The Daughter of Evil - Volume 4 - Chapter 3.292

chapter 3, section 2-a heartbeat in the rain; scene 11
Praefacio of Blue, page 223-229

✥ Kyle Marlon ~The Country of Marlon “Marlon Castle/Left Chapel”~

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Two weeks passed after that.

Up until yesterday it had continued to rain, but today the weather was refreshingly pleasant.

After the grand funeral for the Empress Dowager Prim was conducted for the nation, the country of Marlon once more issued a "Witch Hunt Order”. It was to search for the criminal who had killed Prim.

They wouldn’t find her. That criminal was now lying in the grave before me.

Ney had been warmly laid to rest here in Left Chapel as a Marlon general.

My mother’s grave was here as well. Naturally it was much bigger and more splendid than Ney’s.

It would be a lie to say that I wasn’t sad. But even more than that I couldn’t help feeling simply empty.

Thinking on it, it felt like most of my life had been covered in nothingness. I had hardly ever felt any purpose for myself in my position as king, only a sense of obligation. How ironic that the sole time I had ever been satisfied with it had been when I was possessed by a demon.

At my mother’s death, I was finding increasingly less meaning in my being king.

“I’m worthless…” I murmured without thinking.

As the demon had whispered to me, I was a worthless man.

“That’s not something for the king of a country to say.”

The one who said that as he was approaching me was Arkatoir. He was now my sole relative, my younger half-brother.

“Don’t show yourself as such a weak king in front of your citizens, at least,” he chided me.

“Arkatoir. I don’t know what’s right anymore. I don’t know what’s ‘just’ or 'evil’–”

“Do you really need to?”

My whining cut off at his words.

“It’s not like everything that you do is with a definite basis for doing so. I think that’s how it is with anyone.”

“…Ha ha, yeah. Yeah, I guess so.”

There were still some things I needed to do as king.

For now I need to uphold my promise to Germaine.

Withdrawal from Lucifenia–as well as I could I would restore to normal the world map that had been thrown into disorder from the Marlon royal family’s selfishness.

I couldn’t clearly tell what was right. And I couldn’t designate a basis for my actions.

Even so, I had no choice but to press on.

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“–Your Majesty! King Kyle!” screamed a small intruder who had suddenly appeared in the Left Chapel upon finding me, clearly out of breath.

It was Yukina’s younger brother, the oldest boy of the Freezis family.

“Shaw? When having an audience with me you must go through a messenger–”

“I’m sorry. It’s an urgent matter, so I shook off the soldiers and came here.”

An urgent matter–

“It can’t be–has Keel’s condition worsened!?”

“No. He still hasn’t regained consciousness but for now he’s stable.”

“I see…”

But the fact that he hadn’t regained consciousness even after two weeks had passed was in itself troubling.

We still hadn’t captured the culprit of that incident. According to the soldiers’ testimony, it was a “woman” wearing a strange mask. They had been conducting the search focusing on the remnants of the Special Maneuvers Task Force, but they still hadn’t found any valid clues yet.

I put a hand on Shaw’s shoulder.

“Shaw. If anything unexpected happens to Keel, then you will succeed him. This must be a heavy burden for a child such as you, but if you go to your mother for help–”

“My mother’s been missing.”

I lifted my hand from his shoulder in surprise.

“…Since when?”

“Since two weeks ago. My mother has a wanderlust, like my big sister, so occasionally she’ll abscond without warning. She always comes back after a few days like nothing had happened, so I thought it would be the same this time, but…”

If she had been gone for two weeks, and if she was missing while leaving Keel gravely injured, then it couldn’t be just that.

Shaw continued to speak.

“–Yesterday, my sister went missing as well.”

“Yukina too!?”

“Yes. And she left a farewell letter addressed to you.”

I took the letter from Shaw.

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To Mister Kyle,

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By the time you read this letter, I will have already left from Marlon.

In truth, there is something that I have not told you.

It is about that day that my father was attacked and Miss Ney was killed. Right before I passed out, in the last vestiges of my consciousness I saw something.

The mask on the person who had calmly come into the room engulfed in that blue flash–it was an Almoga Mobarez mask. Yes, like the ones that Miss Germaine and Miss Gumillia had been wearing when we went to the ex-Lucifenian palace.

Miss Gumillia’s mask was damaged when you attacked during your demonic transformation, Mister Kyle. Germaine’s was still left, but my father bought that from her and I put it in my home’s storehouse.

When I returned home, that mask was gone.

And, at the same time, my mother had vanished.

According to the servants, she had unexpectedly gone out somewhere a little after we headed for Lioness.

…You can see where I’m going with this, right?

Using the information network that the Freezis family possesses, I tracked down where my mother is. And yesterday, I received word that she was spotted at a certain place.

I worried all night over whether or not I should consult about it with everyone. But all your wounds from the battle haven’t yet fully healed. Furthermore I think this is a Freezis family matter. And since my father has yet to awaken, I am the eldest member of the family–so I have to solve it myself.

You will likely be angry with me, Mister Kyle. And my father will surely be even angrier, when he wakes up. But please forgive me. My mother would surely not cause harm to me, her own daughter.

 …If anything happens to me, please take good care of my father, brother, and sister.

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Yukina Freezis

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The sky that had been so blue before had at some point been covered in thick clouds.

And with a clap of thunder–it once more started to rain.