Chapter 72: The Script of the Past

The sensation of cold stone pressed against his cheek.

Each time the damp, gloomy air seeped deep into his lungs, a foreign stench pricked at his nose.

“Hah!”

Marquis Fabian slowly opened his eyes, accompanied by a brief, sharp pain.

A space shrouded in darkness, a cave where jagged rocks jutted out on all sides like the maw of a massive beast.

“Wh-where is this?”

Somewhere from the ceiling, the sound of water droplets falling—drip, drip—soaked faintly into the floor.

His last memory was the chill of iron bars and the whisper of a shadow in his ear.

After that, only a hazy sensation remained, as if he had sunk into a deep abyss.

He could not recall at all how he had come to be here.

He tried to rise, but his muscles were so stiff that he could barely move as he wished. Gritting his teeth, he slowly turned his head to survey his surroundings.

Faint shapes cast shadows along the cave walls in the darkness, the flutter of bats’ wings and the stirrings of unknown insects intermittently breaking the stillness.

Beside him lay an old pocket watch. It was a companion he had carried for many years.

With trembling hands, he carefully grasped it.

The cold feel of the metal was strangely familiar.

When he opened the cover, the stopped hands pointed to a certain time.

He tucked the watch deep into his chest.

“Nngh.”

Suppressing the pain coursing through his body, the Marquis carefully moved deeper into the cave.

“I must meet him. I must meet him……”

He shuffled forward, dragging his feet.

Pebbles slipped and rolled beneath his steps, and the air was filled with the mingling scents of damp earth, mold, and something strange and indescribable.

An unknown aura enveloped him, as though he were wandering inside an ancient tomb.

How long had he walked like that?

Deep within, he found a massive stone door.

Too smooth to be a natural formation, its surface was densely engraved with complex, indecipherable patterns.

Worn with age, yet they seemed to bear some definite meaning.

The Marquis pulled the pocket watch from his chest.

At the very center of the door, a circular indentation was intricately carved. Guided by some inexplicable instinct, he placed the watch into the hollow.

Click.

With a small sound, the entire stone door vibrated.

The patterns began to emit a faint light, and with a heavy rumble, the enormous stone door slowly, ever so slowly, began to open inward.

[Kazin Fabian.]

“…!”

A strange voice brushed past his ear.

It sounded as if someone was calling to him, but there was no presence.

It was only an echo, resounding from deep within the cave.

“…Who are you?”

[Come inside.]

At the summons, the Marquis steadied his breath and carefully stepped through the door.

The sight before his eyes was less reality, and more like a dream.

Though it was deep inside a cave, oddly, the place was faintly illuminated.

And at the center of that light…

“…That is…”

There stood a great tree.

At the heart of a space like a canyon surrounded by colossal rocks, a deeply rooted tree rose from the earth.

The tree was full of crimson leaves as if burning with fire, swaying slowly in the still air as though they were alive.

The tree radiated its own light.

A solitary brilliance burning in the darkness.

Its light was not cold but warm, filled with a divinity that seemed to slowly tighten around the onlooker’s heart like a magical power.

At that moment, the Marquis’ body responded on its own.

“I pay my respects to the Great One.”

He knelt.

On the stone floor, he placed his hands together neatly and bowed his head, pressing his forehead to the ground.

His rough, arrogant manner of speech had long since vanished.

Only awe dominated his being.

“I… I have returned. I have made you wait so long, O Divine Tree.”

The Marquis’ voice trembled.

It was not out of fear.

It was a longing that had begun to blaze from somewhere far beyond memory, deeper still in the soul.

He crawled closer to the tree.

The roots beneath his feet writhed, parting as if to welcome him, and the crimson leaves trembled faintly, as though whispering.

“Please… guide me. Please save me. Now, Yggdrasil, you are all I have left to believe in.”

His lips grew parched as if they were burning, and his gaze became nearly mad.

“I am prepared to pay any price. I will offer whatever you desire, O Divine Tree, so grant me overwhelming power!”

The Marquis lifted his hands once more, crying out earnestly toward the tree.

“Choose me, O Divine Tree! I am ready!”

Then, a red leaf slowly drifted down to rest on his shoulder.

In that moment, a slow, deep resonance—like the beating of a heart—spread from the center of the tree through the earth.

