Chapter 33
– I’m Doomed.
Kenneth’s escape passage was darker than I expected—I couldn’t see a thing. Once the entrance closed, I could only stand there blankly for a while.
When the icy chill brushed against my skin, it felt as though the cold, slimy hide of a reptile had grazed me, and a shiver ran down my spine.
Whoooosh.
The cold wind reverberated through the cave, whipping past my eardrums and lashing at my inner ear.
My hair stood on end.
And from the hard stone floor beneath, a dry-ice–like cold crept up to coil around my ankles, as if I were standing atop a polar glacier.
Ah, Empress Kenneth!
How terrified you must have been of Theodore, that you would fling yourself into this treacherous darkness, trusting only in the rope hung upon the wall?
But I must not yet be desperate enough.
I can’t do it!
My legs shook. I wanted to turn back.
Forget the research and the analysis—why not just return to Schultzen Castle?
But that weak thought hardened when I recalled Theodore.
I had to protect him, no matter what poison threatened.
I had to keep him safe, shower him only with love.
No, I couldn’t collapse here.
Gerald—if I left things to that bookish scholar who knew nothing beyond tomes and the sword, he’d produce the same results as any book.
And as for me, under the pressure of my greedy, wicked family, I’d wither away.
But I couldn’t meekly let myself be torn apart by a demon, miserable and wretched, just as they would wish.
First, like Empress Kenneth had done, I had to find the rope.
According to the book, a cord was strung along the wall of the passage—if one followed it even in darkness, it would lead to the exit.
When I tentatively brushed my hand along the wall, it was slick, like snake scales, and my skin crawled. But I had no choice.
I steeled myself and groped along the wall, searching for the rope that should stretch there.
Then—squish!
Every hair on my body bristled. That squishy thing could only be… a bug.
Maybe even a centipede.
“Kyaaaah!”
I frantically shook my hand and bolted forward.
It felt as though icy hands of the dead would burst from the hard ground to grab my legs.
Or that I might step on rats gnawing at corpses.
Or worse, that a monster lurked here.
My imagination magnified my fear until it coiled around me like vines, choking my chest so I could barely breathe.
“Uwaaaaah!”
My scream boomed through the escape passage. My footsteps echoed too.
My eardrums endured the 100-decibel shriek and pounding noise, while my legs ran faster, like cars racing down the autobahn.
The damp wind slapped my face.
Bang. Thud. Ugh.
I had slammed into a massive exit and fell flat, landing on my rear.
“Ah…”
A groan escaped me. My whole body throbbed.
After such a headlong sprint, it was a wonder I hadn’t broken a bone or bruised all over.
Thank you, sturdy body.
Just then—whoooosh, wheee!
Behind me came the wailing cries of sinister spirits that had missed their prey. My heart pounded in alarm.
I had to run.
I leapt up and, with eyes now a little used to the darkness, searched for the latch on the door. At the end of the latch was a spring. I slid it aside and, just as the book described, the door opened.
Light burst in so fiercely it blinded me. I threw up my arms and shut my eyes.
When I finally opened them, vision adjusting to the glow, I could only gasp in wonder.
“Wow!”
The book had described the exit as a cave in the cliffs opposite the harbor, outside the guild. But this was no ordinary cave.
The domed ceiling was pierced with a massive hole through which I could see the sky, awash in deep orange hues of sunset.
The sunlight pouring through dyed the cave walls with warm golds and oranges, shifting into a scarlet glow.
It felt like a secret Mediterranean retreat.
Best of all, the gently lapping sea—clear and crystalline, tinged with ice green—melded into this harmony.
Overcome by nature’s splendor, I stepped onto the sun-warmed sand.
“Wow!”
I hurriedly slipped off my shoes. The fine grains of sand seeped between my toes.
The heat surged into me, sending a flush through my whole body.
A moan escaped me, unbidden. It was like the searing warmth of a sauna enveloping me, loosening every muscle, flowing upward from my feet.
Then—rumble, thud!
Startled, I turned. The sound was the door closing by itself.
Phew…
The salty scent and sea breeze whispered that it was all right to rest for a moment.
Here, with only sky, wind, and waves, I could let go, if only briefly.
The crimson sky, burning like lithium as it sank, urged me too.
No, no—rest only after completing the mission!
I pressed on, crunching over the warm sand, toward my next destination.
Gerald was dumbfounded.
On his way back from the Academy, he had heard from Schmidt that Sinclair had visited the Dyson Guild’s temple, so he had gone to search the prayer room.
She had received leave to go out, but to slip into the temple without reporting? Suspicious. After all, Owenza and the current Orlésion Order were close.
Perhaps he could learn through informants whether her words had been truth or lies.
But to stand in the temple, speak politically about freeing the late empress from seclusion, and then vanish?
Gerald glared at the teddy bear clad in Sinclair’s clothes, arms folded, as though interrogating it.
There was no sign she had left. Yet the prayer room had no escape.
What is she plotting?
Quietly, he summoned Schmidt.
“Find her. Quietly. No one must know—do it discreetly.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Ariel mustn’t know either.”
“Yessir.”
“And say that I was here, praying with my wife for my mother’s return.”
When the door closed, Gerald pressed his lips into a tight line and clasped his hands, deep in thought.
