Invitation of the Crescent Moon - Chapter 95

Just one day after Ashika had awakened, Drushia could no longer create opportunities for conversation. He couldn’t stop her from leaving for the capital either. Pelburn, who had been waiting all along, couldn’t close his mouth when he saw Ashika emerge from the cottage.

“Your face has become half of what it was!”

They say leaving home brings hardship, and seeing Ashika’s gaunt face, Pelburn’s gaze turned toward Drushia.

“I never would have imagined the two of you were staying together.”

Despite the fierce glare directed at him, Drushia’s attention remained entirely focused on Ashika. Would she stumble? Would she trip over a stone? From the moment Ashika stepped outside, he watched her with anxious eyes.

Ignoring the hand Drushia extended, Ashika maintained her usual upright posture. Though it must have been difficult, she didn’t show it—such a consistently steadfast woman.

“It’s been a long time, my lady. I’m sorry for coming so late.”

“You must have had a hard time looking for me.”

Pelburn couldn’t answer that it wasn’t true. Having separated Julma and Jeanne, who were like his right and left hands, from Ashika, there had been no predictable routes to follow. Because of this, they had practically turned the entire capital upside down.

When they truly couldn’t find any trace of Ashika, Julma, who had been uncooperative all along, stepped forward. Only then could they detect the strange movements of the recently joined trading company.

“I’m glad you’re safe.”

“Let’s go.”

“Yes, my lady.”

Ashika walked toward the carriage with graceful steps. She didn’t even offer a word of greeting to the man who was staring at her so persistently.

Though he felt hurt, Drushia also held back his words. He was afraid that if he spoke, harsh words would come back to him.

Just before Ashika climbed into the carriage, quick footsteps approached. A large hand from behind carefully yet firmly grasped her arm.

“Ah…”

A hand that could neither pull nor let go.

Ashika stopped in front of the carriage, held by Drushia. Though his face showed he had much to say, Drushia didn’t utter a single word.

So she couldn’t push him away. The man who cupped her face and slowly approached.

His slowly approaching lips descended upon hers. The softly interlocked lips gently pressed and traced the parted interior. From the carefully exploring tip of his tongue, suppressed emotions could be felt completely.

Like any lovers who would be briefly separated, a tender farewell promising to meet again. Until Drushia pulled away, Ashika quietly offered her lips.

With a soft sound, their lips parted. Blue eyes filled with emotions more honest than words were right in front of her. But now was not the time. Whatever it might be.

Instead, she didn’t turn away from the hand Drushia extended. Ashika took his hand and climbed into the carriage.

It wasn’t a mistake that her dark eyes glistened moistly just before she turned around. Drushia’s tightly tensed heart instantly relaxed.

‘Acting cold when she can’t even be cruel.’

She was a woman who could be flexible but became resolute at crucial moments. If he pushed too hard now, she might try to cut him off completely.

So for now, he had to let her go. Ashika seemed to need time. He didn’t know the reason, but that’s why he was letting her go. Not because he was giving up on her.

‘Ashika. You need to know that.’

That he would absolutely never back down.

Just before the carriage departed, Drushia approached Pelburn.

“Pelburn, don’t forget what I told you.”

“I’ll keep it in mind, so don’t worry.”

Pelburn nodded to Drushia as he mounted his horse.

“I still don’t know who’s targeting Ashika. Increase the mansion’s security, and if you need support, tell me. No, I’d rather send my knights…”

“Whoa, Duke, please calm down. Do you know what would happen if Talion’s knights came to our side? I’ll handle it myself.”

“This isn’t advice, it’s a warning. If I think you’re being even slightly negligent, I’ll kidnap Ashika and bring her back.”

“You know that kind of attempt won’t work on her, don’t you?”

“That’s why I’m letting her go now.”

Drushia’s bitter expression revealed his true feelings. Even if he kept her hidden tightly in his embrace, he would still be anxious, yet he had to let her go in the end.

