ICM Chapter 126

When there was no response to the knocking, Marilyn took the liberty of opening the door. Ashika was sitting in a chair at a small table in the corner of the Duke’s study.

 

“My lady, the guests are waiting.”

 

“Waiting? Where?”

 

Ashika, who had been burying her face in documents, looked up. Her face appeared somewhat bewildered.

 

“Sir Berth prevented them from entering, but they’re insisting on waiting in the carriage.”

 

“Ha.”

 

Her gentle-looking black eyes turned sharp.

 

‘They’re really determined today.’

 

The Noble Council meeting held excluding Talion and Igraine. While Drushia went to assess the situation, imperial investigators stormed into Igraine.

 

‘It’s not to strike at Igraine.’

 

If that were the case, they would have waited more secretly for an opportunity. Even an emperor couldn’t ransack a ducal house without evidence.

 

‘Is it simply to threaten? Or does he have some other purpose?’

 

Sending investigators might be to reveal the emperor’s displeasure and apply pressure. To let them know he’s watching not only Talion but Igraine as well.

 

Ashika looked at the documents piled in front of her. The funds that had flowed out to the Grand Duchy over decades were excessively large. If someone confirmed this information, it could raise unnecessary suspicions.

 

Once it became known that the Grand Duke’s Castle was opened, the fact that Ashika had been there would soon be revealed as well. Whoever had caused the problem would try to implicate both Igraine and Talion together.

 

Whatever response she made, it had to be with Drushia. If she spoke rashly alone, it could boomerang back on her. That’s why she had postponed the meeting with the visitor for now.

 

‘But they say they’ll wait.’

 

She couldn’t just stay put like this indefinitely. Ashika rose from her seat. She found blank paper on the table, wrote a brief note, and put it in an envelope.

 

“Marilyn, could you send an errand boy to Duke Talion’s residence?”

 

“My lady, where are you going? Surely you’re not planning to go out?”

 

“Tell Jeanne I’m going to meet Duke Talion.”

 

“I saw strangers at the back door too. If you go out now, someone will definitely see you.”

 

“Maybe they’re not waiting but trying to trap me here.”

 

Knowing this, she couldn’t just stay trapped obediently. Ashika left the worried Marilyn behind and walked quickly to her room.

 

There was a way to leave the mansion. The only problem was that only Nile knew that place, and he wasn’t by her side now.

 

Through the corridor window, she could see knights guarding near the front gate. The person directing the situation at the very front was Jeanne.

 

‘I’ll have to go out alone.’

 

She had sent a message, so she would be able to meet Drushia soon. If the situation wasn’t favorable, he would send someone else, so the time moving alone wouldn’t be long. Ashika thought this as she put on her coat.

 

As she was about to leave the room, some thought occurred to her and she approached the bedside again. When she put her hand under the pillow, the notebook that Drushia had given her earlier emerged.

 

‘The hidden records of the Maiheller family.’

 

Knowing that secret probably wouldn’t change the current situation.

 

‘If there had been a clear answer, Shafri wouldn’t have just handed this over.’

 

Still, she was curious. Why did Maiheller, who had been a founding noble family, disappear from historical records? What was the true identity of the power that Marquis Maiheller had coveted enough to drive the Grand Ducal Arkpella family to destruction, the source, that thing called a god hidden in the divine chamber of the Grand Duke’s Castle?

 

Ashika left the mansion alone through a secret passage without even the servants knowing. There was no time to contact Drushia’s planted people separately.

 

‘Today I’m truly alone.’

 

With that thought, she pulled her dark-colored hooded cloak tight and climbed into a rental carriage. When she took out the notebook again in the carriage, it was still late afternoon with sunlight remaining.

 

****

 

It was a very old and ancient record.

 

In the records, those who wandered the wasteland were people who had lost their homeland. These people, who had forgotten even their own roots about where they had started, wandered in search of new land.

 

In the endless barren land, the weary travelers met a man even more parched than themselves. No, rather than a man, he was closer to a boy—an ignorant soul dying alone in the middle of the desert.

 

The travelers shared their precious water with him, who was more pitiful than themselves.

 

A pure white being without any color. Ignorant like a newborn child, he performed amazing miracles for the exhausted travelers.

