Chapter 168

Chapter 168: Everything Connects as One

Ferdá had always wondered.
Why she had killed the Third Prince.
Of course, the element of uncontrollable blood qi persistently tormented her.
The publicly known cause concluded that the Third Prince died because she failed to control that blood qi.
“I thought it would end like that.”
If Valdrova had been a dragoness whose eyes rolled back when enraged, or if the Third Prince had been reckless to the point of foolishness, it would have ended that way.
Yet doubt continued to eat away at him.
“Valdrova’s power often went out of control due to Godwin’s energy.”
Yet that blood qi accumulated, and whenever Valdrova perceived that accumulation, she always resolved it by self-harming in her room.
If she had seen the Third Prince as an individual human being, she surely would have been careful.
It made no sense that she, who loved a human, would forget her own condition.
“And it also made no sense for the Third Prince to provoke Valdrova by telling her that fact…”
His heart beat fiercely.
Ferdá’s Red Circle and Shadow Circle rotated simultaneously.
Proof that even Ferdá’s emotions were not clear in his current state.
— Why…?
Ferdá asked calmly.
His reason hung by a thread like a rope caught on the tip of a finger.
— Why did you do such a thing and make that woman unhappy?
— It is what I heard…
Acad began to speak.
— It was not to make Valdrova unhappy… Million Arken knew that the succession rights had been relegated to the previous Emperor, and he tried to build a new power through a political marriage…
It was not surprising in noble society.
Valdrova would also have attempted to marry humans without knowing this fact.
— Isn’t that the usual?
— That… is not so… He planned a rebellion to swallow the Empire using a dragoness…
— Is it certain that he tried to start a rebellion?
The reason Ferdá asked this was because seven out of ten times it was evidence fabricated for political reasons.
If it worked, they would exterminate three clans without asking or investigating.
— It is certain… Not just a pretext for a purge, he truly tried to start a rebellion… There were also forces trying to join him…
The Third Prince seems to have been different.
— Even the previous Emperor, who did not debate good and evil… did not look favorably upon Million Arken… He usually showed the appearance of a humble prince, but in reality he was not. A cruel and arrogant human, and he considered Archduchess Valdrova as just a stupid lizard… So he only had to make her spill what she kept inside.
— So you made the Truth Drug.
— Yes…
Arrogant and authoritarian by nature.
He imagined that appearance revealing its deep black insides without reservation.
A scoundrel with a knife would dig out and violate her soft insides.
Strength rushed into his clenched fist.
The Third Prince who harbored the ambition of building a new force using Valdrova.
Valdemar, who secretly gave him the drug to stop him.
And Valdrova, sacrificed between them.
“What Valdrova feared…”
Her pure heart trampled upon, emotions surging like waves, and finally unable to suppress that blood qi, running rampant.
The words Valdrova spoke at the Spring Festival suddenly came to his mind.
— If someone really told me something like that, I…
— Speak.
Ferdá asked again with a voice that had turned cold.
— Who was the ringleader of that plan?
Fifty years had already passed.
The previous King was dead, Acad’s father was dead, and the living people related to that incident could be counted on one hand.
Yet it did not matter.
Dragon matters follow the principle of severe punishment as a warning to others.
If they skipped a generation, he only had to leave painfully agonizing suffering for that generation.
— The, the ringleader is… ugh…!
He stammers.
It was his reason resisting fiercely not to pronounce that name.
Yet the more his reason resisted, the worse the headache became.
The only answer to escape the headache was the truth.
Just say the answer and feel relief.
— Ugh…!!! Aaaaaah!!!
After 10 minutes of fierce resistance, Acad finally chose relief.
— Kyaaaak!!! Archduke Golt!!
Golt.
Again.
That name surfaces.
Behind the cheers of the citizens, behind the dirty backroom maneuvers,
Everything connected to the name of Valdemar Golt.
The more he heard the name of that despicable old man, the more disgust accumulated.
“To think that I considered joining forces with that bastard…”
The fact that even for a moment he imagined a friendly future with that enemy who made a ruined life even more ruined was disgusting beyond words.
— I heard that you tried to accuse us of secessionist independence if we did not listen, is that true?
He threw another question to cool his head.
— Ugh…
— You had better answer.
— It is stupid… The Far East… gains more by remaining united with the Empire… why would they do that? Archduke Golt… said to only bring the magitechnology.
And that intention was perceived by Ferdá, and now that he had justification for autonomy, he would not be able to interfere much.
Yet knowing that Valdemar’s power would continue to grow, even that autonomy now felt like a candle before the wind.
