![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Chapter 1: The Scales Weighing Emptiness and Darkness
---
“Do you know how to cut through the darkness?”
She remembered being asked that long ago.
“How to cut through the darkness?” She repeated. She, who had still been a child then, tilted her head to the side questioningly, and looked up at her older brother.
They’d been in the Eris gardens then, on a dark, moonless night.
At that time, she was ten, if she recalled correctly. That made her brother…
“……”
How old was he then? He’d looked so adult. But he always had, from her point of view. He was perfect. Someone impossibly, incomparably stronger than she was.
So Ferris looked up at him. She always looked up because she never stood at his level. He was someone who existed above her, too far for her to ever reach.
And Lucile looked down on her in turn, a small smile that was hard to tell if it meant he pitied her or cherished her on his face, just before he said something difficult. “Yes. How to cut through the darkness. Do you know how to do it?”
“Can you cut darkness?”
“You can. Though you can’t cut through it with the Eris family sword… probably.”
“Probably?”
Lucile smiled. “You shouldn’t be able to… I haven’t been able to do it yet either. But I’m practicing.”
“Really? You’re learning how to cut darkness?”
“Yes. You’re learning to cut iron, aren’t you?”
“I can already cut through iron,” Ferris said.
“Ohh, I see. You’re so talented.”
“I don’t think our parents think so. They say I’m worthless garbage compared to you,” Ferris said, matter-of-fact.
Lucile placed a hand on her head, then moved it back and forth to ruffle her hair. “It doesn’t matter what our parents say. You’re very capable, Ferris. You should be more confident. After all, you have a light inside of you that I don’t.”
“A light?”
“Yes.”
“I have something you don’t?”
“You do. So I’m sure that you’ll be able to cut through the darkness in a way that I can’t someday.”
“…The darkness?” Ferris repeated.
“Yes.”
“You really think I’ll be able to cut through it someday?”
“Yeah.”
“…But why will I need to?” Ferris had asked. Why would she ever need to cut through darkness? She doubted it’d come in handy.
Lucile hadn’t been able to answer her question. He just smiled kindly. “You’ll be able to do it even if I don’t explain it to you.”
Ferris had regrets. She regretted not asking him about the specifics of how to cut through darkness. Why hadn’t she just asked? It was her fault that she was in this situation now, she thought, from her place inside of darkness filled with despair.
A harsh shiver ran through her body.
It was early morning, before the sun had time to rise up in the sky. She was a little ways away from the road leading north out of Reylude, Roland’s capital city.
Ferris was covered in blood. She couldn’t move. Wolves and a snake made of darkness had gripped her limbs in their mouths and held her too tightly for her to break free. And before her… despair threatened to swallow the world. Because this man clad in all-black was trying to kill her little sister.
And he was laughing. His demon-red smile, once vague, opened wide to laugh. A dozen shadow beasts sprang up from below him. They jumped to attack Iris, Ferris’ bloody little sister.
Ferris tried to scream. Tried to tell him to stop. But she couldn’t find the strength for it. All she could do was watch in horror.
Her limbs were being ripped off of her body. She couldn’t move. Yet Ryner didn’t come to help.
And the icing on the cake was that this Froaude guy was apparently working under Sion, a realization that hurt so badly it shocked her. It felt like everything was going to hell.
She fought with all her might to scream out. So that she could cut through the darkness. So that she could call forth the light.
“Why… why aren’t you coming! Ryner, I’m right here! Hurry!”
Nobody answered.
“Save me, Ryner!!”
Her voice couldn’t cut through the darkness.
The world became darker around her. It felt more dismal by the second. Froaude just smiled.
“Stop!” Ferris screamed.
But he wouldn’t stop.
“I’m begging you… I’m begging you, so please…!”
He didn’t stop. He just laughed… then released his hold on Iris and let her fall into the midst of the beasts.
“No,” Ferris whimpered. She tried to save her, but she couldn’t move. She heard fangs drive through her tendons as she struggled. But she couldn’t break free. “N, no!” She yelled. “This can’t be happening!”
But it was. The darkness only got darker.
The beasts tore into Iris’ small arms, legs, and stomach.