 

The travelers’ earnest wish. Their desire to cultivate a new homeland in fertile soil where grass and trees grew made him create miracles.

 

The first head of the Maiheller family, recalling those times, reportedly said this to his child:

 

“The king called him ‘my lost little lamb.'”

 

Rain fell on the dusty, barren land, and the deep gorges like thousand-fathom cliffs became rivers with flowing water. In the midst of the miracle where desert became grassland, the travelers finally obtained a new homeland.

 

A being with ignorant yet terrifying power. However, he was a child who devoted himself blindly to the king’s kindness. But even his seemingly endless power had limits.

 

He now wanted to rest. He conveyed to the king his intention to do nothing more. The king promised to give him a house to rest in and a warm bedroom.

 

The innocent being believed those words. The four sacred stones he had treasured were entrusted to four people’s hands, and believing the words that he would be able to rest comfortably without anyone disturbing him, he shared his power.

 

Never imagining that he would be trapped in an eternal prison without even a door using the very power he had shared.

 

As he fell asleep, he left the king a final warning. To do nothing more to this land. That any further changes would bring disaster.

 

Thus the record left by the king became both the beginning of history and a record of base deception.

 

That was the blessing given by a sip of water  

The hand of compassion extended by wandering travelers  

The weak god received a sip of water and gave the most noble thing  

The greatest gift given to those who lost their homeland  

Was fertile land to take new root and rivers that would never run dry  

Water is the source of life and the beginning of this land  

The wellspring of power that took root on the land where life was conceived  

The wise king commands his vassals  

Build a strong and sturdy house  

So that the god may sleep comfortably and bless this land for generations  

Lock the door with the blessing the god shared  

Give the key to those the god favored  

So that the insolent may not dare set foot  

So that the sacred land may become the god’s sanctuary  

Thus do not wake the god who sleeps deeply  

Do not withdraw the power firmly locked away  

Do not give away the key  

Do not gather the shared power in one vessel  

That alone is your complete power  

The foundation of this nation and the life of this land

 

It was a story left by the first king but erased from royal records. It was a more detailed story about the founding myth, a record that remained only in the four founding noble families.

 

‘It’s a bit different from what I thought.’

 

The reason they called it a god was probably because it seemed amazing to people’s eyes.

 

Suddenly, she recalled the vision she had glimpsed in the divine chamber.

 

The pure white hair flowing beyond the mirror and the blue-violet eyes that felt chillingly like something inorganic. The characteristics of the Grand Ducal Arkpella family clearly began from him.

 

A being trapped in the divine chamber of the Grand Duke’s Castle from the time the castle was built. For hundreds of years, Arkpella had been with that being.

 

‘So he might have received even greater influence, incomparable to Talion.’

 

Ashika calmly read through the notebook’s records while mulling over her thoughts.

 

‘Do not give away the key. Do not gather the shared power in one vessel…What does this mean?’

 

Arkpella and Talion, who reportedly received the god’s power. Igraine, who inherited Arkpella’s bloodline. Maiheller, who had interfered with the union of Igraine and Talion for decades. She felt like she knew something, but the answer wasn’t clear.

 

But one thing was certain. Maiheller had been seeking the divine chamber for a long time.

 

The king had lured and trapped the innocent being with a sip of water and a few kind words. Perhaps Marquis Maiheller had also wanted to obtain that power, just as the first king had done.

 

‘It probably won’t be that easy.’

 

Though it was brief, what she had felt in the divine chamber was fear. Instinctive fear that shook her from the very depths of living life.

 

The one in the divine chamber was not that young being who had been deceived by the ancient king’s cunning. He was closer to a beast roaring while trapped in a prison with no escape. So Marquis Maiheller’s idea might be a great delusion.

 

Most of the first head’s records were like letters left to his child. Ashika skimmed through most of the records and felt around the last page of the notebook with her fingertips. As the sun set, the letters were no longer clearly visible in the dim carriage.

 

‘What is this?’

 

At the end of the records that filled the notebook, there were words written with palpable anger.

 

To my pitiful child who will never be able to call me father in his lifetime  

Do not forget the king’s cunning in luring the innocent being  

Do not forget the king’s pettiness in deceiving a woman with false promises  

Do not forget that you are the abandoned bloodline of his

 

“Ah!”

