Chapter 35
I forcefully pulled my hand away from his grasp.
“Sir Willow, I…”
The clear look in his eyes made me feel sick. My heart skipped a beat from the discomfort.
“I… am not Ariadna.”
“What are you saying?”
Willow half-stood and pointed toward the opposite wall.
“Look over there.”
I turned to where he pointed as if in a trance. There was a mirror. In it was a woman who looked like Ariadna, but with burn scars scattered across her face.
“Ugh…”
I gasped quietly. I suddenly remembered the mirror in my bedroom and the portrait above it.
Every time I saw myself in the mirror, I could see the differences from that portrait. It became unbearable, so I had removed the portrait.
But removing the portrait didn’t erase the memories of the beautiful days in my mind. In the end, I stopped even looking at the mirror.
“I told you before. The body is the self itself.”
“…”
“Look. That reflection… it’s still as beautiful as ever, just like Your Highness.”
His voice carried a long-suppressed yearning. Willow looked up at me like a devout believer gazing at a holy icon.
Yes, on paper, my identity was Ariadna. Padva had hidden the princess’s death and intended to turn me into Ariadna. But still…
“I can never become Ariadna.”
At least Nocturne had asked me, What are you?
Yes, it was better to exist as “something” than to live in constant emptiness, pretending to be the unreachable Ariadna.
“I’m sorry. I only meant to comfort you, but I’ve made you uncomfortable instead.”
Willow stepped back and apologized at my blunt rejection.
“Don’t worry. Until you’re ready to accept it, I’ll approach you slowly, step by step.”
“I don’t understand what you mean. Just stay away from me.”
I rubbed my eyes in exhaustion.
Did Willow help me because of his desire for Ariadna?
I asked him cautiously, keeping my guard up.
“This study is too dark. Could you turn on the light?”
“Ah, yes.”
I had expected him to bring a lantern, but when he flipped a switch, the ceiling light turned on.
“…This place has electricity?”
“This is actually a safe house. It’s part of the inheritance my brother left me.”
“I see… Roster…”
I stared at the ceiling light, but as expected, my abilities didn’t return. I was about to use the matches in my pocket when Willow asked if I was cold and then brought over a stove.
When the flames lit, my ability awakened, and I could clearly sense Willow’s desire. At least now my ability didn’t cause side effects after using it, thanks to the treatment.
I finally asked the question I had been truly curious about.
“When did you know I was a clone?”
“I knew from the beginning.”
“Were you part of the experiment?”
“No, I wasn’t.”
I let out a small sigh of relief. At least he wasn’t part of the experiment.
“Then how did you find out my identity?”
“Actually, I was watching the Duke after the war…”
“You were watching Nocturne?”
“Yes, when the Duke lost control.”
I remembered what Tita had said: Nocturne had gone berserk right after Ariadna died. A high-level Eshafae losing control was a disaster, and usually a suppression team was formed.
“Were you part of the suppression team?”
Willow gave a bitter smile.
“Who could stop an S-rank Eshafae? We could only follow him until he exhausted himself.”
He let out a heavy sigh.
“I followed his trail for over a month.”
“A month?”
My voice rose without me realizing.
In my memories, Nocturne’s madness usually subsided in one night. But he had stayed in that state for a month?
I knew that losing control and constantly using one’s power could lead to a vicious cycle where the madness continued. But that was extremely dangerous.
Nocturne in my memories had always regained his senses by the next day. To be unable to stop him for a whole month meant he was no different from the strongest-class magical beast.
“There weren’t… any victims, right?”
“Thankfully, the Duke went deep into uninhabited mountains when he still had his sanity. There were no casualties.”
Only then did I release the breath I had been holding.
“I was just monitoring nearby villages, making sure he didn’t come down from the mountain. We waited for him to collapse from exhaustion. But at the end, he suddenly left the mountain and headed for a laboratory…”
Willow’s gaze drifted into the air as if recalling the past.
“In the process of evacuating the people there, I discovered what the experiment really was. The Duke burned the entire lab down, so they likely moved the base to the Duchy of Swatan and continued the experiment.”
I quietly organized my thoughts and then asked,
“Do you know where that lab was?”
“The lab… the Duke already ordered an investigation, but all records were erased. The facility has already been converted into a hospital, and the researchers scattered.”
