Midnight in Valentine (12)

“Are you coming to your senses?”

The familiar voice coming from above roused Oscar’s consciousness.

Squeezing out nonexistent strength to show a disgusted expression, Oscar slowly raised his head.

“Your face looks like you’ve seen some filth.”

“Because I am seeing filth.”

Oscar retorted with twisted lips toward Cardinando, who muttered without changing his expression.

“Were you always this stupid, or did you hit your head somewhere?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, aren’t you even a bit wary after committing such an act?”

Through the thick iron bars between them, Oscar’s and Cardinando’s gazes met in midair.

“I don’t particularly want to self-aggrandize… but I am a prince of the Empire. When a prince of a nation suddenly disappears as if he’s fallen into the ground, do you think Father will just sit idly by?”

“…Aha, Father, is it? Indeed.”

Cardinando muttered instead of answering. Oscar stared at him, wondering if he had gone mad.

“…Don’t tell me you hadn’t even thought of that?”

“If I had to express it, perhaps. More accurately, I would say I’ve forgotten about it.”

Cardinando shook his head.

“Do you think Father will mobilize all the Empire’s personnel to find you?”

“…What do you mean by that? You speak as if he won’t.”

At Cardinando’s brazen voice, Oscar instead asked in a bewildered tone.

From his unusually confident attitude, he felt not just anxiety but a kind of fear beyond it.

Toward Oscar, who was sweating coldly, Cardinando said.

“You’re sweating. That means moisture remains in your body. Surprisingly, you must have been managing quite well?”

“…”

Oscar didn’t answer. Cardinando shrugged and continued.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. That’s not what’s important.”

“…”

“What’s truly important… is that I’ve taken over the Empire.”

“What?”

Oscar couldn’t help but open his mouth.

“Why are you so surprised?”

“…Did you really hit your head after all?”

Oscar examined Cardinando’s head with a confused expression. Strangely, Cardinando’s head looked fine. It didn’t seem to have any bandages or gauze applied to it.

“I can’t believe you really won’t believe me. Well, that’s understandable.”

Hearing Cardinando’s murmur, Oscar exhaled deeply and leaned his back against the cold stone wall.

The fact that the immediate situation was extremely confusing and daunting remained unchanged, but at least for now, adopting the hypothesis that Cardinando had hit his head seemed the most rational.

Of course, there were strange points, but with limbs bound and trapped in an iron cage in a basement, the information he could accept was extremely limited.

“So anyway, Oscar. There’s something I want to show you.”

Toward Oscar, who was concluding that his father would start interrogating Cardinando about his disappearance soon enough and then catch him, Cardinando extended something.

It was a crystal ball. A kind of catalyst that could project images of spaces other than this one, or store and play back images of specific situations.

Before the new invention called “television,” which was first invented in the Republic, was distributed throughout the continent, it was an object that only a very few of the upper class, such as royalty, nobility, or the very wealthy, would possess.

“Why not bring a television instead?”

“To turn on a television, you need a mana cable. I brought this because we could be tracked.”

“It’s the same if the ethereal circuit is traced back and detected.”

“Don’t worry about that. Put your mind at ease.”

Cardinando confidently answered while infusing mana into the crystal ball.

“Well, I suppose you’ve got some powerful mage backing you…?”

Oscar frowned but looked at the crystal ball, and soon an image appeared in it.

“…!”

The first person his eyes caught was none other than Evangeline.

The place was the palace lobby, the reception room.

Visible in the corner of the image was his father, the Emperor, and the captains of the Imperial Guard who protected him and other members of the imperial family.

As Evangeline collapsed covered in blood, and the Emperor seemed to be saying something with his lips moving, Cardinando withdrew the mana he had been infusing into the crystal ball.

“…Is it possible to manipulate the images in a crystal ball?”

“…”

Oscar murmured. Toward Cardinando, Oscar said accusingly.

“No, it’s obvious that someone of your caliber couldn’t perform such a skill. Who did you conspire with? Without at least an elder-level mage from the Magic Tower, it would be impossible to create such fake images…”

“Unfortunately, little brother, it’s not a fake image.”

Cardinando said quietly.

“Actually, I have recently joined hands with someone who makes the elders of the Magic Tower look ridiculous… but I didn’t manipulate the image. She’s not interested in such petty pranks at all, and I don’t particularly like such trickery either.”

“You don’t like trickery? Even a dog would sneer at that…”

“And you should be able to tell.”

Cardinando said quietly. With his words abruptly cut off, Oscar contorted his face, and Cardinando spoke again.

“This is not a manipulated image. Manipulated crystal ball images inevitably leave traces of mana. That’s common knowledge even I know, though I’m merely a simple mana user.”

“…”

“The more skilled you are, the better you can hide the mana traces, but with your level of skill… you could find flaws even in images manipulated by a senior level, not just an elder level from the Magic Tower.”

Cardinando murmured and released the crystal ball from his hand. The crystal ball that fell with a thud bounced on the floor with a tong sound and rolled between the thick iron bars.

“If you want, I’ll give you plenty of time to check for yourself.”

“…”

“If you don’t want to, I’ll tell you myself.”

Cardinando closed his mouth for a moment. Then, looking down at Oscar, he twisted the corner of his mouth.

“Evangeline is here.”

“…Who might that be?”

Oscar said in a trembling voice.

“Will you understand if I say the name?”

Cardinando murmured, tilting his head. Then he soon shrugged.

“Well, it doesn’t matter.”

Cardinando looked down at Oscar, who wasn’t even glancing at the crystal ball, sneered with a smirk, and quietly opened his mouth.

“Would you understand if I say Aslaksha?”

-Kwang!!