Pelburn clicked his tongue at the sight of the knights surrounding the carriage. There were more than twenty of them. Dozens of Talion’s knights as escort for one person. It was enough to charge into a battlefield.

“Just going with Talion’s knights is sufficient. Do it in moderation.”

He hoped there wouldn’t be any fights along the way. That was Pelburn’s honest feeling.

At Pelburn’s signal, the coachman cracked his whip. The carriage moved away from Drushia’s sight with its formidable escort. He remained in place until the carriage was completely out of sight.

“Why aren’t you going with them?”

When there was no sign of movement, Mihail carefully spoke up.

“Ashika doesn’t want it.”

So even though he thought it was absurd, he had no choice but to step back.

Ashika was desperate now. He didn’t know the reason, but he thought that not all the words she had muttered while lying ill were mere nonsense.

‘She’s hiding something.’

Some secret that others mustn’t know.

“Mihail.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

“Find out information about the trading company that entered the Grand Duchy this time. Confirm who the owner is and investigate their identity. Every piece of information we can dig up.”

It was the party Ashika had sought help from while avoiding Weive’s eyes. He had a feeling it wasn’t a casual connection.

He couldn’t tolerate Ashika having routes he didn’t know about. He felt he would only be at ease if he could directly confirm where she was and what she was doing.

Come to think of it, Drushia had always been this way. There had been no movements of Ashika within the capital that he didn’t know about. At the time, he had thought it was merely surveillance due to their long-standing feud.

Suddenly realizing, he let out a hollow laugh.

‘So this was the kind of feeling it was all along.’

It was a feeling Drushia himself hadn’t known. And quite an old one at that.

****

“My lady, let me help you change your clothes.”

Marilyn approached with her face buried down, on the verge of tears.

“Oh, yes.”

Ashika, who had been sitting in a daze, finally got up from her seat. Her movements were unnatural, as if she had just realized that the place where she had been sitting was a bed, and that this was her own bedroom.

She could barely remember with what state of mind she had returned to the mansion in the capital. Only the vague memory of how difficult it had been just to ride in the carriage after being so severely ill surfaced.

“What about Grandfather?”

“He’s in his study.”

“Did he say anything else?”

“No. I’ll help you bathe first and then bring up your meal.”

“Yes, that would be good.”

Ashika entrusted her body as docilely as before. Marilyn was so relieved by this that she pushed away her desire to complain.

Upon hearing the news that Ashika had returned, Weive canceled all his appointments and came home. However, until now, when evening had arrived, he had neither come to see her nor summoned her.

When she had undressed completely in the bathroom, Ashika felt Marilyn flinch in surprise.

‘It must be because of the wound on my shoulder.’

It was natural, since an unfamiliar mark had appeared on the precious lady’s body, which had been without a single scar or blemish. She felt unnecessarily conscious of Marilyn’s reaction. Having grown accustomed to being alone, even receiving personal care felt strange.

“Ah.”

While thinking about why she had insisted on being alone during that time, she felt something missing around her neck.

‘The necklace.’

She must have taken it off when she was lying ill at the safe house.

‘To get the necklace back, I’d have to meet Drushia again.’

He didn’t seem like he would return it readily.

‘What should I do…’

She had left in haste because she couldn’t bear to face him. She had been afraid that if she stayed with Drushia, she would want to abandon everything and just lean on him.

“My lady, the water is getting cold.”

A voice interrupted her solitary thoughts. The familiar daily routine felt terribly strange. Even the people who had always been with her felt unfamiliar because she herself had changed.

“Marilyn, I’d like to be alone.”

Marilyn hesitated, then quietly bowed and left the bathroom.

Even moving her own body didn’t feel like it was hers. It felt like her limbs were moving on their own, like a marionette with severed strings.

After washing and eating, she lay down on the bed, but sleep wouldn’t come. She had felt like she would collapse, but the time that had become as empty as a blank page pressed down on her.

