Chapter 34
The two-story house that once belonged to the Vita family had become a complete ruin. The damage inside was so severe that it was harder to find anything intact. The study was the messiest of all, with hundreds of books strewn across the floor in a tangled mess.
Kazar picked up one of the books rolling on the ground.
“A picture book of the founding myth?”
Illustrated books were typically expensive. Most of the others also contained pictures with explanations, covering topics like geography, economics, history, and the continent’s political situation.
“I didn’t know they had books like this.”
It was too specialized to simply be called a picture book.
He examined the cover but found no mark from any book distribution merchant guild. At first, he thought it might have been magically printed, but upon closer inspection, he realized it was handmade.
“Did someone draw and write these books themselves to educate their children?”
After surveying the study for a while, Kazar stopped in front of a painting in the living room. He stared at the painting depicting Stella and Eluana and murmured to himself.
“She kept dyeing her hair all this time.”
In the painting, Stella had brown hair. Someone unfamiliar might assume she had no relation to Cantio due to the different hair color, but anyone who knew Stella would recognize her immediately—especially since Eluana beside her looked exactly the same.
“Why didn’t the Duke of Spes get rid of this? I saw a number of his people around Aden.”
Laine, standing nearby, voiced her doubts.
The first people the pair had encountered upon arriving in Aden were members of the Spes 2nd Knights. They had paid generous compensation to several neighbors who knew Ron Vita had died. They also cleverly spread a rumor that the children’s mother was a “beautiful woman with brown hair.” This was a deliberate move to hide that Eluana and Rui were from Cantio.
So it made no sense that this painting had been left untouched. Without taking his eyes off the painting, Kazar replied.
“Their orders were probably limited to ‘spread word that the children’s mother had brown hair.’ The Spes 2nd Knights likely don’t know the children’s true identities. That’s why they didn’t think to remove the painting.”
He took the painting off the wall, handed it to Laine, and turned away.
“Burn it.”
Laine’s face twisted in shock as she hugged the painting. It felt like he was choosing to cover up the secret. Uneasy, she pressed him.
“What are you going to do?”
“Handle it with utmost secrecy.”
“For how long?”
When Laine asked in a trembling voice, Kazar answered lightly.
“To the end.”
“What? You’re going to hide that they’re from Cantio? You’re not going to use this to bargain with the Emperor? Not even as a secret weapon later on?”
“My life is expensive. Only Regis-hyung would repay kindness with betrayal.”
Laine thought: He’s definitely gone mad. She really shouldn’t have signed that contract back then.
Laine first met Kazar five years ago, when she had just turned sixteen. Kazar was a freak genius who awakened aura at the age of ten, and his brilliance had offended the Empress.
Before Marquis Pegimule’s “Deep Night” was completed, the task of eliminating the prince had been given to the assassin group Edelweiss. Using a stealth artifact, Laine infiltrated the fourth outer palace where Kazar lived.
It wasn’t anything grand. The royal palace was composed of the main fortress and nine connected outer palaces.
Because the outer palaces were connected to the main citadel, they were relatively easy to break into. With only nine rooms, there wasn’t much room to get lost. Though each palace had assigned maids and attendants, most of them commuted, leaving things quiet at night. It was almost as if the structure was inviting intruders in.
Laine intended just to inspect the security and leave, but from the entrance of the fourth outer palace where Kazar stayed, the stench of blood hit her hard.
She realized someone else had already made a move.
“No way! I’ll have to return everything the Empress gave me!”
Laine hurried past corpses in the hallway and ran to the second floor. That’s when she first met ten-year-old Kazar, holding a blood-soaked sword.
Behind him lay his wounded bodyguard. After the guard fell, Kazar had apparently fought off the rest by himself. Even after everyone else had died, the boy didn’t relax. A faint blue aura shimmered from the tip of his sword.
With arms crossed, Laine scanned the scene. It was clear there had been too many assassins. The groups Poison Spider and Toad had both shown up.
“Looks like a toad got a dagger in the back—so they weren’t allies. Did their schedules just overlap?”
Turns out the rumor about the Fourth Prince’s palace being a frequent assassination target was true. About half the killers died fighting each other, and the rest were taken out by Kazar and his bodyguard.
Laine compared the wounds on the corpses to the shape of Kazar’s sword and let out a laugh.
“A brat killed this many?”
She was only sixteen then, and that’s honestly what she thought.
Kazar didn’t move until dawn, when the first maid arrived and screamed. Only after more people showed up and the area was secure did he collapse.
“He held on past his limit. Ruthless kid.”