At the same time, a loud sound echoed through the basement.

-Ppudeuk, ppudeuk…!

The chains binding Oscar’s wrists dug into his skin, beyond just making it red, to the point where it turned white.

“Be careful. Those chains are special.”

Without flinching at all from Oscar’s fierce aura, Cardinando said.

“The more mana you use, the more your mana and physical strength will be drained through the chains, rather than strengthening your body.”

“…”

-Ppudeuk, ppudreudeuk.

But Oscar continued to burst out mana, glaring. Like pouring water into a bottomless jar, Oscar poured mana into both arms.

“They’ll break at this rate.”

“I’ll tear you to death.”

Oscar declared quietly.

“Go ahead and try.”

Cardinando shrugged.

“Did you covet the crown that much? Enough to betray all of humanity and sell your soul to the Demon King’s Army?”

“Selling my soul, that’s a bit harsh.”

Cardinando shook his head.

“I just sold out a few family members, that’s all.”

“You son of a bitch!!”

“But if I don’t do this, I’d inevitably lose the throne to your sister, so what choice do I have?”

Cardinando said with a deliberately sad expression.

“This is the only way I can survive.”

He spoke with sincerity. In a gentle tone, as if hoping the half-brother before him would truly understand him.

“What do you think would be the first thing your sister would do if she ascended to the throne?”

“…”

“Purging me, Oscar. Even someone as naive as you should know that much, right? Having been born as a member of the Valentine Imperial family.”

Cardinando continued his persuasion.

“Our father did it, and our grandfather did too. There was always a bloody wind after the imperial succession. To leave only his own people in the palace.”

“…”

“Even if they didn’t kill retainers, at least the blood of the imperial family had to die or spend the rest of their lives in solitary confinement without exception. Everyone implicitly knew that the child might threaten their throne.”

Cardinando lowered his head and brought his face close to Oscar’s through the iron bars.

“I didn’t want to die, Oscar. That’s all.”

“…I see.”

Oscar murmured in a somewhat relaxed voice.

“I understand what you’re trying to say. It’s all part of the struggle for the throne, right?”

“I’m glad you seem to understand…”

-Ptuei.

“But what does that have to do with me?”

“…”

A sticky, yellowish liquid slapped Cardinando’s face.

“…What is this?”

“The reason you’re a son of a bitch is because you messed with Evangeline.”

Oscar growled.

“That’s reason enough for me to tear you to death.”

“…Ha.”

Cardinando exhaled.

Then, he roughly wiped his face with his sleeve.

“Look, you idiot.”

Oscar said with a sneer.

“I don’t know what pathetic deal you made with the Demon King’s Army, but do you seriously think they’ll honor your requests?”

“…”

“You fool. After the Kingdom falls, the Empire is next. How can someone who doesn’t even know that become Emperor? You should know your place.”

“…I’m not that thoughtless,”

“Evangeline is a major military asset of the Kingdom. At a time when we should be praying for the Kingdom to properly block the Demon King’s Army, you brought her here?”

Oscar desperately sneered.

“Let me make a prophecy. If you ascend to the throne, the Empire will fall within three years.”

“…Watch how far you climb, you bastard child.”

Cardinando finally took off his mask. He looked down at Oscar with bloodshot white eyes and growled.

“A coward who clung to his half-sister like a parasite out of fear of the throne struggle, daring to say what?”

“Then what were you planning to do with that coward? Hm?”

But Oscar didn’t back down and continued to sneer.

“Seeing that you’ve imprisoned me like this instead of killing me right away, even you must think I’m too troublesome to handle, right?”

“…”

“After me, it’ll be Sister Yuriana, won’t it? Tell me, how do you plan to deal with our sister? Even if you figure out how to handle me, what about her? Surely you’re not going to use the same method twice, like an idiot?”

Oscar giggled.

“That’s why you’re an idiot. When the Demon King’s Army extended their tentacle to you, did it look like a golden rope with gold and silver treasures hanging from it to your eyes?”

“…”

“But you know what, it’s a rotten rope.”

Cardinando’s eyebrow twitched.

“Can’t you tell the difference between something that’s yellow because it’s gilded and something that’s yellowed because it’s rotten?”

“Shut up!!”

Finally losing his composure, Cardinando grabbed the iron bars and shouted.

“You say I grabbed a rope?! Wrong, what I took was their hand extended across the table! Don’t talk about tentacles, what I formed was an alliance—”

“They won’t see it that way.”

Oscar lowered his voice and said.

“Do you really think Aslaksha, the Demon King’s Army, will keep their promise to you? Their goal isn’t friendship but invasion. The extermination of humanity.”

“…”

“Wake up, brother. You’re being used.”

“—Used? That’s quite harsh language.”

At that moment, something pressed down on Oscar’s shoulder with a thud.

The voice that had been coming out just fine until now became choked, as if blocked by a stone.

“How can you be so sure that our goal is the extermination of humanity?”

“…”

Oscar slowly turned his creaking head.

From one side of the elongated basement, something was approaching with the sound of clicking shoe steps.

A pointed hat with a wide brim, and a robe that covered the entire body, draped from the shoulders.

The typical ‘witch’ attire that appears in stories.

If there was one difference, it was that her attire was all snow-white in color.

“…How did you get here.”

“I’m hurt, Your Highness. What secrets are there between us?”

With a glib voice, she silenced Cardinando and, looking steadily at Oscar beyond the bars, said.

“Pleased to meet you, Prince Oscar.”

“…”

“My name is Aslaksha. I am the 2nd Corps Commander of the Demon King’s Army and the second seat of the Four Heavenly Kings, the ‘Great Sage’ Aslaksha.”