CH 31

Mistakenly diagnosed as madness, Cardien’s mana outbursts often came without warning.

At the onset of the surge, Cardien would be knocked unconscious, the rush of power eating away at his mind.

When the outburst ended and he regained consciousness, terrible pain always overtook him.

The longer it went on, the more violent he became, causing destruction around him.

‘No way. Could it be…..?’

It might be a stretch, but the silence of the room made Livia feel suddenly uneasy.

She gulped as she looked at the firmly closed door.

‘Shall I just check on him?’

She could just consider herself to be lucky if she was wrong, and if she wasn’t. then……. 

Making up her mind, Livia turned on her heel and called out through the door.

“I’m coming in.”

After announcing her intentions to the unresponsive room, she carefully opened the door.

At that moment.

Thud! 

A black hand jumped out of the open slit in the door and dragged her inside in an instant.

“……!”

Slam! 

Livia’s back slammed against the wall as the half-open door slammed shut again.

She stared at the figure that had pulled her in with shaky eyes.

Dark, sunken purple eyes stared back at her. 

‘Cardien……’

He stared at Livia in silence, trapping her between him and the wall.

…Was he even conscious? 

Livia soon confirmed that he was unconscious. The eyes looking at her were out of focus.

‘As expected, the mana outburst has started …….’

So, was it that out of control mana that was currently moving him? 

Or maybe he was fighting against the power slowly consuming him.

The aura of magic emanating from him, pushing him forward, was strange. It seemed to realize that she was an intruder, and the force was intent on crushing her.

“Ugh.”

Livia couldn’t even escape the room; he was still trapping her forcefully against the wall. 

A normal person would have been crushed and knocked unconscious by his magic power, but…….

‘I’m different.’

Livia had the power to help this man. 

Livia didn’t know how much her power to control dreams could help him, but she did know that his mind, swallowed up by his magic, was probably swimming in a terrible nightmare right now. 

If she could somehow awaken his mind, she might be able to end this mana outburst.

In other words.

‘He needs to calm down!’

Reaching out with difficulty, she shoved her hand to his forehead in that state.

Thump. 

Maybe it was the mood. Just when she thought the focus had returned to his eyes–

–Poof. 

A light spread out from under her hand where it met Cardien’s forehead.

‘Uh, what?’

…… did she do a little too much?

The light quickly engulfed them both and filled the room.

Livia immediately had a hunch.

……something was off.

~ Translations by Lurelia | Editing by Valpal | Read only at moonlightnovels.com ~

She tried to control the light with a desperate effort, but was unable to do so as she normally would.

Fortunately, the light soon faded.

Livia cautiously opened her eyes and then froze in place.

‘Where am I?’

It was a completely unfamiliar place.

It was pitch-black, without a single ray of light.

‘Everything’s black?’

She stood up, barely holding on to a wall – a presumed wall – and calmly looked around.

‘Where the hell am I?’

Livia had used her powers many times before, but never like this. And she’d  never seen a burst of light like that before.

Surely, there was something wrong.

‘Is Cardien okay?’

She was worried, but first she had to figure out what this place was.

It was still really dark, by the way.

Even though Livia couldn’t see, the eerie sound of water dripping down the walls made her feel uneasy. 

Still, if there was water – or some kind of liquid – it didn’t seem to be an empty space.

Of course, that made it even weirder. How could it be so dark and dreary but be an actual place? It was so dark that it felt more like the absence of anything than the presence of something. 

Livia decided that she needed to escape this place to find out what it is.

As she groped blindly along the walls, Livia suddenly heard a strange sound coming from somewhere.

“Hhnngh…….. Uh………”

“………!”

Startled by the pained sound, Livia turned around in the direction it had come from.

She couldn’t tell for sure because it was so dark, but she thought there was something there, buried in the darkness.

‘Ugh, what should I do?’

Should she check it out?

Livia didn’t expect there to be another being in this space, so she fumbled around in panic for a moment, then cautiously parted her lips.

“Hey, hey. Is anyone there?”

“Uhhh……..”

“Who are you? Where are we? Are you hurt?”

“Help me…….”