“Iris!!” Ferris screamed, tears in his voice.
Iris was trying to fight. She was trying to escape frantically, but nothing worked. Blood just continued to fly from her.
“I-Iris! Iris!!” Ferris screamed as she pulled her arms and legs, urging them to move for her sister. “Iris, I’m coming to save you now, so just wait. Just a little longer—”
She could let them rip her arms off. If she did that, she might be able to escape their fangs just long enough to make it to Iris…
But then the worst case scenario happened.
Froaude raised a finger, and a beast rose to Iris’ head… and placed its fangs around her neck.
“Stop!”
It began to close its mouth around her neck.
“Stop! Please!”
Her head—
“……”
Ferris wailed. It felt like it’d break her throat in two.
The world was just… too cruel. It was too dark. She couldn’t see a future in a dark world like this.
“Do you know how to cut through the darkness?”
Of course she didn’t. She didn’t think she was capable of cutting through darkness as terrible as this.
Her sister was dying and she couldn’t do anything about it.
She’d die soon, too. She was losing too much blood to live. Her consciousness was wavering, and she began to feel a bit confused.
Her sight began to darken. She felt like she couldn’t do it. Couldn’t do anything.
“……”
But inside her wavering consciousness… inside the darkness that threatened to bury her, she found something even darker.
It was… beside Froaude. The darkness appeared by him, above the beasts that threatened to devour Iris.
It was a man. A man made out of darkness alone.
“Steel of gray wings,” he whispered, and swung his arm.
The beasts surrounding Iris disappeared in an instant. Even Froaude’s shadow appeared to be devoured by something, and inched back into nothing.
The darkness was cut by a greater darkness.
Then he looked down at the ground, crouched, and gently picked Iris up. Then he looked at Ferris.
He looked right at her. They met eyes.
His eyes, his face, his darkness.
Ferris knew it all well.
He had the same glossy blond hair and beautiful face as she did. He was her older brother, Lucile Eris.
He looked down at her. And she looked up at him, tears in her eyes.
It was the same as when she was ten.
She looked up at her brother, so far above her that she’d never reach.
“B, brother,” Ferris said, her voice hoarse.
Her brother smiled. Kindly. As if there was nothing wrong with what was happening here. He met her eyes and spoke with a calm tone. “You don’t have to make that face, Ferris. I’m here. So he won’t be able to lay another finger on you.”
“B-but Iris—”
“Iris is safe,” Lucile said. He moved Iris in his arms enough for Ferris to get a good look at her.
It was unbelievable. Iris, who had been covered in blood and puncture wounds, was completely unharmed. There wasn’t a single drop of blood on her. She was sleeping against her brother’s chest with a peaceful look on her face.
“N, no way… Iris…”
Lucile nodded as if to reassure her. “I told you, didn’t I? I’m here. So you don’t have anything to worry about anymore, Ferris.”
Lucile raised a hand once more, and the beasts holding Ferris in place disappeared.
“Ah…”
With the beasts that had held her up gone, Ferris fell to the ground.
She didn’t see him move at all, but Lucile was behind her in an instant, supporting her so she didn’t hit the ground too hard. “Are you alright?” He asked against her ear.
Ferris couldn’t respond. She’d lost too much blood. It was a miracle that she was even alive.
She was going to die. She knew that. Warmth was leaving her body. Not just the edges, but even her core was so cold that it didn’t feel compatible with life.
She was going to die. But she wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t lonely. She felt the warmth supporting her from behind, and she felt more safe than anything.
It was mysterious.
She’d felt like this before, too. A long, long time ago, in memories she’d already forgotten once before. But she remembered them the second she felt warmth cradling her back.
She had been on the verge of death. It was one of many memories she had of her parents almost killing her. Her parents abandoned her there, left her for dead, and then her brother held her.
It was the same warmth as she was feeling now. The same security. But she felt like her brother had said something strange back then. Something… odd.
She pieced her memories together. He had held her, covered in blood. And he had said something.
“It’s okay. You’re okay now. I’ll protect you. I’ll save you from this darkness.”