Dum.

Dum.

Dum…

In time with the vibrations, the ancient patterns among the rocks shimmered faintly, and something within the Marquis’ body began to tremble in response.

He could feel an unknown power coiling within him.

“O-oh…!”

How astonished he had been, the first time he encountered this power!

But now, it was different.

A force many times greater than what he had first felt now surged into him.

[The pact is sealed.]

A look of rapture filled the Marquis’ face.

[Move, Kazin. The world shall soon be yours.]

The tree radiated a crimson light, illuminating the space around it.

---

The ashen smoke faded, and the cheers of victory swept over the imperial capital, yet a thorn of unease lingered in one corner of Rohan’s heart.

Marquis Fabian, who should have fallen beneath his blade, had vanished without a trace.

His pursuit, begun before the afterglow of victory had even faded, brought only the vexing frustration of chasing an apparition that seemed always just out of reach.

“I should have finished it with a single stroke back then.”

Rohan’s voice, spoken in a low murmur, was heavy with regret.

The clash before the imperial city—a victory so clear that none could deny it.

The tide of war had shifted, proving Rohan’s overwhelming advantage.

Yet the joy of victory faded beneath the shadow of the vanished Marquis.

Since that day, the empire’s entire intelligence network had been mobilized.

The rugged northern mountains were scoured, the hidden ports along the eastern coast blockaded, even the secret meeting places of nobles thoroughly investigated.

Yet Marquis Fabian left no trace anywhere, as if he had never existed at all.

“Did he fly into the sky, or sink beneath the earth?”

To Rohan’s question, Lucretia pondered, her fingers tracing over the many reports and maps spread across the desk.

Though she had clung to his disappearance out of her own desire for revenge, deducing anything in a situation so lacking in evidence felt like spinning her wheels.

“Perhaps there’s a secret passage we don’t know about.”

“What about the border?”

Rohan asked.

“The border region is already sealed with an impenetrable surveillance net. Every official route and even the clandestine smuggling trails have been blocked. But…”

Lucretia paused, letting out a deep sigh.

“The fact that we’ve searched so thoroughly and haven’t found even a strand of his hair… it must mean he’s gone somewhere beyond our imagination.”

“If that’s the case…”

“The most likely place is the Prana Union. If he used a special passage to slip in there, the situation changes entirely. That land… it’s a realm beyond the reach of our eyes and hands.”

At Lucretia’s words, Rohan closed his eyes for a moment.

Complicated thoughts flashed quickly through his mind.

“Retina, do you really think that’s possible?”

“Well, I can’t say it’s impossible. The Prana Union is a unique place where many different races gather, so there are far more ways for outsiders to infiltrate than one could imagine.”

“If so, did he truly go there…”

Rohan gazed out the office window.

On that late afternoon when the shortened winter sun stained the sky red, the imperial capital appeared peaceful on the surface, but beneath its stillness a wave of unease surged like a great tide.

Somehow, he was seized by an unshakable premonition that the Marquis would inevitably return.

What Fabian sought was not merely to usurp power.

Perhaps a grand conspiracy was hidden there—to shake the foundation of the entire empire, and in the ensuing chaos, to construct a new order.

The reason he so coveted the imperial authority—no matter how he thought about it, it must be because of the great war to come.

And the place most deeply connected to that war…

“Laolasis!”

“…!”

“The Kingdom of Laolasis. How could we have overlooked it?”

Though not completely isolated from outside contact, it was a kingdom shrouded in secrecy and extremely closed off.

Above all, it was a land brimming with countless secrets.

“Come to think of it! The Marquis did spend a long time there in the past, didn’t he?”

Lucretia chimed in.

“I suppose I must go directly to the Duke of Malta’s domain.”

Rohan spoke with determination.

“You mean in person?”

Lucretia asked again, surprised.

“If we rely on letters, we’ll only waste time. Speaking face to face will be much faster.”

Rohan stood and donned his coat. His eyes shone with steadfast resolve.

“I’ll report to His Majesty that I’ll be away for a while.”

There was no time left to hesitate. He had to move immediately.

Leaving behind the uneasy capital shrouded by the Marquis’ shadow, Rohan steeled himself to set out in search of a new clue.