Laine withdrew and briefly reported to the Empress, then returned the next day. That time, too, Kazar held his sword. Though it wasn’t as bad as before, bodies still lay at his feet. At least he wasn’t alone now—the healed bodyguard was standing behind him.
Laine examined the corpses.
“These guys are from another group. Where are they from?”
From that day on, Laine snuck into the fourth outer palace every night. She watched as Kazar fought assassins. Unlike the already-skilled bodyguard, Kazar grew noticeably stronger each day. Real combat training was the best after all.
“Even a regular kid would awaken aura under this pressure.”
Ten days passed. Laine clapped her hands in admiration.
“Wow. He really won’t die.”
That day, Laine uncovered who was behind the repeated assassination attempts. There were three culprits—all royal consorts.
She reported this to the Empress, who paid her full fee and ordered her to back off.
Ecstatic, Laine danced and erased the mission from her mind. A month later, the three royal consorts were banished from the palace for plotting the Fourth Prince’s assassination.
“So that’s how the Empress uses it.”
When the number of royal consorts dropped from five to two, Laine received a bonus. The Empress was a generous employer. She sent a bunch of stealth artifacts crafted by a 3rd-circle mage and told Laine to sell any useful information in the future.
Gratefully accepting the bonus, Laine headed back to the fourth outer palace. She was curious whether the prince was still alive.
But something felt off the moment she stepped in.
“P-Priest! Priest!!”
A pale-faced maid was running, screaming for help.
“Did something finally happen?”
Laine followed the commotion and entered the dining hall. Through the overturned leg of a fallen table, she saw Kazar holding a small child, about five or six years old, bleeding from the mouth.
Not the prince. Who was this?
“Good thing you didn’t eat it, hyung.”
The unknown child called Kazar “hyung” and smiled foolishly. Only then did Laine recognize the boy. She’d heard there was an unacknowledged child born from a maid.
“Pink eyes… Yeah, that’s him.”
She watched with interest as the child suddenly coughed up blood. Kazar clutched the child’s cold hand and shoulder, shouting,
“I told you not to eat random things in my palace!”
“Hyung…”
“Don’t talk, Luwan. The priest is coming soon. Just hang in there.”
“I wanted to see you become emperor…”
Kazar’s face, always calm when slashing down assassins, twisted in pain.
“Idiot. How am I supposed to become emperor?”
“You’re perfect for it… Please become emperor…”
And with that, the child died. The priest arrived moments too late to pronounce death, but Kazar clung to the little body and wouldn’t let go.
“This idiot… Why did you… eat that…”
Even after the attendants came and took the child away, Kazar sat there, dazed.
Laine, leaning against the wall, picked up a cookie crumb with a bite mark and popped it into her mouth.
“Whoa. That’s a brutal poison.”
It was the kind of toxin that could melt your insides instantly. She watched Kazar with arms crossed as the bodyguard cautiously approached.
“Your Highness.”
“I should’ve stopped him from coming. I thought daytime would be safe…”
“This isn’t your fault.”
“I know.”
Tears began to stream down Kazar’s face—something Laine never thought possible. It made her feel strangely uneasy.
“I want to be alone for a while.”
The bodyguard hesitated but eventually left, closing the door. Once alone, Kazar’s eyes sharpened.
“Was it you?”
Kazar glared at Laine, releasing killing intent.
“Huh?”
Did he recognize the stealth artifact? That should’ve been impossible.
“I let you go because it seemed like you were just watching.”
Their eyes met. No—it wasn’t her imagination. Kazar was staring straight at her.
“How did he know?”
The problem wasn’t whether Laine could fight him—she couldn’t. In a direct confrontation after being exposed, she was sure to lose.
After struggling with the decision, Laine disabled the artifact and revealed herself.
“It might sound like an excuse, but I was only watching. I did report to the client, though.”
Kazar stared at her before suppressing his killing intent.
“You believe me?”
“If you were the culprit, you would’ve attacked already.”
“True… But how did you know I was there?”
Laine asked seriously.
She had been using a stealth artifact created by a 3rd-circle mage. No one below 4th circle should’ve been able to detect it. And Kazar, a swordsman using aura, wasn’t a mage. Which meant he had a way to break through it.
This was valuable information—potentially worth a fortune.
Kazar looked at her and asked directly,
“What’ll you give me if I tell you?”
“That depends on what Your Highness wants.”
“Revenge. And to survive until I’m eighteen.”
“Just one.”
Kazar didn’t hesitate long.
“To survive until I’m eighteen. My survival will be revenge enough.”
