It was like a frozen hell.
Everything was frozen.
A distant past.
An iceberg rising from the cracks in the ground, the countless corpses of
demons scattered around, and the giant fortress reduced to rubble.
…Everything was frozen. It was Jaekiel's doing.
"Rise."
Jaekiel quietly muttered.
His gaze was fixed on five corpses.
They were all members who had followed Jaekiel.
Lined up like chess pieces, they were covered with cloth, only their toes
barely visible, looking pitiful. A final end much like the lives they led.
No names, no faces, no voices, no families… Nothing was left. Even in
death, only their toes barely showed.
"…Rise."
Jaekiel muttered again.
The secret organization he led for the imperial family, Balance.
But no member obeyed the order. Of course, they were all already dead.
Everyone was annihilated except for the leader, Jaekiel.
This was the result of the operation to close the gate to the Demon Realm.
They lived their lives hidden in the shadows, suppressing all curiosity and
selfish desires to serve the imperial family. The result of living like puppets
was this.
"Oh, imperial hunting dog, how pitiful you look."
A voice came from across the way.
"When the hunt is over, the only fate left for the hunting dog is the
cauldron. You must have known this well."
That single sentence made it feel like all the blood in his body was flowing
in reverse. It was anger he couldn't suppress.
Jaekiel's entire body trembled. He slowly raised his creaking head to face
the owner of the voice.
The source of the disaster that befell the continent.
The ruler of the Demon Realm.
It was the Demon Lord Valetta.
Her current appearance was bizarre beyond words.
Her entire fortress had been laid to waste; countless demons turned into
corpses… Yet, she wore a completely serene expression.
Even her body wasn't intact. One of her shoulders was completely torn off,
and she was holding a young child with her remaining arm.
It was the Demon Lord Valetta who broke the silence first.
"Balance…"
What she uttered was the name of Jaekiel's organization.
The name of those who secretly operated for the imperial family.
"Now that I think about it, it's quite a fitting name. The Demon Realm and
the continent have agreed to a temporary truce, so as you wished, balance
has been somewhat achieved."
Valetta's eyes curved like a crescent moon.
"Isn't that right? Leader of Balance, Snow Ghost Jaekiel."
"…Remove your filthy hand from the princess."
But Valetta only hugged the sleeping girl in her arms tighter. The scene was
blurred in that part, making it hard to see her face clearly.
"Pitiful, so pitiful. You still don't understand, do you?"
Valetta sneered.
"Jaekiel, let me first tell you the terms of the truce."
"…Terms?"
"We've decided to take the First Princess. So, there's no reason to return
her. What a shame."
Jaekiel stared blankly at Valetta. Now that he thought about it, it was
strange. There had been no reinforcements.
The First Princess would be handed over to the Demon Lord.
Such a shocking condition was part of the truce.
"Instead, the Emperor mentioned saving your life, Jaekiel. Accept it. It's
something beyond your power to change."
Valetta's sneer soon turned into wild laughter.
"Who will ever understand your grievance? You served the imperial family
all your life, but being born lowly, living as a puppet was your best option."
"…"
"And who will remember you? You made a name for yourself as the Snow
Ghost in the Demon Realm, but no one on the continent will remember that
name. Don't you see?"
"…I told you to put down the princess."
"That's impossible. Poor Snow Ghost. You worked hard to bring about this
truce, and I'll raise the First Princess well. It'll be really interesting if war
breaks out again."
Valetta continued to laugh.
"The Demon Realm will grow stronger, but in the meantime, the continent
will slowly decline. Humans are endlessly weak. They can never withstand
the passage of time…"
Thud!
Jaekiel didn't listen any further and kicked off the ground. He spread ice
and rushed forward, but no matter how far he ran, he couldn't close the
distance between him and the Demon Lord.
It was a strange thing.
The Demon Lord just stood there, yet Jaekiel couldn't reach her.
"Farewell, Snow Ghost."
With that final word from Valetta.
"It seems you've become terminally ill, so we won't be meeting again."
Thud!