Finally, Ashika got up from the bed.

She took out paper and pen from the table and calmly wrote down what she had thought were merely delusions or hallucinations.

‘They didn’t follow chronological order.’

The sequence was all mixed up. Instead, what was consistent was the location. Each time she was in that place, she experienced hallucinations like memories recorded somewhere.

“Yes, memories. Not mine, but perhaps…”

Memories contained in the necklace. More precisely, memories that might be contained in the jewel. Memories that had been vividly imprinted as if they were her own, despite never having experienced them.

“Ahh…”

Ashika groaned and buried her face in her hands. The memories she hadn’t wanted to recall swept through her vividly once again. Her whole body trembled so much that she couldn’t even hold the pen.

In that fleeting moment, the Grand Duke’s castle that had become ruins. The disaster that had burned all the soldiers and nobles filling the great banquet hall. And…

‘Rebellion is absurd.’

Now she understood. The former emperor had wanted something from the Grand Duke’s castle. Behind him must have been the Empress Dowager. What the emperor’s knights had been looking for on the day Igraine and Talion were destroyed must have been the same thing.

‘They called it the sacred chamber.’

The emperor had been looking for the sacred chamber in the Grand Duke’s castle.

‘Perhaps it was referring to the place I entered.’

It was more of a conviction than an assumption.

The strange room that had no exit. The eerie presence she had felt in that empty place. It probably wasn’t a mistake.

Who was it? No, what was it? Why had the emperor been so desperately searching for that place?

‘They called it a curse. A curse flowing in the blood of the imperial family. The stories that were supposed to be rumors weren’t false. The former emperor really did look desperate.’

The rumor that the former emperor had died of illness after not lasting more than a few years after that day. The emperor might have been looking for a way to escape the curse.

Then could it be that what was called divine blessing in the founding myth was actually a curse? Who had commissioned the others who had also targeted the Grand Duke’s castle?

‘It can’t be the current emperor. If it were, a single command to open the Grand Duke’s castle would have been sufficient.’

The emperor had shown no interest in the Grand Duke’s castle at all. She had never heard stories of him being cursed or suffering from illness.

What they were after was likely the same thing as the former emperor. But in the hallucination, the emperor’s knights had demanded a ‘key’ from Drushia, while the other side had tried to kill both of them.

What was the difference? Did it mean they were looking for the same thing but ultimately wanted different things?

“Only the first dream was completely different. Why? The location didn’t match, and the jewel wasn’t broken either… Ah!”

At the sudden realization, Ashika jumped up from her seat. It wasn’t only Arkpella who had inherited sacred objects from the founding lord.

“There was Talion.”

Talion’s sacred object, which the former emperor had practically stolen and never returned. She had heard it was stuffed away somewhere in the imperial treasury.

The location where she had the first dream was the imperial palace, and there she had seen a jewel exactly like the one in her necklace. A jewel that was completely cracked as if it would shatter at any moment.

“I should have asked about it earlier.”

The small portrait with the embedded jewel. She should have confirmed whether that was Talion’s item, but she kept forgetting.

“Drushia…”

She couldn’t exclude Talion from this matter. Yet it was difficult to bring up the subject readily, partly because she was afraid he would think she was insane. The bigger reason was that she didn’t want to involve Drushia.

‘If something goes wrong with me and Drushia gets involved, Talion will be in danger too.’

Ashika was already a threat to everyone just by existing. To Igraine and to Talion. The only ways for her to be safe were to flee overseas or for the Grand Duke’s family’s false charges to be cleared.

‘Isn’t there a way?’

It had been 40 years ago. Back when even Weive was just a young man. How could she restore the twisted past that the former emperor had created?

It had been better when she knew nothing. When she could at least harbor hope while pursuing vague answers. Now that she knew everything, it had become a hope she couldn’t even dare to wish for.