The World of This Fantasy Novel is in Crisis – Chapter 45

The sun had long since risen, and it was already afternoon by the time the four of them were finally able to have a proper conversation. They gathered at the restaurant attached to the inn.

Before starting the conversation, Rita called over a server.

“Yes, are you ready to order?”

As soon as the server handed her the menu, Rita ran her finger from the top to the bottom of the page.

“We’ll take everything from here to here.”

She ordered an absurd amount of food, likely starving after waking up late. Satin, knowing Rita would be footing the bill, simply marveled inwardly. He had briefly forgotten—Rita was originally a princess. It wasn’t like a meal could put a dent in her wallet.

Cain, who had no clue about Rita’s true identity, might’ve been shocked—but when Satin snuck a glance at him, he just looked unimpressed.

‘Well, Cain’s never really been the cute, reactive type anyway.’

In Dark Age, Rita was older than Cain. Still, Cain had never acted like a charming younger man. The story hadn’t leaned heavily into romance to begin with.

The only one genuinely surprised by Rita’s excessive order was Edward. Having been the first of the group (for now, anyway) to wake up, he had waited for everyone else to come down. He must have been hungry too, yet he still tried to show restraint.

“Miss Rita, ordering more food than one can eat is a sin.”

Hearing Edward’s prim and proper scolding, Rita scratched her ear and shot back.

“Why is it a sin if I’m paying for it?”

“Because it’s wasteful. There are only four of us, and you ordered—what is this—eight, nine… my goodness, eleven dishes?”

Edward glanced at the menu and began counting the dishes, his face going pale in shock. He must have assumed she ordered maybe eight or nine, but counting revealed eleven, and it clearly threw him.

“It’s not wasteful if we don’t leave anything.”

“You’re not making sense. How are just four people supposed to eat all that?”

“You just have to try harder.”

With a cheeky grin, Rita balled up both fists and shouted, “Let’s gooo!” as if cheering Edward on. Of course, no one at the table took it as genuine encouragement.

Edward looked like he wanted to say more, but the owner of the restaurant came out personally with the first dish, cutting him off.

“The next dish will be out soon!”

Clearly delighted that such a small group had placed such a large order, the owner was all smiles. Seeing that cheerful face, Edward found himself unable to continue his lecture on wastefulness.

Dish after dish began to arrive, and before they knew it, the meal began—along with the conversation about the night before.

“So, what exactly were you doing there last night?”

When Rita asked, Cain replied in a flat tone.

“You already know. Why bother asking?”

“Were you casting a curse?”

“What kind of bullshit is that?”

Cain scowled, and Rita responded as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“I figured you were trying to cast a curse or raise the dead.”

“Sorry to disappoint, but I don’t know the formulas for that kind of magic.”

Satin felt slightly moved. He had seriously begun to suspect that Cain might have become a Black Magician—but apparently not. Maybe there was still a 1% chance things wouldn’t spiral back into the Dark Age storyline.

But on second thought, Cain’s words suggested he did know other magic formulas. And last night, he definitely used magic. Satin had seen it with his own eyes.

‘In Dark Age, Cain never used magic…’

Maybe in Part 2 or 3—which he hadn’t read—things changed, but in Part 1, Cain was just a knight. A trainee knight stationed in Cloverland.

But now, Cain was a mage. Physically, he still looked enough like a knight to fool someone, but there was no trace of a sword among his belongings.

‘I heard that becoming a mage raises your social status.’

Satin shot Cain another sidelong glance.

‘Judging by his appearance though…’

He didn’t look shabby, but he didn’t exactly ooze wealth either. His black robe made him look more like a traveler who didn’t want to get their clothes dirty.

Maybe he only knew weak magic—nothing worth flaunting. Maybe he was living quietly out of embarrassment. Satin felt a pang of sympathy. Then again, he didn’t really know what counted as “weak” magic.

“So what kind of magic was it?”

Rita beat Satin to the question he had wanted to ask. Cain answered nonchalantly.

“A sacrifice-offering spell.”

“Are you out of your mind?”

Satin blurted it out without thinking and quickly shut his mouth—but the words had already slipped out and couldn’t be taken back.

Cain’s lips curled slightly. It looked like a smile from a neutral perspective, but Satin couldn’t tell what it actually meant.

“Why do you think I’m crazy?”

“Well, you said you were offering a sacrifice…”

“It’s not the offering that matters, but why I was offering it, don’t you think?”

…Was it? Satin found himself unconsciously swayed by the logic.

