Episode 63
After leaving the events of Necropolis behind, the Black Duke hurriedly rode back to his castle. There, in the grand hall, on the very throne meant for the Duke of Saxony, sat his son.
The “Black Prince” looked down at his father from the throne that should have been reserved for the Duke.
“Father.”
“Dale.”
The two exchanged names, a simple acknowledgment between father and son.
Swish!
“The Duke has returned!”
The guardians of the tomb knelt in unison, their swords planted vertically before them.
“Mother and Lize are safe,” Dale continued.
“Mother managed to calm Lize down, and she finally fell asleep.”
”…I see,” the Black Duke replied, his voice steady.
“That’s a relief.”
While battles raged in the Saxon duchy, and his castle was under siege, as the lord, he had been powerless. Yet his son had defended the Saxon stronghold, leading its people in his name, and now sat upon the throne.
“Duke,” Dale rose slowly from the throne, as if acknowledging it wasn’t yet his place.
“May we speak for a moment?”
The Duke nodded silently.
At the top floor of the Saxon castle, in the Black Duke’s study, the first light of dawn crept through the windows. The Duke stood there, silhouetted against the dim morning light, casting a long shadow.
“It seems you have something to say.”
“I faced the elder of the Black Tower who attacked the castle and defeated him,” Dale said. For a moment, the Black Duke’s expression wavered.
”…You defeated a 6th-circle mage on your own?”
Even considering Dale’s extraordinary talent, it seemed impossible. To defeat an elder of the Black Tower, a mage of the 6th circle? It was beyond belief.
Yet for Dale, it was a matter of little consequence.
“Yes,” Dale nodded without hesitation.
“While fighting him, I glimpsed the world of ideas he had built as a commander of the Black Order.”
”…”
The mindscape of a mage, the unforgivable atrocities of the Black Order.
“And from his own lips, I learned the true nature of the Black Order.”
”…”
The true purpose the Empire so desperately tried to conceal.
“The second-in-command of the Black Order, Duke of Saxony,” Dale began, speaking of the man’s past and the inescapable sins that bound him.
“Was everything you told me a lie?”
Recalling the weight of life his father had once spoken of.
“Was everything you said to me nothing but vile hypocrisy?”
Dale’s voice trembled with emotion he couldn’t hide.
The man before him wasn’t just anyone. He was the father who had raised him, the blood that ran through his veins.
He had never doubted that his father would reject the Empire’s corruption.
“Were you, too, unable to escape the Empire’s ugliness?”
”…”
A heavy silence fell, so weighty it was immeasurable.
“On that day, when the Empire’s great army, led by the hero from another world, clashed with the Demon King,” the Duke finally spoke.
“When the strongest of the Empire gathered and finally defeated the Demon King… a man came to see me.”
After the Demon King’s defeat, while the Empire’s forces were stationed in the north, a man sought out the ruler of the north.
“Was it Marquis Eurys?”
“He made me an offer,” the Duke nodded.
“He was preparing a ‘large-scale experiment’ and wanted my cooperation.”
“And this experiment was…?”
“An experiment to reach the 9th circle.”
The Black Order existed solely for that purpose from the beginning.
“He threatened that if I refused, he would use the Empire’s army, gathered in the north after defeating the Demon King, to destroy the northern duchy.”
”…”
“He planned to accuse me of colluding with the Demon King and turn the army against us.”
The idea that the mighty Black Duke would yield to the Empire’s threats was laughable. Yet, it was no laughing matter.
Under the pretext of defeating the Demon King, the Empire’s forces had gathered in the Saxon duchy.
Even the Duke of Saxony couldn’t defy such a cause, and he remembered well the powerful figures gathered there.
The Crimson Duke, the White Duke, the Holy Sword, the Ghost Blade, and… the hero from another world.
Dale had been there in the past.
Even the mighty Black Duke couldn’t stand alone against such strength, all gathered under the noble cause of defeating the Demon King and saving the Empire from the demonic threat.
With them at the heart of the Saxon duchy, resistance was futile.
“So you accepted their offer?”
“The Pope and the elders of the White Tower were present, and I was bound by a geas to cooperate with the experiment.”
A geas, the binding oath of the White Tower, an absolute magical contract. It was a geas inscribed by the head of the White Tower and all its elders.
“So you aided the Black Order’s darkness to protect the Saxon duchy, because you had no choice?”
”…”
He could have chosen to defend his father, claiming it was an unavoidable decision to protect what he held dear, that even the Black Duke was powerless against such overwhelming force.
