Path of the Extra

Chapter 355: The Monster or The Martyr

Lumine and Yelena were inside an opulent, royal-style bedroom filled with rich reds and golds. In the center stood a large four-poster canopy bed, carved and gilded, with deep burgundy drapes hanging from the frame and matching bedding and cushions where Yelena sat. At the foot of the bed was an upholstered bench in the same red fabric, with ornate gold legs and trim. To the side stood a small chaise in the same style, where Lumine sat.

The walls were covered in patterned cream-and-gold wallpaper and decorated with framed classical paintings. Matching bedside tables with gold detailing held elegant lamps with white shades. On the right side of the room stood a luxurious dressing table with a large ornate gold-framed mirror, small drawers, and a cushioned stool. A vase of flowers and decorative items rested on top. Seated on that very stool was the Count.

”Do you understand what I am trying to say, my daughter?”

”...Yes, I do, Coun— I–I mean, F–Father...!”

With a rigid posture, Yelena nodded while the Count looked at her seriously. Not long after, she bit her lip and lowered her gaze.

”Still, I think we should reconsider... Not all of them are bad. I’m sure if I were to join, no harm would come to me.”

”Oh, by the sun! My daughter, you are usually shining so brilliantly, yet how could you let these outsiders fool you? Please understand, I don’t want you to join this dinner because it is simply far too dangerous! They might kill you! They might kill me! They might kill your mother! Now that you have awakened, they are probably thinking of how to get rid of us, since they can’t use you anymore with the promise of bringing you back! Instead, they might start threatening our lives, or actually take them!”

Giving Yelena a scolding look, he then turned toward Lumine.

”And you! You are one of them, yet I am foolish enough, even now, to believe that you would put my daughter above the people here who share the same homeland as you! Am I wrong!?”

Lumine shook his head.

”N–No! I promise you, I would never let your daughter come to harm. Not anymore!”

Looking at Lumine seriously, the Count nodded slowly.

”I wish to believe you. I have seen myself how much you cherish her: not sleeping while she slept, always next to her bed, consuming the mana in the air and growing stronger for her sake.”

”Lumine...” Yelena whispered.

”Yet...”

While Yelena looked touched, the Count still wasn’t done.

”Your promises are as good as sugar that melts in water. Can you truly make such empty promises while these people from your homeland are here? You know them best, and yet you refuse to share what it is that you and your people came to this land for—what mission you have. And... can you really promise to keep my daughter safe? Are you the strongest of them all? I do not have a single bone of loyalty left toward the Crown and the House of Aureliath, yet I have not forgotten how fearsome and dangerous they are... and some of these people inside my very home are just as, if not more, fearsome and dangerous. I do not wish for my daughter to get involved with any of you any longer. You must understand, if you truly value her life as you say.”

”W–Wait, F–Father!?” Yelena cried.

Lumine flinched before looking down.

”You... you are not wrong. We can’t say... And there are indeed many here who can best me in battle, and who are even smarter than me. I cannot say why we are here because of them. And yes, some are dangerous. But that... that does not mean all of them are...!”

Lumine looked up, a serious glint in his eyes, his face desperate to convince the Count.

”There are many here who, in my homeland, we call heroes. They would give their lives for the innocent and the good. They already have, so many times. So please don’t judge all of them as simply evil. It isn’t that simple.”

Yelena could only watch quietly, gripping the sheets of the bed as she saw Lumine’s determined gaze. The Count looked at him heavily before sighing.

”Be that as it may... it doesn’t change the fact that the more dangerous ones are the ones really in control of this ’Inverse Creed’ that you are part of. These four great clans... their children... From what I have already heard, and seen myself, they do not come across as what you describe as ’heroes.’ You are right, there might be some here from your homeland who are truly good and kind. But can you truly tell me that, if they really wanted to help my daughter out of her coma, they couldn’t have done anything? I don’t believe that. As pathetic as I might sound saying this as her father, these people could have cured my daughter months ago. Yet instead, they used her, gave me hope, used my hope, while they used my home as their hideout.”

Pursing his lips, Lumine couldn’t say anything.

