FINAL CHAPTER
A MIDNIGHT GATHERING
A white porcelain teacup fell to the floor, shattering with a faint clang. A young man watched in a daze as smooth, flaxen hair passed in front of his eyes as if in slow motion.
How had things come to this? The young man wandered through the sea of his thoughts, searching for an answer that didn’t exist. His hand stretched out but was met by dark gray pillars with padlocks on them.
“This is…fine.” On the other side of the bars, the woman leaned back in her chair and smiled gently. She had not lost her dignity even in her final moments. “This is the…only way.”
A streak of crimson fell from the corner of her mouth. The red droplets were so poisonously vibrant that they seemed evil on her skin, which was so pale it looked almost translucent.
“Please promise me…that you’ll create a peaceful world…and a good country.”
“Yes, I swear. I’ll definitely bring peace to this country.” The young man’s vow, which was made with a bleeding heart, made the girl’s indigo eyes crinkle with delight. With a faint smile, she quietly let go of the light.
“Josephina. To me, you truly were…”
The only witnesses to the two tears trickling down the young man’s cheeks were the insects swarming around the bonfire in the dungeon.
✦ ✦ ✦
Oswald Draco Alesta Platina, the current king of the Platina Kingdom, opened his eyes in a room lit only by candlelight when a knock sounded on his door. The crimson color of his eyes darkened even more when lit by the candles’ flickering flames.
“Josephina…” Pressing a hand against his forehead, he realized that he was covered in a cold sweat. Apparently, he’d been dreaming about the past. Picking up a wine glass from his table, he quenched his thirst.
Knock, knock.
The sudden knock echoed in the room and Oswald turned his attention to the door. “Come in,” he called.
The door opened silently and a boy with bluish-gray hair entered. He was wearing all black as if in an attempt to not stand out, and there was confusion in his gaze behind his glasses.
“Excuse me for coming so late, Your Majesty.”
“Oh, it’s you, Tuvalu. I don’t mind.” Relieved to see the boy Oswald had made the first prince’s attendant, he invited the boy into his room.
Tuvalu slowly and silently approached the king, handing him a stack of papers. With a single glance, Oswald realized that it was a report on the commotion that had occurred at Lucrezia Academy earlier that day.
He had heard there was a commotion but didn’t know any of the details. But when the servants who had returned from the academy carried the first prince into his bedroom with terrified looks on their faces, he’d had his suspicions that his incompetent and foolish son had gone and done something ridiculous again.
Taking the report, he skimmed through the first page.
“…What in the world?” Oswald finished reading the report before throwing it on the table and massaging his brow.
It hadn’t been long since he had received Lucas’s report on the magical formulas. The situation had completely defied his expectations, already going off the rails. He hadn’t expected things to progress so far in such a short time.
“As it says, this is a report on the commotion caused at the academy by the first prince and his fiancée,” Tuvalu announced.
“I can tell that just by looking at it. The contents of the report are the real issue.” Oswald glared at the stack of papers on the table, taking his anger out on it even though the report itself was innocent.
Oswald had been curious about who had been able to accomplish the magic formulas when Lucas had shown them to him a month ago, but Lucas was reluctant to give him a name. So Oswald had set out to find their identity for himself, and he had finally found it.
“No one knows what caused the incident, but a holy witch-killing relic was found at the scene.”
“The holy witch-killing sword? Don’t tell me he took another relic out.”
“W-Well… We questioned the museum’s curator, and it seems to be a regular occurrence,” Tuvalu struggled to answer.
“That boy…” Oswald gave an exasperated sigh and put a hand to his brow. Picking up the report again, his eyes landed on a sentence in the last paragraph. “Still, is what’s written here true?”
“Yes. Miss Drossell is the one who defeated the mysterious monster. I saw with my own eyes how she easily subdued the monster with overwhelming power even though she shouldn’t have any magical power at all.”
Naturally, he couldn’t ignore the monster’s presence, but Oswald was much more interested in Drossell.
Drossell Noa Filiaregis was the first prince’s fiancée and had improved upon the magic formulas. Plus, it was highly likely that she possessed the power Oswald and his people had been seeking for many long years.
Up until a month ago, she hadn’t been anything more than his son’s fiancée. He had already given up on the first prince, so he didn’t pay Drossell any extra attention.
“Hey, Tuvalu. Do you think that girl has a grudge against me?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve been observing her for the past month, and it seems to me like she is not concerned with anything that doesn’t personally interest her. She didn’t show any special interest in the first prince, so I don’t think she would feel any differently for you, Your Majesty.”
“I see.” But that wasn’t the issue now. Drossell’s power and potential were immeasurable. If her powers were real, then, as her king, he couldn’t afford to recklessly put her in a position of opposition. “I must meet with her, or I won’t know for sure,” he decided.
“Then I’ll go as a messenger to the duke’s house first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Yes, please do.”
After bowing to Oswald, Tuvalu quietly left the room. Once he was gone, Oswald gazed at the view of the night sky from his window in silence. Then, without taking his eyes off of the scenery outside, he murmured, “If you’re here, you should come out.”
His words fell quietly in the moonlit room. Finally, an old man appeared in a corner of the dimly lit room. He was short, not even reaching Oswald’s waist, and his white beard stood out in the darkness.
“My apologies. It was hard to find the right time to leave with Tuvalu around.”
Only Oswald and the old man knew of the secret passage leading to this room.
“What do you think about this incident, David?” the king asked the old man.
“In what way?”
“Which direction will this incident make our country sway in?”
“It’s hard for me to say, but don’t you already know the answer for yourself, Your Majesty? That’s why you appointed that girl to be the first prince’s fiancée.”
David was right. Oswald slowly closed his crimson eyes before asking, “Do you think that girl will lend her strength to our country?”
“I’m sure it will depend on your response to her, Your Majesty. She may look difficult, but she’s actually a simple child. She doesn’t hold back with those she views as her enemies, but her care and consideration are endless for those she accepts.”
“I see…” Oswald opened his eyes and glanced at David. “Did you know that this would happen from the beginning?”
“You overestimate me, Your Majesty. I’m just a human. It’s impossible for me to know everything the future holds in store.”
“So you only know part of it?” Oswald’s eyes met David’s. His face was hidden by the white beard and Oswald couldn’t get a read on his emotions or what he was thinking. “You were the one who suggested that Miss Drossell be a marriage candidate for the next heir to the throne three years ago. You knew about her value from the beginning, didn’t you?”
“Ohoho, who’s to say?” David joked, making Oswald sigh.
David didn’t like to talk about himself. They had known each other for about thirty years, but all Oswald knew about the other man was that he had been serving the kings of this country for generations. Also, that he was no ordinary human.
“I still can’t read you.”
“Ohoho, I’ll take that as a compliment,” David laughed freely, his beard shaking with the movement. “Well, if you’ll excuse me…”
“Yeah.” David turned on his heel and Oswald returned to looking out the window.
Behind him, David suddenly said, “Your Majesty, would you believe me know if I told you that the second daughter of Duke Filiaregis, who has brought spell techniques and sorcery to this world, holds the key to the fate of it?” Leaving the nostalgic prophecy behind, David melted into the darkness the same way he had come.
“Yeah, I believe you,” Oswald murmured without turning around. There was no one in the room to hear him.
Oswald hadn’t believed the prophecy the first time he had heard it. Now, he realized that David’s words were true.
“I wonder if my wish will finally be granted.”
In the empty room, Oswald took the last sip of wine left in his glass and smiled.
His smile, seen only by the full moon, was somehow joyous, lonely, and self-deprecating all at once.