“Liarte.”
Lianrius entered the room of the still unfamiliar main building.
Several months had already passed by since Michael left.
Meanwhile, Liarte had been living in a room she was relocated to on the first floor of the main building.
There were no special changes.
There was no lock, but Liarte was just as trapped as before, and Lianrius usually came to use the water’s powers as he was now.
Other members of the family did not come but Liarte noticed them from afar.
Sometimes, when she accidently ran into them while on a walk, they looked at her with an unfamiliar expression mixed with guilt.
At first, she was puzzled, but when she got used to it, she soon forgot about it.
“What are you thinking?”
Lianrius sat on the side of Liarte’s bed. He then reached out his hand and gently grasped Liarte’s hair.
She saw Lianrius kissing the end of her long black hair. It was a heart fluttering sight, but Liarte felt no emotion.
“I’m not thinking about anything.”
The reason she stayed still without offending Lianrius was simply because she was familiar with the contact.
‘It wasn’t like that with Michael.’
It was warm when she held his hand. When she got close, he stopped breathing, and she heard Michael’s heart beating rapidly.
It was fun to have a conversation together.
At that moment, Lianrius’s expression hardened coldly.
“Who are you thinking of now?”
The tone of his voice was also lowered.
“You don’t have to know.”
“Say it.”
The more she pushed and shoved them away, the more the people of Elheim annoyed Liarte.
The maids she hadn’t had before her return, the useless dresses sent by the Duke, and Aynias’s greetings.
Among them, Lianrius’s condition was the worst.
Whenever she thought of Michael, Lianrius would bite his teeth and interrogate Liarte.
“I asked you who you thought of, Liarte.”
In fact, the drier Liarte’s attitude showed towards him, the crazier Lianrius felt.
“I was thinking about the coming of age ceremony.”
It was Lianrius’s coming of age soon.
Michael had decided to return that day, so it wasn’t wrong to say that she was thinking about the coming of age ceremony.
A little subdued, Lianrius replied.
“Answer quickly next time. Then I won’t have to be sharp, all right?
Liarte did not answer.
If this had been in the past, Lianrius would have added more of his cold criticism.
The weight of their relationship had been leaning towards Liarte for some time. However, Lianrius tried to get into his twin sister’s eyes.
“What do you want to do when you reach adulthood?”
“Well.”
Liarte had no choice.
The social activities and hobbies usually enjoyed by aristocrats were only available to those who had a budget for themselves and could go out.
“Is there any present you want?”
“No.”
Liarte stared at the unglazed window. Birce’s scriptures did not appear today.
She remembered Michael’s words that he would return. Michael was someone who would keep his promise to her to see the sea.
Looking at the clear sky outside, Liarte looked like a woman who yearned for freedom.
“Liarte. Do you want to leave Elheim?”
Liarte turned her head at the words Lianrius threw. It had been a long time since she looked directly at him.
As her dark ocean blue eyes contained herself, Lianrius felt a thrill that he could not compare with.
“Is my answer important?”
Liarte didn’t lie. She was inclined to not to talk empty words to people of no importance since it was meaningless.
It meant that she wanted to leave Elheim.
“Yes, but you can’t go out.”
Having Liarte by his side, Lianrius could use his powers. No, that wasn’t the only reason.
Lianrius was seized with an indescribable feeling.
“You’ll never get out of the family, Liarte. Your death will also happen in Elheim.”
He had no intention of letting Liarte go until her death.
“No.”
Liarte replied in a strong tone.
“You are wrong, Lianrius.”
Liarte recalled the time before her return.
Liarte, who celebrated her coming of age, was imprisoned despite being able to use the power of water on her own. Eventually she recalled her execution in Elheim.
“I’m not going to repeat the same life over and over again.”
She swore upon death that she would surely escape Elheim.
Before the coming of age ceremony, she was going to keep it a secret as much as she could. However, there was no regret for the early announcement of her intention to get out.
* * *
“The date of the coming of age ceremony of Young Master Lianrius is approaching, Your Highness.”
Inside the Prince’s Palace.
A close aide, Count Fedes, was reporting to the Crown Prince.
“When Ninian hears of this, she’ll be jumping with joy.”
The Crown prince approached the bookcase inside his office.
When he moved some books and pressed the hidden button, a door appeared on the floor.
“I’m going down.”
At the gesture of the Crown prince, Count Fedes politely followed him.
