Side Story 3: The Azure Knight and the Ashen Witch
Chapter 12
I took Enzhe Lopetrefer’s small hand without a word. The sound of a broken violin, carried by the cool breeze, filled the plaza.
We danced to the broken music, the basic waltz steps we had practiced dozens of times at the academy. And so, I was trapped in the realm of unreality once again.
Lopetrefer stumbled, and I caught her by the waist.
“Are you okay?”
She didn’t react for a moment, then she smiled awkwardly and returned to her usual self.
“To think I would trip… I’m falling apart.”
“….”
“What are you doing? Stop thinking strange thoughts and just dance.”
She mumbled, then continued to dance. I heard her voice again as the music was ending.
“I read Shina’s letter.”
“…Really? What did it say?”
I pretended to be indifferent, trying to ignore my pounding heart. Lopetrefer, sensing it, or perhaps remembering the contents of the letter, chuckled and took the next step.
“What do you think it said?”
“…He asked if you were doing well?”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Something that doesn’t matter anymore.”
She said, and then she stepped away from me. She curtsied, holding the edges of her dress, a proper noble lady’s greeting, then turned and left the plaza without a second glance.
I stood alone in the plaza, watching her leave. And then, I looked at the scenery of the Wasteland, the lights twinkling like stars.
Ariel, her face flushed, was going around, offering toasts, Senior Lionel, his face weary, was watching over her. The woman at the food distribution center was laughing as she served food to them. Children were running around, looking for something to play with. Aik was dancing happily to the music.
The trash that had been discarded in the Wasteland was overflowing with life.
I took a deep breath, realizing it.
It was too late.
No matter what sins the people here had committed, I didn’t want to take away their laughter.
‘Are we knights who serve our masters, or are we knights who serve the people…?’
Senior Lionel’s words suddenly came to mind.
But another question arose.
Were the residents of the Wasteland even citizens of the empire? Were those pitiful, wicked people worthy of being protected as citizens of the empire?
‘Rain, I know something that most people don’t. I know that the empire will be much better off if Fritz becomes the Emperor.’
Sue, you always brought me back to reality. Whether I liked it or not, you always forced me to make a choice.
Making Fritz the Emperor. Would it really make things better? Did Sue really believe it was the right thing to do?
I slowly turned and left the plaza.
I needed time to think.
Late at night.
I couldn’t sleep and tossed and turned in bed all night. I didn’t know what time it was, if a day had passed, how much longer I had to wait for the sun to rise. I just tried to force myself to sleep, relying on the faint buzz of alcohol.
And then, I heard a knock on the door.
Who could it be?
I thought for a moment and concluded that it was probably Ariel, drunk and lost.
I opened the door, thinking about how I would tease her tomorrow for her drunken antics, and froze.
“What?”
Enzhe Lopetrefer was standing at the door, dressed in casual clothes, a serene smile on her face.
“You’re always so rude.”
“What?”
“I want to come in.”
“…Come in.”
I stepped aside, confused.
But she didn’t come in, which was strange.
“Aren’t you coming in?”
“…I’m coming in.”
Lopetrefer, who had been standing there with her head bowed, finally entered the house, a forced smile on her face.
But something about her expression was strange. As if she was holding something back…
‘…Could it be?’
I couldn’t bring myself to voice the thought that had suddenly crossed my mind.
Lopetrefer walked past me and sat down next to my luggage bag, leaning against the wall. I pushed the thought aside and sat down on the bed.
“Why did you come here all of a sudden?”
“I want to talk.”
“Talk?”
Lopetrefer hugged her knees to her chest. Her eyes, black as the night sky, sparkled.
“Yes, shall I start with the story of how I killed Cedric?”
“…!”
Lopetrefer, not waiting for my answer, started talking.
“It was a particularly bad day. There was a storm, almost like a typhoon. And that day, Cedric visited the Lopetrefer mansion, and I overheard the conversation about our engagement… I was already in love with Shina. So Shina had to be the one I married. I thought no one, not even the crown prince, could be my husband. So I lured Cedric to the nearby forest and pushed him off a cliff. …And do you know what I did next?”
Lopetrefer pressed her hand to her forehead and chuckled.
“I used healing magic to save Cedric.”
“You saved him?”
Lopetrefer nodded, her face still filled with amusement, as I frowned and asked again.