— Does Archduke Golt know you are doing this?
This place was where Acad’s darkness, which should be eternally sealed in his heart, was materializing.
— He, knows it… Even so, he cannot touch me…
— Because you are a renowned alchemist?
— Yes, because I am useful…
Honestly, his hobby was probably not important to Valdemar.
The Empire is different from the village.
In the village, if a corpse is found, they would cremate it properly, but the Empire is a place where people die in the streets and others step over corpses to go to work.
One or two people disappearing into Acad’s deep, dark fetish is just adding one more body to the countless corpses.
— Fine.
Ferdá put away the crystal recording sphere and stood up.
— This should be enough.
Ferdá took another vial of medicine.
The label on that vial read Love Potion.
It was the anesthetic he had tried to give to Ferdá.
— No.
Seeing that vial, Acad shook his head.
Ferdá stopped the vial for a moment and asked him.
— What is wrong?
— That medicine… I do not want to take it.
— Why? Isn’t this your love?
— I, I hate it… that medicine… I hate it.
He tried to resist with his limp body.
Yet he could not escape Ferdá’s hand.
— How ironic.
Ferdá mocked the scene.
— You hate those who defile love like that, and yet you cannot accept your own love.
Ferdá put his love into his mouth.
— Gack… keck…
The focus in Acad’s two eyes returned to that distant place.
Ferdá held his breath before him.
The stories he heard echoed, throwing Ferdá’s emotions into disarray.
He wanted to strangle him right at that moment.
No, that was not enough.
Like Erdes did, he wanted to trap him in a cube or whatever and crush his entire body.
“But I must not do that.”
Handling the ugly side of this bastard properly is not Ferdá’s role.
So Ferdá’s role ends here.
He stood up from his seat.
Unconsciously, he scanned the room once more.
— …
Where his gaze landed, a person tied to the wall was visible.
A woman.
She, ruined beyond recognition, observed this place apathetically with empty eyes.
“Judging by her condition, her mind might already be broken.”
Her body was shattered by Acad’s assault and experiments.
Wounds that would break not only ordinary people, but even trained knights under drugs and torture.
The Love Potion only separates the body and consciousness; it does not make one forget the pain.
It is a miracle that she was still breathing.
Ferdá extended his hand toward that woman.
“Should I… get rid of her?”
Leaving no evidence or witnesses would be advantageous for this work.
Even if he kills her, he can simply blame Acad, not Ferdá.
And this would be the most merciful thing.
A clean death is better than a painful life.
Normally, he would have thought that.
Yet Ferdá, at that moment, with his emotions running high, was not a human armed with cruel reason.
That emotion made Ferdá different from usual.
As if Valdrova were leaning on his back, embracing him warmly.
As if whispering to him that she was by his side.
Yes.
Like her.
If this woman also harbored the belief that there is a way out even after feeling deep despair once…
— Soon…
He withdraws the mana from his extended hand.
— People will come.
With that hand, he closes her eyes so they do not dry out.
— So rest easy.
Ferdá offers a comfort uncharacteristic of himself and departs.
Imperial Palace.
No one could approach Olivia’s chambers.
Originally, the only people who could enter her chambers were the maids who assisted her with her grooming.
Yet even that help was completely removed.
Due to the recent escape incident, every element that could help her was excluded.
For Olivia, this was quite good.
She did not have to endure the creepy act of someone secretly checking her complexion while she slept.
The night Ferdá obtained what he wanted was a little different.
She feels a fine, light touch caressing Olivia’s hair.
She opens her eyes to a freezing winter with a faint breeze.
Olivia pretends to toss and turn in bed and carefully takes the dagger under her pillow.
Few people could infiltrate the Imperial Princess’s chambers.
If she saw Alexander, that pig face, she intended to stab him without hesitation.
Yet the silhouette backlit by the moon was slender.
Olivia raises her head and looks at the uninvited guest.
— Princess Olivia?
The eyes behind his mask glowed red.
Olivia gives no response.
It was not because she was too scared to speak.
— A pleasure to meet you. I am Jed Swallow, I have come here by order of Regent Ferdá.
As expected.
He kneels and speaks with a beautiful voice.
— The Regent wishes to deliver a small gift to you, would you be so kind as to accompany me?
— …
Instead of answering, Olivia rises from her seat.
She puts on the robe hidden under the bed and walks to his side.
— Let’s go.
— Yes.
Jed guides Olivia through the escape route he had prepared.
Everything went so smoothly that Jed was quite surprised.
