In a room with the lights off Amelie was asleep with a relaxed expression on her face. No, she was acting like she was asleep. Her performance was so perfect that even Mrs. Enard was deceived.
‘How long do I have to be like this?’
After pretending to sleep for hours, her back was sore and ached. Eventually, she couldn’t stand it and got up.
“He didn’t show up.”
Looking at the clock, it had been two hours since she started pretending to be asleep. At this point, she must give up waiting for Serwin.
‘Have I been caught faking sleep, or has he not come to see me at all?’
Amelie crossed her arms and pondered. She believed that Serwin would come to see her secretly while she was asleep. So she lied to Mrs. Enard, and said she didn’t want to look for him, and pretended to be asleep. Because she thought that Serwin was listening to the conversation somewhere.
However, Serwin did not appear no matter how much time passed.
‘Well, that’s all right. I’m not disappointed.’
She’s a little disappointed, but it’s okay.
‘If you don’t come to me, I’ll find you.’
No matter how well Serwin hid, she had magic. Amelie made up her mind to bring Serwin to talk to her tonight, and headed to the attic without her maid’s knowledge.
******
Just in case, there was no Serwin in the attic. The room was the same as the last time she went out, and there was hardly any trace of Serwin.
‘I didn’t even expect it.’
Amelie pouted her lips and approached the chest of drawers. The last drawer contained heavy magic tools. She pulled out a purple velvet cloth box from among them.
Inside the box was a pendulum. A crystal clear amethyst in the shape of an eight-pronged antler hung from a string of platinum. Upon closer inspection, the amethyst and chain were engraved with the sutras of drunkenness. It was a proper witch’s item.
‘This is also the legacy of the grandmother witch.’
Amelie briefly expressed her gratitude to the grandmother witch.
‘With this, I can find Serwin.’
The pendulum informed the location of the object the user was looking for, and it should be able to clearly recall what the user was looking for, and it had to be within a certain range.
‘If Serwin left the Imperial Palace, I wouldn’t be able to find him with this…’
Amelie speculated that he might be in the Imperial Palace. He was a man of great responsibility. If he had been a man who would leave the empire, he would not have been able to endure the disaster until now.
‘When a problem arises, he’ll be in a place where he can see everything right away.’
Amelie stood by the window and held a pendulum. She put the broom to her side so she could fly right away.
“I don’t know if this will work out—”
This was the first time Amelie had used a pendulum. Although she brought it with her when she came to the Imperial Palace, it is a tool that has many restrictions on its use, and it was only used to find the lost key in her house one time so she had forgotten that such a thing existed.
‘Anyway, let’s do it.’
Amelie grabbed the end of the chain with her thumb and index finger and lifted it. Then the heavy amethyst drooped toward the ground.
“….”
Amelie remembered Serwin’s face as she cast a spell. The first thing that came to mind was the appearance of the clock tower. He had kissed her hand. His deep kiss seemed to replace what he wanted to say. Should she have asked more about what he was going to say at that time?
Amelie stopped her spell without realizing it.
‘I’m sure he was going to talk about the Hunting Day Festival.’
Amelie had so many questions for him. Strangely enough, she didn’t want to get angry with him. She couldn’t blame him because he looked so painful that day.
‘If it hadn’t been for a disaster, this wouldn’t have happened.’
Serwin admitted to making a deal, but it seemed to Amelie that he was trying to minimize the damage in his own way despite the threat of disaster. Even if it was her, she would not have been able to find another option in such a situation.
Even so, he was responsible for all the slaughter committed by the disaster, and the maid he relied on from childhood even told him that he was a monster. Amelie felt sorry for him.
‘Disaster. I won’t let you go.’
How many people have been harmed by it? She doesn’t know how such a thing was born, but she’ll never forgive it.
Amelie once again burned as her hostility towards disaster grew. Fortunately, she found out that the magic of purification worked on the disaster. Compared to the slow progress of the information gathering, it was a great achievement.
‘If I tell him this, Serwin will be relieved too. Let’s find Serwin quickly.’
Amelie recalled the spell she had stopped and resumed. A low voice resounded in the quiet night. A deep light leaked from the amethyst, making her shiver. When the spell was finished, the pendulum pointed to the northeast. It was in the direction of the mountain behind the Imperial Palace.
‘Is he in the mountains?’
Although the direction of the pendulum was very strange, Amelie climbed onto her broom.
‘Good, let’s go for now.’