 

That rumor was true. The rumor that Maiheller had actually inherited the king’s blood when Tridelia was a kingdom, not an empire.

 

‘They said Maiheller’s first head was a knight. The king’s knight.’

 

The king’s knight was a woman. A vassal and lover who had shared hardships together on the difficult journey. But after establishing the kingdom, the king took a daughter of an influential family as his companion and cast aside the knight who had devoted herself to him.

 

“So she was excluded from the founding records.”

 

She was a woman who bore the king’s illegitimate child. Now she understood why Maiheller’s first head had abandoned her knight’s position and lived quietly in the borderlands.

 

Clatter. The carriage lurched greatly as it hit a stone. Only then did Ashika realize that much time had passed.

 

‘It should have arrived long ago.’

 

Thinking it strange, she opened the small window facing the driver’s seat.

 

“Are we still far?”

 

“Oh my, miss. The road you described is a bit strange.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“I came the way you explained, but I don’t see the side road you mentioned.”

 

The driver, who was already sweating, continued in a blunt tone.

 

“With the rain, the road is even darker. I don’t know how far this road goes, and if it rains more, the carriage might fall into a ditch. I think it would be better to go back…”

 

The driver, who had been nervously driving the carriage, trailed off.

 

The drizzling rain gradually grew heavier, tap-tapping against the carriage. On the muddy forest path, the carriage could hardly pick up speed.

 

‘Where is this?’

 

No matter how she looked, she couldn’t tell. She had thought she’d easily find it since it was a frequently traveled road, but once she missed the path, it was difficult to find again. Now the view outside the window had become too dark to recognize the scenery.

 

“Miss, please decide quickly. At this rate, we’ll lose our way back too.”

 

“It’s been much longer than the arrival time. Let’s go back the way we came and…”

 

“Oh no!”

 

“Ah!”

 

Clatter. The carriage tilted. The driver quickly pulled the reins and Ashika’s body was thrown against the carriage wall.

 

The carriage came to a complete stop. The flustered driver got down from the driver’s seat and examined the tilted carriage wheel. As the downpour began, the driver standing in the rain quickly became soaked.

 

“Oh dear, what to do.”

 

It had been precarious, and sure enough, the carriage wheel had fallen into a puddle. The driver looked around, took thick cloth from the driver’s seat, and placed it in the sunken puddle. Then he climbed back onto the driver’s seat and whipped the horses.

 

“Come on, let’s go. Put some strength into it.”

 

In the pouring rain, the whip made sharp cracking sounds. But the mud puddle was deeper than expected. The two horses hitched to the carriage couldn’t exert their strength and just flailed uselessly.

 

The driver got down again to examine the wheel, and his expression hardened.

 

“Miss, I don’t think we can go any further.”

 

“What if I get out and we try moving?”

 

The driver shook his head.

 

“The carriage wheel seems to have weakened on the mountain path. If we force it and it gets completely stuck, it’ll be even more troublesome.”

 

“Then what are we going to do?”

 

Ashika’s face also darkened.

 

“I saw a light on the way here. It looks like a hunter’s cabin. I’ll go ask for help there. Can you stay alone?”

 

For a moment, Ashika was speechless. Deep in the mountains with no houses around. Even the sunset glow had disappeared and it had grown dark, with the rain becoming increasingly fierce.

 

“We can’t move like this anyway. Just wait for now.”

 

He couldn’t take Ashika with him into the rain, but they couldn’t spend the night in the forest without people either. The driver finished telling her to wait and began running urgently back the way they had come.

 

“No, but still…”

 

Ashika couldn’t bring herself to chase after him and watched the driver’s retreating figure running into the rain.

 

“Here… by myself?”

 

In the middle of the forest where all she could see was the light of the lantern hanging by the driver’s seat. The glass of the lantern hanging under the awning was thoroughly soaked by the fierce rain. It looked precarious, as if rainwater might seep in and extinguish it.

 

Rain was also coming in through the small window, making her hands and the front of her dress damp. Ashika belatedly came to her senses and closed the window.

 

“He’s not going to not come back, is he?”

