Chapter 57: Echoes Trapped in Mana.

“S-stay back! Stay back, I say!”

The moment I touched the contaminated mana, a fantasy unfolded before my eyes. A moss-covered stone wall was visible under dim lighting, and the shrill voice of someone who seemed to have been the owner of the yellow diamond rang out.

The viewpoint shook here and there, perhaps moving urgently. I frowned at the scenes revealed each time. The space, clearly showing signs of long neglect, looked like a medieval prison from a movie seen on Earth.

Sounds echoed from all directions. People who had been gathered in one place began to scatter and flee urgently. The people appearing in the passing scenes were all wrapped in black robes and covering their faces with masks. They looked like dark mages appearing in stories.

I couldn’t think they gathered with good intentions at all.

“Barrier! Barrier, quickly!”

The owner of the diamond, running about in confusion, raised his voice again. It was a very urgent tone.

“Ah, aaaah!”

With a scream, the viewpoint shook violently again. Watching the fantasy, I felt a chill run down my spine. Because the emotions the diamond’s owner felt were transferred to me intact.

It was definitely fear. Fear of death at that. But underneath it, incomprehensible emotions of curiosity and defeatism were mixed.

“Monster, it’s a monster! A monster is trying to kill us all!”

I felt nauseous. Even while feeling fear, fear of death which is the most fundamental thing, the gem’s owner was changing defeatism into superiority.

That monster is literally a monster. Created by a wrong result. But I am human, not a monster like that.

Unspoken sincerity was conveyed to me through his mana.

I felt like I knew who the monster the gem’s owner spoke of was.

Emotions other than what the gem’s owner conveyed arose in me. Compassion and pity. But at the same time, anger soared.

No, the emotion growing as if to swallow me was clearly anger.

I couldn’t change this fantasy. I couldn’t correct the past already gone.

I cannot help him in this fantasy.

I had to calm my emotions even by force. In the fantasy where I could only watch, I should rather get as much information as possible. That was what I had to do now.

I tried to cool my head dizzy with heat. Then doubt arose.

The person who sold me the diamond was Baron Belus of Shehen province. Did he sell it to me knowing to whom and how this gem was used? No, that’s not it. Baron Belus definitely went around all jewelry shops in Pistoga with this gem. He sold it to me because I knew the value of this yellow diamond most accurately.

The only person who knows I can purify gems is the King’s Brother, and then the fact couldn’t have spread outside. It was truly a coincidence that I bought Baron Belus’s diamond.

Looking at his history, it’s the same. Since it was a suspicious item, I couldn’t help but investigate his background. As a result, what I learned was that Shehen province is a backward place where sheep and cattle ranches are the only source of income, and Baron Belus, after earning unexpectedly large money due to special war demand, bought old items indiscriminately to raise the family’s prestige. Not satisfied with that, he came up to enter the social circle of Noberten but fell into gambling instead of the social circle; Baron Belus was the protagonist of such a common story.

No trace of someone forcibly intervening was seen in this whole process. Getting burned with vanity after suddenly handling large money due to external influence, not his own ability, and falling rapidly into peripheral pleasure were all Baron Belus’s own choices.

Since the gambling house he visited was under the influence of Teneb, the King’s Brother’s hidden organization, the possibility of someone intervening dropped significantly.

“Aaaaaah!”

The existence that made the gem’s owner feel strange superiority even while trembling in fear began to approach from afar.

As a result of coincidences overlapping, I,

“Go away! Go away, you monster!”

Came to see the childhood of the King’s Brother.

The young-faced King’s Brother remained expressionless. With red eyes, evidence that pheromones had manifested. Covered in just as much red blood all over his body.

“Aaaah!”

The voice of the gem’s owner screaming again, already buried in the past, set my nerves on edge. I wanted to shut that mouth if I could.

In this fragmentary fantasy, the King’s Brother looked like a monster as he said.

“S-save me. Save me, please!”

The gem’s owner, shouting for his life with a raspy voice out of fear, was acting like an innocent victim.

But I know. The blood of others covering the King’s Brother’s whole body is the blood of mages who treated him like a lab rat, and underneath it, there are wounds repeatedly healing and tearing open again.

“Ugh, heuk…”

The gem’s owner stepped back, unable to even scream properly now. Then, stopped as if blocked by a wall, pleading sounds continued.

Please, please. Save me.

