Chapter 104
“… Hand.”
“Ah, I’m going crazy…”
However, I couldn’t stand the shame that rushed in once again when the scene of me asking for Isidor’s hand flashed through my mind multiple times.
‘Don’t tell me, did something more happen?’
This ominous feeling had never been wrong.
I lay on the bed while holding my forehead, feeling a sense of despair.
I didn’t even have the strength to go crazy anymore.
What expression should I have and what should I say to Isidor when I meet him?
‘Ah. That’s right. I don’t care because I don’t know anything about it.’
I tried to drive away the memory of last night, which hit me sharply in fragments. But that white, pale hand didn’t leave my mind in the slightest.
It’s just a hand.
‘I keep feeling nauseous.’
Seems like my hangover is pretty bad.
I rubbed my burning stomach and called the attendant to tell Enrique that I would be postponing today’s class.
“Sister. Are you feeling sick?”
Soon after, Enrique came to me with an extremely worried face.
As soon as I saw his big eyes wet with tears, I sprang up from my seat.
‘I’ve been healed.’
I couldn’t believe there was such a wonderful, cute, adorable little brother in the world. I couldn’t help but cry.
“I just have a slight headache. Don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt much.”
As I stroked his fluffy hair, Enrique asked with a displeased face.
“Don’t mind me and lay down. Sister.”
The child pulled the blanket with his small hands and tried to cover me.
“I’m fine. Since you’re here, go and eat some cake. Or do you want to play with Purple?”
Enrique’s eyes shook quickly at the word ‘Purple’. I briefly showed the turtle to him last week, and it seemed like he had grown attached to it.
“Don’t!”
Suddenly, the child frowned and shook his head violently, as if fighting with himself.
“Today, I’ll stay next to you and take care of you. I’ll read you a book.”
“It’s fine. And your sister actually hates books.”
“Then how are you smart?”
“But your sister is a fool, isn’t she?”
I spoke mischievously and lightly pinched Enrique’s soft cheeks.
“You’re not a fool.”
He stared at me like he was being treated like a kid, but in the meantime, he said I wasn’t a fool.
“Enrique, who do you take after that you’re so nice and cute?”
And to think the twins, who had such bad personalities, and Enrique shared the same blood. I couldn’t believe it.
“I’ve grown very tall. I’ll be taller than you later!”
“Oh my, is that so?”
“Don’t make fun of me!”
“I didn’t make fun of you. Enrique, grow taller than me. And let’s keep living together. Alright?”
“Yeah!”
I rubbed his cheeks, which were white like a rice cake, then woke up Purple sleeping in the form of a tattoo and put it in Enrique’s arms.
Enrique, who was getting fired up, was startled and let out a shriek.
“Purple has grown bigger. And it has also gotten longer.”
Purple, the holy beast with the worst fuel efficiency which used expensive mana stones as its staple food, was growing day after day, and had soon grown to the length of my forearm.
I was now starting to wonder how much it would grow if I kept flexing mana stones.
‘It was clearly described as a small turtle in the novel.’
It seemed like Mia was unable to provide a lot of mana stones, which Purple used to grow its size, due to financial problems.
Since the holy beast was of mixed blood with the spirits, it could have survived without eating.
“Hi. Purple.”
Enrique gave a shy greeting, his cheeks turning red.
Purple yawned on Enrique’s lap without responding.
As Enrique slipped a mana stone out of his pocket, and then Purple licked his little finger, blinking its big eyes as if its drowsiness had disappeared.
“Purple is so cute.”
Today too, Enrique, whose mana stone was stolen by the shameless turtle, smiled brightly.
Looking at the peaceful sight of the lovely child and animal, I nodded my head happily.
Those two were the light of my poor life in this worl… Huh?
“… It’s dazzling. I want to avoid the sun.”
But why, in my memory, was I making a scene in front of Isidor while covering myself with his coat?
I think the problem won’t be solved by deleting only my memories.
I sincerely wondered if I should hit him in the back of his head until he lost his memory.
“Sister. Are you in pain?”
“… No, I’m embarrassed.”
“Why?”
“Enrique, you shouldn’t drink too much when you’re older. Alright?”
Enrique had a worried expression again as he watched me pressing down my temples, and I repeated my meaningless remorse once more.
That evening, when I sprawled out powerless due to the attack of my memories.
“Grr…”
Purple, who ate the mana stone Enrique gave it as a snack and even the three meals a day I always prepared, suddenly began to shake.
