Ch.102Aftermath

Charlotte returned to Catherine’s workshop after she had erased it from the world, just after I had used the curse on my name to simultaneously deal with both the black mana-corrupted mage and the black mana that had corrupted her.

Charlotte immediately noticed that something serious had happened when she saw me standing there with a hollow expression and the black substance emitting an ominous aura.

Yet despite realizing what had occurred here, Charlotte said nothing.

She simply asked if she could embrace me, and when I nodded, she hugged me from behind.

I wasn’t worried that Charlotte might have heard my name.

If she had, she wouldn’t be comforting me with her embrace—she would have melted away into something black and died, just like Catherine.

We remained like that for a while.

I couldn’t easily calm my troubled mind, so I couldn’t move carelessly, and Charlotte had no reason to move before I did.

It was a win-win situation for her to stay attached to me while comforting me, so why would she move first?

We probably remained frozen in place for several hours.

When I finally began to slowly rise, Charlotte asked if I was alright now, but I couldn’t answer.

At that moment, I was essentially walking a tightrope on a single rope above a cliff.

A tightrope walk where one slip would send me plummeting into a deep abyss from which I could never climb back.

You might wonder why I bothered to trigger the curse by making Catherine say my name if this was the outcome, but it was an unavoidable choice.

It was clear that Catherine had been corrupted by black magic, but I didn’t know exactly which concept had been corrupted.

If I had tried to use magic and the corruption happened to extend to magic, it could have spread to Charlotte as well, which would have been extremely problematic.

The fact that Catherine was a mage played a significant role in why I didn’t simply ask Charlotte to kill her.

It was simple logic. The concept most frequently used by an individual would most likely be the one corrupted.

I was being cautious because there were precedents.

There had been a knight whose concept of wielding weapons was corrupted, dragging countless mercenaries and adventurers to hell with him, and a mage whose concept of magical incantation was corrupted, destroying high priests and fellow mages alike.

It might sound absurd, but these were actual events that had occurred in the past. Black magic and black mana were that dangerous.

That’s why I couldn’t let my guard down.

If Catherine had corrupted Charlotte with black magic, if Charlotte’s knowledge had been tainted by black mana, that day would have marked hell’s descent upon the kingdom.

“My dear, are you truly alright?”

“…Do I look that troubled?”

That was what Charlotte said to me as soon as we stepped outside.

I gave a bitter smile, wondering if I really looked that distressed, and Charlotte’s pale, soft hand gently caressed my cheek.

Her thumb traced beneath my eye, while her other four fingers carefully stroked the side of my ear. Her blood-red eyes looking at me were filled with compassion.

“Since your body is immortal, your current distress must surely be a matter of the mind. To me, you look like someone who might die at any moment. My dear, the human heart is something that can easily break and be injured. Even if it belongs to someone who has lived as long as you have.”

“Someone who might die at any moment… I wish that were the case. How wonderful it would be if I could be corrupted by black magic and die like that.”

But I can’t die.

The curse on my name can never kill me.

It’s not possible, nor should it be.

Because the curse wasn’t placed to kill me, but to bind me.

So it never allows me to die. Rather, it would do anything to keep me alive.

“You mean that even the unknown corruption of concepts doesn’t affect you.”

“That’s right. It doesn’t work on me. I didn’t know my super-regeneration ability could restore even conceptual alterations back to their original state.”

Charlotte seemed to have much to say to me. I could clearly see her lips moving as if there were words she couldn’t fully express.

I could understand her curiosity. Although I had mentioned black magic since the first appearance of the black blood monsters, this was the first time I had explained what it actually was.

Despite my attempts to explain, she probably still had many questions. I could imagine how she felt. Of course, understanding her feelings and revealing the truth were separate matters.

I preferred not to disclose too much if possible.

Just as Catherine had encountered black mana while researching black blood monsters and became corrupted by black magic, there was no guarantee that Charlotte wouldn’t suffer the same fate.

Especially for someone like Charlotte, who possessed an extraordinarily brilliant mind and confidence in her intelligence.

I had seen countless mages consumed by their research due to overconfidence in their abilities. I refused to let Charlotte become one of them.

