Chapter 37 : The Deception is Right (1)

Cellos's eyes were shining with slight suspicion and great hope.

“In a certain country in the East, they say they use animals to chase ghosts.”

“A country in the East…….”

The 8th Prince frowned for a moment as if trying to recall a memory, then just shut his mouth as if he had remembered something.

He must have realized which Eastern country I was talking about.

That it was the homeland of Ran Abalan's mother, whom the kid had insulted at our first meeting.

The 8th Prince, too, must have recalled his atrocious behavior that day, as he glanced at me furtively.

I had no intention of making the uncomfortable kid feel at ease, so I ignored it and continued.

“Among them, squirrels are especially small and agile, and I heard they do not fear things that are not alive.”

“Really?! Yo?”

The 8th Prince asked urgently.

I nodded with a serious face.

“Yes.”

It was a lie.

A blatant lie.

What would I know about how they get rid of ghosts in the East?

I didn't even know if such a thing existed in the first place.

But the 8th Prince brat wouldn't investigate it thoroughly like the 1st Imperial Princess, and even if he did investigate, found nothing, and confronted me later, I could just claim it was a story I heard from my mother when I was young.

Once again, I offered my thanks and apologies to Ran Abalan's mother, wherever she might be.

Even for Cellos, my sudden claim that a squirrel chases ghosts seemed suspicious, as he grimaced and pointed his finger at the squirrel on the desk.

“Does something like that really chase ghosts?”

“Yes, it's a story passed down in the East. If not, why would I be raising a squirrel in a place like this.”

“True……”

My words seemed to convince him slightly, as he relaxed his expression.

Though he hadn't completely erased the light of suspicion.

Then, as if he suddenly remembered, the 8th Prince's eyes turned triangular as he confronted me.

“No, then why didn't you tell me yesterday?! Yo?!”

“I didn't know it was the kind of thing that would open the door and come in.”

At my shameless answer, the corners of Cellos's eyes shot up again, but I ignored him and continued.

“In that sense, I shall send that fellow over starting tonight. It should be able to chase the ghost. Perhaps this is the fellow that helped you last night.”

“Squeak?! Squeak squeak!”

Whether it understood my words or just sensed the strange atmosphere, the squirrel started freaking out, but it seemed to appear differently in the 8th Prince's eyes.

“……It certainly does look valiant.”

“Right?”

“I thought it was at least related to the crow.”

He had a good memory for useless details.

“So, do you need it or not? If you don't need it, you can leave.”

As I made a gesture as if to stand up, the 8th Prince hastily stopped me.

“No, I need it. For now, please send it over tonight without anyone knowing.”

Perhaps because of his experience of being bitten once, the kid cast a dubious glance as he made the request.

“Where are your thanks?”

At my demand, the kid glared at me again, but I just shrugged.

The kid squeezed his eyes shut and spat out the words.

“Thank…… yooouu.”

“And?”

“Older brother…….”

“Yes, Older brother-niiim will send someone tonight.”

At my reply, the kid shot up, slammed the door, and left.

I smiled wryly at that childish retreating figure.

“Squeak! Kkwek!”

Though the fellow that was freaking out, thoroughly angry, remained.

“Don't worry. I'm not sending you.”

Because there's someone here who can turn into a squirrel.

***

Jing went down the stairs, muffling his footsteps.

His face, flickering in the candlelight, was stiff.

He had been living quietly for no short period, if only to avoid arousing the suspicion of the Elder or Ratel, but he couldn't help but be suspicious of the bizarre experience from the other day.

When the Elder handed him the book, Jing clearly felt pressure.

A sense of terror, as if his lifeline was being squeezed, the sound of his heart pounding like crazy, and the guilt of having done something terribly wrong.

They were sensations impossible to forget.

Because when he first encountered the tattered corpse of the child on the streets of the Capital, Jing had suffered from this uncomfortable sensation for a while back then, too.

The problem was, why on earth did he have to feel the same thing while facing a mere paper book.

Why did I have to tremble in fear, as if my life's values were being shaken to the core, in front of a mere bundle of paper.

The more the questions continued, the more a sense of duty urged him to go there as soon as possible.

In the end, Jing had no choice but to take action.

Meaning, he had no choice but to secretly head to the underground at dawn, like this.

He'd never even thought of sneaking out of his bedroom at dawn when he was young.

Jing chuckled at himself, feeling like he was going through a late rebellious phase, but he didn't stop his steps descending to the underground.

The door he reached was old and dry.

A shabby door with no separate locking device.

At the carelessness that seemed to prove anyone could come and go, he clenched and unclenched his hand for a moment, then turned the doorknob.

***

“Cough.”

Compared to his spirited entrance, an uncool cough burst out.

Perhaps from the impact of opening the door, fine dust rose up inside.

I've thought this since last time, but they really don't clean much.

Jing leaned his body inside and looked around.

Nothing had changed.

It was still a small, messy, and chaotic archive.

An archive so ordinary it was shabby.

To think everything here is Amica's scriptures.

But as soon as he realized what kind of books surrounded him, his heart started pounding like crazy again.

An alarm sound rang in his head once more.

His heart was beating incredibly fast.

-Looking at Amica's scriptures is betrayal. Betrayal is treason. Treason is a death sentence.

“Death sentence……”

Jing's hand, which he'd muttered absentmindedly, trembled.

Eventually, the tattered book fell from his hand.

Jing squeezed his eyes shut.

There was no sound of the book falling.

