Leaving the events at the Necropolis behind, when the Black Prince hurriedly rode back to his castle.
In the throne room of the duke’s castle, right there, sat his son.
Seated upon the throne that should have existed solely for the Duke of Saxony, the ‘Black Prince’ looked down upon his father.
“Father.”
“Dale.”
Father and son exchanged their names.
Swoosh!
“We humbly greet Your Highness, the Duke!”
The tomb guardians knelt in unison, thrusting their swords vertically into the ground.
“Mother and Rize are safe.”
Dale continued.
“After Mother calmed Rize, she finally went to bed.”
“……I see.”
The Black Duke said flatly.
“That’s truly fortunate.”
Anyway, here at Saxony Castle, while the battle raged. When his castle was under attack, as its lord, he could do nothing. Only his son, defiantly, defended Saxony Castle.
Leading the people of the Saxon ducal house in his name. After defending it, he now sits upon the castle’s throne.
“Your Highness.”
Dale rose slowly from the throne meant for the Duke of Saxony. As if it were not yet time for him to sit there.
“May we speak for a moment?”
After rising to his feet, Dale spoke. The Duke of Saxony nodded silently.
The top floor of Saxony Castle. The Black Duke’s office.
The faint light of dawn seeped through the window, and the Duke of Saxony stood there. Backlit by the pouring dawn twilight, a deep shadow fell over him.
“It seems you have something you wish to discuss.”
“I confronted the elder of the Black Magic Tower who attacked the castle and defeated him.”
Dale said. At that sight, a flicker of disturbance crossed the Black Duke’s expression.
“…You mean you defeated a 6th-circle mage alone?”
Even considering Dale’s outrageous talent, there are limits. He claimed victory over a Black Magic Tower elder—a mage who had reached the sixth circle? It was impossible.
It was beyond what even the title of the empire’s greatest talent could justify. Yet, to Dale, nothing could matter more.
“That is correct.”
Without denying it, Dale nodded.
“Moreover, while facing him, I glimpsed the world of ideas he had built up as the commander of the Black Robe Cult’s battalion.”
“……”
The mage’s vision. The unforgivable evils of the demonic Black Robe Corps.
“And through his mouth, I heard about the true nature of the Black Legion.”
“……”
The true purpose the Empire was so desperately trying to conceal.
“His Excellency the Duke of Saxony, Second Commander of the Black Guard.”
Dale spoke.
Speaking of the past of the man before him, the inescapable shackles of sin.
“Were all those words you spoke before me lies?”
Recalling the weight of life he had once spoken of.
“Were all the words my father spoke to me ultimately nothing but the most hideous hypocrisy?”
Dale’s voice carried an unmistakable tremor of emotion.
The man before him was no mere stranger. He was the flesh and blood who had given birth to and raised Dale.
He had never doubted for a moment that he would never affirm the justice of the Absolute Empire.
“Father, too… were you ultimately someone who couldn’t escape the Empire’s ugliness?”
“……”
Silence descended. A silence so heavy, so profoundly heavy, its weight was immeasurable.
“That day, when the Empire’s great army, led by the hero from another world, fought the Demon King.”
After the silence, the Duke of Saxony spoke.
When the empire’s mightiest warriors gathered and finally defeated the Demon King… a man came to find 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 Viscount Yuris?”
“He made me an offer.”
Duke Saxon nodded.
“He was preparing ‘a certain large-scale experiment’ and asked for my cooperation.”
“This experiment…”
“It was an experiment to reach the realm of the 9th Circle.”
The Black Legion had existed from the very beginning solely for that purpose.
“If I refused that offer, he threatened to defeat the Demon King and then mobilize the imperial forces gathered in the north… to crush the entire northern duchy.”
“……”
“He planned to frame me for colluding with the Demon King and then turn the entire army against me.”
The Dark Count of the realm bowing to the Empire’s threats? It was laughable. Yet he couldn’t laugh.
Under the righteous cause of defeating the Demon King, the massive imperial forces gathered in the Duchy of Saxony.
Even the Duke of Saxony couldn’t dare refuse such a cause, and he remembered all too well the powerful forces gathered there.
Blood-Red Orb, White Orb, Holy Sword, Ghost Sword, and… the Hero of Another World.
The past Dale was there.
Even the Black Knight of the World could not stand alone against such formidable foes, united under the great cause of defeating the Demon King and saving the empire from the threat of the demon race.
With them already deep within the heart of the Saxon Duchy, resistance would be futile.
“So you accepted their proposal?”
“The Pope and the elders of the White Mage Tower were present. They sealed a gias upon him, detailing the experiment and his commitment to cooperate.”
The bond of the oath, Geas. The absolute contract magic the White Tower prides itself on. And this Geas was engraved by the combined power of all the Elders, including the White Tower Lord himself.
“So you cooperated with the darkness of the Black Order? Was it unavoidable to protect the Duchy of Saxony?”
“……”
If I had chosen to, I could have desperately defended him. That it was an unavoidable decision for the sake of what must be protected, and that even the Black Duke was ultimately nothing more than a weakling powerless against might.
