The stage of a broken heart (1)

Kleio moved through the middle of the library, turning on Perception as he glanced about. On the right shelf, there were layers of old and worn books alongside a box used to store them.

‘Isn’t there something like a sheet of the Palimpsest stuck somewhere?’

But that wasn’t something he could look into now. Instead, Kleio turned his attention to the shelf on his left. It seemed that there was no general book classification, but the journal and related documents were organized by the year of the incident, making it easy to find.

‘First, in 1793, a journal of the red-eyed wizard.’

With Perception on, his eyes darted back and forth until they found a journal from 1793. His keen senses picked up on subtle traces of the journal being pulled from the bookshelf and put back in the near past.

‘Either the guestbook is wrong, this place has been infiltrated, or it was the queen.’

Kleio felt feverish as he weighed the possibilities.

‘But isn’t it too dangerous for Juleika to come and go to a place like this where it’s easy to identify the suspects? No, in the first place, did Philippe really make a mutual [Covenant] with her?’

There were too many unknown factors to draw a clear conclusion. Melchior was looking his way still, so he didn’t have the time to think it through either. Kleio moved slowly and looked through the bookshelf before moving to the 1793 section. After that, he pulled out the three books around the one he needed.

‘Seems like there were some crazy guys in 1793. There was a sorcerer who used some climate magic.’

As for climate magic, there was much more data than the red-eyes. There had apparently been a ban, as disciplinary measures had failed to stop him.

‘It rained in one place and droughted in another. As a 7th-level wizard, his circle size was 500 meters in diameter, so it wasn’t a big problem… In the end, while experimenting by the river, he killed the flowers in the royal rose garden. So, it’s forbidden. Tsk.’

Climate magic would be a good cover in case he was caught digging into that red ether. With a firm heart and Memory, Kleio checked the journal. In addition to climate magic, there were examples of attack magic that consumed expensive mana stone gold. Apparently, it was forbidden because a wizard exploited the mines to gather enough gold.

‘Wizards will do whatever they want when they have a topic they want to stick to.’

He pretended to consider the volume before turning to the next book, noticing a bunch of burnt paper scraps at the end of the 1793 journal.

‘Let’s keep it up.’

Kleio was careful to keep his reading constant as he began. He had to be sure Melchior didn’t know what sort of magic he was paying attention to.

***

Bang-

“The red eyes are a result of an experiment that failed while trying to raise ether levels with demonic blood?”

The hot-blooded Cel stood up as she slammed her hands against the desk. Kleio quickly snatched his teacup from the shaking desk.

“No, you can’t just consume demonic blood… but somehow, that must be what is happening.”

Lippi, who was eating dried apricots, turned to them.

“Hey, Lei, some were taken when you fought that beast.”

Kleio quickly developed a circle around them all, using the [Soundproof][Shield] magic formula. Few people came or went from the place they had gathered, but the more defenses, the better.

“My level is still the same. It’s a drug that can only be made by mixing the beast blood with other ingredients and carefully processing it. The drug’s name is Hydra’s Poison. The wizard who drank it before went crazy and attacked a bunch of people.”

Kleio didn’t elaborate on what the ingredients were.

“Where did you learn all that?”

“The King’s Library.”

The moment the words left his mouth, Arthur’s gaze fell sharply on him. Arthur was the first to tell him of the library, so his thoughts undoubtedly lingered on how he accessed it. Kleio pushed on in his explanations.

“When I looked at the guestbook, the official statement was that none had come there to look up data for decades. I don’t know if that’s the truth, however.”

Isiel approached the table with a serious expression.

“If someone had access to the data before you…”

Fran, arms folded, contemplated the implications.

“They would’ve tried to make Hydra’s Poison again. It seems obvious that the level of the imbiber has risen.”

Cel, finally sitting back down, raised her hand calmly.

“No, but if the aftereffects are that crazy, what would it matter if you raise your level? You only have one life, after all.”

Fran’s gray eyes focused on her.

“To obtain a drug that increases the ether level, there are many willing to sacrifice other levels. There are many ways to force unwanted experimentation on the unwilling, should you have money and power.”

His cold voice sounded beyond the critical point of rage. Kleio quickly picked up the explanation as the mood began to sink.

“I’m guessing that the existence of a red-eyed killer must be the result. Whether they wanted it or not, the one who uses red ether was likely made by this drug.”

Red eyes, red ether, and assassins with unstable abilities. He couldn’t reveal it in front of all of them, but it was highly likely that Aslan was behind the incident.

‘And the biggest problem is that now those imperfect assassins are no longer appearing.’

Arthur had said so before the Door of Mnemosyne opened, mentioning that he was growing anxious that his nightly visitors had stopped coming.

‘So, does that mean Aslan or Juleika succeeded in perfecting the Hydra Poison? Is that why?’

He wouldn’t find a definite answer until they caught the criminal. Rather than coming up with a premature assumption, Kleio kept his mouth shut. At that point, Isiel raised a valid question.

“But the source of this theory is formed from an ancient tradition of sharing blood after hunting demons. Does it make sense to interpret and practice it literally? What’s more, it was at least a thousand years ago that demons were commonplace.”

Fran was the one to reply, his voice still cold.

“Recently, a large amount of demonic blood was obtained. From Orails.”

