Chapter 35
“Fine. I’ll cooperate. That means we have a deal, right?”
Rine answered lightly, like a feather. There wasn’t a hint of tension in his voice.
“Are you even capable of saving my life?”
“I’m the leader of Edelweiss.”
He sounded proud, but Kazar found it hard to believe.
“The head of Edelweiss is just a kid like you?”
“You’re even younger, Your Highness.”
Rine bristled, but Kazar still looked unconvinced.
“I heard the leader was an old man.”
“That was my father. I sent him to heaven last year.”
As Rine grinned, Kazar stood up and pulled a contract from his desk. Just a glance told Rine what it was—a magic contract.
The contents Kazar had written weren’t complicated. In exchange for telling Rine the truth about how he recognized his concealment, Rine would do everything in his power to help Kazar survive until he turned eighteen. There was also an additional clause forbidding Rine from telling anyone what he heard from Kazar for the next hour. If either party broke the contract, it would cost their life.
‘Still a bit naive for his age.’
With a light heart, Rine signed the contract. Kazar accepted it and said,
“You’ve got the qualities of a mage. There’s a speck of aura forming—small as a fingernail, so you can’t be a mage, but still.”
“What?”
What kind of con artist was this? Suddenly calling him a mage? And how could Kazar possibly recognize that kind of talent?
As if reading his thoughts, Kazar added,
“I can see mana. Mana gathers around those with the potential to become mages.”
“Oh my god. You were blessed by mana? Can you even say that out loud?”
“That’s why I made you sign the contract.”
Rine clicked his tongue. Did this brat even know how valuable that information was? If he spilled the secret when he got back, the Western Mage Tower would pay a fortune.
Children blessed by mana are born only once every nine years. They are destined to become Grand Mages—but most meet tragic ends. They are often discovered young, sold to the Western Mage Tower, and die after being used for human experiments.
Even if he was a prince, once discovered, he’d be kidnapped in the dead of night. The empress herself would sell him off.
“Kids these days. You don’t even know that a magic contract can be broken?”
Kazar looked at him with an arrogant expression that didn’t suit his age.
“Who do you think can break a magic contract made by Kairon?”
“What?”
“That contract was made by Kairon. Now, tell me how you plan to save me.”
What? Kairon the Grand Mage?
If it was really Kairon’s work, there’d be no way to break it. Only a mage two circles above the contract level could do that.
Rine had underestimated the magic contract, thinking it was one of those made by 1st- or 2nd-circle mages, which could be easily undone by the 4th-circle mages at the Western Tower.
In short, Rine was screwed.
“But with the blessing of mana, why’d you become a swordsman?”
“To survive. Princes can’t leave the outer palace until they turn ten. You know that, right?”
“Still, what a waste. Becoming a swordsman?”
“I became the youngest aura user in imperial history because of it.”
“You’re saying that was thanks to the mana blessing? How? Oh, right—since aura is based on mana too.”
Mages gather raw mana. Swordsmen refine mana into aura and store it. Same source, different usage.
“But mana usually rejects aura, right? Doesn’t it conflict?”
“Kairon helped me.”
That explained how Kazar had access to a contract crafted by Kairon.
Kairon was the only known 5-circle mage on the continent—and the only child blessed by mana known to have survived.
From then on, Rine faithfully upheld the contract with Kazar. At first, it was half out of amusement and curiosity, but eventually, it became genuine. He began thinking the same way the child who once died from a poisoned snack might have.
He wanted to see Kazar become emperor.
***
During that time, Kazar had done many insane things. Most were for survival, and the results weren’t bad. Eventually, even Rine started supporting some of those crazy ideas.
But not this time.
When a Cantio died an unnatural death, disasters occurred—earthquakes, typhoons, droughts, fires. And not small ones—these were catastrophic. Every time a Cantio died, the empire’s map had to be redrawn.
So unless they planned to protect Cantio for life, they couldn’t hide her.
Of course, Rine, as the head of Edelweiss, knew how inhumanly the Cantio royal family had been treated. He was the one who gave Kazar that information. Still…
“You know this is crazy, right?”
Kazar turned to him with a blank expression, as if he had anticipated the reaction.
“Do you want to win a sliver of the emperor’s favor while turning the Duke of Spes into your enemy?”