“Yes, I saved him. I had suddenly remembered his status. I didn’t feel any guilt. I’m incapable of feeling that.”
“….”
“So Cedric became the boy who had fallen off a cliff in an accident, and I became the good girl who had saved him. But there’s something I never told anyone… I… hoped Cedric wouldn’t survive while I was saving him. …What do you mean? I don’t know. I just wished for it. I prayed with all my heart. Don’t come back to life, just die. …And Cedric died a few days later.”
“…So you’re saying you didn’t kill Cedric?”
“Huh? Why are you taking it that way?”
Lopetrefer’s eyes widened, and she shrugged.
“I killed him. I unconsciously used curse magic while I was healing Cedric.”
She said it casually, as if she were an old woman reminiscing about a distant memory.
“And my parents noticed. That’s when they started treating me like a true failure.”
Lopetrefer clutched her chest and took a deep breath. After a moment of silence, she looked up and continued,
“I don’t know, maybe it was from then on? I became determined to marry Shina. I had always felt that way, but it probably got worse from then on… People said it wasn’t love, it was obsession. Hehe… I thought it was a beautiful love.”
She leaned back against her luggage bag.
“And that obsession… surprisingly, it lasted until right before I was sentenced.”
“….”
“Because Shina was the only one who kept visiting me. The Imperial dungeon… That filthy, cold place, where death was constantly breathing down your neck… Shina would always come to see me.”
Another silence fell. I started to feel a sense of certainty, listening to her ragged breathing.
“He would come to see me, and he would say something to me, but I didn’t listen back then. I was just happy to see his face. So I didn’t give up hope. I thought, ‘Shina loves me too, he’s going to get me out of here…’ Shina…”
Lopetrefer clenched her fists.
“I remembered what Shina had said right before I was sentenced. The day before, or the day before that, or a month ago, I don’t know. Maybe it was even a year ago. I went crazy as soon as I remembered. …Shina said this to me. He would visit that disgusting dungeon and say this to me.”
Lopetrefer bit her lip, as if the memory itself was painful.
“He said he was sorry he couldn’t love me. And he was sorry he couldn’t forgive me. So he told me not to forgive him either.”
“….”
“And I would beg him, telling him I loved him, asking him to get me out of there… Ah… I really wanted to die back then.”
Her mournful voice pierced my ears. The cold night air blew in through the broken window, ruffling her hair.
“So I didn’t want to do anything anymore. I just wanted to sleep when I closed my eyes. Forever and ever. But what could I do when my whole body was bound, my mouth gagged, and I couldn’t even bite my tongue? Exile to the Wasteland? Hahaha… What was the point? It was all meaningless. The filthy dungeon, the filthy Wasteland, the beautiful capital city of Lohn. It was all hell to me…”
Lopetrefer coughed and continued, her voice distant and hazy.
“And then one day, I woke up from a dream. I had been walking endlessly through a long, long nightmare, and someone called out to me. And that someone even put a cookie in my hand.”
It was Aik’s story.
Lopetrefer clenched and unclenched her hand, a bitter chuckle escaping her lips.
“It was a terrible cookie. The worst cookie I had ever tasted, I wanted to spit it out. But thanks to that cookie, I realized where I was. I was in the Wasteland. And I was Enzhe Lopetrefer. I had been sent here for my crimes, and you, Raines Noel, were the one who had brought me here.”
Her emotionless, frosty gaze was fixed on me.
“And for some reason, I was overflowing with power. Not physical power, but the power inside me. Magic power.”
“….”
“And I thought, all day, as I ate the cookies that child had given me, that I couldn’t live like this forever. I couldn’t spend my life sitting on this old, broken sofa… So I was going to get out of here.”
“…Lopetrefer…”
Lopetrefer coughed a few times and smiled faintly.
“So you know what I thought at first?”
“…What did you think?”
“At first, I thought I would become a model prisoner.”
“…Is that why you’ve been eliminating all the monsters?”
Lopetrefer chuckled and nodded.
“You’re quick. That’s right, at first, I thought I would eliminate all the monsters in the Wasteland and get pardoned. I could do it. Because I could see them… those monsters swarming in the sky…”
Lopetrefer took a deep breath.
“But I changed my mind.”
“Changed your mind…?”