 

Somehow she felt uneasy. She should have asked where the light the driver saw was. What if he doesn’t return all night like this?

 

Ashika wrapped her arms around herself and shuddered.

 

In the darkness where light had disappeared, the sound of rain drumming on the carriage grew louder and louder. Only then did she become aware that she was alone. With so many incidents happening in succession, she had forgotten. Where all of this had begun.

 

Ashika raised her trembling hands to cover her ears. Instead of the sound growing distant, she felt the vibration of rain fiercely drumming on the carriage.

 

“Drushia…”

 

Just a few months ago, even while growling like that, Drushia couldn’t just leave her terrified. He had followed Ashika into the carriage and blocked the violent noise that tore at the edges of memory.

 

To escape from fear, Ashika instinctively chased after peaceful memories.

 

Rumble, crash.

 

“Ah!”

 

She was so startled that her body jerked. Ashika screamed and curled up her body. She covered her face in fear of the darkness where nothing could be seen.

 

So she didn’t hear it. The sound of hoofbeats rushing through the fierce rain. The footsteps splashing through water and the voice calling Ashika’s name through the thunder.

 

“…shika…”

 

It felt like the carriage was shaking. The way her body jerked in surprise at the thunder felt exactly like the carriage was about to collapse.

 

“Ahhh!”

 

Ashika screamed and burrowed deeper into the corner. Like a cornered beast. At the same time, the door burst open.

 

“Ashika!”

 

A large, black shadow suddenly leaped into the carriage. What barely kept the nearly fainting Ashika conscious was the familiar voice rather than the invisible face.

 

“Good heavens, what are you doing here alone!”

 

“…Dru, Drushia?”

 

“Are you hurt anywhere? Why are you alone? Where did the driver go?”

 

Drushia swept up his soaked hair while firing questions all at once. His face was angry, though he was barely suppressing it.

 

“What on earth were you thinking? This place…”

 

Seeing Ashika’s terrified face, Drushia trailed off.

 

Even his angry face was so welcome that tears welled up in her black eyes.

 

Her heart had become so weak. Until just recently, enduring was all she could do. She couldn’t cry, and collapsing was even more unacceptable.

 

But just having someone to lean on made her reveal herself so easily.

 

“I was worried. I heard you went to the villa, but no matter how long I waited, you didn’t come.”

 

Drushia wiped the dampness around Ashika’s eyes. Drushia’s hand was chillingly cold. Still, it was a comforting touch.

 

“…The driver got lost.”

 

“But why are you alone?”

 

“The wheel fell into a puddle, so he went to ask for help…”

 

“This crazy bastard. So he left the lady alone and went?”

 

Drushia was disgusted by the fact that Ashika had been left alone. She had slipped out of the Igraine mansion so quietly that even the secret guards watching near the mansion hadn’t noticed.

 

Shocked, he had rushed over without even time to think. He had only shown his face at the Noble Council meeting before rushing out, so he hadn’t even heard what was discussed or how it went.

 

Even so, he had released all his knights throughout the villa area to search thoroughly. When the person who should have come didn’t come, the rain grew fierce, and the night deepened. His insides were burning up and his vision was going dark when he discovered a faint light and rushed over.

 

Ashika’s face was pale. She was barely answering, but whether from fright or the sound of rain, she looked precarious.

 

“We can’t spend the night here.”

 

Ashika nodded at Drushia’s words.

 

“There’s a hunter’s cabin nearby. Even if we get rained on a bit, we can make it there, right?”

 

“Let’s go.”

 

Wherever they went would be better than here. She’d rather get soaked in winter rain than be trapped in a carriage with a downpour.

 

Drushia pulled up Ashika’s cloak hood to cover her head.

 

“It’s raining hard. You’ll get soaked quickly.”

 

“It’s okay. Let’s get out for now.”

 

“Don’t let go of my hand.”

 

Drushia cautioned again as he opened the carriage door.

 

The moment they stepped outside, Ashika felt fierce vibration above her head. It was so strong that the feeling of it drumming on her head instantly became cold that flowed down.

 

The downpour was so severe they couldn’t even ride horses. Drushia took Ashika’s hand and ran as they were. Though it was so dark they couldn’t see an inch ahead, he skillfully found the path and set direction.

