Chapter 43

Chapter 43

Even though Celine took a step back, Leonhard gazed at the skeleton with interest again.

“It’s a warlock.”

“…What?”

“The bones are twisted one by one.”

He lightly kicked the backbone with his foot. Human bones, which should have been hard, wiggled like soft jelly.

“But, looking at the form still remaining, it seems that they died shortly after becoming a warlock.”

“It won’t come back to life, will it?”

“No way.”

Leonhard observed the bones one by one with skillful eyes.

“I think it starved.”

“Starved…?”

“There’s no sign of any injuries. Considering the seal, there is a high probability that starvation is the correct answer.”

Celine bit her lip

“Then, a certain wizard had a grudge against Count Sharp and sealed this place…”

“It’s a false rumor. I understand why. If you find out that your comrade is imprisoned, of course, the warlocks will come to their rescue.”

Goosebumps sprouted all over her body at his words. Leonhard continued speaking slowly, “Fortunately, it was an immature warlock… It looks like he died of starvation.”

Then, he picked up something between the backbone, and her eyes widened.

…It was a black magic stone.

At that moment, the magic stone embedded in the tiara vibrated loudly.

‘No…!’

Celine knew instinctively. She must control the magic contained in this magic stone. Failure to do so would cause the unbridled beast to go mad.

“The tiara, give it to me.”

“….?”

“I must destroy it.”

Without thinking, she hugged the tiara tightly into her arms.

“I can do it.”

Celine closed her eyes and focused her mind.

‘…I can do it.’

If Lute Karl’s words were not completely empty, she was quite a gifted wizard. Even if she couldn’t use magic right now, the feeling of using magic didn’t go anywhere.

After a few minutes, Leonhard’s urgent cry awakened Celine’s deeply focused mind.

“Celine!”

“Leonhard?”

She blinked her eyes at his call. She couldn’t feel any vibrations from the tiara she was holding in her arms. Meanwhile, a pale, tired Leonhard was staring intently at her.

“Even though the magic stone has stopped running, you don’t move…”

“It’s okay. I’m not dead.”

Celine peered into the tiara.

‘Huh?’

Suddenly, the magic stone embedded in the middle of the tiara lost all its color and turned black.

—Click.

The magic stone made a small metallic sound and fell. With curious eyes, Leonhard picked up the magic stone that fell from the tiara and compared it with the magic stone he had picked up from among the bones.

“What?”

The two black magic stones began to heat up as if resonating with each other.

His face contorted in pain.

“Let go of both of them!”

This time, he had a feeling that she was wrong. Leonhard clenched his teeth and endured the pain of being burned. The two magic stones swayed madly in his hand, and they began to move towards each other at high speed like magnets within the influence.

Without him having a chance to stop it, the two magic stones instantly merged into one black magic stone.

‘It’s not a magic stone.’

Leonhard doubted his own eyes.

The combined magic stones seemed to be black at first, though they quickly became transparent, emitting subtle light.

“It’s a crystal ball.”

Magic stones contained magic, or they did not contain magic—just that. He had never heard of it changing into something else.

“Celine, do you have any guesses?”

“…Please, break it.”

“What?”

“It’s okay to use Rashir, so please break it.”

Hearing her words, Leonhard looked confused and stared at Celine blankly.

“I saw it in my dream. We have to break this.”

Her tone was firm and full of conviction. Eventually, he put his hand to the scabbard but hesitated for a moment.

‘…Well, it must be destroyed.’

The principle was to destroy the magic stone that the warlock used, anyway. He pulled out Rashir and smashed the crystal ball on the floor at high speed. Rashir then hit the crystal ball accurately with a bang.

In the next moment, Leonhard couldn’t believe the sight before his eyes and blinked.

Not a single crack was seen on the crystal ball. While he was frozen on the spot, Celine walked over and picked up the crystal ball.

“I thought it might be like this.”

Her voice sounded somewhat sad.

“Why…?”

“It seems to be broken only by a monster’s blow. It was like that last time.”

“….”

Leonhard stared at the crystal ball.

It was annoying that he failed to do something even the claws of monsters could do, but it was not something he couldn’t understand as it was a magical item. The next moment, Celine put the crystal ball in her arms.

“Come on. I think we’ve done everything here.”

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She wanted to get away from the warlock’s bone as quickly as possible.

The way back was easier.

There was nothing special about the tunnel, so they just had to walk down the familiar path. However, as soon as the entrance to the tunnel was visible in the distance, Leonhard’s body stiffened.

“What’s wrong?”

“…Stop.”

Celine immediately stopped her steps and glanced around her. Even though she didn’t feel anything, seeing his stiff and nervous reaction like that, it was obviously a dangerous situation. And, after just a few seconds, Leonhard jumped up and split the air with Rashir.