But he didn’t say that. He couldn’t. Silence reigned.
“I could have chosen to fight them to the death,” the Black Duke said after a long pause.
“Even if I couldn’t win, I could have used every power at my disposal, including the ‘Death Order,’ to inflict irreparable damage.”
But he hadn’t. He couldn’t.
“Yet, absurdly enough… I thought of Elena.”
Elena, Dale’s mother. The woman the Duke loved.
“So you surrendered?”
The Duke nodded silently, then spoke again.
“I was afraid of losing Elena.”
His voice trembled slightly, showing vulnerability for the first time.
“I was afraid of not seeing the child that would be born between us.”
The child that would be born between the Duke and Elena.
“So I cooperated with the Black Order’s experiment. I knelt before the Empire and the Red Tower, submitting to the power of might and justice, bowing my head in cowardice and disgrace.”
The Duke continued, his words tinged with self-mockery.
“Through the bonds of the Black Order, in pursuit of power and truth, to reach the 9th circle…”
The forbidden experiment to achieve the 9th circle.
“By condensing the thoughts of pain and despair into a special barrier…”
The details of the experiment spilled from the Duke’s lips.
“To create a gate connecting to the world of truth through the negative energy generated there.”
“Reaching that world would allow one to achieve the 9th circle?”
“There was no certainty,” the Duke replied.
“The architect of the experiment was the Crimson Duke, and I was merely a collaborator.”
But without the power of the Black Tower and the Black Duke, the experiment would have been impossible. That’s why the Crimson Duke had so desperately emphasized the new bonds of the Black Order to Dale.
Not to the Black Duke, but to Dale, who would one day become the head of the Black Tower. It meant only one thing.
“In the end, the experiment failed.”
“You couldn’t reach the world of truth?”
“No, reaching the world of truth was a success.”
The two leaders of the Black Order, standing at the pinnacle of magic, the Black Duke and the Crimson Duke, had succeeded in entering the “world of truth” that day.
“Then why did it fail?”
Dale asked, unable to understand why a seemingly successful result was considered a failure, and the Duke answered.
“Because I stood in his way.”
”…!”
“I couldn’t stand by and watch his ambition come to fruition.”
If a man filled with malice and ambition were to achieve the 9th circle, becoming a being known as a demon god, the consequences for the world would be dire, and the Black Duke knew it.
“But the geas…”
For the Black Duke to thwart the Crimson Duke’s ambition was to interfere with the “cooperation in the experiment,” and the geas would not remain silent. It was a geas inscribed directly by the head of the White Tower on the Black Duke’s heart.
“Even the binding oath of the White Tower had no effect in that world.”
The Duke spoke with a bitter smile.
“Have you seen the world of truth?”
Dale shook his head silently.
“In that world, the logic and reason we know are meaningless.”
An unknown realm that defies explanation.
“I simply stood in his way, and that was all.”
The truth that mages so desperately sought was within reach, yet unattainable.
“Did you defeat the Crimson Duke?”
At Dale’s question, the Black Duke nodded. In that world, not even the Crimson Duke could stand against him.
“Then why, Father, did you leave that world without gaining anything?”
Dale pressed further. The Black Duke responded with a bitter smile, memories of an old friend surfacing unbidden.
“Once, in that world…”
It was the same question, and thus, the same answer followed.
“Do you truly believe I returned empty-handed?”
As dawn broke, the Duke of Saxon stood in the bedroom he shared with his wife.
His wife, Elena, lay asleep beside their daughter, Lise. His beloved family.
They were everything he would sacrifice to protect.
He recalled that white, dark winter night when his son, Dale, was born.
The vivid memory of that small, precious being crying in Elena’s arms remained clear.
Simultaneously, he remembered the darkness of the Crimson Order, that horrific living hell. Unforgivable atrocities. The inescapable shadows of the past.
The wheels were already in motion, and nothing could be undone.
Thus, he recalled what he had gained from the world beyond truth.
To protect those he loved from the blood-crazed empire and to atone for past sins, he was willing to give everything.
That day, leaving the Crimson Duke behind, the Duke of Saxon made a pact with a demon. It wasn’t a simple metaphor. It wasn’t even one of the demons or demon lords the White Tower incessantly warned about.
Beyond the boundary of thought, within the world of truth, a being extended a hand to him.
The demon truly existed and willingly accepted the bargain.
Not long after, on a white, dark winter night, a new life was born.
His most beloved son in the world.