Chapter 168 - Everything Leads to One

Ferda had always wondered.

Why had she killed the 3rd Prince?

Of course, there was the factor of an uncontrollable bloodlust persistently tormenting her.

The cause known to the world was that the 3rd Prince had died because she failed to control that bloodlust.

'I thought it would end there.'

If Valdrova had been a dragon who lost all reason when angered, or if the 3rd Prince had been reckless to the point of stupidity, it would have ended there.

But questions kept leading to more questions.

'Valdrova certainly did often lose control of her power because of Godwin's energy.'

But that bloodlust built up over time, and whenever Valdrova sensed that accumulation, she always resolved it by harming herself in her room.

If she had seen the 3rd Prince as a single human being, she would undoubtedly have been careful.

It made no sense that she, who loved humans, would simply forget the state she was in.

'And it also made no sense that the 3rd Prince provoked Valdrova by saying that fact out loud...'

His heart pounded.

Ferda's Red Circle and Shadow Circle were turning at the same time.

That was proof that even Ferda's emotions were not clear in his current state.

"Why..."

Ferda asked calmly.

His reason was as precarious as a thread caught on the tip of a finger.

"Why did you do something like that and make her miserable?"

"It's a story I heard..."

Akkad began to speak.

"It wasn't for the purpose of making Valdrova miserable... Million Arken knew his right of succession had been pushed back by the previous emperor, so he tried to build a new power base through a political marriage..."

It was not surprising in noble society.

Valdrova must have tried to marry humans without knowing even that.

"Isn't that something that happens all the time?"

"That... wasn't it... He planned treason... to use a dragon and swallow the Empire."

"Are you certain he intended to start a rebellion?"

The reason Ferda asked this was because seven times out of ten, such things were false evidence fabricated for political reasons.

As long as it worked, three generations of a family would be exterminated without question.

"I'm certain... It wasn't just a pretext raised for a purge... He truly intended to rebel... There were forces who tried to take part in it... too."

It seemed the 3rd Prince had been different.

"Even my father, who did not speak of good or evil... did not look kindly on Million Arken... Normally, he showed the humble bearing of a prince, but in truth, he was nothing like that. He was cruel and arrogant, and he saw Valdrova, a Grand Duchess, as no more than a stupid lizard... So all we had to do was make him blurt out what he had inside."

"So you made a truth drug."

"Yes..."

Arrogant and overbearing by nature.

Ferda imagined him revealing his pitch-black insides without restraint.

That ruffian with a blade would have torn open and trampled all over her tender heart.

Strength entered his clenched fist.

The 3rd Prince, who held the ambition to build a new faction by using Valdrova.

Waldemar, who secretly drugged him to stop that.

Valdrova, who was sacrificed between them.

'What Valdrova feared...'

Her pure feelings being trampled, her emotions surging like waves, and in the end, her inability to suppress that bloodlust before running wild.

Suddenly, Valdrova's words from the Start of Spring Festival came to mind.

["If someone truly said something like that to me, then I would..."]

"Speak."

Ferda asked again in a voice that had turned cold.

"Who was the ringleader of that plan?"

It was already something from fifty years ago.

The previous ruler was dead, Akkad's father was dead, and there were only a handful of living people connected to that matter.

But it did not matter.

When it came to dragons, the principle was to make an example of one to warn a hundred.

If they had skipped a generation, then all he had to do was leave that generation with pain so terrible it would never be forgotten.

"The, the ringleader was... ugh...!"

He stammered.

His reason was resisting fiercely, telling him he must not speak that name.

But the more his reason resisted, the more intense the headache became.

The only answer to escape the headache was the truth.

All he had to do was say the answer and be at ease.

"Gggghhhh...!!! Aaaaaah!!!"

After ten minutes of fierce resistance, Akkad finally chose to be at ease.

"Gaaaaah!!! Grand Duke Gold!!"

Gold.

Again.

That name came up again.

In the cheers of the citizens, and behind the filthy schemes,

everything was leading back to the name Waldemar Gold.

Somehow, the hateful old man's name made Ferda feel more disgusted every time he heard it.

'I actually considered joining hands with a bastard like that...'

The fact that, far from distancing himself from that enemy who had made a ruined life even more ruined, he had briefly imagined an amicable future with him was utterly repulsive.

"I heard that if we did not obey, he intended to accuse us of seeking separation and independence. Is that true?"

He asked another question to cool his head.

"Gggghhh..."

"You had better answer."

"It's a stupid thing to do... The far east... gains more by staying attached to the Empire... so why would we do such a thing? Grand Duke Gold... said all we needed was to extract the magical engineering."

And Ferda had seen through that intent, and now that he had gained a justification for autonomy, they would not be able to interfere greatly.