She hadn’t understood what he had meant then. No, she didn’t really understand now, either. She didn’t know what he had wanted to tell her in that moment. But he had continued to speak to her as he looked like he would cry.
“This curse. This mad curse. I’ll bear it by myself. So you don’t need to worry about it anymore.”
Curse. Yes, that was definitely what he’d said. But what did he mean? What was he trying to tell her then?
She thought back to the face he’d made and the words he said.
“So you don’t have to worry about anything anymore. I’ll use the sacrificial demon and idiot hero to cut through this darkness. Then I’ll push you through the hole in it. You need to walk under the light. I’m fine walking in this darkness alone.”
She hadn’t understood what he was trying to tell her then, so she didn’t respond.
The only thing she had really understood was that it felt nice being held. Because ever since she was born, nobody ever held her. It was the first time anyone ever did it for her, and it felt so, so nice.
“……”
Ferris opened her eyes just so. When she looked up, her brother’s face was there.
“I remembered something from the past—”
“You don’t need to remember that,” Lucile quickly interrupted.
“But…”
“It’s okay, Ferris. You don’t need to worry about anything. I’ll take care of everything hard… so you should just rest. Everything will be over when you wake up. I’ll end it,” Lucile said. He moved his hand to close her eyelids himself.
The world went dark again. She felt so, so tired.
Her brother had done something to her. Because her consciousness was taken somewhere far away.
She grimaced. She wanted to tell him to wait, but she couldn’t. Her brother had complete control over her body. His power wasn’t normal. What had he done to obtain it?
Ferris felt her brother from afar. He was unquestionably someone who she couldn’t reach, couldn’t understand, and couldn’t touch. But he was there.
It was always like this.
Lucile, her brother, always shouldered everything himself.
The more fearful she was, the further away he got. What was he doing now? What was he thinking now? She didn’t even know something as simple as that.
But she had to ask. Because she remembered.
She remembered that day, and remembered those words. She remembered what happened after her brother said that he would save her.
Her mother was beheaded. Her father exploded.
Her brother, covered in blood, had turned to look at Ferris with a kind expression on his face.
“You don’t have to be afraid anymore, Ferris. Everything’s over now. I’ll protect you from now on.”
Ferris, only a child then, couldn’t do anything but shiver. All she could do was shiver when she saw her brother, who had become so far away that she could only see him as a monster, not a human.
But she had to ask him. She had to ask him where he was going and what he was doing there.
She had to ask her brother… what he did in order to save her.
Ferris opened her eyes and looked up. “Brother…”
“Sleep,” Lucile said quietly.
Ferris’ mind instantly went blank. Her consciousness left her entirely.
He was holding her tightly, tightly, tightly. It was warm and felt so good… She couldn’t think.
His intense power led her consciousness away. Ferris was incapable of opposing it. Her body slackened and fell against Lucile for support as she closed her eyes.
“……”
Darkness surrounded her once again.
---
Miran Froaude watched with cold eyes.
The monster Lucile lay his younger sister down gently. He looked down at them, then raised his arm. “Move my life,” he whispered, and a translucent gold sword appeared in his outstretched hand. He held it above Ferris, then pierced her chest with it.
Ferris’ torn arms healed. Every wound in her body closed.
Her wounds had been fatal, without a doubt. But now she was completely unharmed.
Froaude couldn’t help a bitter smile making its way to his lips. So he was even capable of this.
It appeared that he was giving his own life to his younger sister. He thought of asking, ‘won’t that decrease your own lifespan?’ but deemed it foolish and stayed quiet. Because there was no way that a monster such as Lucile would care about his own life.
“…As I thought, even you are scared of losing your sister.”
Lucile met Froaude’s eyes with his, a clear blue. Despite the clarity in their color, it was impossible to see through them. He sneered. “Did you go out of your way to hurt my sisters just to confirm that?”
“No, no, of course not. I was thinking of using Lady Ferris as a hostage with whom I might catch the Alpha Stigma bearer with…”
“You can’t use her as a hostage if you kill her,” Lucile said. His tone came off as pleased.
“I had no intention of killing her.”
“Then this was by accident?” Lucile asked.
