TYND 78

“When I heard you were planning to kidnap me and also those children for the purpose of living magic stone experiments, I was terribly crushed… but it was actually a fallen’s doing. That thing was really evil. I’m sorry I didn’t believe in you more. In the first place, you weren’t someone who’d do such things…”

Ken Bane looked uncomfortable. 

“You speak as if you know me.”

“Rothy was on the battlefield too. He’d fought alongside us.”

“What? How— Ah… transformation magic.”

Ken Bane vaguely remembered seeing it when the fallen took over his body. A weasel turning into a boy. He was a swordmaster, but even he knew that transformation magic was the stuff of legends. That was how rare it was. And then there was that curtain of light. A warm voice had filled his head along with that divine light. 

—Ken… right now, a fallen has taken over your body. If you don’t come to your senses, you’ll be blamed for what the fallen had done. Your achievements in the Human-Demon War will vanish, and history will record you as the one who destroyed Givarche. Are you fine with that?

He must’ve clawed his way back to consciousness out of sheer rage and injustice. Looking back, it worked because they had fought together. It struck a chord because it appealed to his sense of honour.

“What an incredible ability indeed…”

Transformation magic, endless magical energy, and colourless to boot… 

He really was a great and remarkable living magic stone. But at that moment, he felt no hunger for it.

“Just how young were you when Yolone Sirin sent you to the battlefield? Even now, you’re still a child…”

Pity and sorrow filled the space inside him where greed should’ve been. It was the usual reaction from a follower of Seará. 

“I was young then, but I’m not anymore… But you know, you and Theon were young too. When the war started, Theon was fifteen and you were eighteen.”

“……”

“When I think about two such young boys swinging swords on the battlefield, my heart aches and I want to cry… I was terribly upset…”

Rothy drooped his shoulders and sighed gloomily. Theon gave Rothy’s small shoulder a light pat.

“……”

Harrié Geelin, who’d gone on patrol to Siren’s Sea with evil intentions, returned and began calling him ‘Rothy’ instead of ‘living magic stone’. Ken Bane now understood why.

Scree—

The weasel that was busy inspecting the room scampered back into Rothy’s arms. Rothy then stroked its fur and praised it, saying it did a good job. Ken Bane watched the scene blankly speaking.

“Does the Empire really have no intention of creating another living magic stone?”

“None.”

“I see… Harrié Geelin’s interest had faded too. And now that I’ll disappear from your sight as well, there won’t be anymore threats. You can now live out your peace in the North.”

“That’s why we came. For that peace. Tell us everything you know about the fallen.”

Ken nodded.

“The fallen’s name is…… Schrain. The lowest of the fallen, the tenth, and has been wandering Araxys for centuries instead of returning to the Demon Realm.”

Fallens could freely move between Maton’s world—the Demon Realm, and Araxys. Though most stayed in their own world unless, they’d come to this world for light amusement. Schrain however, had remained in Araxys for hundreds of years, inciting conflicts large and small. 

After the Human-Demon war began, the fallen had followed the scent of rage, drifting from body to body until he finally settled for Ken Bane’s body. 

“After the war ended, they were planning to spark another civil war as usual, but then they heard about the living magic stone. Even as a fallen, it was something they’d never seen before, so their curiosity kicked in. They figured they could use it to stir up something far more catastrophic with it, that’s why they decided to go after it.”

“What did they mean when they said they’d found it? What did the ‘Archduke’ lose?”

“I don’t know what they were referring to in that final moment either. But Schrain was delighted at the thought of being praised and tried to leave for the Demon Realm immediately. But the mind magic had a stronger backlash than they’d expected, and their last thought was ‘it will take years to recover’. That was the end.”

“And once they’ve recovered, they’ll go and meet this ‘Archduke’.”

“That’s right.”

Ken continued. 

“Schrain revered this ‘Archduke’. But they also think the ‘Archduke’ has some very twisted obsessions. There’s only one reason the ‘Archduke’, who has no interest in humans, stays in Araxys. To collect tremuhles. I’m sure you know that already.”

The first of the ten fallen, the ‘Archduke’, was a very famous being even in Araxys, and his other nickname was ‘the Collector’. 

He was obsessed with tremuhles. He’d no interest in humans and all he cared about was collecting Seará’s gifts. The Empire’s tremuhle storage, the Sacred Vault, had been pillaged by him several times. The reason they moved the Sacred Vault from the imperial palace to the Great Temple was because the ‘Archduke’ kept stealing from it.

