BLACK MOON - Black Magic War Beginning with Jailbreak - [Full story illustration available]

Episode 3: Elbba Castle/Elba Castle

"What's going on..."

"Let's go to those who make noise. Let's hurry."

Bell and Knight run out so that they are suddenly drawn to the ringing shock sound. The ruins district is off-limits to the general public, and there can be no loud noise like the one earlier.

I mean, that shock sound is likely caused by a suspicious person.

Dawn. Dawn.

Then again, the shock sounds echo through the ruins district. It was as if they were calling two knights.

"Near"

"Mr. Knight, look up there"

"This... Belle, I'm going after the orb"

Ever since the second impact sound occurred, there have been anomalies in the ruins district. An orb drifting all over the ruins district suddenly began to travel in unison, aiming somewhere.

Mysterious shock sounds, and moving orbs. Is someone trying to lure two people out?

Following the moving orb, Bell and Knight push to the source of the sound.

Running for a while, the two stopped on their feet. The herd of orbs they were chasing stopped the movement.

Orbs throughout the ruins district were assembled over one ruin. Below it is the largest abandoned castle in the ruins district. The abandoned castle was bigger and more splendid than any other abandoned castle and emitted a distinctly heterogeneous atmosphere. As with other abandoned castles, there is loneliness and wrath involved, but its majesty has not been lost.

"This place..."

"Do you have any idea?

On the face of Knight, who stopped in front of the abandoned castle, there is a clear upset.

"This is... the castle where Emperor Elba lived during the Empire. Elba Castle."

"This is..."

Knight was shaking. There is no evidence yet, but previous circumstances have implicitly shown that Valentis' suspicious figure is "Elba's Will Successor”.

"Anyway, let's go inside"

"But it could be a trap, right?

"I don't mind. Either way, we have to investigate the suspicious. I need to be ready."

"... let's go"

As he took a deep breath and prepared his breath, Knight opened the door to Elba Castle. A slightly less enthusiastic bell also breaks into Elba Castle after Knight.

Waiting for the two first was a luxurious entrance. The entrance was lined with countless sculptures, creating a unique atmosphere. The sculpture also looks like a demon and gives a creepy impression.

And there was a giant chandelier hanging on the ceiling. It looks like a chandelier made of beautiful gems, but now it has completely lost its brilliance. A spider's nest stretches across the chandelier, with no shadow of former beauty.

It is now an abandoned castle, so to speak, the castle of the Empire, which used to extremes its prosperity. It's badly dirty on one side of the perimeter, and the soil and worm carcasses outside the castle are rolling all over it. It was difficult to imagine what it used to be from there.

"It was so beautiful at the time, but now I'm lonely..."

"Huh? Mr. Knight, have you lived since the time of the Elba Empire?

"That's not true. I was just interfering with the memory of an orb drifting in the castle."

Knight Dissenber was not only an orb retriever, but also a black magician (grigori) who excelled in the investigation. It's also before breakfast for him to get information from memories left in orbs drifting through the universe.

"What the hell is going on in this castle..."

"I don't know that yet. Anyway, let's go back. Because I have a pretty good view of the castle."

Using the power of fantasy (regro), Knight even grasped the structure within Elba Castle. With or without him, the difficulty of this mission would have changed dramatically. Knowing nothing about the information in Elba Castle, Bell follows Knight to avoid deviation.

⁉ ︎

"What's wrong with you?

Shortly after he began to make his way through the castle, Knight suddenly frowned.

"Hmm? Ah... I feel like there's an orb in this castle that I've never felt before"

"There are so many ancient orbs, isn't that what happens?

"... Something's wrong. I hope I'm just overthinking it."

Don't be scared, Mr. Knight.

Knight, who was twice as orb-sensitive as man, had felt some inexplicable presence within Elba Castle. I still don't know if that's just a rare orb or a suspicious person orb.

