Moonlight Ball - Chapter 154

Elaine was fed up with life these days. It was because someone he considered his only disciple, family member, and friend had chosen someone else. And that someone else happened to be the king, that young, inexperienced brat…

No, no. Elaine lay on the long chair, holding the small flower that Iris had given him when he was young. An eternal flower that never withered. Iris had always been talented, ever since she was young. She was more talented than anyone could recognize. But her true talent was her loveliness.

While others saw her as eccentric, a social outcast, and someone with monstrous magical power, she was nothing but a cute child and the only friend who understood Elaine. Ah, yes. Elaine needed such a friend. Someone who didn’t require human relationships, someone he didn’t need to curse at or think about any cause-and-effect between people, a perfect child who seemed to meet and talk with each other in dreams, a child who only looked at him without needing power or society.

“My child.”

That’s why diversification is necessary.

There must be a good reason why friends, children, and disciples should be kept separate.

He sighed, feeling as if he had realized one truth about life.

Where did Iris’s path in life diverge? She marked it at the age of twenty-three. At that time, people from Matap said that Iris was overly closed-off. Elaine had ignored those words. So what if she was closed-off? She would become a great wizard and inherit Matap as his successor!

When Elaine offered Iris the position of royal palace magician at the age of twenty-three, he was delighted. No, it was his own joy. It was his honor. Iris became a royal palace magician at the age of twenty-three. How amazing. His child!

But when Iris rejected that offer without any discussion, he realized for the first time that there was something wrong with her. The perfect child who could only be met in dreams seemed like a naive girl who didn’t even know the greatest honor she could have at the age of twenty-three. It felt like waking up from a dream.

He ordered Iris to experience reality by working in the workshop. He remembered that time. Iris cried and clung to his legs. She vowed to fix anything she had done wrong. She didn’t eat anything, she didn’t sleep, and she just knocked on his bedroom door. Master, please, Master, open the door. Master, Master… Why is that voice still ringing in his ears after all this time?

Was this the price he had to pay for discarding that child?

In the first year of working in the workshop, Iris collapsed three times. It was because she didn’t eat anything. He didn’t show any compassion for Iris. He just watched over her, and eventually, Iris ended up buying and eating fruits from the neighboring fruit store. It was around that time that Iris, who had been a carnivore all her life, started eating fruits. To eat meat, cooking was necessary. Iris’s first house fairy, Raiden, didn’t know how to cook, so Iris had to survive the first year by filling her stomach with fruits.

And Iris gradually created her own family of house fairies. She established a place she could call home. Yet it was far from a joyous or desired endeavor for him. He perpetually awaited a letter from the Magic Tower—a correspondence from herself. Each time he received a missive imprinted with the Magician’s Tower seal, anticipation would rise within him. However, every time he discovered it to be a mere request, his hope would wane, and he would resign himself to the disappointment. Despite knowing this, Elaine would whisper to himself, “Just a little more. Iris only needs to experience the world a bit further. Then, she will return to the Magician’s Tower. Just a little more.”

And then Iris met her death.

No one knows the emotions that gripped Elaine upon hearing the news that day. Regret quickly transformed into a fervent desire for vengeance. Whom did that desire target? Driven to kill Rosemary, he made his way toward the palace, yet he wasn’t entirely certain of his intended victim. Who was the true target of his murderous intent? Rosemary? Or perhaps Elaine himself?

Who was it that ended Iris’s life?

“Don’t be so despondent. Isn’t that right, Iris?”

If she were by my side, she would say, “It’s Rosemary who took my life! I’m the villain here!” And then, she would proceed to recount tales of magic. Without her, I have become so lonely and pessimistic.

“Without you, Master becomes nothing more than an insignificant person, while you find solace in the company of that young king.”

Elaine muttered with a tinge of annoyance as she caressed the small flower. Suddenly, the bedroom door swung open.

“M-Master!”

It was a disciple who entered.

“The Royal Knights have apprehended Usya!”

Elaine sprang to his feet.

That wretch not only took away my stepdaughter but now sets their sights on my disciple! I won’t let you get away with this!

His eyes became filled with a malicious glare.

But soon, that malevolence dissipated.

“What have you done, Usu?”

In the underground prison, Usuya hesitated before his master, who had lost all will to fight and was completely stunned.

“No, I was thinking of you, Master.”

“Thinking of me.”

The eerie ambiance enveloped the room as the teacher mindlessly parroted the words. Usya responded, averting his bewildered gaze.

“Why? Because the atmosphere at the Magic Tower was peculiar. Iris is gone, Master. The Master claimed it was a decision made for Iris’s future, but it was all a ruse! Rossa deceived the Master and tore Iris away from him. They sought to weaken the Master,” Usya explained.