“Yes. She is just so precious… I could not help it…”
“Haha. So you were into that kind of thing?”
Froaude smiled and nodded. Of course it was a lie. He would never use his power for something as worthless as that. He did it in order to see how Lucile would react. No, perhaps it was better to say that he did it in order to confirm Lucile’s weakness?
Ideally he would have been able to use them as a hostage against Ryner Lute and to draw out this monster wrapped in mystery. But Lucile had been unexpectedly late to arrive, and by the time he did, the wounds Froaude had inflicted on the girls were already fatal.
Well, by that point he had figured he’d just kill them.
However.
“……”
Lucile had come to save them. This monster went out of his way to save his sisters, which meant that he also went out of his way to leave His Majesty’s side.
So how should he effectively read Lucile Eris?
It was clear that Lucile’s behavior today was inconsistent.
The first time Froaude saw Lucile Eris, he did not judge him as someone who would go out of his way to save his powerless sister. He had seen him as someone similar to himself, but a being who lived in an even deeper and murkier darkness than Froaude did.
That was why he had deemed the chances of Lucile saving Ferris and Iris to be low. But he had been wrong. Lucile did come to save them. Doing so was the same as outright telling Froaude that his sisters were his weakness.
There was just one thing that he did not understand. Why, if Lucile meant to save them, did he wait so long to do so? Froaude had originally seen Lucile as a monster capable of crossing immeasurable distances in the blink of an eye. But if he could do that, then he would have just saved them before they were ever hurt.
But he didn’t. Or perhaps he couldn’t. Either way.
“……”
Lucile Eris’ power… was not infallible, even within this country.
Froaude narrowed his eyes and watched Lucile, who had removed the golden sword from his sister’s body. Apparently he was done healing her. There was no trace at all of her wounds now, even though they’d been so severe that she should have died. Even her clothes had been mended - they were no longer ripped and bloodstained.
It was almost as if she had been restored to before he had ever attacked her.
“I have a question,” Froaude said.
“What is it?”
“Might you be angry that I hurt your sisters?”
Lucile shook his head. “I’m not.” He glanced at Froaude’s ring, then the darkness swelling below him. “It’s my sisters’ own faults for struggling to fight a smallfry like you.”
Froaude laughed. “Smallfry… you say.” As he spoke, his shadow took the form of beasts born from the power of his Dark Emperor’s Ring. They moved fast and with purpose. A normal human would not have been able to perceive them due to their speed. Even the Magical Knights would be unable to put up a real fight against his power.
But this monster, Lucile, saw him as a mere smallfry. And it was true. That was all he was compared to Lucile’s power.
If Lucile wanted to, he could kill Froaude in a second.
“……”
So he summoned shadow beasts to stand between them, so that if Lucile thought to kill him, he’d be slowed by the beasts for just long enough for Froaude to react.
Lucile laughed. “Are you scared?”
“…Is there a human in this world who isn’t scared to stand before you?” Froaude asked.
“But you said you weren’t scared before, didn’t you? Not of your own death, at least.”
“Of course I am not afraid of dying. But… but it isn’t my time yet.”
“It’s not your time?” Lucile asked and smiled. “You say some interesting things. Nobody gets to choose when their time will come. You know that, don’t you? People who don’t want to die end up dying, and people who don’t want to live end up living. Now, then.”
Lucile held his hand out slowly.
“Which one of those two kinds of people are you, I wonder?” Lucile asked.
Froaude tensed. He gripped the Dark Emperor’s Ring tightly to pour his power into it. The shadows grew larger in response. But even he knew that doing so was absolutely meaningless.
He didn’t have nearly enough power to put up a fight against the worst monster in all of Roland. He knew that.
Lucile watched the shadows with a smile. “Do you think those will be able to do anything to me?”
Froaude shook his head. “Obviously not.”
“Then why are you doing it?”
“Why indeed,” Froaude said. His smile deepend. Sharpened. Then he moved his right, ring-bearing hand, and beasts jumped from his shadows - three total. The beasts raced towards Lucile.
It was pointless. Froaude knew that. Lucile rid the world of his beasts with a single wave of his hand.
