To You, Who Will Die Alone in Paradise Chapter 46

“A hostage, you say?”

“Me, of course.”

Kellewen raised a hand and placed it on his chest.

“Will you relay this to the Elders, Herma? If they attempt to take me away by force, I will do the same thing Zelloscal did, immediately.”

Herma’s face turned pale. What Kellewen had just mentioned was something that not only Kellewen, but any other elf—no, anyone on the continent—should not know.

Seeing Herma at a loss for words, Kellewen smiled bitterly.

“I knew you would know.”

Zelloscal. The High Elf who built a lighthouse that purified demonic energy on the shores of Benoit. People believed that after building the lighthouse, he returned to the Elven Forest and offered his mana to the Guardian Tree, but the truth was different.

Zelloscal died after building the lighthouse. Like any elf who offered their mana to the Guardian Tree, all the mana in his body was drained, and he died on the spot. If he was fated to die, he would at least not meet the death the Elven Forest desired. Zelloscal’s lighthouse was the result of such resistance.

Naturally, the Elven Forest tried to hide the truth. As a result, Zelloscal became known as a once-in-a-generation genius who both built a lighthouse and offered his mana to the Guardian Tree. The truth was secretly passed down only to the Elders and a select few of the Tuella Deum, and currently, Herma was the only one in the Tuella Deum who knew this story.

That was why Herma was the only one who fully understood Kellewen’s words. The shocking declaration that if they tried to drag him away by force, he would immediately commit suicide—only Herma understood it.

Herma’s mind went completely blank. He had anticipated many scenarios, but this was not one of them. How could he possibly have predicted such an absurd, ridiculous situation? Kellewen was threatening him and the Elders. And with his own life as leverage…

“Besides, the Benoit royal family will not stand by and watch me be taken away. I had a long conversation with His Highness the Crown Prince just a little while ago.”

“What can a human kingdom do?”

“They could reduce or cut off the support they provide to the Elven Forest, couldn’t they? And…”

Having received too great a shock from Kellewen’s suicide threat, Herma no longer had the energy to speak with him. However, this was not all that Kellewen had prepared. He drove the final knife into his friend, who was trembling with a sense of betrayal.

“I told His Highness. That if Zelloscal could build a lighthouse, then so could I.”

“In other words, the High Elf sold himself to Benoit.”

The Crown Prince spoke as he reached a hand downward. A large dog sitting below his chair perked up its ears and accepted its master’s touch. Even so, its eyes never left the unfamiliar visitor. Dandeleon’s reflection appeared in its wary eyes. It was a face gaunt with shock.

“Do you understand what that means? Well, I suppose you would. You’re a clever boy, after all,”

said Charles, the Crown Prince of Benoit. His tone was exceedingly gentle.

A few hours after Kellewen had left, Dandeleon received a message that the Crown Prince was summoning him. He had been feeling quite distressed. Kellewen was acting unsettlingly strange, and a good amount of time had passed, but Zellos had not returned to his room either. And now, not the King, but the Crown Prince was looking for him.

With the situation having come this far, Dandeleon’s ability to think was almost paralyzed. Feeling like whatever would be would be, he dressed carelessly and headed to the Crown Prince’s chambers. He felt that he would not even be surprised if the Crown Prince sentenced him to death the moment he saw his face.

The first thing the Crown Prince actually said was not particularly shocking. It was that Kellewen had come to see him in the morning and had pleaded to be allowed to stay here, as he did not want to return to the Elven Forest. The Crown Prince had worried about Yggdrasil’s lifespan, but Kellewen had apparently persuaded him that postponing the ritual for a few years would not be a major problem.

The problem was what came next.

Until that point, the Crown Prince had been skeptical of Kellewen’s proposal. If the ritual were delayed, criticism would pour in not only from the Elven Forest but from other kingdoms as well, and having a High Elf stay in Benoit was not so great a matter as to be worth all that loss. As the Crown Prince was searching for a way to politely refuse, Kellewen, sensing his thoughts, played his final card.

It was an offer to build another lighthouse in Benoit.

“The High Elf said that Zelloscal’s lighthouse can last for another hundred years even if the Guardian Tree dies. What if there were another one? I’m talking about a lighthouse right here in the middle of this royal palace.”

The Crown Prince chuckled mid-sentence.

“No, since it’s not the sea, there’s no need to call it a lighthouse, is there? Should I ask him to make it a plaster statue of my likeness? What do you think?”

“…I do not know much about magic, but if it can be created, it would seem to be a magnificent symbol. What could be more auspicious than Your Highness’s august image remaining for all time as the shield of Benoit?”

His mind was a mess, but the words that came out of his mouth were as smooth as if they had been oiled.

The Crown Prince’s attitude was friendly enough to be called affectionate, but Dandeleon was not fooled. He was a man who had once tormented Dandeleon more relentlessly than anyone. If Dandeleon showed even the slightest bit of presumptuous behavior, the Crown Prince would immediately revert to his past self. It was far better to spew a few words of blush-inducing flattery than to endure that again.

“Isn’t it? The people of Benoit will remember me for a long, long time.”

Fortunately, the Crown Prince seemed pleased with Dandeleon’s words, nodding his head with a satisfied expression. Perhaps noticing its master’s softened attitude, the black dog that had been glaring at Dandeleon also relaxed its guard and rubbed its face against the Crown Prince’s hand. The Crown Prince stroked the calf-sized dog as if it were cute and continued speaking.

