Chapter 182. A Common Story

After escorting the guests inside, Rizera remained waiting outside the door.

Her duty today was to guide Ferda Rosnova and Erika Iorga, so she couldn't leave their side.

What on earth is Father talking about with them?

Unable to hear the conversation behind the closed door, she let her imagination wander.

The Dragon Spawn and the dragon's Fiancé had come to visit the World Tree. Whatever they were discussing, it had to concern the future of the continent.

To think I'd actually get to meet Lady Erika...

Among the Twelve Heroes, she was renowned for representing wisdom.

As the captain of the Iorga Spawn, known by the title Cold Reason, she had always guided everyone through impossible crises, living up to her reputation.

She really was every bit as intelligent as I imagined.

A member of the expedition that slew the Demon King, the master of the Blue Eye Magic Tower, she possessed courage, charisma, elegance, and dignity in equal measure.

Just seeing her had made Rizera's heart race.

She was proud of herself for managing not to tremble unnecessarily.

And Lord Ferda was the same.

Although Ferda was incredibly young, there was a maturity that suppressed the recklessness of youth.

A mysterious elegance far beyond his years.

He was someone she couldn't help but admire.

I wish I could become someone like him someday...

Her face suddenly grew hot.

Stop thinking such nonsense.

Slap!

Rizera lightly smacked her own cheeks.

They should be finishing soon. Maybe I should prepare the bouquet before they come out.

Yes.

That would be best.

She began singing in the language of the elves.

A beautiful melody drifted upon the wind, and drawn by it, spirits appeared before her.

Tiny spirits circled happily around her.

Each one took the form of earth, wind, or water.

"Rizera! Rizera!"

"Hello. You all seem to be in a good mood today."

"You called us! We're so happy!"

"We've been waiting for you to summon us!"

"What should we play today?"

"Sorry, but could we play later? I actually need a favor."

"What is it?"

"I'd like to make a bouquet."

"Rizera, did you make a friend?"

"A friend!?"

"Rizera finally has a friend!"

The spirits burst into cheerful celebration.

Rizera's face instantly turned bright red.

"N-No! It's not for a friend. I just want to give someone a gift."

"Rizera doesn't have any friends."

"Still no friends."

"That's our Rizera! No friends at all!"

"...Could you bring me some flowers?"

"Okay!"

"If Rizera asks, of course we'll help!"

"We're the friends of friendless Rizera!"

"Thank you, everyone."

The adorable spirits scattered in every direction.

The blush brought on by their innocent remarks refused to fade.

They had no ill intentions, so there was nothing she could be angry about.

Ignoring it was the best she could do.

Just as she prepared to wait for the guests to come out—

Whoosh!

A burst of light erupted, and something appeared before her.

It was Erika.

"H... huh?"

Something was wrong.

Erika stood completely frozen, as though she had been interrupted in the middle of reacting to something.

"Lady... Erika?"

When she remained motionless for quite some time, Rizera cautiously approached and called her name.

"U-Um..."

"..."

"Are you alright?"

"..."

There was no reply.

Erika's neck slowly creaked like an unlubricated machine before her eyes met Rizera's.

Rizera instinctively flinched.

There was absolute stillness within Erika's eyes.

Yet somehow...

It felt like that stillness was about to unleash a storm.

"...I see."

Those three quiet syllables escaped her lips.

With an expression that suggested she had calmly understood everything, she slowly stood up.

Then she began walking toward the sealed entrance leading to the heart of the World Tree.

"U-Um, Tower Master Erika...?"

"..."

"Would you like me to... open the door again? If I make a request—"

Erika didn't answer.

Instead, highly condensed Mana began to ripple around her.

Two Magic Circles formed in her hands.

Opposing elemental attributes appeared in each hand before merging into one.

She aimed directly at the place she had just exited.

It was a destructive sixth-tier spell.

"Elemental Demoli—"

"Y-You can't do that!!"

Rizera hurriedly threw herself in front of Erika.

Erika smiled chillingly.

"Would you like me to blow you away too, Secretary Rizera?"

"V-Violence is not the answer! Please calm your anger..."

"And who decided that?"

"...Pardon?"

"It's always the same, isn't it? They do whatever they want, rip out an entire handful of your nose hairs, and then the moment you're about to punish them, suddenly they stand in your way saying, 'Violence isn't the answer'." 1

"I-I don't know what happened, but I'm sure there's been some misunderstanding. Please compose yourself—"

"I will."

"Y-Yes! If you do, then I'll speak with them for you."

"I'll fix the center of the Magic Circle. Element—"

"N-Not that kind of 'fix'! Please listen to meee!!"

Rizera desperately struggled to stop the wrath of a dragon whose nose hairs had apparently been plucked.

***

Meanwhile, completely unaware of the commotion outside, Ferda and the High Chieftain continued their conversation.

"The Mana flowing through my body..."

"...Belongs to the Demon King?"

Ferda asked again.

Perhaps he had misheard.

Or perhaps there was another meaning behind those words.

"That is correct."

The answer did not change.

Confusion overwhelmed Ferda.

