Invitation of the Crescent Moon - Chapter 87

On the sixth day since entering the Grand Duchy territory, Ashika and Drushia parted ways with the knights. The knights were given orders to meet with Aegonite, receive the information they had gathered during their investigation, and wait at the Talion garrison. The same orders applied to Nile.

Although Ashika found it suspicious that Nile was quietly withdrawing, there was nothing she could do about it at the moment.

The two rode their horses side by side. They passed through desolate gravel fields and yellowed, dried grasslands, with the road stretching endlessly ahead.

Ashika marveled at how vast the Grand Duchy territory was, while trying not to show how tired she was. Having avoided cities and towns along their journey, her body had become thoroughly exhausted despite the leisurely pace of their travels.

Watching Ashika constantly trying to keep her distance, Drushia spoke bluntly.

“It’s not like I’m going to devour you, so why are you being so formal with me?”

“Are you being serious about that?”

When she looked back with suspicious eyes, the corners of Drushia’s mouth curved upward.

“Now that I think about it, maybe that’s not quite right.”

His sky-blue eyes, which had been azure, darkened as if he were looking at tempting prey.

“Do you know how long it’s been since we’ve been alone together?”

“I’m also aware that we’re in the middle of the Grand Duchy territory.”

“I know. If we weren’t, something would have happened already.”

His eyes, dripping with regret, gazed at her intently. Ashika quickly averted her gaze.

“So… what happens to us now?”

“Just follow me well. I’ll take you on a safe path.”

Did this mean there were more than just one or two paths to choose from? Ashika realized anew that she knew almost nothing about the Grand Duchy territory.

Clip-clop, the sound of hooves echoed. The peaceful forest path felt as leisurely as if they were taking a stroll.

“I’m asking just in case, but have you ever entered the Grand Duke’s Castle before?”

“What do you think?”

Ashika studied Drushia’s expression. She was worried whether this might be a sensitive question he’d prefer not to discuss.

“The fact that you know the way probably means you’ve been there before.”

“Weren’t you curious? Why the previous Emperor issued a blockade order instead of destroying the Grand Duke’s Castle. What he meant by ordering the long protection of a castle that had already become ruins.”

“So did you find the answer?”

“If I had, I’d have more to tell you. I wouldn’t be taking you there so recklessly.”

Drushia, who had been surveying their surroundings, pulled his reins to one side.

“This way.”

It was a direction where there was no path. As they passed through, tree branches struck their faces and their horses’ hooves sank deep into rustling fallen leaves. The forest scenery all looked similar, making it difficult to discern direction at a glance. Nevertheless, Drushia calmly felt his way forward.

Going down under a grass-covered mound, Drushia dismounted from his horse.

“We have to walk from here.”

As Ashika tried to dismount, Drushia’s arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her down.

“Drushia!”

In an instant, Ashika was pulled down smoothly. Before her feet even touched the ground, Drushia had swiftly trapped her in his embrace.

“I’m not some piece of luggage to be constantly lifted up and put down like this!”

“You’re the one doing the lifting up and putting down. Do you know how much you’ve made my heart flutter?”

Ashika’s face flushed red. This man spoke tickling words while maintaining a shameless expression.

“How is it that you never ask for help even once.”

Drushia expressed his disappointment in a sulky tone.

“Of course not. I’m an Igraine.”

“Yes, I know. But don’t try to shoulder everything alone. I said I’d help you.”

“You’re already helping more than enough.”

At her stubborn answer, Drushia sighed.

Ashika’s heart, which had been pretending to be calm, beat rapidly—thump, thump. The feelings she had tried to suppress suddenly burst forth, tickling her chest area.

This was unfamiliar territory for Ashika—sharing warmth with someone and opening her heart.

One person had firmly taken root in her heart. She hadn’t even known he was there, but when she came to her senses, Drushia was there. However, the heart that had tried to courageously approach was blocked by the wall of reality.

Her black eyes, which had shone like obsidian, darkened.

“What if you get hurt because of me?”

Drushia’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Is that what you’ve been thinking about?”

Looking somewhat surprised but like a child who had received an unexpected gift, the corners of his eyes curved upward. At least it sounded like she wasn’t pushing him away because she disliked him.

“Don’t take the name Talion lightly.”

Because it wasn’t light, Ashika feared the aftermath that would come from this relationship. It was a truth she couldn’t voice aloud.