...Because the Count was right.

In [White Haven], how many times had he asked—no, begged—for their help? Even those who were already inside the Count’s estate back then...

Lumine knew that while Yelena was in good health and simply in a coma, her staying that way was convenient.

That was all.

She would remain alive, in good condition, and while they tried to complete the scenario, they could use the Count’s estate as their base. It was probably how they were all thinking. And Lumine knew it.

Suddenly, the Count’s tone softened.

”...Though I recognize that while these people are dangerous and perhaps not good, they might also not be necessarily evil. Which is why I must determine what they really are tomorrow at dinner. And... then I will need to see what appropriate action I must take.”

Lumine felt a bit of relief at his words, but the last part made his chest heavy. He could tell...

The Count might try something desperate. Foolish.

Having his home invaded, his family’s life in potential danger because of people not of his land...

...The Count was scared.

Lumine was still intent on trying to ease the Count’s worries.

”Still... I can assure you, some are actually good. I mean from the great clans. Take, for example, Princess Celestina. You know her—she would not harm an innocent. She’s also really kind, someone who does not look down on others, no matter their status...”

Lumine knew that. He had grown a bit closer with Celestina, from classmate and acquaintance to perhaps a friend. Whether they both saw it that way, Lumine wasn’t sure. He would like to believe so.

Then Lumine’s eyes brightened as another person came to mind. He looked at the Count with that same earnest light in his eyes.

”And there is Azriel! Prince Azriel Crimson! He is also part of the great clans you believe to be not good—yet how can that be, if he was the one who cured your daughter?”

At Lumine’s words, however, instead of brightening, the Count’s face only darkened as he gravely nodded.

”I am aware, and I am eternally grateful to the prince. Yet then I have to ask myself: why would he do such a thing...?”

Lumine blinked, but Yelena answered before he could, her voice sure, her belief in her own words unshaken.

”Because he is kind! Just like Princess Celestina, he is actually not a bad person at all! I understand that you might think the opposite, F... Father—him being difficult to read—but it is true!”

Instantly, Lumine and Yelena shivered as the Count’s gaze grew cold and narrowed in on Yelena.

”My daughter... did you visit the prince in secret?”

Yelena flinched and hurriedly objected.

”N-No! Of course not! I admit I tried to, but after that day when we were rejected at his door and you forbade us, we didn’t. I swear!”

”It’s true. We really didn’t...” Lumine added quietly.

Believing them, the Count’s expression softened, and both Lumine and Yelena sighed inwardly.

Though Yelena was not the Count’s actual daughter, she was in this scenario. They had to play their roles. Besides, Lumine had asked Yelena, and apparently, though she had no real memories of being the Count’s daughter, she sometimes felt a faint affection toward him—like a child would feel toward a parent—as if he truly were her father. Lumine had concluded it to be just another part of the scenario, meant to immerse the participants more deeply into their roles.

”I believe you,” the Count said at last.

He nodded, but his face grew darker and serious again.

”But it does not change the fact that the prince is still someone I find to be untrustworthy and dangerous.”

”...Why..?”

Lumine couldn’t help but ask, and the Count turned toward him.

”To give my daughter as little stress and as much rest as possible, I suppressed most of the rumors from reaching her. So it is understandable that the two of you might not know yet... Tell me, before curing her, the prince had never known of my daughter, am I correct?”

”Um, yes, that is correct,” Lumine said. It was, of course, a lie, but they couldn’t tell him the truth. Of course Azriel and Yelena knew each other. Yelena was not even the Count’s real daughter—but the Count could never know that.

”So tell me then: why would a stranger, who has never laid eyes on my precious daughter, mutilate his own body to obtain the health potions needed to cure her?”

””—!!””

Instantly, both Lumine’s and Yelena’s eyes widened. Their faces paled as they stared at the Count, as if he were telling some impossible lie.

”T-That... that is not true... is it...?”

Lumine couldn’t help but ask, his voice shaking. Yelena, even paler than him, held both hands over her mouth.

But the Count gave a slow nod, unfortunately enough.

