The Heavenly Slaughter Star's prophecy that the Grand Duke would soon die was no lie. It was a fate that had been read.
But fate sometimes turns its head away from those who fight.
'He said failure was inevitable.'
Raizel recalled the Grand Duke's words.
'Failure......'
However.
Failure is not a wrong answer that falls with one clean stroke, like a line being drawn.
A man may fail, and still come away with a better result than the worst that awaits those who never try.
If things could get even a little better.
If he could get even a little closer.
Even then, should it still be called a meaningless failure?
Raizel wanted to hear the answer to that.
From Kailan.
'So......'
He thought of the boy's plight. The plight of the 'real Raizel Esselklein.'
This boy, too, was nothing more than one pitiful fate, swept up in the Heavenly Slaughter Star's greed and robbed of his whole life.
It was not so different from what had been done to the Heavenly Demon Seo Seon-ju.
'So I must save him.'
***
But it was the Grand Duke himself who held Raizel back.
"You can't......! I'm sorry, Young Master."
Squeezing her eyes shut, Vestia blocked the door with both arms flung wide.
"His Highness ordered me not to let you out of this door under any circumstances!"
Yesterday, right after Raizel collapsed in the training ground, the Grand Duke had declared him banned from the training grounds.
In name it was a ban on the training grounds, but in practice it amounted to forbidding Raizel to leave his bedchamber at all until his body recovered.
And Vestia could not disobey the Grand Duke's orders.
Raizel regarded the Vestia barring his way with expressionless eyes, then jerked his chin. It meant move aside.
"N-no, you can't!"
But Vestia was adamant.
"At least rest for today, and then think about it again. When you do, I'll ask His Highness for permission."
She clearly was not going to step aside quietly. And was it not ridiculous to wrestle with a maid?
Raizel thought for a moment, then nodded.
'One day, then.'
***
He had agreed to stay in his room for a day as Vestia asked, but that did not mean Raizel really did nothing but rest.
He spent the whole day on qi circulation.
The mana flowing in this world's air was clearly far denser. His inner arts built up that much faster.
'But this cannot be an advantage that applies to me alone.'
Denser mana in the air meant that everyone who knew how to handle mana, that is, inner arts, would build up inner arts more easily and quickly.
'The martial artists here must surpass the martial artists of the Murim, at least when it comes to handling qi.'
It seemed the Heavenly Slaughter Star had brought him back to life in this world with exactly that in mind.
After all, livestock raised in better conditions naturally tastes better.
But his present goal was not to gather a large amount of inner arts.
Instead, he focused on refining mana over and over to obtain extremely pure inner arts.
The quantity of inner arts would sort itself out to some degree as time passed.
Purity was a different matter. Unless one poured the utmost effort into refining it from the very start, one would spend one's whole life piling up nothing but murky inner arts until the day one died.
That was why, despite far better conditions, he was actually gathering mana more slowly than in his previous life.
He spent the day like that, and the next day came.
"I'm sorry, Young Master......"
Vestia apologized with her head bowed. It nearly touched the floor.
Raizel regarded her coldly.
"I begged His Highness to allow you into the training grounds...... but His Highness only flew into a rage and said it was out of the question. I'm truly sorry, Young Master."
At Vestia's explanation, Raizel sighed.
Getting angry at Vestia would change nothing.
He pushed Vestia aside with one hand and went toward the door.
At that, Vestia hurriedly grabbed his arm to stop him.
"Young Master, I only just went and asked him, so going straight to His Highness doesn't seem like a good choice......"
Was he supposed to just sit there and do nothing, then? Until the Grand Duke allowed him out?
Raizel scowled.
"There's a dinner planned for this evening, so why not ask him then?"
Having said that, Vestia belatedly remembered Raizel's condition, caught herself and added.
"......It might be best to write a letter and bring it."
Haa......
Raizel let out a long sigh.
But soon he nodded.
Certainly, watching for a chance at dinner would be better than going now and needlessly provoking the Grand Duke.
However.
'A dinner.'
He recalled the pitch-black stew he had eaten for lunch.
The stuff Vestia had faithfully brought him at every meal since the first day, calling it a 'special restorative dish.'
