Chapter 23 TIKR Vol. 1 Chapter 5 Part 2

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“…Ngh… ugh…”

A pained groan escaped her lips as she stirred. Kei slowly opened her eyes. Arl let out a quiet sigh of relief.

“Are you alright, Kei? Any injuries?”

“…Sen…pai?”

Kei pressed a hand to her aching head and slowly pushed herself up. She looked around, trying to get her bearings—and froze, speechless at the devastation. Mountains of rubble lay piled everywhere. The Imperial Castle, moments ago radiating majesty, was now half-destroyed, a ruin open to the night sky. Guards, handmaidens, nobles—everyone was down, scattered amongst the debris, groans of pain echoing through the wreckage.

“This… is…”

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t stop it.”

Arl stated it simply, accepting the blame. He recalled what had happened behind the scenes during the closing ceremony.

“The moment the closing ceremony began, Serpent ambushers appeared simultaneously, both inside and outside the castle. The Black Knight must have infiltrated earlier, guided them in, and disabled the castle’s defenses. I was tied up dealing with them.”

“Senpai… you knew…? You anticipated this?”

Did he expect the Serpents’ plan to continue even after the earlier captures? That was part of it, but Kei’s real question was deeper.

“Did you know… he… that the Black Knight was 【Lion Eater】?”

“I wasn’t certain it was him specifically,” Arl admitted. More accurately, he hadn’t been sure which of his former colleagues might have survived and become the enemy. But he couldn’t ignore the possibility that some Imperial Knights had escaped the purge five years ago.

“The seal placed on the Origin was unique, extremely powerful. Only a very limited number of people could possibly break it. Either an exceptionally skilled mage, or… someone who was present during the sealing five years ago, someone who understands its intricate structure.”

“…Which means… an Imperial Knight?”

“Yes. The curse afflicting 【Lion Eater】… the curse that afflicted all of us Imperial Knights… came directly from the Origin. The Chorus Magic dispelling wouldn’t have worked on it; it’s too powerful. If an Imperial Knight had survived and joined the enemy, they would be the ultimate hidden threat, undetectable by our main countermeasure. I kept that possibility in mind, stayed vigilant… but still, look at this mess.”

The blast from the failed resealing attempt had thrown them some distance from the epicenter. Arl and Kei looked towards the heart of the ruined castle, now gaping open to the night sky.

“I managed to intervene with magic right after he broke the seal, but I wasn’t fast enough to reseal it completely.”

Standing there, humanoid in shape yet distinctly inhuman, was the monster. The Origin stood unnervingly still, its colossal form exposed under the stars.

“I know all too well how terrifying that thing is.”

“…I didn’t know, Senpai.”

Kei looked up at him, her expression filled with a new kind of concern, different from before.

“Senpai… five years ago… you went through the same thing as 【Lion Eater】, didn’t you? You risked your life alongside the others to seal the Origin, saved the Empire… and then… they tried to execute you for it.”

“My own curse is under control. Don’t worry,” Arl reassured her, though he knew the words might ring hollow. “You might worry about when I could potentially turn into a monster, but if it ever comes to that, I’ll end my own—”

“Don’t say such morbid things, you knight-idiot Senpai!!”

Her sharp rebuke was accompanied by tear-filled eyes, glistening in the dim light.

“That’s not what I’m worried about right now. I meant… aren’t you tormented by what happened back then? Remembering it all? Well, judging by your overly stoic reaction, maybe not… Just don’t go trying to die on your own, okay? If you’re going to die, it will be in my arms.”

“That sounds considerably more morbid… But yes. I don’t intend to die.”

Arl gratefully accepted her unique, if slightly unsettling, form of concern and helped her carefully to her feet. Together, they stared at the towering figure responsible for the Great Collapse five years ago.

“You’re the only one who knows what happened back then, Senpai. What can we do now? Are there any options?”

“Fortunately… it seems the creature isn’t fully awake yet.”

A low, constant rumbling sound reached their ears—the tremor caused by the Origin’s steps. It was moving slowly, dragging its immense body forward, step by agonizing step, seemingly disoriented. It was heading… towards the city spread out below the castle.

“Not awake…? But it’s clearly moving.”

“That’s more like… sleepwalking. It’s just stirring from its slumber.”

“Just stirring!?”

Kei’s jaw dropped in disbelief. The sheer size of it was enough to make her neck ache just looking up. The fact that its mere movement shook the ground was terrifying. And this colossal, destructive presence was just the prelude?

“Its movements are sluggish, almost infantile. I wasn’t able to reseal it completely, but it seems my magic interference right at the moment of its release did something to hinder it.”

“…Meaning?”

“The true Origin constantly radiates a powerful curse, an aura so potent its miasma materializes as physical sludge—what we called ‘mire’—from which it can spawn limitless lesser monsters instantly. But… I don’t sense that overwhelming aura now. It’s likely incomplete, its awakening disrupted. Most of its power is probably still sealed away, suppressed.”

“This monstrosity is the better, weakened version!? This is hell!”

Kei shivered, her face pale with dread.

“The situation is bad, extremely bad, but perhaps not as catastrophic as the Great Collapse was. We still have time. We might still be able to stop it.”

“But… didn’t it take all twelve Imperial Knights working together just to seal it back then? Even weakened, can you possibly face it alone, Senpai?”

“We sealed it once. It’s not impossible to do so again.”

“…I’ll choose to believe you’re not just bluffing. But… what about Her Highness?”

Kei’s voice turned bitter again, laced with the helplessness of their situation.

“You were the one who saved me from the blast when the seal broke, weren’t you, Senpai? Which means… you must have also seen the Black Knight grab the Princess and escape in the chaos.”

“Yes. I saw,” Arl confirmed grimly. “Whether he took her as a hostage or for some other purpose… either way, I don’t intend to simply stand by and let it happen.”

“You’re going after them? But… if you do that, it means…”

Kei trailed off, swallowing the rest of her sentence, the implications hanging heavy in the air. Two immense threats now stood before Arl, demanding his attention. The progenitor of monsters that had once destroyed the capital, now stirring again. And the fallen Imperial Knight, once hailed as the Empire’s strongest sword, who had abducted the Princess. Chasing one meant letting the other run rampant, unchecked. He couldn’t possibly deal with both simultaneously. The fate of the Capital, or the life of the Princess. That was the choice he faced.

“——”

Arl didn’t hesitate for long. He stood up fully from where he had knelt beside Kei. The answer, the path he had to take, was already decided.