“She is not nervous at all.”
A single pure flower.
He knew that nickname was merely something the nobles saw, felt, and were deceived by.
However, that she was not surprised at all in this sudden situation seemed strange to him.
“As expected… what I sensed was correct.”
In the past, he would have been captivated by her appearance and asked her for a dance at least.
Yet observing her from afar, the swallow’s instinct screamed at him.
That if he seduced this woman, his life would twist beyond repair.
Thus, they managed to escape the Imperial Palace and board a carriage.
— Where are we going?
Asked Olivia, who had been following in silence.
— We are going to the mansion of Marquis Devlen.
— To the Marquis’s mansion…
Instead of asking why, she throws another question.
— I see…
She murmurs as if understanding and turns her head to the side, her gaze falling through the window.
Every gesture was like a painting, but Jed only wanted to escape quickly from that seat.
Shortly after, they arrived at the grand mansion of Marquis Devlen, just as instructed.
Standing before the firmly closed main gate, a guard approaches.
Instead of servants who should wear splendid attire befitting the mansion, people in black robes concealing their identities greeted the carriage.
Before the mansion gates opened and they entered, Jed gets off at that spot.
— I take my leave now. It was a great honor to escort the Princess.
Jed covers his head with the hood and blends in with those concealing their identities.
The carriage enters and stops before the mansion’s main entrance.
— Welcome.
A masked woman greets Olivia politely.
She also observes the estate and asks.
— Is the Regent inside?
— The Regent is absent.
Displeasure settles on Olivia’s face.
She could express even that emotion with a smile.
— Then, what reason do I have to be here?
— The Regent left a gift. Please, this way…
Arriving at someone else’s mansion and even preparing a gift.
Looking around, no servants were visible, so the perceptive Olivia was able to grasp the situation.
That was why she silently followed the masked woman.
Passing the alchemy workshop, they headed to the basement through its secret passage.
— Please prepare your heart.
Before opening the door, the woman warns Olivia.
And the dark fantasy that existed only in Devlen’s head reveals itself undisguised before Olivia.
The smell of blood and filth steeped into the bricks, drifting faintly, seemed to create auditory hallucinations of screams.
Instead of vomiting and making a scene in that shocking room, Olivia directs her gaze to the center.
No, ‘stolen’ would be accurate.
In the center was a single chair, and surrounding it in a circle, torture tools and medicine shelves.
The wooden chair showed fingernail marks and rope burns on the armrests, narrating the screams and pain of back then.
In that eerie chair sat Devlen, the master of this mansion.
Olivia silently looks at his soulless appearance.
— I heard that Marquis Acad Devlen had an unpleasant hobby, but it truly is a disgusting hobby.
She says so, yet Olivia’s face wears a smile.
Not the kind of putting on a mask.
She genuinely found this situation incredibly pleasurable.
— Is this the Regent’s gift?
— Yes.
— It is too much. I am a woman too; if they had sent me a single flower I would have been moved…
She murmurs with regret and asks her.
— What does he want me to do?
— He said it did not matter what you did. He said you would surely put it to good use.
— Mmm~.
Olivia taps her lip with her finger, thoughtfully.
— I think I can turn this into ammunition to counter the Alte Order’s attempt to shake his position. The people of the Order will also be awake all night, so calling them will not be a problem.
— …
— Then I can also make it public that demon worshippers are not only hiding in the Alte Order.
Valdemar’s power reinforcement is blocked, and the system of the Alte Order cannot be denied.
— The Regent is amazing…
Boldly entering a mansion, subduing the owner, and exposing his true face is not easy for Olivia.
Much less someone who is Valdemar’s right hand.
For an imperial noble, attacking the right hand of someone overwhelmingly supported is impossible.
— Don’t you think so, Garnet-ssi?
— …
— Don’t be so rigid. Between us.
Olivia already knew who was hiding behind that mask.
— My contribution is great in securing such a good ally, is it not?
— Of course it is.
Knowing she had been discovered, Garnet still did not take off the mask.
— But since I am now in this position, I have no choice but to be wary of you.
— Why?
— Because lately I cannot decipher your actions.
Ferdá considers her an ally.
Yet Garnet knew that Olivia was not simply a good ally.
— The scandal of the Regent and the Princess.
Another request she had received from Ferdá a long time ago.
There was no task harder than finding the source of a rumor, and not expecting results was natural.
Yet Garnet was the leader of the best secret intelligence organization on the Serdes Continent.
Finally, she reached the truth.
— I know that you spread that rumor.