Chosen by the Northern Grand Duke

Chapter 50: Cassion (1)

Sometime.

The boundary I had been forced to be dragged to by the 2nd Knights, forced to crawl to, was.

Cold, and painful. Incredibly loud.

Perhaps it was a relief.

My body wasn't cold.

It didn't actually hurt.

The sound of the wind echoed in my eardrums, and sometimes the roar of a magical beast would tear through that sound and burst out.

So it wasn't loud.

-Father.

Though it was a snowfield, I could see a sea of fire. People were dying. My father had his heart devoured.

-Mother.

My mother's heart was devoured last.

She had fallen asleep on the floor, and I was sobbing in a small, hidden space beneath that floor.

That was what was cold.

Heh heh.

In the snowfield, in the sea of fire, a mage laughed.

Beneath his feet, I covered my mouth.

That was what was painful.

Iagar was a warm land.

Though I was cooped up in my room, I could always hear the chirping.

But Iagar, which had become a sea of fire, was quiet.

That silence was loud. Because it was caused by me, and because only I had survived.

-Father. Mother.

Though it was a boundary where even a knight could not survive without Aura, I was fine.

The damn sun, which had annihilated Iagar, was already acting as magic, even though the mage named Harad was ignorant of it.

I hated that.

But I knew that it was a consumable.

When all the mana was gone, the sun would lose its heat.

Ridiculously, I didn't have the courage to kill myself.

When I was thirsty, I would unknowingly eat the snow. Perhaps that was the most terrible part.

Still, the boundary was certainly filling me with courage.

My mana was definitely decreasing. I was dying, and it was not far off.

I thought of words of apology to those who had died before me.

I pictured my mother and father's faces in my mind. I couldn't dare to picture their expressions.

-Father. Mother.

I crouched down and cried.

Such a dream, Ellen had already had.

So she was having the same dream again.

The dream she had when she returned after crossing the tunnel and fighting the tattered magical beast.

However, it was more detailed than last time.

It was the same scene, but unlike last time, Harad’s emotions were conveyed.

How many days had passed, Harad did not know.

Ellen, who was dreaming, knew.

Fifteen days had passed.

Soon, Grand Duke Aratus would appear.

He would drag the sleeping Harad and move him to the Inner Fortress.

It was as Ellen had expected.

A figure appeared in the snowstorm. It was, of course, the Grand Duke.

-What a waste of an Origin.

The lamenting Grand Duke looked down at Harad.

It was then that Ellen was surprised.

Harad was not sleeping.

He looked precarious, but he had not yet lost consciousness.

Only then did Ellen realize.

It was a similar, but different dream.

-Do you know why you are here.

The Grand Duke asked.

Harad could not answer.

In the dream, the Harad of that time was too weak.

-Because you are an idiot.

-…….

-That is also why Iagar was destroyed.

Ellen sympathized to some extent, but bringing up his family was too much.

Ellen felt sorry for that Harad.

He was naive, unlike the real Harad.

-Do you know why I am going to such lengths for you, you idiot.

To such lengths.

It seemed to refer to the Grand Duke himself coming to the boundary.

-Because you will become Serzila's.

That was wrong, Ellen realized when she saw the Grand Duke's right hand.

In that hand…… hair was wrapped.

Cassion’s severed head was dangling.

-This mage died for this reason. For daring to covet what belongs to Serzila.

* * *

Fwoosh.

My footprints became fire.

The path Harad had walked remained as embers.

It did not go out even on the pure white snow.

It was a path imbued with mana.

That path began from the entrance of the Inner Fortress and led to the basement of the ruined inn.

It passed through the tunnel, crossed the boundary, to a desolate land.

Though it was the dead of night, that desolate land was dazzling. The sun that rose in the sky did not allow a single shadow.

Below the sun, in the sky, smoke was drawn like a line.

It was the smoke from the watchtower that led to the king’s magical item.

Harad was under that sun and smoke.

The Sanctuary of Fire. He was sitting on the remains of the watchtower as a chair, looking at the path he had walked. The embers remained.

His hand constantly fiddled with the hilt of Ellen's sword. Patern. The sword felt familiar yet strange.

Unlike his past life, the regressed Harad's hands had no calluses.

Harad swung Patern in the air.

The more he swung it, the more the awkwardness disappeared. It was thanks to Elaine, if you could call it that.

Patern was a sword he had received when he became Elaine's escort and had taken away not long after. Elaine had also taught him swordsmanship.

They were not things he had received because he wanted to.

Rustle. Rustle.

A sound was heard from afar.

It was so small that he wouldn't have been able to hear it if he hadn't concentrated, and if this land hadn't been the Sanctuary of Fire, Harad wouldn't have been able to hear it either.

A land dominated by fire, that serves fire.

This land had enhanced not only Harad's magic but also his five senses.

Rustle. Rustle.

It was the sound of fire being extinguished. The footprints he had left were being extinguished from afar.

It wasn't because the residual mana had disappeared.

Someone was approaching, treading on his footprints exactly.

The disappearance of the footprints, the embers, could now be seen with his own eyes.

It meant that the one treading on them had entered the Sanctuary of Fire.

The extinction was getting closer.

The last footstep, the ember in front of Harad's feet, went out.

Harad, who had been watching the scene, raised his gaze.

There was no one.

But he knew that someone was there.

“You’re late.”

“……”

“I even showed you the way.”

“A man who doesn't know his place.”

An answer was heard.

It was a voice like scraping a steel plate, and it started exactly where Harad was looking.

“I know my place, that's why I'm here, in the sanctuary of our Red Tower.”

The air shimmered.

At least, that’s how it looked to Harad.

It was proof that his choice was correct.

The Sanctuary of Fire.

For Harad, there was no better preparation.