But since he knew Waldemar's power would keep growing, even that autonomy now felt like a candle before the wind.

"Does Grand Duke Gold know that you do this?"

This place was where Akkad's darkness, which should have been sealed forever inside his heart, had been made real.

"H-He knows... Even so, he can't touch me..."

"Because you're a recognized alchemist?"

"Yes, because I'm useful..."

To be honest, his hobby would not have mattered to Waldemar.

The Empire was not a village.

If a suspicious corpse were found in a village, they would cremate it with proper rites, but the Empire was a place where people stepped over corpses lying dead in the street and went on to work.

One or two people disappearing because of Akkad's deep, dark fetish like this was no more than adding another body to the countless corpses already piled up.

"I see."

Ferda picked up the recording crystal ball and rose from his seat.

"This should be enough."

Ferda picked up another vial.

On the label of that vial were the words love potion.

It was the anesthetic he had attempted to make Ferda drink.

"No."

Seeing that bottle, Akkad shook his head.

Ferda paused the bottle for a moment and asked him.

"What is not allowed?"

"That drug... I don't want to drink it."

"Why? Isn't this your love?"

"N-No... I don't want... that drug."

He tried to resist with his limp body.

But he could not escape Ferda's hand.

"How ironic."

Ferda sneered as he watched him.

"You hate those who profane love so much, yet you cannot accept your own love."

Ferda put his love into his mouth.

"Kgh... Gkk..."

The focus gathered in Akkad's eyes once again fell away into that distant place.

Ferda sat across from him and caught his breath.

The story he had heard echoed in his head and threw Ferda's emotions into chaos.

He wanted to strangle him right now.

No, that would not be enough.

He wanted to lock him inside something like the cube Erdes had used, then crush his entire body.

'But I must not do that.'

Ferda was not the one suited to making good use of this bastard's ugly side.

So Ferda's role ended here.

He rose from his seat.

Without thinking, he looked around the room once more.

"..."

Where his gaze fell, he saw a person tied to the wall.

It was a woman.

Reduced to a Complete Mess, she watched this place helplessly with empty eyes.

'Judging by her state, her mind may already be broken.'

Her body had been battered to pieces by Akkad's violence and experiments.

They were wounds that would have broken not only ordinary people, but even trained knights under drugs and torture.

The love potion only separated the body and consciousness; it did not make one forget pain.

It was a wonder she was still breathing.

Ferda reached out to the woman.

'Should I... dispose of her?'

It would be better for this matter to leave behind neither evidence nor a witness.

Even if he killed her, all he had to do was pin it on Akkad.

'And this would be the more merciful choice.'

A clean death was better than a painful life.

Normally, he would have thought that.

Ferda, in this moment of surging emotion, was not a human armed with cruel reason.

That emotion made Ferda different from usual.

It felt as though Valdrova was leaning against his back and embracing him warmly.

As though she were whispering that she was by his side.

If.

Like her.

If this woman, too, had once felt deep despair and still held the belief that there was a way out...

"Soon..."

He drew back the mana from his outstretched hand.

"Someone will come."

With that hand, he closed her eyes so they would not dry out.

"So be at ease."

Ferda left after offering comfort that did not suit him.

The imperial palace.

No one could approach the area around Olivia's bedchamber.

Originally, the only people who could enter her bedchamber were maids who attended her in the bathroom.

But even that help had been completely removed.

Because of her recent runaway incident, every factor that could assist her had been eliminated.

For Olivia, it was actually better.

Because she no longer had to endure the sinister act of someone secretly checking her complexion every time she slept.

The night Ferda obtained what he wanted was a little different.

She felt a thin, light touch stroking down her hair.

At the faint touch of a chilly winter breeze, Olivia opened her eyes.

Olivia pretended to turn in her sleep and carefully grasped the dagger beneath her pillow.

There were few people who could intrude into a Princess's bedchamber.

If she saw the face of Alexander, that pig, she intended to stab him without hesitation.

But the silhouette outlined against the moonlight was slender.

Olivia raised her head and looked at the unwelcome guest.

"Princess Olivia?"

His masked eyes were glowing red.

Olivia gave no answer.

It was not because she was too frightened to speak.

"It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Zed Swallow, and I have come here by order of Regent Ferda."

Somehow, she had thought it would be so.

He knelt and spoke in a beautiful voice.

"The Regent says he wishes to give you a small gift, so would you please come with me?"

"..."

Instead of answering, Olivia rose from her place.

She pulled on the robe hidden beneath the bed and approached his side.

"Let us go."

"Yes."

Zed led Olivia through the escape route he had prepared.

It went so smoothly that Zed was surprised in return.

'She is not flustered at all.'

A single blossom of pure flower.

