Chosen by the Northern Grand Duke

Chapter 53: Cassion (4)

There are relationships where you can know just by looking into each other's eyes.

Trust brings it, and time builds it.

Elaine does not yet have such a relationship with anyone.

Though there are many people she trusts, there is no one she knows inside and out.

It was that kind of life.

The knights trust and follow Elaine, and Elaine trusts those knights, but.

That foundation is Serzila.

The name Serzila is what created that relationship.

Of course, that is enough.

To wish for more was greed.

From here on, it was Elaine's part.

Based on the name Serzila, Elaine would build her relationships with the North.

One day, she would be able to know any knight inside and out just by looking into their eyes.

For now, expression was still needed.

She has to speak to be known, and reveal her emotions to be felt.

Even her closest knights were like that.

How could she know the inner thoughts of a mage she had only met recently.

And just by looking into his eyes.

……Still, she had no intention of killing him.

The time she had spent with Harad was the basis for that. There was plenty of room to listen.

She had intended to subdue him first, and then listen.

‘……Harad.’

But the sword was swung at Cassion.

At a knight. And at Cassion, who had even spoken.

Why?

Elaine did not understand her own actions.

It was the same now.

Her eyes were looking at Harad, not at Cassion, who had been wronged until the end.

Something like dust fell from the sky.

It was a fragment of mana. What had been Harad's magic was crumbling.

Beneath it, a corpse stood.

Its entire body was covered in blood. Its face was not even properly visible. If it hadn't been for the just-disappeared projection, she wouldn't have even recognized him as Harad.

Seeing that sight, her mouth opened on its own.

“You, are you alright?”

“……”

Instead of answering, Harad staggered.

Elaine caught the falling Harad.

This time too, it was not her own will.

Her body had moved without her knowing.

It was a posture as if she were embracing his upper body, and Elaine didn't even notice the blood getting on her own body.

Harad’s body was too hot.

It felt as if she would get burned just by touching him.

No, she already had. Sizzle. The clothes that touched Harad melted. The smell of something cooking came from her body.

Nevertheless, Elaine did not let go of Harad.

On the contrary, she held him carefully, lest her heavenly power harm him.

Why? It was when Elaine's mind was becoming confused.

“……”

A sound seeped into her left ear.

It was the voice of Harad, who was leaning his face on Elaine’s shoulder.

“Rabbit?”

Elaine managed to interpret it.

Then Harad's face moved very slightly. It seemed like an affirmation.

It was an out-of-the-blue statement, but Elaine understood immediately.

A rabbit. That magical beast had not attacked Harad. On the contrary, it had healed Harad, who had been injured by his own magic. With some magical item.

“A marble.”

Elaine supported Harad's body with her shoulder and chest, moving only her hands.

After fumbling with Harad's body, she found his pants pocket and slipped her hand in. A round object was caught in her left pocket. It was the marble.

Now, what should she do?

“Heart?”

The core of a mage was the heart.

Elaine's left hand was carefully extended. Parting the space between their clinging bodies, it went up and rubbed the marble in front of Harad's left chest.

Then the cool marble became cold.

It was a chill that even Elaine, a Serzila, had never experienced before. It was even greater than the chill of the boundary. Her left hand felt as if it were freezing.

That extreme chill seemed to be just right for Harad, who held the sun.

Harad's body, which had been hotter than fire, cooled down rapidly. The trembling convulsions also began to subside.

“Hooo.”

How much time had passed, a particularly long breath tickled Elaine's left ear.

“Pardon me.”

With the voice that echoed in her ear, the weight she had been feeling on her shoulder disappeared. Harad was standing on his own two feet.

He took a couple of steps back and swept back his blood-soaked hair. With that hand, he rubbed his face and wiped off the blood.

“Thanks to you, I lived.”

The face that said so was surprisingly full of life.

Only then did Elaine notice that Harad’s injuries were strange.

To be precise, the direction from which the blood that covered Harad’s body came from was strange. It was not an external injury. It was all an injury that had started from within.

“Was it like this with the rabbit too?”

The rabbit had not attacked Harad.

But Harad had been injured, and had been healed by the rabbit with that marble.

It looked the same this time.

Harad had not been hurt by Cassion, but by his own magic.

“It's the aftereffects. I’m still a 3rd Rank. It's nothing.”

“That?”

Elaine pointed at Harad's body.

All she could see was blood.

“I did it trusting in the marble.”

“You couldn't even move.”

“Thanks to you, I lived.”

Harad thanked her again.

