#17
Acting could be understandable. But drinking beverages is different.
‘Wouldn’t it be right to assume he knew what was inside?’
Whatever it was.
Now he would be able to learn the full story.
Though the elder would put up barriers upon hearing that the Great Mage of Light was monitoring, the elder didn’t know.
That those barriers were meaningless to Skyle.
But a moment later.
Skyle, who had opened his closed eyes, strangely hardened his expression.
After taking one long sigh, he got up after brief contemplation.
……It seemed something had come up that he needed to go see.
* * *
The elder muttered as he headed toward Prince Ersen’s palace.
“He did resemble her a little.”
Can a person become someone’s pride?
He knew the answer to that question.
When he was young, the half-demons’ pride had been Eris.
Her jet-black hair like a crow chieftain’s feathers created rich waves whenever she moved.
An arrogant human with swarthy skin and silver-gray eyes like his own.
That arrogance was the dignity that a god should rightfully possess, so he didn’t care that the Empire’s people feared and hated her when they saw her.
He could still vividly recall the husky voice that called to him.
“Hascal! Look at that crazy woman.”
Though it was an insulting remark toward some noblewoman, Hascal envied the noblewoman. Because she was looking at the noblewoman with cunning gleaming eyes.
If only she would pour that interest, that bloodlust, that passion onto me!
Back then, everything except her seemed trivial.
And it was the same now.
However.
“Damn fake.”
Half-demons are divided into real and fake. In Marcus’s case, he was real, given that he was born with unique magic and considering his exceptional physical abilities.
‘Only noble demon bloodline could be so outstanding. Yes.’
But fakes are different.
Fakes referred to those who lived with nothing.
Where did all the demon blood go to make them so inferior?
Prince Ersen the 2nd was even cursed from when he was in his mother Eris’s womb.
With a fetal curse that even half-demons despised.
‘A curse that takes hold when receiving a mother’s pure hatred.’
It was a curse carved into the soul that even the mother who cast it couldn’t lift.
Children born that way unconditionally become fakes.
Being sickly was natural, and they occasionally showed characteristics of being vulnerable to mana itself.
So even if left alone, the child wouldn’t have lived long, but Eris said she didn’t want to let that child die peacefully.
She hated the Emperor who didn’t love her as much as she had loved the Emperor, but even Eris couldn’t do anything to the Empire’s master.
So the arrow went to Ersen, who carried that blood.
It didn’t matter that Ersen had no guilt in the series of events.
What mattered was that he dared to be born fake from Eris, who was Hascal’s pride.
He even received such a curse and lived receiving all the hatred Eris could give on top of that……
“I was curious how he was still alive now.”
Still, since he was royalty and helped the half-demons establish themselves in the Empire to some degree, they had been protecting him from outside just enough to keep him from dying.
They had planned to stop even that before the prince turned twenty-two, but now that the half-demons had established themselves to some degree by allying with nobles?
‘I was thinking of throwing him as a stress reliever soon.’
Most half-demons who lived in the same generation as Eris hated Ersen with one heart, for the reason that he was an existence their pride Eris had hated.
The day to release that hatred would come soon…… that’s what they had expected.
But seeing him today made him want to change his mind a little.
Hascal smiled very ominously and sinisterly.
Sacrifice? What nonsense.
That child who had just turned twenty would become his.
Isn’t it natural to play with toys until they break before throwing them away?
Having devoted his whole life to Eris, he should be allowed to receive this much compensation.
“He probably has nowhere to go anyway. Keheh.”
Should he throw him as food for demons, then save him just before death?
Making pleasant plans, the elder completely erased his presence with delicate mana and infiltrated the prince’s room in the prince’s palace like seeping shadow.
“Mmm? ……El…… der?”
“Hooh. So you did know I was an elder?”
In the eerie silence where not even insect sounds could be heard, the prince dimly opened his eyes and looked at him.
The atmosphere was quite different from the defiant appearance he’d seen during the day, so the elder took in the prince’s disheveled appearance for a moment.
He had actually been somewhat annoyed having to avoid the eyes that were monitoring the palace with unnecessary sensitivity.
He thought it would be worth the trouble of visiting.
Of course, even without that appearance, it would have been a worthwhile attempt considering the information the prince possessed.
“Uh, no…… What, what? Coming here suddenly! I was going to sleep now!”
……As expected, something is different.
The elder stared blankly into those terribly clean eyes, unlike the rumors.
Greedily, like someone facing very delicious food.
“Head Servant! There’s a guest leaving, so see him off! Head Servant!”
