The Forgotten Field - Chapter 176

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

Chapter 176
The Healer kept her gaze fixed on the floor, her words tumbling out hesitantly.
I pressed my temple with one hand, observing her in silence before issuing instructions in a measured tone.
“Sit for a moment. There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you anyway.”
The woman looked up at me with startled eyes.
“Are you speaking to me, sir?”
“Yes.”
I leaned back against the chair and gestured with my chin toward the seat across the desk.
The woman, who had been frozen in an awkward stance, carefully lowered herself onto the offered chair.
“You seem to have grown quite close to the Grand Duchess lately. Was there a particular reason for this?”
The question appeared unexpected, and the woman’s gaze grew uncertain.
“There was no particular reason. It’s simply that as I’ve been helping her care for Khan more often, she seems to have become more comfortable around me.”
“I hear she spends considerable time at your cottage. What does she usually do there?”
“In my sleeping chamber, she takes afternoon naps with Khan or brings books to read. Sometimes she watches me prepare medicines. Occasionally….”
The woman’s stammering suddenly ceased.
I raised one eyebrow.
“Occasionally, what?”
“Occasionally, she helps me with my work.”
The hesitant woman confessed as if admitting a transgression.
I questioned her incredulously.
“She performs menial labor in your cottage?”
“It appears she’s taken an interest in what I do… She occasionally helps me trim medicinal herbs or prepare remedies.”
I let out a hollow laugh.
This was the woman I had worked like a servant, even as the heir to the Grand Ducal House. The notion that she would assist with such lowly tasks struck me as absurd.
I had been receiving regular reports about her all this time, but wanting to avoid giving her the impression of surveillance, I had instructed my informants to focus solely on her personal safety and well-being.
The reports had primarily concerned whether she lacked for anything in her daily life or had encountered any difficult or unpleasant situations—I knew virtually nothing about her specific daily activities.
I suppressed the strange irritation rising within me and continued my questioning in a clipped tone.
“What was your relationship like with the deceased Healer?”
In that instant, tension flashed across the woman’s face. She had finally realized she was being interrogated.
Barcas, shifting his weight from the chair’s back toward the desk, added dryly.
“You didn’t seem particularly grieved by her death. Your relationship must not have been very good?”
The Healer swallowed hard, drawing out the moment before carefully opening her mouth.
“Until last year, I got along well with Maricen. However, after the Grand Duchess elevated me from assistant healer to exclusive healer, some friction arose between us.”
“Friction?”
Hesitation crossed the woman’s face—she was clearly concerned about giving testimony that might harm the Grand Duchess.
After a long pause, the Healer continued with measured care.
“Whenever my prescriptions differed from Maricen’s, Her Highness began to follow my judgment more frequently. This caused Maricen to express her displeasure, and when Her Highness responded with fierce anger, the two naturally grew distant. It was during this rift that Maricen met her end….”
“So that’s how the rumor spread that my wife was killed by the Wolf Beast she keeps.”
I concluded coldly.
The woman hastily rushed to defend my wife.
“On the surface, the Grand Duchess did not show it, but she suffered greatly because of Maricen’s death. The shock of losing someone close would have been tremendous in itself, but everyone cast subtle suspicions her way as well….”
“Are you truly certain that the Wolf Beast is innocent?”
At the blunt question I threw out, Aria’s face stiffened almost imperceptibly.
She stared at the floor for a moment before lifting her head and speaking with conviction.
“Yes, Khan has committed no crime.”
I studied the Healer’s dark brown eyes carefully.
She spoke with unwavering certainty.
“Khan is an exceptionally intelligent magical beast. He understands that if he harms someone, he cannot remain at my side. Therefore, he would never attack anyone without cause.”
Barcas, lost in thought, stroked his chin slowly and nodded.
“That seems a sufficient answer. You may withdraw now.”
The Healer rose from her seat with a relieved expression.
As Aria left the chamber, I turned my gaze back to the desk. The medicinal potion she had left behind glimmered in the lamplight.
I picked it up and studied it for a long while, then opened the stopper to examine its contents. The bitter scent of herbs brushed against my nostrils, and buried memories came flooding back.
I closed my eyes tightly as if to shake them off, then swallowed the medicine in one gulp.
Before long, the medicine’s essence began to seep through my body.
