Chapter 148
Knock, knock…
Late at night, a soft tapping sound echoed in front of Ocell Victoria Lucien’s mansion.
Lucien found the sound unusual, but he knew who it was.
“…Come in.”
The woman who stepped through the door was a softly glowing blonde.
It was Francesca, who had come to live in Lucien’s mansion after losing her father about six months ago.
Since it was her first visit to find Lucien in the past six months, he temporarily set aside the thesis he had been working on all night and gave her his attention.
While sipping his coffee, Lucien asked, “Do you have business with me?”
“……”
Francesca didn’t immediately respond.
Despite having come to find him, she merely stood silently without even looking up. A glimpse of her dull eyes seemed to pass through the tangled strands of her hair.
The eyes that were once beautiful, the same color as her hair, had faded like fallen light.
For a moment, Lucien showed interest in her but then proceeded to unfold his thesis again, suggesting that if she had nothing else to say, she should leave.
Then, Francesca, who was still too young to enter the Academia, spoke in a voice thick with clouds.
“…It’s been quite some time since I came here, yet Uncle hasn’t given me anything to do.”
Lucien, tearing his gaze away from the thesis, looked towards her. She was now staring back at him with her head raised.
Lucien replied indifferently, “Is there really a need to give you something to do?”
“I’m not an idiot…. I know you’re not just keeping me here for no reason.”
Francesca pointed out that Lucien wouldn’t protect her merely out of familial sentiment towards her father, who was his brother, Niklas.
“…You weren’t that close anyway.”
Lucien silently sipped from his coffee cup.
The rich aroma of coffee hanging in the room was all due to the brew he had consumed that day.
He responded, “Your father and I are both professors at the Academia and brothers, but our personalities were so different that we hardly exchanged personal conversations…”
“I know…. This is the first time I’ve really seen your face, Uncle.”
Thus, Francesca reiterated that there must be a reason for Lucien to take her under his wing.
Yet, Lucien’s gaze still showed no more interest than when she first arrived.
Though he kept his exhausted eyes on her, they seemed ready to drop back to the desk the moment Francesca diverted her gaze.
“Is there a purpose behind protecting you?… If there is, then yes…”
“Well…”
He spoke, holding onto the sentence.
“But right now, you wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
“…Why? Is it because I’m lacking in talent or power?”
At Francesca’s question, Lucien lightly pressed his slim fingers against his eyelids.
With each application of pressure, the skin around his eyes shifted and wrinkled.
“Your eyes.”
“…My eyes?”
“Right now, they’re more clouded than mine.”
“……”
The deep shadow lingering under Lucien’s eyes was darker than anyone else’s. The focal point, his pupils, always looked haggard.
Lucien tilted his chin, guiding her to look in a mirror.
Francesca found herself gazing into her reflection.
As he said, her appearance was in rather serious condition.
For the first time in her life, dark circles had developed under her eyes, contrasting sharply with her pale skin, making the darkness stand out even more.
Perhaps due to not eating properly, her cheeks seemed slightly hollowed.
Her skin wasn’t beautifully translucent, but rather pale as if she were dead.
If she hadn’t realized she was looking at a mirror, she wouldn’t even recognize her own face; she was hollowed out both inside and out.
As Francesca seemed to confirm her appearance, Lucien continued speaking.
“What can I ask of someone who will soon be a corpse?”
“……”
At his words, Francesca couldn’t muster a response.
Even she could see that her current state was pathetic to the point of being unpleasant.
She looked as if she could hardly lift a knife.
Until he pointed it out, Francesca hadn’t noticed how far she had fallen.
Corpse.
That word perfectly described her current self.
Francesca turned her gaze from the mirror to her pale hand. It looked just as frail as a dried-up branch.
Slowly examining it, her lips parted.
“…Uncle. I have something to ask.”
Even if Lucien didn’t respond to her words, she continued.
“Was the last research my father did… truly wicked?”
“……”
“…Was what my dad wanted to achieve… completely meaningless?”
He remained completely silent.
Lucien listened to Francesca’s soft voice, her shriveled existence seemed to be squirming as if trying to rise.
In fact, even before she entered this room today, Francesca had already steeled her resolve.
“Uncle… I want to see the end of the research that my father wanted to achieve.”
“……”
“Even if it’s forbidden… even if I’m destined to meet the same fate as my father.”
“…Okay.”
As she spoke those words, the cloudiness in Francesca’s eyes transformed. What was once dull began to glow red, resembling the color of the hair of the man who killed her father.
“…And if… it turns out that my father’s research wasn’t a crime worthy of death.”
Francesca, the Spirit Summoner, said.
“I want to kill Sylvester.”
The man who ranked first in the Hero Ranking.
The man who murdered Francesca’s father.
By mentioning the perpetrator of her father’s death, she openly expressed her hatred for all those connected to him.
Those who conspired for her father’s death.
Those who ignored her father’s death.
Even those who took direct action.
Until the long ones.
As the identity of what had been curled up tightly inside her firmly revealed itself, Lucien quietly closed his eyes and accepted his fate.
All procedures were as guided by the Goddess.
Even this line of dialogue and action was what she desired.
Fate cannot be avoided or defied.
If one tries to forcibly escape, they will incur great wrath….
Lucien murmured in a weighted voice.
“Is that so….”
Then, slowly raising his eyelids, Lucien spoke to Francesca.
