ICM Chapter 113

Even at this late hour, the entire household was awake. Those who had already heard the news, and those who hadn’t yet, all found themselves unable to sleep in the suffocatingly tense atmosphere. Weive’s mind, as he walked toward the reception room, had no capacity for other thoughts.

 

Even when the waiting maid opened the reception room door for him, even when the woman standing with her back to the reception room door rose from her seat, Weive’s mind was entirely consumed with how to respond to the problem that had occurred at the imperial palace.

 

Weive gestured to the maid carrying tea who had followed him in and approached the reception room table.

 

“Lady Siclaire?”

 

The woman who had risen from her seat did not turn to look at him. Her abundant red-gold hair was twisted up in a single style, her slender neckline hidden by her dress collar, and her long, graceful figure was revealed beneath the form-fitting dress.

 

In the brief moment of approaching her, he felt a strange sensation. Though he thought something was odd, Weive paid it no mind.

 

As the door closed and the maid set down the teacups on the table, Weive took his seat. Or rather, he was about to sit down when he froze in place.

 

The moment the slowly turning woman’s gaze met his, time seemed to stop completely as their eyes tangled in midair.

 

No matter how much time had passed, no matter how she might have changed, she was a woman he could not help but recognize. The woman he had searched for so desperately but could never find even a strand of hair from was right before his eyes. And she had walked into this place with her own feet.

 

Weive could not believe his eyes. Her large, deeply shadowed eyes, her features beautiful as if painted, and the gaze that mysteriously enchanted people—though the color had changed, it remained the same.

 

“…Leave…”

 

His voice came out barely, as if his throat was constricted. Weive raised his hand and gestured to the maid.

 

“Leave immediately.”

 

“Pardon? Yes, Your Grace.”

 

Not understanding, the maid set down the teapot at the sudden command. Until they heard the sound of the door closing with a thud, neither person moved.

 

Weive could neither look away from Iben nor blink. As if she might disappear if he looked away for even an instant.

 

“…How…”

 

“I’m sorry. For coming to find you so late.”

 

No emotion could be read from Iben’s expression. It was the same cool, emotionless gaze as always. As if Weive alone had lived all those long years carrying an aching heart.

 

“…How… how could you do this to me…”

 

Weive sank helplessly into his seat.

 

“How… how…”

 

How desperately had he searched for her. How longingly had he missed her. And how endlessly had he regretted and regretted again through that long, long time. Weive wept silently in his devastated heart.

 

The Arkpella Grand Ducal House, said to have received the most love from the gods. And the symbol of that noble house was none other than their legitimate daughter, Ibis, who was said to have inherited the very image of the gods.

 

Moon-pale, chillingly pure white hair and blue-violet eyes that seemed not of this world, beauty so stunning it could steal one’s soul, and a mysterious aura besides.

 

Though she never stepped foot outside the grand duchy, countless men admired Ibis. But those who could meet her were extremely few, and Weive, who had been in an adjacent territory, was merely one of those fortunate ones.

 

He had first met her around age ten and suffered from love like a fever, then gave up when he heard news of her becoming crown princess. But when Ibis was broken off from her engagement upon reaching adulthood, everyone turned their attention to her fate.

 

And then that incident occurred.

 

Weive had been a tender young man who couldn’t even send a marriage proposal due to his parents’ opposition. Yet he was the one who noticed the Grand Ducal House’s final moments and rode his horse like mad. However, when he rushed there after hearing news that the emperor’s army was heading toward the grand duchy, everything was already over.

 

But unable to give up even then, Weive searched the forests near the Grand Duke’s castle. Thinking that surely someone must have escaped, since old castles had countless secret passages. That was how he met Ibis again.

 

Weive, who had been just one of the many young men who desired her, thus became Ibis’s sole savior.

 

For half a year he hid her deep within Igraine territory and traveled back and forth, until he learned that Ibis was pregnant. It was then that he first began to suspect that the conspiracy that had driven the Grand Ducal House to destruction might have started from within the Grand Duke’s castle itself.

 

After the child was born, he sought ways to bring Ibis to the Igraine ducal residence. He began traveling outside the empire in search of an alchemist who could change appearances.

 

Conducting all this while evading the duke and duchess’s eyes took a long time. Just when he thought all preparations were finally complete, the political marriage between Igraine and Talion proceeded.

 

He could not marry while leaving Ibis and the children behind. Weive confessed to the duke and duchess that he already had a woman and children, and from then on, matters escalated.

 

He never imagined that someone would track Weive’s movements to find Ibis.

 

Ibis and their younger son were murdered, and the only surviving knight escaped to Igraine territory with their eldest son, Lanche. He thought that was the end of everything. So he accepted the political marriage with Talion.

 

But the marriage alliance with Talion did not last long. Vanne, Neoren’s sister who had become Weive’s wife, was murdered not long after becoming pregnant with her first child.

 

Then Weive realized it. That there was someone behind Igraine and Talion. Someone deeply connected to the imperial family.

 

Weive chose to hide. He decided to build thorough walls between himself and Talion and the outside world, focusing only on protecting his son Lanche. Thus peaceful years passed.

