#16
“Why is that?”
How annoying that he keeps asking questions.
Unlike the original work, Sercil hadn’t shared with the High Priest that he was under a curse.
If he had known, the High Priest would have tried to drive Sercil to death more thoroughly…
“I can’t just send someone who lost all their belongings outside. As I get older, I only worry more. If it’s inconvenient, you may refuse.”
“No! To show such kindness…! I can only be grateful!”
Sercil answered with purely sparkling eyes.
“But may I take a walk?”
“Of course.”
Anyway, he would meet with misfortune near the 2nd Prince at the ball, so let him see some sunlight before then.
The High Priest thought carelessly as always.
Fortunately, he wasn’t stabbed by Sercil’s dagger on the spot.
But afterward, the High Priest regretted this carelessness over and over until he entered prison.
* * *
Sercil Lindea was the youngest son of Margrave Lindea.
After his mother Audrey Lindea returned from the capital, family members passed away one by one, leaving only three of Margrave Lindea’s bloodline: his sister who was wandering as a traveler and Sercil.
On the day he left, Audrey saw her son off with a face clearly marked by illness and said:
“Since it’s a curse brought from the capital, the answer must be in the capital.”
She said nothing more than that.
She just looked into the distance with a sad face, then looked at Sercil with desperate eyes.
“Three years. I’ll endure for three years. So solve the curse within that time and inherit this position. Do you understand?”
“Yes, mother.”
His sister had chosen love over status and severed ties with the family, but she occasionally maintained contact with the mother and son.
But now he knows that formal severance saved his sister’s life.
That’s why mother just silently watched sister leave home.
Simply relieved that sister hadn’t inherited her curse.
‘A curse that kills those you love.’
But her relief was short-lived.
Seeing the curse manifest more strongly in Sercil, Audrey completely lost her strength.
Guilt became a disease that was killing Audrey.
Since it was a disease of the heart, all Sercil could do was act cheerfully.
That it was okay. That mother had nothing to be sorry about to him.
That the person who cursed was at fault, not mother.
‘So please don’t leave me too early, mother.’
* * *
Did she say she’d endure for three years?
‘I’ll break both mother’s curse and mine within a year.’
But after coming to the capital with determination, Sercil couldn’t come to his senses from the capital’s harsh treatment.
‘They said half-demons were so evil and dirty… Could it be that I’m actually surrounded by half-demons right now?’
When all his money was stolen, he nearly got sold as a slave, and he met a young man who slapped his cheek saying he was flirting just for smiling.
Sercil seriously thought that.
And at the temple, that thought became conviction.
“The High Priest’s weakness. Please investigate and tell me about it.”
2nd Prince, Ersen Mayer.
The son of Eris, the most likely being to have cursed his mother.
When he first learned that identity, Sercil held his breath at the first emotion he’d ever experienced.
Whether Eris had cursed his mother wasn’t certain yet, but if it was true…
‘I want to kill him.’
He wanted to make him suffer pain greater than what his family had endured.
That was the first murderous intent he’d ever felt.
But then, that bastard said something strange.
“Or… are you close with the High Priest?”
Though it was something he’d overheard, it seemed to Sercil that the prince was hinting that there was something different about the High Priest.
It was probably something he’d let slip not knowing Sercil was there, which made him even more certain.
Sercil clenched his fists and thought:
‘The capital really is a scary place.’
The fact that a demon’s spawn brazenly walked around the world, and that spawn’s ominousness too.
Even the High Priest, who receives everyone’s respect, might have something going on!
Not only that.
“Oh my. Child. Are you alright?”
The person who pulled Sercil out of prison with a flustered, kind face looked like a very gentle grandfather.
But to Sercil, who had already sharpened his mind, it was obvious that grandfather was acting.
‘He must have investigated my status, huh.’
Since he knew I was a noble, he must have been scared. I don’t know what he was trying to do, but it seems like he was planning something nasty.
The temple, you see, eh? Doing such sinister things, eh?
Sercil only grumbled inwardly and outwardly acted like an innocent country boy who knew nothing.
‘Ugh.’
Perhaps he only investigated status and failed to find out he was twenty years old, as the High Priest treated Sercil like a young boy based on his youthful appearance.