“…Mm?”
Something had flashed in Lucile’s hand when he moved it. It was difficult to tell, but it was similar to a shock wave, or…
Froaude’s right arm was severed from his body. It fell to the ground, and blood spurted down on top of it.
“Gah!”
Sharp pain shot through his shoulder. He looked at it. The wound was unrealistically perfect. It was difficult to tell what had cut it off…
“Did you throw a blade?” Froaude asked.
Lucile watched him with a happy expression, as if he were sincerely enjoying playing with him. He raised his arm once more, and Froaude felt something new enter the world once again. He followed its trajectory. He crouched, then jumped to the side to avoid it.
The ground where he had just been split. A deep chasm opened where the ground had been. Froaude looked into it, but it was too deep to see the bottom.
That was, without a doubt, not the power of a human. It was not the power of a Rule Fragment, either.
No, it was greater.
A god, or perhaps a demon…
“……”
Was he going mad?
A god? A demon?
A cowardly man who was afraid of his sisters dying held the power of a god?
What a joke. What a terrible joke.
Froaude picked his fallen right arm up with his left, and moved its ring-bearing finger. “O darkness, appear…”
But what his shadow brought forth was not a beast. It was a blade. He put all of his ability into it. Every ounce of his power that could was capable of summoning something with his shadows. Bit by bit, little by little, he strengthened the sword, sharpened it, stuffed it full of everything that could fit inside.
“What are you planning?” Lucile asked.
Froaude looked at Lucile’s smile. It looked like he thought that Froaude was too weak to ever reach him.
And it was true. Froaude knew it to be true. Nothing he could do would wound this monster, much less kill him. But he gripped his shadow blade in his left hand regardless.
“I will kill you with this,” Froaude said.
Lucile laughed. “Not your best joke.”
“No, I feel that it could be interesting. But if you are so confident, why don’t you take a hit of this without simply making it disappear?” Froaude asked. He touched his sword to the ground. When he did, the ground itself began to melt. That was the power he had given his blade.
But Lucile did not move. He just smiled, as if he was looking down on Froaude. “Then shall I take a hit just to satisfy you?”
“Please do.”
“Fine. Then—” Lucile stopped abruptly. Surprise flickered across his face before he smiled once more. “Ahh. I see. So that’s… what this was.”
Froaude smiled for the first time since their fight began. It was only now that he had the leeway for it. “Yes. That’s how it is.”
The power from the sword Froaude had stabbed into the ground swam beneath the surface of the earth towards its target - Ferris Eris’ neck. If Froaude were to internally order his shadows to decapitate her, they would do it. Of course Lucile could stop that with ease.
However, Froaude had another line of attack as well. He had prepared it far before coming here. His second attack lay south of this road, in the midst of the capital city, the throne room of Roland Castle.
At this very moment, assassins ought to be pressing their knives to Sion’s neck.
Froaude’s plan had several steps.
First he held Lucile’s younger sisters captive in order to lure him out. But at the same time, he put Sion in danger to see which of the two Lucile would choose to save if given a direct choice.
“…Who will the swordsman’s clan, who has protected the king’s life for generations, choose to save…?”
“You put your own life in danger to investigate something like that?” Lucile asked.
“Something like that?” Froaude repeated. “It is not as simple as ‘something like that’ to me. If the Eris family will really protect the king, then we can move forward while leaving him in your care. But if you would betray the king over something as simple as your sisters being held hostage, then I must enact countermeasures to prevent such betrayal, no? Therefore, I at once—”
“Ran this experiment, right?”
“The experiment is not finished yet. Rather, it starts now. I will attack His Majesty and Lady Ferris at once and bear witness to whom you choose to save.”
Lucile smiled. “You really are an interesting man… Though your experiment was pointless.”
“I would not know if it were pointless or not without first trying i—”
“I know,” Lucile interrupted. He raised his arm, then swung it lightly. Froaude’s sword disappeared.
“…You choose your sister?”
Lucile shrugged, as if he found this to be fun. “The assassins are already mincemeat.”
“……”
Once again, Froaude’s understanding of this monster deepened.
