NOVEL NEXT Ch. 114
Chapter 114: Let’s Depart
【Let us begin our final journey, Your Majesty.】
A small note slipped out from between the hand-copied pages of a fairy tale book, drifting from the air toward the ground.
But the very next moment, it was pinched between slender, pale fingers.
Clearly, within the palace, even the flow of air had been stilled by that layer of dusk...
Yet at that very moment, the girl's ice-blue hair fluttered upward, as if stirred by an unseen breeze.
Helen’s gaze quietly froze on that little note—
Those originally dull gray eyes suddenly became bright and vivid.
...
Four days later, under the brilliant midday sun.
At the gates of the royal palace in Paradise City.
Rast had already changed back into the trench coat he usually wore.
He stood on the main road before the palace gates, feeling the scorching midday sunlight, casually finding a shaded, hidden spot to idly wait.
After seeing the small note Rast had written, the Queen had visibly become excited during these past few days of waiting.
Morning, afternoon, day, and night...
Even during her usual fairy tale reading sessions—when she was most focused and rarely distracted—Helen would raise her head from time to time to stare at the pendulum clock hanging on the palace wall, repeatedly checking the time.
Her posture looked as if she wished to activate her authority to fast-forward the clock hands by a day—
It was exactly like those students in Rast's past life, checking the time three times in a minute right before a school holiday, anxiously awaiting the end-of-class bell.
This distracted state was so obvious that not only did Rast, who had returned to his post, notice it—even Head Maid Anna sensed something was off.
Fortunately, Rast helped smooth things over, or else the Queen's runaway plan would likely have failed before it even began.
And under Helen’s eagerly expectant gaze, the four days that felt like years finally passed.
Originally, Rast had planned to sneak out with Helen again around noon, dressing her in disguise and slipping out unnoticed along their previous route.
But—
This time, the Queen he served stubbornly refused his suggestion.
She no longer wished to dress inconspicuously and slip out through a side gate like before.
Instead, she wanted to walk right out through the main gates—openly and proudly—to go out and have fun.
Today happened to be Anna's day off, and within the palace, aside from Rast, there was no one else capable of stopping the Queen’s decision.
And Rast eventually agreed to her proposal.
Not only was this trip’s destination the final scene in that fairy tale book, “Chronicles of the Silver Wing.”
But for the “Lost Paradise” plan as well, this marked the final act.
Not drawing suspicion within the palace... all those details Rast once valued so much had lost their meaning after today.
There would be no tomorrow, no “from now on”—so why not indulge a little?
So Rast donned the outfit he was most familiar with—a habit he’d formed back in Deep Blue Port.
Compared to Rast, Helen was far more extravagant.
Two hours before their agreed-upon meeting time of 1 PM, she locked herself in her bedroom and allowed no one to enter.
As a queen of an entire nation, Helen’s wardrobe naturally held a dazzling array of exquisite garments.
But until now, she had only ever worn a few monochromatic long dresses within the palace, making Rast think she didn’t care much for dressing up.
But recalling the moment just before her bedroom door fully closed—
The blue-haired girl twirled in front of a large floor-length mirror, lifting her skirt with both hands, eyes sparkling like a delighted fawn…
Only then did Rast realize—indeed, the love of beauty was a woman's nature.
From country bumpkins to queens, none could escape this universal rule.
Rast looked up at the blazing sun, silently counting the time in his mind as he waited for Helen to finish dressing.
Just as he counted to three thousand and seventy-three, Rast noticed the shadow under the eaves sway unnaturally beneath the noon sun.
His eyes flickered, and he walked toward a secluded, empty alley beneath the shadow of the eaves.
In the next moment, the shadow within the alley stirred silently, eventually condensing into a vague humanoid shape.
“Captain.”
The voice of the shadow servant emerged from the darkness.
“The plan is about to reach its final step. Why take the risk to meet me now?”
Rast glanced toward the palace and asked.
As a true Sixth-Rank powerhouse, the shadow servant had always been stationed outside the city.
