Chapter 297

Side Story 30

There was a ‘Black Prince’ who appeared in Dale and Ray Yuris’ dreams, mocking their very existence.

But it was neither Dale’s nor Ray’s doing.

And there she was. The true culprit behind this situation, Dale’s younger sister, Arachne, standing at the pinnacle of the Blue Magic Tower.

In Rize’s shadow, the ‘Black Prince’ was smiling.

Smiling, Dale gazed into her shadow, and Rize widened the distance. Like Dale, she watched the ‘Black Prince’ standing there.

The empire’s foremost genius, a synonym for cruelty who knew no defeat and showed his enemies not a shred of mercy. The very name that symbolized him, the old Dale’s past.

“…It’s my fault, brother.”

Hiding him within the shadows, Riza bowed her head. Yufi, unable to understand their exchange, tilted her head in confusion for a moment.

Only the power of the Shadow Lord can see the truth within the shadows. And Rize, too, had declared herself another Shadow Lord, following in Dale’s footsteps.

“Miss Yufi, could you step aside for a moment?”

“Sure, Uncle Dale.”

“We’ll finish our conversation later.”

“Yes!”

Dale spoke, and Yupi bowed her head and withdrew. Immediately after, the two were left alone.

Dale and Rize, the siblings carrying on the Saxon name.

And as if enveloping their world, the scenery faded. A winter night of pure white and pitch black settled over them.

“……”

Nevertheless, it was never Dale’s world.

“Tell me. What did you do, Rize?”

Even so, there was nothing for Dale to be flustered about. Even if she had done something wrong, he could forgive her, he could understand.

“……”

It was at that very moment.

The ‘Black Prince’, who should have remained within Rize’s shadow, revealed his form within the realm of thought.

“Rize, it’s not your fault.”

And he was calling his sister’s name as if it were nothing.

In the world of absolute zero, she resolved to be the eternal guardian for everyone’s happiness, prepared for endless waiting and solitude. Through that utterly one-sided self-sacrifice, she sought to make the Black Gold Monarch realize his folly. That was Rize’s resolve.

“…You speak as if you were Rize’s brother.”

“Am I wrong?”

The Black Prince paid no heed to Dale’s sneer.

“I know your existence is nothing but a lie.”

Dale replied coldly.

“Then do you know how much loneliness and cold she had to endure, shivering in the winter of the universe? To bring about your own foolishness, Rize bore suffering that cannot even be compared to what you have shouldered. And I….”

The Black Sage continued coldly.

“I was born from that suffering.”

“What…?”

“In that emptiness and loneliness with no promise of end, and in that coldness that felt like it would freeze her heart, it was my role to protect her so she wouldn’t break.”

“Brother, I…!”

Riza tried to continue speaking, but couldn’t. Not even a laugh escaped her at those words.

“Her wish—one might call it a delusion. Strictly speaking, therefore, my existence is nothing but a lie. And yet, clearly, I am here.”

The Black Sage spoke.

“Because the ‘Black Gold Empress’—who embraces both gold and shadow, truth and falsehood—and my sister needed me.”

“……”

“And when you came to the end of Rize’s solitude, I too lost my purpose.”

The Black Sage answered bitterly.

“Because I could never become real. Even if it were a lie truer than truth itself.”

Yet at the same time, it was because that presence existed that Rize could endure within the universe’s winter. Even if Dale had accepted Rize’s self-sacrifice, Rize would have endured.

For her brother, the ‘Black Prince,’ stood guard beside her.

As the Shadow Queen, she possessed the primordial darkness that could become anything, and furthermore, she was also the Empress of Gold and Lies.

The Black-Gold Empress. That gold and shadow, the form of salvation yearned for in solitude.

“So you moved to take my place and seize the seat of truth?”

“No, Brother!”

Right then, Rize broke the silence and shouted. As if desperately defending yet another brother.

“Rize…”

That’s why Dale bit his lip. Nothing had changed.

“God of Meaninglessness.”

At that very moment, the Black Sage retorted.

“What does it feel like to abandon being human and become a god? Where has the ‘Black Prince’ of that era gone—the one who mocked the immortal Frederick and clung to ‘humanity’ until the very end?”

“……”

He recalled his promise to Shuv. That version of himself, the Black Prince, who had resolved to remain human until the very end.

But he looked back at himself standing before him.

“The scenery you gaze upon, the people—is that the sight of a human looking upon another human?”

“What do you desire?”

“When our sister was crying in the cold and loneliness, what were you doing, you who claim to be a god?”

“……”

“It was all for you.”

The Black Sage sneered.

“Do you still feel like a god? Does everything before you feel meaningless and fleeting?”

