.
“What did you say?” Celine barely managed to utter the words with trembling lips. Rue, who’d taken a blue mana stone and glowed faintly like Rashir, crawled into Celine’s sleeve.
The steward explained without surprise.
“Prince Leonhardt Bernui assaulted His Highness the Crown Prince and has been confined to Topien.”
“That can’t be!” While Danny immediately bristled with indignation, Celine stood white-faced and silent.
The steward informed them in the same unemotional tone.
“Triang is the place His Highness granted. You must leave immediately. His Highness has graciously decided not to punish your companions.”
“…”
The steward took Celine’s silence as assent and announced it as if granting a great favor.
“You won’t be able to walk, so we’ll provide a carriage. However, we can only escort you to the Crown Prince’s palace gates.”
“Understood.” Celine answered in a flat voice.
Danny opened his mouth to protest but then shrugged in resignation.
They hastily packed. Celine took a last, careful look around the small house she’d come to love in the short time she’d stayed.
In the kitchen, loaves of bread—left uneaten because no one but Leonhardt had been around to eat them—sat arranged like display pieces.
A bouquet of flowers—picked from the greenhouse the royal family tended themselves—proudly filled a vase in the living room.
Danny urged her on.
“Rue, we should get moving. We need to join the others outside the castle—”
The steward’s voice cut coldly through.
“The servants who stayed outside the city have already been banished from the capital.”
This time Celine could not let it pass.
“They had nothing to do with this.” The workers brought from the North had never even set foot in the Crown Palace or in Lebron Castle. Since the first day, after arriving at the inn, Celine had not even seen their faces. She had only just learned they had been staying on the outskirts of Lebron.
“It’s only natural. You sheltered a criminal, after all. Remember the great favor His Highness did by sparing Lute,” the steward replied.
Celine didn’t fight. Provoking the steward who acted as the Crown Prince’s proxy would do her no good.
They climbed into the carriage obediently.
Once it began to rattle, Celine whispered to Danny.
“Danny, what is Topien? Is it the underground prison of the Crown Prince’s palace?”
“It’s a place to confine high nobles—so not a standard jail. It’s not in the Crown Prince’s palace; it’s in the central district of Lebron Castle.” Danny answered patiently, unbothered by Celine’s ignorance of common facts.
“Do you know exactly where it is?” she asked.
“Rue, don’t tell me—” Danny’s expression hardened and he nodded. A hush and hurried movement followed inside the carriage, though the coachman’s perception was dulled by nervousness at the thought of driving into the Crown Palace.
Finally the carriage reached the Crown Prince’s gate.
“We’ve arrived.” The coachman stepped forward to help a female mage who’d come from the North down from the carriage.
The woman’s long, luxurious blonde hair fell in waves as she stepped down with the same elegance without needing the coachman’s help.
“Thank you.” she said.
“…?” The coachman frowned: she had used honorifics when getting in, but not now. Perhaps a maid had scolded her earlier. He had too many tasks to dwell on it.
Only after the carriage had fully departed did Danny allow his stern expression to relax slightly.
“It looks like it worked,” he said.
“Thank you so much, Danny.”
“Are you sure you’ll be all right on your own?” Danny asked.
Celine straightened her clothing and looked at the woman—Danny—whose hair she’d dyed yellow with magic.
“Danny needs to head back north. As Celine Hunt.” she said.
“…Understood.”
Dressed as a dark-haired attendant, Celine breathed a sigh of relief. She’d had to calm Danny down when he raged at her reckless plan. In the end he had agreed: Leonhardt needed her.
They had quickly changed clothes while the carriage ran and used magic to change both their hair colors. Since the hired hands from the North had left, few in the capital would recognize their faces now. That ought to be enough.
“Please, be careful.” Danny said.
“I promise.” Celine answered earnestly.
Soon after, Danny’s figure vanished from her sight.
Celine walked quickly toward the central district of Lebron Castle. She had to find Leonhardt before nightfall.
“Huff—”
She panted hard.
They’d reached the central district, but there was no sign of any palace that looked like a noble prison Danny had described.
‘I should ask someone,’ she thought.
Just then a richly dressed footman hurried past her. Celine seized the chance.
“Where’s Topien?” she asked.
“Topien? Why do you ask?” the footman immediately grew wary. A lone attendant wandering without a master and asking such questions was suspicious. Celine answered with a hurried pretense.
“My mistress insisted she must see someone there and slipped away from me—” The footman’s suspicion deepened.
“What noble’s lady insists on visiting someone in Topien?” he demanded.
“Celine Lute,” Celine said, worried he might not know her name. The footman’s face flushed then paled.
“The mage from the North?” he gasped.
Celine nodded slowly. The footman’s face alternated between red and white.
“If His Highness knows—!”
“Before he does, please take me there. She’s a mage but weak—she can’t travel far.” Celine’s claim wasn’t false. She couldn’t move easily and was truly frail.
The footman nodded and started leading her quickly, grumbling about the trouble of having to find some foolish girl who’d gotten herself mixed up in palace affairs.
Celine kept her eyes peeled along the way, subtly memorizing routes in case she needed to run. The cursed mansion and the maze-like Bernui Castle had sharpened her sense of direction.
The footman casually commented.
“The Grand Duke—how did that happen? Your mistress must be worried.”
“What’s the story?” Celine asked.
“That’s not for a mere servant to know,” he muttered with the pride of a royal retainer.
At last, Topien came into view.
Even before the footman could explain, Celine realized this was Topien. In this otherwise splendid and beautiful castle, this one place stood out as chilling.
The grey stone walls looked centuries older than the rest of the palace.
‘Is this really only for nobles?’ she frowned.
Topien was large enough to hold a considerable number of law-breakers—not all of the capital’s criminals, perhaps, but many.
“Where exactly is your mistress?” the footman snapped impatiently.
“Sorry. I’ll look carefully.” Celine answered.
The footman turned and left, insisting he had done enough, and told her to leave as soon as she found the person she sought.
Celine smiled slightly. She approached Topien slowly. No soldiers were visible, but the main gate was firmly shut.
‘I don’t need to enter through the gate,’ she thought.
She walked along the wall, looking for a place to hide.
‘There—!’ A massive tree grew against the wall. Celine took a breath.
Following her gaze, stepped of ice sprouted from the ground all the way up to the top of the wall in an instant.
Celine climbed the steps carefully so she wouldn’t slip.
There was a dead-ending peril of sliding on ice and losing her life, so she was cautious.
Soon she found an open window—no glass—set into the wall.
She slipped her head through first.
It was pitch-dark inside, with no sign of life.
‘Light is something I can make anytime,’ she thought, and brightened the room at once.
“Gasp—!” Celine inhaled sharply, frozen with shock and fear.
Several chairs studded with spikes, as if to impale anyone who sat, lay scattered a few paces away.
Behind one of the chairs, the iron maiden gaped its horrifying interior.
Celine looked down and almost screamed.
The gravel she’d thought covered the floor were actually teeth torn out by the roots.
This place was… a massive torture chamber.
A place she knew all too well.