”I investigated myself and found that it is indeed not just a baseless rumor.”

’It can’t be true...’

Lumine still couldn’t believe it.

’For Yelena... Azriel mutilated himself?’

’Wait...’

Lumine’s eyes went even wider; his face turned even whiter, as if all the blood had drained away. Yelena looked like she might collapse, the two of them thinking the same thing at the same time.

Those scars of his...

Were because he’d done that to himself... for Yelena?

”Tell me, do you truly believe him to be someone so kind? Someone with no ulterior motives? Why else would he go to such lengths for my daughter, if not because the pain he must have endured from skinning himself was going to be worth it? And it isn’t just that. Other rumors, which I do not have the heart to investigate, are entirely negative. From being a womanizer, to killing children, to being a maniac, to torturing his fellow comrades.”

’Why...’

Lumine looked down at his own hands.

Why would he do such a thing?

’...Can someone really be so kind?’

Thinking about the Count’s words, Lumine had to ask himself.

’...Why did Azriel do it?’

No wonder he didn’t want to meet anyone since arriving at the estate.

But still, why?

’Does... does he... l-love Yelena?’

Lumine couldn’t help but think that, his eyes starting to tremble.

’It can’t be, right? When did he and Yelena ever really spend time tog—’

Lumine’s thoughts stopped, as did his heart for a moment.

’Back when we all went to the void realm together and entered that void tunnel...’

Yelena and Azriel were together.

’Don’t tell me...! Is that when it happened...!?’

Ridiculous thoughts kept popping up, making Lumine panic, but then another surfaced.

———”Why? Because I want to see with my own eyes what makes you so special. You might be important, interesting even... but I want to know why he thinks you are.”

Words that Vergil had spoken to him.

Lumine didn’t want to doubt Azriel. He wanted to believe he was truly kind, but ever since Vergil had said those words, a seed of doubt had taken root in his mind.

And the Count’s words just now made it grow even more.

’Can someone really be so kind...?’

No...

’Maybe they can, but...’

Was Azriel someone like that? Lumine couldn’t know.

If he went by the rumors alone—which, in both this world and Lumine’s own, seemed to be overwhelmingly negative—then Lumine would have to say no. But from what he himself had seen of Azriel...

He really didn’t know anymore.

Because Lumine realized that it wasn’t just Yelena who had received Azriel’s kindness. It was Lumine as well.

A certain moment came to mind—one that, thinking back on it now, should have outright ended in his death, or at least landed him in prison, or banished him from Asia...

When he had gotten the quest to save King Joaquin right after the void dungeon incident.

Practically claiming to be someone who could see the future yet was not a seer, his actions and words should have caused him and Yelena a truckload of trouble. Yet... it was Azriel, who had dealt with Neo Genesis on that very day, who decided to believe in Lumine and trust him. He had basically saved him.

And even after that, if not for the King of the Crimson Clan giving them money as a gift, it could easily have been seen that the two of them were practically useless and might in the future have been bullied by someone from EASC.

Yet they hadn’t.

Honestly, even now, Lumine never understood that quest. Yes, there had been a lot of dangerous shit involved, but enough to need him personally to rescue the King of the Crimson Clan? No... Yet somehow Lumine’s presence had changed something, resulting in the king not needing rescue and the quest still being completed.

Or was it Azriel’s presence?

All of it was weird.

Azriel helping him and Yelena so much was weird.

Why was Vergil interested in Azriel? Was Azriel truly interested in Lumine? So many questions...

’I have to ask him...’

He needed to confront Azriel about it.

...He needed to know. Was Azriel really good, or someone actually horribly evil—someone Lumine was failing to see for who he truly was?

So Lumine clenched his fist. Yet before he could say anything, Yelena beat him to it, looking seriously at the Count with an expression that left no room for argument.

”We are going to that dinner.”

”What!? My daughter! Even after everything I s—”

”No.”

Yelena cut him off and repeated herself, her face set with determination.

”No matter what you might say, no matter how bad the rumors are about these people, you can try to convince me as much as you want, Father, but no matter what, I will be going to that dinner tomorrow.”