Chapter 141

Chapter 141

He told the Duke he wanted to go meet the ghosts. Added the part about the Eye of the Sun sitting in the jewelry box, even ventured the guess that it might drive out the ghost from the Imperial Castle. The Duke simply nodded, said he understood, and rose to his feet.

“Ren says he’ll come too. He’s got some divine power, so he should be roughly useful.”

Laura tugged the second sibling forward, who’d been standing awkwardly bare before the Duke. He scratched the back of his neck, looking slightly embarrassed, then bobbed his head in a bow toward the Duke. The Duke gave a light nod in return.

“Then let’s bring a priest along. He’ll know the most about the Eye of the Sun. And I did pay the temple a donation to have him stationed here — might as well make use of him now, no?”

He brushed past the two of them as he added the words. I hurried Ren along, and we chased after him. Straight to the priest’s room we barged in, waking the already-sleeping man to draft him into our party.

“Wh-what’s this?”

The priest, heavy with sleep and still in his nightclothes, was dragged out to us. His feet shuffled and stumbled as we hauled him along, until at last we set him down before the door to Shion’s room. Only then did he rub his eyes and come to his senses, his gaze drifting slowly toward me.

“You came to see the souls? At this hour?”

“Yes, Father. Do you happen to remember this?”

I lifted the jewelry box containing the Eye of the Sun to show him, his face twisted in bewilderment. There was no way he didn’t recognize it—I’d had him appraise this very box once before. And even if it slipped his memory, surely he could feel the enormous divine power radiating from inside.

“Yes. That’s the Eye of the Sun — my mother’s keepsake. I can still feel the immense divine power radiating from it.”

He stroked his chin as he answered, then cocked his head as if to ask what the problem was. At that, I began laying out the hypotheses I’d been turning over in my mind.

“It once expelled a ghost that had entered this house. So wouldn’t it be able to send away the one from the Imperial Castle too?”

“Hmm… I see. So you intend to test that theory?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Understood. Then hand the box to me. If it is divine power, I should be able to channel it. But this will be my first time driving out a soul that has not possessed anyone, so my aim may stray. And it is also my first time wielding divine power this immense. Well—in any case, I shall make the attempt carefully.”

“Thank you. I’m counting on you.”

I nodded and carefully handed over the Eye of the Sun with both hands. The priest took the jewelry box in one hand and opened the door with the other. But at that very moment, Shion popped out of the room with a soft thud.

“Unnie!”

The child scampered straight over to me. Then she stopped in front of me, planting both feet together.

“Wh-what the—?”

Ren blurted out, bewildered. But I couldn’t explain Shion to my second brother. Because behind Shion, an old woman with white hair stood radiating a chilling aura. She kept her head bowed low, then slowly lifted it, fixing us with sharp eyes. I found myself swallowing a dry gulp involuntarily.

“Unnie, I want to go out now. I stayed in here quietly just like you told me to, so play with me! And that old lady keeps showing up and saying strange things to me! I don’t want to hear it. My head hurts!”

Shion started whining toward me. At that, the old woman at the edge of my vision trembled faintly as if reacting. She was responding to Shion’s every move in an unsettling way.

“Shion, what did that old lady say to you?”

I asked the child without taking my eyes off the old woman.

“She kept shouting that she was sorry.”

The child answered in a choked voice. Sorry… That was the sentence that soul endlessly repeated. But something felt odd. In the memories I’d seen of her, there was only rage toward the First King. So I couldn’t understand why she would keep saying she was sorry.

“She said she was sorry again?”

“Yeah, and she talked about a dragon too.”

“A dragon?”

It seemed the old woman had even spun tales about dragons to the child. I wondered how Shion had taken that fantastical talk. I wouldn’t have believed it myself if I hadn’t seen her memories. So I looked down at the child with considerable bewilderment. Just as I was about to ask what she and the old woman had discussed, that moment came.

“Step back.”

The priest stepped forward in front of me and shouted. I looked up and saw the white-haired old woman walking toward us. It was so terrifying and dizzying that it raised goosebumps.

“I’ll use divine power now!”

The priest thrust the jewelry box in her hand toward the old man, as if trying to shove him back.

“Shion, you get back too!”

I spun around and shouted to Shion. Truth be told, I could have sent her off along with the old man, but maybe because I’d grown fond of her, the words burst out instead.

