I Became the Villain of a Romance Fantasy

37 – Uninvited guest (2)

After parting with Franz, I wandered helplessly around the winter castle.

“What kind of person is so talkative…”

Even after the story about Richard was over, I had to hold on to him for a while. Ever since I had been captured by Wilhelm and told about my father, Wilhelm had always been the number one talkative person in my mind, but now Franz took the place.

Of course, there were also things to hear. Like the story of the academy I spent with my father. Other than that, everything else was a complaint about how much trouble he had suffered because of his father’s behavior. Somehow, it seemed to me that I was receiving all the karma for what my father had done.

When I was in school, the principal’s words of instruction were unmatched. He was so talkative that the conversation that started in the morning carried on until sunset.

Seriously, he was so talkative that I wondered if the name Twilight came from the fact that he talked until sunset.

If he hadn’t stopped saying that his mouth hurts in the middle, if I hadn’t run out then I might have been stuck there.

“Elena…”

As I was exhausted, the only thing that came out of my mouth was Elena’s name. Normally, I would have thought all kinds of things about her name coming up inadvertently, but now I didn’t even have the energy to think about it. I just wanted to see Elena’s face.

And just in time, a white light came into my eyes.

The world was dyed red by the sunset light, but she alone in the world kept the white color.

As she was walking toward the castle, she also started approaching me, as if she had spotted me. But I didn’t have the patience to wait for her to come before me. I ran straight towards her.

“Why does Damian look like that… uh… uh…”

“I missed you.”

If you ask me why I acted like that, I would be able to say that it came naturally because I was just tired. Even though it was still dark, it was a long way from me to calmly hug her while she barely danced in front of her.

But at the time, I didn’t have time to think about it.

As I held her in my arms, all I could think of was Elena’s warm body temperature and the fact that I could hear her pounding heart. I held Elena in my arms for a long time and found stability.

That is, until Joachim’s gaze flies from afar.

After that, we came to our senses and went back to our room, unable to bear looking at each other’s faces.

It was when we met again at the entrance of the winter castle to go out after some time had passed that we were able to see each other’s faces again.

“Then shall we go?”

“Yes….”

Elena tried to talk to me pretending to be calm, but her ears were stained red as before, as if the afterglow of the moment hadn’t left. I turned my head away from her and pushed open the castle door.

The door of the winter castle opened and a cold wind blew.

It was the north wind of the Merohim that made me chill to the bone, but my face was still hot.

***

“It’s very cold.”

I said that while holding Elena’s hand.

As the high sun began to disappear between the mountain peaks in the distance, I could feel for myself that the temperature had dropped noticeably, unlike before.

As the sun began to set, the pure white city, which had been as white as snow, was immersed in darkness, like the pure white drawing paper stained with black paint.

By the time the whole world was immersed in darkness, a white tower that towered high into the sky, like a mountain in the distance, began to flash. Like a lighthouse clearing out the darkness of the dark night sea, the top of the tower was shining brightly.

After a while, the cluster of lights emitted from the tower began to spread throughout the city of Merohim centered on the tower. The cluster of lights that spread throughout the city went into the streetlights that were set up here and there as if finding their place.

The city was no longer dark.

Perhaps thanks to the street lamps in the alleys of the city, the city wrapped in light seemed to give a feeling of being brighter than the street during the day when the sun was shining.

I was staring up at the sky in awe at that unrealistic sight.

I chased the scattered light from the sky with my eyes at the dreamy beauty as if I had entered the world of a fairy tale.

Is this a matter of emotion?

Having lived in a modern society where science and technology are extremely developed, I have seen things that are more unrealistic and splendid than this, but just as a simply gorgeous painting is not a famous painting, it did not touch my heart as much as the landscape that is reflected in my eyes now.

Elena put on a small smile as she saw me bewildered.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Once a month, the Tower of Dawn treats the residual magic accumulated during the work process by releasing it outside like this.”

“Then do all towers deal with residual magic that way?”

Seeing this scene made me want to go to the Tower of Twilight, which I hadn’t even had in my heart for a while. However, Elena shook her head with a sad smile.

“That’s…probably not. As far as I know, the Tower of Dawn is the only place that handles residual magic this way. Most magic towers don’t process magic openly like this.”

“ah…”

Then you don’t have to go to the Tower of Twilight.

As I was looking up for the light that had already disappeared in the sky with a face full of regret, she grabbed my hand and pulled me along, leading me to a street that was shining brightly with starlight.

Her slightly troubled face seemed to be telling me to stop looking at the sky and not at herself.

Facing the jewel-like purple eyes that sparkled along with the street as she wished, I no longer had any lingering attachment to the lights that lit up the night sky.

I followed her into the lighted street.

“Even though the weather is cold, there are a lot of people out on the street.”

I was the one who knew how to handle an aura, so even so, there were many people outside despite the fairly cold weather tonight, perhaps because it was the day the night market was held.

I could see street stalls set up on the street, children going in and out of them with curious faces, and parents hurrying to take care of such children.

Other than that, the laughter of people was endless due to various entertainment. If you simply judged the volume of the sound, the sound of the speech in the banquet hall could not be compared to them, but I did not feel that this sound filling the street now was noisy.

Elena answered my words with a smile on her face, taking it for granted.

