Path of the Extra

“What did you… just say?”

Azriel’s voice came out hoarse. He watched the Grandmaster with caution and alarm.

The Grandmaster let out a small, weary sigh.

“I know everything—from the moment my eldest was in the same palace as the skinwalker disguised as the prince, to the moment the Great Divine Star Spirit Emperor made a deal with her in her weakest hour, took advantage of her, and shackled her in an endless forest so he could copy her [unique skill].”

Hearing those words, Azriel stared at him, stunned. Slowly, his face shifted; his jaw tightened until his teeth ground together.

“So you knew all along… and you did nothing? Just hiding in this village, staring at the trees that are part of your daughter? Did you think she felt your gaze day and night—that this was how you showed support? Ah, a Grandmaster—one of the strongest humans in this world—watching from between the trees while his daughter cried in misery. What—were you too ashamed to show your face to her?”

The air grew heavy again.

“You think I was a Grandmaster from the very beginning?” the man asked quietly.

Azriel clenched his teeth harder, but the Marquis went on.

“You think I wouldn’t recognize my own daughter’s [unique skill]? You think I truly ignored her suffering? That I truly abandoned her? That I stayed in this village because I felt ’a bit bad’ about everything? You think I didn’t spend every waking moment of this miserable life searching for a way to get her out—until I learned it was impossible?”

With each word, his voice chilled; with each sentence, more of what he had buried bled through—grief, anger, hatred. Azriel opened his mouth, but the Marquis’s cold words cut him off.

“All this hate you’re aiming at me—it’s as if it wasn’t only that my daughter gave you her heart; it’s as if she also took another. It feels like you’re forcing these emotions onto me. Why? Is it truly for her sake? Did you care for her that much?”

Azriel pressed his lips together.

’I…’

“…I was the one who sent that skinwalker to my daughter that day,” the Marquis said.

Badump!

“Wh… what?”

Azriel blinked, trying to process the words. He sat on the ground and stared up at the Marquis, who looked down at him with fists clenched so tightly that blood pattered onto the dirt. Around them lay shattered trees and dead birds.

“Prince Lykos came to my estate that day,” the Marquis said. “He stood at my door. I knew he’d been gone those last two years, waging war against the Kingdom of the Moon… I never suspected he was dead. He—he was so excited to see her. I didn’t question it. I always knew his love for her. Before he left for the war, he told me he would propose when he returned. So when he finally stood there… I was excited too.”

He lifted his fist and stared at it, then opened his hand. Blood slid down his palm.

“If I hadn’t been blinded by my emotions… I might have realized he wasn’t Prince Lykos. I might have looked harder before telling him where my daughter was. I might have wondered why, in the name of the Sun, he never asked for Mio to be in the royal capital without me…”

He looked at Azriel.

“It was already too late by the time I sensed the dreadful presence that thing was hiding. And before I knew it… I was unconscious.”

Azriel looked at him and tried to hide any trace of emotion.

“…then why the hell did you send her to the royal capital on her own?”

The Marquis met his eyes, and a heavy melancholy moved through him.

“…It was the only way I knew to protect her from him back then.”

“…from who?”

“…the second prince—now the King of Ismyr.”

Azriel’s eyes widened at once.

“What does he have to do with Lady Mio in all of this?”

The Marquis exhaled, long and ragged.

“He was the one who told the little duke to do what he had to—while, at the same time, winning the affection of my youngest. He made a deal with the little duke, promising he’d become duke. He spread vile rumors about Mio and made sure she was isolated from everyone. To keep her safe, I had no choice but to send her to the royal capital. It was the safest option I had.”

Azriel frowned, bewildered.

“How? How is bringing her to the doorstep of the bastard who set all this up anywhere close to safe?”

He glared at the Marquis, whose fists clenched again. His body trembled; for the first time, Azriel watched that face crumple with the same hatred he felt.

“Because if I didn’t do what I did,” the Marquis said, his voice breaking, “he was going to grind everything she was into the dirt—her name, her dignity, her worth. All of it.”

His aura broke loose, turning violent and cold. The world tilted. Azriel caught himself on his hands, stomach roiling. Air thinned; he clawed at his throat, trying desperately to breathe.

“I heard the rumor—only I did,” the Marquis went on.

“He… he was planning to have her kidnapped. That demon meant to have her raped, over and over, until there was nothing left of her.”

Azriel looked up, forgetting his own struggle for air.

“And when she was utterly ruined,” the Marquis whispered, “he would take advantage. He would make her his—forever.”

The pressure vanished. Azriel dragged in a breath, but the words in him would not move.

“…So the only way I could see to stop that demon was to lie.”

He looked at Azriel with eyes already dead.

