The Kingdom of Everlasting Night and the Last Ball Translation

12.3 The Night and the Food

Ever since that day, Noin discarded his feelings for the one he should’ve loved and decided that he would eventually kill her after handing her to her desired person.

“Therefore, the contract is concluded under the approval of the mediator of Ax Company—thereby, the future of the Kingdom of Fashitar, and the people who lived there, shall be under the behest of the His Royal Highness King of Midnight’s brother—the Spirit King.”

“Yes—oi, what’s with this tax over here?”

“This is a miscellaneous charge for the quality control of the alcoholic beverages.”

“But ain’t the price quite high? Does the fact that it’s Fashitar factor in?”

“Indeed. Since normal tools can’t be used, we shall utilize a magical device that doesn’t consume too much power. In addition, if there’s a place where the magic of the land can be restored after changing the magical zone of the people, we will propose a change of operations again.”

“Alright then, schedule a review to be done every ten years. Also, don’t put this work charge in my quota. I’m not the one who will annihilate the people of that kingdom—they are just paying the price.”

After saying so, Noin turned his eyes to the spirit of death sitting next to him—Tshien. Tshien nodded, even though there was a slight furrow between his eyebrows.

The spirit of death, with his silvery gray hair and ashes green eyes had been roaming around the periphery of the forest for hundreds of years. Only one of him was needed to eliminate all the humans at once.

“If you’re willing to pay that much, then there’s no problem. If the people of the royal palace are entrusted to me, I would be willing to shoulder this particular fee.”

“Now that you mention it, the royal family could be said to be the magician’s direct descendant.”

“That magician’s grandchildren were foolish enough to kill the Gillasfi family. I’m only willing to forgive the last descendant of the Gillasfi—which is his daughter, or maybe I should save one more person…”

“It’s common for contracts to be breached in the human world because the commandments of the past aren’t being passed down properly. Concerning this contract, I sent a researcher to investigate various things, and it seemed that the magician’s contract could be used to make the people of Fashitar pay the price to the King of the Night.”

Due to Noin’s words, Tshien looked up to him unexpectedly.

“…Ho, what a strange story. Let me remind you, I have no intention of forgiving be it him, or his descendants.”

“Of course, if you had the slightest intention of forgiving them, I wouldn’t have allowed humans to build a kingdom on my land.”

“Exactly, that man tried to marry my beloved. I can’t see any possibility of forgiving him without killing him with these hands first.”

That foolish magician tried to marry the wife of a spirit of death—said foolishness earned him a curse instead. If the spirit of death had managed to capture him that day, he would surely have been torn to pieces.

It was even more unfortunate considering Tshien was the spirit of death, an entity that would guide the deceased to the Land of the Dead.

In the end, the magician’s soul couldn’t reach the Land of the Dead, and until today, still had to pay the price.

Someone tried to steal his beloved—the spirit of death, whom had to bear such an insult, wasn’t merciful enough to spare the culprit.

Because spirits were that sort of creatures, not even the fairy tale books of Fashitar could depict them in any other way.

Supposedly, the Kingdom of Fashitar was built by the descendant of the magician after they were driven out to the land of the Night King.

Since Tshien couldn’t kill the magician himself, he imprisoned the entirety of the magician’s descent into said land.

Even Noin himself thought of those people as a nuisance.

He wanted to get rid of people who dared to ruin his land as soon as possible—

—there was only one reason he couldn’t do that.

It was Colhem.

The clan that was driven out to Fashitar from the already perished Kingdom that was Lochmaria, their only saving grace was the strong liquor they produced.

While there were actually many enthusiasts of Colhem, the magician’s clan was the only one with the rights to produce it.

Albeit it’s not just the people of Fashitar who can make Colhem, the loss of the human distributor would prove detrimental to the amount distributed.

The genealogy of the night had a strong penchant for gastronomy.

Amongst them, Noin controlled food and drink. As such, it was detrimental for him to lose a clan who created such an iconic drink.

Colhem is full of alcohol… be it the one produced by Fashitar, or other sources… in either case, I don’t drink.

When he thought about it, he remembered the day he reunited with a certain human child who threw a mix of spices poured with said strong sake that would make even the King of Meal himself jealous—at his face.

The moment he recalled the memory, his fingertips writhe with so much misery.

If the perpetrator were his subordinates, they would be dead already.

But, the reason that human child did that was probably due to desperation.

…Thinking she mustn’t be killed there, she threw such a thing at a non-human…

 

When asked what she wished for—Dia said it was for revenge.

She was a soulless husk of a pitiful human who choose Noin no longer—

instead, her soul was brilliant, to the point it mesmerized Noin. The radiance of her soul was akin to a pale, gleaming, polished knife.

It was only ten years after that stormy night that he discovered that someone had threatened the life of that child.

The funny thing was, the time that should’ve flowed in the blink of an eye felt strangely long—too long. It was as if Noin was counting that decade.

After that incident, he hadn’t removed his protection from that child. He closed his eyes, and kept listening carefully—he realized that he continued to look back for changes.

Due to the state of Fashitar’s magic, he couldn’t detect anything amiss for a while.

After some time, Dia’s protection told him that her body was weakening.

When he visited the palace of Fashitar, he noticed that the humans had started to disregard Dia, as if awaking from a dream—

—was it truly because the fairy’s magic had worn off, or because the humans’ hearts themselves had turned away from magic?

On the same day, Noin killed the knight that was ordered to crush Dia’s legs so she wouldn’t be able to escape her room even if she noticed something wrong.

He was terrified—he hadn’t been able to break off his attachment!

He wondered if he should keep her at arm’s length.

Then, he fed her spirit-made meals, beginning the first step to rebuild her body—

—for some reason, seeing the appearance of Dia, who ate as if it was the first time someone gave her food, tormented his chest.

Any human could die from breaking their promise with a spirit—

—whether it’s the woman the spirit loves, or a child raised by the spirit’s own hands; the spirit will kill them all.

But he has tolerated that child, he let her live—

—so why couldn’t she just be happy, already?

Why, why when he had clearly shown his intent to kill her if she dared to think twice about her revenge, had she only prolonged the contract? Was it truly because of greed?

“Humans are just greedy creatures…” Tshien shrugged.

“…Perhaps you’re right. The people of that kingdom keep asking for salvation from this me, who has nothing to do with their predicament, then they forget the majority of the contract they made in exchange for said salvation just like that.” Said Noin.

“As expected of the descendants of that arrogant magician. What do those human think we are? If you make a contract involving magic and then break it, of course you’ll have to pay for it. If they can’t even understand such a basic thing, the human race will perish.” Said Tshien.

“My, my, when the one saying that is the spirit of death, it becomes more convincing.” Said the Ax Company Demon.


***T/N: …Fuck. Just. Fuck. 

On the same day, Noin killed the knight that was ordered to crush Dia’s legs so she wouldn’t be able to escape her room even if she noticed something wrong.

The Royal Family’s kindness never even stemmed from their own heart but magic, and here I thought they would have a semblance of guilt! No, at this point, it could easily be said that they never possessed any shred of kindness since the start, they never felt any guilt for depriving Dia of her family, and now they are planning to take her out, too. Even the Queen, that main bitch, has the audacity to waltz to Dia’s room and joke about how much her family loved her right before the day Dia was about to be killed–UGH, DIE, DIE, DIEEEEEEE!!!!!! THESE PEOPLE ARE JUST IRREDEEMABLE!!!!!

But he has tolerated that child, he let her live—

—so why couldn’t she just be happy, already?

*Clutch her own chest  …-Dude, you…

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