“What’s wrong?”
It quickly approached the window, fiercely revealing its sharp teeth.
“Is something out there?”
Purple continued to look at the flower garden while its body shook.
According to the novel setting, Purple was sensitive to dark attributes, namely black magic.
‘No way, is it a rift? Or a monster?’
There were very few places in the capital that were as safe as Seymour’s townhouse, so how?
‘First of all, I have to tell my father that something is wrong.’
Grabbing the attack scroll, I held Purple by my side and ran hurriedly.
Purple’s growl grew fiercer on the way to the main house where my father was.
Suddenly, I smelled the scent of blood near the flower garden, which was lined with dreary darkness.
“Aaargh!”
At the same time, a painful scream echoed in the flower garden.
“Dear heavens!!!”
“You’re noisy.”
The cold voice that was heard at an interval was even more creepy than the eerie shriek.
“… Is something there?”
At that time, as if feeling my presence, a large figure walked out of the flower garden with a rustling sound.
“I thought it was a wild animal, but it was you.”
“…”
“Deborah.”
A man who had the exact same features as Belreck, but emitted an opposite atmosphere, looked at me while stroking his chin.
There was blood on his face.
“I didn’t expect you to be the one coming out to greet me first.”
He walked towards me in big strides.
Rosad, who had been in the eastern territories all this time, appeared before me for the first time.
The eldest son of the family ended the war and returned to the capital.
***
“I came here to make a deal with the Seventh Fang of the Golden Dragon.”
A man with blue hair, the symbol of the Hystch imperial family.
The Crown prince, Behonik Hystch, walked into the largest armor store in the Horun district and secretly said to the store manager.
The clerk bowed his head deeply and guided him in front of the Blancia Master.
The Crown Prince shuddered inwardly as he saw the doll-like face of the Master.
He was a man with a heterogeneous atmosphere, who didn’t look like a person. But his abilities were worth a high price.
“Master. I came here to borrow your wisdom.”
“Go ahead.”
The Master said in a flat voice, receiving the bundle of gold coins.
The Crown Prince sighed with a troubled face.
Recently, the public sentiment of the empire was worse than ever. The rift of unknown causes that appeared in the barrier was the biggest factor causing anxiety among the people.
To make matters worse, infectious diseases circulated in the underdeveloped slums, and heinous incidents have occurred here and there.
There were even those who were rambling insolently, saying that this was happening because the Crown Prince was virtueless.
‘I need a great plan that can calm this kind of atmosphere.’
In the original novel, the Crown Prince tried to use Mia Vinoche, the saintess’ incarnation, to calm down the anxious public.
Since the popularity of Saint Nyla always worked in the empire.
However, unlike in the original, Mia Vinoche and her position were not very high in the social world, so she was not attracting the Crown Prince’s attention at all.
“The atmosphere in and around the city has been terrible lately, and my popularity and standing are not so good while the 3rd Prince is doing well in the battle against the monsters coming out of the rift in the barrier.”
The Crown Prince said.
“The 3rd Prince, who is excellent in martial arts, is a surprise rival. Even though he didn’t have blue hair.”
“Honestly, I’m not very good at administration, so I’d rather go to war.”
At the Crown Prince’s lament, the Master fiddled with the gold coins and opened his mouth casually.
“If you want to hold back the 3rd Prince, you simply need to promote Sir Rosad, who fought on the eastern front, and the new formula devised by the Seymour family.”
Rosad captured the leader of the eastern Barbarians, who were frequently kidnapping the people of his territory, and he was also able to stop the monster waves, making him popular with the people recently.
“That’s a good strategy.”
If he could promote his military merit even better, the 3rd Prince’s contributions would fade comparatively.
Seymour was even an orthodox imperialist family. This meant that even the aristocratic forces of the Senate could be kept in check if he put Rosad and Seymour on the frontline.
“Sir Rosad’s performance lately has been outstanding.”
“That’s correct.”
In addition, Rosad set up a distinguished military service that was incomparable to that of the original novel.
He was the person who benefited the most from the formula devised by Princess Deborah in the empire.
Because Rosad was the best wizard in combat, who made the best use of the terrain and climate.
As he obtained a formula to effectively arrange mana distributed in nature, it seemed like he had no opponent on the battlefield.
“I heard that Rosad Seymour is coming back to the capital soon.”
“He has probably arrived by now.”
The Master said, casually.