“……You would have died if I hadn't come.”

“But you came.”

To Elaine, it sounded like he was saying it was purely a matter of luck.

“……Be careful. Your life belongs to Serzila, not to you.”

Elaine spat out bluntly.

For some reason, she was displeased.

“Why did you come alone? Were you really planning to seek asylum?”

Elaine gripped her sword.

It was because she remembered Cassion's last words.

“I was originally planning to come with Ellen.”

Asylum…… Elaine, who had been repeating that word, flinched.

“But she suddenly fell asleep. Even though she said she would stay up all night by my side until Cassion attacked.”

“……”

“That's why I almost died.”

Elaine, who had been rolling her eyes, finally straightened her shoulders.

Right now, she was Elaine, not Ellen.

“But why did you come to the boundary? You could have stayed in the Inner Fortress.”

“If I had, I would have died without a trace. I only lasted this long because I was here.”

Elaine nodded her head.

It was a plausible answer. The Sanctuary of Fire. This land makes Harad stronger.

If it hadn't been for this land, and if Cassion had been determined to assassinate him, Harad would already be dead.

……If Cassion is really a mage.

“Still don't believe it?”

“All I saw was your magic. And Cassion's sword.”

“He was using magic before the Grand Heir arrived.”

“Coincidentally, only you saw it.”

Though she said that, Elaine's expression was uncomfortable.

She was already feeling that she could no longer deny it.

“……I’ll ask the person himself directly.”

“Didn’t you kill him?”

“He’s not dead.”

Cassion was alive.

“I hit him with the flat of my sword.”

Because that sword had been swung at Harad at first.

Elaine had no intention of killing Harad.

“Why did you steal Ellen’s sword?”

“Because I was resentful.”

“……”

“And now it’s mine.”

I should have hit that annoying face.

‘What’s so pretty about that.’

Elaine did not understand.

* * *

The North is the harshest land.

The world says so, but in fact, the coldest land is beyond it.

The coldest land in the world was the Otherworld.

A land where fire is rare. Cassion came from there.

His will was not important. No, he had none.

An insect is like that. What was important was that the order had been given. For the moon. Cassion had simply been planted in Serzila.

‘Usable.’

And so he caught the eye of Grand Duke Aratus.

‘Lord Cassion.’

Gained the trust of the young Grand Heir.

‘Commander!’

Carried the trust of the knights on his back.

Was it difficult? It was not.

The Wall of the continent. Unfitting for its great fame, Serzila was loose. Simple and naive. In other words, ignorant. That's why it was warm.

That warmth was difficult.

It was a warmth that did not exist in the Otherworld. That must be why.

‘Commander!’

Even in a moment like this, Serzila comes to mind.

“……”

A mage does not dream.

Cassion knew that his consciousness was drifting.

He was reflecting on his past memories, and already longing for them.

So…… he was still alive.

Cassion naturally knew to whom he owed that.

“……Grand Heir.”

Elaine was sitting in front of him.

Harad was beside her.

Just a moment ago, he had looked as if he could die at any moment, but the Harad in front of him looked fine.

It must mean that he had prepared a way to survive beforehand.

Like a mage.

Cassion let out a dry laugh.

He was a mage, but he was not mage-like. He had become like that.

“Still calling me ‘Your Grace’, for a mage.”

Harad said. Cassion glared at him.

That gaze was more blatant than before. It was because he had no intention of hiding it anymore.

“That’s not for you to say.”

Elaine glanced at Harad.

Harad answered confidently.

“I am an official one.”

Cassion is not.

That must have been the problem.

“Is everything I heard true?”

Elaine said with a bitter face.

Cassion did not turn away from that face.

“I am sorry, Grand Heir.”

Cassion knew what his last task was.

It was time to prepare the truth, not excuses.

“……You’re not denying it.”

Elaine's face, who had been doubtful until then, turned cold.

“It was all you.”

Elaine said to herself.

She felt pathetic for having defended Cassion so much.

“What did you do in Serzila?”

“The order I received was to……”

“I asked what you did, not what your orders were.”

“……I reported on their movements.”

Elaine laughed coldly.

“For a 2nd Knights Commander, was that all you did?”

“I was merely planted.”

Cassion was a seed prepared to cause trouble at any time.

That seed had not yet bloomed. The time had not yet come, the Moon Tower had only instructed.

“You were waiting for orders.”

“Yes.”

“Was this incident also an order?”

“Yes. Harad burned the watchtower. The Moon Tower wanted to confirm that fire.”