“I don’t know what you’re worried about, but even the Imperial family can’t threaten Talion.”

“That statement is quite dangerous.”

“Are you going to report me or something?”

“I’m telling you to be careful. The stronger something is, the more it might break because it can’t bend.”

“You seem to be serious. So you’ve been worrying about me like this?”

It felt like glimpsing into Ashika’s carefully hidden heart. Looking at her face full of concern, a smile leaked from the corners of his mouth.

“So that’s what it was.”

Feeling somehow entangled, Ashika quietly kept her mouth shut. Drushia, with a grinning face, set her down and grabbed the horse’s reins.

When they finally reached their destination, dusk was settling around them.

The narrow path overgrown with vines ended, and they came to a space blocked on three sides. Drushia tied the horse’s reins to a tree and felt along the wall surface where vines and tree roots were tangled together. Though everything looked the same on the surface, at one point, his hand sank right in.

“Here it is. This way.”

Drushia pushed aside the pile of vines in front of them and took Ashika’s hand.

There was a narrow gap in the wall surface where vines hung like a screen. After passing through the gap that could barely accommodate one person, they entered a spacious cave.

“It’s a perfectly hidden space.”

Ashika looked back at the entrance they had come through. The light coming through the dense vines was faint, making the interior dark. Even just a few steps inside, no light reached, leaving only pitch-black darkness.

The cave walls were tangled with large and small rocks, black soil, and tree roots, with holes scattered here and there. Drushia reached into one of the holes and felt around inside.

“This place has been here since the Empire was still a kingdom. There are even stories that the Grand Duke’s Castle was built before Trellyn’s palace. It’s so old that probably no one knows how many secret passages lead to the Grand Duke’s Castle.”

Drushia pulled out a wooden stick from the hole and lit it. It was a torch prepared in advance with oil-soaked cloth. The moisture-laden fire blazed up, and black smoke and an acrid smell suddenly filled the air.

Drushia walked holding the torch in one hand and Ashika’s hand in the other.

“Watch your step.”

As if holding her hand wasn’t enough to put his mind at ease, Drushia cautioned her again. Ashika unconsciously covered her mouth with her hand to hide her smile that was leaking out.

The cave path wasn’t just one route. In a wide space that could hardly be called a path, holes were scattered here and there. Drushia concentrated all his attention on finding the way, and Ashika kept her mouth shut so as not to interfere.

Before long, they came to a small iron door that one person could pass through. It was so rusted that it made a loud creaking noise while opening. After passing through the door, they entered a properly constructed passage.

Having been tense the entire time, Drushia let out a small sigh of relief. Ashika, walking while holding Drushia’s hand, brought up the question she had been holding back.

“Do you happen to know anything about the Arkpella Grand Ducal family?”

“What are you curious about?”

“What kind of person the last Grand Duke was, what the people of the Grand Ducal family were like, things like that.”

The previous Emperor had tried to erase the name of Arkpella from all records. Therefore, no official records remained, but even though the records were erased, many people still remembered the Grand Ducal family.

Like Drushia’s grandfather Neoren or Duke Weive of Igraine.

“The last Grand Duke Arkpella is said to have been a person of weak character. So it wouldn’t be surprising that he not only took a mistress while having a sick wife, but was also manipulated by her.”

“You mean he brought a mistress into the main castle while the Grand Duchess was still alive?”

The Empire’s law was monogamy. Even the Emperor was no exception, so even if he had a mistress, he would only maintain the relationship in secret and wouldn’t bring her into the main wife’s domain.

“The Grand Duchess was alive, but she was said to be no different from a living corpse. So no one could criticize him for openly taking a mistress.”

“A living corpse?”

“I heard she spent decades bedridden, neither alive nor dead. The Grand Ducal family’s situation wasn’t good at the time either, so the Grand Duchess’s family provided support in every way possible, but she eventually died.”

It felt like a cold wind was sweeping down her spine. Not noticing that Ashika’s expression was hardening, Drushia continued.

“After that, when the Grand Duchess’s family cut off their support, the Grand Ducal family was manipulated by the mistress. The mistress had two children, and these two children, who would have been illegitimate, had their lives changed when the Grand Duchess died. The Grand Ducal family’s only legitimate daughter was diagnosed as infertile.”