Dale couldn’t answer.

“I am not like that.”

said the Black Sage.

“For my beloved sister, I wish to comfort the pain this child must have felt. I want to embrace her and give everything I have so she no longer suffers, and so those I love no longer suffer.”

“I too…”

“Is that truly so?”

Dale tried to reply, but the Black Sage sneered.

“Following the Emperor of the Ninth Empire, you who ponder and reflect on the meaninglessness before him—you who still whine like a child, claiming you’re lost and wandering—can you truly say you are more genuine than I?!”

With those words, the ‘Black Prince’ stomped the ground. The shadow cloak swirling around him whipped like a blade, and immediately, a chill erupted from his hands.

It was neither the primordial darkness nor the chill of the apocalypse.

It was simply the ‘Black Prince’ he knew well.

“『Gatling-style』, 『20mm』.”

Even the incantation of the bolt magic being projected was ‘ordinary magic’ desperately projecting its formula.

It was a battle filled with a truth so raw it was almost painful.

The unquestionable ‘Black Prince’ was struggling against the god of meaninglessness.

It meant nothing.

It should not have been.

No matter how his ice bolts and shadow bullets rained down, they never reached Dale. The same was true for the blades of shadow.

Yet, faced with that figure colliding with such raw, unadulterated truth, he found himself utterly speechless.

He just stared at Rize.

The truth hidden within her shadow became visible. Like a frightened child, as if caught in a secret and not knowing what to do, her younger sister was crying.

In her shadow.

No matter how cleverly she plotted and schemed, she was still the sister who cherished Dale. That made the presence before him feel all the more bone-chilling.

Thud!

At that very moment, the shadow blade of the Black Sage plunged toward Dale’s body.

“For teaching me…”

The shadow blade tore through Dale’s chest and flew out his back. Black blood, dark blood, dripped steadily down the blade.

“Thank you.”

As the blood fell, Dale silently embraced a false past.

For the first time, before the god of meaninglessness, there was something that truly did not lose its meaning. There was a struggle that did not become futile.

A meaning beyond exchange for anything.

Before that meaning, it was the ‘God of Meaninglessness’ who crumbled.

Shub was right. Those beings called gods—they cannot ultimately defeat humans. Just as only humans can slay dragons, so too was it humanity’s lot to slay the gods.

Therefore, one human being, the Black Sage, slew the god of meaninglessness.

“And do not forgive me.”

Dale said, embracing the Black Sage.

Thud!

The sound rang out once more. It was the sound of darkness, capable of becoming anything, transforming into a blade and plunging downward.

Yet the Black Sage remained unperturbed. He merely smiled, as if he had known this would happen from the very beginning.

“……I have no intention of understanding or forgiving you.”

The Black Sage smiled weakly, blood trickling from his lips. The blood was redder than anything else, almost the color of blood itself.

“Just fulfill our promise… the promise with Shub.”

One man had slain the god of meaninglessness. Yet that did not immediately mean Dale’s death.

“My resolve to remain human, not a god, until the very end.”

“I swear it to myself, and in the name of the ‘Black Prince’.”

The god died, and a human was born.

“That is enough.”

The Black Sage nodded bitterly. His body collapsed lifelessly and began to scatter into nothingness.

The human raised his head.

In the winter night of pure white and pitch black, Riza was left behind.

Black bandages wrapped around the world reflected upon her.

“Rize.”

Dale gazed at her.

“Can you forgive me?”

“There is nothing for you to forgive, Brother.”

Rize smiled quietly, yet sadly and bitterly.

“It’s all my fault.”

“It’s all of our fault.”

Dale shook his head. That was all.

Some time later.

“Congratulations, Your Grace! It’s a boy!”

The old woman’s voice echoed through the air, and Dale, who had been swallowing his breath anxiously, finally raised his head.

Not as the god of meaninglessness, but simply as a human trembling helplessly before the laws of life.

“Dale…”

Charlotte smiled quietly, clasping Dale’s hand, and embraced the life wrapped in the swaddling cloth.

A body from the dark cave that could scarcely be called human—in a sense, Charlotte herself was not so different.

Yet the one crying between them was unquestionably a human child.

That fact was strangely, overwhelmingly poignant.

“My child.”

Charlotte smiled. Given the bone-crushing training she endured, this couldn’t possibly be painful. Yet the weight of carrying a life—that was no trivial matter for a mother.

Dale felt the same.

There was no god there, nor the sword of the gods. There were two humans, and between them, a human was born.

A life crying.

Father and mother entered belatedly.

“Well done, child.”

Charlotte smiled at Elena’s words, and father Alan gazed at the child of the two.

It was the familiar sight of a family anywhere.