Episode 513
Chapter 141. The Fall (6)
The underground prison, the lowest level.
Two days had passed since Joshua was locked away here.
His limbs were bound to the wall, his eyes vacant and unfocused.
With a gag in his mouth, he couldn’t even bite his tongue.
‘It can’t end like this… it just can’t…’
But what could he do? How?
His limbs were shackled like a nurse tending to a noble’s heir, and the knights he had trusted turned out to be loyal only to his mother, not him.
The brothers he had been close to—Mew and Anne—lacked the strength to rescue him, and the council elders were no different.
He couldn’t pin his hopes on the hunting dogs raised outside the family either.
They couldn’t possibly break into this underground prison, and unlike the children of Taimun, his hunting dogs didn’t possess that terrifying, blind loyalty.
They would crumble without a central figure.
Now that he had fallen, the other knights closest to the throne—Luntia, Diffus, Merry, and Jin—might have a chance if they petitioned directly, but that was absolutely impossible.
Even if his father, who was in the Black Sea, learned of this, his mother’s orders would never be revoked.
He couldn’t just starve himself to death either.
The underground prison of Runcandel wasn’t designed to kill its prisoners.
Whether human, dragon, demon, or anything else, its purpose was to isolate the prisoner in utter solitude until their natural lifespan ended.
If they refused food, it would be forced down their throat; suicide was out of the question.
Even the prophet wouldn’t be able to get him out of here.
‘I can’t do anything. There’s nothing to lean on.’
If there was even one glimmer of hope left—
‘Mother.’
The very mother who had thrown him into this hell might be the only one who could save him.
That was the only way back to the surface.
Creeeak…
From afar came the sound of the lowest level’s entrance opening.
Joshua blinked, clearing his dull gaze, and stared at the closed door.
He hoped that when it opened, his mother would come in.
But the door to Joshua’s cell opened long after.
“What a sorry sight, second knight… Ah, no longer a knight, are you?”
A voice like an old serpent.
Jorden Runcandel.
He removed Joshua’s gag and clicked his tongue.
“How does it feel to have fallen?”
“Black Sword Commander…!”
“Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t come to mock you.”
Then Jorden untied Joshua’s bound limbs.
“I’m in a similar position, only I’m not locked up.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve lost my hands and feet. I wasn’t publicly humiliated like you, but my pride was trampled to the ground. By the acting head of the family.”
The Black Sword Command, a family execution squad made up of the strongest elders.
Jorden was no longer their leader.
Though he still held the title of Black Sword Commander, all command had passed to Rosa.
Of course, the family’s entire military force was under the head and acting head’s control, but Jorden could no longer personally command the Black Sword Command under any circumstances.
It was because of the Exile Incident.
“Both you and I were defeated by the Twelve Knights.”
“I…”
“Are you trying to say you’re here not because you lost to the Twelve Knights, but because of the acting head?”
Joshua couldn’t answer.
“Just admit it. We lost. Completely.”
“…What are your plans now, Black Sword Commander?”
“Fortunately, my neck’s still attached, so I have to plan the next move. That’s a natural question. And… you’re in the same boat, aren’t you?”
“The same… As far as I know, you’ve never experienced a fall like this. Being treated worse than a worm by your father, barely surviving, then eating away at yourself with the vain desire to become head of the family? Losing the Black Sword Command? None of that compares to lying on the cold floor of this underground prison.”
Jorden chuckled bitterly.
“You might think that way. Kids like you.”
“Ha, you said you didn’t come to mock me. So you came just to comfort yourself by looking down on someone even lower.”
“No, I came because I envy you.”
“What?”
“The acting head will come for you soon.”
Joshua’s eyes widened.
Only now did he begin to understand the meaning behind Jorden’s words.
“If you show your mother a pitiful sight like you did to me, that might really be the end. I came early because I was worried that might happen.”
“Mother… you said she’s coming for me?”
“Mother, mother, mother. You really are a child at heart. It’s shameful to share the same name. I never had a mother like yours. Besides, my rival wasn’t the Twelve Knights, but Siron Runcandel. Once you fall, you spend years unable to rise again.”
A bitter smile crept onto Jorden’s lips.
“Now it’s time for you to bear that weight. When I finish my secluded training and return to the world… I hope to see you shed that weak shell.”