While receiving warm care from him, Sercil thought every night:
‘I must vomit on the High Priest’s shoes when I leave.’
Vomiting inside that white priest robe wouldn’t be bad either.
After grinning like that and sleeping and waking for several days.
Finally, the High Priest revealed his purpose.
The real purpose for not immediately releasing Sercil but hiding him.
“Poison?”
“Yes. I have no proof so I can’t bear to stop it… but it seems the half-demon elder is planning something sacrilegious. We must stop it… but this old man has no power.”
“Oh my!”
Oh, damn! He likes playing the powerless old man!
Sercil almost lost his composure at the behavior of assigning dangerous tasks, but he endured.
Because by then he had a goal.
To escape this place and infiltrate the 2nd Prince’s palace.
From overhearing the priests’ gossip, it seemed the 2nd Prince was up to something.
Sercil had a strong sense of justice, so even if it wasn’t about the curse, if the 2nd Prince was planning something bad, he intended to interfere.
Of course, the important thing was digging into him as Eris’s child.
So he had to obediently endure until that High Priest lowered his guard and the temple’s vigilance was relaxed.
Sercil accepted the dangerous task.
With a dagger hidden in his hand.
‘Damn, I don’t know if this will mean anything in front of half-demons!’
But quite ironically, it was the 2nd Prince who saved Sercil.
“Look here! This is the place I was aiming for. Archduke, you’ve never been here either, right?”
‘What?’
That elder fellow had put up some barrier when talking to the High Priest so nothing could be heard, but as soon as the prayer room door burst open, he removed the barrier.
‘Should I escape now?’
He was at a loss for how to steal the poison that the elder would have kept in his pocket.
But the High Priest shook his head slightly. Sercil was relieved.
Hidden in a corner of the prayer room like that, he watched the 2nd Prince’s entire performance.
‘Why is he acting like that?’
Something… his way of speaking was different from when I briefly encountered him before.
Previously, his behavior was more leisurely than that, and though I hate to admit it, there was some kind of dignity I could feel.
But now.
‘Did he go crazy in the meantime? Or… wait, acting?’
Sercil’s eyes became strange.
If it was acting, it was very skillful acting.
Skillful enough that the seemingly thorough elder didn’t suspect once.
Since Sercil couldn’t properly see the Archduke and Marcus’s dazzling appearances, he reacted more sensitively to the 2nd Prince’s voice.
And there were things he learned through their conversation.
‘The High Priest… I thought he might be carrying out some secret mission. But no matter how I look at it, this is an atmosphere of plotting treason.’
Moreover, he seemed to have less influence than the elder.
‘Getting all flustered and acting so carelessly just because he’s old. Couldn’t he fail to find me even if I just ran away?’
It’s not like the High Priest is the only one at the temple, so that wouldn’t work…
‘That gentle voice belongs to the Archduke? And what? Son? The elder had children too?’
To Sercil, half-demons were beings comparable to legendary demons, so it was shocking that they could also function(?) to have sex and bear children.
The brazen mountain boy Sercil got excited about gossip several times like a village auntie and chattered inwardly, then composed his expression after everyone left.
I need to stay calm.
‘A walk? How ridiculous.’
And as he wished, he was able to safely escape the temple and head to his destination.
* * *
The office given to the Archduke in the imperial palace was located close to the Crown Prince’s palace.
After finishing work he couldn’t do during the day, he sighed shallowly. Then he closed his eyes and quietly moved his mana.
According to what Marcus had told him, it seemed the elder would briefly visit the 2nd Prince tonight.
The 2nd Prince would probably face a dangerous guest without warning.
What expression would he make?
“……”
Oh. That was a completely useless thought just now.
Skyle slightly lowered his eyebrows and thought:
‘Though Theo and Marcus seem convinced that he’s not someone connected to the elder, I need to be certain.’
Unless the 2nd Prince suffered some harm from this visit from the elder, Skyle wouldn’t trust him.
‘Earlier… he drank that too easily.’
The vial the elder handed over looked like alcohol divided into a small bottle at first glance, but it also looked like a bottle containing medicine.
But the 2nd Prince, who claimed to know nothing, no, who indicated he wasn’t connected to the elder, just drank it.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
