Aya Ran Away - Chapter 19

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 19
She saw it glimmering with an unsettling light from beneath layers upon layers of concealment.
In that moment, the presence she had always feared began to feel different.
‘It’s afraid.’
That presence was afraid of an opponent who could harm it.
Otherwise, it would never be hiding like this, veiling its form.
‘If it knows how to feel fear, then it’s alive.’
Seeing how it trembled at the thought of its own erasure, she understood it was no different from her in that regard.
Once she grasped this, her fear began to thin almost at once.
Not that she wasn’t frightened anymore—she was—but the vertiginous dread that had come from seeing it as something utterly foreign to her gave way, bit by bit.
And it seemed the ‘King’ understood what Aya had just come to feel.
The ‘King’s’ eyes narrowed.
“……If you wish to accomplish what you desire, you must make haste.”
Whether it was a vow the King was steeling itself with, or words meant for her, the voice resonated again in those layered, overlapping tones.
Aya bowed her head once more.
Separate from having cast off some of her dread toward the King, she had no way of knowing what it wanted or what it was plotting.
A sense of suffocation crept through her as she squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them.
* * *
It had been troubling enough when Nahal left for Argarite, but now his return was becoming a source of worry too.
The ‘King,’ sharp with venom, would not let Nahal go unmolested.
The ‘King’ knew how to command Evil Spirits, and Nahal could dispel them.
‘Perhaps Nahal could even defeat the King.’
Pondering this heretical and dangerous thought, she considered him.
Yet if she entertained that premise, the King’s treatment of her made no sense.
Aya too could cast off Evil Spirits.
Yet the King did not seek her death.
‘What’s the difference?’
No answer came, no matter how she mulled it over.
Aya wandered aimlessly, drawing Evil Spirits away from people.
What was different now was that capturing Evil Spirits no longer afflicted her severely.
Apart from a slight headache and indigestion, there were almost no symptoms at all.
The Nanny remarked on it.
“Come to think of it, you’ve grown much healthier. You haven’t been ill lately at all.”
Was that good or bad?
Thinking her troubled heart was coloring the Nanny’s ambiguous words, Aya rested her head against the window frame.
‘Will he be all right?’
Every day, she offered prayers for Nahal’s sake.
She wished only for his safe return.
And so time drifted purposelessly until one unremarkable day.
Just as expected, the King’s attendants began to slander Nahal.
They spun words of suspicion at every turn, and this persisted even though Nahal had sent regular letters bringing word of himself since departing for Argarite.
Rather, it seemed those very letters gave those who hated Nahal ammunition to speak.
They twisted the meaning of his correspondence and whispered that some kind of deal was taking root between him and Argarite.
Words that seemed nonsense at first gained a strange power when heard repeatedly.
The gossips’ remarks were specific enough to furnish material for imagination.
Even those who had originally hated the King for “sending Nahal to his doom” began to listen.
And among the nobility of prominent houses, some began to waver at such talk.
With nothing but his Northern origin as cause, many who already despised Nahal lent credence to the rumor.
The Evil Spirits themselves joined in spreading the whispers.
Even Aya, who had grown less restrained in using her power, threw up her hands in defeat.
The sheer volume was different.
Aya discovered that even those who had cared for Nahal harbored, in some corner of their hearts, a wish to see him cast down in ruin.
Among them, the young nobles who felt inferior to Nahal seemed especially susceptible to such rumors.
Sensing that something grave was unfolding, Aya grasped that the ‘King’ was orchestrating something.
Desperate to stop it, she moved twice as hard as usual.
One day, one of the King’s attendants grew indignant over a letter from Nahal describing the goodwill the King of Argarite had shown, and raised his voice demanding that Nahal be punished.
In a public forum, the ‘King’ did not silence the voice condemning Nahal.
Rather, it even incited them to say more.
Emboldened, they now insisted that Nahal had surely fallen prey to Argarite’s enticements.
With each passing day, the situation spiraled further and further beyond restraint.
Three months after the Diplomatic Delegation departed, the gossips began to turn on Nahal, muttering that he and his companions should have returned to the Capital long ago.
They spread baseless accusations that Nahal harbored Treachery and had yet to return, and that he’d murdered the other envoys who refused to follow his designs.
At the council presided over by the king, slander of every conceivable kind erupted unchecked.
The voices of those who sowed suspicion rang far too loud.
“……Wasn’t it always meant to be a long journey? Besides, they say heavy rains fell in the South, so it could well take longer than usual. If we wait a little more, news will arrive soon enough. It would be wise to assess blame only after that.”
One of the Elders, unable to bear the silence any longer, spoke thus.
Word had arrived not long ago that a great downpour had fallen in the South of Rebar, causing the canals to overflow and cutting off the overland routes.
Even merchants had been unable to move, so it was hardly strange that Nahal and the envoys’ progress should be delayed with their paths blocked.
Yet those already swayed by rumor found no persuasion in such words.
“You’ve told us to wait for days now! Surely it’s time we admitted that he has betrayed us!”
“What possible reason would he have to betray us?”
“His father and brothers are in this country! Unless he’s a fool, he could never betray us!”
Rarely, several among the Elders and nobility spoke up in Nahal’s defense, mounting their counterarguments.
Beyond those whose sons were included in the delegation, a considerable number took Nahal’s side.
“He has neither wife nor children. Though he has reached the proper age, he has never married! He could abandon this country without hesitation!”
“What absurd sophistry is this!”
A tense standoff unfolded between the two sides.
The king, who had been watching quietly, raised his arm.
In an instant, the clamor subsided.
All eyes turned toward the king.
“Nahal has betrayed us.”
At the king’s blunt pronouncement, the face of the Elder who had defended Nahal drained of all color.
The eldest among them stammered forth a reply.
“Your Majesty……if I may presume to speak, he has no reason to betray us.”
The king turned his gaze slowly toward the one who had spoken.
“……And what reason would he have not to betray us?”
As the king spoke, an Evil Spirit crept forth from beneath his feet.
No one in that chamber save the king could perceive it.
The Evil Spirit cackled and drifted toward the Elder’s side.
“He carries too much Northern blood.”
The Evil Spirit, which had been crawling at his feet, began to circle around the Elder.
[Didn’t that trouble you in your heart as well?]
Was it the king’s voice?
Someone’s voice echoed in his ears.
The Evil Spirit began to climb up the Elder’s legs.
[Northerners are savage.]
At the whispered words, the Elder’s resolve wavered.
With all the years he had lived, he carried deep prejudices against the North, whether he acknowledged them or not.
When he learned that his grandson, whose life Nahal had saved, was to be with Nahal, he had felt rejection before gratitude.
“An example must be made!”
Someone’s voice rose sharply.
“Yes! Let them see what befalls those who betray this country!”
It was incitement bordering on madness.
The Elders shook their heads silently.
They too spoke of Nahal’s Betrayal, yet they knew—truly knew—that he would not betray this land.
Whether fact or illusion mattered not.
They simply wanted to bring Nahal down.
“They must see what happens when one betrays the nation. Only then will such traitors never again emerge into the world. I am doing a great and righteous work now—purging traitors and upholding the nation’s honor. Yes. Yes, that’s right. Yes, indeed…….”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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