The communication was not going well. The owner of the voice was mumbling to himself, as if he couldn’t hear her.

‘Help me?’

It was then. 

Clang!

There was the sound of a rusty iron gate opening and a subtle lightening of the surroundings.

Startled, Livia turned to face the door, clinging closer to the wall.

Through the open doorway, a group of men in pure white robes rushed through. They pushed past her and gathered in the center of the room.

‘Wh-what? Am I invisible?’

Livia absentmindedly looked down at her body, and only then did she realize that her body was translucent.

At that moment, a thought flashed through her mind. 

She must have used her powers before she lost consciousness. Her ability is the ability to control dreams. And the owner of those damn dreams is……

‘No way?’

She glanced back in the direction of the group of robed men.

Through the circle, she caught a glimpse of what looked like a stone altar, and on it, presumably, the source of the groans. 

Against her better judgment, Livia stepped up to the altar. Her translucent body slipped past the robed men. 

She really was invisible. Then technically, this place could not be real. 

That thought was confirmed when Livia spotted ‘him’ bound on the altar.

‘Vincent?’ 

Her eyes widened. The child chained to the altar looked so much like Vincent. 

Especially the silver hair that appeared to have been woven from moonlight……

But she quickly shook her head. This child was not Vincent.

He was too gaunt to be Vincent, and…

The master of this world had to be someone else. One who looks like Vincent, has the same silver hair, but is not Vincent.

‘Is it you by any chance, Cardien?’ Livia asked silently in her mind.

It was the obvious answer, but she still found it hard to believe. Honestly, she didn’t want to believe it. The figure before her was too horrifying to be Cardien.

His limbs were bound, his clothes were tattered, there was blood everywhere, and his face and body were nightmarishly skinny.

What the hell was going on?

And then.

“How far along are we with the spell?”

“Almost done. This is the last one.”

“If the spell is successful, we will be able to get our hands on a puppet named Mercedes.”

Livia looked back at the talking group.

~ Translations by Lurelia | Editing by Valpal | Read only at moonlightnovels.com ~

Their robes obscured their faces, but she could recognize…… the symbols on their backs.

‘An ancient temple emblem?’

The symbol of an ancient temple, no longer in use. Livia remembered glancing at it when she was at the academy, flicking through books about ancient times.

But the symbols were literally ancient symbols, used by ancient people, that they could not see in modern-day society.

If she hadn’t stumbled upon that particular book, she wouldn’t have recognized it either.

But after a moment’s fixation on the symbols, Livia came to her senses and realized what they were trying to do to the child.

“If the spell succeeds, return this to Mercedes. But if it fails, we will dispose of it in secret.”

“Yes.”

“Let us begin.”

They stretched out their hands towards the child – towards Cardien.

Paat– 

And a golden light burst forth from beneath their ten palms. The light enveloped Cardien’s whole body, and– 

Bam.

“Aaagh!!!” Cardien screamed. 

His eyes flashed open as he began to struggle and scream. But instead of softening the light, the robed men increased the light’s intensity, and the more they did, the more Cardien struggled.

“Th-that’s enough.”

Even if this wasn’t real, it wasn’t something Livia could just stand around and watch happen. 

Tears streamed from Cardien’s purple eyes. A child who couldn’t have been more than 10 years old was screaming in agony. 

“Stop it!” she shrieked.

Livia tried to push the men away, but to no avail. 

As she stared helplessly at her transparent hands hovering uselessly in the air, she cast a glance at Cardien. 

She couldn’t tell if he was getting numb to the pain or if he had given up.

His screams faded, his tears dried up, and soon she realized he had given up. His violet eyes were dying.

At this rate, he would……. 

“…….No.”

Livia knew it was useless, but when she came to her senses, she was rushing at him. 

She wrapped her body around him, holding him tight.

“Stop it!”

But then she felt something. It felt like the touch of his fingertips.

“Who…….?”

Livia looked up at the faint voice rasping above her head.

Her amber eyes locked with a pair of dull, violet eyes.

Could he see her? 

It was hard to believe, but his pupils had bored right into hers. 

It wasn’t her imagination. 

He was looking at her. His lips parted effortfully.

“Who……are you?”