[V10C13] The Children Who Must Carry the Burden
Translated by Jodas 10: A Job for a Con ManSamuel Löwenich, Julius’ father who once tried to grasp the Wedge Tower and all of its magic in the palm of his hand, arrived at a certain truth in the course of his investigations around said Tower.
— The Wedge Tower was an Ancient Magical Artifact, and it maintained a wall that wards against Monsters through the sacrifice of a young girl.
Samuel felt a desire to set this girl free.
Yet what was he to do to accomplish that goal? Eliminating all the Monsters would take far too much time. Was there not a faster, more effective solution? Those questions led Samuel to the following answer:
The Wedge Tower must lose its reason to exist.
In essence, all he had to do was find some justification to hand the Crystal Territory and the land surrounding it off to another country.
As the Wedge Tower was formally an institution of the Empire, they had no business conducting Monster exterminations in a foreign country.
If the Crystal Territory and its surroundings were in a foreign country, there would no longer be a point in either the Wedge Tower as an institution or the Ancient Magical Artifact ‘Chariclea, the Wedge Tower.’
“Samuel Löwenich suggested as much to the previous Emperor, and the Emperor tried to follow through on that suggestion. In the end, I suppose they found themselves at odds with the Wedge Tower.”
By the time Samuel was expelled, Headmaster Möbius and Assistant Headmaster Miriam had already established themselves as the Wedge Tower’s top leaders. Then, it was Abel who came in to replace Samuel as Spiremaster of the First Spire: White Smoke.
It would be fair to say that Samuel’s actions earned the ire of Möbius, Miriam, or perhaps both of them.
Why exactly those two were so irate with Samuel to the point of exiling him, they could only speculate.
Yet they could say at least this much:
(Just handing the Crystal Territory off to another country wouldn’t make the Monsters go away. Nor would it do anything for the Monster’s victims.)
If anything, making it so that the Wedge Tower could no longer interfere would probably lead to an increase in victims.
So in the end, even Samuel’s plan would result in sacrifices.
Because Samuel understood that fact; because he had no solution for that problem; he realized just how powerless he was and accepted his exile.
This must have been why Fiene had assessed Samuel as “kind but unkind; not good or evil but somewhere in the middle”
With a raspy voice, Julius asked Sevil.
“… Why did the previous Emperor’s plan to sell off the Crystal Territory end up falling through, then?”
“I suppose he was threatened by someone from the Wedge Tower. All they had to do was show off how they’d cursed Samuel and say ‘If you sell off the Crystal Territory, we’ll curse you to death too.’ and he’d cave.”
Sevil’s words seemed to make something click in Wren’s mind.
“Oh, that’s it! Since the Emperor had cast off the Shamans, he had no way to undo the curse!”
“That is precisely correct. Thanks to a past Emperor casting away the Schwarzenberg family, the Emperors have had no means of resisting curses ever since.”
Now that he was starting to see the full picture, he was only further convinced.
The reason Samuel had become weaker; the reason he’d tried to do an ill-advised act of ‘good’; was because he had taken on a son — Julius.
If not for Julius, Samuel would have remained an unredeemed villain. He wouldn’t have spared the slightest sympathy for that girl named Fiene and might have still been alive and well to this day.
He could not bring himself to turn his attention away from those thoughts.
While Julius stayed silent, someone tugged on the hem of Julius’ clothes.
It was the Shaman Sophie, who had knelt down beside Julius, sobbing.
“I– It really was my Grandpa who killed your dad then, wasn’t it…?”
Sophie’s voice shook with guilt.
Even though Sophie had done nothing wrong.
“I– I know me apologizing won’t change anything. But, still, when I think of what Grandpa did, I…”
Tears dropped from her face, forming a puddle on the floor.
“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry, Julius… I’m sure you don’t like me apologizing to you, huh… But still… You know, I just feel so guilty… Ough, euuuughghhh…”
Julius was at a loss.
He didn’t resent Sophie at all. Yet he couldn’t find the words to respond to her.
“Sophie, Julius.”
Sevil softly called both of their names.
While Sevil always walked around with her intimidating aura on full display, now she restrained herself as she spoke.
“It’s utter foolishness for a child to bear the guilt for what their parents did. Yet that same foolishness follows my own family like the plague. I am only who I am due to the foundations that my ancestors have built. Therefore, I have no intention of stating my displeasure with the actions of my father or my grandfather.”
In the Imperial Family, one would bear the consequences of every action their parents, grandparents, and ancestors committed from the moment of their birth.
To shout “My parents have nothing to do with me!” would be seen as nothing but an abrogation of one’s duties as a member of the Imperial Family.
“Such is the burden that I am forced to bear. With that in mind, I have a right to know the details of those actions. On top of that, I will fight to secure my future and a place for me to belong.”
With that, Sevil beckoned everyone to draw closer.
When everyone was assembled, Sevil lowered her voice.
“My intuition tells me there’s still another layer to this we haven’t uncovered.”
