Chapter 90
The sky was ashen. Yet within the royal palace’s Chamber of Silence, it was as if all the brilliant colors of the world had gathered there, dazzling in their brightness.
The Chamber of Silence was a place used when the royal family wished to meet someone in secret. It was connected to the king’s large private library inside the Royal Residence, and no one except those closest to the king even knew of its existence.
It was also connected to underground passages leading outside the palace. Of course, there were five heavy iron doors along the way, each locked with keys, making it impossible for just anyone to come and go.
“You came in his place, then.”
Today, for the first time since ascending the throne, Eleusis entered the Chamber of Silence.
“Prisoner, Ferdin Kartel.”
The golden-haired king’s voice was cold as he addressed the man before him, his usual gentle expression gone without a trace.
“I greet Your Majesty the King.”
Recognizing Eleusis’s voice, Ferdin responded with parched, withered lips. His eyes were covered with a black blindfold, and his body was tied to a chair.
Before entering through the underground passage, the king’s personal knights had thoroughly searched Ferdin. Finding no threats, they had blindfolded him and dragged him to the Chamber of Silence. At the king’s command, they had left.
Now only two people remained inside the chamber: Eleusis and Ferdin.
It had already been a month since Eleusis received Stern’s letter about Shanelica. In that time, he had been tormented by endless doubts and worries.
He had deliberately reduced the times he met Shanelica, forcing himself to think through everything. Stern, who had warned him of her danger, was nowhere nearby. And Eleusis could hardly ask Shanelica outright, “Are you not human?” All the burden of his doubts weighed entirely on him.
It was suffocating. Even as he met her less, his feelings for Shanelica never faded. Each time he saw her, his heart only overflowed with the desperate desire never to lose her, no matter what.
Only when he was apart from her could Eleusis force himself to think rationally—not as a man, but as the king of a nation.
Stern’s reason for hurting delicate, fragile Shanelica had already been explained. If she was truly the monster Stern claimed, then perhaps it was understandable. Eleusis knew Stern was not the kind of man to harm a woman without reason.
Yet at times he feared: were his uncontrollable emotions whenever he saw Shanelica proof that he had fallen under the spell of something inhuman? Was he endangering the nation itself by being bewitched?
In the end, Eleusis concluded that he needed to hear Stern’s account directly.
From the letter’s wording, Stern seemed to be urging him to delay the marriage without telling Shanelica anything for now. But Eleusis, uncertain and restless, could make no decision. Nor could he fully trust Stern’s words.
So he went to the notice wall at the plaza before the palace and posted a coded message in the Knights of Kaisel’s cipher. The message simply read: I wish to hear more details of the monster story from before. Even if passing knights solved the code, it would mean nothing to them. He hadn’t expected much—what were the chances that an escaped convict would appear in a crowded place to read it?
Yet a week later, an anonymous letter arrived at the palace, giving a place and time. The appointed time was today. The king’s personal knights had seized the person at the location and brought him to the Chamber of Silence. And thus, Ferdin now sat before Eleusis.
Eleusis had already expected Stern would send someone else. Perhaps it would be a messenger with a more detailed letter.
It was understandable that Stern did not come in person. Eleusis had shown no willingness to postpone the marriage as Stern urged. In such a situation, for an escaped convict like Stern to meet the king directly would be tantamount to suicide. And even if Stern explained, if Eleusis chose not to believe, that would be the end of it.
Still, Eleusis had not imagined that the one sent in Stern’s stead would be Ferdin—Derwin’s younger brother.
He had to admit Stern was clever. Ferdin, like Stern, was also a fugitive convict. If anything happened to Ferdin here, it would only prove that Eleusis did not trust Stern at all.
So, the mighty commander of knights resorts to this. Well, when life is at stake, pride counts for little…
Cowardly as it looked, Eleusis had to admit it was also prudent. After all, if Eleusis truly was bewitched by a monstrous Shanelica, then Stern’s caution was justified.
