Chương 35: Chapter 34: The Lion Emblem

"Yes, revenge," the girl said with a faint smile, or what resembled a smile, but was closer to a show of mechanical relief at hearing an answer she wanted. She took his hand and squeezed it. Then she reminded him of the killing desire that was engraved deep inside him.

"The Constellations designed you. They turned you into a hero. Then they destroyed you. In this world, they did something similar with your father. Then they butchered every inhabitant of Velkyne. Even now, they will be looking down from high above on all the misery that goes on in the land below and laughing. The despair and destruction of humanity is as sweet as honey to them." Her cold voice echoed in his ear.

"But Yuto, you've come back to do something about it. You're here to sour their enjoyment. To destroy them. The Void doesn't want you to despair... It wants your rage, burning on the fuel of your anguish," she said. Then her figure slowly faded away. Even as she disappeared, her hand continued to gently caress Yuto's.

"Do not forget, Yuto. If you give up, everything loses meaning. You made up your mind to accept the spirits of the Penalty Zone and to seek revenge together with them. You can't betray them. No, not you." She gazed into his eyes, and he received the impression that the deep, vast gloom was talking directly to him.

"I believe in you," she said. Darkness swallowed her up before he could say anything to her.

* A narrow stream of light poured onto his head and made his eyes hurt. He opened his eyes with an effort. The ceiling rose high above him. It was a familiar sight from his memories. He was still in the king's bedroom. This bedroom, however, had been neglected for five years. There was dust everywhere, and the air was filled with the smell of mold. He heard soft breathing next to him and slowly turned his head. It was Rivian, sleeping deeply on her belly. She seemed to have nursed him all night.

Her face was pale, and she was still gripping her magic staff even as she slept. Yuto reached over to her hand and felt it. Her fingertips were sticky, presumably from the many herbs she had been handling during the night, and her fingernails were caked with green juices. He smiled wryly and shook his head.

"It seems I have made her worry," he said.

"You certainly did that," said a voice. The door opened, its damaged hinges creaking. Flokiro walked in. He was no longer the huge beast that he had been while fighting the black mages, and had returned to his basic form.

"How do you feel?" Flokiro asked with a frown. He wanted to sound angry after Yuto's breakdown, but that desire mixed with the relief that arose from deep inside him. The result was quite an odd expression.

"How long was I out?" Yuto asked.

"A full day. You seem well. It's all thanks to Rivian. You should thank her later." Flokiro sighed heavily and draped the blanket he'd brought over her body. Yuto watched her sleeping face without a word. The pain of his guilt was still on him, but at least he was in control again. As the girl had said, what he needed to do wasn't to punish himself for what had happened.

"The laboratory underground... What happened with that?" Yuto asked. Flokiro wagged his tail.

"I sorted it out while you were unconscious," he said. The slaves captured by the black mages had been confined under the royal castle. Some of them had been actual slaves brought from outside the city, and others were poor individuals who searched the ruins hoping to find something.

"There weren't any black mages remaining, so it wasn't that difficult. I simply opened the cell doors, undid their chains, and told them to wait in the secret passageway," Flokiro said. The secret passageway underground that Yuto had never managed to escape through in their past life led outside the city walls.

"It's not safe outside the walls either. If they escaped by themselves, they could just run into more danger. I thought it would be better if we protected them and took them out of the city with us. Or at least that's what I thought you would want to do."

"And you know me well," Yuto said with a faint smile.

"Have you checked the room with the sword?" he asked.

"No," Flokiro said, shaking his head. There was a secret code needed in order to gain entry. Flokiro knew it, but had refrained from going in.

"It didn't feel right for me to check. That treasure... It's meant for the king of Velkyne and nobody else."

"I don't know if my father—that is, the man who was my father in the past life—still left it in that room."

"That is also for you to find out," Flokiro said. His firm tone seemed to be a reminder that Yuto should show no further emotional instability or have another breakdown. Yuto smiled bitterly and nodded. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"You're right, of course."

"Mmm..." Rivian stirred. It seemed their voices had woken her up. Her eyelids trembled, then opened. Her gaze moved to Yuto.

"Wait... Yuto?" she murmured sleepily. Then her eyes went wide. She sprang out of bed and clutched his shoulders.

"You're awake! How do you feel? Is there any pain?" she demanded.

"I thought something very bad was about to happen to you. You were experiencing ether reflux! D-do you know how worried I was? I've never handled so many herbs in such a short time in my entire life!" She shot question after question. Her face came closer and closer. Yuto was slightly taken aback by her reaction, but he smiled softly when he saw the dried saliva on her face and her messy hair.

"I'm all right now, thanks to you. Perhaps you would like to wash your face?"

"My... My face? Why would I...?" Rivian was relieved, but puzzled. Then she flinched and felt her face with her hands. She slowly turned beet-red.

"O-oh my! E-excuse me for a moment! This... This isn't what you think... I nursed you all night, and I was so tired... I fell asleep without realizing it..." Rivian uttered a little scream and rubbed her face hard with her sleeves, erasing the tell-tale traces of deep sleep. There went her dignity as a top student of the academy and a noble lady. She hung her head in shame and hunched her shoulders. Her usual confidence was nowhere to be found. Yuto chuckled.