“As a matter of fact, I’ve had a few complaints about the Elven Forest. Do you have any idea how much pure gold and jewels they take from all over the continent in the name of magical research? Well, how would you know? And to think they hid the story of the lighthouse, which is practically the result of that research, is truly regrettable. I think this warrants a formal protest.”

It was a matter of no concern to Dandeleon. The Crown Prince did not seem to be expecting an answer either, so Dandeleon pretended to listen intently while lost in his own thoughts.

He was not certain, but judging by the Crown Prince’s reaction, he did not know exactly how the lighthouse was created. Dandeleon’s own knowledge of magic was poor, but he had managed to guess a few things from his conversation with Kellewen.

One of them was that Zelloscal must have died right after creating the lighthouse.

In other words, Kellewen would also meet the same fate if he built a lighthouse.

This was the part the Crown Prince did not know. If the High Elf were to die after building a new lighthouse in Benoit, and thus become unable to offer his mana to Yggdrasil, the criticism that would rain down on Benoit then would be incomparable to that of delaying the ritual for a few years. Yet, the Crown Prince currently had no worries about that.

If so, there were two possibilities. Either Kellewen had truly given up Yggdrasil for a few years with him, or he had planted in the Crown Prince’s mind the illusion that he could both build the lighthouse and perform the ritual.

‘Neither one is like Kellewen…’

For Dandeleon’s part, the latter was preferable. He had no patriotism for Benoit, so if Kellewen had manipulated the Crown Prince with a clever lie to gain his favor, that was a good thing.

However, if asked whether that was something Kellewen would do, he had no answer.

The Kellewen that Dandeleon knew was a fool, frustratingly pure, who, even when in love, could not bring himself to abandon his duty in the end and chose a path where everyone was happy except for himself and his lover.

“The High Elf is quite interesting, isn’t he? When I first met him, I thought he was like an innocent child, but now he seems like a completely different person. Why do you think he came to me of all people?”

Lost in his own thoughts, Dandeleon almost failed to answer the Crown Prince’s question. But the social skills he had honed over a long time shone through once again.

“I… my thoughts are too shallow to know, Your Highness.”

As Dandeleon shook his head with a somber expression, the smile on the Crown Prince’s face deepened.

“Neither Father nor Mother can be impartial when it comes to your matters. Knowing that, he chose me, the next king. A wise choice…”

The Crown Prince stressed the words ‘the next king’ and then added in a suggestive tone.

“The High Elf deciding to stay in Benoit is, in the end, because he loves you, isn’t it?”

For some reason, hearing those words made his chest feel tight.

It was a fact Dandeleon already knew, but hearing it from someone else’s mouth felt strange. The word ‘love’ did not feel beautiful at all. It just felt like a shackle binding Kellewen.

Dandeleon silently lowered his eyes. As a result, Dandeleon did not see the Crown Prince’s expression and could not know what satisfaction his somber reaction gave him. Nor the fact that the Crown Prince had been inwardly worried that he might become arrogant with the High Elf’s favor at his back.

“Oh, right. There’s something else the High Elf requested.”

The Crown Prince, who was now in a good mood, lightened the atmosphere by raising his voice. He stood up from his seat and picked up one of the papers on his desk.

“I’m moving your quarters. Do you know the Céleste Domaine? If you don’t know the way, I’ll have my attendant guide you.”

It took Dandeleon a moment to recall the small, remote detached palace. It was a space so inconspicuous, but compared to the small room in the west annex where Dandeleon originally stayed, it was lavish to an excessive degree.

“He said he wanted to live somewhere out of sight. Your belongings should all be moved by now, and the High Elf’s belongings should be moved within the day as well. I’ve sent guards and attendants, and, ah…”

The Crown Prince, who had been rattling on while scanning the paper, suddenly lifted his head.

“You have a Lycan attendant, don’t you?”

Have one? In Dandeleon’s entire life, Zellos was the only attendant he had ever had. Dandeleon sneered inwardly but answered dutifully on the outside.

“Yes.”

“Is he your lover?”

And was met with a preposterous question.

Dandeleon’s face flushed hot. The Crown Prince’s question was beyond insensitive; it was rude. A surge of indignation welled up inside him, but Dandeleon made no sound, only biting his lip hard.

‘Endure it. You’ve been through this before.’

This was a kind of test. It was simply a process to confirm whether Dandeleon truly submitted to him, whether he was loyal enough to endure even humiliation. The moment he uttered even the slightest complaint, the Crown Prince’s gentle demeanor would vanish without a trace.

“…Zellos is like a real brother to me.”

“Is that so?”

The Crown Prince’s gaze flickered over Dandeleon before returning to the paper.

“The High Elf doesn’t seem to think so. Did he commit some sort of rudeness? He stressed several times that I should remove the attendant named Zellos from your side.”

‘Kellewen made such a request?’

His bewilderment was brief, soon followed by a feeling of displeasure and then anger.

Kellewen’s actions since the morning had long been beyond the scope of his understanding, but he could tolerate it when he thought everything was for his sake. He tried to understand that there was no other choice in the urgent situation, both when Kellewen confronted the Elven Forest without a single word of discussion with him, and when he asked the Crown Prince for new quarters.

But he could not understand Kellewen’s hostility toward Zellos. Contrary to what the Crown Prince thought, Kellewen had never even had a proper conversation with Zellos. At most, he had been turned away when he came to visit while Dandeleon was sick, and it seemed unlikely he would hold a grudge over that.