Don’t Concern Yourself With That Book

It was interesting. How the ring and laurel shrank to fit my measurements like a dream. As if they had been meant for me all along.

The hall was silent save the beast-like moans that the oppressed were letting out. Castor stared at me from the bottom of the stairs.

“… This is the future you wanted.”

I captured the madness that was swirling in his eyes.

His gaze filled with unknown emotions was directed towards me. His eyes stayed fixed on mine. I winced at the intensity of his stare.

“Ashley. Do I not exist in the future you want?”

With every exhale, his golden light wavered. Unlike what his expression was revealing, it was proof that he was currently agitated.

“Is that what you want?”

I clenched my fists tightly.

“Haha. Hahahaha.”

Castor staggered back weakly.

“I must have misunderstood something.”

He spoke with his hand on his face. With every slight movement, the distance between him and the weapons surrounding him narrowed. The faces of the templars looked evidently nervous.

“… Yes. I must have.”

Castor tilted his head before directing a pointed gaze at me. Unlike his relaxed posture, he was clearly in a bad mood.

“I should have just killed them all before you arrived from the beginning.”

Dozens of templars who had been standing in front of him were flung backwards.

“There’s no need to wait. You’ll have no choice but to choose me after losing everything.”

A thick golden mist wrapped around him. The ground was shaking. Castor’s hair was whipping around wildly. The whole hall was vibrating.

“Don’t stop the siege!”

Pontus cried out. The templars gritted their teeth before pushing forward with the spears.

Boom.

But once again, a beam of light burst out again before another group of people were flung back. A thick cloud of dust bloomed.

And through it, Castor trudged towards me. Vines that descended from the ceiling, roots that emerged from the ground tried to bind Castor’s limbs.

“Ashley.”

Castor laughed as he remained bondaged.

“I never expected you to awaken. You really exceeded my expectations.”

He pointed at me as if to congratulate me. And the moment his hand clenched into a fist.

“Seeing you from down here, you look breathtakingly beautiful.”

Light burned all the plants into ashes.

“Alright. I’ll play all the cards I have at hand as well.”

As he stood in the middle of the stairs, Castor gave a nod. Then, someone hopped out of the ceiling and landed by his side.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment.”

It was Deros.

He glanced at me, who was standing at the top of the stairs before lowering his head towards Castor.

“I wonder how it will end, with the future I drew up or the future you drew up.”

Instead of looking at the retreating Deros, Castor looked up to stare at me before narrowing our distance by one more step.

“I do wonder what would happen.”

Boom. Boom. Boom!

A pillar which no one had been paying attention to collapsed.

“Let’s find out.”

The pillar that represented the 2nd branch was one of the largest pillars that held up the hall at the moment. The ceiling was barely holding up.

Another boom reverberated through the space before another pillar collapsed. Templars rushed out to escape but it was already too late.

Debris showered atop us.

“This palace is about to collapse.”

Castor glared at me unwaveringly with eyes that looked to have lost all reason, leaving behind nothing but madness.

“How many will be left alive?”

The purple butterflies manifested from the diary shielded me from the debris falling towards my head. But it couldn’t protect everyone.

Castor turned around slowly.

“Where are you going!”

Despite the ceiling collapsing with debris falling atop us, his voice could be clearly heard.

“I am going to destroy my last bit of conscience and the centre of this Empire. Are you going to chase after me?”

I couldn’t understand what he meant by the former but the latter was clear.

‘He’s breaking the crystal.’

He was planning on destroying the crystal that was supporting the Empire, the one underground.

“It’s too dangerous, princess!”

Just then, I raised my head to a deafening sound. A huge piece of the ceiling that had been dangling fell off.

“Princess!”

Crumble. All the pieces of stone froze.

“Are you alright?”

When I whipped my head around, I noticed Pontus panting.

“Pontus, Castor is planning on destroying the crystal now!”

“The crystal cannot be destroyed!”

But he didn’t manage to finish his words. Daggers were thrown from someplace. But it wasn’t only one. Hundreds of daggers seemingly fell out of the sky.

‘The emperor’s shadows!’

Clenching his teeth, Pontus stared at the blades before they all froze in the air. In the meantime, templars who had been hovering in the air fell out of the air because of the emperor’s shadows who had been hiding in the spaces in the ceiling.

However, in the midst of it all, another explosion occurred leading to another collapse that managed to be stopped in time.

“Rosé, hurry and go.”

Amor said.

He summoned his roots and stalks to bind the shadows. He then opened flasks with his mouth before pouring it over people with serious injuries.

“I’ll fix what’s going on here and follow you afterward.”’

After glancing briefly towards Amor, I nodded.

“… You have to come.”

