Ch.323323. Starting Point (5)

I realized it.

Why a mere snowflake had become such a large snowball. And why that pure white snowball had become covered in black ash.

As soon as the conversation she had eavesdropped on through the listening device ended, Erica appeared, grinding her teeth, and slapped Kelnur across the face.

“Ah, my lady…?”

Kelnur looked up at her with trembling eyes, seemingly bewildered.

This only made Erica more unable to contain her fury.

He had spread exaggerated stories in a completely different direction from what was originally known. And as if that wasn’t enough, he had distorted things to the point of falsely accusing others, causing division in the imperial army and interfering with him.

How could he so shamelessly treat Junon like a criminal again?

“Because of you… because of you, I…!”

But was it really Kelnur’s fault? Erica had to lower her head, unable to finish her sentence.

“…My lady.”

Though Erica had suddenly slapped his cheek saying it was his fault, Kelnur didn’t seem to mind as he got up from the ground.

“My lady. I can see it in your eyes. Have you been deceived again?”

That deep anger in her pupils. It was directed at Kelnur himself.

“You know, don’t you? This country, this principality needs your testimony. Surely you haven’t forgotten? How that man shattered Tembris where you were. He’s the kind of man who tried to save his own life by sacrificing Lord Goden—how could his true nature have changed?”

Without a doubt, she must have been deceived by someone. Kelnur was convinced of this as he slowly approached Erica.

“We can still root it out now. Just one word. If you tell Lord Dusen just one truth that you know, everything will be proven and this will all end.”

To lead her to utter just one word.

“Junon, that bastard, divided Tembris and came to find you, my lady Erica, and drove you out. If it weren’t for him, neither the imperial army nor Tembris would have been divided, right? Isn’t that so?”

He whispered, confident that the lady he knew would never make the wrong judgment.

Now prove it directly. Tell the truth with your own lips. Dusen is here as a witness, so please set everything right.

In other words, he urged her to expose all of Junon’s evil deeds that deserved punishment.

But Kelnur, who had conveyed his intentions to Erica, had to scream.

Crack-crack-crack-

“AAAAARGH──!!!”

Kelnur’s hand, which had been placed on Erica’s shoulder, began to twist grotesquely with a sharp sound.

A spell suddenly injected without a word was tearing his fingers apart like taffy.

As Kelnur screamed in pain and pulled his hand away, bone fragments tearing through the flesh between his joints, Erica finally spoke the words she couldn’t bring herself to say earlier.

“Because of you… I’ve now become trash who repeats the same mistake.”

***

Though he was suddenly attacked by Erica’s magic, Kelnur heard something even more shocking. Enough to make him doubt his own ears.

What did my lady just say?

Trash who repeats the same mistake?

‘That can’t be right.’

She was the one who had first recognized Junon’s cunning schemes and stood against them, and to Kelnur himself, she was the perfect person to realize justice.

It was absurd. That she, who could condemn that incompetent man who manipulated the imperial army, deceived Tembris with his glib tongue, and caused the sacrifice of its leader Goden—that she would call herself trash.

And yet, she had directly told him that she had become trash who repeated the same mistake.

‘I don’t know what repeating the same mistake means. But my lady is clearly being deceived!’

Who could be the culprit? It was obvious.

Once again, that vile man must have twisted her righteous resolve with his empty words.

“There was no mistake on your part, my lady. Yes. If anyone is lacking, it would be me. I should have taken on the tasks you assigned more thoroughly, and I should have taken a much stronger approach to eliminate him completely and root him out. It’s my fault. There was no mistake on your part.”

If it was Lady Erica, she would surely be able to return to her former self soon.

Someone as wise, elegant, and upright as her would be able to overcome this trial in no time.

“Please believe in me. Through my investigations, I know him better than anyone. You may be confused right now, my lady, but you’ll soon realize! That Junon is the one who’s wrong, and there was never any mistake on your part! Come, my lady. Please restore my hand first. That’s the first step.”

