Chapter 83
“Ingredients too….”
After Permetis left, Casilion hesitated and stepped into my room.
“I already told you I’m not your sister.”
“…Mm.”
“Try calling me Shasha.”
“Shasha.”
Casilion stared at me blankly, then smiled faintly.
“Shasha.”
He repeated my name as if to himself.
“What was that about just now?”
“He must’ve been annoyed when he saw me. He’s always been in a bad mood, you know.”
Given Permetis’s nasty personality, it wasn’t surprising he’d bully someone weak like Casilion.
Right now Casilion wasn’t well-known, and there were rumors that his family basically ignored him.
“I only told the truth.”
“What?”
“Permetis smells bad.”
Casilion moved his lips with a glum expression.
“He stood in front of me and it was really awful.”
He’d sniffed me earlier and said I smelled like good ingredients — but he claimed Permetis smelled horrible?
“Did you seriously say that out loud?”
“Yeah.”
“He deserved to be bullied, then.”
I shook my head.
Of course, being eight years old doesn’t mean perfect social skills.
But that’s mostly true for modern kids raised in love — and this world is dangerous for socially awkward eight-year-olds….
Sadly, Permetis getting an enemy was karma.
“From now on, hide thoughts like that.”
“Okay… but why?”
“How would you feel if someone told you you smelled?”
“I’d be curious. What it smells like.”
I shook my head.
“No — if they said you smelled awful, rotten….”
“Then maybe I could be used as an ingredient for poison? Like my body.”
But Casilion, instead of being upset, brightened and spoke excitedly.
“Scent is a person’s essence. Some poisons come from a creature’s soul, so a strong spirit-type….”
Right — I was wrong to think of him as an ordinary child.
Sometimes I could understand why Evan didn’t want to bring him back.
I stopped him and changed the subject.
“By the way, why did you come?”
Only then did Casilion stop rambling in excitement.
“Oh, to warn you about danger.”
“Danger?”
I raised an eyebrow.
Casilion wore a surprisingly serious expression, unlike usual.
“I heard while wandering the mansion. A prophet’s appeared in the Empire stirring people up… and he prophesied about four calamities: the wolf, the serpent, the eagle, and the girl.”
“I heard it from Maya too.”
Apparently things were quite chaotic. Not only in the Winchester territory but in Hailona, Akada, and Tailarus — people were all in an uproar.
“Bahimos is the wolf, Leviathan the snake, and the eagle… I’m not sure.”
“The eagle is the Dark Eagle.”
“Dark Eagle?”
It was one of the extinct monsters I’d read about in a book not long ago.
Since Bahimos and Leviathan were both extinct monsters, if another enemy appeared next it was likely similar.
“They’re fearsome birds of prey that use brainwashing.”
I wasn’t sure how reliable Casilion’s words were, but they merited consideration.
“And this…”
A moment later he handed me a pouch containing five bottles.
I took the pouch, opened it, and found very small glass vials.
They were only as big as an adult’s fingernail.
“What are these?”
“The first makes you feel no cold. It has warming effects so it keeps body temperature. The second makes someone obedient. Each has a label, so read them.”
Oh — unexpected items.
I nodded and pocketed them.
“But where did you get these?”
“I made them. Prince Jin gave me permission to use Winchester’s lab on the condition I make a thousand pieces of poison.”
A thousand pieces of poison.
Jin was certainly using the Akada-born child as he saw fit.
Well, if this helped Casilion develop his skills and make elixirs, it wasn’t bad.
“Thanks.”
“No, no — ingredients, uh, I mean Shasha…”
Casilion smiled.
“You smell like something that makes me ecstatic. So I wanted to give you gifts.”
Someday this boy would become a famous eccentric in the Empire. Trying to correct his ways now would be pointless.
I nodded inwardly.
“Okay, I’ll use them well….”
“Evan Tailarus must’ve fallen for your scent too. That’s why he warned me not to do anything stupid.”
Suddenly my head ached.
“What warning?”
“Yeah. He went to meet the enemy.”
Casilion’s voice came through clearly.
I lowered the hand pressed to my brow and frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“I saw him go to Paramena. It’s definitely a place the Dark Eagle would target.”
I knew that about half of the people who had headed out with Leccardo to suppress the rioters were staying in Paramena.
Among them was Lecardo’s adjutant, Rowan.
“Why would Evan…?”
“Because the Dark Eagle will target Shasha. Like Bahimos and Leviathan did.”
“Wait. Bahimos tried to attack Othello and I intervened, and there’s no proof Leviathan targeted me specifically….”