Then, yellow light began to spill from the gaps in the jewelry box. It lashed out sharply, like an attack aimed straight at the white-haired old man. Now all she had to do was push him out of the mansion, and it would be over.

Is it… done…?

But my relief lasted only a moment. The divine power, which had been streaming out in yellow shafts, suddenly swerved toward Shion and slammed down through her small body like a lance.

“Shion?!”

I cried out in shock. Yet the divine power wasn’t flinging Shion away or repelling her. Unbelievably, it was being swallowed up by her instead.

“The divine power is getting sucked into that spot — into that soul!”

The priest shouted, pointing toward Shion. I couldn’t understand what was happening; it was baffling. Even as I watched, Shion kept absorbing the divine power, flickering with light. She looked like she might burst at any moment.

“What in the world is going on?!”

The Duke narrowed his eyes as he spoke.

“I’ll explain later. For now, let’s retreat.”

With the priest’s words, we all scrambled back from the spot.

“I’m coming too!”

But Shion scrambled after me, flustered. I paused to watch the restless child for a moment, then turned my gaze to the priest. The yellow light was still blasting from the jewelry box and funneling into Shion. At this rate, all the divine power inside would be drained away — without even managing to shove the white-haired old man out. I needed to separate the child from it, by force if necessary.

“Shion, stay here for now. I’ll come back later.”

“But…”

“Please, Shion. Okay?”

“……”

The child pouted, a sullen look plastered across her face. It tugged at my heart, but I had no time to dwell on it. I pulled away from Shion with a bit of cold detachment and started down the long corridor. As I walked a certain distance from the room, the light streaming from the jewelry box gradually faded.

“What?! What the hell is this?! What is that little ghost?!”

Ren grabbed me and shook me back and forth. I wanted to reassure my little brother, but since I had no idea what was going on myself, I couldn’t offer any explanation. Instead, I shifted my eyes to the priest. Catching my glance, he quickly grabbed hold of Ren.

“Calm down. That soul—it’s accepted divine power, hasn’t it? There’s no danger.”

“What? What does that mean?”

“It means it’s a sacred being. Originally, when divine power imbues an object, we call it a Sacred Relic; when it settles in an animal, it becomes a Divine Beast. And there are those like us who carry divine power within themselves.”

A sacred being…

Was Shion such a being, then? Looking back, she’d always been special. She was impossibly strong, and she’d even purified a soul on the verge of turning into an evil spirit. That had led me to guess she might be of draconic blood. But now, it seemed she was closer to a Saintess than a dragon after all.

“Still, that’s odd. Didn’t you say divine power is a soul’s force, and souls naturally repel each other? That child is nothing but a soul—how could she absorb divine power?”

This time, the Duke asked, arms crossed.

Ah… now that he mentioned it?

Now that he’d said it, it did sound strange for Shion, a soul herself, to accept divine power. It wasn’t as if a physical body was taking it in.

“It’s not common, but it’s not unheard of either.”

The priest shook his head and continued.

“When an ordinary animal or human imbued with divine power dies, the soul and the power separate. But occasionally, a soul’s constitution and divine power align well enough that they merge. I suspect that soul is the latter case.”

“So you’re saying Shion’s soul and divine power have fused.”

“Yes. But it’s peculiar that she absorbed such a vast amount. Perhaps that soul possessed strong divine power from the very beginning—so much that it exceeded the range I can sense.”

With that, he handed me the jewelry box he was holding. I took it, hesitating before speaking.

“Then what should we do now?”

“First, it would be best to separate the two souls that are together. Only then can we try to push out the soul that came from the Imperial Castle.”

“I see…”

Of course, his words made sense. But the white-haired old man always followed Shion, so I wasn’t sure we could fully separate them.

“Did you see that flash just now?”

It was right then, while I was lost in thought, unsure of what to do, that a voice suddenly called out from a distance.

“What was that, lightning?”

“But there was no thunder following it.”

“Strange. That light was definitely blindingly bright.”

One small voice soon spread into a murmur among the people. It seemed the servants were waking up one by one and coming outside to check.

“I’ll have Handel handle the cleanup.”

The Duke muttered to himself, looking toward the source of the noise. Then he slowly turned back to us.

“We should head inside for today. We’ll discuss this tomorrow.”

In the end, we had gained nothing that day and had to return to our respective rooms.