Isn’t the first step always the hardest? I just need to make her take that step. Even though the distance to walk back has increased now, once she gets back on the right path, her conviction can be quickly restored.

“If you cannot prove Junon’s charges, Lady Erica, just say so! I, Kelnur, will prove everything in your place. With the evidence right there, it’s entirely possible. So… come on. Please restore my arm. I can take care of everything for you.”

Trying hard to endure the pain of bone fragments tearing through tissue and skin, Kelnur held out both arms.

But Erica reproached him with a cold tone.

“Stop talking nonsense.”

“My lady, what do you mean nonsense? I told you I can prove it!”

“That’s exactly the nonsense I’m talking about!! You just want to use me as a front to drive out Junon, whom you dislike!!”

“Ah, my lady…?”

Kelnur’s face visibly distorted at this unexpected direct hit.

“No, my lady! I don’t deserve that. If I could have done it myself, I would have, but to make sure he couldn’t fight back, I had no choice!”

“Deserve? Yes. Thinking about it carefully, it’s always been like this. If you were truly dissatisfied, you would have acted on your own instead of using my name. You would have made a public announcement instead of spreading rumors! But why? Why did you always move in the shadows? And why did you always try to proceed with matters by reporting to me?”

“…!”

“Because you couldn’t handle it alone if it became known. Because you couldn’t proudly say that it was wrong. Because it was all lies, distortions, and empty words! With nothing but your inferiority complex, you couldn’t face Junon!!”

Swish.

“My lady…? What are you doing? That’s…”

“Now I understand what your intention was with this too, Kelnur.”

“My lady!”

Clang!

-Whoosh.

The round accessory that had just fallen to the ground was burned to black charcoal by Erica’s fire magic, and as if that wasn’t enough, she stepped on it, scattering the ashes.

It was a bracelet that Kelnur had given to Erica to commemorate her birthday.

“My lady… why…”

“I wondered why you would give me something like this, even spending your own money. I, a noble, would wear something much better than this, so why did you feel you had to give it to me? You said it was a gift you wanted to give to someone you were grateful for, someone you sincerely respected and wanted to follow… but in fact, you never felt any gratitude or respect at all, did you?

As Erica said, there was only one thing he had wanted.

Possession.

In truth, it wasn’t gratitude or respect he felt, but a desire to possess. To possess the human being named Erica Scherpen.

Kelnur stared blankly at his gift, his mark, which had turned to ashes.

Meanwhile, Erica began to drop all the remaining gifts she had been carrying onto the ground.

-Thud, plop.

“My lady! That’s, that’s not it. That’s not…!”

The sound of things dropping one after another snapped Kelnur back to his senses.

The things she was putting down were all gifts he had given to Erica, and he had to make excuses immediately. He couldn’t bear to see all those gifts burning away like they were being sentenced to death by fire.

“I never wanted any of this from you, Kelnur.”

Whoosh!

The handkerchief she always used to wipe her hands disappears.

The scarf that wrapped around her neck disappears.

Gloves, shawl, hair tie. And even the necklace around her neck begins to burn away.

There was only one place left. With only the ring finger remaining, he couldn’t take that one step forward, and everything returned to ashes.

“My la, dy…”

“This is the worst. In my life, I find myself so disgusting for having trusted someone like you that I could die! So… please don’t appear before me again.”

She turns away.

The woman who had come so close, who had filled his heart to overflowing.

She turned her back, showing her beige hair. With a warning to never show his face again because she couldn’t stand the sight of him.

It meant he was abandoned.

As a person from the same homeland. As a territory resident. As a servant. And as a man.

Kelnur could not accept this.

“Ugh, what are you…!”

“My lady. Don’t abandon me. You’re all I have left!”

“Let go, I said let go!!”

“I’ll do better. I’ll get rid of that bastard with my own hands. So please, just one more…”

Just one more chance.