“Secluded training? Do you really believe that can turn things around now?”
“Whoever controls the sword is ultimately an overwhelming force that everyone must follow. I just ignored that fact too long, using the shadow cast by your father as an excuse.”
Jorden turned away.
“Changing hell into purgatory is your responsibility. I say this not as Black Sword Commander, but as your great-uncle.”
Jorden left the underground prison.
On the stairs, he ran into Rosa, who was descending.
“Acting head.”
“You didn’t come down to check on the ghosts in the prison. You came to see Joshua, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve done a pointless thing.”
“When parents are heartless, someone among their kin must show warmth.”
“Have you regained your confidence after losing everything? You speak with such arrogance.”
“I merely recalled the family’s true nature, which had been forgotten.”
“If many had remembered long ago, Runcandel wouldn’t be in such a precarious state today.”
“You, acting head, haven’t grown dull either.”
Rosa smiled wryly.
“The words of the powerless are just complaints. If you want to wound me—not just my sword or body, but my pride—then prove it. Complete that lowly sword of yours. That’s why your neck is still attached.”
In the brief moment Rosa passed Jorden and entered the lowest level, Joshua recalled Jorden’s words and the image of Black Knight Jane before she died.
—May my current state serve as a lesson.
Jane’s last words and the Black Sword Commander’s visit.
They couldn’t instantly change the essence of Joshua Runcandel.
They were just food for thought.
When Rosa entered, Joshua straightened himself.
“You’re here, acting head.”
Thud!
Suddenly, Rosa plunged the blade of frenzy into his right shoulder.
“Ugh…!”
Flesh tore, blood surged.
Then, with a light and swift swing, the sword left a slash on Joshua’s left shoulder.
Fear returned.
A terror he had never overcome—the fear of his parents.
A new fear born from his mother’s merciless assault that seemed never to let him go.
“You say you’ve lost your strength, yet you can’t even react to a sword like this? Even the advanced cadets could dodge at this speed.”
“A-acting head…!”
“Good, at least you don’t dare call me mother anymore. But is that all? Your sister and brothers—far superior to you—would have dodged it.”
The blade of frenzy struck again, this time cutting into Joshua’s chest.
The depth of the wound was far from shallow.
“Gahk!”
“No, did they only dodge? Luntia, Diffus, Merry, Jin! They wouldn’t have screamed like you—they would have looked straight in the eye and fought back. No matter the reason, no matter who was at fault, once stabbed, you fight back!”
Screech!
“And if it were Luna, she would have taken the frenzy away and turned it against me. She could do that even without her strength, couldn’t she? That’s why Siron and I lamented her so much.”
Being stabbed and slashed was nothing compared to the terrible pain ravaging Joshua.
He felt it would be less agonizing to throw himself naked into a blazing fire.
The pain of comparison and inferiority was truly beyond that.
“Arrgh! What the hell do you want me to do?!”
Joshua charged wildly, but his jaw was dislocated, and his sternum shattered.
It wasn’t a counterattack—it was a desperate struggle.
“Ugh, gahk.”
“Why couldn’t you do it? You’re the child of prophecy—why couldn’t you do it?”
For the first time in his life, Joshua blamed his mother.
“You… raised me… like this.”
“I don’t remember raising you that way.”
“You’re right, you did raise me like this!”
“No, I didn’t.”
“And you’re the one who gave birth to me, aren’t you? Luna, Luntia, Diffus, Merry, Jin! You didn’t pass on talents like theirs to me. They’re all your doing…!”
“Talent? Yeah, Luna, I’ll give you that. But do you really think the others are so much more talented than you that they had to shove you into this place? You just didn’t fight as hard as they did. Even after all the chances I gave you… Ah, I suppose now you’ll say those chances were poison, won’t you?”
Rosa let out a bitter laugh.
Joshua lay on the ground, trembling uncontrollably.
He wanted to get up, but his body, battered and pierced in the frenzy, wouldn’t obey.
“I’ll admit that too. Now that I think about it, the opportunities I gave you over the past decades were poison indeed. I never imagined that feeding you hand and foot wouldn’t be enough. Had I known I’d have to chew it up for you as well, maybe you wouldn’t be here right now.”
“W-what… are you saying?”
“That day, in the Sota Desert, on that critical mission… did you really think I’d send only you riders and the two Black Knights?”