—Boom!

A huge boulder shattered right above her head.

“Shall, shall we run?”

“Stay still.”

Celine thought it would be better for her to get out of this mine as quickly as possible, but she didn’t move.

It didn’t take long for her to know that Leonhard was right.

Although it dried and twisted in an instant, the tunnel was filled with thorn bushes that were sharp. Her hair trembled at the thought that if she had moved prematurely, her whole body might have been pierced by thorns.

Celine swallowed her saliva. She couldn’t quite figure out how to get through here.

“The warlock is dead, so why…”

“They must have thought that someone would come in after they died.”

Leonhard answered by cutting down the thorn bushes that were approaching them indifferently.

“The warlock devoted its last focus on future murder.”

“….”

“Don’t worry too much. These are all the magic of the dead, so it will run out soon.”

Nevertheless, even after quite a long time, the thorn bushes did not look like they would subside. They had only taken a few steps towards the entrance. Even though Celine took out Ringzor and swung it around to help him in the slightest, she didn’t make a dent in the thorn bush.

“Nothing to be disappointed about. Ringzor is a crystal of pure magic. It’s the opposite of black magic, so it’s natural that it can’t deal damage…”

Suddenly, Leonhard shut his mouth and grimaced.

“Uh, are you hurt?”

“…I was stupid.”

“What?”

Instead of answering, Leonhard shoved Rashir to the floor. At the same time as there was a dull sound, the whole tunnel began to shake.

After a few minutes.

The thorn bushes, which had grown unaware of the fear of the world until a little while ago, began to wither.

“…How did you do it?”

“These are not magic. It is the thought of the dead.”

His lips twisted as he continued, “I should have noticed sooner… I never felt the magic. Those are just the echoes the person left behind as he died.”

Finally, the thorn bushes disappeared without leaving a trace.

They led their weary bodies to the entrance of the tunnel. By now, it was getting dark outside. Celine realized that they had been wrestling with the thorns for at least half a day. Fortunately, darkness wasn’t the only thing waiting for them.

“There’s a lot of stars…”

In the moonless night sky, the stars shone beautifully and dazzled as if they were pouring down to the ground at any moment.

“Do you know what the name of that constellation is?”

She gazed up at Leonhard with a puzzled look. Until now, he seemed to have no interest or knowledge about stars.

“It’s Tiara.”

Celine caught her breath in astonishment, though Leonhard continued his words as if he didn’t notice.

“It is a constellation you must know to find the North Star. I half forgot about it, but I suddenly remembered it.”

For some reason, she was led by an urge to pull the tiara out of her arms. At that moment, the sound of music that she had been thinking about dozens of times rang in her ears — The theme song of [ Celine’s Nightmare ] that she heard every time she cleared the stage…

“Celine, what’s the matter?”

Leonhard’s words were cut off.

Celine stared intently at the tiara in her hand with a look of disbelief. No matter how bright the starlight was, it couldn’t be compared to sunlight and moonlight. Still, the tiara in front of her was shining as if it was not of this world.

Like… like the Tiara in the night sky.

Thinking that, she lifted the tiara towards the sky. All the jewels sparkled under the starlight, and the starlight slowly filled the empty spot.

For an instant, he was caught up in the illusion that not only the tiara but also Celine seemed to be shining like stars. Leonhard gazed at her as if possessed. He suddenly felt the urge to hug her and shut his eyes tightly.

“…Leonhard?”

When he came to his senses, Celine, as usual, was looking at him with a tired face.

“The tiara?”

“I think you can give it back.”

The tiara in Celine’s hand was still beautiful, but the place where the magic stone had escaped was empty.

“What was that just now?”

“I don’t know.”

Celine answered honestly.

Neither the thorn bushes a while ago nor the starlight that filled the tiara were things that she had seen in the game. Only the music ringing in her ears let her know that she had cleared the second stage of the true ending.

As she was about to get on her horse, Leonhard frowned.

“That box wasn’t there during the day, wasn’t it?”

“….!”

Celine’s eyes widened, and her mouth opened. There, a small wooden box containing rewards caught her eye.

With a trembling hand, she opened the box and found three healing potions and a pair of shoes. She hurriedly put on the shoes, not even feeling Leonhard’s staring gaze. It fit her feet snugly as if it had been measured for her.

‘I can’t believe ‘Hermes’ shoes are already out…!’

Hermes’ shoes are items that can only be obtained at the end of the game and increase the player’s movement speed.

Leonhard approached and picked up the healing potion.

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“…Did you get it this way?”

At that, she nodded her head, feeling a little guilty.

“Yes. In the dream… It let me know where I can find it.”

She glanced at Leonhard’s face, concerned that she might have offended him. However, he held out his hand to her in an attitude no different than his usual.

“You look tired. Let’s go back and rest.”