After passing through the long passage, a huge door appeared. It was the entrance to a temple made of unusual stone.
A building that was built by the First Owners of the Awakened Family.
When the prince pressed his hand against the pattern, the huge door slid open.
The Crown prince walked in with Count Fedes.
“I greet his highness, the Crown Prince.”
One of the shadows guarding the underground temple bowed deeply.
The Crown Prince nodded his head arrogantly.
“How is the condition of “her”?”
“She still hasn’t opened her eyes today.”
On the wide wall of the temple, a woman dyed in black was hung.
This was a fallen spirit king that has been handed down from generation to generation in the royal family.
It was said that the First Owners gained power by contracting with the spirit kings long ago.
However, as the gates of the spirit world were closing, all the spirit kings returned, and the power of the awakeners weakened.
Whenever the prince heard this hypothesis, he would laugh at the person saying it as it was just a nonsense legend.
The day when he first descended underground, holding the hand of the emperor, was when he learned that it was true. On that day when he witnessed the spirit king, the Crown prince felt awe and fascination at the same time.
She was in a comatose state with her eyes closed, but her expression was distorted with anger. Her body was floating in the air and her long hair fluttered.
“It feels like I’m lying when I say I saw you open your eyes.”
The crown prince raised his hand over a window installed so that people could not reach the Spirit King directly.
“It’s so beautiful.”
So many years had passed, but the Spirit King never opened her eyes.
However, a few months ago, the day he returned from Elheim’s banquet, the Spirit King opened her eyes brightly for a moment.
The reaction was just that.
She couldn’t speak and showed no abilities.
At that time, the only other abnormalities that happened in the empire was the lightning and water which were said to have hit Elheim.
“Bring a bottle to contain her energy.”
“Are you thinking of collecting it yourself today?”
Count Fedes failed to dissuade the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince was adamant.
“Don’t you know the power of the imperial family?”
For the royal family with purple eyes, the abilities of the awakened people hardly worked.
Moreover, this Spirit King was only half a piece.
Surprisingly, according to the records of the first emperor, the black Spirit King was said to be a fragment of the whole spirit king cut in half.
“Please be careful, Your Majesty.”
The prince walked to the wall and looked up at the sleeping spirit king, feeling overwhelmed.
The sand in the hourglass was set straight.
Black energy soared and crashed as it turned over and over again.
In the specially manufactured glass bottle, the Spirit King’s energy fell down like black grains of sand. When the bottle was half full, the crown prince raised his hand.
“I think that’s enough.”
This black powder from the Spirit King had a special ability.
The creatures that inhaled or swallowed the powder lost their reason and ran wild.
The same was true even if it came into contact with the powder.
As an experiment, when black powder was sprayed on the bones of a dead person, it had temporarily changed to the state before the person had died and had gone crazy.
That was the identity of the assassin sent to Michael Birce, who visited Elheim.
“I want to make this Spirit King whole. Or rather, I want to have the full power of the Spirit King.”
The prince was intoxicated with his words and laughed haughtily.
“It is my dream to establish an absolute imperial power that is not so swayed by things such as awakeners.”
“It will go as you please, Your Highness.”, Count Fedes replied.
“How’s Birce these days?”
“It’s still quiet with the gates still closed.”
After the blinding of his successor, Michael Birce, the Duke of Birce had walked towards the gates to lock them and was still in silence.
“Birce’s successor is blind, and that grandfather will never see the light of the world. It’s been a while since I’ve had a toast.”
Normally, he would have stayed here for a long time, but he had a lot of work to do today.
The two men went back up to the office.
“When did you say Young Master Lianrius was coming of age?”
“In three days.”
“Show them thorough courtesy. He’s a powerful awakener born in a long while in Elheim after a few generations.”
Indulging in the story, they couldn’t even notice the presence of a person quietly moving away.
“Haha.”
Danterion, who finally arrived in his room, removed the water that had covered his whole body.
‘It seems that the secret hidden by the Crown Prince is the spirit king.’
After a long endeavour, Danterion succeeded in hiding in the underground temple.
He might have been caught if the Crown Prince had come even a little closer.
His curiosity was big enough enough to take such a risk.
‘But it wasn’t as big as I thought.’
Danterion has already seen the Spirit King of Water, intact and strong.
The spirit king, split in half, was a strong entity that he could not dare to touch.
‘I have to go back to Elheim.’
Several months had passed, but the owner of the Spirit Stone still hadn’t appeared yet.