Chapter 227
“Why are you so surprised? I am the one who named you, after all.”
“Pardon? My mother’s grandfather gave me my name…”
“Yes. I am Belita’s grandfather.”
I stared at the Chancellor in disbelief. Lionel, too, wore the same stunned expression beside me.
Good heavens. Even the infinite regressor did not know this?
“My, such disbelieving faces.”
In truth, it was closer to being overwhelmed by the sudden appearance of a relative we had never imagined, but the feeling of not knowing what to say was the same.
The Chancellor returned to his paperwork-buried desk, then took something out of a drawer.
“Here, look.”
It was a picture of a smiling, mischievous-looking girl, the Chancellor, and a woman standing together.
“This is a copy of the last portrait my wife left behind before she passed. This child is Belita.”
Despite seeing this, I couldn’t tell. I had never seen my mother’s face.
In our house, speaking of my mother was almost a taboo. She died not long after I was born, and no portrait of her remained.
Of course I had been curious, but there was no one I could ask, so I buried it deep in my heart and simply lived on. Yet now, so suddenly, I was confronted with my mother’s childhood image.
Maybe with this man, I could hear what kind of person she was, how she lived, and how she came to meet my father and marry him.
But with the Chancellor’s next words, I had no choice but to let go of that hope.
“I opposed Belita’s marriage. I knew Solen’s secret, the one entangled with the Imperial Family. But that child was relentless, and to protect this city completely, she had no choice but to sever ties.”
I understood the Chancellor’s choice perfectly well.
If the Imperial Family tried to use Solen to exert influence over the academy, everything they had protected until now would turn to dust.
“So that is all there is between you and me. If I were to add anything, I suppose you would be the troublesome patron’s fiancée.”
The way he took the portrait from my hands was firm.
He confirmed the connection because I asked, but made it clear that this was as far as it went.
“I understand. You have made yourself very clear.”
It meant we would continue living our separate lives as we had when we knew nothing of each other. Each of us protecting what we had to protect, without any ties to one another.
In that case, I did not understand why he brought up the fact that he had named me.
“What the Duke of Luanax wished to request from me was the magic portal, I assume? The destination is Hered?”
“That is correct.”
“Yes, I had a guess that it would be so. I have already activated the magic circle, so you may arrive at midnight.”
“Thank you. It saves us time.”
At Lionel’s expression of gratitude, the Chancellor shrugged.
“No need to thank me. I simply cannot allow such large bombs to remain in this city for long.”
Well, the people who came into Cordeluc with Lionel were anything but ordinary. Any city’s lord would be tense with a lineup like this.
“Please use the remaining time to make good memories.”
Immediately after his voice rang out, that lurch came again, and we returned to the first space where the parrot was perched.
As Lionel and I left the tower, I quietly asked him:
“Regardless of the ending you and I faced, was this city… was the academy always intact?”
“Yes, it was.”
“That is a relief.”
It was a place he had protected even at the cost of cutting ties with his own family. If his heart had wavered and he had tried to save even a great-grandchild, the Chancellor would have achieved nothing.
Only regret would have remained.
Except…
‘The downfall of Solen is not the end. That is the real problem.’
If things went wrong, and my father, Vaikal, and I died, and Lionel and all his allies lost their lives as well…
If there was no power left to turn back time, and everything simply flowed on…
The influence of the evil gods seeping into this world would only grow stronger. When the fissure that had already formed spread over the entire world, nothing would remain.
Not the Imperial Family, nor the Academy.
Even the living beings across the continent who had nothing to do with any of it would be erased.
Then.
If only one chance remained.