Jaekiel was thrown out of the Demon Realm.
The dimensional passage swallowed his body, and Jaekiel's body began to
drift inside it as if submerged in deep water. He muttered with his eyes wide
open.
"Damn…!"
He was furious that he couldn't even die.
He had failed to defeat the Demon Lord and failed to save his comrades and
the princess. He was burdened with the shame of having to save his life
forcibly.
Thump!
His heart pounded as if it would burst.
It was because he had pushed his cold energy to the extreme during this
mission. Once his body's constitution had been thrown off balance, it could
never return to its original state.
Whoosh!
Inside the dimensional passage, his mind grew increasingly faint.
Jaekiel closed his eyes and focused. Not to survive, but to remember every
name and face of his comrades without missing a single detail.
"Did I once have a dream…?"
The dream of living a normal life, of opening an orphanage to live with
children, of stretching out and sleeping in peace. None of those dreams
were realized.
He had hoped his comrades' wishes would come true.
…But their wishes were never fulfilled.
Had he ever once found his own balance?
He had lived as a shadow, a decoration for the imperial family. He had
worked so hard, but what did it all mean in the end?
Leader.
Suddenly, Jaekiel felt ashamed of that title.
He hadn't been able to save his comrades, nor protect himself. He hadn't
even managed to save one of the precious princesses.
"You fools."
Your leader is this weak, unable even to carry out blind revenge
successfully. If you had known that, maybe you would have abandoned
your foolish loyalty. Maybe you would have lived a better life than me…
"Cough!"
He coughed up an absurd amount of blood. He had neither the strength to
swallow nor to spit it out; breathing became difficult with his esophagus
blocked.
Jaekiel's mind grew more and more distant.
.
.
.
.
Anes experienced Jaekiel's past vividly.
Riiing.
A ringing began to echo in her ears.
Anes's vision gradually turned white. It must have been because she had
been consumed by fear for too long.
At that moment, many scenes began to flash before Anes's eyes like a
revolving lantern on the white canvas her vision had become.
─They say this is the last mission! What should we do when it's over?
─But, Leader, don't you have any dreams?
─I want to raise a hundred cats.
─Come to think of it, I've never seen you smile, Leader.
…What is this?
─Teacher, look at this!
─Teacher, where are you going?
─Teacher!
…How on earth did this happen?
The truth that the world could never know, and the truth that Anes wasn't
sure she was allowed to know. Things that Jaekiel had once experienced
rushed past her.
Some of Jaekiel's memories flooded and mingled chaotically in Anes's
mind as a bonus.
His birth in the Penitence Palace, the torturous level of harsh training, the
days spent as a teacher to the princesses… Her head felt hot, as if her brain
would burn.
A trickle of blood ran from Anes's nose.
At that moment, she felt paralyzed as if in a nightmare.
And when it truly felt like her head would explode.
"Ugh…!"
A strong impact brought Anes back to her senses. At the same time, she felt
the black mist of fear dissipating all at once, but she was still dizzy.
"…Nes!"
After a while, she felt the sound and sensation of someone shaking her
shoulder.
"Anes! Anes!"
Only then did her vision clear.
Tether was shaking Anes's shoulder with a face full of worry, and Jaekiel
had purified all the black mist.
"Ah, ah, Anes! Are you okay?"
"Ah…"
Anes couldn't easily answer. Her head was still spinning, and she didn't
know what to say.
But her gaze naturally turned to Jaekiel.
To the Auditor, who was standing there, completely fine.
"…Why did you push yourself so hard? You should have taken it easy."
Jaekiel met her gaze and spoke casually, with a lollipop in his mouth.
"You must have been really scared? You even cried."
Anes looked at her reflection in the ice.
Her face was still expressionless as usual, but it looked awful. A tear streak
had run down her cheek without her even realizing it.
"…"
After a long moment, Anes quietly nodded.
"…Yes."
For now, that was all she could say.
"…I was very scared."
Just as dawn was beginning to break.
It was just before they were about to depart for the Black Tower.