To look at, its color would have passed for stones boiled in black ink, and it tasted as though someone had scraped the bottom of an iron pot and boiled the scrapings, a strangely burnt, grassy flavor crushing the tip of his tongue.
Chewing that bizarre stew, Raizel had wondered whether he was really eating human food, or had mistaken some monster's excrement for it.
But Vestia had said it with an innocent face. That it was a restorative dish full of pure, concentrated mana.
So he had swallowed that stew without a word, but...... every mealtime had been a kind of ascetic ordeal.
'A dinner of that strange food...... I will need to prepare myself, body and mind.'
He waited for dinner with some reluctance.
But the dinner was nothing like he expected.
***
On the table, neatly covered with a white silk cloth, stretched a long blue runner with the crest of House Esselklein intricately embroidered in silver thread.
Thanks to preservation magic, the snowflowers in the silver vases kept their mysterious beauty without the slightest wilt, and that cold beauty gave off an aura so strong it was hard even to approach.
Warm light flickered from the long, slender candles in their silver candlesticks, brightly lighting the table, and a faint, fragrant aroma rose from the plates set beneath that light.
As Raizel set foot in the dining hall, his eyes went wide.
'What is this......?'
The smell of food filling the dining hall already had his mouth watering. Bewildered, he approached the table.
"Raizel!"
When he appeared, Grand Duchess Alicia, who had been directing the dinner preparations in the dining hall, spotted him and came over.
Even so, she kept glancing back to check the dinner table. Her eyes were very sharp as she surveyed it, as if she would not allow a single tiny flaw.
"Come, sit down. I've prepared a little something."
Alicia said with a bright smile. Raizel followed where she led and took his seat.
"It's almost embarrassing to call it a dinner...... but I did my best. It's winter, so good ingredients are hard to come by. Forgive me if it looks a little plain."
Plain?
Looking over the table, Raizel was still dumbfounded.
Snow deer steak topped with a deeply fragrant herb sauce and thinly grated cheese, and, on a silver plate, grilled ice trout laid carefully in place, soaked through with white sauce.
Then there was nutty-smelling rye bread served with honey and butter, and even a white cream soup sending up clouds of steam.
And what of the pie glittering with sugar-glazed red raspberries?
"I even brought up the mead the head cook brewed on the day you were born, to open tonight."
Alicia wrapped the end of her words in a laugh. Pride seemed to rest on her shoulders, and a quiet joy filled her voice.
Yet somewhere behind her eyes, a shadow flickered.
Soon Grand Duke Kailan appeared. As he walked in, Alicia smiled faintly.
"Let us eat."
Kailan took the head of the table and began to eat. Next, Raizel tasted a bite of the snow deer a servant had carved for him, and his eyes went round.
'I have never tasted anything like this.'
Of course he knew meat was delicious.
But this was different.
It was not simply a matter of being tasty or well cooked.
The flavor of the juices spreading the instant it touched his tongue was like a whole world unfolding in his mouth, and the savory richness that deepened with every bite came closer to art.
To think meat could taste like this—
It was a shock, and at the same time, awe.
'They have cooking and skill like this, and yet......'
Food like this existed, and they had fed him nothing but that mysterious black stew all this time?
The taste of the bizarre stew he had been eating flashed through his mind, and a little resentment welled up at why they had not let him taste food like this sooner.
Piece after piece of well-grilled snow deer went into Raizel's mouth. Just as he was wholly absorbed in the meal, a sob came from somewhere.
"Hhk......"
Raizel raised his head and looked toward the sound.
There sat Alicia. Tears were welling in her purple eyes.
Clink.
Kailan quietly set down his cutlery.
A dark shadow lay over his face as well.
"My lady."
"Sorry, I'm sorry. Keep eating. I'm sorry for crying."
Alicia covered her face with both hands.
As if to hide her tears, she bit her lip hard and hung her head.
"I just kept thinking how hurt he must have been all this time...... And seeing how thin he is, I thought he must not have enjoyed even one meal in peace......"
The air in the dining hall grew suddenly heavy, but Kailan, on the contrary, went back to eating.
Not only that, he called a servant to bring out the drink that had been prepared. Pale golden liquor sloshed into everyone's cups.
"Let us drink."
Once the cups of the ducal couple and Raizel were filled, Kailan shared a cup of the precious liquor with each of the servants in the dining hall too.