Indeed, unlike the demon’s body, which had turned to dust, the blood the demon had shed remained.

“The land was blocked off by the Defense Forces. They even took my bloody clothes, down to my socks.”

Was Fran suspicious of him? Cel chimed in helpfully, sensing the mood.

“I know that even in the Defense Force, the wizard’s laboratory isn’t very secure. It’s possible someone could’ve taken the demon’s blood from there or collected some before the site was secured.”

“It means that there were places to acquire the demon’s blood just about everywhere.”

Fran calmed himself by taking off his glasses and wiping them to no avail.

“The actor Geheim Ginger has been thoroughly investigated. He’s an unbelievably popular actor who lives a frugal life. No lover, no political, and he’s living in a small basement room near the opera house, donating most of his profits away.”

“Hey, isn’t that really suspicious? I don’t believe in asceticism. The other day in the concert hall, didn’t you see anything suspicious?”

“Not at all. I didn’t detect any ether.”

“Ah~. Not everyone in the world is like you.”

“Yes, Lippie. But, just because the actor is suspicious, it’s not possible to stop the last performance of the most popular opera right now without proof.”

“Then, pay special attention this evening, and let the strongest swordsman and strongest wizard watch the greatest actor from the front of the stage!”

“Ah!”

The watch that day was quickly established, and Fran ended the meeting as usual.

“Nebo and I will watch the stage door and backstage after the show starts. I’m familiar with the theater structure, so it will be easy to cope with an emergency.”

.

.

.

Only Arthur and Kleio resided in the Asel family’s box seats today. Since the wife of the Krater empire’s ruler came to buy a large number of jewels, Dione was tearfully missing the final performance. She was a person who prioritized money over her own hobbies. Of course, that hadn’t stopped her from tightly dressing Kleio before he left. She had outfitted him with round cufflinks made of mana stone gold, saying that it would help protect him.

As for the person who had come with him, Arthur seemed to have quite a lot of thoughts about the afternoon meeting, but he had recovered his usual attitude when they reached the theater. Kleio didn’t dare try to dig into his heart, instead deciding it would be better to match him.

“Well, what do you like about these false stories so many people come to see? I thought it was crazy that no one fell asleep.”

“Lower your voice. Don’t let people hear the prince isn’t so educated.”

“What, why?! Where would I have grown up watching something like an opera? The nomadic theater company only comes once a year to Kision’s territory!”

Arthur protested with tears in his eyes as he was forced to endure yawning throughout the first and second acts.

“Yes, it’s done. I’m not discussing art with you. So, how was the actor? Geheim.”

“Well, I don’t know much, so I’m sure that the singer can play the leading role even if he’s so shrewd?”

“What?”

“It was hard to tell at first because his voice sounds young, but when the light is shining down, it looks like the cheeks and corners of his mouth were wrinkled under the mask.”

“No way. He’s supposed to be a young man.”

“Then the singer changed?”

“That voice isn’t something anyone can imitate.”

Kleio had watched the same performance four times now. Geheim’s voice and pronunciation were too unique for them to be imitated easily.

“Did you see it wrong? I heard he has burn marks under his mask.”

“Oh, that could be it. I’ll look closely during the next act. But does he have burns all over him?”

“Maybe he covered them up with makeup. Let’s watch.”

When they looked carefully at Geheim when he returned, as Arthur mentioned, his face and his exposed wrists looked reddish. Kleio prepared himself to open a circle, looking nervously at the stage as the familiar content repeated. Arsenie’s misunderstanding, Luminita returned from her brother, her high voice crying out… Maybe the last performance would end without a problem? Maybe he and Behemoth had seen the red eyes wrong. Luminita’s aria reached its peak.

“[With you, even fading would bedazzling, and even ash would be sweet.]”

Thus, the highland monarch bit the lover’s neck. People in the theater forgot to breathe momentarily, immersed in the vampire scene, which felt a little longer than usual, perhaps because of the tremendous acting on display.

“Lei.”

Arthur was the first to notice.

“That’s not acting. That female singer is having a convulsion.”

Today, there were no soldiers, knights, or wizards in the auditorium. But Arthur had probably seen more people die than anyone else. Holding his sword, he jumped over the railing from the balcony of the second-floor seats and broke into the stage. Geheim, who felt Arthur’s pretense, lifted his mouth from the soprano’s neck and released her body. Red blood began to gush from her neck.

Ahhhhh!

Ahhhhhhh!

Was it because they thought it was some play device? A few beats late, the screams of the audience rang out as people began to run in all directions. Kleio jumped down after Arthur, using the [Deceleration] magic to the land.

“[Like a thick valley harbors a dove, hurry up, hurry up, surround me!] 1)”

Kleio quickly snatched up the soprano’s body and applied [Heal][Hemostasis] formula on her. Bright ether overflowed from the stage as her neck wound healed rapidly.

‘Done!’

The next moment, Nebo came running out from the right side of the stage.

“Nebo! Get her out of here quickly! Take her to the Defense Force and show her to a wizard or doctor!”

Kleio shouted out at Nebo as soon as he saw him.

“What about Fran?”

“He was guarding the other side of the stage with me. If there’s a problem, he has a gun.”

Bang-!

Bang, bang, bang!

In the now-empty theater, gunshots rang out four times.

1)「James Lee’s Wife」, Robert Browning, edited