“For people living in Merohim, this kind of weather is normal. Besides, it’s not common for the day when the remaining mana is processed and the opening day of the night market overlaps. That may be why there are so many people.”

Oh, it’s just that everyone is used to this weather.

Seeing Elena speak calmly, it was only then that I was able to belatedly recall the fact that she was born and raised here. To her, seeing Merohim like this would be a daily occurrence, but I felt strange at Elena’s words, which I should have taken for granted, perhaps because of the memories of living with her in Sarham.

I slowly followed Elena down the street.

Every time we passed a block, the things we could hear in our hands began to increase one by one. True to its name, the night market sells a variety of foods, but the one I like the most is a meat skewer with a long name that reproduces the taste of cheap chicken skewers sold in the pre-Bing world.

The texture is also a texture, but surprisingly, even the sauce applied here tasted exactly the same as I remembered, so I wondered if there was someone else besides me.

Later, when I heard from Elena, she said it was just a popular food in Merohim from a long time ago.

Elena was holding mostly sweet things in her hands to match her sweet taste. Among them was something resembling a Bingdang horo with fruit frozen in sugar water, and that was the only edible thing she handed me.

She only offered it as a joke, but when I casually took a bite, she looked surprised as if she hadn’t even thought about it. Then, as if I had eaten something I couldn’t eat, he immediately said to me, at a loss for what to do.

“That Damian. It was just a prank. You don’t have to eat it on purpose…”

“I also eat fruit. As long as it’s not too sweet. This is good for sour.”

Others think that I can’t eat sweets at all, but I can eat them if I want to. I just don’t enjoy it that much.

Of course, the Bingdangho I just ate was too sweet even by my standards. The reason I ate it wasn’t simply because she handed it to me, but because I had a memory of eating it before, so it was more like putting it in my mouth to relive that memory.

It was a little different from the taste in my memory, but it was enough to feel the nostalgia of the past.

It’s sweet.

Elena seemed happy that I ate the bingdanghoro she gave me, but when I finished eating the bingdanghoro she gave me and looked at the one left in her hand, she looked at me with trembling eyes.

“Hey, would you like another Damian?”

“…that’s fine. I’ll buy some more on the way back later.”

When I said I was fine, Elena smiled in relief and carefully bit the remaining Bingdang Horo into her mouth. I could feel the corners of my mouth go up at the sight of her like that.

How can a person be this cute?

If I had asked for Bingdang horo, she would have surely given it to me, but the memories I would have when I bit into something that didn’t suit my taste weren’t as valuable as her smile. It was more valuable to see her happy face now.

I quietly watched her eat and started looking around to find a new sweet that she might like.

***

A dark alley where even the light that lit up the city that had been locked at night did not shine.

In Merohim, which is crowded with night markets in full swing, those who were deliberately in such a place could not have been normal people, but those who were hiding their appearance with black robes that covered their whole bodies looked especially suspicious.

The necklaces hidden inside the robes painted blacker than the darkness of the night were engraved with patterns symbolizing their affiliation. The pattern was reminiscent of a solar eclipse that covered the sun, a symbol of Altair, the god of light who is currently revered as the main god on the continent.

This was proof that they were called ‘pagans’ on the present continent who denied the existence of the main god they worshiped on the continent.

Considered enemies of all, they were a tribe that did not hide their existence, but put patterns on their clothes and armor to reveal their affiliation.

This was like the last faith they couldn’t throw away, but in the eyes of those who knew what they were doing, the image of them was not like faithful disciples, but like mad fanatics.

From the figure shimmering in the darkness, a cracked voice that could not be thought of as human came out.

【Are you sure you are really here?】

【It is certain since the Archbishop said that he had heard the revelation. As proof of that, isn’t the divine object reacting like this?]

A black jewel held in a hand protruding from the shadows.

Although the jewel was as beautiful as its shape, it constantly exuded an ominous aura that made it unpleasant to look at. However, they greeted such a special energy with faces full of joy, as if they had found the warm sunlight.

The shadow that took out the jewel shook as if it couldn’t control its emotions.

【Even on the day when the archbishop was selected, the holy things did not shine this much. It is certain that his apostle, or perhaps our Lord, must have descended here in Merohim.]

Hiding in the dark, he remembered the image of the Archbishop, who had been smashing everything around him like a madman a few days ago.

She let out tears and muttered blasphemous things such as the disappearance of their god. If she weren’t the only person in the position of archbishop, it would have been a pointless remark even if she would be beaten to death right away, but everyone present had the same thought, so no one could dispute his words.

But even that was short-lived, and the archbishop immediately started banging his head on the ground with a face full of joy.

Then, taking out the holy relics that had not been taken out of the Ark of the Covenant for a long time, they proclaimed that their long-awaited wish had come true.

Ordinary people could never follow the flow of thought, but they were crazy about their gods, and the thick darkness of the sacred object reflected in their eyes made them understand the archbishop’s words.

As the archbishop said, after entering Merohim, the holy relic was spreading a thicker darkness than ever before. This fact alone proved that she was right.

If there was only one thing they couldn’t understand in their heads, it was that the Merohim, which should have collapsed as the cornerstone of destruction with the Advent, are still alive, but that question was buried in front of their fanatical piety.

Those hiding in the darkness were just laughing with the joy of welcoming their god.