Ch.102The Weight of Vengeance (6)

The Praester and Vensrak families met on an open plain.

It happened just one day after the twins received the letter.

Everything was arranged hastily. They set up a tent in the middle of the plain, prepared a cheap table, and Asena, Kirsy, Helen, Tein, and Lawrence waited for Count Vensrak to arrive.

Count Vensrak entered the tent with his entourage.

Asena didn’t even have time for greetings.

As soon as she saw his face, she spoke.

“…Explain.”

In contrast, Vensrak was calmer than Asena. He first bowed his head in courtesy, then slowly took his seat.

His first words were not an answer to Asena’s question.

“…Before I explain, I must tell you how surprised I am. I know you’ve come because of Caden’s death… but I didn’t expect this reaction. I thought you hated Caden.”

Asena wasn’t the only one pushed to the edge. Kirsy also pressured him.

“Explain… before my patience runs out. If you lie… I won’t forgive you.”

Count Vensrak wiped his sweat and shrugged.

“It means exactly what it says. He was attacked by bandits. A spy named Yoren who was with Caden would know the details… but he died too. So we don’t know much either. We just heard that a merchant caravan was attacked by bandits outside the village in the forest, and when we checked, it turned out to be Caden’s group.”

Count Vensrak picked up the water glass in front of him and moistened his throat.

With a short cough, he covered his mouth and continued casually.

“When we arrived later, all goods had been looted, and the bodies were gathered and burned. They were completely wiped out.”

Asena saw hope in this.

“Then you couldn’t confirm my brother’s death.”

Relief and anger. Expectation and despair. For someone in deep despair, hope squirmed like a mudfish, turning her heart into muddy water with countless emotions.

She was holding back these slimy, sinking feelings of hope. She was suppressing her maddening thoughts with this.

At that moment, Vensrak snapped his fingers.

A servant standing behind him came forward with something wrapped in white cloth on a tray.

As he tried to place it on the table, he hesitated, unable to clear away Vensrak’s, Kirsy’s, and Asena’s water glasses.

The impatient Kirsy swept her arm, clearing away her and Asena’s glasses.

-Crash!

The glasses flew off the table and shattered on the floor, but they didn’t even glance at them.

Their attention was focused solely on this ominous object Vensrak had produced.

As the servant placed the tray on the table, the head of the Vensrak family coughed briefly again and removed the cloth.

A blackened, charred sword was revealed.

“This was found where the bodies were cremated.”

Asena and Kirsy were shocked as if hit by a hammer when they saw it.

It was a sword too familiar to them.

The handle was completely burned away, and the blade was damaged like a saw, but one trace remained unmistakably clear.

Count Vensrak pointed to it.

The Praester snake embedded in the center of the sword.

Without a doubt, it was Caden’s sword.

Asena’s fingertips began to tremble.

Count Vensrak continued his explanation.

“This emblem. It’s Caden’s sword, isn’t it? One of the cremated bodies was clutching this sword tightly.”

“…Ah… aah…”

“…My condolences.”

Asena’s eyes scanned the sword repeatedly from end to end. She was trying to deny the truth, desperately looking for any sign that it wasn’t Caden’s sword. But she couldn’t find any.

It was definitely Caden’s sword. Looking closely, she could even see the marks she had carved with a stone on the pommel out of jealousy when Caden was only learning swordsmanship as a child.

Caden had returned. Only this remained.

In the end, it was Kirsy who broke down first.

“Aaaah!!! Aaaaaaah!!!”

As if releasing all her pent-up emotions, her terrible screams filled the tent.

Yet she couldn’t take her eyes off Caden’s burned sword, suffering with tears flowing from her wide, shocked eyes.

“No!! Aaaah..!! No..!!”

Asena also tried to deny it, but the evidence was too clear. She had no capacity to worry about Kirsy.

Nevertheless, the reaction that sprang from her body, which simply couldn’t accept this fact, was once again anger.

The sparks flew first to Vensrak in front of her.

“Why… why didn’t you save him?”

She didn’t even know what she was saying.

“If you knew they were being attacked…! You could have saved them..!”

Vensrak showed an expression of understanding her descent into madness, but also of feeling wronged.

“…Because Caden wasn’t a Praester.”

And his excuse crushed Asena’s heart.

“I couldn’t ask our soldiers to risk their lives for mere commoners. The merchants weren’t residents of Vensrak either. Besides, the Duke ordered us not to treat Caden as a Praester. Wasn’t he banished because he earned your hatred? Do you know what disadvantages I might suffer if I showed him kindness by my own judgment?”

The more she learned about the situation, the more clearly Asena saw Caden’s blood on her hands.

The more she realized this, the more unbearably disgusted she became with herself. She had driven someone she loved to death because of her anger.

She never imagined it would come back to her like this.

Kirsy picked up the charred sword and hugged it to her chest.

Tein and Helen, standing behind her, tried to stop her, but no one could restrain Kirsy once her tears had burst forth.

She clutched the sword with its sharp edges against her chest and wailed.

“Aaaaaaah….!!! Brother!!!”

Watching her, Asena felt her own heart beginning to tear. Her mind was starting to catch up with what she had been denying.

She couldn’t hide her expression. Despite Count Vensrak and numerous servants watching, a suppressed sob burst out all at once.

Though no sound came out, her breath escaped with the sobs.

Her strength drained, and she collapsed onto the table.

Her hair spilled out in disarray.

She was facing an unknown terror. Even now, when it didn’t feel real, her heart ached this much.

How much more would it hurt when the fact that he was truly gone sank in?

Vensrak spoke quietly.

“…There is a witness. He didn’t see everything, so he doesn’t know all the details… but would you like to meet him?”

Asena nodded with her head still pressed against the table.

