The sealed chambers seed to be covered with a layer of ancient dust. Arthur and Tiara made their way through them, looking for the queen. It took them a while to find her, sitting amidst countless books, strange flasks, and ancient diagrams.
"Mother?" called Tiara to avoid scaring the queen, but she didn't even turn toward her. The queen of Janea was burying her face in a certain book, unaware of her surroundings. Tiara approached, touching her shoulder, which made the queen flinch. Read latest stories on empire
"Tia?" muttered the queen in a daze. "What are you doing here? And… Lord Sil… Netherborne too?" The queen looked at them in confusion. "How did you make it past the guards?"
"Arthur knocked them out," Tiara explained as she touched her mother's forehead. "Are you alright, Mother? You seem pale."
"I will be fine…" the queen said as she rubbed her temples. "I guess you two are here to learn more about the Dark Prince – my brother, right? There is no other reason."
"That's correct," Arthur said with a nod. "The rescue team, including Diana, has gone missing for the past few hours. I have combed through the forest for them, but no traces could be found. It's as if… they just vanished."
"That's exactly what happened with my brother," the queen said with a worried face. "Although the crown rejected him and cursed him with an eternity of suffering, we never found traces of him after he fell down the cliff."
"Tiara told a little about what happened," Arthur said as he raised a hand to take out a chair from his spatial box and place it in front of the queen to sit. "But I want to hear the details about what happened."
"There isn't much to discuss," the queen said with a sigh. "My brother and I used to be close. However, the more we grew, the more it beca apparent to my parents that I deserved the crown more. News reached my brother, and it made him… change."
"How long ago was this?" Arthur asked while examining the walls and bookshelves. "It looks like at least fifty years since this place was last cleaned."
"It was forty years ago," the queen answered. "Elves have a long lifespan, almost thrice as long as humans do. It seems that our affinity to nature slows down the side effects that ti has on our bodies."
"Wait, does that an…?" Arthur turned toward Tiara with confusion, since this incident happened forty years ago. It ans that she was at least in her forties. "How old are you, Tiara?"
"…forty-seven," the princess said with a blushing face. "But if we compare my age to humans, I'm almost eighteen. I…"
"I never understood the younger generation's desire to appear younger," the queen interrupted her daughter. "In the past, elves used to value age because it brings wisdom. At the mont, everyone wants to look younger."
Arthur was silent, shocked that Tiara was that old. It made sense for her to be eighteen, since she looked so young. However, she still retained her child-like innocence despite her age. "Please continue," Arthur told the queen.
"My brother wasn't always corrupted. At the beginning, he took an interest in spirits and dungeons. Then, it began growing into sothing darker after he ca back from a dungeon one day."
"A dungeon?" muttered Arthur with surprise. "What kind of dungeon?"
"…the Dungeon of Envy, Invidia," the queen revealed with a pained expression. "We didn't think anything of it since the dungeon closed shortly after. However, strange things began happening around the kingdom. Elves went missing, and no one knew what was happening."
"The Dungeon of Envy…" Arthur muttered in surprise. Although the Sins Dungeons existed in their world, not all of them remained uncleared. For example, Invidia was a dungeon that once existed but was cleared by an unknown awakener.
"As you would imagine, my brother's personality began taking a turn for the worse. He began growing more isolated, and there were instances where I found him talking to himself. It was… sad and scary."
"I never knew about Invidia," muttered Tiara with a frown. "How co none of the elves knew?"
"I kept that secret because I didn't want panic to spread. If my brother indeed beca the Sin of Envy, we would need to kill him. I still believed that… he could be rescued from the darkness."
Arthur was silent, and the air grew thick and dark between them. The queen knew what he was thinking, and she sighed with a burdened smile.
"I know that I was foolish for believing that, but you have a younger brother too, right?" The queen looked him in the eyes, her green erald eyes creating a strange connection between them. "You should understand how I felt at that ti."
Arthur had to change his mind as he put himself in her shoes. If Oren indeed fell into corruption and beca one of the calamities, he wouldn't be able to kill him, no matter what he did. He would still see him as the child following him around and reaching out toward his hand.
"My brother proved that it was impossible to redeem him once I found his dungeon of elves," the queen said with a disgusted face. "It wasn't just elves. There were countless victims, including humans and giants, that beca subjects of his experints."
"What kind of experints?" Arthur asked with a frown.
"Envy is a strange emotion, is it not?" the queen answered his question with another. "It seems that it allows the user, or the chosen one, to rob others of their abilities and powers. However, it can also affect the physical realm and corrupt anything it touches, just like envy."
"Did he steal the abilities of those he kidnapped?" Arthur asked, but he already knew the answer when he saw the queen nod. "I guess that would make less guilty of killing him if the chance arises."
"I felt the sa way at the ti, but I lost. Before I could warn my parents and the rest of the elves, my brother already stole the dearest treasure to my heart."
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