Is this some trick to confuse me?

No.

That couldn't be it.

If that had been the intention, the High Chieftain would have said it in front of Erika—that Ferda possessed the Demon King's Mana.

That alone would have been enough to sow distrust between them and provoke an emotional outburst.

The very fact that he had sent Erika away first meant he had been trying to prevent such a misunderstanding.

So Ferda remained calm.

"My Mana cannot create members of the Demon Race."

"I know. That was created through Linne's ability. It is impossible using your pure Mana alone."

"Then how can you claim that my Mana is the same as the Demon King's?"

"Because his magic power, too, was born from the very same emotion that gave birth to yours."

"The same emotion..."

The Mana within Ferda consisted of two sources.

The Red Circle, driven by love.

The Shadow Circle, driven by regret.

"...Did the Demon King deeply regret something?"

"No."

He had asked while hoping his intuition would be wrong.

Reality, however, proved merciless.

"He was a mage who loved someone."

Love.

An emotion that felt both near and distant.

Simple yet impossibly difficult.

Ferda couldn't believe that such an emotion had ultimately created the Demon King.

"The Demon King..."

Then he had to know.

"What kind of man was he?"

If what lay inside Ferda truly had the potential to create another Demon King, then he had to understand the path that man had walked.

"He was an utterly ordinary mage. Long ago, through the woman who became his wife, he learned magic through love. But he possessed very little talent for magic. In the end, he and his beloved wife cultivated an orchard together and lived a humble life as farmers."

So far...

It was nothing more than the story of an ordinary, untalented mage.

"But tragedy eventually found him. He lost his wife."

That, too...

Was an ordinary story.

"He performed the proper funeral rites and sent her on her way. Her ashes drifted into the sky, and her body returned to the earth, yet the emptiness in his heart could never be filled."

That was another story heard countless times before.

"Regent Ferda."

The High Chieftain suddenly asked a question.

"If it were you... could you forget so easily?"

Ferda imagined himself in that man's place.

There was no need to imagine someone else.

It was his own story.

Hadn't he also sent his mother away?

The man had lost his wife.

Ferda had lost his mother.

No one had ever filled the emptiness she left behind.

His longing for Anna Rosnova still remained.

He replaced her image with Valdrova in his mind.

"...I couldn't."

There was no way he could simply move on.

The memories they shared would become an eternal thorn that could never be removed, leaving a wound that would never truly heal.

The High Chieftain continued.

"That man was the same. He could never forget his wife and remained consumed by grief."

"Can someone carrying such emotions truly become the Demon King?"

"Yes."

"How is that possible?"

This was a question rooted in magical theory.

The man had awakened the Red Circle through love.

Once an opposing emotion took root, the Red Circle should stop functioning.

"From what you've told me, it sounds like the stage known as emotional reversal."

Emotional reversal.

The state where the Red Circle not only stopped spinning...but reversed.

Emotions were like blood.

If they flowed backward...

Death was inevitable.

"Correct. He experienced that reversal again and again."

"And yet..."

"He did not die. Despite enduring pain that brought him to death's doorstep several times, he survived. Eventually, that very pain became his new source of power."

Everything Ferda knew about magic crumbled.

A Circle spinning in reverse...had become an entirely new source of magical power.

He survived emotional reversal... and it created a brand-new Circle?

Ferda had never once heard of anyone surviving emotional reversal.

Every Red Circle mage he knew had died without exception.

But there was a perfectly good reason why no one should know such a thing.

If surviving emotional reversal could create someone as powerful as the Demon King...

Then a second Demon King could be created again and again.

Suddenly, Ferda remembered something Alberdo had once told him.

Come to think of it... he said something similar.

The man who silently hunted the Demon Race had abruptly declared that Ferda possessed the qualities to become the Demon King.

At the time, it hadn't made any sense.

Now...

It did.

The Demon King had loved someone.

Then lost that person.

Ferda loved Valdrova.

If I were to lose Valdrova...

I'd be in exactly the same situation as the Demon King.

It sounded almost impossible.

Dragons were called immortals, absolute beings who ruled the Cerdes Continent.

Though Silverwind and Godwin had fallen during the Dragon-Demon War, no one dared diminish the majesty of dragonkind.

But Ferda still knew nothing of the Demon Race's schemes.

Just as they had secretly worked in the shadows to sentence the Cerdes Continent to a Death Sentence, there were countless ways to eliminate Valdrova in a single strike.

Especially if their goal was to make Ferda experience the emotion of loss.

"High Chieftain, may I ask one question?"

"Of course."

He repeated the words several times in his head.

Yet they refused to leave his mouth.

It felt as though he were reaching for forbidden knowledge.

He wanted to know...

Yet once he learned the answer, he feared there would be no turning back.

"...How did the wife of the man who became the Demon King die?"

Ferda assumed there must have been some extraordinary reason.

Perhaps bandits had invaded and murdered her before his eyes.

Perhaps society's cruelty had taken her away.

Perhaps that tragedy had filled him with hatred for the world.

But the answer shattered those expectations.