She heard someone entering the tent.

Kirsy was still wailing and crying, and Asena remained motionless in that position.

Vensrak spoke on behalf of the women.

“Now, explain exactly what you saw.”

“…Um… are they… are they alright?”

“Don’t worry about them, just tell what you saw.”

“Ah, yes. I understand. I was just climbing the mountain to gather herbs. But on the way, I heard screams and the sound of clashing metal, so I secretly went there. …It was utter chaos. A battle… no, a massacre, I should say. Bandits were attacking all the merchants.”

“Besides that, tell them about the man you described to me.”

“Ah, that person… yes. There was someone who was fighting well. Even to my untrained eye, it was a hopeless situation, but there was someone who wouldn’t give up. He was fighting three people at once while directing the others.”

The more Asena heard, the more her heart darkened with the certainty that it was Caden.

If possible, she wanted to shout at him. To run away. What was he doing there? But all of this had already happened in the past, and there was nothing she could change.

She wanted to cover her ears. She couldn’t accept that the end of this story was Caden’s death.

Kirsy was still crying, but she too seemed to want to hear the traveler’s story—Caden’s final moments—as she stifled her sobs.

“…The bandits were struggling because of that man. His name was… Caden, was it? Yes. Thanks to Caden, there seemed to be hope for the caravan side, which had only six people left.”

Then the traveler paused and looked around cautiously.

“…Um… if I tell this story, is my life still safe as promised…?”

Vensrak warned him.

“As long as you’re not lying, there’s no problem. Now stop this nonsense and just tell what you witnessed. These aren’t people whose time you can waste frivolously.”

“Ah..! Yes..! I understand..! Then… the leader of the bandits stepped forward.”

Asena’s anger turned toward this person.

“…The leader…?”

The person who had taken Caden’s life was clear. She had never felt such surging anger before. When Caden left, she thought she had reached the peak of anger, but she was wrong.

“Yes…! I couldn’t see the face clearly because I was far away, but it was definitely a woman.”

“…A woman…?”

“Yes. She came out and told the guards who were resisting. That… if they gave up and put down their swords, and if they handed over Caden, she would spare their lives…”

Kirsy’s body tensed as she sobbed. The still-sharp blade of the sword cut into her delicate body. Red blood began to flow from wherever the blade touched—her cheeks, shoulders, stomach, arms.

“…And then?”

Suppressing her tears and anger, Asena asked.

“…….”

The traveler read her anger and hesitated again.

“…And then…?”

But under the second pressure, he confessed.

“…They all put down their swords and betrayed that man—no, Caden. Without even hesitating… Caden’s spirit broke right after that. The sword that had been held straight began to point toward the ground. As if all his strength had drained away.”

Asena unknowingly began to tear up again.

How scared must he have been? What was going through his mind? Was he so desperate that he lowered his sword?

The fact that his end was like this made her feel insane with guilt toward Caden.

Asena had dreamed of his final moments many times. He should have tasted all the happiness in this world, then passed away peacefully in old age when he had no more strength, surrounded by his loving family. He should have been able to think it was a good life as he departed in her arms. He should have been able to smile that loving smile of his as he left.

But he died betrayed, while escorting a cheap merchant caravan.

How must he have felt?

Wouldn’t he have felt abandoned his entire life?

He was abandoned by his parents and lived in an orphanage.

He was abandoned by his siblings who he had given nothing but love, and was expelled from the Praester family.

And in his final life-or-death struggle, he was abandoned… and died alone.

She hadn’t given him any happiness.

She hadn’t repaid him in any way.

Instead, she had only tormented him. She had only caused him pain. She had betrayed him by expelling him.

Now that he was gone, she couldn’t change this fact.

How lonely must he have been? How disillusioned with the world? Had he been so disappointed in the world that he lowered his sword in front of an armed opponent, giving up his attachment to life?

When he realized that the reward for living earnestly was abandonment, how difficult must it have been?

Thinking of him made Asena feel like she was going insane.

The traveler continued.

“…After that, I couldn’t see clearly. Except that the group that had surrendered all met their deaths. As the band of thieves began to move bit by bit, I fled too. That’s all.”

-Thud.

There was a commotion behind Asena.

“Lady Kirsy?! Lady Kirsy!”

When she turned around, Kirsy had lost consciousness.

The Praester servants, finally able to separate her from Caden’s sword, carried her away.

Asena’s mind became hazy with a level of exhaustion beyond measure.

She completely pushed away her emotions. If she didn’t do this now, she felt she would completely fall apart.

She needed recovery.

There were only two places where she could recover.

Her room, and Caden’s…

A second wave of emotions surged. She suppressed those feelings and fought back the urge to retch.

She felt she needed to leave this place too.

“…The forest. Where is it?”

Asena rose from her seat and barely maintained her voice as she asked Count Vensrak.

“…It’s called Naita Forest, in the northwest of Vensrak territory.”

“…Whose territory is it?”

“It’s land that no one is managing.”

Asena nodded and turned around.

“…Lawrence.”

“…Yes.”

Lawrence, who had been listening to all this from behind, also had a gloomy expression. He couldn’t easily accept the death of his disciple.

“…Find the perpetrator in Naita Forest.”

“…Yes.”

Asena’s eyes flashed momentarily.

“Alive. Bring them back alive. This time, I will absolutely not tolerate any mistakes. Bring them back alive.”

“…Understood.”

“…I still don’t believe my brother is dead.”

She spoke as if throwing a stubborn tantrum.

“…So… so…”

Lawrence bowed his head to Asena.

“I understand. Don’t worry. I’ll find some trace of him somehow.”

This time, Asena called for Helen.

Asena nodded. Unable to hide her tears any longer, she finally staggered out of the tent. She couldn’t stand in front of others anymore.