‘I must have been spacing out for quite a while.’

That was my first thought when I stepped outside the building.

The sky had already turned orange, as if the sun had been mixed with water and thickly applied. The sun was peeking shyly over the horizon.

The streets were gradually preparing to awaken. For people of the underworld, moonlight was their sunlight.

Since we had arrived early in the morning, considering the time spent searching the building and in the basement, I must have been in a daze for at least half a day.

Charlotte must have isolated this entire space, as despite the Queen of Blood standing boldly in the street, no one trembled or bowed their heads.

Instead, they naturally walked around the space where we stood, as if it were perfectly normal.

The two bulky figures who had let me in earlier were still standing firmly at the entrance we had used.

Just as I was about to question this, with a simple gesture from Charlotte, the two guards at the main entrance vanished like smoke.

I had thought it strange that the two at the entrance were acting so normally despite there being no one inside—it seemed they too were doppelgangers.

“What did you do with the people who were here?”

“What do you think I did?”

Charlotte returned my question with another as I looked at the building we had just exited. It meant exactly what I thought.

“With your personality, they wouldn’t have died peacefully. Were they taken to an underground prison? Or a torture chamber?”

“I’ll leave that to your imagination.”

“You won’t tell me?”

“Their fate is already sealed, is it not? Surely you wouldn’t suggest sparing individuals connected to black magic, so they are destined to die one way or another.”

Charlotte was right about this.

It was unfortunate for the humans who didn’t know what was happening in the basement, but since their leader was connected to black magic, they couldn’t be allowed to live.

Moreover, the mage in the basement was already corrupted, so she definitely couldn’t be spared.

We handled things this way in the past too. When corruption from black magic occurred within a specific group, the entire group was completely excised.

It was a necessary method to prevent greater sacrifices. Trying to save ten people could result in the deaths of hundreds or thousands.

That’s why those who were swept up by emotions and failed to deal with black magic corruption in time all died. Treatment? Such a thing was impossible.

Kind-hearted or emotional humans often transformed into walking disasters alongside the very comrades they had tried so desperately to protect.

And most of them ended up killing many times more humans by their own hands than the comrades they had spared out of sympathy, before being hunted down themselves.

It was tragic, if you want to call it that. Or simply the foolish actions of stubborn idiots.

“Did you examine the boss’s mind?”

“I’ve already read it all. That’s why I only dealt with those in this building. It seems she hadn’t disclosed her research on black blood monsters to outsiders. Who would dare risk their safety knowing I would personally descend upon them the moment their connection to black blood monsters was discovered?”

“If that had happened, we would have had to wipe out this entire district. I’m not sure whether to be glad or disappointed about that.”

“If you wish, it can be done right now. Is that what you desire?”

“No, there’s no need. Now that the head has been removed, they’ll be busy fighting amongst themselves.”

Expecting loyalty or similar sentiments from people who lurk in these back alleys would be foolish.

Predictably, they would scramble not to miss this opportunity, and it was obvious that this place would see no peace for the foreseeable future.

“If that is your opinion, I shall refrain from intervening directly. They will self-destruct—”

Charlotte suddenly frowned and cut off her words. Her expression grew increasingly grim.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

Charlotte remained silent for a moment despite my question. Then she spoke with a rigid face.

“Nothing is wrong, my dear. It’s just that our time to return to the royal palace has been moved up slightly.”

“Return to the royal palace? I don’t mind since we’re done here, but why so suddenly?”

Just before Charlotte could answer my question, a blue blade of energy sliced through the air between us.

It left a deep gash in the stone floor. Charlotte’s silver hair fluttered in the wind that followed a moment later.

It was clearly an attack meant to separate me from Charlotte. Moreover, the position of the gash was much closer to Charlotte than to me.

There was only one person in the kingdom who could accurately perceive Charlotte’s magically isolated space and launch such an attack.

The expression before me contorted in real time. Those hate-filled crimson eyes turned toward the direction from which the energy blade had come.

A female knight with blonde hair in a ponytail was slowly walking toward Charlotte and me, drawing a sword with a red jewel embedded in it.