 

However, muddy water overflowing to the point of being soggy created puddles everywhere along the path. On one side of the side road, a fierce stream flowed like mountain valley water.

 

“Aah!”

 

Her foot slipped in the mud. Drushia quickly caught her, preventing her from falling, but the dress soaked in the downpour wrapped around her legs, making it difficult to walk properly.

 

Drushia wiped the water streaming down his face with his hand and opened his mouth. Cold rain also poured into his mouth.

 

“This won’t work. Just get on my back.”

 

“On this muddy path?”

 

Ashika clutched her numb hands and looked around anxiously.

 

The cold rain at the beginning of winter quickly stole body heat. Even in the darkness, she could see Ashika’s lips chattering. Her face must also be blue with cold.

 

Drushia let go of Ashika’s hand he had been holding and turned his back to her.

 

“I won’t drop you, so don’t worry.”

 

Ashika looked at the broad back offered to her and hesitated for a moment. Thick raindrops were already fiercely beating down on the already soaked back.

 

“Ashika.”

 

An impatient voice urged again. She hesitated briefly, then reluctantly answered.

 

“Alright, alright.”

 

Ashika lifted up her wet dress that clung stickily. Her body, stiff from the cold rain, felt heavy in her arms and legs. As she hesitantly placed her arms on his shoulders, Drushia pulled her up sharply.

 

In an instant, Ashika’s body rose onto his back.

 

“Whoa!”

 

“Relax and just stay still.”

 

Drushia easily lifted the thoroughly soaked Ashika onto his back. His movement of grabbing her legs with both arms and securing them to his waist was natural. She felt strange.

 

‘Had he carried me on his back before?’

 

Somehow it didn’t feel unfamiliar.

 

“Hold on tight so you don’t slip.”

 

Drushia tapped her arms wrapped around his neck. It meant to hold on more firmly. Ashika buried her face in the broad back that was as soaked as she was.

 

“…Alright.”

 

After confirming a stable position, Drushia moved quickly. Before long, heat began to rise from the back that had been cold. Her body that had cooled began to slowly thaw from the body temperature they shared.

 

Her fearful feelings disappeared somewhere, and her violent shivering from the cold also subsided. Even if the night was dark, even if the terrifying downpour was fierce, there was only one sensation she felt. Only the warmth, that hot sensation of body temperature touching as if they were one body, was intensely conveyed to her heart.

 

The distance from where the carriage had stopped to the cabin was quite far. With the fierce downpour making it impossible to distinguish even an inch ahead. The pouring rain was so intense that even the muddy water splashed on legs and clothes was washed away.

 

Carrying Ashika on his back, Drushia nearly slipped and fell several times. It was truly a dangerous rainy path.

 

When they stopped walking after passing through the downpour where they couldn’t tell where was where, the sensation of rain fiercely drumming on her back had disappeared. The place where Drushia put her down was under the eaves of a small building.

 

“Wait just a moment.”

 

Drushia opened the cabin door without hesitation and went inside. He fumbled around some shelf, and suddenly the surroundings brightened. He had skillfully found a lamp and lit it.

 

“Where is this?”

 

It was a cabin smaller than Ashika’s bedroom. In that small space, there was a fireplace, table, shelves packed against the walls, and even a bed positioned in one corner—everything that should be there was there.

 

“This area is famous as hunting grounds, so there are several hunter cabins. What the driver saw was probably the light from a cabin too.”

 

Even though it was her first time seeing this space, it somehow felt familiar.

 

The small cabin with a musty smell and thunder that seemed to tear the sky. Ashika wrapped her thoroughly soaked body with both arms.

 

From the moment Drushia put her down, her body shook mercilessly. Were the chills that made her shudder due to the cold that had seeped into her body, or because she remembered some day that was like today? Ashika shook her head and shook off the encroaching fear.

 

Drushia found dry cloth from the shelf and held it in his hand, hesitating for a moment.

 

“You should take off those clothes.”

 

“Here?”

 

“You’ll catch a cold if you keep wearing them. Take off the clothes to dry them, and you can cover yourself with a dry blanket.”

 

“You want me to be undressed?”

 

“It’s not the first time, so why are you being so fussy? We’re going to be married soon anyway.”