Chapter 123
Kierne returned safely to the Serpent’s Castle.
His wounded right arm had received rough first aid for the time being.
Even so, the wound was deep, so the bleeding continued for quite a while.
One might expect the monsters of the Black Forest to come rushing at the scent of blood, but they remained quiet.
As if the woman’s—no, ‘Rose’s’—shrill cry to go away had been some kind of command.
Thanks to that, Kierne was able to leave the Black Forest peacefully with the woman.
Throughout the walk through the Black Forest, the woman kept her reddened eyes wide open.
As if she intended to protect Kierne herself.
It was ridiculous behavior, considering she was limping with her leg not even fully functional.
In truth, without the woman, he would have returned much faster.
He briefly considered leaving her behind, but in the end, Kierne matched his pace to Rose’s painfully slow steps and leisurely exited the Black Forest.
The servants who had been pacing near the castle gates, wondering when he would arrive, were overjoyed at Kierne and Rose’s safe return.
Kierne handed Rose off to them and went straight to receive treatment.
“The wound is deep.”
Without proper anesthesia, they immediately stitched the raw flesh.
The injury from the monster was quite severe, and even after treatment, the pain was intense.
In the end, he had to take a pain-relieving medication.
“The effects are strong, so you might experience some hallucinations or auditory illusions.”
The attending physician casually added this warning as he handed over the familiar medication.
There was no sign of particular concern.
It was a natural reaction.
Deep wounds exposing bone, potent medications verging on toxic…
For Kierne, who faced monsters in the Black Forest daily, these were everyday occurrences.
So there was absolutely no need to worry.
Yet that woman shed tears over something so trivial.
It was truly pointless fuss.
Recalling the woman’s pink eyes, crying as if his arm had been severed, Kierne attended to his duties as usual.
Since he could write with his left hand as well, there was no issue with handling work.
After dealing with urgent matters, he skimmed through the records of his predecessors.
To check if there was any useful information about the unusual behavior shown by the monster.
He found no meaningful data.
Having finished all that needed to be done, he went to bed at his scheduled bedtime.
That night was a bit painful.
Despite taking the strong painkiller, the pain surged up, making him groan and break out in cold sweat.
His distorted consciousness wandered in a hazy limbo, neither fully asleep nor awake.
Then suddenly, as if someone had tapped him, he came to his senses.
“……”
A soft, murmuring song reached his ears.
The whispering song in an unintelligible language was a lullaby.
In a voice so pleasantly soothing that it gave him faint chills, Kierne hazily thought.
That it must be an auditory hallucination from the drug.
But it wasn’t.
Along with the song, a soft cloth gently wiped his forehead, damp with cold sweat.
The touch was clumsy but sincere, tickling him, so when he furrowed his brow, it even smoothed out the wrinkles with a gentle rub.
There was no need to open his eyes to confirm who the owner of that touch was.
Arrogant, annoying, foolish creature.
In the Serpent’s Castle, there was only one such being.
Rose.
The woman he had named today.
How she had managed to sneak into his bedroom was a mystery.
‘I need to teach her that she shouldn’t enter a man’s bedroom without permission.’
Thinking that starting tomorrow he should have her receive sex education right away, Kierne slowly relaxed his body.
It would be right to open his eyes and tell her to leave his bedroom.
But for some reason, he didn’t feel like doing so.
He wanted to listen to the lullaby just a little longer.
Focusing on the gentle song made the pain fade.
It was practically impossible for the pain that wouldn’t subside even with strong medication to disappear with just a lullaby.
It must be the drug’s effects kicking in late.
Even as he thought that, Kierne quietly listened to the song and eventually drifted into deep sleep.
“…Sigh.”
Kierne, who had been dredging up memories of the past, let out a sigh.
He shouldn’t have recalled it.
Thinking about a past that wouldn’t return only amplified the longing.
Especially on a day like today, he needed to be careful…
Having endlessly slain monsters with his cursed sword, his mind was already in an unstable state.
It was best not to entertain dangerous thoughts.
Still, it seemed okay for now.
Because Cheshire was here.
Kierne stroked the sleeping Cheshire and softly hummed a song.
It was the lullaby Rose had sung for him.
The lullaby he sang haphazardly, following the melody he remembered, was a complete mess.
It lacked any of the bird-like chirping quality that Rose’s had.
Even so, it was one of the few things Rose had left him.
He had erased all traces of her from the Serpent’s Castle.
The fragments of memories pricked his flesh sharply whenever he brought them out.
The pointed edges hurt, but because they allowed him to remember her, even the pain was welcome.
Thus, whenever the mood struck, he would occasionally hum the lullaby.
Come to think of it, he seemed to have sung it most often for Cheshire.
It was because he didn’t know many ways to soothe a child.
He had no knowledge of how to handle such a small, fluffy baby.
Belzeon, the twins—they were sturdy from infancy, as befitting children of the Basilian bloodline.
‘It’s a good thing you taught me the lullaby, Rose.’
Thanks to her, he could live through today.
And thanks to her, he was dying today as well.
With a feeling like chewing and swallowing shards of glass, Kierne smiled and coaxed his broken mind.
Not much time left now.
Soon, they would meet again.
Without fail…
As he patted Cheshire and sang the lullaby, drowsiness crept in.
Monsters, Holy King, Basilian, Hilderd, Black Forest, Fairy Queen’s Crown, and Rose.
The myriad complex thoughts rampaging in his mind slowly blurred.
Following the softly sleeping Cheshire, Kierne also slipped into slumber.
It was a deep sleep without dreams.
The major incident that occurred in the Hilderd Holy Empire spread across the continents through the participants of the Little Saints’ Prayer Assembly.
‘Monsters’ that only inhabited the Black Forest in the eastern Basilian Territory of the Palen Empire had suddenly engulfed the Holy Empire.
They were aberrant creatures defying the natural order.
Even though the most outstanding holy priests and holy knights of Hilderd were all mobilized, they couldn’t properly handle the monsters.
The one who purified all the monsters was the adopted child of the Basilian County.
The sight of the small baby purifying the monsters with astonishing power was like a divine miracle.
But because it was the power of the heretical fairy, it became a problem, and Count Basilian was imprisoned along with the child while defending the adopted one.
All this news spread rapidly like wildfire across dry fields.
As if someone behind the scenes was manipulating the rumors to spread.
Truth tangled with all sorts of baseless gossip, and some claimed that the underworld was deliberately spreading stories about the Basilian County.
Of course, it was dismissed as unverifiable rumor.
Amid this, the Supreme Sun Emperor of the Palen Empire personally wrote a petition for his cherished vassal.
The fact that the Emperor cherished Count Basilian enough to write a petition to the Holy King of Hilderd became yet another gossip sweeping the continent.
The Basilian County, the protagonist of this storm-like whirlwind of rumors, appeared outwardly calm.
Because they were quietly imprisoned without much resistance.
However, it was only calm on the surface.
The Basilian County was biding its time.
It was a moment when the attention of the entire continent was focused.
They would not miss this chance to become instantly famous, crouching silently like a snake eyeing its prey, waiting for the most perfect opportunity.
And on the second prayer day of the Little Saints’ Prayer Assembly.
A massive incident inevitably erupted.
