‘You might not understand, young Grand Duke, but I have my pride too.’
She saved others without wanting anything for herself, yet she called her own life being saved a debt. She said she didn’t need to be swayed by it. She lived so precariously, as if she would suddenly disappear one day, smiling a cold smile and saying, ‘Ah, I made a mistake,’ without needing anyone’s help…
Maybe that was why.
“Feel free to criticize me. It doesn’t matter if you blame me or curse at me. I think it would have been better if Her Highness Princess Titania had criticized me like that.”
Whenever he heard news of Titania, his feet stopped. When he heard she had gone through a major ordeal, he wanted to blame the people around her for what they had been doing. When he heard that no matter what she went through, she rarely got angry and endured it without resenting anyone…
He couldn’t ask her why.
An excuse. Yes, as the Empress said, it was an excuse. If he didn’t use an excuse like this to follow her, the emptiness left by the person who had so casually said, ‘The future Grand Duchess must be very happy,’ was unbearable. Whenever the memories came back to him, Raymond asked himself.
Did Titania smile like that? Did Titania speak like that?
He didn’t know.
Raymond could no longer be certain of anything. He felt like he was wandering in a maze with no end.
“I just want to protect her. As much as I can.”
Because of one person who so casually declared her own emptiness.
Most monsters came from underground. That was common knowledge.
Monsters, strictly speaking, were all living creatures that breathed through a ‘core.’ They didn’t consume normal food; they just generated and used magical energy from within their core just by breathing.
They were mostly hostile to non-monsters. They were the enemies of humanity, who could not communicate with them, could not be tamed, and tried to kill other living creatures.
Ironically, the by-products of monsters were worth money. If their core was destroyed, most monsters died without any strength. However, the by-products of monsters were usually infused with a tremendous amount of power. An intact core was priceless.
Mages were obsessed with studying monsters. They had learned many things through their research. The power extracted from the corpses of monsters that had already lost their cores was mostly not dangerous. If refined well, it could be used like normal magic. After various studies, many magical tools using the power of monsters were distributed to the general public.
However, they also had a taboo.
Do not inject ‘refined magical energy’ into a living creature.
Because it might mutate into a monster.
Whether it was a beast or a human.
Of course, there were always foolish humans.
A baseless rumor spread that the source of monsters’ eternal life was that magical energy. All sorts of dangerous items that supported this rumor were sold secretly.
The Empire was the country where the most monsters appeared on the continent. Even if the founding myth about a sealed monster source was unclear, it was once a country that easily dealt with monsters as if they were killing newborn rats. Although they now only relied on the House of Castrain, they still had an overwhelming amount of by-products.
The House of Castrain was an expert when it came to monsters. And also when it came to processing their by-products. When they traded these items to other countries, they managed them meticulously to ensure that such dangerous goods did not fall into the wrong hands.
However, there were always smuggled goods. Some mercenaries would profit from black-market deals, avoiding the eyes of the House of Castrain.
In the quiet room, only a voice echoed.
“Our family is famous for being merchants. Naturally, we handle all kinds of goods. But we don’t directly handle such dangerous goods. My father always said that drinking water too quickly would make you sick.”
Young Count Cortez, Flux, who had revealed his identity, smiled in a strange, bright way.
“My father trusts me a lot and has entrusted this city to me for a few years. Even though my subordinates do the practical work… I know my father’s attachment to this city so well that I tried my best, thinking he recognized me. So much so that I learned about the existence of the back-alley auction house in this city and thought I shouldn’t ignore it.”
There was always a black market somewhere. For the largest trading city in the South, it would be strange if there wasn’t one.
Of course, even Flux didn’t delude himself into thinking he could eliminate all the back-alley auction houses or control them. The customers there could be anyone, and the identity of the big shots was unknown. Whether the Count of Cortez could handle those big shots was also uncertain.
Flux just thought, ‘It’s my city. I should at least know what’s going on.’
Furthermore, he couldn’t find out who the real owners of this back-alley auction house were or what kind of support they had. He just had to keep a close eye on them, as he didn’t know what would happen if he rashly meddled.
Then one day.
“I secretly sent a veteran mercenary who worked in the North to that auction house. Usually, he would just quietly take note and report the situation secretly. But one day, he called me urgently. He said it was something we couldn’t ignore.”
A truly “dangerous item” was put up for auction. When Flux rushed to the auction house at the call of the person who recognized it…
“I only remember the sound of something popping. By the time I came to my senses, I was in this state.”
The problematic item exploded, and everyone nearby died. Thanks to the mercenary who belatedly covered Flux, he was the only one who survived.
He tried to find out who the organizers of the back-alley auction house were, who had brought in the item, and why it had exploded underground. But they had erased all traces and disappeared as if it were a lie.
Flux was injured.
It was an injury that words couldn’t describe.
The capillaries in the whites of his eyes all burst, and his vision was completely red.
His hands and feet were powerless, and the black marks, as if they had been burned, grew larger day by day. He lost his strength, and his limbs twisted. His body grew thinner by the day.
It was, on the surface…
Like he was mutating into a monster while still alive.
“At first, my father called a priest. But the priest’s power didn’t work. Isn’t that funny? They say they can drive away monsters and heal people’s wounds with holy power. But they can’t save me? My father handed the priest a huge amount of money and even knelt, begging him to tell us a way. The priest said I could get better if I used the holy object kept in the temple.”
A holy object kept in the temple and only revealed during the Votive Offering.
Only the imperial family could touch it directly.
Many people thought the Votive Offering was just a useless ceremony. To the general public, the northern and southern barriers seemed infinitely strong. Monsters sometimes appeared through the cracks in the barrier, and there were monster attacks inland, but they were mostly regarded as ferocious wild animals.
Of course, Count Cortez was not a fool. He knew the significance of the fact that even though the Votive Offering was disregarded, a direct member of the imperial family still came every summer and winter to shed their own blood.
What if something went wrong with the southern barrier?
What if monsters invaded? The city itself would be destroyed. There would be incalculable damage.
However, he had an only son. The only son left behind by his sickly wife.
He was intelligent, never had any foolish ideas, and was so quick-witted that he would be a good heir to take over the family business.
He had more than enough money and information.
So he first thought, Let’s buy all the things that are similar to holy objects. But obtaining such “items” was not easy. For one, things called ‘holy objects’ were almost all owned by the temple, and it was said that most of the items containing fragments of divine power that had similar effects were kept by the House of Castrain.
He tried to call all kinds of mages, but there was no improvement. Some even claimed that he couldn’t recover naturally unless he brought an ancient spirit user, whose existence was uncertain.
Even when he barely managed to get something, his condition didn’t get any better.
So Count Cortez finally bribed a priest from the southern temple to take out the holy object. And he gave it to Flux. He was planning to use it for a while and then return it.
Flux’s condition showed a slight improvement. But…