"Thank you," he said in a completely serious tone. Rivian looked up at him, taken aback. He looked her right in the eye.

"Let me be honest. When you said you would come with me in Merchant City, I wasn't sure you'd be much help at all," he said.

"I was wrong. You... you were... huge. Your help was instrumental. In fact, I might have died in this city without you." There was no exaggeration in his voice whatsoever. The dangers here had been far beyond his expectations, and he couldn't have done without her. If it hadn't been for her support and healing magic, he could have tired out and fallen back prematurely.

But would I have really fallen back? A twisted smile appeared on his face. It wasn't just her aid during battles and her healing magic that had been useful. Her worried gaze and concerned cries had helped him remain rational for longer. If he had only come here with Flokiro, the tragic scenes would have driven him into a frantic fit of violence.

"Rivian Marigold, I could have died here if it hadn't been for you. Thank you... for coming with me." Rivian cleared her throat. She could feel her face growing hot. She fanned it now to cool it down.

"D-don't mention it. We are doing this together, aren't we? B-besides. I owe you a great deal. There's no need for you to thank me." She shyly tucked her hair behind her ear. Yuto watched her hesitantly.

"Yes, we are. And on that note... I don't believe there should be any secrets or lies between comrades," he said. Rivian froze. The words reminded her of the questions she had buried inside her heart. For instance, there was the mysterious power he had been using all this time. And what of his obsession with Velkyne, his anger? He had despaired when he entered the secret chamber in the king's bedroom. Why? She had so many questions to ask him, but she wasn't sure if it was allowed.

It occurred to her that reading the diary, which had pained Yuto so much, might bring her closer to the truth, but she hadn't touched it. It didn't seem right.

"You're probably wondering who I am," Yuto mumbled. Rivian was silent. She wanted to know, but she wasn't sure about admitting it. The battle inside her sealed her lips. Yuto sensed the kindness that prompted this behavior and smiled at her gently.

"I am the son... of the king of Velkyne. Before the great disaster... I was forced to hide my identity and live outside the castle. A hidden son," he lied. He could not admit that he had regressed back in time. It just wasn't something easy to comprehend or accept, and he knew from experience that when a truth was too much, it did more harm than good.

"Luke Velkyne... my father... He understood the ugly truth about our world early on. The knowledge taught him that he, as well as his kingdom, would be in danger. So he sent me out of the castle. It's the reason I survived the disaster. I wasn't there when it happened," he said.

"Oh..."

"That is why I obsess over Velkyne. This ruined city, the souls doomed to never find rest... How could I ignore them? And then there are the black mages who exploited them... I could never forgive them," he said.

"Not even I know everything there is to know about the tragedy that befell Velkyne. I never heard the full details from my father." Yuto flashed a bitter smile and shook his head.

"And earlier, I learned something huge... something I had no idea of before. It pushed me over the edge." Rivian watched him in surprise, then nodded slowly. These reasons explained how touchy he had seemed on the way to Velkyne, and how he had lost emotional control after entering the city. Her eyes were sad. They contained pity for him, as well as gratitude for the fact that he'd chosen to share the truth. They also held trust.

I'm sorry. It was painful for Yuto to tell her a lie, but sometimes, a lie was better than the truth.

"Now, let's head downward," he said. He got down from the bed, put on his shoes, and tied his shoelaces.

"But... don't you need to rest anymore?" she asked.

"I've rested enough," he said. His body was still heavy, but not so much that he was unable to move around. Even if he felt much worse than this, he would still need to get moving. Yuto took a deep breath, then started walking.

"We will go to the hidden room in the underground passageway. I can't say for sure that Velkyne's Treasure will still be there... But I need to make sure of it with my own eyes." Rivian didn't try to talk him out of it anymore and got up from her chair.

"You'd better not run wild again if you find out it's gone," Flokiro spat at him, glaring. He had opened the door for Yuto. Yuto smiled, then shook his head.

"That's not going to happen." They left the king's bedroom and walked to the first floor. The entrance that led to the underground passageway was already open. It was where Floknight had tossed Yuto in the previous life, the same corridor Yuto had never managed to escape. Yuto felt his heart racing, then headed down the stairs. The way down into the corridor was extremely dark. Flokiro called up a flame to light their way, but an intense chill rose from below and cooled their skin despite its warmth.

They eventually reached the bottom of the stairs and found a metal door that was swinging open. The laboratory of the black mages was visible below. Flokiro had already opened the door and let the slaves escape, but the traces of the occupants were still there—the chains on the floor, sharp implements presumably used for cutting human bodies, torture instruments meant to inflict pain and inspire maximum fear. Yuto gazed through the bars of the cells. He could see human bones and bits of rotten flesh.

The walls were covered with scratches that seemed to have been made by human fingernails. He could almost hear the painful cries of the people who had died here.

"I... gave them deaths that were too easy," he said through gritted teeth. He should have given them a much longer, much more painful end.