“Of course I will.”

Castor had headed along the paths towards the western part of the hall. Everything in front of me seemed to be fading away. To reveal a sword pointing at me.

“Princess, you must return safely!”

Before I realised it, the patrols took charge to open a path for me.

“Thank you so much. Everyone.”

Gritting my teeth, I ran.

The moment I left the hall, everything seemed so peaceful, it was as if everything was dead.

‘The collapse didn’t affect the hallways?’

There was no one walking along the hallways but I could tell the direction which Castor went.

“No. I can feel a large surge of energy but I don’t know if that’s Castor or the crystal.’

I wasn’t sure about the rest of the templars but I could tell where other Templars of the Lord were at. I was not certain whether the energy I was feeling was the crystal or Castor but I was sure I could meet him if I headed this way.

I hastened my steps halfway across the hallway. But I stopped out of instinct.

“You cannot travel any further.”

The one who appeared before me was Hernan. He blocked me with a long sword.

“… No wonder I didn’t manage to see you in the hall.”

I smiled with a tearful expression.

“I was ordered to stop you if you managed to track him down faster than expected.”

Hernan spoke like an animatron, saying nothing more than what was necessary.

“I’m sorry Hernan. I don’t think it’d work out that way.”

As if responding to me, the diary glowed faintly.

After returning to my post-awakened form, I had been released from the restrictions I had placed on myself. The purple butterflies I summoned left me before wrapping around Hernan.

“I am the Templar of Beasts. I won’t fall from this weak power.”

Hernan was no green horn. The butterflies that covered his front were cut down by his sword before vanishing. But the scattered butterflies gathered before him again to wrap tightly around his arms.

“Doing the same thing again wouldn’t work.”

Hernan released his restraints as if he had merely been waiting to do so. The butterflies disappeared upon being hit by the wind he whipped up.

‘Does that mean I can’t trap him here?’

I was rushing for time. I had no clue when the crystal would break. I didn’t have the time to lose to Hernan right away.

‘What if I did this?’

He slammed into the ground and instantly, a white wave drew near me. I summoned more butterflies to blind him. But his sword still reached out for me as if that made no difference.

As if it had been waiting for this moment, the diary let out a burst of light as though it wanted to protect me but I forcefully suppressed it.

The moment I did, he did not miss out on the chance.

Sphhhlt! I heard a bone-chilling sound. It was the sound of metal piercing through flesh.

I grinned.

“I thought you’d use your sword if I covered your eyes.”

I wasn’t good enough yet to fight him properly and I had no idea when Castor would break the crystal.

Drip drop.

A red stream of blood continued to flow between the blade and my skin.

“This was the only way I could stop you.”

The sound of my blood dripping sounded like tears falling.

“It doesn’t hurt.”

I felt for my diary before clutching it in my hand.

“If there’s anything that you didn’t know about me was the fact that I was the Heir of Death so this doesn’t hurt. I have grown strong in your absence. Hernan.”

It was ironic how the solution to this problem never changed though I became stronger.

‘Castor could control templars with the Power of the Lord.’

Pulling this sword out would only make me bleed more. Though it might not hurt, I might die. In other words, Hernan could not withdraw his sword.

‘So, could I do the same?’

I didn’t necessarily have to control him.

“It’d be best if you could hold still like this so you can listen to me.”

I squeezed my diary.

“Hernan, you’ve been saving me all this time.”

In Castor’s room, back when the ceiling caved in on us when I was kidnapped and atop that tower during the Foundation Festival.

“Including this instance, you’ve hurt me three times. But I’ll forgive all of that.”

Hernan alternated his gaze between the blade and my face emotionlessly. His eyes that were now purple seemed to tremble momentarily.

“We can fix this right away.”

Please show me the way. How could I return him to the way he was?

It was the moment I pressed down onto the diary. An unusually blinding beam of light pierced through.

When I opened my eyes again, I found myself somewhere completely different.

‘What’s this?’

The hallway in which I could see the garden was nowhere to be seen and had been replaced by darkness.

‘It feels like the space within the diary…’

At that moment. I felt a strong blast of wind whipping around my body. When I looked up again, I saw a huge beast standing in front of me.

–The one who awoke me. Are you a templar?

The beast with fur as white as snow slowly closed its overwhelmingly large eyes before opening them again. Its voice rang in my head.

“What’s going… Who are you? No, that’s not the point. I have to leave. Send me back!”

–Are you worrying about what’s going on inside? Don’t worry. Time does not pass here. It’d only take an instant of the outside world.

The beast’s eyes were of a mysterious colour–something between a deep purple and blue.

–You’re a templar but you haven’t met your god? Wait… You, oh. You were blessed by two gods. Are you a daughter of Kaltanias?