His rank was too high, his aura too powerful.
And the royal city—especially the palace—was Helen’s domain. If he came too close, it might trigger Helen’s alertness.
Of course, given Helen’s nervous and excited mood at the moment, even if she noticed something off about the shadow servant, she’d likely ignore it instinctively.
“It’s Leader Sisel’s order.”
“He sent me to ask for your opinion again… whether to temporarily halt the ‘Lost Paradise’ plan.”
The shadow servant’s voice remained calm: “This suspension would also include—”
“The part about your contact with the ‘Gravekeeper’.”
Rast’s gaze sharpened.
He stared at the vague human-shaped shadow before him. “How do you know about the ‘Gravekeeper’?”
He had tested the shadow servant before, and at that time, the results showed the servant knew nothing of his role in that part of the mission.
Of course, that could have been an act.
“With a plan this important, how could the Leader not leave a backup?”
The shadow servant didn’t seem surprised by Rast’s doubt. “I am Sisel’s backup—or rather, his hidden piece.”
“Though it may sound harsh, the Leader had to consider the possibility of unforeseen accidents…”
“If Captain Rast, you failed or defected, then I would be activated as the backup. My task would be to clean up the aftermath and minimize the damage to the organization.”
“This has nothing to do with whether Sisel trusts you. It’s simply a necessary consideration as the Leader.”
Rast nodded in understanding.
If Sisel had pinned all his hopes on him after a single meeting...
Without considering contingency plans or risk...
Then Sisel would be unworthy of being the current Leader of the Shoreguard, let alone the strongest human of this era.
“I understand the Leader’s caution. If I were him, I’d do the same—always preparing for the worst…”
“But then why reveal your identity to me now?”
“And even if you claim all this, it’s just your word. How do you prove you really are the backup Sisel arranged?”
Rast watched as the shadow before him suddenly collapsed.
As the darkness dissipated, what was revealed was a shriveled, emaciated, wounded, and aged body.
It resembled a broken ragdoll, covered in scars and deformities of all sizes.
The most striking feature, however, was the large cavity in the left side of her chest—
A normal person would’ve died long ago from a wound like that.
But within the hollow of her left chest, there pulsed a phantom heart made of pure light.
Threads of sunlight turned tangible like veins, flowing into the withered body, supplying blood and the faintest vitality to the decaying form.
No wonder the shadow servant always kept herself cloaked in darkness, showing only a vague silhouette—
Her true form would be the stuff of nightmares for any child with a fragile psyche.
“This should be enough proof, Captain Rast.”
Her voice no longer held that ethereal, hard-to-distinguish tone—it revealed its true form:
Surprisingly pleasant, a mature woman’s voice, starkly contrasting with her corpse-like body.
“To some extent, I’m no different from the original inhabitants of Paradise.”
“With injuries like this, I should’ve died long ago…”
“It’s only thanks to Sisel’s ‘Sun’ Sequence, using his higher-ranked power to form a phantom heart for me, that I’m able to cling to life.”
“My life belongs to Sisel—he can reclaim it at any time...”
“And because of that, he can trust me to be the final fallback in the ‘Lost Paradise’ plan.”
Rast asked, “You don’t seem to resent your situation?”
“I would’ve thought this method—like that of a necromancer or a puppeteer—controlling another’s life with a thought, would naturally breed resentment.”
“You’re not the only one with the Shoreguard’s resolve, Captain Rast.”
The shadow servant said calmly, “We’ve known from the beginning: the Shoreguard was never a family of ideals and equality.”
“It’s a cold machine built to fulfill a righteous goal by any means—capable of committing any evil, trampling any morality.”
“Even if it means becoming the necromancer of a story, if that helps us fight for the Shoreguard, then we accept it.”
“As for why Sisel sent me to confirm whether to cancel the ‘Lost Paradise’ plan, the reason is simple.”
The shadow servant looked at Rast and spoke slowly: “Sisel is—”
“Considering his successor, or rather…”
“The next Leader of the Shoreguard.”