Elaine quietly looked down at Cassion.

“Your hatred for mages. Was it an act?”

“Yes. It was to gain the trust of Serzila.”

“Your killing of the mages from the Otherworld.”

The 2nd Knights.

Cassion was the knight who had killed the most mages from the Otherworld.

“For the same reason.”

“Your not sharing your knowledge of magic with the 2nd Knights.”

“Because that’s how the knights of Serzila are.”

Cassion was compliant.

“The answers are coming out so smoothly. Why?”

“Because there is no other way left.”

The spy named Cassion had his identity revealed.

All that was left for a spy whose identity was revealed was death.

“You look down on me too.”

“……?”

Cassion’s eyes widened.

That Elaine, cursing.

“There’s no spy in the world who spills information without being tortured.”

Only then could Cassion look at Elaine's face properly.

It was a face he had seen for 14 years, but for some reason, it was unfamiliar.

The reason for that change was beside him.

Harad. That mage had changed Elaine.

“I’ll ask again. Why.”

“……I thought it was my last act of loyalty.”

There is no mage who does not know his own emotions.

There are only mages who deny them.

“I’ll ask again, in the name of that loyalty.”

Elaine went back up the questions.

“Your not sharing your knowledge of magic with the 2nd Knights.”

“……I didn't want to be discovered.”

It was greed.

The greed of wanting to continue living like this.

“Your killing of the mages from the Otherworld.”

“I hated their filthy feet treading on Serzila.”

He could have avoided it.

Though the activities of the Magic Towers are individual, interfering in the affairs of other Magic Towers was a taboo, if you could call it that.

Cassion had touched that taboo.

Though a mage, he had killed more mages than the knights of Serzila.

“Your hatred for mages.”

“I didn’t want to be a mage.”

Cassion.

Wanted to be a knight.

No, he wanted to be a Serzila.

“This incident?”

“Harad's existence will make Serzila noisy. I hated that.”

The fire that burned the watchtower.

The Otherworld had begun to pay attention to that fire.

They didn't know that the mage of that fire was Harad, but it was only a matter of time.

The Otherworld was already moving.

Cassion was one of them.

“……I had my own greed too.”

There were things he disliked.

As Harad had said, it was jealousy.

“I hated that that mage was in Serzila as a mage.”

Though a mage, Harad had received Serzila’s permission.

He was blending in, even receiving the acknowledgment of the knights.

Cassion did not want to accept that reality.

If such a thing were possible, then why me.

……He had dug his own grave.

It was a mistake committed out of jealousy.

Even if he had no intention of killing the Grand Heir, the Grand Duke's mood was bound to be soured.

“Your actions as the 2nd Knights Commander.”

“……I did nothing.”

The information he had passed on to the Moon Tower was common knowledge that any Northerner would know.

The Moon Tower demanded more.

Cassion could not bring himself to do it. Not at first, but at some point, it became like that.

“I’ll ask one last time.”

The last time.

Cassion sensed death.

“What did you do in Serzila.”

“I felt warmth.”

Cassion answered without even breathing.

Because that was the truth.

“The North?”

“……Yes.”

“You are strange too.”

That voice was not unfamiliar.

Cassion knew that he was smiling.

So it would be a peaceful death.

“Cassion. I am Serzila.”

“I know.”

Cassion closed his eyes and offered his neck.

“And I am the Serzila who will become the greatest Serzila in history.”

“……?”

“It means I can do whatever the fuck I want.”

Another curse.

But Cassion’s eyes widened for a different reason.

It was not something the Grand Heir he knew would say.

“Don’t nag me from now on. If you do, I’ll reverse my decision and kill you.”

That Grand Heir was by no means a man who made exceptions.

This too was because of Harad, Cassion noticed.

Elaine was looking at Harad.

“You said to see the person, not the mage, didn’t you.”

Harad just nodded his head presumptuously.

In Cassion’s eyes, it looked insolent.

“And not to lose my conviction.”

Nod.

“Just now, I saw the person named Cassion.”

Knight, or mage.

It was no longer important to Elaine.

“Obedience and loyalty are different.”

Cassion had obeyed the Otherworld, and been loyal to Serzila.

“It’s worth believing one more time. The 14 years I spent with Cassion are the basis for that.”

That was Elaine’s conviction.

“What do you think, Harad.”

“Do as you wish, Grand Heir.”

“I was going to do that without you telling me.”

For some reason, Elaine had a triumphant look on her face.

“This is my dick.”

……Even though you don’t have one.

Harad thought to himself.