I felt my weary frame gradually relax and leaned back against the armrest of my chair. In my increasingly blurred vision, a pale blue full moon shone through the window.
That same moon had hung in the sky the first time I slept in the same bed with her after spending the night together.
The sudden memory struck my chest like a blade’s cut.
I grasped the collar of my shirt, which felt suffocatingly tight, and rose from my seat.
A mad impulse flashed through my mind—to go find her.
It wasn’t as though I intended to do anything with her. I simply wished I could hold her gently in the moonlight and fall asleep, just as I once had….
Barcas, lost in such reverie, soon let out a hollow laugh.
She did not need me. And I did not wish to torment my wife, who had finally found peace.
I turned away and headed toward the Bedroom adjoining the Study.
The servants had cleaned it beforehand—not a speck of dust remained.
With a bitter sigh, I collapsed onto the bed without even changing my clothes. I was utterly exhausted.
* * *
I realized I was once again sifting through fragments of the past.
At some point, dreaming had become synonymous with reliving old memories.
Though occasionally surreal fantasies wove through them, my dreams were always rooted in the recreation of what had been.
This time was no different.
The me of the past sat rigid in a wooden chair, staring at something.
Spread across a simple long table commonly used in the Priest’s Quarters were ancient texts arranged in neat rows.
The High Priest standing behind me pressed the back of my head down forcefully with his calloused, massive hand, compelling me to look.
“Look carefully. This is the evil committed by the ancient Khan People.”
Grotesque illustrations were vividly drawn upon the aged parchment.
A corpse hung upside down from an altar constructed of human skulls, while black-haired priests below caught the blood dripping from its neck in golden basins.
“For countless ages, the ancient Eastern Faction enslaved other races and offered their lives to the spirits. They severed the heads of their victims and hung their bodies upside down to drain every drop of blood. They believed that when the earth spirit Tiramere drank human essence, it would gain even greater power. Until their integration into the Empire, they brutally sacrificed thousands. And through such profane rituals, they were granted abilities that defied divine providence.”
I twisted my head and shot the High Priest a defiant glare. He returned my gaze with cold eyes and continued in a chillingly monotone voice.
“Such unholy power flows through your very blood. That is why you can harm others without feeling the slightest guilt.”
“I did nothing wrong.”
He roared like a snarling beast.
“That bastard dared to lay his hands on me. He deserves to die.”
“If that were true, then your brother’s soul would burn eternally in the fires of hell as well.”
The High Priest replied calmly.
“But that does not erase your sin. You crushed Dreyvan’s head so savagely that his features were unrecognizable. An ordinary child could never commit such a heinous act. As the Grand Duke feared, the barbarity of the Khan Tribe flows through your very blood.”
He bit his lip. He could not recall that moment with clarity.
The instant the High Priest’s rough hand crept beneath his clothes, his vision burned crimson with rage. And in the next moment, he stood over the fallen priest, a blood-soaked candlestick clutched in his hand.
Perhaps something terrible truly dwelt within him, as this man claimed. His Father had recognized it. But he refused to accept that truth.
He repeated himself.
“I did nothing wrong. And if anyone ever tries such a thing again, I will crush their skull.”
“Then we have no choice but to wait until you reconsider your ways.”
The man wrenched him violently from the chair. Then, seizing his thrashing wrists, he dragged him toward the Punishment Chamber. He resisted with all his strength, but he could not overcome the power of a man who had once been a Paladin of the Holy Temple Guardian Order.
The man shoved him into the narrow stone cell.
“If you repent of your murderous sin even now, I will release you.”
He kept his mouth firmly shut, his eyes gleaming with fierce intensity as he stared through the High Priest’s face.
Without moving, as he gazed into the man’s ashen eyes for a long moment, a subtle crack appeared in the otherwise expressionless mask.
“Why do you stare so intently?”
He chose his words carefully. And finally, he recalled the one thing this man feared most.
“Your fate.”
The High Priest’s hollow cheeks twitched faintly.
He smiled deliberately at the corners of his mouth.
“I see you hanging upside down, headless, bleeding out.”
As if confronted by some terrible demon, the High Priest slammed the iron door shut with a harsh clang.
In the darkness, he released a dry laugh brimming with triumph.

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