Froaude had not taken his eyes off of Lucile this entire time. Therefore, Lucile had not left this place. But now Lucile was claiming that he had appeared before Sion and killed his attackers.
Were there two separate Lucile Erises? No, that wasn’t realistic. Then what? Was the man in front of him now actually just a mirage? Or was it something else…?
“I’ll give you a special service, Miran Froaude,” Lucile said.
“…Service?”
“Yes. Well, you already know this, but… I didn’t really need to kill the assassins by Sion. Because you didn’t order them to kill Sion. Because you wouldn’t kill Sion.”
“……”
That was correct.
Froaude had ordered the assassins to act like they were going to kill Sion. But that went without saying. He would not sacrifice his master’s life for a worthless experiment.
Despite seeing through that… Lucile continued. “But I killed them anyway. Do you understand why?”
“I wonder,” Froaude said and shrugged. But his right arm had been removed from the shoulder, so only the left one truly rose with the motion. It was unpleasant. He moved his eyes just enough to glance at it, then quickly moved them back to Lucile. “Why is that?”
Lucile smiled as he spoke. “Because you’re interesting. You’re the first human to go this far just to make contact with me. It made me want to give you a special service. Just a little.”
“Hmph.”
“And since you’re so excellent, I want to tell you a little about how the trick works, too. Why not just tell you what you want to know so badly? About my power, I mean. My weakness. It’s exactly what you’re thinking. I don’t really have a body anymore. What you see here now is a hollow form.”
“Hollow, you say.”
“Yes. So—” Lucile abruptly disappeared. Then reappeared behind Froaude. “—In exchange for not really existing at all, I can exist anywhere.”
Froaude turned slowly to meet eyes with the beautiful man who was watching him so happily. “So are you, for example, even able to exist in two places simultaneously?”
Lucile nodded. “In any number of places. Shall I show you, and appear as two people before you?”
Froaude shook his head. “There is no need. I have no reason to doubt your word.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
“I suppose. Though from where I’m standing, it looks more like you don’t trust anything I say.”
Froaude smiled. “No, I truly do not doubt what you’re saying in the slightest.”
Rather… Lucile was a bit too talkative, Froaude thought. And people tended to be at their most talkative when they had something to hide. So to him, it seemed obvious that Lucile Eris was hiding something.
But what was it? What was he trying to hide?
No, perhaps Froaude was overthinking this? Perhaps this monster was having fun showing off and entertaining him?
“……”
That couldn’t be. He couldn’t see that being the truth here. Lucile wasn’t someone who would do something as pointless as that. Lucile was definitely hiding something right here. Froaude didn’t know what he was trying to cover up, but that was what was happening - Lucile was painting one picture for him in order to cover another.
He did it to prevent Froaude from gripping his fatal weakness. To prevent Froaude from suspecting something vital.
But what was it? What was he trying to do?
Froaude stared at Lucile. At his eerily handsome face. Past it, into his monstrous heart. He reached his hand into it, deeper, deeper inside him, to grasp at the dark truth lurking within.
“…I give,” Froaude said. “You are able to protect both His Majesty and your sister simultaneously… so I have no complaints. I shall let you be.”
“Will you?”
“Yes. You have taught me more than enough about your power. I feel reassured, knowing that I can safely leave His Majesty’s life in your hands.”
“Has your curiosity been sated?”
“Yes. It was worth losing an arm for.” Froaude looked to where his right arm ought to be. Come to think of it, it was still pouring blood.
“Shall I reattach it for you?” Lucile asked.
Froaude didn’t answer. Instead he said an order within his mind. His shadow jumped up in response and encased his fallen arm. Then another did the same to the point where it had been detached on his shoulder. Then the two shadows began to meld together.
In theory, it’d work to heal his arm. But Froaude had never lost a limb before, so it was his first time attempting to reattach one, and he wasn’t confident in its success. But his Dark Emperor’s Ring ought to be capable of it. He’d read that it was in an ancient script left by his ancestor. His despicable ancestor, the Holy Knight Halford Miran.
He moved his reattached arm, then his fingers to ensure that they worked.
“…Mm.”