Kaltanias was the name of the First Emperor.

“No. 2000 years have passed since then.”

The beast narrowed its eyes.

–Geez. That was how things went after I was sealed. I’ve been growing weaker as time passes.

The beast scratched its chin with its huge claw.

“Who are you?”

–You ask though you know. I am the God of War and Beasts, Mars.

The beast raised its large body before stretching out its legs. It looked like it was stretching.

–A long time ago, I had caused an incident that had gone against the will of the Lord of the God and was sealed in a human’s body.

The beast’s huge pupils rolled towards me.

–By the way, you are being loved by two gods. I thought I’d never get to see another one after her. So, which one do you prefer? Kaltanias had died without ever being given a choice.

“Which one? I don’t know what you’re referring to but if you’re the God of Beasts, I have a favour to ask of you.

I had no interest in the remnants of a myth from long ago. What happened to the First Emperor who had the same powers as me? She was just another dead person to me. I took one step closer to the great beast.

“The body you currently reside in has lost his reason. Please return him to his original state.”

–Are you talking about his overuse of divinity?

I nodded. The beast thrusted its large head towards me. I was surprised for a moment but I stared straight back into its eyes that were the size of my face.

–Come to think of it, this man is following someone who isn’t you. Do you want him to follow his original master?

I shook my head when the god made it sound simple to do.

“No. I want him to return to normal. Return him to a man free to form his own will.

–Why? Aren’t you his companion? This man loves you.

I knew.

–Made to love only you forever.

No. I didn’t want him to. How could it be normal for his own feelings of love to be swayed by the fate his god had set?

–It wouldn’t be too bad to have a beast who only loves you and would willingly go to hell to do your bidding.

I couldn’t resist exclaiming and grabbing its white fur.

“Hernan is a man, not an animal.”

Amor did mention.

“Did you see your god when you awakened?”

A templar would meet their god when they awakened. Then, would the templar realise this when they meet their god?

‘The fact that fate would be this harsh?’

I had always had this thought. This land had gods. But the gods did not move for men. No, it took brutal advantage of man’s fate while saying that they did it for our sake. For me, Amor and Hernan.

“The eternal Empire in which gods resided? Don’t make me laugh. This is man’s world. Being able to know the future, knowing about deaths, having to suffer from illnesses, losing themselves forever!”

I cried out as I clung onto its fur.

“That power. I’d rather it disappear.”

Towards the huge pupils staring back at me, I raised the corners of my mouth.

“I’ll be able to control my fate without that kind of power.”

The crystal behind this Empire, couldn’t this whole mess be attributed to that? The eternal powers of gods. An emperor obsessed with eternity had only caused tragedy and led to the birth of three monsters.

Me, Castor and Rusbella.

The era of monsters would end with me.

“I will carry all the sacrifices. So, you will return Hernan.”

–A man who will control god. Why do all of Kaltanias’ blood end up like this?

The beast grumbled. But the beast’s eyes closed softly for a moment.

–I had been captured by her hands and ended up being her beast. Was this also fate? The dead could not speak and I could not see the dead.

The beast gave a low rumble.

–You are not Kaltanias but her descendant. Abiding by an old oath I had made, I shall follow the command of the one blessed by two gods.

The beast’s eyes gazed back at me.

Just then, a dazzling beam of light burst from beneath my feet, drawing a huge circle. As I stood in the centre of the circle, the beast asked.

–What do you wish for?

“I wish for Hernan to completely escape from this fate.”

–I will heed your command. And the price…Let’s take divinity.

“Is it going to be gone forever?”

–No. If you wait, it’ll return. You should be grateful for meeting a god as lenient as me.

The beast got closer before placing its forehead on mine. As its powers filled me, I felt something that I had built up inside me breaking off.

–The link has been broken.

The beast spoke as it became surrounded by light.

–Are you trying to change the times?

“Yes.”

–Kaltanias had started a new era with the power of gods while you shall end it with the same power.

My vision darkened. It looked like I was leaving the place. I asked the beast that was moving further away.

“Do you resent me? You too are a god.”

–Well. If I ask you to be Kaltanias, would you listen?

“No. I’m different from her.”

–Yes. You are different. God may not change but man does. Isn’t it only natural to discard what you cannot accept?

Before I noticed, the space melted away like an oil painting. The beast laughed, baring its teeth.

–You are the last emperor in the era of gods.

For a moment, the beast looked like a man. A man wearing a long tunic and very white hair.

‘Did I see it wrong?’

After a blink, I really did find a man with really white hair in front of me.

It was Hernan.

“Hernan?”

After lifting his head, tears fell the moment he saw me.