He'd have to stay locked up here for at least a year. Could he even endure it? Should Teron tell him the truth and try to talk him around?
The thought crossed his mind for a moment, but no, not yet.
Teron gave a faint, cruel smile at the amusement welling up in him.
“Right. You should've lived a decent life. Why on earth did you do it...?”
“What did I ever do! I haven't even hit you lately! I didn't pick fights with you any more than the other kids did! What could I possibly have said to a filthy commoner like you to deserve this-! Ugh, hic! Mother, Yurisa...”
He seemed to have suddenly remembered the corpses of his family; he retched, then lunged at Teron again.
He looked like a wreck about to drop dead.
And in truth, he was.
His whole family had been slaughtered, and only Edmund had survived. Unless there had been someone else hiding there besides Edmund, that is.
Teron opened his mouth to the boy, who had gone from weeping to gasping. His manner was appallingly flat.
“I saved your life.”
Edmund's face twisted horribly.
Tears streaming down his face, he screamed.
“Cut the crap, Teron Meyer, you'll be cursed for the rest of your life. However many lives you live, you'll die tortured, every one of them.”
“Is that so?”
“You devil, damn you to hell, you and your whole family, your limbs will be hacked apart and thrown to the beasts as feed!”
The commoner bastard, watching him from beyond the bars.
No, was he a commoner bastard, or a Royal Academy student, or one of the rebels who'd devoured Rapelle?
Nothing remained now but confusion. Edmund was grieving, despairing.
Teron Meyer had abducted him. Abducted him and thrown him into some dungeon he couldn't place.
Before he was taken, he'd been hiding in the storehouse of Rapel Marquess Castle. He'd clamped his mouth shut and strained his ears to catch the sounds outside.
He'd heard the voice of the one who'd killed his family.
He'd wanted to see his family's bodies, but he couldn't work up the courage.
He passed several days like that, and just before he starved to death, Edmund Rappel, who had given up on everything, opened the door to look for food.
Walking through the empty interior of the lord's castle, corpses scattered here and there, he suddenly burst into tears.
By this point it seemed it might be better just to die.
And if that was so, shouldn't he at least try to strike at 'that man' before he went?
Gripping a sword tight, walking down the corridor, the sight Edmund came upon was enough to make him faint from shock.
Black hair. A black robe. That same infuriating ponytail he'd always seen.
'Did you not think the Lord would be enraged?'
The voice the man before him made overlapped with the past. Edmund's eyes shook uncontrollably.
“It's a pointless curse. I know that well enough myself.”
Teron. Teron Meyer. Who are you?
The you I knew was a pathetic, vulgar commoner.
A pauper dragged in on the prince's whim, a bug of a boy who insisted on making his presence known when no one wanted it.
Were you a rebel?
That was his first thought, but now it was only bewildering.
If he was a rebel, then what was that conversation back then? If he wasn't a rebel, then what was that conversation back then?
Black magic? The Lord? Ruling the lord's castle? The Lord was calling for him? What? In exchange for cleaning up the mess, give me Edmund Rappel?
When Edmund's presence had been discovered and he'd staggered backward, the smile that had spread across the whole of Teron Meyer's face, he still remembered it vividly.
'I'll clean it up properly for you. So stop throwing tantrums and keep quiet for a while.'
'I'll be taking that one.'
A phantom voice sounded in his ears. The way the boy before him spoke and that past moment blurred together and crashed over Edmund.
And now Teron Meyer was speaking. Inside this strange dungeon where he was imprisoned. From beyond those bars.
“Edmund, no matter how much it hurts, don't think about dying. You have to get your revenge.”
“...Revenge?”
“That's right. You have to take revenge on the rebels who rule Rapelle.”
“Sh-shut it, you, how can you say something like-”
“And on me, too.”
Teron bent his knees and met Edmund's eyes.
His empty, ashen eyes glinted, for an instant, horrifyingly.
Facing that look, Edmund froze in place with a start.
“...What?”
“Yes, it was my mistake. Who could've known they'd move that fast? That they'd do something as stupid as seizing the castle. My whole plan's been thrown off thanks to those idiots out in the provinces...”