"You have a taste as well."
When everyone in the dining hall had a cup in hand, Kailan raised his cup high above his head.
"......To Esselklein."
A brief silence followed his toast. But soon everyone echoed Kailan with one voice.
"To Esselklein!"
Many voices merged into one and rang through the spacious dining hall.
Kailan turned his head and looked at Raizel.
"......To Raizel."
Again, a brief silence followed. This time it lasted a little longer.
"......To Raizel."
"To the Young Master!"
As the people called out the toast, Raizel's and Kailan's eyes met. They looked at each other for a long moment.
It was Raizel who looked away first.
'......Uncomfortable.'
Perhaps because he knew the blessing was not truly meant for him, listening to their heartfelt voices was deeply awkward.
Only when Kailan finished the toast, tipped his cup and swallowed, could Raizel finally escape the Grand Duke's gaze.
Only then did a little ease seep into his breathing, and the dinner seemed to drift into a softer, warmer mood.
But that peace did not last.
The raspberry pie was brought out for dessert, but no one had touched it yet. He quietly raised a hand and called Vestia over.
Vestia, who had been standing close against the dining hall wall, saw Raizel's hand signal and came over.
She walked not to Raizel but to Kailan, and held out a sheet of letter paper.
"......This is a letter from the Young Master."
Kailan's brow twitched. He took the letter and began to read.
The letter was brief. It was a request for permission to enter the training grounds.
Having read it, Kailan's expression hardened at once.
"Denied."
Raizel nodded slightly. He had expected a refusal as well. After gazing for a moment at the family crest embroidered on the table, he suddenly stood.
Then he walked up to Kailan and knelt at his feet.
"Hk—"
The servants gasped in shock.
Kailan's expression grew darker and darker.
"Do not throw a tantrum. Will you act like a child? I said no."
But Raizel was not one to back down over that. He bowed his head deeply. His forehead nearly touched the floor.
"I said no!"
At last Kailan raised his voice. His roar rang through the dining hall.
When the kneeling Raizel still did not rise, Kailan got up from his chair. Standing tall before his kneeling son, the Grand Duke looked like a giant.
"I said it is denied! The training grounds? What reason do you have to throw such a tantrum over something so trivial?!"
The servants had already gone white at Kailan's shouting.
Vestia was no exception.
Deathly pale, she ran to Raizel's side, knelt beside him and bowed her head low.
"I-it's my fault. Please calm your anger. Th-the Young Master has done nothing wrong. It's only that I fell short in serving the Young Master......"
"Silence."
Before anyone knew it, Kailan's face was burning with rage. The fury pressed down in his eyes flashed like lightning. Vestia, by contrast, hardly dared to breathe.
"Raizel Esselklein."
Raizel did not avoid the Grand Duke's glare.
"If you insist, I will show you why I forbid you the training grounds."
His voice was low and firm, but blazing rage soon swallowed the end of his words.
Standing where he was, he glared at the servants and shouted.
"Bring me my sword!"
His voice thundered through the dining hall, and its echo became a terror so thick it was hard to breathe, rebounding off the walls and ceiling.
Drained of color, Vestia knelt as if prostrating herself and bowed her head so deeply her forehead touched the floor.
Her shoulders trembled pitifully like a frightened young animal's, and her lips quivered cautiously, as though afraid a single syllable more might slip out.
"Y-Your Highness, Your Highness. P-please forgive him. The Young Master has done nothing wrong. I-it was I who egged the Young Master on with foolish talk. P-please...... the Young Master truly has done nothing wrong. P-punish only me......"
Her voice was already wet with tears. Between her desperate breaths leaked a fear that even her sense of duty could not hide.
Alicia, too, was not free from the Grand Duke's wrath. Staggering over with a face gone white, she seized Kailan's arm with trembling hands.
"Don't do this. Please. Please......!"
"Let go. Bring me my sword at once! Now!"
Before that rage, the servants had no way to refuse. No one wanted to step forward, but no one had the courage to defy him either.
In the end, someone who could no longer bear the silence moved cautiously. The servant, who had crept along as though feeling out the floor with his toes, soon came into the dining hall clutching the Grand Duke's treasured sword to his chest.