If it wasn’t contact with the priests… did she slip away to meet that man again?
An unfamiliar vexation churned inside him. He glared at the teddy bear in Sinclair’s clothes with smoldering anger.
“Please, my lord, don’t do this!”
The man, startled by my sudden approach, pressed his head to the ground, butt raised, and shouted at the top of his lungs.
My disguise as a man must have been flawless.
Perhaps I should have added a beard. What a waste.
“Count Ashera!”
I spoke his name gently. He lifted his head, startled, and stared at me.
“Count Ashera, is that you?”
“Who are you?”
The moment his former title was revealed, hostility flared in his eyes.
I finished his task for him, drawing water with the bucket and pouring it into his wooden pail as I spoke.
“I’ve come only to make a deal—no need to bare your fangs.”
“A deal? With a slave?”
“I need the equipment from the secret laboratory you once used.”
“Oh, my, what are you talking about? Someone like me, doing experiments?”
He laughed nervously, eyes darting around. Well, who wouldn’t be afraid? Speak of experiments, and your head might roll.
“The unbreakable glass—I know of it.”
A flicker of light passed through his eyes, though he quickly schooled his face and snatched the bucket from me, drawing water again.
“I know nothing of such things, my lord.”
“No, no. You know it. I know it. And His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Héraes, knows it too.”
At my words, fury blazed in Count Ashera’s eyes.
“Did the emperor send you?”
He glared, rage surging. He tried to throw the bucket at me, but I caught his arm and easily subdued him.
“Ugh! My arm, my arm!”
“I resent what happened to you too. But venting your anger on me won’t help. Besides, I thought your invention was remarkable.”
“…”
“If you hand over the equipment, I’ll conduct experiments of my own. Unlike you, I’ll sit atop piles of gold. And then, I’ll buy you, free you from slavery.”
I loosened my grip. He turned, glaring at me.
“Don’t try to beguile me with nonsense, my lord.”
Beguile. That meant he was already half-beguiled.
Time to drive in the nail.
“Shall I explain? You melt quartz to make ordinary glass. Heat that glass to about 700 degrees, and it softens like jelly. If, at that state, you rapidly cool the surface with cold air, the surface hardens instantly, while the interior cools more slowly. This creates compressive stress on the outside, making the glass difficult to break.”
“Did you create this, my lord?”
“As if… How could I? You made it, didn’t you?”
His eyes glimmered. I grinned.
Count Ashera was a prodigy of invention—and loyal besides. The moment he invented unbreakable glass, he presented it to the emperor.
But the emperor, fearing its impact on the glass industry, decided it must be suppressed. And sometimes, to enforce order in the empire, a scapegoat was required.
So Ashera, with no ties to magic, was hauled before a witch trial and condemned to slavery.
His laboratory, fortunately, was near the guild—and it exceeded even my hopes.
Beakers and bowls, gas-collection tubes, test tubes, a small furnace, clamps, tongs, covers, graduated cylinders, evaporating dishes, filters, tripods, Erlenmeyer flasks, round-bottom flasks with flat bases and long necks, vacuum filter flasks—everything!
Nothing was missing.
Truly, geniuses had lived ahead of their time.
Ashera had been a genius, but the king’s wrath had reduced him to slavery. The humiliation and abuse he endured only fueled his thirst for revenge.
Ten years later, he plotted to kill Crown Prince Alfred—visiting the guild—instead of the emperor. He planned to ambush him at the well while drawing water.
But before he could act, the scheme was exposed, and he died a miserable death.
At the time I read it, I had raged—how dare he lay hands on Alfred instead of the emperor!
In any case, thanks to him, I had gained the laboratory equipment.
Now I just had to get it to my workshop. But how?
I decided to pack it all in crates, hidden from view. Better to send someone trustworthy to fetch it—too many eyes watched me whenever I went out.
With that plan in mind, my hands flew.
By the time I returned to the secret door, against the backdrop of a sunset sky, my heart trembled.
I had to reenter that pitch-black tunnel. My heart pounded wildly.
But when I flung the door open, I froze.
The escape passage was aglow with light.
Well, aren’t you a cheeky escape route.
Why hadn’t it lit up earlier?
No wonder Empress Kenneth hadn’t shrieked like I did while fleeing.
Had I pressed something when I tripped before?
Today, the goddess of fortune must have clasped my hand tight.
A smile spread over my face.
The door slammed shut behind me, but the sound felt like a joyous echo.
Now that I could see, the howling wind from before was gone.
Instead, I found myself entranced by the murals of sacred gods and goddesses, their nude forms bathed in light. Cherry blossoms painted on the walls shimmered enchantingly.
My mood soared. For the first time since coming here, I had obtained something I truly wanted, and with such ease.
Walking down the paved stone path, the clicking of my heels delighted me.
A song burst from me.
“O you, you, you, you, you.”
It felt as though someone beside me strummed a guitar and played a harmonica.
I kicked one foot forward, the other light and springy, dancing as I walked. My head bobbed side to side.
My arms swayed in time, folding and opening to the beat.
“Let’s walk together tonight, through these streets. How about a lullaby drifting in the night, oh yeah—”
On that “oh yeah,” I clenched a fist and punched the warm cave air.
At that moment, the door opened, and a man appeared.
“Wha—!”
I froze, one foot still raised.