“The Duke is a dangerous enemy to make, yes.”
As Rine hesitated, Kazar smirked. He knew exactly what Rine was worried about. But there was something worse than a disaster.
War.
“If it’s for Eluana, Duke Spes would go to war.”
“You can’t be serious…”
Rine looked doubtful, but Kazar was certain.
When he first met Duke Spes, the man had clearly recognized him. Yet without hesitation, he handed over gold. If Eluana hadn’t spoken up, saying she had come to rescue him, the Duke would have attacked. Kazar was poisoned and couldn’t use aura—he wouldn’t have stood a chance.
“The Duke might even declare independence, or start a war.”
Rine groaned.
There had been records suggesting that Duke Spes would give his entire heart and soul to Princess Stella, his fiancée. Evidence pointed to him preparing for war during the chaos before their wedding.
Still—war wasn’t something you could just start on a whim.
Rine began piecing together information to check the theory. There were records that, when Princess Stella disappeared, he spent a fortune searching for her with no results.
“The Duke found out only later that he had a child. And that child was discovered in prison—beaten by Prince Regis. Probably not even in stable condition.”
“Her back was a mess. A few more days, and she might have died. No—if it were my brother, he would have beaten her to death.”
Knowing Regis’s sadism, Rine shivered involuntarily. If Duke Spes had seen that…
“He would’ve exploded with fatherly rage.”
Duke Spes and “fatherly love” didn’t usually go together. But if it was Princess Stella’s child, maybe it was different. Rine soon reached the conclusion that war wasn’t just possible—it was likely.
They were doomed.
“The empire might really fall this time.”
Rine picked up a painting he’d been holding. In it, Stella and Eluana were smiling. The resemblance was uncanny.
Too similar.
Rine crouched in place.
Kazar was right. With Eluana and Louis being Duke Spes’s children, war was a bigger threat than natural disasters.
“With that much resemblance, someone’s bound to suspect she’s Princess Stella’s daughter the moment she appears in high society. One slip, and war could break out.”
“Exactly.”
The emperor—Kazar’s father—was powerless. The Empress and the aristocrats controlled everything. He couldn’t even pass a single policy.
If Regis became emperor, the noble faction would grow even stronger. Regis was basically the Empress’s puppet. The imperial authority would hit rock bottom. Life would become even harder for citizens.
Rine found himself wondering if civil war might actually improve things for the empire—then immediately shook off the thought. No. War must be avoided.
Watching Rine wrestle with a storm of emotions, Kazar said,
“We should confuse the information flow. You’re good at that kind of thing.”
“Isn’t Duke Spes already doing that?”
“His people are capable, but they don’t know Eluana and Louis are Cantio. They might miss something.”
Kazar pointed to the painting in Rine’s arms.
“Like that.”
“Fine. I’ll handle that much.”
“If anyone starts sniffing around the two of them, report immediately. Duke Spes will probably be doing the same, so avoid clashing.”
“Okay, let’s say that stops the war. What about the natural disasters? Can he protect them? The Empress must be furious.”
He was right.
That morning, a message had arrived detailing Prince Regis’s punishment. His coronation as crown prince was canceled. It was first postponed, but within a few days, it was called off entirely. It was basically an announcement that other princes would now have a chance—fueling the Empress’s rage.
“Who knows what she’ll do.”
Rine voiced his concern again.
“Let’s assign long-range protection.”
“Duke Spes will send knights. You want ours to guard them without being noticed?”
“Better than letting a disaster happen. And we all owe Cantio.”
Kazar looked around the house where Eluana had lived. Princess Stella had run to this remote place to give birth.
“It’s not an exaggeration to say the empire’s prosperity was built on the tears of the Cantio family. The empire enjoyed peace at the cost of their lives. We can’t let that tragedy repeat. We just can’t.”
Seeing Kazar’s firm stance, Rine ruffled his own hair.
Yeah. This was his emperor.
Thinking of those skilled enough to protect someone under the nose of Spes’s knights, Rine sighed. If he picked the right ones and gave them enough stealth artifacts, it might work.
“I’m such a patriot. People should know this.”
Kazar ignored his grumbling and stepped out of the Vita family’s two-story house.