He knew that was a nickname created by what the nobles saw, felt, and were deceived by.

Even so, the sight of her not being surprised at all in this sudden situation felt strange.

'As expected... what I felt was right.'

In the past, he would have fallen for that appearance and at least invited her to a light dance.

But after observing her from afar, his playboy's instincts had been screaming.

If he tried to seduce this woman, his life would get properly tangled.

In that way, they succeeded in escaping the imperial palace and boarding a carriage.

"Where are we going?"

Olivia, who had followed quietly with her mouth shut, asked.

"We will be going to Marquis Debelung's mansion."

"To the Marquis's mansion..."

Instead of asking why, she said something else.

"I see..."

She murmured as though she understood, then tilted her head to the side and set her gaze outside the window.

Every movement she made was like a painting, but Zed only thought that he wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible.

A little while later, they arrived at Marquis Debelung's great mansion as instructed.

When they stood before the tightly shut main gate, a gatekeeper approached.

Instead of servants who should have been dressed in splendid attire befitting the mansion, those wearing black robes and hiding their identities greeted the carriage.

The gate of the mansion opened, and before they entered, Zed got out there.

"I shall take my leave now. It was a great honor to escort you, Princess."

Zed pulled up the hood hanging behind his back and blended in with those who hid their identities.

The carriage entered and stopped before the mansion's front entrance.

"Welcome."

A masked woman greeted Olivia politely.

Olivia also observed the proper formality as she asked.

"Is the Regent inside?"

"The Regent is away."

Displeasure settled over Olivia's face.

She could express even that emotion with a smile.

"Then what reason do I have to be here?"

"The Regent has left you a gift. Please, this way..."

He had even taken a gift after coming to someone else's mansion.

Looking around, Olivia saw no servants, so if she was quick-witted, she could tell what situation this was.

That was why she quietly followed the masked woman.

They passed through the alchemy workshop and entered the basement connected to his secret passage.

"Please prepare yourself."

Before opening the door, the woman warned Olivia.

And the dark fantasy that had existed only inside Debelung's head was laid bare before Olivia.

The smell of blood and filth had soaked into the bricks, and the faint scent that seeped out seemed to create auditory hallucinations of screams.

Instead of retching and making a scene in that shocking room, Olivia shifted her gaze to the center.

No, it would be more accurate to say it was stolen.

There was one chair in the middle, and around it torture tools and shelves of drugs encircled it in a ring.

On the wooden chair, as if telling of the screams and pain of that time, the armrests bore nail marks and traces rubbed in by ropes.

Sitting in that horrifying chair was Debelung, the owner of this mansion.

Olivia silently looked down at him, who seemed as though his soul had left his body.

"I had heard that Marquis Akkad Debelung had a nasty hobby, but this truly is a disgusting hobby."

She said that, but Olivia's face held a smile.

It was not some kind of mask.

She was genuinely enjoying this situation far too much.

"Is this the Regent's gift?"

"Yes."

"How cruel. I am a woman too. If he had sent me even a single flower, I would have been moved..."

She murmured as though regretful, then asked the woman.

"What does he want me to do?"

"He said it did not matter what you did. He said you would surely be able to put it to good use."

"Hmm."

Olivia tapped her finger lightly against her lips and thought.

"It seems I can make this into something to strike back with against this ploy to shake the Order of Altes's position. The Order's people will be staying up all night today anyway, so there should be no problem calling them here."

"..."

"Then we can also spread the word that Demon Followers have not infiltrated only the Order of Altes."

Waldemar's means of strengthening his power would be stopped, and no one would dare deny the system of the Order of Altes.

"The Regent truly is remarkable..."

To boldly enter a mansion, subdue the owner, and expose his true face was not an easy thing for Olivia.

Moreover, he was Waldemar's right-hand man.

It was unthinkable for an imperial noble to target the right-hand man of someone who received overwhelming support.

"Do you not think so, Miss Garnet?"

"..."

"Let us not be so stiff. Not between us."

Olivia already knew who was hiding behind that mask.

"After all, I deserve a great deal of credit for letting him gain such a fine ally, don't I?"

"Of course."

Garnet knew she had already been exposed, but she did not remove her mask.

"But because I am here now, I have no choice but to be wary of you."

"Why?"

"Because lately, your actions have been impossible to read."

Ferda considered her a helper.

But Garnet knew that Olivia was not simply a good helper.

"The Regent and Princess scandal."

It was another request she had once received from Ferda.

There was nothing more difficult than finding the source of a rumor, and it was only natural not to expect results.

However, Garnet was the head of the greatest secret intelligence organization on the Serdes Continent.

In the end, she had reached the truth.

"Because I know that you took the lead in spreading that rumor."