It did hurt, in a vague sort of way, but for the most part it felt the same as it had before it was severed.
Lucile watched with faint surprise. “What fine work you’ve done on it.”
“It is nothing compared to what your power is capable of,” Froaude said. After all, he’d just witnessed Lucile bringing humans from the brink of death to good as new. He was unable to feel happy being complimented on healing something as small as this when Lucile was capable of so much more.
Lucile smiled. “So what are you going to do now?”
Froaude looked to Ferris, who remained unconscious on the ground. “I will turn my attention towards capturing Ryner Lute. I have heard that he is on the road leading north… As for Lady Ferris, if I may use her as a hostage…?”
“I don’t mind. Go ahead and use her. Just…”
Froaude nodded. “Do not worry. I will not harm her. I understand quite well now that you hold your sisters dear.”
“Then do as you please,” Lucile said. He turned away, as though he planned to disappear now.
“But, well,” Froaude continued, “The simplest course of action would be for you to capture Ryner instead…”
Lucile disappeared before Froaude had the chance to finish. His body, presence, and his existence itself disappeared, as if he had never been there to begin with.
Froaude gazed at the spot Lucile had been.
“…Hollow, huh,” Froaude whispered.
Was Lucile telling the truth when he said that he was empty?
“I don’t really have a body anymore. What you see here now is a hollow form. So in exchange for not really existing at all, I can exist anywhere.”
In other words, Lucile could be watching Froaude constantly. And if that were the case, he’d always be able to fend off anything Froaude tried by virtue of already knowing all of his plans.
But was that really true?
“……”
Froaude looked down at Lucile’s beautiful sisters, collapsed on the ground. The two girls who he had brought to the brink of death not too long ago.
And he wondered.
If Lucile were truly all-seeing, why would he have waited until his sisters were nearly dead to save them? True, Lucile had been able to sense and fend off the assassins from Sion without ever leaving this place. But why could he not do the same for his sisters?
No, perhaps the truth of the matter was…
“…He thinks of me as a small-fry who his sisters would never lose against?” Froaude whispered. But he soon shook his head. It wasn’t that. Ferris Eris could not compare to his own power. There was no way Lucile Eris wouldn’t have known that. So why was he so late to save them?
Froaude tried thinking back to the legend of the Eris family.
The Eris family had protected the king for generations and generations. As long as they served as his protector, no one could take the king’s life within Roland’s borders.
If one read that literally, it meant not only that the king’s life was guaranteed within Roland, but also that the reverse was true - that he was not protected by the Eris family should he leave Roland. And it did check out. When Sion went to Nelpha on a courtesy call, Lucile Eris did not come with him.
But was it that he didn’t come with? Or that he couldn’t come with?
If it was the latter, then what did that mean for what had happened today?
Lucile was unable to leave the country.
Lucile was able to save Sion, who was in the royal castle situated in the heart of Roland. But here, a place a bit of a ways away from the castle, a road closer to Imperial Nelpha and the Runa Empire than the castle itself. Here he took time to come save his sisters. If he had been a moment later, it would have been too late.
So what did these facts mean when lined up together?
“…The further he gets from the heart of Roland…”
The weaker Lucile Eris became. That was true within Roland’s borders. But outside of them? If he were to go outside of Roland entirely…
“Would you even be able to maintain your form? Would you, Duke Eris?”
“……”
Lucile didn’t answer.
Was he not going to answer? No… he chose to stay silent.
“So you won’t answer.”
“……”
“You told me that you exist everywhere… but at the same time, you’re not anywhere. You weren’t here.”
“……”
“So it took a while for you to get here.”
“……”
“So it took a while for you to save them.”
“……”
“But I don’t think it’s that major of a weakness. You are a monster of the highest caliber, one masked with a darkness I could never hope to win against… but…”
But what was Lucile so afraid of, then? What made him so talkative when the subject turned to his power and his weakness? What was he trying to distract Froaude from?
The answer.
“……”
Was already apparent.
Froaude’s deep red lips opened in a dark, demonic smile.
Lucile had come to save his sisters. He, the most formidable monster in all of Roland. Did he do it due to some vestigial humanity? Due to love for his siblings? Due to his emotions?
