Chapter 6
Eden’s homeland—the Seimon royal family—and the Duke of Partine were both descendants of the great mage Meldion.
The two children Meldion bore became the founding king of Seimon and the first Duke of Partine, respectively.
Over the long years, their bloodline became so distant it was hard to even call them relatives anymore.
They lived in entirely different countries now—practically strangers.
It had already been over a thousand years since Meldion’s death.
Yet suddenly, the Duke of Partine began to obsess over Meldion’s bloodline.
He started seeking out every family that shared Meldion’s blood, even if they weren’t direct descendants.
What the Duke sought was someone among them who had been born with mana.
But all his efforts were in vain. Not a single person within the Empire bore mana.
As if punishing her descendants who had killed her, anyone with even a trace of Meldion’s blood was just an ordinary human without mana.
Still, the Duke of Partine didn’t give up and kept searching for another way.
If he couldn’t find one, he would create one.
Elysia and Ariel weren’t born—they were essentially created out of the Duke’s greed.
He seduced Isabella, a candidate for the next Tower Master, derailing her promising future with false love and fathered Elysia.
The year Elysia was born—
Before even properly wiping the blood off her body, the Duke’s first concern was checking whether Elysia’s blood contained mana.
He didn’t spare a glance at Isabella, her forehead sticky with sweat and strands of hair plastered down.
—”There’s none?”
—”Yes. People born with mana are rare to begin with, so it’s not unusual…”
—”Then she’s useless.”
With that single sentence, the Duke handed off the crying Elysia to Rachel, who clutched the child with trembling arms and stared at him in shock.
The Duke walked out toward the door without a backward glance, knowing Rachel was watching him.
To him, there was nothing left to see here.
—“Darling.”
Isabella’s hoarse voice cut through the sound of Elysia’s crying.
Only then did the Duke slightly turn his head toward the bedridden Isabella.
Her eyes were bloodshot with burst capillaries from the pain.
—“Please love the child.”
I already know you don’t love me.
She kept the rest of her thoughts inside and continued.
—“She’s your child too, not just mine.”
Rachel nearly collapsed from the loss of strength in her body but clenched her teeth and held on.
If not for the warmth of Elysia in her arms, she would’ve collapsed right there.
—“Please.”
A desperate voice begged—not for herself, but for the baby who had just come into the world, eyes still shut, wailing helplessly.
But the answer was as cold and hopeless as Isabella’s voice.
—“Do better next time.”
‘Bastard!’
Elysia, unable to contain her rage, covered her eyes and cursed him silently.
Just as the Duke said, Ariel came next—and the circumstances were no different.
Thankfully, or perhaps tragically, the Duke didn’t hope for a third.
The illness Isabella contracted after giving birth to Elysia worsened drastically after Ariel was born.
The doctor said even if she became pregnant again, neither the mother nor the fetus would survive, and so the Duke gave up on a third child.
It wasn’t out of concern for Isabella—just the logic that there was no point in something that wouldn’t survive.
Of course, giving up on a third child didn’t mean the Duke had given up on Meldion’s legacy.
Who would’ve thought he’d reach as far as the kingdom?
Even as a reader, Elysia shuddered at the Duke’s greed after discovering Eden’s true identity.
Since she hadn’t finished the novel, Elysia didn’t even know what Meldion’s legacy really was.
That’s why she began studying history more intensively to fill in the gaps in her knowledge.
Thanks to that, she learned that both the Seimon royal family and the Duke of Partine were descendants of Meldion.
And additionally, that Meldion had been killed by her own two children.
According to history, Meldion was a mage so powerful she was barely considered human.
She could do anything—except bring back the dead.
When Meldion first became known to the world, people praised her birth, believing she would bring great blessings to mankind.
But that belief didn’t last long.
She turned out to be not a savior, but a catastrophe.
Meldion saw human life as trivial and treated their existence no better than livestock.
With a mere wave of her hand, hundreds died. Thousands were drained of their mana and perished.
There were far more people who bled and died at her feet than those she had saved.