“Since the escape… you’ve been with Stern all this time?”
“Yes.”
“How strange. Didn’t you despise Stern? Ever since your brother’s case?”
The blindfolded Ferdin could not answer at once. Then, as if resolving himself, he spoke slowly.
“Your Majesty. I have not come here as Ferdin Kartel, but as Stern Miače’s proxy.”
“So I’m not to ask anything about you?”
“I apologize.”
Such insolence, coming from a prisoner.
“How did you both escape prison?”
“If you summoned me only to interrogate me, then kill me here and now.”
So—no unrelated questions.
Eleusis disliked the tone, but did not show it.
“Very well, I won’t ask further. But this I must know: you came here only to deliver Stern’s words?”
“Yes.”
“And do you yourself believe everything Stern told you is the truth?”
“…Whether I believe or not is unimportant. What matters is the choice Your Majesty will make.”
Eleusis sighed inwardly. The man sounded like a parrot, repeating limited phrases. Still, broad-minded as he was, he let it go. Details could be pried out later.
“Then let me ask plainly. In that letter, the ‘monster’—what did it mean?”
“A dragon.”
The answer came without hesitation. Eleusis was the one who fell silent. Ferdin, blindfolded, could not see the king’s incredulous look, which was a shame.
“A dragon, you say.”
Yet Eleusis’s voice was calm, contrary to Ferdin’s expectations.
“You are not surprised?”
“I had suspected as much.”
Eleusis was not startled. He had not spent the past month in idle torment.
He had scoured the archives for all mention of non-human “monsters,” from various races to obscure creatures. Among those possibilities, the one that seemed most likely… was dragons.
“Do you truly think dragons exist?”
This time Ferdin sounded puzzled.
“Does my opinion matter?” Eleusis deflected.
“…No.”
But his puzzlement was natural.
For it was not only royalty, but the high officials of many nations across the continent, who knew that dragons—and countless other races—truly existed.
Long ago, humans had fought, slaughtered, and enslaved other races for sport. But now, by divine decree, those races lived in separate realms. That shameful history, when humanity was punished by the gods, had been hidden from the common folk for generations.
Over the centuries, the events became distorted, turning into little more than mythical legends of humans versus other races. Yet the high echelons—royals, high priests—knew the truth.
Dragons, however, were different. They had never been among the races humans sought to enslave. It was as though they never dwelled on this continent at all. Still, since dwarves and elves occasionally spoke of them, many believed they must exist.
“The real question,” Eleusis said, his blue eyes darkening, “is whether they are truly dragons. Can this be certain?”
“Stern says it is certain.”
“So—you cannot be sure yourself?”
“I know nothing of dragons. I only relay Stern’s words.”
Again, the same refrain—do not ask his own opinion.
Eleusis nodded thoughtfully.
“Then what proof exists? The fact that Lady Shanel speaks many languages is not enough.”
“Stern’s family has researched dragons for generations. Their bloodline is said to carry the ability to distinguish them.”
Whether that was true, Ferdin could not say. He merely repeated what Stern had told him.
“So in the end, if Stern says so, it must be so?”
“…To add something: I heard their conversations myself.”
“Conversations?”
“That woman… no, Lady Shanel herself called both herself and my brother dragons.”
“She could have been jesting.”
“It was not once. I overheard such talk many times, over a long period.”
At that, Eleusis gave a brief laugh.
“Even if they are family, you make a habit of eavesdropping?”
“Stern realized they were dragons and struck a deal with me—to listen and report what I heard.”
In truth, it had been closer to blackmail.
“Now I understand better. Why you turned against your brother and stood beside Stern when Lady Shanel was attacked.”
Just recalling Shanelica’s state then still made Eleusis’s blood boil, but he calmed himself. For now, he could make no declaration. Even he had been standing frozen at the crossroads for a month, not knowing what to do with Shanelica.
“So, let us say they truly are dragons. Can you guarantee that they mean us harm?”
Eleusis’s blue eyes deepened like storm clouds.