“Keha.”
Good. Make him want to die, then give him hope, snatch away that hope, and make him want to die again……
Let’s make him repeat despair.
When this impudent brat’s pretty face becomes uglily distorted, it won’t resemble Eris anymore, right?
Would that be more enjoyable or less enjoyable?
“You won’t die easily……”
“What?”
“Now speak.”
When he becomes the most delicious sacrifice, then we’ll offer him to our power, the source of curses.
‘But to do that, we must first reclaim our source.’
The gray treasure. Thinking of Eris who mischievously hid that precious thing and died, Elder Hascal chuckled.
Indeed, even his pride’s stress relief was extraordinary.
“Where is the treasure?”
“What, kek!”
“……I killed the one who came with you. The High Priest can probably be dealt with soon too. It’s earlier than expected…… but then it’s just the two of us left.”
The barrier was already set up. No one would hear the child’s screams.
‘Well, even if they heard, no one would come anyway.’
There were many who hated the prince besides Eris. Conveniently.
Still, there was nothing good about making a commotion, and he wanted only himself to know about the treasure for now……
“If you want to keep secrets safely in the future…… you’ll need help, won’t you? Child of Eris.”
Though he called him by a title that should be moving just to hear, the prince whose throat was grabbed didn’t look particularly moved.
‘It’s just a fake anyway. Those things are made to do anything when their energy is suppressed with mana.’
Suppressing the prince who didn’t know how lowly he was seemed like it would be quite enjoyable entertainment.
“If you want, I’ll let you handle the treasure just once. Considering your contribution, giving you a chance to use the source’s power once wouldn’t be bad. Do you have someone you hate? I could give you one of their necks as a gift.”
However, just as he was about to laugh at how pathetically pale he looked without even being pressed yet.
“Don’t, kek, need it.”
The prince moved his detestably loose tongue.
“What?”
“Is the treasure…… urgent? Look…… this urgently, sear, ching for it. Huh?”
“Huh?”
“Try killing me.”
He was saying this knowing he couldn’t be killed.
The prince’s gray eyes weren’t beautifully bright like Eris’s but were a faded color, yet strangely looked clear, which annoyed him.
Exactly like a human who knew nothing dirty, unlike Hascal.
‘How ridiculous. There’s no existence as dirty as a vermin like you.’
But when a mocking look appeared in those already annoying eyes, Hascal felt his patience snap completely.
He looked at the prince with an eerie expressionless face, then gradually applied force to his hand.
“Kek…… eu, heuk.”
The prince’s face turned blue.
Moisture gathered in those irritating gray eyes, and tears began to flow.
When moans leaked from his pale pink lips, Hascal felt his patience break in a different sense.
He tilted his head, gradually applying more force to his hand then releasing it, grabbed the roughly coughing prince by the collar and threw him to the floor.
“Urk!”
He expected him to scream loudly in terror, but the scream was short and small.
Listening quietly to the occasional sobbing sounds between rough coughs, Hascal slowly raised the corners of his mouth.
And above all, he wasn’t asking for help.
He knew no one would help him.
That was also very pleasing.
Hascal thought. Killing him like this might be more enjoyable than expected.
Then this strange excitement might explode.
Or should he take him while keeping him alive?
However, just as Hascal leisurely reached his hand toward the prince again.
“Heuk……”
When Ersen trembled his eyelids and hunched his shoulders, someone strongly shook Hascal’s barrier.
“Keoheuk!”
The elder vomited blood on the spot.
Though he immediately removed the traces with magic, even that simple elimination magic seemed to strain him.
Elder Hascal looked around roughly with a face distorted like an evil spirit, then stopped abruptly.
And muttered.
“Why is Archduke Rodias here?”
* * *
“Haa…… haa……”
I caught my breath while blankly staring at where the elder who had left an unmissable remark and disappeared instantly had been.
And I wiped my eyes with trembling hands.
I needed to calm down quickly.
Surely, he had said ‘Why is the Archduke here?’
‘It seems the Archduke was monitoring after all.’
Then should this incident be seen as the protagonists setting a trap to catch that elder?
That didn’t matter. If the elder was caught, the plan would change slightly.
More than that, there was one particular thing that bothered me.
‘If it wasn’t my mistake, if it’s true that the Archduke was really watching……’
The gazes I briefly felt were four.
Normally it’s impossible to distinguish specific people’s gazes, but I could.
At least when it came to the four protagonists……
Strangely, when they looked at me, I could tell who it was even from far away.
Perhaps because I thought desperately about how I would appear to them.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
