Lyla placed the ice spike roughly on the table. It looked like she was reliving the rage she felt towards Orlando with it.
“If the collaborator is Orland Dwayne, he must’ve had a hand in turning his father into a Demon Lord.”
“There’s a high possibility.”
“So, in the end, he made Elena kill her own grandfather.”
“Yeah.”
“How much of a scum is he really?!”
“Should I add one more thing? If Orland is really taking away Elena’s mana or talent, that completely changes the reason why he supported Elena’s magic studies even while going against Walwiss’ wishes.”
“…It’s because when Elena studies magic, it becomes his power.”
“I don’t know what he stole from Elena specifically, but the possibilities are endless.”
Lyla was speechless. She couldn’t believe that such a heartless father thoroughly taking advantage of his child could exist.
“Hey, Zich.” Lyla asked in a really bleak and cold voice, “When are you going to screw him over?”
“Wow, you are angry.”
“I’m not in the mood for joking around,” Lyla spoke as if she would strike Orland with the greatest magic she knew and erase him from this world if he was within her sight.
“Unfortunately, I can’t do that right now. So, endure it for a bit more.”
They had just identified the main culprit and hadn’t made any preparations yet.
“We need to approach situations like this step by step. Whether it be finding evidence or preparing a trap to corner him—well, you don’t have to worry. You know I’m an expert in these things,” Zich laughed. It was a kind of laughter that would have made anyone who suffered under his hands turn their heads and shudder.
“Well, he probably won’t die a pleasant death since you made him your target.”
“Of course.”
Although Lyla always felt uncomfortable whenever Zich acted beyond necessary in fear that he would become a Demon Lord, she thought he seemed very trustworthy at the moment.
“Ah, I also have one request.” Zich took out a piece of paper from his magic box and handed it to Lyla.
“I picked it up at the Jaewick family’s mansion.”
They were codes he had copied from the letter tied to a carrier pigeon’s leg.
“Decipher it for me.”
Lyla scowled. “I just started deciphering a sentence from the ancient empire, but you are giving me more work on top of that?”
“Is it difficult?”
“Of course it’s difficult! It’s not like I even have a clue. If I could just decipher secret codes right away, what’s the point of using them?”
“Is that so? I guess it can’t be helped then.” Zich wasn’t that disappointed. If he didn’t have any other clues, he might have tried his best to get a clue or something from the code; but now, he had already battled Walwiss fiercely and uncovered the main culprit. They were already in a situation where it didn’t matter if they deciphered the code or not.
“Anyways.” Zich lightly glanced at Lyla looking at the piece of paper that Zich handed to her.
“What?”
“Why? Is there something weird?”
Lyla quickly took out a book from her magic box—Zich knew what the book was. It was the book from the ancient empire that Lyla had taken from the Great Adrowon Forest. Lyla spread the book open, piquing Zich’s curiosity. He arched his head to look at the book.
“Look.” Lyla pushed the open book towards Zich. Then, she placed the piece of paper that Zich gave her next to it. Zich looked back and forth between the book and piece of paper. Wrinkles formed at the corners of his eyes.
“It’s similar, right?”
Zich nodded. Like Lyla said, the piece of paper that Zich brought and the letters in the book from the ancient empire looked incredibly similar.
“Are they using letters from the ancient empire as a secret code?”
“I think so. The letters are very similar.”
“Then that means Wayne Jaewick might be connected to the ancient empire in some way.”
Zich looked at the piece of paper intently.
Lyla asked, “You said that Wayne Jaewick is suspicious, right? It seems like he’s realized that we kidnapped Elena too. Then, is he working with Orland?”
“No, that didn’t seem to be the case. Their relationship isn’t good by any means. Of course, there’s a possibility that it could all be an act…” Zich continued to rack his head—before he was attacked by Walwiss, he recalled the conversation they were having.
‘Now that I about it, it sounded like Wayne Jaewick was testing Walwiss Dwayne when he was asking his last question.’
At that moment, Zich thought of a possibility. ‘Does Wayne Jaewick not know who he is collaborating with?’ Wayne’s collaborator might be someone whom he simply exchanged secret codes with through carrier pigeons.
‘Wayne might have tried to test Walwiss Dwayne because he thought Walwiss might be his collaborator.’ The puzzle pieces were coming together.
‘If that was what Orland Dwayne intended…’
Before Zich’s regression, Orland Dwayne was the master of the magical tower, and Walwiss Dwayne became a Demon Lord.
‘Did this bastard push all his crimes onto Walwiss and chase him away?’
He could’ve finished off the Jaewick family on top of that.
‘No, he might have finished off some other families while he was as it since it would have increased his possibility of becoming the master of the magical tower.’
“What is it? You suddenly look so serious. Tell me if you figured something out.”
Zich informed Lyla of his speculations. Her mouth opened slightly.
“…He is plotting some scheme like that?”
“It’s still just a speculation. We have to make sure of it from now on.”
Zich lifted the piece of paper with the secret code on it. “Anyways, if the person contacting Wayne Jaewick is really Orland, then he must also know what this code is. And Orland is someone who seems like the robed figures’ collaborators…”
Zich stared at the piece of paper like he was going to burrow a hole into it.
“The robed guys might be connected to the ancient empire.”
“…In the end, it’s the ancient empire again.”
“Yeah, you might not have to decipher the writings from the ancient empire since Orland might know how to read it.”
Zich had great faith in Lyla’s abilities. It wasn’t as if they had no clue; they had many related materials from the Great Adrowon Forest, and given time, Lyla would probably be able to decipher the text. However, there was no reason for them to take the hard road when they could go the easy way.