“I see…”
I hesitated for a moment and then asked,
“What about the first lab?”
“That one was completely destroyed by the fire. And the area around it is unstable…”
“Have you been there?”
“We haven’t investigated it yet.”
“You remember where it is?”
“Yes, of course…”
There was a glint in Willow’s eyes.
“If you wish, I can take you there.”
Willow’s feelings were as clear as water to me.
Now I finally have a chance. Abandoned by Nocturne and stripped of her powers, I can become someone Ariadna needs.
…There was a lot of selfish intent mixed into his actions.
But I wasn’t in a position to be picky. If he saw me as Ariadna, at least he wouldn’t harm me.
What are you?
Nocturne’s voice echoed in my ears.
I didn’t know how much time I had left…
But at the very least, I wanted to find an answer to that question.
If I went there, maybe I could figure out who I was and how to use the rest of my life.
I met Willow’s eyes and nodded.
“Okay. Take me there.”
The next morning, we gathered in the safe house’s kitchen. Willow spoke during breakfast.
“Once we’re done eating, we’ll be leaving.”
Tita immediately became suspicious.
“Where are you planning to take Her Highness now?”
“I’ll escort her to the kingdom.”
“What?”
“And I’ll remove your suppression ring, too.”
“…Why the sudden change?”
When Tita glared at him, Willow smiled and handed her a piece of paper.
“Just sign this.”
It was an emotional contract promising to keep their whereabouts secret for three days.
Tita glanced at me. When I nodded to show it was fine, she signed the contract.
We needed many supplies to investigate the lab, and the kingdom’s shops were the best place to buy them. That’s why we had to go there first.
After breakfast, we quickly packed our things and left.
Not long after the car started moving, Willow’s two companions in the front seat began chatting quietly.
“The house was nicer than I expected. It even had a generator.”
“That’s how it is in the Tesran City Alliance. No royal regulations, so you can use personal generators freely. Honestly, isn’t it better than the Empire?”
Tita immediately cut in.
“Better? The security here is a nightmare.”
They all had valid points.
The Empire always prioritized allocating resources to the military, even stricter during wartime. With its strong central government and high taxes, life for its citizens wasn’t easy.
But in exchange, the Empire had the world’s strongest military. In the last ten years, there hadn’t been a single death by magical beasts within its borders.
The farther north you went, the more autonomous regions there were and the lower the population density. With weaker institutional control, the gap between rich and poor was severe, and security was unstable.
Which was better was a matter of perspective. The Empire had chosen survival over freedom.
Once we left the village, a desert spread out before us. I saw Willow unfolding a map.
“Where are we now?”
“We’re here.”
Willow pointed at a spot on the map.
No wonder it looked familiar—this was very close to the area where the war with Cambiata had been fought.
Willow said the lab was further north, not far from the place where Ariadna had fought Cambiata in her final battle. It made sense; it would have been easier to move her body to a nearby location.
As I looked out the car window, I suddenly noticed something strange.
“Wasn’t there supposed to be a mountain there?”
Comparing it with the map, I saw the name “Lytton Mountain” marked at that location.
There were about thirty major magical beast origins on the continent, and Lytton Mountain was one of the most dangerous A-rank ones.
From A-rank origins came A-rank magical beasts. If they wandered into other countries, it became a disaster.
That’s why surrounding nations always wanted to destroy the origins. But magical beasts born from mountains usually traveled in groups.
A-rank magical beasts in groups were hard to handle even for S-rank Eshafaes. That’s why people had no choice but to leave them be despite the danger…
But now the mountain was gone.
Seeing my confusion, Willow looked embarrassed and said,
“Do you remember when I said the Duke went berserk and entered a mountain?”
“…Wait, don’t tell me.”
“Yes, that was Lytton Mountain.”
I looked back at the empty land in shock. Willow muttered in a hollow voice beside me,
“The Duke poured out his power for a whole month and wiped it off the face of the earth…”
As we got closer, I could see traces of lava and rocks warped by extreme heat, black ash covering the ground.
It looked like a volcano had exploded.
Tita muttered as she stared at the scene.
“This really is a natural disaster…”
“It’s more of a blessing than a disaster,” I said without thinking.
Everyone in the car turned to look at me.
…Well, it wasn’t wrong, was it?