Kelnur embraced Erica’s struggling body with his broken arm and begged. With his broken hand, even though pain was coming that would make him unable to move as each bone joint was crushed, he did not let go of his arms.

But there were no more chances for Kelnur.

Thwack!

“Kuh…”

“Tsk. A man showing his ugly side till the end.”

Dusen struck Kelnur’s abdomen with a disgusted look.

A punch that could knock out even an officer in combat had no reason not to knock out a mere non-combat personnel, a clerk who only handled paperwork.

However, the will of a man who had fallen too deeply into twisted love was not affected even by this.

“My la, dy…”

His vision gradually blurs.

His eyes slowly close, making her figure disappear.

Nevertheless, he begs, please don’t abandon him. He stretches out his arm, desperately hoping that the woman named Erica Scherpen would touch his outstretched arm, even slightly.

But Kelnur’s hand stops, unable to advance any further.

“Disappear from this world, you disgusting stalker!”

With one sentence denying his love, his arm no longer obeys his brain’s commands.

His arm falls with a thud. The world turns completely dark. As the reason for continuing his life disappears, Kelnur collapsed on the spot.

***

“Ugh…”

After losing consciousness and collapsing, Kelnur woke up with a groan.

The first thought that came to mind was only one.

‘Junon, because of you…!’

The arrow of resentment points toward the one who broke his relationship with her.

He would surely take revenge. He would somehow make him disappear from this world. Since he had erased the reason for his life, he would make his very existence a continuous pain in return.

However, the world that awaited the fallen Kelnur was a bright world without even a mouse hole to hide in.

“It seems he’s awake. Light.”

Click- Click-

“Ugh…?!”

Bright lights turned on, and the cold light struck the forehead of Kelnur, who had just woken up, making him frown.

With difficulty, he opened his eyes slightly to confirm this place was.

“From now on, I will prove the crimes of the great criminal Kelnur in this place.”

It was, of all places, a courtroom.

“Lord Cain?”

“When non-combat personnel lurk around the front lines set up by the commander, it can draw attention elsewhere and disrupt operations. But a few days ago, Kelnur ignored Tembris’s warm consideration. There is a precedent where he escaped from a detention center created for safety and protection purposes near the front lines where monsters would appear, taking advantage of a moment when the soldiers were asleep.”

“What, what are you saying! That was because you were trying to forcibly confine me!”

At this, Lumia rose from the witness stand and, after getting permission, spoke.

“Witness Lumia. It was not confinement, but an order from Senia, the deputy commander of Tembris. She said you didn’t need to be diligent in your clerk duties and should preserve your body, and there is actually a separate record of this in this detention center. The reason I was stationed there, as I could respond somewhat in case of an unexpected situation when you couldn’t properly do your clerk work, was also a factor.”

“Don’t talk nonsense! That woman was just trying to monitor and imprison me!”

Though he shouted like that, no one seemed to listen to Kelnur’s words; only the sound of clicking tongues filled the room.

Soon, as it seemed he wouldn’t make a statement, the officers gagged Kelnur.

“Continue. What else is there?”

“Not content with escaping in defiance of the commander’s orders, he spread strange rumors. The source of the rumor that the current commander, Junon, is a man who uses people as chess pieces is none other than that man.”

─Have you ever seen such a crazy person!

“There’s no need to specifically mention other charges; Cain has summarized all his actions so far. Among them was an intention to divide the imperial army──”

─What a criminal!

─He is the shame of Algenib Province and nothing short of a traitor to the principality!

Dozens of people took turns providing eyewitness testimony and submitting evidence, and even those who had acted as accomplices for bribes were brought in to expose Kelnur’s crimes in detail.

There was no way to refute.

The only matter of judgment now was how far the final sentence would go.

In place of the absent commander, the verdict of Dusen, the second-in-command of the imperial army, was:

“He has brought ruin to this country. The term is forever! Make him want to die, but ensure he can never die easily—torture him again and again!”

It was endless torture.