“If that is your will, I will assist you, if only a little…. I will also exert effort to recover the only keepsake and research of your father that was taken.”
All fates must comply.
It is called fate because it cannot be avoided.
“…Francesca, I will become your assistant.”
*
After midnight, the Academia was darker than usual.
All the lights had been turned off for the last day’s event of the festival. The moonlight showcased its brilliance, guiding Francesca on her path.
In front of the ancient tomb reached along the dim stone path.
Inserting and turning the key in the door produced a clatter as metal met metal, and the spell that hung there also reacted.
The multi-layered barrier created by the renowned magicians of the past was undone, allowing the door to permit entry.
Upon stepping inside, the skeletal remains of the Ancient Dragon, curled up as always, became visible.
A brilliant light streamed down from the magical ceiling, which had been configured as if the middle was hollowed out, illuminating the massive relic of the past which basked in that moonlit glow.
Francesca approached it with familiar movements and gently placed her hand on its history.
It didn’t matter that she wasn’t wearing her usual gloves. They no longer held significance.
“……?”
As she touched the Ancient Dragon directly and was checking the spell one last time, she felt the shadow of the bones flicker momentarily in the moonlight.
It was unclear, but it seemed that way.
“…….”
Francesca checked the time for a moment.
An hour had already passed since she started her verification.
In five minutes, at the scheduled time.
She planned to activate the spell.
…Of course, the ones she had spoken to were not the Ancient Dragon but the army of skulls she had been carrying around with her, including Clemens and the other second-year students.
She rubbed her hands together at the tension that tingled at her fingertips.
…In just a little while.
Within a few minutes, everything would be revealed clearly.
The first reason her father was sentenced to death.
「Soul Summoning Spell」
Unlike the common necromancy that revives memories etched into bones, this magic summoned the very souls that had vanished from the world, temporarily possessing them.
It was a forbidden spell that disregarded the laws and order of both the living and the dead.
Her father, Niklas, sought to apply this spell to the bones of the Ancient Dragon to complete a singular “Unique Spell.”
According to the principles he established, if one etches the body structure of a being with massive mana like the Ancient Dragon and the structure of its soul, the existing spell would be redefined, completing a new form of spell.
In the final phase, it would become possible to bind the soul in a ‘permanent form’ rather than a temporary one.
Of course, there was no guarantee for this anywhere.
Her only source of belief was the records left by her father, Niklas.
Thus, Francesca sought to validate it, looking for the meaning behind Niklas’s research.
While the world cursed Niklas, saying such spells should not exist and indeed could not exist.
While cursing Niklas and declaring that such a spell shouldn’t exist in this world, Francesca couldn’t bear to see her father’s research, which had been fueled by his love for her mother, be insulted.
Accusations of subversion against Academia?
That was another charge against Niklas, reflecting the risks involved in casting the soul summoning spell of the Ancient Dragon.
…This possibility certainly couldn’t be dismissed.
Though she had refined her magical skills to control the powerful divine beast’s soul, she couldn’t ensure it was safe.
If it failed, the Ancient Dragon would rampage, and all the responsibility would fall squarely on Francesca’s shoulders.
Her uncle, who had aided her, wouldn’t escape the scrutiny of the investigation either. Perhaps even that guy, who had been fairly helpful…
“…”
This was a selfish act.
Many others could be harmed, injured, or even killed.
But still…
She couldn’t shake off her father’s last wish.
Her father’s final plea to save her mother.
To summon her mother’s soul, which was suffering in the afterlife, back to the living world, once her spell reached its complete stage.
…If what Dad said is true.
⎯Francesca, your mom says there’s only suffering in the afterlife. Your mom is still in pain. Isn’t that too tragic…?
If the afterlife is really a hell filled only with suffering, then if death meant falling into such a purgatory,
Wouldn’t it be the right thing to bring those trapped there back to the living world?
Excluding those who had cursed her father and pushed him towards death.
…
Five minutes passed like this.
Francesca, as if entranced, tried to push the spell into the dragon bones.
It was time to reveal the answer.
The results of the spell she had studied, following in her father’s footsteps.
A reevaluation of her father’s suffering in the afterlife.
Through resurrecting her mother.
Due to the ultimate stage: the revival of the Ancient Dragon…!
Her slender hand reached out toward the white bones.
That transparent hand reflected the moonlight.
⎯Snap.
“…!”
She was stopped by the intervention of ‘someone.’
It happened so quickly that she hadn’t noticed.
No… Her mind, filled with thoughts of spells, had kept her from looking around.
With wide, almost falling-out eyes, Francesca stared at someone.
Her surprised mouth instinctively called out to the intruder.
“Clemens…!”
A woman with red hair.
A figure with hair strikingly similar to the man who killed her father.
Her eyes were filled with a killing intent, sharp as a bird of prey.
“Just as I thought, Francesca.”
“…”
“You’re part of the Goddess Church.”
In Clemens’ other hand was a massive lance.
The lance was already enveloped in a deep red aura, akin to blood.
Her mouth spoke as if in sorrow.
However, everything else about her was anything but sorrowful.
“It’s unfortunate you were a promising talent, but if you’ve become rotten, there’s nothing I can do.”
In fact, she seemed to have waited for this very moment.
Ocel Julio Clemens smiled long and wide, in a way Francesca had never seen before.
“I will execute you under the laws of Yggdrasil, Francesca.”
The strike of the strongest second-year student thrust toward Francesca without hesitation.
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