At the word sacrifice, his mind had automatically jumped to a human one—but maybe that wasn’t necessarily the case. If it had been for a ritual, or to offer a prayer, then the sacrifice could’ve been food, an object, or even an animal. Though he’d never actually seen anyone in this country perform such rituals.

He asked just to be sure.

“So what was the purpose?”

“To summon the Demon King.”

“You’re insane!”

Another shout escaped his mouth before he could stop it. That wasn’t Cain’s job—it was Satin’s. He wasn’t planning to do it right this moment, but if someone had to summon the Demon King…

‘Do I have to?’

Was it really worth forcing the story back onto its original course when it had already veered so far off track?

‘It’s not like I have to. I don’t even know how to summon the Demon King in the first place.’

But even if the villain was gone, there was no way he could accept the protagonist becoming the villain instead. No way would he allow his sister’s protagonist to go down that path.

Satin decided to try persuading Cain, even if his words didn’t come out all that well.

“I don’t know why you tried to do something like that, but… isn’t it a bad thing? Maybe you should stop?”

“Why is it bad?”

“Black Magicians are dangerous. You could die, or…”

“Wait, what kind of persuasion is that? We should drag this guy to the Temple right now!”

Rita cut Satin off, slamming her fork down on the table. Just then, a server arrived with the next dish, placing it down with a cheerful, “Careful, it’s hot,” before walking away.

“Let’s eat first. No need to get worked up.”

Edward clearly thought wasting food was a bigger problem than apprehending a Black Magician. Rita looked incredulous but still served herself from the new dish. It was steaming hot, but she shoved it into her mouth anyway, yelping, “Hot!” and proving the server’s warning was very much warranted.

The mood was far from serious, and Cain didn’t seem to feel the slightest sense of danger.

“And what exactly do you plan to say after dragging me to the Temple?”

“What do you think? I’d report you as a Black Magician. You know what that means, right? Automatic execution.”

Even with her burned palate, Rita’s pronunciation was crystal clear. Satin inwardly admired her impeccable elocution—truly the product of a fine education.

Cain, however, was entirely unfazed by her threat.

“And on what grounds?”

“What? You said it yourself—you were trying to summon the Demon King!”

“Do you even know what a Black Magician is?”

Cain scoffed. Satin glanced around nervously. Rita had said the night before that she’d explained it to him—had she already forgotten?

Rita frowned, visibly annoyed, as Cain calmly began to recite:

“Do not defile a person’s mind. Do not use life as a tool. Do not disgrace the dead.”

Compared to Cain’s calm demeanor, Rita’s reply was charged with emotion.

“Everybody knows that!”

“Not defiling a person means don’t tamper with their mind. Not using life means don’t experiment on the living.”

“I know that, okay?! But you broke the third one—‘don’t disgrace the dead’!”

“I did?”

“Don’t play dumb. If not, why were you using magic there of all places? In the middle of the night?”

A mage in a black robe, casting magic at a grave site full of buried remains, at an ungodly hour—just reading that description screamed suspicious.

Satin wondered how Cain would try to explain himself. Even Edward, though he continued eating, kept glancing Cain’s way.

Cain didn’t reply. He calmly transferred a portion of the now-cooled dish onto his plate. It didn’t feel like he was buying time because he had no answer—it felt more like he was doing it to be irritating. Only after taking a bite did he finally speak again.

“Do you know who’s buried down there?”

The question came out of nowhere. Rita blinked at him, unable to respond. Cain’s faint smile deepened.

“The dead… means someone who was a person, right?”

“Yeah, so what?”

Rita snapped back, but the smile never left Cain’s face.

“Are you sure those things buried down there were really people?”

“What? Of course they were! What are you even saying?”

“So people are something you toss into a pit and burn like trash?”

“That’s…”

Rita wasn’t from Cloverland. She’d only learned about the cremation pits the day before. But even so, something in Cain’s words made her face fall as if she’d just realized something. Edward also stopped eating.

“Ten people. Twenty. Dozens. Thrown into a pit like diseased cattle. You toss them in, and they land with these sickening thuds. One guy’s arm ends up under someone else’s head, under that someone’s ass—just layer after layer. Then you throw in kindling and light it up. Burns all day long.”

The description was so vivid it felt like he’d seen it himself.

“After everything’s turned to ash, they throw dirt over the top. Any bone dust blowing around gets swept back into the pit with a broom. Once the hole’s filled up, there’s nothing left. No tombstone. No prayers.”

The wide clearing had several of those pits. Satin had always vaguely assumed they were places where people were burned and buried. He’d never thought about the actual process. Probably Rita and Edward hadn’t, either.

“So now answer me again. Are those still people?”

Author: Levia