Chapter 33
After deciding to follow Jethon's plan, the Abandoned began gathering the materials needed for the ritual.
The materials required for the ritual were expensive magical components, such as a pterosaur's horn, and they could barely prepare them by spending all their remaining wealth.
They had truly become beggars, but that was fine.
If this ritual truly killed that Lord Calix and they could rule Dreihart again with the power gained from it, they could restore their fortunes later.
Once all the materials had been prepared, on the night of the full moon,
they gathered in their hidden room.
“Then, let us begin the ritual.”
The twelve fallen nobles gathered in the hidden room nodded at Jethon's words.
A magic circle drawn in basilisk blood had been laid out on the floor.
The twelve fallen nobles took their places at the corners, while Jethon walked to the center.
“Then, from this moment on, I shall begin the 『Black Magic』 ‘Demon Summoning’ ritual.”
『Black Magic』
A forbidden magic said to have originated with the Bloodkin.
The use of this magic was strictly prohibited throughout the Empire, and it was considered so dangerous that the moment traces of it were discovered, every mage tower would be placed on emergency alert.
Naturally, any caster who used it was sentenced to death, regardless of the reason.
Among the forms of black magic, one of the most famous was this ‘Demon Summoning.’
Jethon had obtained a scroll of the black magic spell Demon Summoning through his connections.
He believed that no matter how skilled someone was—even if they were capable of dealing with assassins—they could never defeat an evil spirit, and he resolved to kill Calix Kron with this ritual.
“Everyone, the ritual blood…”
At Jethon's signal, the twelve fallen nobles pricked their fingers with daggers and let the resulting drops of blood fall onto the magic circle.
A red light began to shimmer around the magic circle, and Jethon began chanting.
"Umbrae, exaudi me.(Shadows, answer me)”
[ "Umbrae, exaudi me.(Shadows, answer me)” ]
The twelve fallen nobles repeated the incantation after Jethon.
Whenever they chanted, the magic circle began to pulse like a beating heart.
“Vocatus daemonium.(Summoned evil spirit)”
[ “Ex tenebris venite.(Come forth from the darkness)” ]
As the chanting continued, the pulsing began to quicken.
They knew little about magic, but they could feel one thing for certain.
Something was trying to be born in this place.
Just as the ritual was proceeding, a sound came from outside.
Thud-! Thud-!!
“What…was that sound?”
They began to hear something striking the wall with a hard tool.
They quickly realized what the sound was.
“We know you fallen nobles are in there!”
“Don't do anything strange and stay quiet, and we'll spare your lives!!”
It was the Dreihart garrison that had been pursuing them.
How could they have been discovered here already?
“It's them!”
“Those dogs of Kron!!”
As everyone began to panic, Jethon shouted at them without losing his composure.
“Hurry, everyone! At least complete this ritual!”
The fallen nobles were startled for a moment by Jethon's words, but they nodded and hurried to focus on the ritual.
If they were caught like this, they would be killed like dogs, but if they completed the ritual, they could at least take the enemy's heads.
Jethon recited the incantation.
"Animae, surgite nunc.(Souls, arise now)”
[ "Animae, surgite nunc.(Souls, arise now)” ]
The blood in the magic circle began to boil.
The ritual was nearly complete, and the sounds outside were growing more chaotic as well.
Before the door could be broken down, Jethon recited the final incantation.
"Atra vis, revela te.(Black power, reveal yourself)”
[ "Atra vis, revela te.(Black power, reveal yourself)” ]
As soon as Jethon spoke the final incantation,
black smoke rose from the magic circle and began gathering above Jethon's head.
“Oh…”
“Is this…the evil spirit of black magic…?”
Watching it take shape, the fallen nobles thought they had won.
Just look at that evil presence gradually taking shape.
They thought that evil spirit would avenge them.
Yet they never thought to ask what it truly was until the very end.
Why was black magic called black magic?
Was it really enough for the mage towers and the Imperial Family to ban it simply because it had been created by the Bloodkin and contained evil energy?
Of course not.
The greatest reason black magic had become forbidden was that, unlike other magic that used the caster's mana as its price, it could use not only mana but also human life as a sacrifice.
“Uh…what is this?”
“Hey, Jethon…something seems wrong with this…”
Once the ritual was complete, the fallen nobles sensed that something was wrong.
The blood was leaving their bodies and being sucked into the evil spirit.
No matter how hard they tried to stop it, blood poured from their eyes, noses, mouths, ears, and every pore, and only then did the fallen nobles realize that something had gone wrong.
“Jethon!!! You!! You damn bastard!!!”
“You deceived us!!!”
Only Jethon, standing in the center, remained unharmed, and the fallen nobles shouted at him as they felt the strength drain from their bodies.
Jethon smiled like a mouse and spoke.
“I have never deceived you.”
“What!?”
The fallen nobles were dumbfounded by Jethon's shameless words.
