Chapter 170

Chapter 170

Black mist hung over the Crystal Lake. The silver puppet's eyes trembled. In the distance, the Youngest Princess's expression slowly shifted to joy.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl in my eyes.

I suddenly remembered this felt similar to when I'd examined the fabric of the cloaked puppet before.

But not quite the same.

Even in my blind spots, I could still clearly sense every single detail.

Sight, sound, touch...

All my senses seemed to merge into one.

But there was none of that struggle from before. It felt effortless.

My gaze dropped, and my senses wrapped around the entire Crystal Lake.

In my mind's eye, I was like a giant, gently reaching out and cradling the Crystal Lake in my palm.

Looking closely, I could see the lake had been heavily contaminated by the Shadow.

On the raised platform at the center of the lake, the Eldest Princess's crystallized body was trapped against that tree.

Her expression at that moment was identical to the puppet's in front of me: blank, stunned, disbelieving.

In my mind's eye, I stared at this tiny Crystal Lake sitting in my hand, and instinctively wanted to wipe away all the black filth polluting its surface.

But after a few attempts, I didn't know where to begin.

It was like trying to clean dust from a delicate little mechanical watch with a wrench.

I tried again, then gave up.

I could only clear the filth from the lake's surface.

The complex Runic Array inside was beyond me.

"Huh?" The Youngest Princess's singing was cut short by what she saw.

It was as if an invisible giant hand had gently swept across the lake's surface. The Crystal Lake, which had been shrouded in black mist, instantly turned a clear, deep blue.

"What... what just happened?" The Youngest Princess felt like she couldn't quite process it.

She looked toward the knight in the distance and noticed that after he picked up the blade, something about him changed.

His whole body radiated the same pure white light as the blade itself, almost solid in its intensity.

Once the black mist over the Crystal Lake was purified, the light slowly drew back into him.

The young man returned to his usual gentle self, then smiled and walked toward her.

The same gentleness as her brother...

For a brief moment, the Youngest Princess felt a little dazed.

"What are you spacing out for?" I looked at the Youngest Princess's blank expression with some amusement.

"Come on, let's go up and meet the Eldest Princess."

"What? Oh!"

The Youngest Princess turned her head away, a little flushed.

I didn't pay much attention to her odd reaction and headed toward the platform again.

Walking up the steps, the Eldest Princess came back into view.

She had already composed herself back to her poised and elegant manner. You could barely tell she'd been in a frenzy just moments ago.

I found it a little funny.

She used to be a queen, after all. She bounces back fast.

When I'd had that full-map vision earlier, I'd seen her jaw drop with my own eyes.

Even now, just watching her carefully, I could still catch the faintest traces of shock and disbelief in her subtle expressions.

But I didn't call it out. I acted like I hadn't noticed a thing.

"Eldest Princess, we meet again. Are you alright?"

"Of course. I'm much better now." The Eldest Princess smiled and replied:

"I'm sorry. I was being eroded by the Shadow just now and don't remember anything I did. Did I do anything rude?"

Holy shit, so she's just going with the "I don't remember" angle.

When I had that full-map vision, I could see clearly from start to finish that she was never eroded at all.

"Don't worry, nothing serious. I was just startled."

I played along:

"It was all the Shadow's fault. You suddenly started attacking us under its influence. I didn't expect the Shadow's contamination to be this severe—even you got affected."

"Oh, that explains it!" The Youngest Princess said, suddenly understanding.

The Eldest Princess turned her head slightly to the side.

I was just teasing a little. I had no intention of making things difficult for her, so I quickly changed the subject.

"Can you tell me what happened?"

"Of course. But before that, the person with you..." The Eldest Princess hesitated.

I glanced over at the Youngest Princess with some amusement. She was visibly tensing up.

Hilarious. What's there to be nervous about?

In front of the real Youngest Princess's sister, the Eldest Princess would figure out she was a fake with just a careful look.

"This is your sister, the Youngest Princess." I looked at her steadily and introduced her in a slightly serious tone.

"Alright."

Just as I expected. The Eldest Princess took one look at my serious expression and accepted it without question, without the slightest hint of doubt.

What's going on? Why isn't she suspicious? The Youngest Princess looked completely lost, with no idea what the two of us were talking about.

I glanced over at the Youngest Princess, who looked like she had a head full of question marks, and felt a little amused.

What's there to ask? They're both adults. They both understood perfectly well.

"You... hello." The Youngest Princess said nervously.

She clearly had no idea what was going on.

Kids are just so naive.

"Hello, dear Youngest Princess." The Eldest Princess replied with a warm smile. "No need to be so nervous. I'm not some old witch who eats children."

"What? Oh! Right!" The Youngest Princess lowered her head, a little red in the face.

The Eldest Princess let out a quiet laugh and turned back to me, her expression complicated. "I didn't expect you to actually come back, knight."

"Of course. I'm not the type to give up halfway. I made a promise—I'm not going to quit without even trying."

I answered with a bit of pride. If I were going to give up, it would only be after genuinely trying my best.

Talent, mindset, effort—I'd always felt I had enough of all three. And in my life so far, there had been very few things I truly couldn't do after putting in real effort.

What usually holds people back is their own understanding. People can't do what falls outside their grasp of what's possible. And I'd always felt I saw things pretty clearly and completely.

The Eldest Princess smiled at me.

What I didn't realize was that, however smart I might be, I was still just a kid in her eyes at my age.

"Alright, back to the point. Can you tell me what happened on your end?" I said, turning serious.

"Of course." The Eldest Princess's expression shifted back to something grave:

"After we met this morning, I started working on the Runic Array while also doing a full sweep of the castle's magical circuits.

Things were far worse than I'd expected. The Shadow had secretly planted seeds in the vast majority of the magical circuits.

All these years while I slept, it had been quietly eroding the castle's magical circuits from the shadows.

It's far more cunning than we imagined.

It spent all this time eating away at the circuits, little by little.

And when I began trying to clear the contamination entirely, the Shadow finally hit back with everything it had.

As you can see, I failed."

The Eldest Princess's expression dimmed as she said this.

I ran through the timing in my head. That must have been right around when the Shadow erupted.

So the Shadow I encountered in the dungeon that afternoon wasn't a coincidence. It was a calculated attack that had been building for a long time.

The Eldest Princess continued:

"Now, the Shadow's core has merged into the castle's magical circuits. It's trying to use this chance to swallow me whole.

The only thing keeping me going is the purifying power of the knight's weapon."

"Which means..." My brow furrowed. I already knew what she was going to say.

"Which means we've already lost."

I frowned. If the Shadow's core had lost its physical form, how was I supposed to kill it?