Then a while later, the two of them went out to the great hall in the back. The place, where balls and such would once have been held, was now a desolate, squalid space. The red carpet laid on one side of the floor is also faded and worn out.

But there was nothing in this space. If you look up, there's a frightening number of orbs hissing near the ceiling. Even as he broke into the castle, Knight was on his way to the gathering of orbs.

…………

Knight had been observing the orb herd's movements for some time after entering the Great Hall. Bell, who doesn't know what to do, dares to imitate Knight and observe the orb.

‼ ︎

"The orb is... moving up"

After a while, a herd of orbs gathered in the Great Hall showed decisive movement. Orbs swarming the ceiling of the Great Hall began to slip through the ceiling and move up one floor after the other. Orbs can slip through matter, just like ghosts.

"What's on this?

"... on this, there is a throne"

⁉ ︎

Something above the Great Hall. It was the throne on which the emperor once ruled the empire sat. Would you say that there is someone between the thrones that no one will ever sit on?

"Orbs from all over the ruins district are assembled on the throne of this castle"

"I mean, what do you say?

"I don't want to think about it, but so far the situation is increasing the likelihood that the suspicious person is" Elba's Will Successor ”"

"I've been thinking," Who's going to inherit Elba's will, "is he that bad?

"We're after the overthrow of the state. It's not dangerous. There's definitely something between the thrones on this."

The presence of "Elba's Will Successor” came with a sense of realism. To that fact, Knight had an unspeakable fear. Elba's anecdote, which says he manipulated strange powers, drives Knight's fear.

"Anyway, let's go upstairs. Our purpose is to investigate suspicious persons, right?

"Oh, yeah."

Night nods anxiously, aiming for the Elba Castle Throne Room. Knight, who interfered with Orb's memory, had some accurate grasp of the in-castle view.

As if he had visited this castle many times, Knight moves on without hesitation.

Knight had an uneasy look on his face all the way up the stairs leading to the top floor where the Throne Room was located. With bottomless anxiety, Knight continues up the extended stairs.

"Here..."

Gokuri......

After a short run around the castle, the two stood in front of a very large door. The door gave off a majestic atmosphere from which even a long and endless history could be felt.

"Belle, you don't have to knock on this door on purpose."

"Huh?"

"Anyone who succeeds Elba's will ahead of us must have known we were coming."

Shortly after he said that, Knight pushed the door open like he had cemented his resolve. He opens the door forcefully, as he waves away the fear he has had so far.

I didn't even freak out at first, but slowly the door opened. At that time, an indescribable strange sound rang in the castle.

"Long time no see... little killer."

⁉ ︎

Open the door or no, before anything else, two hearings sensed the presence of the enemy.

Next, two sights confirm the appearance of the enemy. At the end of the door, there is certainly a suspicious figure that Bell and Knight have sought.

For more than 100 years, between the abandoned thrones, the appearance was no different from that of the rest of the castle. The throne nestled in the middle of the room is no exception. The entire throne is intertwined with a pair of spider nests strewn from there to the wall.

There is, indeed, a "suspicious figure” reported by the King Sertrian Army, but there is no sense of life at all. The state of it is still a haunted mansion.

…………

Oh, my God, that's disgusting.

Before that throne stood the "Suspicious Person”, the object of this mission. The person, dressed in a black suit, is wearing a Homburg hat.

Faces and hands peeking through sleeves were oddly blacker than suits. It was like a bottomless darkness.

What was more creepy than anything else was the eyes floating in its face. Only one eye floats on his face as black as a shadow. The eyes, in contrast to the body, were yellow and glowing. A one-eyed gentleman with dark eyes all over his body. That was what the suspicious person looked like.

"... Murderer? Who the hell are you talking about? Who the hell are you?

Naturally Knight could not understand the words of a single-eyed gentleman. Neither Bell nor Knight has ever met the single-eyed gentleman in front of them. The first words he unleashed only deepened the mystery.