“It’s the Key of Mecius.”
Casilion’s words left me speechless.
The Key of Mecius — that was my attribute.
In Casilion’s vivid purple eyes, my reflection appeared: snow-white, beautiful silver hair and green-blue eyes.
“They decoded the Quelrn prophecy, and now the heads of the four great houses all know you’re something special. They’re just not showing it.”
I often remembered the way Lecardo looked at me.
His cool gaze made it hard to even speak to him, but oddly he was always the first to ask how I was.
He hadn’t asked me about Vanessa’s last words either.
Maybe that was his consideration. Maybe not asking many questions about divine beasts was part of that care.
Even though I was the Key of Mecius, I was still young… and maybe he felt he should protect me.
But I decided to address the problem that had been weighing on my mind.
“So you’re saying I cause calamities.”
If the reason Leviathan appeared in the hall, or Othello was attacked by Bahimos, was because of me…
I couldn’t help but feel guilt.
“If I hadn’t been there, wouldn’t those things not have appeared?”
I asked Casilion with a somewhat firm expression.
“Rather than that…”
Casilion paused with an innocent, delighted look, then spoke.
“Maybe evil beings fear what you’ll do someday.”
My heart pounded at Casilion’s words.
An ability that strengthens others.
If Othello and Jin got that powerful, how strong could Evan, a time-loop returner, be?
“To think you could rival those things someday. That’s amazing.”
Powers, and vitality….
Nineteen essences.
Thinking that day was maybe ten years away made the future feel heavy.
Though the boy in front of me probably didn’t understand.
Casilion smiled and continued.
“You’re special, Shasha.”
“A resident of Paramena?”
Chenoa furrowed his brow and asked.
The man kneeling before him trembled as he spoke.
“A tremendous calamity will befall us. They’re really….”
The man’s face was deathly pale.
“They possess terrifying power. The heir of the Tailarus family went to save us and is now endangered.”
Tailarus, who’d been indifferent when the man was brought in, now raised an eyebrow.
“What did you just say?”
“This is why I ran here. Duke Lecardo probably wouldn’t care if the Tailarus heir lived or died….”
“Evan Tailarus is in Paramena?”
“Yes, he went to help Paramena and was captured.”
The man produced a button stamped with the distinctive sigil used for the Tailarus head and heir.
It was a button attached to all of Evan’s garments; seeing it stiffened Chenoa Tailarus’s expression.
A fierce blue-clear aura began to surge violently from him.
Deep within his being Evan’s golden band was linked, but the head’s instinct to protect the heir remained strong.
“Guide us to his location. Luke, you prepare the soldiers and send a confirmation to Winchester….”
Before Chenoa could finish, the man who’d been kneeling collapsed forward.
Chenoa narrowed his eyes and unleashed a bright-blue blade.
Othello, who’d attacked the man using Sword Aura, intercepted Chenoa’s blow.
Even though Othello had his Sword Aura deployed, Chenoa’s powerful blue-essence assault left blood at the corner of Othello’s mouth.
“Ugh…”
Othello, in a defensive stance, was walked toward by Chenoa.
“Surely today I must kill you. How dare you interfere in the Tailarus family’s matters?”
Othello glared at Chenoa’s murderous intent and pointed to the dead man with his finger.
“If you have eyes, look properly.”
Unwavering, Othello’s challenging expression made Chenoa twitch his brow.
“Is that a human? A head of a family?”
Then they looked where Othello pointed.
Where the man had been, there was no person — only a pool of black oil as if something had melted away.
“…This!”
He’d never been a normal human.
The enemy had come to Tailarus with intent.
There must be some gain for Tailarus to get involved.
“It definitely had a human presence.”
Chenoa wasn’t the kind to be fooled by mere illusions.
The head of the Light Tailarus family.
If something could deceive him, it had to be the handiwork of a powerful spellcaster who poured their heart into the creation.
“…….”
Othello sheathed his sword and continued.
“This isn’t Tailarus business.”
Sword Aura pierces falsehoods. It measures more accurately than most things.
The power built from hardship resonates with the soul.
Othello wiped the blood from his lip with a vexed expression.
“It’s Winchester’s doing.”
Chenoa still stared blankly at the mass of oil.
“So even the claim that Evan’s been captured is false.”
“That’s something to verify. But that button—isn’t it real?”
Othello’s low voice seeped into Chenoa’s ear.
As Othello said, it couldn’t be concluded for certain.
“I should go home and check.”