The young-faced King’s Brother approached slowly, maintaining an expressionless face.

And that was the end. The magical power the gem’s owner was infusing was cut off, and the past the gem could contain also ended.

Even after the fantasy originating from contaminated mana ended, I was still in a dream. Deep greenery surrounded me. The scent emitted by dew-covered leaves and old trees was thick. As if calming down emotions messed up by things of the past I couldn’t interfere with.

The fact that I had experienced this lucid dream before came to mind slowly. Smelling the scent of fresh moss and cozy soil embracing life, unlike the unpleasant smell of moss stuck on the gloomy prison wall.

Right, this forest was the King’s Brother’s, Philius’s pheromones themselves.

Realizing the fact, I hurriedly moved my steps as if fleeing from the forest giving me comfort.

And the next moment, I fell into the water. This was also a familiar situation. I wasn’t curious about the scenery outside the water at all.

I chose to stay submerged in the water. Intermittent sounds brushed past my ears. It seemed just the sound of my heart beating, but also like the sound of someone calling me.

It was underwater where not even fish were visible. The water clear enough to show the bottom rather made me gauge the distant depth. Sunlight sparkled above my head.

It’s natural that no one is there, it must be just my illusion, but eventually, I started swimming to get out of the water.

The shimmering sunlight looked like gems. I stretched my arms with more force. Because the form of the sound became clear.

Jay.

That was definitely my name.

Swinging my limbs with all my might, as if forgetting when I just intended to sink.

Like a cut film, I was standing by the water before I knew it. A silly laugh came out. Even if it’s a lucid dream, a dream was a dream.

The landscape by the water had no difference from what I knew. Countless flower buds were hanging surrounding the lake wide enough not to see the end. Without blooming a single flower in a place abundant with sunlight and water.

I guess I’m disappointed again.

My heart that beat fast with expectation sank slowly.

Water was still sloshing at my ankles. I chose to just sit down there rather than completely getting out of the water and looking at unbloomed flowers.

Looking at flowers that failed to bloom, that wouldn’t bloom, made me feel sad. I looked at the traces of the forest towering high beyond the low shrubs.

Jay.

It was a clear voice. I stood up without realizing it. I got out of the water where I was dipping my feet.

Jay.

The voice that approached in an instant took form. It grabbed my wrist. Body temperature and pulse different from mine. A clear presence.

I couldn’t understand. How there could be a person other than me in this dream, my lucid dream. I didn’t want anyone else to exist.

But no matter how much I glared, the presence of the person standing in front of me didn’t fade. A hand larger than mine squeezed my wrist not painfully, but not easily releasing either.

I was afraid to check who it was.

Actually, I probably already know who he is. Because a scent mixing the freshness of green leaves, the profoundness of old trees, wet moss, and cozy soil, which can never be smelled in reality, was wafting thickly.

I couldn’t bear to raise my head. Fearing I would realize that if it’s really him, I was actually wishing for something I should never covet.

Yet I didn’t want him to disappear from the dream like this either. I just looked at the hand holding my wrist.

“Jay.”

The moment my name was finally whispered in my ear, I couldn’t endure it anymore.

When I raised my head, I met the eyes looking down at me.

Red eyes were looking at me. Philius’s irises, as if embedded with rubies, stared straight at me.

My eyes snapped open. I inhaled urgently. The fact that the ceiling visible in the faint light was familiar was realized slowly.

It’s the workshop. My workshop located in the basement of Palmer Jewelry in Pistoga, Noberten, the capital of Henia.

Recalling facts one by one, I pulled my consciousness, which seemed to still be by the lakeside in the dream, into reality.

“Are you okay?”

But the same voice as in the dream, which couldn’t exist in reality, was heard.

I don’t know. Did I not wake up from the dream yet? This is clearly reality.

I turned my head slowly.

“Jay.”

At the voice calling my name, I inhaled again.

I saw blue eyes looking at me with a frown of worry. I closed my eyes. I felt like I might shed tears at any moment. Foolishly.

“Did I, startle you?”

It was a gentle voice. I felt the hand that held my wrist in the dream approaching even with my eyes closed.

However, unlike the dream, that hand moved away again without touching me. I could open my eyes only after taking another breath after that.

“You have returned, Duke.”

I greeted him with dry eyes. Philius’s eyes slowly curved into an arc.

“I’m back, Jay.”

Smiling like a picture, he greeted me.