Chapter 130
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What Diana couldn’t immediately grasp what had happened.
The two massive doors of the audience chamber had literally shattered. The right door had been flung from its hinges, and the other, after cracking loudly, collapsed with a crash. Even for doors that had been neglected and corroded, the force was truly staggering.
Diana, who had witnessed the scene from behind the throne, quickly straightened her head. Someone was standing in the gaping doorway.
Diana was hidden by the throne and wasn’t immediately visible from the doorway. She held her breath, her back pressed against the throne. Thud, crash. Someone was approaching over the heavy, thunderous sound of stone fragments falling to the floor.
Why was that? A sense of déjà vu seemed to be choking her.
Diana recognized this presence.
The sound wasn’t loud. But the presence was unmistakable. Footsteps approaching with a heavy, low rumble—she remembered finding it quite fascinating the first time she noticed it. A person’s gait inevitably reveals their character, so even in the days before she could see, she could tell who was approaching just by the sound of their footsteps.
Diana’s trembling eyelashes dropped downward. As she closed her eyes to block out her vision, darkness enveloped her body. Her other senses, now heightened in the absence of sight, sharpened to detect the source of the sound.
‘Could it be that Duke Christen wasn’t the only visitor to the headquarters?’
Her knees trembled uncontrollably. A fear etched into her very instincts awoke, gnawing at her bones.
Another voice inside Diana whispered.
It can’t be. You haven’t heard any news of the Emperor’s arrival.
Even if he came here in secret, if it really were the Emperor, security wouldn’t be this lax… It must be a mistake. It had to be.
But another self, suppressed deep within her, spoke up.
You know the truth, don’t you?
“…No.”
Diana muttered like a madwoman. No, no. It wasn’t so.
As if her confusion were contagious, the footsteps of the approaching figure came to a sudden halt.
Her heart was pounding so fast she felt like she was going to gag. The sound of rain tapping against the window evoked memories of last summer.
The cold ground, heavy with the scent of damp earth and grass; the sound of the pursuers’ boots chasing after her; the arrows flying toward her as she groped her way forward with her fingertips—.
“Diana!”
That voice right behind her.
Diana covered her ears, trying to block out the sound, unsure if it was reality or a hallucination.
I don’t want to see you. I don’t want to hear you. I don’t want to acknowledge you.
She prayed that no sound would reach her ears, but the other party wouldn’t play along.
Just as always.
The figure that had paused began to walk again. It felt as though a predator, baring its fangs, was closing the distance behind her, step by step.
“Diana.”
The tone suggested he already knew she was there. Diana’s slender shoulders stiffened.
It was a voice she could never forget.
How could she forget it? This tone, more captivating and hateful than any sound she had ever heard in her life.
The man, who had paused to catch his breath, commanded,
“Come out.”
Red veins stood out in Diana’s eyes.
Everything was exactly the same, from the voice to the tone. Even without listening, she felt she could know in detail exactly what the past year had been like for him. It would be no different from the times she herself had endured.
The same arrogant, self-centered, self-righteous, and terrible person.
“Look at me straight in the eye, Diana.”
Was this nightmare going to repeat itself?
“Listen to this carefully and engrave it in your mind. Your master, the place you must return to, the one you must please. All of that is—.”
No. I won’t let it happen.
Diana bit her lip and swallowed the memories rising like stomach acid. She recalled the reason she had to come this far. She had come to build a solid foundation she could stand on in this cruel world. To revive the spring that lay dormant as if dead, and to end this endless flight.
Diana’s eyes snapped open, and she looked straight ahead. The entrance to the spring was still open, but the downpour was slowly subsiding.
The sudden downpour was the tears shed by the spirit and the key that opened the entrance to the spring. When the rain stopped, the entrance closed naturally.
‘Let’s go to the spring.’
Once the entrance closed, that place would become her own paradise—an absolutely inviolable realm that no one could trample or defile.
Diana dipped her right hand into the water bowl. The reflection of the spring on the water’s surface distorted wildly with the ripples. Looking closely, she noticed several spots throughout the spring that had eroded away or collapsed. Diana realized that the spirits who had not answered her calls for the past few weeks had all entered this place and were busily restoring the spring.
Are you ready?
The moment Diana nodded vigorously, a tremendous burst of light exploded from the water bowl reflecting the spring. The frantic movements beyond the throne were engulfed by the energy erupting from the spring.
“……!”
It was a power Diana knew well. The purifying power that washed away impurities. Yet this force—which she had previously used only to clean mop water or wash away grime from her body—had amplified many times over and surged toward her.
A refreshing sensation washed over her entire body, as if she were being cleansed. The clumps of mud caked onto her skin melted away without a trace.
Just as she felt that sense of relief, the fine hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.
‘My hair… my hair…?’
Before she knew it, her long hair was flowing down, covering the back of her neck. Dazed, Diana reached up to gather the hair that had grown down to her chest. The moment she saw its subtle golden hue, her forearm was grabbed.
“Ah…!”
A man who had rushed over in a single bound gripped her elbow tightly.
Diana’s body was spun around almost against her will. A face suddenly filled her entire field of vision. Diana let out a silent groan.
Eyes like lapis lazuli glared at her with a fiery intensity.
It was the Commander. Or rather, the man she had known as the Commander.
Her heart, which had sunk to her heels, began to race. The moment she recognized him, a sensation that betrayed her will etched his image into her mind.
Jet-black hair, deep blue eyes, facial features as smooth and flawless as a carved statue, and tightly pursed lips. A thick neck with a prominent Adam’s apple, broad shoulders, and a height that forced her to look up. The firm grip of a large hand clutching her arm with all its strength.
It was so unfamiliar she couldn’t list every detail. Yet, in another way, it felt familiar.
It was exactly the appearance she had vaguely imagined as she traced it with her fingertips. A piece of a puzzle that had never quite fit had finally found its place.
“Diana.”
The man, gathering his ragged breath, called out to her. A name had finally been given to the man who, until now, had existed only as a Commander.
“What is your master’s name?”
The name she had stammered out with her own lips, just once.
“Fel…ix, Mon…treur Astheanu….”
“Just the name. Again.”
“…Felix.”
The name of her former master, the invader of her homeland, the demon who ruled over her.
Diana finally knew him for certain. A hollow laugh escaped her.
“Ha…”
The voice inside her had been right. Perhaps she had known all along. From the very moment she first laid eyes on this man who held the position of Commander here.
She had turned away and denied it, but she couldn’t shake the doubts that occasionally surged within her.
At first glance, she sensed he wasn’t the sort of person who belonged in a place like this. It wasn’t just his chiseled features; there was something extraordinary about his gaze. He possessed a presence that would undoubtedly fit better in a world that was larger, more opulent, and more brutal.
Moreover, he had never spoken in her presence.
She had seen those lips move a few times. Just a few days ago, by the well, it was the same. His conflict was plain to see in his expression—countless words surging up and then fading away behind his closed lips.
Yet, in the end, he never uttered a single word.
Why? Could it be that he, too, had sensed it?
That the moment he opened his mouth, even this brief peace would be over.
If so, please, don’t say anything, even now.
Diana cut off the chain of thoughts running through her mind. Ignoring the man in front of her as if he didn’t exist, she turned her head toward the water bowl glowing with light. The rain had almost stopped, but her friends were still waiting for her.
It wasn’t too late yet. Diana tried to shake off the arm restraining her.
The man’s hand, which had seemed to flinch for a moment, gripped her shoulders with even greater force than before. Biting his lip tightly, he spoke hastily.
“Don’t go.”
It was a single, disjointed phrase that had burst forth from among the dozens of words that had welled up in his throat.
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