Therefore, it was not his father’s fault.
But he didn’t say that. He couldn’t say it. Only silence descended.
“I could have defied death and faced them head-on.”
After the silence, the Black Ball spoke.
“Even if victory was impossible, using every power at our disposal—including the ‘Death Order’—we could have inflicted an irreparable wound.”
But he did not do that. No, he could not.
“But how truly ridiculous… Elena’s face came to mind.”
Elena, Dale’s mother. The woman the Duke of Saxony loved.
“So you surrendered?”
The Duke of Saxony nodded silently. After nodding, he continued.
“I was afraid of losing Elena.”
His voice trembled faintly. It was the first time Dale’s father had shown weakness.
“I was afraid of not seeing the child that would be born between her and me.”
The child born between the Duke of Saxony and her.
“That’s why I cooperated with the Black Red Cult’s experiments. I knelt before the Empire and the Red Tower, bowed before the justice of power, and cowardly, groveling, lowered my head.”
The Duke of Saxony continued, his voice tinged with self-mockery.
“Through the bond of the Black Crimson, pursuing power and truth, to reach the realm of the 9th Circle…”
The forbidden experiment to achieve the Ninth Circle.
“Condensing thoughts of pain and despair into a special barrier…”
The very details of that experiment flowed from the Black Hole’s mouth.
“It was an endeavor to create a gate connecting to the world of truth through the negative energy originating from that place.”
“So you’re saying reaching that world would allow one to attain the realm of the 9th Circle?”
“There was no certainty.”
The Black Orb answered.
“The experiment’s originator was the Crimson Orb, and I was merely a collaborator.”
However, it was an experiment that could never have been possible without the Black Magic Tower’s pursuit of truth, and furthermore, without the power of the Black Orb. That is why the Crimson Orb had so desperately emphasized the new bond of black magic to Dale.
Not to the Black Orb, but to Dale, who would later become the master of the Black Magic Tower. It meant only one thing.
“In the end, the experiment failed.”
“Did it fail to reach the world of truth?”
“No, reaching the world of truth itself was a success.”
The two leaders of the Black Order. As five magicians standing at the pinnacle of sorcery, the Black Mage and the Crimson Mage succeeded that day in entering the ‘world of truth’.
“Then why did it fail?”
Wasn’t the result practically the same as success? Dale asked back, as if he couldn’t understand, and the Black Ball answered.
“Because I stood in that man’s way.”
“……!”
“I couldn’t stand by and watch his ambition be fulfilled.”
If a being filled with malice and ambition were to grasp the realm of the 9th Circle, to be reborn as an existence known as a Demon God.
The Black Orb knew well what would befall this world.
“But Geas…”
The Black Pawn thwarting the Blood Pawn’s ambition was an act that disrupted the ‘collaboration of the experiment,’ and there was no way Geas would remain silent about such an act. Wasn’t that very Geas engraved directly into the Black Pawn’s heart by the White Mage Tower Lord himself?
“Even the binding oaths the White Mage Tower prides itself on held no power in that world.”
The Black Duke continued with a bitter smile.
“Have you seen the world of truth?”
Dale shook his head silently.
“In that world, the common sense and logic we know are meaningless.”
An unknown realm that defies explanation no matter how hard one tries.
“I simply stood in his way. That was all.”
The truth that magicians so desperately crave was right before my eyes, yet I couldn’t reach it.
“Did you defeat the Crimson Orb?”
At Dale’s question, the Black Orb nodded. At least in that world, even the Crimson Orb was no match for the Black Orb.
“Then why, Father, did you emerge from that world having gained nothing?”
Dale pressed. At the question, the Black Orb smiled bitterly. Unconsciously, he recalled his old friend.
“I once, in that world…”
It was the same question, and thus the same answer returned.
“Do you really think I came back without getting anything?”
Dawn was breaking, and the Duke of Saxony was in the duke and duchess’s bedroom.
His sleeping wife, Elena, and their daughter, Lise. His beloved family.
Things he would protect with everything he had.
That day, that white and dark winter night. He recalled the moment his son, Dale, was born.
The vivid memory remained of that small, precious being crying out in Elena’s arms.
At the same time, he recalled the darkness of the Black Guard, that dreadful living hell. Unforgivable atrocities. The inescapable darkness of the past.
The wheel had already begun to turn, and there was nothing that could be undone.
Therefore, beyond the world of truth, he recalled what he had grasped.
By dedicating his entire being to protect those he loved against an empire mad with blood and madness, and to rectify the sins of the past.
That day, in that place, leaving the blood-red orb behind, the Duke of Saxony made a deal with the devil. It was no simple metaphor. It was not even the demonic beings or demon lords that the White Magic Tower ceaselessly cried out about.
Beyond the boundaries of thought… within the realm of truth itself, the being that extended its hand to him for a bargain.
The demon truly existed, and willingly accepted the bargain.
Not long after, on a white and dark winter night, a life was born.
His son, the one he loved most in the world.
