(CLYDE ASTLEY POV)

We walked through the dark cave with nothing but our clothes on our backs. We were left with only the food in our dimensional storage rings.

I wasn’t sure how much I packed but it should be enough from the amount of mana I feel imbedded into the ring. Speaking of mana, I could barely feel my own magic power after my core was destroyed. The mass of mana I had before already leaked out through the injury in my core.

The only energy I could feel were the spirits. Not normal spirits but the lesser spirits. They were desperately trying to fix my damaged core with their weak healing abilities. Unlike normal spirits they couldn’t talk.

I couldn’t exactly hear their desperation but I could feel it.

We stopped a few times so Edna could heal Damian and I. Dragons are born with natural healing powers apparently. That would explain why my body felt less tired from before ever since she healed me.

I wasn’t able to feel Undine’s presence anymore meaning my spirit senses were also weakened. If I couldn’t even feel her then that meant I was like any ordinary adventurer now. I was an ordinary person…

‘If Erica were here…’

I had this hope that she’d be able to heal me with her overpowered abilities. I was just so shameless that I could only rely on her since we were friends. Since getting a Holy Heal from the Pope would cost thousands of gold, I could only turn to the Holy Saintess. Which was better actually. The church may charge me far more for an inferior healing spell to an actual [Holy Healing]. They pull that stunt on many commoners and low ranking nobles. In the end, Erica was my best choice.

‘She must be fed up with healing me for free…’

I’ll have to make it up to her if she could heal my wounds. Maybe I should take her to lunch?

That aside, the cave we were in felt like we were walking for hours in circles. The damp smell of moss permeated the air.

Damian was the one in the front, leading us. He said that he had a bit of skill in being a ranger. He hunted many animals and people alike using only the tracks and his own wits. The people part was unnecessary. Looking at a kid talking about things like murdering others makes me feel disturbed.

It was strange how the entrance suddenly disappeared when Edna brought us in. Could it have been another teleportation? I had enough of teleportation already.

‘Don’t tell me we entered a Warp Dungeon…’

Usually in a dungeon there’d be mana crystals everywhere you look. The crystals were necessary for the dungeon to operate since it absorbed mana from the atmosphere.

So calling this a dungeon was ruled out then.

Then what was this mysterious cave?

Edna hasn’t picked up any signs of monsters. Was this place truly safe?

We walked through the dark caves and finally saw light.

“Is it the outside?”

Damian muttered with hope.

Edna told us to stay here so she could go ahead and scout. She transformed into a dragon and flew off the edge of the cliff.

“By the way, lord Clyde…”

Charlotte pulled my sleeve.

“Hm?”

“How did you get along with a dragonkin during that time we were at the kingdom?”

“I’m also curious about this, Clyde. I’m thankful that she saved us but…”

Charlotte’s serious eyes peered into mine. I averted my eyes, not being able to tell her the truth.

She sighed.

“As you hold a lot of my secrets, I shall keep yours as well. We wouldn’t want any attention from troublesome people.”

“Thank you, princess…”

She walked past me after giving me a small smile.

Edna came back a few minutes later. Where was she all that time?

“The area is safe. I don’t feel any monsters with an aggressive nature.”

So that meant there were monsters but not ones that could pose a threat.

She urged us to follow her.

“What the….”

“Oh my…”

“…where is this…?”

Me, Charlotte and Damian respectively expressed our astonishment.

Why?

Because an entire underground civilization was spread out through our view. I could barely see the end of this ginormous cave. Only darkness spread beyond the far reaches of the cave.

“A capital… defensive walls… and this rock.. no way…”

Charlotte muttered as she looked at a piece of rock in her hands. It was a kind of golden clay with a high mana density. Even with my weakened senses, I could feel the energy.

When she rubbed the fragments, they vanished into nothingness after sparkling a few times. The dust stuck to her fingers.

“A mana stone…”

“Are you serious?”

Damian picked up the other rocks lying around. There were many on our path towards the capital as Charlotte called it.

“I-I study history at the academy as well so I have heard of this stone before. This… this material was deemed non-renewable by our kingdom’s records. They said that the raw resources were used up ever since they discovered that it could be used as an energy source for cities…”

“What does that mean?”

