“D…dead?”
The butler’s words sent Leviaanse’s mind reeling. She grabbed his collar, her voice sharp with fury.
“What nonsense are you spouting? Mother was perfectly fine just yesterday—”
Her outburst echoed through the hall… The servants and guards passing by all took notice of her arrival.
They exchanged glances with one another, and in no time, murmurs and whispers filled the entire hall.
“Quiet.”
A high steward emerged from the crowd, her single sharp command temporarily silencing the servants’ commotion.
She walked up to Leviaanse and spoke.
“Please accept my condolences, Lady Leviaanse. The head of the household has indeed passed away.”
“Lucia…”
The female butler’s flat, emotionless statement made Leviaanse slowly release the butler’s collar she had been clutching.
This woman named Lucia was one of the highest-ranking stewards serving the elders of the main family district… She was one of the few people in the family capable of relaying Mother’s instructions.
“I want to see for myself. Take me to her.”
She pressed a hand to her forehead, steadying the slight sway of her body.
“As you wish. Please follow me.” Lucia bowed to her, then issued instructions for everyone to resume their duties.
As she was led down the spiral staircase, Leviaanse’s mind remained a blank haze—Mother was dead?
The one who forged a legend in ancient times, who crossed a thousand years on her long lifespan, who had weathered countless wars and upheavals and yet still stood strong—had she died so quietly, without a sound?
Leviaanse’s first reaction was disbelief. For so long, Mother’s shadow had loomed over her.
But that wasn’t because Mother was strict with her… On the contrary, in the seven hundred-plus years she had lived, Mother had paid her almost no attention at all.
She had always focused solely on her younger sister, Iruna.
Whether she kept herself pure or indulged in pleasure, Mother never seemed to care.
Her position within the family had grown with her age, and the affairs she could manage had multiplied.
Yet Mother’s gaze so rarely lingered on her—as if she simply didn’t exist.
Am I still not good enough? Have I not yet become what Mother hoped I would be?
Those thoughts had turned into a shadow that haunted her heart endlessly.
Sometimes she thought it was childish and laughable for someone who had already crossed half of her life to carry such worries… but she could never quite drive them from her heart—
No matter how much time passed, she couldn’t.
If Iruna hadn’t died, would Mother have handed the family’s affairs to me like this, making me acting head? And if she were to die one day, would she choose Nefi as her successor, or me?
Occasionally she would ponder these questions, but she never found an answer. Now the answer had come rushing to find her… and she had no idea what to do.
Under the butler Lucia’s guidance, she arrived before Mother’s meditation chamber.
Along the way, she asked Lucia about the purpose of the facilities they passed, and received the same replies as always—
“Those are the storehouses for magic stones.”
She didn’t directly ask about the place Iyue had described as being for “silent reflection”… but neither did she see any similar place.
She only saw servants carrying magic stones in and out.
Perhaps… further below?
She lowered her head and gazed into the deep darkness below.
“I am Lucia. I have brought Lady Leviaanse.”
Lucia gave her no time for reflection. She placed her hand upon the patterns carved into the door, and the great doors swung open with a heavy boom.
The last time Leviaanse had come here was when Mother appointed her as acting head of the family.
The walls of the chamber were covered with hollow vines, faintly glowing liquid mana surging within them.
And where they all converged stood the crystal coffin at the center of the room.
Leviaanse walked toward it.
Many people had already gathered. The most senior elders of the family had arrived.
They were among the few who could set foot in this forbidden underground ground.
They stood around the crystal coffin, expressions grave; several servants and high stewards clearly tasked with maintenance stood in the corners of the room.
Among them, a scribe was busy recording. The soft scratching of his pen against paper drifted through the air.
“Veser… you’re late.”
Her arrival drew everyone’s attention. An old woman with snow-white hair and a cane turned her head.
She was one of the family’s elders whose seniority ranked just below the head of the household, and her voice was as stern as ever.
“Lady Gloria. You are well aware of what has happened in the forest recently.”
Leviaanse gave her a slight bow, then walked straight to the crystal coffin.
The elders before her frowned slightly but still made way for her.
Lying in the coffin was indeed Mother… the great elf known as Irevelian Nelf.
Her aged and withered body had been dressed in a white robe, hands folded over her abdomen… but faint stains of liquid mana seeped through the fabric.
The wrinkles on her face were far deeper than in Leviaanse’s memory.
She lay with her eyes quietly closed, skin as dry as dehydrated bark, lips completely bloodless.
“Veser, what are you doing?”
Seeing Leviaanse reach toward the head of the household’s remains, the surrounding elders erupted in alarm and anger.
“Please forgive me, honored elders.”
She pressed her hand against her mother’s neck, then laid her palm flat over her chest. No pulse. No breath.
There was no warmth of life left in this body—only the vast lingering echo of liquid mana that had drained away.
It’s true… Mother is dead.
“It was one of the maintenance servants who first noticed,” the old woman named Gloria said slowly.
“The liquid mana flowed back… the mana circulation ceased. Neither mage nor physician could do anything.”
“Mother… you just died like this?”
Leviaanse’s withdrawn hand hung limply at her side.
For all these years, she had awaited this day without cease—longed for the moment when Mother’s shadow would lift from her heart.
But if she’s dead, who will give me the answers?
The “silent reflection” that Iruna and Nefi underwent, the reason she paid me no mind all these years yet entrusted me with such a heavy responsibility at the very end… will it all be carried into the coffin now, to sleep forever beneath the deep forest?
“The head of the household has passed, so the funeral rites cannot be delayed.” Another elder coughed twice, breaking the silence. “This is a grave matter.”
“Funeral rites?” A voice of opposition immediately rose.
“Don’t you know the situation in the city right now? The royal court suspects our family of ties to treason! The rulers of the four forest cities were already pressuring us not long ago… If they learn of the head’s death, they’ll seize on it immediately.”
“Compared to those matters, isn’t the succession the most urgent thing now? Veser still carries the suspicion of treason… and Nefi remains unconscious. I believe we should re-examine the matter of inheritance rights given the current circumstances…”
“We should find the head’s will first, shouldn’t we?”
“What about the family’s officers in the ranger corps? We need to recall them at once…”
Leviaanse watched the family’s high-ranking members gathered around her… Not a single one of them grieved for the head’s passing.
The only things they discussed were always the family’s future, the family’s survival—
I should be one of them, too. But why… does my heart ache so much? Why has that dark cloud… still not dispersed?
Leviaanse clutched her chest, thinking just that.