Unlikely.
Froaude didn’t think that a monster like Lucile would move based on something as trivial as that. So why did he come to save his sisters, then?
The answer was simple.
Froaude silently turned his attention to the unconscious girls. He walked to Ferris, crouched down, and touched her sleeping face softly. She ought to be dead now, but instead, here she was, comfortably asleep.
Froaude smiled. He understood what Lucile was trying to hide.
It was his timing in coming to save his sisters. His tone while speaking. His expressions. They all pointed towards one thing.
Yes, Lucile had come to save them. But it was the timing. Had he come even a second later, his sister would be dead. But the one to die first would have been Iris Eris. That wouldn’t have been a problem for Lucile. If only she were to die, Lucile would not have come.
“……”
He had only come to save Ferris.
Froaude didn’t know why. All he knew was that Lucile showed no interest towards the life of one sister, then stopped the fighting in an instant when it concerned the other.
“Perhaps I ought to bait him…?”
Froaude covered Ferris’ nose and mouth. He didn’t know what Lucile had done to cause her to sleep, but she was still unconscious. Her oxygen supply being cut off made her grimace and turn red, but she didn’t wake. If he continued like this, she’d die fairly easily.
“If she is truly important to Lucile Eris… then it might be best for me to just kill her now,” Froaude said to himself. Perhaps she was a massive weakness of his. Or perhaps it was something inside of her. Something that relied on her being alive. Maybe that was what Lucile was really guarding.
If Froaude killed Ferris now, Lucile would most likely appear again. They were far from Roland’s heart so he’d be a bit late again, but he’d appear nonetheless. He might really kill Froaude then.
That was why he couldn’t kill Ferris now. But…
“……”
But what if he killed her outside of the country? Lucile was powerless outside of Roland. So if Froaude killed her out there… What could Lucile possibly do about it?
Froaude stood. When he did, a drop of rain hit his cheek. So he looked up at the sky. It was likely quite a bit past eight now, but the sky was still dark for the most part due to the dark rain clouds.
Rain soon began to pour down. Then the sky lit up with a flash of lightning. The wind was strong, too.
It was quite the storm.
“……”
Froaude looked back down at Lucile’s sleeping weakness. She was quickly soaked and dirtied by the ground turning to mud beneath her. But she still didn’t wake.
What should he do now?
“……”
Using Ferris as a hostage to lure out Ryner Lute would be a simple affair. But should he? Or should he have Lucile’s weakness leave the country instead?
“Which is more important?” Though he asked himself, it wasn’t a real question. He ordered the shadows once more. They gathered in the muddy ground beneath him, then rose in the form of two beasts. They used their fangs to pick up the Eris sisters by their collars, one each, then dragged them away.
He sent them towards the road, where they’d release the girls so that someone could save them. Though it was also possible that no one would. Oh well. They’d wake up eventually. Then they’d meet with Ryner Lute and leave the country. They’d go far away, to a place where Lucile Eris couldn’t reach.
“…I will rip her body open and search inside of it somewhere where Lucile Eris cannot stop me.”
He watched his shadows drag the girls through the grass and out of sight. It wasn’t long before the rain covered up even the sound of them dragging their deadweights.
The rain. It really was loud, slamming against the ground like this. Froaude looked back up at the sky. When he did, it lit back up with lightning, and soon thunder crashed around him. It was loud. Close.
“…This isn’t…”
Froaude smiled.
“…the best weather to travel in.”
Then he turned his attention to the road in the distance. The road that led to Nelpha and Runa, away from the heart of Roland. Ryner Lute ought to be waiting out there. Well, really it’d been a while. Perhaps he had decided that Ferris wasn’t coming and decided to turn back the way he came. If he did, he’d meet the Eris girls on the way. If so, he’d be uncomfortably close soon.
“…Though I have no plans to loiter here myself,” Froaude said. He turned away from the road and into the tall grasses. They were wet with rain, hard to get a good footing on, and every step sloshed through rain and mud. The sky was just as dark as it had been. But he didn’t mind.
Pelted by rain, he returned to the heart of Roland.
---