“I told him my daughter was going to the royal capital because she was interested in him. Knowing her, I knew she would never admit to his face that she wasn’t. I proposed that—if he wished—an engagement could be discussed, all while hiding the fact that I knew of his plan. It was the only way I could buy time, to find a clean way out of this. Back then, the prince was stronger than I was. I needed a way to bring him down, even if it meant sacrificing my daughter’s happiness a little longer.”

He lifted his gaze to the sky.

“Ahhh…” He exhaled loudly.

“How foolish I was to think I had time.”

Watching him, Azriel lowered his head and clenched his fists.

’This is so messed up…’

How was any of this fair?

It never should have happened.

The Marquis spoke again while Azriel stared at the ground.

“Once—when she was ten—she used her [unique skill].”

Azriel’s head snapped up.

“Her [unique skill] never demanded much mana, strangely. Even now I don’t understand how it works. But she activated it back then… A child’s curiosity can’t be stopped.”

For the smallest moment, Azriel saw the Marquis’s mouth lift. A ghost of a smile.

“Before I knew it, the entire garden was covered in trees. That day I realized something: the longer her [unique skill] stays active, the stronger the spell becomes—the more easily it traps others in an endless nightmare. As a child, only small animals fell prey, not people. I learned something else then…”

He met Azriel’s eyes.

“The longer she keeps her [unique skill] active, the more she becomes the Forest of Eternity—until, one day, she is the Forest of Eternity. Forever.”

The Marquis pressed his lips together.

“When I came to, two days had passed… and everyone was talking about a mysterious new forest in the south. I already knew it was my daughter. It was my Mio—not some mysterious new forest.”

“…”

“I left for the forest immediately, with all my men. We were racing a clock. Mio wasn’t a child anymore like the last time she activated it; the spell would be stronger, and she would become the Forest of Eternity unless we found her in time and pulled her free. But…”

He ground his teeth, grief twisting his face as he met Azriel’s eyes.

“We never found her.”

“…!”

“We searched day after day without rest. More men went in. After the first week, they started growing drowsier than they should have been. Some who slept that night never woke up. Still, we kept searching. Then it wasn’t a week—it was only a few days—and more fell asleep and never rose. Fatigue grew heavier. Soon, it took just a single night: if anyone closed their eyes, they did not wake again. Sleep stopped being an option. We pushed deeper each time, hunting for the heart of it. But by the time I looked back… none of my men were with me. I was alone.”

His expression went as dark as the forest canopy.

“But this time I didn’t turn my back on her. I refused to. So I kept walking. Even when sleep clawed at me. Every step felt like a stumble into oblivion. My thoughts thinned to threads, then to nothing. I stopped feeling. I stopped blinking. But I walked. I wandered forever, because I had to find her—though my mind and body were breaking. I never found her. Instead, the devil found me.”

Azriel exhaled a shaky breath.

“…Pollux.”

The Marquis gave a heavy nod, looking down as if to pin his aura in place.

“Like a miracle, his presence alone healed me. Because of him, the spell couldn’t touch me. And when I looked at him… it was like looking at a god.”

He lifted his gaze to Azriel, eyes dazed, as if even he couldn’t believe his own words.

“He was so powerful. And yet… he was kind.”

’Kind?’ Azriel doubted what he’d heard.

“He told me what happened that day. That ’Prince Lykos’ was a skinwalker. That my daughter lured it here and activated her [unique skill] to defeat it. That he—seeing her sacrifice—stepped in and held the skinwalker at bay, though he was wounded and couldn’t do more.”

Azriel shook his head.

“No, that… that isn’t—”

“I know.”

The Marquis looked at him and nodded once.

“I… know.”

Silence settled between them.

“He made the village,” the Marquis said at last.

“He shielded it from the spell and the trees, kept every void creature from entering. He carved an underground tunnel so there would always be a way out. I saw his power with my own eyes—no man compares. It’s… divine. And this man, with that power, told me that if I wanted to help her, I had to become strong. So I did as he said. I lived in the village. I brought more men and women into the forest and swore them to secrecy. I searched for any way—any—to bring my daughter back. Years passed. Nothing worked. The people gave up before I did. They settled, made the village a real one, kept it hidden from the world. I stopped caring about them and let them be… while I kept searching and hardening myself.”

He gave a laugh with no smile in it—an empty, brittle sound.

“The day I finally became a Grandmaster, he visited me again.”

Azriel’s eyes widened.

“And he told me the truth. What really happened.”

Azriel’s gaze trembled. The Marquis began to breathe in short, ragged pulls. He broke into a cough and dropped to his knees. Azriel reached toward him—but the next words froze him where he stood.

“The rumor that my daughter would be raped… was a lie. It was a seed he planted in my mind. The second prince… he wasn’t that far gone. Not then. It was all part of… the devil’s plan.”