Tremuhles were basically natural objects imbued with divine power and thus for a fallen to go after them so brazenly was quite the peculiar behaviour. 

“So, if the ‘Archduke’ had lost something, it must be a tremuhle. Anyway, since it’ll take Schrain years to recover, if you and the temple prepare a proper countermeasure by then, you should be able to stop the ‘Archduke’. Of course, in that process, divine magic will reveal the living—”

Ken Bane couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence ‘magic stone’s existence’ because Rothy was looking dejected again…… 

“They might find out about you…”

Rothy smiled shyly at Ken Bane for changing his phrasing while Ken found himself smiling back without meaning to. 

That was where the conversation ended. 

***

Ken Bane promised to inform them if he remembered anything else about Schrain and the ‘Archduke’. After returning to the estate, Theon shared the contents of the conversation with his aides. 

“We’ll need the temple’s help…”

Supressing or confining a fallen was certainly possible for aura masters and archmages. To an extent. 

But no matter how powerful they were, neither magic nor aura could end a fallen’s existence since they were spiritual entities and thus they couldn’t die. However, through divine magic, they could be driven to a state of ‘near death’. This state meant returning them to the ‘Eternal Darkness’, the space where Mayton cultivated his seeds. 

Once casted back into the Eternal Darkness, it’d take them millenniums to reconstruct their spiritual body. From a human perspective, it was essentially the same as death. Since fallens could only be ‘killed’ by divine magic, the temple had trained a special group of priests dedicated to hunting them. 

They were called ‘Clerics of the Elysian’. 

The temple’s hierarchy followed the order of the High Priest, holy priests, consecration priests, regular priests, and acolytes. The ‘Clerics of the Elysian’ however, trained directly under the High Priest and were ranked slightly above the holy priests. In noble terms, they were equivalent to an archducal house. Currently, there were only three such priests in the empire, and since they’d remained stationed near the Grand Temple during the war, Theon had only ever met one in person. 

“If we say a fallen’s targeting us, His Holiness will ask how we became involved with a fallen, and if we say it happened while fighting Givarche, he’ll ask why we fought Givarche. And once he hears about the eight hundred children being abducted, the matter of the living magic stone experiments will come up… In the end, we won’t be able to prevent Lord Rothy’s existence from being revealed to the temple.”

The more people who knew of Rothy’s true identity, the worse it’d get. Especially if the people involved were from the temple. But there was no way to stop the fallen without the temple’s help. 

Rothy dropped his head, looking down at the floor. 

“I’m sorry for the trouble I’ve caused…”

“Oh no, I didn’t mean it that way, Lord Rothy. We weren’t planning to hide it forever anyway. Right, Your Grace?”

“That’s right.”

Theon placed a hand on Rothy’s shoulder and gave him a gentle pat.

“Don’t worry. The temple won’t try to use you. Rather, they’ll be on your side.”

“Really…? Then why did you hide me from them all this while?”

“Because they’ll stand on your side outrageously…”

Rocky couldn’t understand what Theon was saying and cocked his head. 

A few days later, under the long dusk of summer as night settled into deep darkness, High Priest Dépaten arrived at the Falsen’s estate in secret, accompanied by two Clerics of the Elysian. Theon had received permission from the emperor in advance and informed the high priest of Rothy’s identity. 

High Priest Depaten’s reaction to Rothy was exactly as Theon had anticipated. 

“How can we allow someone who committed such horrific acts to be made into a hero?! Faye’s experiments!! We must immediately reveal the truth about Yolone Sirin to all of Araxys! And we must let everyone know what terrible past this child has overcome to stand here now…”

This was exactly why Theon wanted to hide Rothy away from the temple. It was a place that would never shield anyone who had sinned. They believed true repentance and remorse only have meaning after the sinner had received just punishment. 

Emperor Dierm, on the other hand, felt it was still too early to disclose the truth. It’d only been less than a year since the war ended, and he judged it too soon to burden the people enjoying post-war peace with guilt. 

Theon’s heart however, aligned with the temple. He too believed Yolone Sirin’s true nature should be exposed for Rothy’s sake. 

But—

“Uhm… I’d rather it not be revealed…”

Rothy, who’d been clinging tightly to Theon because of all the unfamiliar faces, whispered in a tiny voice.