Amelie tied the pendulum to the end of a broom and flew into the sky.
*****
The mountains behind the imperial palace were mostly barren and uninhabited. This was because the slope was steep and the trees were densely packed, so it was especially difficult for anyone untrained to survive the trek there.
As Amelie flew up to the middle of the mountain, the direction of the pendulum changed from pointing up slightly to pointing straight down.
‘Are you telling me to get off here?’
Amelie lowered her broom slowly in the direction that Pendulum ordered. As soon she stood on the ground, the pendulum began to point in a direction so urgently it was parallel to the ground.
There was only darkness in the whole mountain. Even the bright moonlight was obscured by the leaves, and even though her eyes had gotten used to the darkness, she couldn’t see clearly.
Amelie created a few small lights. That alone made it possible to find out what was at the end of the pendulum.
“A door?”
There was a door built of bricks on the sloping side of the mountain. It seemed to be a very old sculpture, and there was moss between the broken bricks. The door was tightly closed, and the tip of it was round and reminded her of a king’s tomb.
Amelie slowly stood at the door. An old stone gate in the middle of a desolate mountain. It was a very suspicious combination.
‘Should I go in? That’s what the pendulum is pointing at—. But does this door even open?’
Amelie pushed the door carefully. The door opened unexpectedly easily. Inside the door, there was a space just the size of the door. Perhaps because it was narrow and dark, she couldn’t tell anything except that it was slanted.
‘Ugh, I hate it.’
Still, Serwin was there, and she couldn’t help but go.
‘If you’re an Emperor, you can sleep in a luxurious room with a nice view, why are you here? Pitifully.’
Amelie walked into the door, worried about Serwin. One step, two steps. As she went deeper and deeper, her heart became heavy and her chest became stuffy.
‘Is it because it’s small?’
Amelie found this place so uncomfortable. As she went straight down the road, she found a round stone chamber. The interior of the stone chamber was not brightened by the light. It was so full of black smoke that it was hard to breathe.
‘The energy of disaster?’
Amelie looked inside in surprise. It’s certain that it was the energy of the disaster.
“Serwin is here?”
Amelie muttered. So it means that all the energy of this disaster came from him? She hurriedly looked at Serwin’s location. But through the thick fog, let alone looking for anyone else, she couldn’t even see her own hand properly.
She had no choice but to rely on the pendulum again. And after a while, a pair of golden eyes flashed at the tip the pendulum pointed to. It was Serwin.
“Your Majesty?”
Amelie took a step inside the stone chamber.
“Your Majesty, are you all right?”
The fact that the energy of the disaster came out like this meant that his condition was very serious. It reminded her of the time she entered his room in the Dellahaim mansion.
‘You said you were desperate because you thought I was dead. Then why now?’
Although she fainted, Amelie was very far from sick and was actually healthier than ever. There was no reason for the seal to weaken.
‘Let’s get Serwin out of here for now.’
If they stayed in such a shady place for a long time, she thought they would have an unknown disease. She took a few steps forward. She couldn’t see ahead, so she was careful to move.
“Don’t come.”
Belatedly, Serwin said as if he had just found Amelie. His voice was suppressed as if in pain. In a way, it sounded like a voice holding back tears when she heard it.
“Don’t come any further. Go back.”
“Why?”
Amelie asked.
“Don’t come near me.”
“I don’t want to.”
Amelie frowned.
“If I didn’t come near you just because you say so, would I have come all the way here to find you, Your Majesty?”
“…Go back now.”
“I don’t want to.”
As Amelie took a step forward, she heard a gasp from behind the smoke, followed by the sound of footsteps taking steps backwards.
“Really, what’s the matter with you? Why are you avoiding me?”
Amelie couldn’t understand his behavior at all, so she asked grudgingly. Serwin hesitated, unable to answer easily.
‘If it comes out like that, it can’t be helped.’
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Amelie bit her lip slightly and spoke in a firm voice.
“Should I just go? Then you may never see me again for the rest of your life.”
The threat worked well. The sound of Serwin’s footsteps stopped.
“Now tell me. Why did you hide?”
“I’m not hiding.”
“Then?”
“…I can’t control the energy of the disaster.”
“Then you should stay with me even more! Not here, alone, like this.”
Amelie couldn’t wait to hold Serwin’s hand.
“Don’t you hate— to be by my side anymore. It’ll be terrible if I touch you—”
“Why do you think so?”
“Because you know everything.”
