Chapter 197 …
Olly gave a bitter smile and added jokingly:
“Ah, except for when you self-destructed. That was truly a horrific mistake… Wait, but in the end, we all survived and reunited, so maybe that counts as a correct answer too?”
“Haha…”
At that moment, Lilieta laughed briefly, then fell into a long silence.
Olivia alternated her gaze between her friend’s pale face and the northern sky where another friend had vanished, then spoke casually:
“And… Rita, besides your intuition, there’s also some evidence that could be called a possibility—or hope.”
Rita lifted her head sharply. Her violet eyes trembled precariously as they fixed on her. Olly paused a moment, carefully choosing her words.
When she heard that Gid had transformed into a monster resembling a black dragon, and that people had cried out that the Black Dragon had returned, something occurred to her.
It was an idea she could have because she was more familiar with this empire than Lilieta, who had returned only recently. It was a question she had held for a long time, so she could naturally connect the dots.
The stained glass of the Sanctuary temple depicts a black dragon curled beneath a setting sun.
Olivia Den Luna Blen looked up at that stained glass and thought about the myth.
As was often the case with the royal family of the Kairam Empire, this place was intertwined with the story of a black dragon in its founding myth.
About a thousand years ago, the black dragon supposedly helped the first emperor drive out the monsters of this land, established the capital, and then created an incarnation in the form of a human woman.
That incarnation crowned the first emperor with a laurel and became the first empress, called the Coronator.
In the empire’s history, Coronator originally referred to the incarnation of the black dragon—a prestigious title. In the early empire, people even believed that the person chosen as the Coronator was the reincarnation of the black dragon.
That authority persisted over the centuries, so that today the Coronator at the coronation ceremony is regarded as the emperor’s partner and a sacred being, regardless of their origins.
After creating the Coronator, the black dragon supposedly retained only its massive body, its shell. The place where the dragon’s remains were buried is said to be the “Sanctuary.”
“There’s no other founding myth in Kairam that treats a dragon—a creature of imagination—with such detail and importance.”
It was as if the myth had witnessed it firsthand.
Even more, the empire alone believes that the black dragon became human and married the founding emperor, claiming the royal family as descendants of the black dragon.
On that day, Olly relayed this exact thought to Rita.
“The only founding myth with a dragon is Kairam’s. No, more precisely, it’s the only country that leaves such detailed accounts of a dragon that never existed, believes in its existence, and worships the royal family as descendants of that black dragon.”
“Why suddenly bring up the founding myth…?”
“Think about it, Rita. Maybe there was something back then that gave people reason to believe it? If the myth was based on real events… then what does it mean that the black dragon transformed into a human and married the first emperor?”
“…!”
“Perhaps the black dragon in that myth was a case like Gid.”
Olly continued without hesitation, seeing light return to her friend’s fading eyes.
“Dragons, as creatures, officially don’t exist. No fossils have been found. They’re a product of imagination. Yet Kairam’s myth preserves such a vivid black dragon, and even says it later became human—”
“—You mean that black dragon was actually an ancient Vow-Bearer like Gid, who went berserk but eventually calmed down and returned to human form?”
Rita interrupted impatiently. Olly shrugged and replied with a sigh:
“It’s only a possibility.”
“That’s enough, Olly.”
Lilieta smiled faintly.
“If there’s a possibility, that’s enough.”
After a brief silence, as if to convince herself, she added:
“Even if… I can’t undo it, I have to find Gid. I must stop Pascal from exploiting Gid’s berserk state. That’s my responsibility for falling into his trap.”
Then she departed, carrying that fragile possibility and her heavy sense of duty, heading north where Gid had disappeared.
Lucas, who had an estate at the northern end, accompanied her both to check if there were signs of a monster outbreak and to act as Lilieta’s vanguard if Pascal appeared.
The rest of the Beacons remained in the capital, Ramcard.
Deng—
The Sanctuary bell tolled heavily and long.
The flower-offering ritual had ended.
The crimson sunset, passing through the stained glass, fell over the mourners like a foreboding net. The shadow of the black dragon etched in the glass covered the coffin.
Deng—
The gloomy bell toll cut through the silence again.
Olivia watched the emperor’s coffin being moved to the underground crypt and thought.
The emperor was dead, the crown prince missing, and the monsters had risen prematurely.
Archduke Adickl, unable to fully control the royal guard or the capital’s security forces, filled the palace with mercenaries.
Claiming it was to investigate the emperor’s death and exterminate the monsters hiding in the palace, and arguing it was necessary to fill the void left in the guard after the great damage from the Red Founding Ceremony.
Just like the Tritoma Special Knights of the crown prince, he claimed these forces were trained to counter monsters.
But there were oddities—every soldier wore a hood and a full-face mask to avoid monster contamination, no one knew where they came from, and except for a few leaders, none of them spoke a word.
Ethan had secretly investigated them and discovered a terrible truth.
“I suspected it since the Vine Mansion, but damn… they were really all cursed commanders. Those soldiers—they’re all monsters under the commander. The Archduke has a monster attached to him. What kind of deal did they make…?”
Monsters disguised as humans now roamed the palace.
At least the Empress’ palace remained unconquered because the surviving guards gathered to protect it.
Everywhere else was under the monsters’ control. The Archduke dominated the palace, commanding monsters.
Yet no one knew the truth—they believed order had been restored under the Archduke and security stabilized.
‘But I can’t shatter that belief recklessly. If the monster legion revealed themselves in the heart of the capital, it would become a living hell.’
A time that did not exist in Pascal’s history had begun—like a rapid current beneath ice.
Outwardly calm, slightly chilly, but one wrong step could fracture every routine, drowning everyone in icy waters.
The entrance to the Sanctuary crypt yawned like a monster’s throat. Olivia rubbed her arm—despite it being summer, she felt a strange chill.
Empress Ophelia followed the emperor’s coffin underground, keeping her neck and waist straight.
After four years of voluntarily reducing her influence, she was ready for battle again.
From now on, as empress, she would use every possible means to resist the Archduke until the crown prince returned and prevented Joseph from being enthroned.
Olivia and Ethan would protect the empress and search for the commander. Seraphina would check the Archduke using her religious authority, and Isaiah would prepare for war against the commander alongside the Tritoma Special Knights.
All while waiting for Lilieta’s return, trusting she would rescue Gideon and come back.
Even in midsummer, the air was cool.
They had reached the northernmost part of the empire, the last habitable land for humans.
After crossing Laskyle, the empire’s largest northern plain, the continent’s most rugged White Mountain Range rose ahead.
In the highlands halfway up the range lay the estate of the Winterfield Marquis. Beyond Winterfield was only the uninhabited “Black Forest.”
It was a land where monsters capable of surviving extreme cold built a harsh survival-of-the-fittest ecosystem, resulting in far more dangerous creatures than elsewhere.
Sometimes, monsters displaced from survival struggles or lacking food would escape the Black Forest and move south. The northernmost shield of the empire, Winterfield, was tasked with stopping them.
There, Lucas Den Meyer Winterfield, second son of Winterfield, awkwardly stoked a campfire.
“I’m sorry we have to camp out here, sister. It’s too rugged nearby for an inn.”