“In the end, I guess we have to face Orland Dwayne head on.”
Zich loudly cracked his fingers; it sounded like something that might come out of Orland’s body in the near future. Of course, if Zich did crack Orland’s bones, a much louder and terrifying sound would come out of Orland’s body.
Lyla let out a sigh. “I’m worried about Elena. Even if she doesn’t have to fight to death with her grandpa in the future, she’ll be extremely shocked by her father’s betrayal.”
“You know we have to do it, right? No matter how painful it is, she has to cut out parts of her life that are rotten. If she doesn’t, her life might be in danger.”
“Yeah, that’s true.”
“You can comfort her later. Since she’s your disciple, you will probably be a better source of comfort than a stranger.”
“Of course, I’ll comfort her. I’ll work hard to help her out.” Lyla tightly clenched her fist and strengthened her resolve. However, the situation was a bit more complicated than she thought.
“It might be even more difficult than you thought. I think Orland committed another serious offense. Of course, this is also deeply related to Elena.”
“…There’s more?”
“This is something that we have to look more into, but do you think Elena is really the first?”
Even though Zich spoke very vaguely, Lyla was able to perfectly understand him. “You think that Orland did the same awful things he did to Elena to another person?”
“Just think about it. Even if Orland Dwayne changed his school of magic, he’s still Walwiss Dwayne’s son. Walwiss Dwayne’s Pulru School of Magic should be much more familiar to him since Walwiss probably trained him in that school from a young age. Moreover, Elena’s specialty is fire magic in the future, so if Orland used her powers, he wouldn’t have trouble fitting right into the Pulru School of Magic. However, Orland Dwayne specifically moved to his wife’s school of magic, the Conrad School of Magic, and learned ice magic there.”
Lyla closed her mouth shut. “…Then did he not just take his daughter’s magic but also his wife’s…!”
“We have to consider the timing of these events—when Orland Dwayne suddenly experienced a growth in his magic, and when Elena’s mom died. However, if Orland’s magic exponentially grew right after Elena’s mom died…”
Zich did not finish his sentence, but Lyla clearly knew what he wanted to say next—that Orland Dwayne killed his wife and stole her magic powers.
* * *
While an intense commotion was occurring all night in Sunewick and Zich was deeply thinking about the truth of the conspiracy, Elena, who was one of the main reasons for Sunewick’s commotion, was comfortably sitting on a chair.
“My family?”
“Yeah, family.” While tightly hugging Nowem, Elena nodded; Nowem had helped her practice magic today as well. Snoc had been her conversational partner for the past few days, and he sat in front of her.
It was difficult to be locked up in an unknown place. Even though Elena received three delicious meals a day and she could study magic as much as she wanted, it was psychologically taxing to lose her freedom. If Snoc hadn’t persuaded her that this was for her benefit and if he hadn’t shown her Zich’s Honorary Knight broach, Elena would have tried escaping several times by now. Then Snoc and Hans would have struggled immensely. Fortunately, Elena stayed low and just practiced her magic. However, it wasn’t as if she could practice magic all day.
When she wasn’t practicing magic, Hans and Snoc talked to her to pass the time. Most of the time, Snoc was the one who talked to her. As a result, Elena and Snoc had become close enough to share very personal stories with each other.
So, Elena could now easily ask questions about Snoc’s family “I’m curious. You got out of your house, and you’re traveling with Mr. Zich right now. Didn’t your family try to stop you?”
Nowem’s body froze. This topic was uncomfortable for Nowem as he was deeply involved with the death of Snoc’s father. Snoc noticed Nowem’s discomfort and made a bittersweet smile. “I don’t have a family. I didn’t have siblings in the first place, and my father and mother died a long time ago.”
“Ah, I-I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right. It was a long time ago.” Snoc shrugged. “Even though he’s not blood related, I have someone who is like a family member—his name is Sam. He’s a guy who lived next to me, and he acted like my older brother.”
Snoc told Elena about his life. He told her about his hard life as a miner and how much he hated that life. However, when he looked back at his memories, there were definitely happy and fun moments as well. Elena listened with interest to Snoc’s past, which was completely different from her life.
“He was that kind of person. Even though he was young, he was very stubborn and old-fashioned like an elderly person.”
“But he must have been a very special person to you, right?”
“Yeah, that’s true.” Snoc turned his head as if he was embarrassed. It might have just been the light coming from the lantern, but his face looked slightly red.
“I only have my grandfather and father in my family. My mother died over ten years ago.” Elena looked at the ceiling with sad, sentimental eyes. “She was a very kind and caring person. When I was young, I loved falling asleep on her lap.”
Snoc nodded. He also had some beautiful memories with his mom, so he could empathize with Elena’s words.
“Honestly, when she died, I felt like the sky was crashing down. I even felt like I was being thrown into the world by myself.”
Elena wiped the tears that formed around her eyes and continued, “During that time, my father was really cold to me. No, it wasn’t just me, but he didn’t have a very good relationship with my mother either.”
“Really? That’s a bit different from what I heard. Isn’t he a nice person who is very supportive of your dream?”
“Yeah, he’s like that right now, but in the past, he was different. I was very resentful of him back then, but now, I understand him a little bit. My father was in a similar situation as me when I was young. He was always anxious and insecure because he wasn’t able to use magic properly.”
“I heard that before. I heard that he didn’t give up and worked hard until he became successful later on.”
Elena made a small smile. “Yeah, that’s right. It’s really sad that my father’s breakthrough happened after my mother passed away. I think it’s really unfortunate, because my father began to show progress around the same time my mother passed away. If my mother had lived for a bit longer, she would have been able to spend time with my kinder and more caring father.”