He raised the corners of his mouth and said,
“I said I would reclaim what was mine, but I never said I would reclaim what was yours.”
“You! You bastard!!”
Yes, Jethon had said he would reclaim what was his; he had never said he would reclaim what belonged to the fallen nobles.
Only then did they realize that they had been used, but it was already too late.
“Farewell, friends. If I happen to see you in a dream, I shall accept your resentment then.”
“You!! You piece of trash!!! Gkhrk…”
With those words, the fallen nobles breathed their last.
The evil spirit, created through black magic using the twelve bodies as sacrifices, descended.
The evil spirit, shaped like the Grim Reaper from a nightmare, waited for the command of the master who had summoned it.
Jethon spoke.
“Go. No matter what happens, go and kill Calix Kron!”
At Jethon's words, the evil spirit nodded, passed through the wall, and disappeared.
And just then, the door was broken down, and Dreihart's garrison stormed into the secret room.
Zarha and Noah were among the soldiers as well.
Thud-!
“Gurk!!”
The door to the secret room was so sturdy and magically reinforced that it took Zarha several minutes to break it down by force.
The people who had prepared such a door had done something wicked here, leaving twelve corpses behind.
Irritation rising instinctively, Zarha struck the only person still alive, Jethon, and demanded,
“You rat bastards! What have you done!! What did you do here!!”
“Khehehe, it's already too late. You slave bastards, they've gone to kill your King of Liberation! They've gone, khehehahaha!!!”
Jethon believed that completing the ritual meant he had achieved his goal.
He thought that by killing Calix and reclaiming what was his with the evil spirit's power in a lordless Dreihart, he would finally get what he wanted, and he could not suppress his laughter until Noah watched him closely and spoke as though dumbfounded.
“Hmm…what an interesting person.”
“I'm…interesting?”
“You are. That being above your heads whose limits even I cannot fathom—that is Lord Calix.”
Noah spoke with a genuinely amused laugh.
There was no emotion in that laugh, which made Jethon feel even more miserable.
“And yet you believe you can kill my lord merely by using a little black magic? What an interesting person you are.”
At Noah's gesture, the soldiers began binding him.
Her treatment of him, as though he were not even worth killing, made Jethon's face gradually stiffen.
“Look forward to it. You will soon learn what kind of person my lord is.”
Noah spoke to Jethon with genuine pity.
Even at that moment, the evil spirit was flying toward Kron.
* * *
At that hour, everyone in Kron Castle should have been asleep.
Rana and Azel had somehow been unable to sleep, so they were standing watch together in front of Calix's bedroom.
As Rana watched Azel—the beautiful young knight with pale-green hair standing there proudly and unwaveringly—she thought for a moment before casually speaking.
“Lady Azel, do you like our lord?”
“W-What are you talking about all of a sudden!?”
“Shh, your voice is too loud.”
At Rana's single remark, Azel's proud bearing vanished like the wind.
Rana spoke nonchalantly to the flustered Azel.
“For your information, I like him.”
“Lady Rana…aren't you the princess's maid?”
Azel had heard a general account of Rana's background.
When Azel asked whether Rana, like herself, had come from the princess's side, Rana replied,
“I have not forgotten Her Highness's kindness. But that is that, and this is this.”
Rana's answer surprised even Rana herself.
The Rana of the past would never have been able to answer that way.
She thought that life here had changed her greatly.
Then Rana looked closely at Azel and said,
“I thought you were like me too, Lady Azel, but I suppose that was just my mistake.”
“I-I do! I like him.”
Led on by Rana's question, Azel finally blurted out her true feelings, and Rana spoke with a faint smile.
“I knew it. May I ask why?”
“At first, I admired my lord's righteous actions.”
“And then?”
The first thing Azel had heard about Calix was the news that he had freed the slaves.
She had wondered what kind of lord would perform such righteous deeds, then admired him after learning about his actions in the past.
And after coming here, the Lord Calix Azel met was the first person in the world to take her sense of justice seriously.
“You were the first person…to tell me things like that, my lord.”
Azel spoke as she recalled the farming incident from before.
At the same time, she remembered her bitter past.
“I know that I'm an oddball too…You were the first person to take someone like me seriously, rather than punish or teach me.”
Even within the Golden Knights, Azel's obsession with justice was considered strange.
Some people told her it was wrong, while others forced their own views of justice upon her.
But Calix was the first person in Azel's life to take that sense of justice seriously.
“I…like that kind of lord.”
“I see…I feel the same.”
Having had a similar experience, Rana empathized with Azel's words.
They would probably be able to talk about many things tonight. Maybe they should sneak some late-night snacks out of the dining hall?
Just as that thought crossed their minds…both of them sensed a chilling presence.
Swaaaak-!
“That presence just now…”
“Yes, something…is coming this way.”
Something…
Something that made their skin crawl was approaching them.