MERCY
As we enter the castle, it’s eerily silent.
Normally, there would be guards stationed throughout, but there’s no one to be found, and a stillness even more complete than the quiet of the night outside settles over the castle.
It’s as if there’s no one inside at all.
In fact, aside from a single point, my Presence Perception isn’t picking up on anything.
Except for a single point.
Amid the strange emptiness of the castle, that lone point clearly indicates a presence.
It’s almost certainly a trap.
But after coming this far, we can’t turn back now.
That Ronandt person decided to spare us, but I’m not so foolishly optimistic to think that whatever’s waiting for us in here is going to do the same.
It could be Sophia and the ninjas, or maybe something even worse.
I steady my resolve and head toward the point.
It’s in the throne room, which is essentially the heart of the castle.
No conversation passes between us, probably due to the tension.
All around us, we’re surrounded by silence so complete, it hurts the ears, and darkness threatens to swallow us whole.
Then we arrive at the throne room.
A majestic room with an intimidating atmosphere, usually reserved for audiences with the king.
“Brother Cylis…”
My older brother Cylis sits on the throne.
And prostrated before him are Leston, Klevea, and Katia’s parents.
Four soldiers stand over them, holding swords to their throats.
The soldiers’ eyes are empty, devoid of any light or will.
“I am…the king,” Cylis declares in a flat voice.
His eyes, like the soldiers’, are so clouded that he can’t possibly be himself.
Are they brainwashed?
Most likely.
Clearly, though, it’s different from the kind that was used on Katia, Anna, and the others.
“This throne…is mine. I…am the king. King…”
Cylis’s stuttering voice doesn’t contain a single trace of his usual intensity.
“None…who threaten my place…shall live.”
The soldiers’ swords swing down toward the captives.
We won’t reach them in time!
Katia screams.
Hyrince grits his teeth in anguish.
I ignore both of them, running forward and shoving the soldiers away.
Their swords must have been sharp, or else the soldiers were powerful. The heads of the four captives fall to the floor without the slightest resistance.
No human being can survive after having their head cut off.
But if I use my skill, I can save them!
I lift up Leston’s fallen head and hold it to his neck.
Then I use the skill I secretly acquired.
The skill called Mercy.
The change is immediate.
Leston’s neck reconnects itself, and he begins to breathe again, coming back to life.
<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Taboo LV 5] has become [Taboo LV 6].>
Mercy.
A forbidden skill that resurrects the dead.
This is the skill Katia questioned me about, saying it was no ordinary healing magic. A skill that brings about miracles.
That time, when Katia fired magic at herself to get rid of the brainwashing, she really was mortally wounded.
Her HP dropped to 0, and she died.
However, I used this skill right away and brought Katia back from the dead.
Once I revive Leston, I do the same for Klevea and Katia’s parents.
In the process, my MP all but runs out, and my Taboo skill level goes up to 9.
Mercy is probably the only skill in existence that can revive the dead, but it has serious conditions and disadvantages, too.
Firstly, it consumes a large amount of MP.
The only reason I could revive four people was because my skills greatly increased when I became the hero.
Also, if the body is too damaged, it can’t be revived.
This time, I was able to reattach the severed heads to their bodies, but if I tried it with only one or the other, it probably wouldn’t have worked.
Finally, it’s only effective for a short period after the person’s death.
I haven’t experimented with it, of course, so I don’t know exactly how long, but my sense is that it’s probably only a few minutes.
Any longer than that, and the skill won’t even activate.
Therefore, I won’t be able to revive my father, since he’s been dead for several days.
It might have been different if I revived him right after he was killed, but I doubt that Hugo and Sophia would have allowed that.
If I could have defeated both of them in the few short minutes while revival was still possible, then I could have saved my father.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the power to do that.
Finally, the biggest disadvantage of all is that the skill level of Taboo rises.
Taboo is a dangerous skill. The Church considers even acquiring it to be just cause for execution.
When I acquired the Mercy skill, I was given this skill, too.
I had to quickly level up my Concealment skill to cover it up.
Yuri always expressed an almost disturbing level of hatred toward the skill.
At the moment, Taboo doesn’t affect me negatively in any way.
It’s just a matter of how society views it.
However, from what Yuri’s hinted at, it seems like something terrible happens if the Taboo skill reaches level 10.
Apparently, even Yuri doesn’t know what that is.
She said even having that knowledge would be a great sin in itself.
Since my Taboo skill is level 9 now, that information is very relevant to me.
But even knowing that reviving one more person could bring it to level 10, I don’t think I would hesitate to use Mercy if someone precious to me was dying right before my eyes again.
I check that Leston, Klevea, and Katia’s parents are all breathing normally, then look toward my brother Cylis on the throne.
There, I see a pitiful figure indeed, mouth hanging half-open and mumbling the word “king” over and over.
The soldiers I knocked over, too, are still lying on the floor despite seemingly being conscious, and they make no move to stand up again.
Hyrince and Katia watched them vigilantly while I was using Mercy, but apparently, that was an unnecessary precaution.
Their minds have been completely destroyed by Hugo’s brainwashing.
In the end, Mercy can revive only the body itself.
It can’t repair a broken mind.
“Shun, let’s go.”
Hyrince beckons me to leave Cylis as he is.
“That man wasn’t brainwashed when he set you up and killed your father. This is what he deserves.”
Even if there’s no sign of them now, there are probably more brainwashed soldiers around, not to mention the queen.
On top of that, Sophia could easily show up.
So we’re better off escaping than trying to recapture the castle.
But first, we have to check on the teleport point.
A teleport point can warp someone to another registered teleport point.
But the one in the castle is broken.
The other destination point is in the empire, so they probably destroyed it to prevent us from invading.
Once we confirm that the teleport point is broken, we quickly leave the castle.
Leaving my brother Cylis behind.
Fei complains about the extra weight, since we have four more people than we started with, but I don’t think she means it.
She flies slowly and carefully, since there are four unconscious people on her back now.
Even though she’s making a show of complaining, I can tell by the gentle way she’s flying that she’s being considerate toward the people she’s carrying.
Overwhelmed with relief at her reunion with her parents, who she thought were lost, Katia clings to her unconscious mother and father and weeps.
As for me, I’m still thinking about Cylis.
There was always very little contact between us.
The queen saw me as an enemy, so I rarely interacted with him.
Whenever I did see him, he was always wearing a sullen expression.
Even when we did speak, it was only businesslike greetings or work-related information.
Even though we were brothers, there was a great deal of distance between us.
Still, based on what Julius told me about him, Cylis wasn’t always like this.
When he was young, he truly wanted to make the kingdom a better place for its people, just like our father.
But at some point, this turned into an obsession with the position of king, and he became distant from his brothers.
This was probably the influence of his mother, who wanted to put her own son on the throne.
But Julius still seemed to believe that Cylis would regain that pure heart of his youth someday.
And yet, this is how things ended up.
Hyrince says nothing.
He probably had more interactions with Cylis in the past than I did, but his face doesn’t reveal his feelings.
“Shun, don’t worry about Cylis. He chose his path himself, and that’s just how it ended for him. There’s no reason for you to feel bad about it.”
Beyond hiding his own feelings on the matter, Hyrince comforts me instead.
With Cylis in that state and my father killed, I don’t know what will happen to this kingdom.
But still, we were able to save Leston, Klevea, and Katia’s family.
I’m sure we can rebuild this kingdom someday.
I hang on to that hope as we leave the capital.
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