"It was nothing more than illness. A sickness that her body could not overcome—a natural law that could not be defied."

Ferda tightly shut his eyes.

Even such an ordinary story...had produced the worst possible ending.

A man who became the Demon King because he could not endure the natural death of the woman he loved.

No matter how hard he tried...

Ferda couldn't stop seeing himself in that man.

"...Are you afraid?"

Asked the High Chieftain.

"...I am."

Ferda answered honestly.

Even now, he could still see her death before his eyes.

Though she had been driven to the edge of malice itself...

She had remained kind and pure until the very end.

She never changed.

"The existence of the woman I love may be unchanging...but I am someone who changes. That is what frightens me."

Ferda was different.

He was weak.

A human easily swept away by emotion.

The possibility that he might one day lose her again...filled him with dread.

"If it is yourself that you fear...there is a way."

Ferda raised his head.

"What is it?"

"Regent Ferda, you must investigate the very origin of your Mana. You already sense it yourself—you are different from ordinary humans."

He knew that much.

Even those blessed with extraordinary bloodlines regarded reaching the Eighth Circle as little more than a dream.

He simply had never felt the need to investigate further.

"Regent Ferda. Tell me about your parents. What kind of woman was your mother?"

"Will that really help?"

"Bloodline is the origin of all origins."

He wasn't wrong.

It wasn't something Ferda had any reason to hide.

"My mother..."

He pictured the face he still longed for.

"Anna Rosnova. She was gentle, devoted to her family..."

Then he remembered what Erembalt had once told him.

"And... she was a follower of Sierra."

"...Sierra, the Goddess of the Moon."

"Yes."

"And your father?"

His father...

Erembalt Rosnova.

The cold-hearted man who had treated him like a cuckoo chick and cast him out of House Rosnova after Anna passed away.

"...I don't know."

According to Erembalt, Ferda had been a child Anna brought home.

He wasn't merely treated like a cuckoo's chick.

He truly had been one.

"I see. Then you know nothing of your true origin."

"That's right."

"In that case...would you permit this old man to lend you a hand?"

The High Chieftain pointed toward the sky.

At once, the floating threads gathered together, weaving themselves into a shape.

The white hand he created was twice as large as any he had made before.

Seeing it, Ferda understood.

"...You intend to examine me with that hand?"

"Exactly."

The old elf added,

"Of course, Regent Ferda. If you do not permit it, I shall stop here. Knowing yourself is your own choice."

Normally...

Ferda would never have agreed.

He hated the idea of someone looking inside him.

He feared exposing the weakness hidden within himself.

But there was something even more frightening than that instinctive revulsion.

Repeating the past.

One tragedy involving Valdrova...was more than enough.

"...Very well."

Ferda gave his permission.

The giant white hand gently enveloped his entire body.

It was formed entirely of highly condensed Mana.

Pure, immaculate Mana seeped into every part of him.

Then—

"Hmm…I see...So that's what it is...This..."

The High Chieftain muttered as information flowed into him.

Suppressing his instinctive discomfort, Ferda endured the sensation.

"...Hm?"

The old elf suddenly frowned.

"This is...What in the world...Urgh!?"

"High Chieftain?"

"Gah...!"

The old elf, who had been sitting as immovably as an ancient tree, suddenly bent forward.

For the first time, the man who had seemed endlessly composed opened his eyes wide in shock.

"What happened?"

There was no answer.

The High Chieftain's emerald eyes trembled violently.

"T-That can't be...How could this...?"

The way he looked at Ferda changed.

The detached gaze with which he had looked upon a mere Mortal...was now filled with awe.

Nor was he the only one changing.

The giant white hand surrounding Ferda began to lose its cohesion.

The blue Mana illuminating the chamber turned crimson and started vibrating violently.

Ferda realized it instantly.

I have to get out of this hand.

If I don't... he'll die.

He tried to force himself free.

The High Chieftain made a gesture.

The hand immediately tightened its grip, firmly restraining Ferda.

He couldn't move an inch.

"Urgh!"

The old elf struggled desperately—

Then suddenly coughed up blood before collapsing.

As his concentration shattered, the threads reverted to white hands and floated back into the sky.

The crimson light faded.

The chamber returned to blue.

Roots rose from the floor to support the unconscious High Chieftain, gently laying him down.

The sealed doors burst open.

Two women rushed inside.

"High Chieftain!"

Rizera screamed as she ran to his side.

Erika hurried over to Ferda.

"Your Excellency, Regent...What in the world happened here? Why was the World Tree trembling like that...?"

Ferda couldn't answer.

He himself was still struggling to comprehend what had just happened.

There was no way he could explain it.

Nor did he have time to gather his thoughts.

No sooner had the two women entered than the doors opened again.

Every High Elf within the World Tree had sensed the High Chieftain's condition and rushed up.

"High Chieftain!"

"Mother of the Forest...!"

They surrounded him and began singing.

Light wrapped around his frail body, healing him.

Everyone ignored Ferda and Erika.

Everyone except one.

The High Elf elder who had never trusted them pointed directly at the two of them and shouted,

"Seize those suspects immediately!"