 

Lanche married a woman Weive had chosen for him and had Ashika, and the past seemed to be over. However, Lanche’s wife died not long after giving birth to the child, and Lanche was left alone.

 

It was several years later that Igraine and Talion became entangled again. While coming and going under the pretext of a dam construction project, talk of marriage alliances began to arise again.

 

The talk concerned Weive’s son Lanche and Neoren’s daughter Zelosia.

 

Much time had already passed. Thinking that the past was just the past, Weive watched with a hopeful heart.

 

And then that accident occurred again. This time it was such a massive disaster that it could not be undone.

 

There was nothing he could do. The fact that someone absolutely did not want Igraine and Talion to join hands. And the fear that someone might even know that Ashika carried Arkpella blood left him unable to do anything more.

 

The best he could do was what he had always done—cover everything up and hide.

 

At the starting point of all these tragedies was Weive himself. The price of the childish love Weive had harbored was harsh. So there were times when he had resented Ibis.

 

Why had he loved her of all people? Why had he so desperately saved her? Many people had suffered because of actions taken while swept up in momentary emotions.

 

What if he had married as his parents arranged, had children, and inherited the ducal title in an ordinary way?

 

Then Ibis would not have become a mistress, and his children would not have met such unjust and miserable deaths. The same was true for Neoren’s children and his sister Vanne’s death. If not for his childish love, none of these problems would have even begun.

 

Yet even while regretting and regretting again, he had spent his life chasing traces of Ibis. He had personally traveled throughout and beyond the empire on foot, worried that trackers might follow.

 

Longing for one person that was greater than resentment or lingering attachment. The shadow of the woman who gripped him and would not let go for his entire life was so large and powerful. The sincerity he could no longer deny after all this time was thoroughly melted into decades of actions.

 

Iben’s eyes, beautiful but having lost their light, sank deeply.

 

Back then, when survival took priority over love, the unchanging heart of this man had moved her heart. Though it did not begin with love, at the end she had not wanted to let go of this man. He had been her savior and lover, and also the father of her children.

 

“Thank you. I know you’ve been helping the people of the grand duchy all this time.”

 

“Knowing that, you still…”

 

Weive could not bring himself to continue.

 

Was that the only thing he had failed to say? He had thought his heart had accumulated and hardened into something solid, but his long yearning had leaped over even that lengthy time.

 

In truth, Weive knew as well. That even if she were alive, she would be a burden to both Weive and his son Lanche in their situation. He understood her circumstances in faking her death and leaving. Though he understood with his head, his heart felt an endless desire to resent.

 

Weive barely composed his emotions and opened his mouth.

 

“You haven’t changed at all. As if time has stopped.”

 

It was truly strange. The contrast between his own hands, wrinkled with age, and the face of a woman frozen in that same appearance from forty-odd years ago.

 

“…The old noble families used to speak of it in secret. That hidden in the Grand Duke’s castle was a secret that even the emperor could not touch.”

 

When he lifted his head with a long sigh, Iben was still looking at him with that cool gaze.

 

“I heard the Grand Duke’s castle has been opened. Is it because of that?”

 

Even while they had been together, having two children, Iben had told Weive nothing. Not about the Grand Duke’s castle’s secrets or the stories involving the emperor and the Marquis Maiheller house. Weive had to helplessly endure all the tragedies that unfolded while knowing nothing.

 

“Was it because of that from the beginning that the previous emperor sealed the Grand Duke’s castle?”

 

The woman who still would not answer him was frustrating.

 

“What happens now? Will another tragedy swallow up even Ashika? Do you know, Ibis?”

 

Iben, who had been gazing at him steadily, finally opened her mouth. As if she had not been trying to avoid his questions, but had been deliberating over and over about the story she was about to tell.

 

“I am bound to a god. He will not let me die. Not until I achieve his purpose.”

 

Weive’s eyes widened in shock. It was the secret of the Grand Duke’s castle that she had never told him even once in the past.

 

“The rumors that secrets are hidden in the Grand Duke’s castle are true. But unlike what the emperor and others think, it is the source of a power that was once a blessing but has now become a disaster. This empire is growing sick.”

 

“What… do you mean?”

 

“A disease is spreading from the grand duchy. A rare disease called keratinization disease.”

 

“You mean that disease they say the previous emperor was cursed with after turning the Grand Duke’s castle into a wasteland?”

 

“It’s the opposite. That was already a disease that ran in the imperial bloodline. More precisely, it would be a divine curse that follows the imperial blood.”

 

“Then, the reason the emperor went to the Grand Duke’s castle was also…”

 

“He probably thought that since it was divine punishment, it could only be resolved by meeting the god.”

 

So the previous emperor had tried to open the divine chamber. But rather than that, it brought an even greater disaster. From the moment the sleeping being awakened, the grand duchy began to fall ill.

 

“The previous emperor suffered from keratinization disease and died at an early age. The current emperor is ailing even though the disease hasn’t progressed. Though he’s known as incompetent, the truth is probably that he lacks the strength to attend to state affairs. The Tridelia imperial family is destroying itself.”

 

If the grand duchy’s problems were not resolved, the disaster would gradually spread and eventually swallow the entire empire. That was what Iben had realized while watching over the grand duchy for the past several decades.