45. A Gamble Against Time (2)
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The meeting between Eizel and Flame could only have happened by chance.
“How on earth did you even get this far in? I only found this place by accident too.”
“Ah, did you get lost like I did?”
If you happened to run into someone in a hidden section of the library at such a deserted hour, then naturally it would look that way.
But for Flame, it hadn’t been chance.
It had been intentional.
She had guessed that Eizel would be here around this time, and because she remembered the original fantasy-romance story, she had been able to come straight here without even going through the trouble of searching for the hidden room.
“I just…… uh, yeah. I found it by accident too.”
“Right? The librarian always leaves right on time anyway, so it’s okay if we stay a bit longer.”
“They probably don’t even know we’re in here. That librarian is too lazy to bother keeping records.”
Eizel chattered away in an excited voice, seemingly just delighted by the fact that she could read a little longer.
There was a strange power in that birdlike voice of hers, one that naturally loosened the heart.
But it did nothing to ease the bitterness inside Flame.
“……What were you reading?”
“Ah, take a look at this. I’ve gotten a little interested in the Twelve Divine Months lately. You know about what happened on the Levian Coast, right? Apparently that was actually all because of Blue Winter December’s curse.”
That curious little girl was the sort who, once something caught her attention, would dig into it without holding back.
“And then, just by coincidence, there’s a book here about the Twelve Divine Months, right? Well…… I guess it’ll probably stop at the level of researching folk beliefs, though.”
Eizel probably had no idea.
She had no idea that the book she held to her chest was something only a very small number of Stella’s professors were even allowed to read……
and that it had been written personally by Principal Eltman Eltwin himself.
A hundred years ago, when Eltman Eltwin had sensed that the time had come for him to retire from active life, hadn’t he traveled across the world?
During that journey, he met countless heroes, hidden recluses, mysterious life forms, and legendary beasts.
Among those extraordinary encounters……
there had also been the Twelve Divine Months.
Under ordinary assumptions, no one would believe that detailed records about mythical beings like the Twelve Divine Months would just be sitting in some school library.
Just as Eizel herself assumed.
But this place was not one that anyone could enter.
Only someone who really, truly, naturally walked wherever their feet led them……
and ‘by chance’ ended up here……
could ever find it.
Eizel, of course, didn’t understand that at all.
“Sounds interesting.”
“Do you want to read it together?”
The moment Eizel began reading that book, her tragedy had begun.
And if there was a single best way to stop it, it was this:
make sure she never got to read that book.
“Really? I’m curious. Let me see it for a second.”
“Here you go.”
Without the slightest trace of suspicion, Eizel handed it over.
Flame stared down at the book now in her hands and hesitated briefly.
She was certain.
The instant Eizel truly laid her hands on this, she would no longer have any hope of a good future.
Most likely……
once Eizel learned the truth, she would spend years wasting away like a ruined shell of a person.
And even Baek Yuseol would not be able to stop that kind of thing.
After all, no matter how many disasters, accidents, and calamities he had resolved up to now,
the tragedy born from truth itself was not the sort of thing he could prevent.
There was, however,
one way to stop it right here and now.
Invest just the tiniest amount of mana……
and tear the book apart.
If she did that, Eizel would never learn why her father had died, or the secret hidden behind it.
‘……Tear it up.’
It was the only choice.
Maybe living on without knowing anything would be better for her.
……And yet.
“Ah, I actually read the middle section first. There’s one really interesting part in there.”
“……What?”
“You read this? Already?”
“Huh? Y-Yes……. Was I not supposed to?”
Flame’s whole body jolted, but Eizel didn’t seem to notice and kept talking.
“Anyway, just like how Blue Winter December left behind the Winter’s Heart as one of his fragments, and Red Summer June split off the Fire Spirit Flower, Silver Age November apparently did the same. One of his sacred relics is said to let you glimpse events from the past…… Hm? Flame, what’s wrong?”