Edna asked with a clueless expression.

“I’m not really sure if I’m right but… I think we’re in the United Empire that disappeared centuries ago…”

◇◇◇

United Empire.

Many would say the old civilizations were actually far more advanced than the modern era. In the olden times, resources like the mana stones were abundant even though they are rare today.

The United Empire was also called the nation where magic thrived. Science wasn’t that common around here. The United Empire’s magical science, however, was widespread and even more advanced than Earth’s own technology.

The reason the United Empire fell was really a joke to me. Why?

On earth, there’s this saying that robots could one day destroy our world. Well, in this case it was homunculi. Millions of artificial life destroyed the United Empire. No matter how powerful they were, they were destroyed by the very soldiers that they created.

It was unknown what happened to the homunculi after they destroyed that all-powerful empire.

There was a law written down in the Magic Tower’s books:

–Anyone that is found guilty of creating artificial life will be imprisoned or receive even harsher punishments. Death is also included in extreme cases.

It was even worse than necromancers who could summon undead. I never thought in my life that Necromancers would be less evil than something.

Since a will was given to the homunculus created from a human’s flesh, they could become more like humans. The bad side of humanity. That could cause the homunculus to act on its own. And look what happened to an empire that many feared going up against.

We roamed the dark streets of the buried empire. A lot of eyes were staring at us along the way but Edna said that they were just critters seeking shelter from stronger monsters. Other than that, we hadn’t met any danger other than a few jump scares they usually use in cheap horror movies.

It wasn’t just once or twice that an animal jumped out of a corner.

It was amazing how these buildings haven’t broken down throughout the centuries that the empire had been buried. They only lost their original colour ever since erosion took place.

“Princess, where are we going?”

I spoke to Charlotte who was eagerly looking for something. Her eyes roamed around the entire underground cave. She would jump onto any building easy to climb onto and look around.

“I’m looking for the Four Palaces.”

“What kind of strange name for a palace is that?”

Sounded like a teenager came up with the name in the middle of his essay exam.

“It’s not the real name. The real one is just too difficult to pronounce. I can only write it down but I doubt any of you would understand it. Now what the name actually signifies is that four royal families stayed in the united empire palace. They say that four brothers became kings of their own territories. Well, lord is the right word to use. They had an idea one day. ‘What if we merge our kingdoms?’”

“…”

I refrained from retorting and listened quietly.

Charlotte continued.

“Since all their territories were too far away from each other, the brothers slowly built their kingdoms together. I’m not sure how they achieved this since the book didn’t have much detail. Anyways, the brothers built the gigantic palace fit for four royal families. All the treasures they had gathered throughout their lives had been stored there. Now as to why I want us to head there, well… there’s a myth that the palace magic tower had the blueprint to craft an elixir even better than the current existing Elixir that the holy temple in the Holy Kingdom sells. I could call our situation the perfect coincidence if we can find that blueprint with the ingredients.”

She held her hands close to her chest and closed her eyes.

“If I can find that [Divine Elixir] here… I can perhaps heal my mother…”

“… Ah, the queen is…”

I heard from Edna what Zexel said before she flew away.

Deathbed… queen…

The queen didn’t have long to live. How did her condition worsen? Could Zexel be lying just to get Charlotte riled up to enjoy her despair?

This Divine Elixir. I wondered if it was even real. It could just be a myth as she mentioned before.

“Let’s stop here for the night.” Damian came to a stop.

“Huh? Why?”

“I sense strong hate of the dead. Moving at night will be dangerous unless we want to be caught by a Spector.”

Well then, we better follow his advice. I’m not stopping because I’m scared of ghosts. Not at all.

We chose a building that was in far better condition than the rest. There was even furniture that was still standing inside.

◇◇◇

(Charlotte Colchis POV)

I woke up in the middle of the night. Well, I couldn’t really tell the time since we were underground where everything was dark and gloomy. Not even moonlight reached this cave.

Many things ran through my head as I tossed and turned in bed trying to fall asleep.

The assassins. My supposed campaign that was actually a setup. Almost dying today. Lord Clyde losing his powers…

And lastly… how much time did my mother have left? That had been my only worry after hearing the words of that man, Zexel. When I was back at the kingdom, I could finally focus on gathering support for my rule in the future. But… did mother lie so that I didn’t need to worry about her?