“I was thinking the same thing. I don’t know how to put it; it just feels like the pieces aren’t fitting together.”
Wren agreed to Sevil’s statement.\
“You know, I just watched Headmaster Möbius and Mr. Otto having a fight. Headmaster Möbius thought of Mr. Otto as his best friend, so he seemed wracked with guilt over making his friend’s daughter into a sacrifice.”
“…What did you just say?”
Julius mumbled, furrowing his brow.
Julius didn’t know much about Headmaster Möbius. Thus, he had simply assumed the man thought of her as a disposable and necessary sacrifice to ‘Chariclea, the Wedge Tower’ in the name of world peace.
But if Headmaster Möbius was uncomfortable with that girl being a sacrifice… Could he not have found a way to cooperate with Samuel, who thought the same?
Why, then, did Headmaster Möbius and Samuel have such a falling out? Could there have been something else?
That said, he didn’t know what that could have been.
As Julius fell deep in thought, Tia chirped up with a huff and patted Julius on the arm.
“You know, when thinking a whole lot gets you nowhere, it’s time for in-for-may-shun gath-er-ing!”
“Precisely. Well said, Tia.”
“I’ve been complimented! Pefufun!”
“So, we all know what to do next, yes?”
Sevil turned towards Julius with a smile.
Julius’ grip tightened around the edge of the blanket.
“Answer me this one question first, Sevil… No, Princess Adelheid.”
Unusually referring to her as ‘Princess Adelheid,’ Julius asked Sevil his question.
“How can you be so strong?”
Now, when all seemed lost, how could she remain so lively and headstrong?
Now of all times, when everything could come crashing down at any point, Sevil showed no signs of wearing down. If anything, she felt more imposing than usual.
“I am merely always chasing after my heart’s desire.”
“So basically, you’re just selfish and greedy, huh?”
Wren whispered his little quip, to which Sevil laughed uproariously.
“If I am selfish and greedy, then so be it! That greed shall be my strength!”
Sevil leaned over and poked Julius in the chest.
“Let the desire within you flourish, Julius. Don’t tell me you’ve decided to be a saint, free from worldly desire, have you?”
Back in the day, Julius had been the kid who asked for as many copper coins as he could hold rather than receive gold coins.
The art of giving up and compromise was essential to life as a drifter.
Therefore, so long as he had enough gruel to survive to tomorrow and a place where he could sleep away from the wind and rain, that was plenty for him. He had always thought the secret to a long life was to keep his greed in check and be satisfied with mediocrity.
(…But despite all that, you gave me all those things, Samuel.)
At Samuel’s manor, he’d eaten such delicious food, and for the first time thought he wanted to eat more.
He read books, and for the first time thought he wanted to read more.
He started studying magecraft, and for the first time thought he wanted to learn more.
(I wanted to be with Samuel for longer — for forever. I wanted to be a great mage, as great as Samuel’s son ought to be.)
Julius pieced together his broken heart and gathered the shreds of desire within himself.
He wanted to learn more magecraft. He wanted to grasp everything the Wedge Tower held within the palm of his hand. And with Finn, he’d…
“Sevil, you told me earlier that you intended to take over the Wedge Tower.”
“Yes, I did.”
“I’m sorry, but I won’t let you have it all. The one who is going to take over the Wedge Tower is none other than the son of Samuel Löwenich, Julius Löwenich!”
He would take everything he wanted. Then, once he had it, he would pass on all that wealth and knowledge, far too much to be held in anyone’s hands, to someone else. Just as Samuel had done.
Rose spoke up in a chipper tone.
“If these two become Headmaster and Assistant Headmaster, I feel like we’ve got nothing to fear!”
“But what do we do right now? Aren’t we being watched?”
Sophie spoke, making Julius realize something he should have noticed earlier.
How had Sevil and the others just walked right in to this room?
There should have been a lookout out front. Roswitha voiced the same concerns.
“By the way, I’m impressed you guys made it in here. We’re all supposed to be traitors right now… You’d think they wouldn’t let us meet with the Princess, right? How’d you pull it off, Ella?”
“Umm, Roswi… well… you see…”
Ella, who had led Sevil and the others here, looked around nervously.
Beside her, Rukiye muttered flatly.
“You don’t want to know.”
“What’s the matter? It was quite simple.”
Sevil crossed her legs and spoke with pride.
“I just walked up to the lookout and said ‘I’ve heard my fellow Apprentices rebelled. If that’s the case, then should we, who are also Apprentices, not be held in custody as we are guilty by association? Come on, arrest me!’”
“Piyo! The lookout guy bowed, went ‘Oh, sure, go right in’ and let us in!”
“Indeed!”
The proud Sevil. The piyo-piyo-ing Tia, the exasperated Wren and Rukiye, and the nervously fidgeting Ella.
Roswitha looked at that group and, speaking for all those who were in the room to start with, screamed at them.
“So you’re saying now we’re all under arrest!? What are we supposed to do now!?”