“And you can stop scratching your throat. It's just you and me here.”

Harad’s eyes blinked.

That eyelid was fire. Where Harad had been looking, fire descended like an eyelid.

It revealed a hidden shadow.

A loyal knight wearing a magical beast leather coat, a sword stuck in his belt, each with the white lion symbolizing Serzila engraved on it.

“Greetings, Cassion of the Moon Tower.”

No, a mage.

* * *

It was a guess.

Since the Gu Poison's magic was close to the shadow lineage.

‘I was right.’

Judging by Cassion’s expression, he seemed to be a member of the Moon Tower.

Shadows were one of the Origins the Moon Tower prided itself on.

‘The Moon Tower.’

That Tower was the one with the least information.

‘Now it’s the second least-informed Tower.’

He knew nothing about the Red Tower before regressing.

In any case, not much is known about the Moon Tower.

It is speculated that their Origins are mostly stealthy, but the conclusion reached is rather simple.

‘Because the Moon Tower is the weakest among the Magic Towers.’

That's why little is known.

The name of a Tower is taken from the name of the most outstanding Origin in its history.

It means there was a mage with the moon as an Origin in the Moon Tower.

‘The moon or something similar has never appeared on the battlefield.’

That’s why the continent defined the Moon Tower as the weakest Magic Tower.

‘They must be wrong.’

Harad did not overestimate his regression.

Hadn't he realized thanks to Ios of the Ivory Tower?

The information from his past life is not accurate.

He knew less about the Otherworld than he didn't know.

‘The weakest Tower wouldn’t have planted a mage in Serzila.’

And in the position of the 2nd Knights Commander at that.

It would be impossible without some leeway.

“Is the Moon Tower doing well? I hear your situation is similar to our Red Tower's.”

“Nonsense.”

Cassion quickly drew the line.

As expected, the power of the Moon Tower did not seem to be bad.

“Disappointing, among the same Magic Towers. No matter how much our Red Tower temporarily opposes the dream of paradise.”

At those words, Cassion let out a dry laugh.

“Your secondhand information is clumsy. The Moon Tower and the Red Tower coexist.”

“I didn't know that.”

Since he didn't know in his past life, it was valuable information if you could call it that.

The dream of the Otherworld.

So, it seemed the Moon Tower also opposed the conquest of the continent.

“Thanks to you, I learned something. What’s the Moon Tower’s reason for opposing it?”

The Red Tower's was the absence of its king.

They opposed the Otherworld's advance because they wanted their king to conquer the continent.

“Aren't you going to answer?”

There were many things he wanted to ask.

Cassion seemed to be the same.

When he killed Ios of the Ivory Tower.

The Cassion he had met back then was very confident.

He loathed Harad, confident that his identity would not be revealed.

“How did you know?”

The Cassion in front of him was not.

The confident 2nd Knights Commander was not there.

An anxious mage was standing in front of Harad.

“I can distinguish mages.”

“Nonsense.”

Cassion shouted.

That appearance was very mage-like.

It was a statement that would make any mage have a seizure.

“Otherwise, how would you have been found out.”

“……There is a traitor in the Otherworld.”

Cassion came to a conclusion after a moment of silence.

It was the wrong answer, but it was the best answer for Cassion.

“You’re wrong.”

“I understand. I won’t ask who it is.”

Harad’s eyes widened slightly.

Cassion’s reaction was unexpected.

He had expected him not to believe it, but he hadn't expected him to let it go so easily.

“Is it okay to let it go so easily?”

“You are the only one who knows my identity.”

It wasn't wrong.

Ellen had not believed him in the end.

This place was created for that reason.

“You didn’t tell the mage named Kubel either. Good, if you had, I would have killed him.”

“I thought you would, so I didn’t tell him.”

The night was the time of the shadow.

As expected, Cassion had been watching me.

That was why I hadn’t left a note for Ellen.

Even if I had, Cassion would have eliminated it.

And it would have only created unnecessary suspicion.

‘He’s calmer than I thought.’

I looked at Cassion, who was hiding his anxiety with a long breath, with an interested gaze.

It was the complete opposite of the reaction I had expected.

‘I thought he would rush in as soon as he came.’

I had driven Cassion into a corner.

If tonight passed quietly, I intended to tell Grand Duke Aratus the truth.

This was Cassion's last chance.

“Were you the one who lit the fire at the Fiery Watchtower?”

But Cassion was only satisfying his curiosity.

It was mage-like if you could call it that, but his tone was a little strange. It didn't seem like he was asking because he didn't know, but as if he was trying to get a confirmation.

“It burned brightly.”

“I see.”

Cassion nodded his head.

Then he opened his mouth again.

“Go.”

I tilted my head.

Cassion was clearly pointing to the opposite direction of Serzila. To the Otherworld.

“Will you be alright?”

I pretended not to know.

Then Cassion frowned.

“I’m telling you to go to the Otherworld.”

“Why are you trying to send me away? If it were me, I would have killed you.”

I was genuinely curious.

‘A coexisting relationship?’

The Moon Tower and the Red Tower coexist.

My asylum would be a gift to the Red Tower.

Since that Tower loves fire.

Moreover, I was a fire big enough to burn the Fiery Watchtower.

“You don’t need to know the reason. Go and live like a dead mouse.”

I could not understand.

‘What is he trusting in.’

He’s leaving a future threat.

It wasn't something a person with a weakness would do.

“Didn’t you also come here wanting asylum.”

The meeting was Cassion’s choice, but it was Harad who had decided on the place.

Cassion had followed Harad’s footprints.

“Ah, there’s been a misunderstanding.”

I didn't know the reason for his recommendation of asylum, but I corrected him for the time being.

“I didn’t come here to seek asylum.”

Fwoosh. The fire flickered.

“I came here to kill you.”