Serwin didn’t want to tell Amelie that he had compromised with the disaster and perpetuated so many atrocities every Hunting Day. So he manipulated the data and desperately hid it even by leaving her out. It was because he thought that it would be better for him to deceive her than for her to despise and possibly abandon him. But in the worst case, she found out about everything. Moreover, the disaster appeared and tried to kill her using Serwin’s own body.
‘I’ve ruined everything.’
She will no longer feel sorry for him. She would be as frightened and disgusted as Mrs. Wallow had been. Serwin was afraid to see her changed eyes. When he thought of her being cold, all he had left was despair.
‘It won’t make any difference to say more here.’
Serwin was desperate.
“I’ll stay here. I’ll be here forever. This is the place where the disaster was sealed. The seal has been broken for a long time, but if I stay here, the energy of disaster will not escape. So you won’t get hurt because of me anymore, right?”
“Are you going to lock yourself in here?”
“Yeah, because it’s safe.”
“Your Majesty.”
“For now, the disaster keeps leaking out of me. It’s out of control. It’ll only get worse when you leave— at least it’s better than keeping you by my side and killing you.”
The feeling of her thin neck in his hands was still vivid.
Without Amelie’s wits, she could have really died there. Whenever the moment came to mind, he was suffocated and his whole body trembled. At this rate, the day may come when he really did kill her with his own hands. As long as she was by his side, it was clear that disaster would play with her life again.
Even while thinking that, Serwin missed Amelie and wanted to hug her. She must have been terrified of him, but he was grateful that she had come to find him in this way. But he shouldn’t be greedy any more. Because Amelie might come to hate him even more.
“Don’t worry. Disaster won’t come for a while anyway. He enjoys my suffering.”
It was clear that after sending Amelie away, he would suffer even more. Even now, disaster didn’t take over his body, but just laughed and enjoyed his suffering.
“Even if you go back, no one will criticize you. You must have known now that I’m not as innocent and pitiful as you thought I was. I don’t want you to sacrifice for me anymore.”
Serwin said and laughed bitterly at himself.
“Well, that’s not even worth listening to.”
Amelie glared at him, eyes still sharp even through the black mist.
Let’s see, how far down this hole is he planning to dig down? There seemed to be no end to it if it was left like this.
In a room with the lights off Amelie was asleep with a relaxed expression on her face. No, she was acting like she was asleep. Her performance was so perfect that even Mrs. Enard was deceived.
‘How long do I have to be like this?’
After pretending to sleep for hours, her back was sore and ached. Eventually, she couldn’t stand it and got up.
“He didn’t show up.”
Looking at the clock, it had been two hours since she started pretending to be asleep. At this point, she must give up waiting for Serwin.
‘Have I been caught faking sleep, or has he not come to see me at all?’
Amelie crossed her arms and pondered. She believed that Serwin would come to see her secretly while she was asleep. So she lied to Mrs. Enard, and said she didn’t want to look for him, and pretended to be asleep. Because she thought that Serwin was listening to the conversation somewhere.
However, Serwin did not appear no matter how much time passed.
‘Well, that’s all right. I’m not disappointed.’
She’s a little disappointed, but it’s okay.
‘If you don’t come to me, I’ll find you.’
No matter how well Serwin hid, she had magic. Amelie made up her mind to bring Serwin to talk to her tonight, and headed to the attic without her maid’s knowledge.
******
Just in case, there was no Serwin in the attic. The room was the same as the last time she went out, and there was hardly any trace of Serwin.
‘I didn’t even expect it.’
Amelie pouted her lips and approached the chest of drawers. The last drawer contained heavy magic tools. She pulled out a purple velvet cloth box from among them.
Inside the box was a pendulum. A crystal clear amethyst in the shape of an eight-pronged antler hung from a string of platinum. Upon closer inspection, the amethyst and chain were engraved with the sutras of drunkenness. It was a proper witch’s item.
‘This is also the legacy of the grandmother witch.’
Amelie briefly expressed her gratitude to the grandmother witch.
‘With this, I can find Serwin.’
The pendulum informed the location of the object the user was looking for, and it should be able to clearly recall what the user was looking for, and it had to be within a certain range.
‘If Serwin left the Imperial Palace, I wouldn’t be able to find him with this…’
Amelie speculated that he might be in the Imperial Palace. He was a man of great responsibility. If he had been a man who would leave the empire, he would not have been able to endure the disaster until now.
‘When a problem arises, he’ll be in a place where he can see everything right away.’