“Infertile…?”

Something didn’t add up. Ashika became confused as the assumptions she had been making became tangled. Drushia had reached the end of the passage and was surveying ahead.

“Wait a moment.”

The underground passage ended at stairs that led up to the ceiling. Drushia handed the torch to Ashika and pushed up a stone slab in the ceiling.

“Are we inside the Grand Duke’s Castle now?”

“Our current position is in a tower outside the main castle. We need to go up further from here.”

After the two emerged, they covered the stone slab on the floor as it had been originally. A few steps forward, they could see stairs going up along the outer wall.

The two slowly climbed the stairs. There were broken sections here and there, making it difficult to hurry their steps.

“What happened to the Grand Ducal family’s legitimate daughter afterward?”

“Originally, she should have become either the Crown Princess or the next Grand Duke, but the Crown Princess position went to the illegitimate daughter, and the heir’s position went to the illegitimate son.”

“The current Empress Dowager.”

Ilerna, the daughter born to the Grand Duke Arkpella’s mistress. Despite the dishonor of illegitimate birth, she became Crown Princess and later rose to the position of Empress. Now she had become the mistress of the Empress Dowager’s palace, guarding it as the Emperor’s mother.

However, the young Grand Duchess who couldn’t bear children couldn’t even become an heir. She couldn’t find a good marriage either, so at best, she might have been able to become a second wife in a family that already had children. The young Grand Duchess had essentially been robbed of everything that should have been rightfully hers.

“…She must have felt wronged.”

“Since I’m not the person involved, I wouldn’t know, but I heard the young Grand Duchess didn’t want to leave the Grand Duke’s Castle. So she probably didn’t think it was unfortunate that her younger sister took the Crown Princess position.”

“What about the next Grand Duke position?”

“Whether by coincidence or what, after the illegitimate daughter went to become Crown Princess, the illegitimate son who had been designated as heir died in an accident. The young Grand Duchess reclaimed her original heir position, but then the rebellion issue erupted.”

“But you said the Grand Duke was a weak person. Are you saying such a person committed treason?”

“Opinions were divided at the time too, but by the time news reached the capital, everything was already over. The Grand Duke’s Castle was captured overnight by the Emperor’s army that suddenly arrived.”

“I heard rumors that it was the Empress Dowager who opened the Grand Duke’s Castle gates at that time.”

“Only those involved would know the truth. They say almost no one who was in the Grand Duke’s Castle that day survived.”

It remained an unsolved mystery even now, decades later.

It’s said that none of the soldiers who entered the main castle of the Grand Duke’s Castle returned alive. The only one who returned alive from there was the previous Emperor, and as soon as he emerged from the castle, he ordered the waiting soldiers to seal off the main castle.

“You know a lot about the Grand Duke’s Castle.”

“I heard it from my grandfather. Duke Igraine would know these stories too, but you haven’t heard them at all?”

“He hates even mentioning stories about the Grand Duchy territory.”

The story that Duke Igraine disliked both the Grand Duchy territory and Talion wasn’t news. That’s why even Ashika, who managed the Grand Duchy territory, had never set foot in the Grand Duchy territory. It was because Weive detested it.

‘Even so, to keep his mouth shut even to his granddaughter who manages the Grand Duchy territory.’

Duke Igraine was a strange person in many ways, she thought.

Climbing the spiral staircase, a passage leading to the inside of the castle appeared at the middle section of the tower. A stepped bridge rose high, leading to the central part of the castle, but it was half-destroyed and looked precarious.

“The structure is complex.”

“It’s a special place in many ways because it’s so old.”

Due to its geographical characteristics, the Grand Duke’s Castle was divided into two main areas. In the lower area, small buildings were clustered inside the castle walls, and the main castle was situated in the higher area.

The place sealed by the previous Emperor’s order was the main castle, and the two had entered inside through the main castle’s tower. After crossing the long stepped bridge, they came to a wide corridor.

Seeing the torchlight spread far into the distance, Ashika belatedly looked around.

“What if someone sees the light leaking out?”

“There’s no need to worry about that.”

Drushia raised the torch high and pointed toward the wall. Where windows had been were all blocked with wooden boards.

“Not just windows. Every hole leading to the outside has been blocked.”

“My goodness, why to such an extent…”

“That’s why they say the previous Emperor was mad.”