“……Nothing.”
Too late.
Now that Eizel already knew that much, Flame no longer had any grounds to stop her.
Flame stared blankly at the book in her hands, her expression drained.
“So…… there’s still a little summer vacation left, right? I was thinking of actually going to find it.”
“……Find it?”
“Yeees…… I know it sounds kind of stupid, right? I’m just thinking of treating it like a little trip, really. I mean, I don’t even know whether it actually exists or not.”
Yeah.
It really did sound stupid.
“But you never know, right? If it really is a real thing, I might finally be able to reveal the truth about my father to the world!”
Eizel’s father, Isaac Morf, had been killed by the Adolevit royal family while branded with the most humiliating accusation in the magical world:
dark traitor.
And for ten years after that,
Eizel had insisted again and again that her father had been wronged, but the magical world had never once accepted her words.
So she had waited.
Strengthening her own power little by little, waiting for the day she could uncover the truth and clear her father’s name.
“That’s why, if there’s even the slightest bit of hope, I’m willing to try anything.”
“I see.”
Flame nodded stiffly, then, as though making up her mind, spoke to Eizel in a firm voice.
“Then I’m coming with you.”
“……What?”
“You said it’d feel like going on a trip, right? Good timing for me too. I’ve been under a ton of stress lately.”
“T-Together? You know, I can just go by myse—”
“I’m coming with you. That’s final.”
After making that declaration, Flame turned and walked straight out of the library.
“W-Wait?”
Eizel’s startled voice came from behind her, but Flame didn’t care.
If Eizel really was going to follow the original story to its end after all……
then Flame had decided she would see that path through together with her.
Cradle of the Heavenly Spirit Tree, White Castle.
“Yaaawn……”
Lime Taeseong, one of the queen’s direct royal guard knights, let out a huge yawn and absentmindedly wiped away the tears welling at the corners of his eyes.
Just because he was one of the knights serving the queen at the closest distance possible didn’t mean he had to look perfectly upright every second of every day, did it?
“Taeseong. I told you to keep your dignity while inside the White Castle.”
In contrast, his twin younger sister, Lime Taeseon, always maintained a strict and disciplined bearing no matter where she was, and she never missed a chance to scold her brother.
“Ah, ah…… right……”
Lime Taeseong hurriedly pulled his staff closer against his chest and tried to look dignified.
Not that it did anything about his languid, sleepy demeanor.
‘I’m tired……’
As one of the two knights charged with protecting the queen from the closest possible range, Lime Taeseong had spent years living in a cabin deep in the forest for Kkotseorin’s sake.
Perhaps it was because of that long habit of living out there, but he had gradually stopped caring about other people’s eyes on him altogether.
And as a result, he had become completely lazy.
Of course, his skills were still impeccable, and he had served the queen for so long that he had not lost Kkotseorin’s trust.
But from Lime Taeseon’s point of view, his attitude was still infuriating.
“The queen…… really is working hard again today……”
“Yeah. It’s a fine sight.”
When they peeked into the queen’s office, they saw Kkotseorin at work from morning until night without resting for even a single day.
Wrapped in a black veil and dress, rushing busily from one task to another, she looked so different that to Lime Taeseong—who had spent his whole life at her side—it was almost impossible to reconcile with the girl he knew.
“Because of that, I hear the Council of Elders has lost a lot of influence lately.”
At Taeseon’s comment, Taeseong let out a chuckle.
“Those nasty old bastards really did run wild while Her Majesty was gone, didn’t they?”
“They did.”
Whenever the queen was absent for any significant length of time, it was only natural that the power of the High Elf Council of Elders would rise.
And because of that, for decades they had been drumming up their own authority, banging their own gong, and basically bowling their own way through things however they pleased.
Then suddenly the queen came back and started correcting every last rule, so naturally the elders were less than pleased these days.
Then again, what could they even do about it?
They could not oppose the one closest to the World Tree.