Amelie stood by the window and held a pendulum. She put the broom to her side so she could fly right away.
“I don’t know if this will work out—”
This was the first time Amelie had used a pendulum. Although she brought it with her when she came to the Imperial Palace, it is a tool that has many restrictions on its use, and it was only used to find the lost key in her house one time so she had forgotten that such a thing existed.
‘Anyway, let’s do it.’
Amelie grabbed the end of the chain with her thumb and index finger and lifted it. Then the heavy amethyst drooped toward the ground.
“….”
Amelie remembered Serwin’s face as she cast a spell. The first thing that came to mind was the appearance of the clock tower. He had kissed her hand. His deep kiss seemed to replace what he wanted to say. Should she have asked more about what he was going to say at that time?
Amelie stopped her spell without realizing it.
‘I’m sure he was going to talk about the Hunting Day Festival.’
Amelie had so many questions for him. Strangely enough, she didn’t want to get angry with him. She couldn’t blame him because he looked so painful that day.
‘If it hadn’t been for a disaster, this wouldn’t have happened.’
Serwin admitted to making a deal, but it seemed to Amelie that he was trying to minimize the damage in his own way despite the threat of disaster. Even if it was her, she would not have been able to find another option in such a situation.
Even so, he was responsible for all the slaughter committed by the disaster, and the maid he relied on from childhood even told him that he was a monster. Amelie felt sorry for him.
‘Disaster. I won’t let you go.’
How many people have been harmed by it? She doesn’t know how such a thing was born, but she’ll never forgive it.
Amelie once again burned as her hostility towards disaster grew. Fortunately, she found out that the magic of purification worked on the disaster. Compared to the slow progress of the information gathering, it was a great achievement.
‘If I tell him this, Serwin will be relieved too. Let’s find Serwin quickly.’
Amelie recalled the spell she had stopped and resumed. A low voice resounded in the quiet night. A deep light leaked from the amethyst, making her shiver. When the spell was finished, the pendulum pointed to the northeast. It was in the direction of the mountain behind the Imperial Palace.
‘Is he in the mountains?’
Although the direction of the pendulum was very strange, Amelie climbed onto her broom.
‘Good, let’s go for now.’
Amelie tied the pendulum to the end of a broom and flew into the sky.
*****
The mountains behind the imperial palace were mostly barren and uninhabited. This was because the slope was steep and the trees were densely packed, so it was especially difficult for anyone untrained to survive the trek there.
As Amelie flew up to the middle of the mountain, the direction of the pendulum changed from pointing up slightly to pointing straight down.
‘Are you telling me to get off here?’
Amelie lowered her broom slowly in the direction that Pendulum ordered. As soon she stood on the ground, the pendulum began to point in a direction so urgently it was parallel to the ground.
There was only darkness in the whole mountain. Even the bright moonlight was obscured by the leaves, and even though her eyes had gotten used to the darkness, she couldn’t see clearly.
Amelie created a few small lights. That alone made it possible to find out what was at the end of the pendulum.
“A door?”
There was a door built of bricks on the sloping side of the mountain. It seemed to be a very old sculpture, and there was moss between the broken bricks. The door was tightly closed, and the tip of it was round and reminded her of a king’s tomb.
Amelie slowly stood at the door. An old stone gate in the middle of a desolate mountain. It was a very suspicious combination.
‘Should I go in? That’s what the pendulum is pointing at—. But does this door even open?’
Amelie pushed the door carefully. The door opened unexpectedly easily. Inside the door, there was a space just the size of the door. Perhaps because it was narrow and dark, she couldn’t tell anything except that it was slanted.
‘Ugh, I hate it.’
Still, Serwin was there, and she couldn’t help but go.
‘If you’re an Emperor, you can sleep in a luxurious room with a nice view, why are you here? Pitifully.’
Amelie walked into the door, worried about Serwin. One step, two steps. As she went deeper and deeper, her heart became heavy and her chest became stuffy.
‘Is it because it’s small?’
Amelie found this place so uncomfortable. As she went straight down the road, she found a round stone chamber. The interior of the stone chamber was not brightened by the light. It was so full of black smoke that it was hard to breathe.
‘The energy of disaster?’
Amelie looked inside in surprise. It’s certain that it was the energy of the disaster.
“Serwin is here?”
Amelie muttered. So it means that all the energy of this disaster came from him? She hurriedly looked at Serwin’s location. But through the thick fog, let alone looking for anyone else, she couldn’t even see her own hand properly.