“Coming all the way here at this hour, your passion for learning is extraordinary.”

Not that someone's sarcastic voice was any better.

***

Golden eyes sparkled in the darkness of the archive.

“I believe I told you that you need the Elder's permission to enter the archive.”

Ratel said, looking down at Jing, who still couldn't lift his head from panting.

It was a stern statement, but not in a tone that rebuked Jing.

“What is this, what on earth? Is there some strange device that makes the reader lose their mind? Does everyone who reads it get like this……”

“Get like what?”

In the shadow cast by the bookshelf next to the doorway, another pair of golden eyes was gazing intently at Jing.

When did he come in?

While he was surprised by the fact that he hadn't noticed the priest approaching so close, even if he had been out of it, the Elder approached slowly, his long beard fluttering.

He took the book from Ratel and opened it.

“How is it, did it feel like you were breaking the laws of the world?”

The sound of the yellowed paper turning was like the clash of blades.

Jing couldn't stop flinching, even knowing he looked ridiculous.

At that sight, the old man smiled so wide his beard lifted.

“Still, you managed to think of coming here. It would have been better if you'd had the courage to open it.”

But you still couldn't open it.

He muttered and licked his lips as if in regret.

“What did you do to me?”

In front of Jing's fierce eyes, the old man was relaxed, as if watching a cat acting cute.

On the other hand, Jing was becoming so short of breath it was hard to tell if he couldn't control his rapidly beating heart or his agitation.

“Rather than doing something, I just stimulated you, who had done something to you.”

“I've always wanted to fix that habit of yours of beating around the bush.”

Ratel grabbed the arm of Jing, who was approaching threateningly.

“You seem too agitated. For today, that's enough……”

Ratel's words were not finished.

Thud!

Because he had collapsed to the floor with a sound like his skull cracking.

“……I didn't know your leg was fully healed.”

“There are many things you don't know.”

The Elder stared with slightly surprised eyes at Ratel, who had been instantly taken down by Jing's hand, and at Jing's right leg, which he had been aiming for.

The right ankle, which moved without difficulty, was pressing down on the unconscious young man's right leg.

“Since when was it an act?”

“I don't think that's the important matter right now.”

Swish.

“I've been asking why I'm like this.”

At the sight of Jing pulling the sword from Ratel's waist and aiming it at his neck, the Elder raised both hands to show his surrender.

“It's not that you're sick. It's not that we did anything either.”

Jing glared at the calmly speaking Elder with eyes full of suspicion.

“It's just that you've been fooled.”

“I think I just said it. If speaking in circles like that is a bad habit you've picked up, I'm willing to fix it, regardless of age.”

The old man, who had been glancing between Jing and Ratel with a 'hmm', finally sighed and opened his mouth.

“Have you ever experienced the world turning upside down, Jing?”

“What kind of bullshit is that?”

“The feeling that everything you believed in is overturned in an instant, an experience where what was common sense until yesterday is no longer common sense.”

“I've never……”

Jing's words, which had started with a grimace at the philosopher-like speech, slowly trailed off.

“Looks like something comes to mind.”

He wanted to say there was no such thing, if only because the confident voice was annoying, but a past memory had already flashed in Jing's mind.

The anxiety when opening the book in the study, the sound of his heart pounding like crazy.

And the image of the blood-covered child's face.

“That, that was a completely different matter. That was just……”

Jing, stumbling over his words, looked unstable.

In reality, his mind was a battleground between the rising past and the self saying he shouldn't go any deeper.

It felt like his head and chest were boiling.

The Elder kept his eyes fixed on him and slowly lowered his hands.

“Jing, this matter is still too early to discuss. It takes time to accept.”

At the words 'a long time', Jing's lowered head twitched.

One thing came to mind in his complicated head.

“I really am foolish.”

Jing's eyes, as he raised his head with a self-deprecating laugh, were bloodshot but not blurry.

“Let me out of here. Right now.”

He had only one purpose from the beginning.

To escape this place and return to Flinn and Tollin.

He didn't know what that person wanted to do, but that was the only thing important to him.

As strength entered his loosened fingers, the sword once again aimed threateningly at Ratel's neck.

“You're more extreme than you look, Jing. As God's representative, I have a responsibility to test you.”

Jing scoffed at the Elder's sigh-mixed reply.

“I've met a few of those they call 'gods' in the Empire, and they don't really need emissaries. They're not very interested in us.”

He thought his cynical reply had provoked the Elder, who served as the representative of God Amica, to some extent.

He was right.

Though it seemed to be in a different way than Jing had expected.

The old man smiled more brightly than ever.

It was a refreshing laugh from him, who had only ever shown a gentle smile.

“That much might be alright.”

Jing was dumbfounded and asked back.

“What?”

“It means I'm leaving that child in your care from now on.”

What does that……. Flustered, Jing couldn't even open his mouth.

Even though the Elder hadn't moved a fingertip, a light as bright as the sun radiated from him.

A mass of light enveloped Jing and Ratel.

“Damn it.”

Through Jing's blurring vision as he spat out a curse, he could see the Elder's mouth, still smiling broadly.

“The child's name is Ratel, Ratel Loera. He eats whatever he's given, so don't worry too much!”

“Are you crazy?!!”

“So cold.”

Jing yelled his lungs out at the Elder, who was spouting nonsense even in this situation, but it probably didn't reach him.

Jing didn't stop shouting out of frustration, knowing the other person wouldn't listen at all.

I'm worried sick not knowing how my own son is doing, what nonsense is this about some child.