“Paenal. I’m fairly sure I told you to remove the Elder Council certification mark from this document. When a department directly under the queen acts, it has no need to obtain approval from the Council of Elders.”
Just then, Kkotseorin began scolding someone, and the eyes of both Taeseon and Taeseong drifted naturally back toward the office.
“……But it has always been that way. It’s a tradition upheld for over thirty years……”
“Always? Did you just say ‘always’?”
Oh no.
Taeseong put a hand to his forehead.
The word Her Majesty hated most in the world was always.
Elves, by nature, feared change intensely.
And the one who had shattered that conservative culture of leaving everything the way it had ‘always’ been for ages was none other than Kkotseorin herself.
It seemed the younger high elves who had joined recently still didn’t properly understand that.
“When I was here, it was never ‘always’ that way to begin with. Change it at once.”
The moment she started tearing apart that absurd rule which had demanded Elder Council approval for every single matter handled within White Castle, several officials visibly soured.
Kkotseorin watched each and every expression on their faces.
Perhaps because she had weakened the condition of Love-Absorbing Heart-Seizing Body while simultaneously activating the ability of Crimson Spring March’s blessing……
she could now properly read the thoughts and emotions hidden beneath their expressions.
‘……I need to cut out the roots of the Council of Elders as quickly as possible.’
Her decisions were swift.
“Meidi? We need to carry out a full investigation of the palace officials. Bring me the complete list of all administrative staff by this evening.”
“Y-Yes, Your Majesty!”
The girl named Meidi, newly brought in to fill the role of aide, answered in a flustered rush.
The officials all went pale.
“Whew~ Her Majesty’s got charisma, huh?”
“……Yeah. I’ve never seen Her Majesty like this before.”
When they thought back on the days Kkotseorin had spent living quietly hidden away in the cabin, she had seemed little more than a gentle, pure girl who loved flowers.
She had been someone who longed for an ordinary life more than anyone, even while being afraid to go outside.
Someone who loved sunlight, yet feared lifting her head to face it.
That fragile, delicate girl.
But that had only been a misunderstanding born from the fact that they had seen only the timid Kkotseorin who hid herself away.
Kkotseorin as elf queen was different.
She possessed the charisma and leadership befitting a monarch, as well as the resolute decisiveness to rip up and overturn an entire culture that had long been rooted in stubborn stagnation.
To be perfectly honest, ever since returning to the throne, she had shown them such cold and fearsome sides of herself day after day that it had become difficult to even imagine her as the same person she had once been.
Even Taeseong and Taeseon—both 7-Class mages—occasionally found themselves shrinking back a little.
“Still, I think Her Majesty looks even cooler like this.”
“……You do?”
“Yeah. She looks like she’s finally doing what she truly wants to do. She looks happy.”
The girl who had once done nothing but endure each day……
now lived more passionately than ever before, driven by a clear purpose.
From the point of view of the two knights who had always stayed at her side, it was even moving to watch.
And so—
they believed Kkotseorin would live forever without ever losing that regal dignity of hers.
They believed she would remain forever as a charismatic elf queen—
one who would overturn the rotten laws of the palace, usher in sweeping reforms, open exchanges with nations all across the world, revitalize culture, and raise the status of elves higher than ever before.
That was what they firmly believed.
Taeseong, Taeseon, I’m sorry.
A special guest is coming tonight, so I’m going to slip out for a little while.
I’ll be back soon, so please don’t worry!
(・ᴗ・)。・°☆
……Until one night,
when the queen secretly left behind a note that sounded like it had been written by a childish young girl and escaped the castle without her royal guards noticing.
“W-What is this?!”
Lime Taeseong only realized much too late that the queen had gone missing, and began shouting at the top of his lungs.
Taeseon collapsed to the floor on the spot.
“Y-Your Majesty……? This has to be a joke……”
At that completely immature act of hers, the hearts of the two royal guard knights dropped straight into the abyss.
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