I forgot how good she was at acting as a young adult. She told me that in order to please the customers in the bar she had to put on a persona that made others see her as cute. Her true personality was actually far more mature than that image she put in people’s minds. She was extremely intelligent and cunning unlike the dumb and clumsy way she acted in the bars to appeal to the males.

As a person born with such talents, she deceived a lot of people in the court of nobles as well.

–She’s just a stupid countryside girl.

–Was it actually true that his majesty was rescued by that immature brute?

These were but some of the things people said about her. They were the ones that were in Olivia and my aunt’s faction. Meaning, our enemies.

Their goal back then was to interfere and hinder mother from becoming queen before her marriage to my father. Their actions were so inconspicuous that my father never noticed.

It was as I heard from the noble ladies from our faction. Mother killed all of them that hindered her from becoming queen. A commoner that read books through her childhood achieved the title of queen through her own hands.

What was her secret? I could guess that she used deception as her main tool.

I couldn’t believe she used her tricks on me too. I really thought she was getting better but it was the opposite actually.

She was really dying.

My knight’s core had been destroyed.

Two things I believed will turn out good actually turned out this way in the end. I expected a lot from Clyde’s development in the future.

He could’ve become a member of the White Order and achieved the title of Head Mage of the Magic Association. A person so powerful in the magic arts that they could literally fight an entire army on their own.

Now that future was nowhere in sight.

He had infinite potential for growth. I always bragged about this to my circle of friends. Not one of their houses had a mage enlisted that surpassed Clyde in talent.

They even set up a test for him to see if my words were true. It was a difficult test, popular among many mages and wizards. He had to calculate the 27th rune of a spell found in the Red Abyss dungeon 50 years ago that was discovered by the Beastkin Dominion.

He succeeded. The spell had an effect that could temporarily grow a mana core within a person and allow them to use magic. However, this only worked on non-mages.

No one outside my circle of friends knew who fixed the rune and casted the spell. I forced them to do a Slave Ritual so they couldn’t let others know. I couldn’t let others know of how talented my knight is. The Magic Empire might take him away from me.

That happened to many other talented children that were discovered at the Graponia Royal Academy.

The rune’s true effect caused a huge commotion throughout the continent.

What was the best thing about Clyde?

He was still growing.

I dare say that he could’ve actually become the next Great Sage. Yes, he ‘could have’.

I didn’t notice when I moved to straddle Clyde while he was sleeping. I looked at his face as he peacefully slept. I had these thoughts… Thoughts I didn’t know I could have.

SHING

I unsheathed the dagger that Damian gave to me back when we came to the border. It was given in case of emergency. To protect myself.

“…”

The dagger drew a line across Clyde’s neck when I put it near him.

I held the blade at Clyde’s sleeping face.

I suddenly recalled something.

It was in a private meeting with me and Olivia when we were having dinner together. It wasn’t a friendly dinner per se. It was because I needed answers after a murder case was reported to the Palace.

I asked her a question.

–Was it you…?

She only silently smiled at me.

–Just why… why did you kill that girl? She was so determined to be your sword and shield. Didn’t you adopt her at an orphanage?

She only scoffed before drinking her wine.

–I get rid of the fools who won’t benefit me after losing their usefulness. Tools are meant to be thrown away when they lost the benefits they offer.

Back then, I didn’t agree with Olivia’s words.

But… could I be of the same kind as Olivia? Just when Clyde seemed to have lost all his potential, I found him useless to my goals?

I gasped when I realized what I was doing.

The dagger fell onto the pillow. There was a stain of blood since the sharp blade touched his neck before I came to my senses.

“What… what is happening to me?”

My hands were trembling and I had the illusion of seeing blood on my hands.

Since when had I been a person that viewed people as tools? I’ve never felt this way before. In the past when one of my female knights got injured then I would send them off home with a smile and extra money for their hard work. If one of my maids accidentally broke something or made a mistake then I’d laugh it off…

Where did this all begin?

“How could I forget…”

It was the day I tortured Pina to near death. The one I called my sister and best friend. That’s… when I changed…