Chapter 74
The stairs continued all the way down underground. Cheshion took out the lantern magic tool he had brought and lit up the surroundings.
After going down the endless stairs for a while, Cheshion began to worry about Gremory, who had been silent for a long time.
“Mori, if you’re tired, it’s okay to rest… Mori?”
Only then did Cheshion realize that Gremory was gone.
He quickly came to his senses and looked around. Somehow, the stairs had vanished. There was nothing but darkness all around.
“Mori? Where did you go? Mori!”
Cheshion was left alone in an empty space with no structures. He shone his lantern around and shouted.
“Mori! Please answer me! Where are you?”
He searched desperately for Gremory, but no answer came.
“Please, Mori!”
The darkness gradually swallowed the space. There was no exit from the darkness anywhere.
After some time, just as his throat was about to give out, someone approached him.
“I’ll tell you where she is.”
It was a woman. Dirty, with blonde hair and blue eyes.
Her body glowed faintly white in the darkness.
“…Who are you?”
Cheshion, now very tense, scowled. The woman turned and started walking away, answering as she went.
“I’m the shadow that creeps beneath the earth.”
“What?”
At that moment, a line from the Witch’s Poem came to Cheshion’s mind:
“Ah, my sister,
My shadow creeping beneath the earth,
That day our fate changed like an eclipse.”
Cheshion raised his lantern and followed the woman.
“Are you connected to witches?”
“Stay close and follow me. It’s easy to get lost here.”
The woman answered vaguely and walked on. After a while, the darkness cleared and the lowest floor of Fort Poquint appeared.
There were people there. Researchers, judging by their white coats.
They seemed unaware of Cheshion and the woman, talking among themselves.
“This is too much—this is torture, isn’t it?”
“I agree. It’s about time they let Princess Seriety go.”
“And staying here is torture too. Being underground like this makes me feel like I’m going crazy.”
“Understandable. They pay well though. Our families live comfortably. We all came to Fort Poquint for that, didn’t we?”
They were saying exactly the same things Cheshion had heard from Hamburt. He instinctively realized this was the past—200 years ago.
“This is too inhumane, even if you say so.”
“Don’t think about it too deeply. We’re just workers following orders and getting paid.”
Cheshion approached them and looked around. Various experimental tools were scattered nearby. One book caught his eye.
It was a book about curing incurable diseases using dark magic.
Cheshion had heard about this book before, back when he was trying to save Iris, who had been accused as a witch. He had picked up some knowledge here and there.
There is no cure for incurable diseases. That book only contains painful methods to prolong life without meaning.
The researchers were refining fuel needed for dark magic. Small gems like black pearls were produced by their hands.
Cheshion asked the woman who had brought him to the past.
“Did the first emperor use dark magic to try to cure someone?”
“…Follow me.”
Without answering, the woman walked away again.
This time, they arrived at a room decorated like a noble’s bedroom. On the bed lay a woman suffering from a severe skin disease. Her face was wrapped in bandages.
Standing by her bedside was the first emperor, Hamburt de Prilliant. The woman on the bed shouted at him.
“Father, please just kill me! I can’t bear this anymore!”
“Just hold on a little longer, Seriety. Just a little! Please endure for a few more days!”
“I can’t! Please let me die!”
Seriety writhed in agony on the bed. On the bedside table was a large jewel resembling a black pearl. It was a device forcibly sustaining her life.
“I’m sorry. I just can’t let you go. If you endure for a few more days, you’ll fully recover. Please trust me.”
The mysterious woman who had led Cheshion there looked at Seriety expressionlessly, then turned and left the room. Cheshion followed her.
As soon as they crossed the threshold, the scene changed. It was the next day, inside the grand hall of the palace.
Hamburt was in a difficult situation. Some nobles had noticed that Princess Seriety had not been seen for a long time.
“Your Highness, rumors are spreading. Absurd rumors that Princess Seriety has been struck by heaven’s punishment and contracted an incurable disease.”
“The people are afraid. They think a curse has fallen on the royal family because the princess hasn’t gone outside for so long.”
Two hundred years ago, incurable diseases were seen as divine punishment or curses. Especially skin diseases, which showed ugly symptoms on the surface, were treated with horror. People even believed those afflicted were devils or witches and should be burned alive.
Because of this, Hamburt could not reveal Seriety’s condition to the public.
“Seriety is simply engrossed in her music studies and hasn’t gone outside. Soon I will hold a banquet so she can attend.”
Despite Hamburt’s confident declaration, the nobles’ suspicions did not subside. Only after Hamburt set a precise date for the banquet did they withdraw.
That night, Hamburt secretly went to Fort Poquint as usual. After briefly checking on Seriety’s condition underground, he left the room and quietly walked somewhere else.
In a secluded underground corner, there was an iron door. Hamburt opened it, revealing stairs leading even further down—to a place once used as an underground prison.
“…This is the only way now.”
Resolute, Hamburt took a torch from the wall and descended the stairs. Below was a chilling space lined with prison doors on both sides.
Searching around, Hamburt soon found a very thin woman in what had been a torture chamber.
He looked her over from head to toe. Her hair was so filthy it was hard to tell the original color. Her clothes were tattered and blackened.
“I left you to die, yet you survived by eating sewer rats and now you’re making things difficult for me.”
“……”
“Congratulations. Finally, you are useful. Come to your father. From now on, you are Seriety.”
Hamburt brought the dirty woman to the palace. She was entrusted to the head maid, who had been Seriety’s wet nurse.
The maid was shocked upon realizing the woman’s identity.
“T-This woman…! Isn’t she Amelia, Princess Seriety’s twin sister? Could she really still be alive?”
“Wash her quickly and fatten her up. From now on, that child will be Seriety.”
“Is that really okay? Twins born in the royal family are said to be cursed, and one must be starved to death before adulthood.”
“Don’t ask any more questions. Just do as you’re told.”
“Yes, Your Highness…”
The maid scrubbed Amelia clean and changed her into fresh clothes. Only then was Amelia’s face and blonde hair fully revealed.
Cheshion finally realized—the woman who had guided him to the past was Amelia.
Cheshion asked Amelia,
“You said you would guide me to Gremory. But why did you lead me 200 years into the past? Are you connected to Gremory?”
“……”
Amelia said nothing and moved on. Crossing another threshold, the scene changed again.
Amelia was forced to live as Seriety. She had almost forgotten how to speak, but could understand others. The maid treated Amelia harshly like livestock, teaching her court etiquette.
A month later, Hamburt held a royal banquet and presented Amelia there. Amelia did not dance, but sat beside Hamburt at the main table, passing time quietly before leaving.
This quelled the rumors that the princess was cursed and suffering from an incurable disease.
But the real problem remained. The true Seriety had to endure agonizing days alive, trapped by her father’s unwillingness to let her go.
Hamburt commanded the researchers,
“Prepare the ritual to swap the bodies of Amelia and Seriety. This is the last option.”