After giving the collar of the frozen Edmund's shirt a couple of light taps, Teron stepped back.
His cheeks were flushed. He looked joyful, without a shred of doubt.
“Still, I'm glad at least you survived. What would be the point if the Rapel house vanished from the Rapel domain?”
“Sh-shut up, what are you even saying. What the hell...”
“A year? Too short? Three years is too long, I'll have it finished before then. You only have to hold out that long, Edmund. The First Prince of Deluah will come to save you.”
“...”
Teron looked at the frozen Edmund and let out a snort of laughter.
“Don't get any ideas about acting out. Just stay put and behave.”
“What? What are you saying to me right now-”
Brushing the words off lightly, Teron left Edmund and went back up to the ground floor.
He listened to the state of the repairs, and once more explained to the dwarf in detail how Edmund was to be handled.
His head ached, but there was one last thing to do.
He used his teleportation magic again and headed for the 'Precipice.'
“Just as Teron said, holding regular assemblies is far better. From now on, when this jewel glows, it means I am summoning you. Take one, each of you.”
The black mages, now numbering twelve, bowed their heads in unison and received the red jewels.
“Jedner and Klaus did cause quite a stir, but...”
Jedner and Klaus. The two black mages whose names were called flinched, then dropped their heads low. They waited for the pain that was about to come.
The Lord looked at them and gave a faint smile.
“It's fine. Teron, Yuan. Report the situation.”
Teron spoke.
“The royal court has dispatched an investigative delegation to Luden and Rapelle. However, since both regions have sealed their gates fast and cut off all communication with the outside, the rumors have not yet spread in full.”
Yuan added,
“It might be better to simply swallow Deluah whole right now.”
“I have yet to gather enough offerings. You prattle recklessly.”
That arrogant manner is deeply grating.
The Lord's thin lips twisted faintly. Yuan was struck with black magic a moment later.
A pain-laced groan spilled out from beside Teron.
Even so, Yuan, trembling all over on his knees, managed his expression desperately, as was his way.
To anyone who knew nothing, he was so composed they'd never have guessed what kind of agony he was enduring.
“Teron, continue your explanation.”
Twelve black mages had gathered. They were arranged in a ring around a stone table, heads bowed to the Lord. A feast was laid out upon the table, but no one so much as glanced at it.
“Teron, you said it. You ran your mouth saying the situation wasn't bad. Thanks to you, two utterly foolish black mages saved their lives. So you'd better tell me something.”
Teron Meyer bowed his head lower still. Yuan, who had been writhing on his knees in pain, met Teron's turbid, ashen eyes head-on and shot him a momentarily murderous look.
Teron Meyer, as always, did not avoid Yuan's gaze. Feeling his pride prick faintly, Yuan bit down lightly on his lip. Looking up at Teron Meyer from below was not a pleasant feeling at all.
Barely half a year ago, Teron had still been a child young enough to be called a boy; somewhere along the way he'd shot up, and now it wouldn't be strange to call him a man.
Yuan's malice, which had once boiled hot, had gradually melted away as Teron Meyer grew.
A pale, slight little mage. How enraged he'd been the moment that unremarkable-looking boy monopolized the Lord's affection.
Yuan couldn't forget the shock of that day. That was why he lost his composure and spat venom every time he saw him.
While teaching him black magic, while relaying the Lord's words, while even taking him into his own information guild...
Teron Meyer was far from a foolish, shabby existence. He was clever. Perhaps even more so than Yuan himself.
“I believe what the Lord desires is one thing. And I, too, regard this as my destiny.”
His mouth moved smoothly. He couldn't read that hazy gaze, but Yuan knew that every single one of his actions was for the Lord.
The Lord's mouth parted faintly.
“And what is it I desire?”
“You desire to rule Deluah.”
“Yes, that's right. That is what I desire.”
Then his eyes narrowed to slits.
“I wish to stand at the very summit of Deluah. To rule over everyone from that peak is my desire. To wipe out the Deluah bloodline within the Kingdom of Deluah. That is my goal.”
Having looked over the twelve black mages one by one, the Lord smacked his lips.