Overflowing mana, magic beyond comprehension—
The most astonishing thing was that Meldion retained her youthful appearance even after her children reached adulthood.
Because they couldn’t grasp her limits, people began to question her very nature.
Is that really human?
The answer came much later.
Despite her youthful appearance, Meldion’s body was deteriorating from within, unable to withstand her own mana.
Like a person afflicted with disease, her body was dying from the inside.
But Meldion soon found a solution.
She began extracting her mana and storing it in one place.
Naturally, there were side effects.
Her spells became restricted, and their power decreased.
The first to notice Meldion’s declining state were her own children.
After decades, they finally discovered her weakness.
Elysia and Eden’s ancestors, Meldion’s own offspring, didn’t miss the opportunity.
They immediately sided with humanity and gave their all to kill their mother.
Meldion’s cruelty had driven even her children to turn their backs on her.
Thus began a war to kill a single person.
It raged day and night.
After several years, Meldion finally knelt before mankind.
Humanity rejoiced, and Meldion—her eyes gouged out—could only listen to their cheers.
Accepting that death was near, she raised her hollowed sockets and screamed in fury:
—“I’ll take back everything I gave you.”
Blood dripped from Meldion’s empty eyes.
Raising her head with effort, she glared at her children standing before her with those void sockets.
They didn’t understand what her words meant—
Until they lost all the mana they had inherited from her.
Elysia, reviewing the continent’s history and the beginning of The Prison That Bound Ariel, moved quickly toward the detached building where Eden stayed.
She still couldn’t shake the image of Eden’s wrecked face, and her hands clutched a small medicine box.
While gathering the supplies, she had been caught by Rachel and received an earful of unnecessary concern.
Only after several reassurances that she was fine could Elysia escape Rachel’s worry.
“Ah.”
Letting out a sudden gasp, Elysia ducked into hiding.
A maid was walking toward her from a distance. Elysia held her breath and waited for the maid to pass.
When the maid had gone far enough that her back disappeared from view, Elysia moved again.
Not long after heading in the direction the maid had come from, she spotted the detached building.
“Young Lady? Don’t tell me—you just ran into the maid who came out…”
Because Elysia hadn’t given any prior notice of her visit, it was an unfortunate slip.
If word got out that she’d been coming here, her life could be in danger. Lizbeth’s face turned pale.
“I saw her first and hid. It’s fine.”
Trying to calm Lizbeth, Elysia answered more nonchalantly than usual.
“How do you even have that kind of skill…?”
“It’s not skill. It’s intuition.”
It wasn’t that hard to hide if you had a good sense of timing.
“If I treat Eden, will the knights or other maids find out?”
Changing the subject, Elysia looked up at Lizbeth with wide, innocent eyes on purpose.
In fact, Elysia already knew that Lizbeth was the only one among the three caretakers who had seen Eden’s face.
But if she revealed that, it would just complicate things.
Thankfully, Lizbeth fell for her act without much suspicion.
“…Who exactly is Eden?”
Unable to resist her curiosity, Lizbeth blurted the question.
“I asked yesterday, and he said his name was Eden.”
“…He spoke to you?”
Since Lizbeth started guarding him, Eden had been asleep for over a week.
Until he woke up, they had been feeding him only simple liquids and herbal extracts.
Then, as if planned, Elysia showed up the moment Eden regained consciousness.
“He answered.”
Only a day had passed, but maybe today he was better than yesterday.
Clutching the medicine box, Elysia glanced toward the door and asked,
“You still haven’t answered. Can I treat Eden?”
“Yes. Right now, I’m the only one with the key. When a maid brings food, I’m the one who delivers it inside. So no one else can see what’s inside.”
“Good. Open it.”
Elysia flashed a soft smile and turned to face the door.
She gave Lizbeth a sideways glance that clearly urged her to hurry and unlock it.
Lizbeth couldn’t help but feel a disconnect between the Elysia who had once made a cold trade proposal and the one now holding a medicine box.
But she kept her thoughts to herself.
Looking around just in case, Lizbeth inserted the key and opened the door.