She had no choice but to rely on the pendulum again. And after a while, a pair of golden eyes flashed at the tip the pendulum pointed to. It was Serwin.
“Your Majesty?”
Amelie took a step inside the stone chamber.
“Your Majesty, are you all right?”
The fact that the energy of the disaster came out like this meant that his condition was very serious. It reminded her of the time she entered his room in the Dellahaim mansion.
‘You said you were desperate because you thought I was dead. Then why now?’
Although she fainted, Amelie was very far from sick and was actually healthier than ever. There was no reason for the seal to weaken.
‘Let’s get Serwin out of here for now.’
If they stayed in such a shady place for a long time, she thought they would have an unknown disease. She took a few steps forward. She couldn’t see ahead, so she was careful to move.
“Don’t come.”
Belatedly, Serwin said as if he had just found Amelie. His voice was suppressed as if in pain. In a way, it sounded like a voice holding back tears when she heard it.
“Don’t come any further. Go back.”
“Why?”
Amelie asked.
“Don’t come near me.”
“I don’t want to.”
Amelie frowned.
“If I didn’t come near you just because you say so, would I have come all the way here to find you, Your Majesty?”
“…Go back now.”
“I don’t want to.”
As Amelie took a step forward, she heard a gasp from behind the smoke, followed by the sound of footsteps taking steps backwards.
“Really, what’s the matter with you? Why are you avoiding me?”
Amelie couldn’t understand his behavior at all, so she asked grudgingly. Serwin hesitated, unable to answer easily.
‘If it comes out like that, it can’t be helped.’
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!
!
!
!
!
!
Amelie bit her lip slightly and spoke in a firm voice.
“Should I just go? Then you may never see me again for the rest of your life.”
The threat worked well. The sound of Serwin’s footsteps stopped.
“Now tell me. Why did you hide?”
“I’m not hiding.”
“Then?”
“…I can’t control the energy of the disaster.”
“Then you should stay with me even more! Not here, alone, like this.”
Amelie couldn’t wait to hold Serwin’s hand.
“Don’t you hate— to be by my side anymore. It’ll be terrible if I touch you—”
“Why do you think so?”
“Because you know everything.”
Serwin didn’t want to tell Amelie that he had compromised with the disaster and perpetuated so many atrocities every Hunting Day. So he manipulated the data and desperately hid it even by leaving her out. It was because he thought that it would be better for him to deceive her than for her to despise and possibly abandon him. But in the worst case, she found out about everything. Moreover, the disaster appeared and tried to kill her using Serwin’s own body.
‘I’ve ruined everything.’
She will no longer feel sorry for him. She would be as frightened and disgusted as Mrs. Wallow had been. Serwin was afraid to see her changed eyes. When he thought of her being cold, all he had left was despair.
‘It won’t make any difference to say more here.’
Serwin was desperate.
“I’ll stay here. I’ll be here forever. This is the place where the disaster was sealed. The seal has been broken for a long time, but if I stay here, the energy of disaster will not escape. So you won’t get hurt because of me anymore, right?”
“Are you going to lock yourself in here?”
“Yeah, because it’s safe.”
“Your Majesty.”
“For now, the disaster keeps leaking out of me. It’s out of control. It’ll only get worse when you leave— at least it’s better than keeping you by my side and killing you.”
The feeling of her thin neck in his hands was still vivid.
Without Amelie’s wits, she could have really died there. Whenever the moment came to mind, he was suffocated and his whole body trembled. At this rate, the day may come when he really did kill her with his own hands. As long as she was by his side, it was clear that disaster would play with her life again.
Even while thinking that, Serwin missed Amelie and wanted to hug her. She must have been terrified of him, but he was grateful that she had come to find him in this way. But he shouldn’t be greedy any more. Because Amelie might come to hate him even more.
“Don’t worry. Disaster won’t come for a while anyway. He enjoys my suffering.”
It was clear that after sending Amelie away, he would suffer even more. Even now, disaster didn’t take over his body, but just laughed and enjoyed his suffering.
“Even if you go back, no one will criticize you. You must have known now that I’m not as innocent and pitiful as you thought I was. I don’t want you to sacrifice for me anymore.”
Serwin said and laughed bitterly at himself.
“Well, that’s not even worth listening to.”
Amelie glared at him, eyes still sharp even through the black mist.
Let’s see, how far down this hole is he planning to dig down? There seemed to be no end to it if it was left like this.
