Chapter 105

"Oh, and, another thing."

The Crown Prince continued.

"I need to successfully carry out the Birthday Festival for Saint Nyla in order to calm down the agitated public sentiment."

To relieve the anxiety of the people, it was most important to find and eliminate the cause of the rift in the barrier.

But even though everyone was working their heads, they couldn't figure out why that was happening.

"Isn't Saint Nyla's Birthday Festival the event His Majesty was conducting himself?"

The Master asked in a cold voice.

"Since I'm only sitting in the office these days and racking my brains, my father must have created an official event where I could show my face. Don't you think so?"

The Crown Prince was very much looking forward to this festival, because he liked to stand in front of people rather than look at documents.

"..."

"I'm glad I came here today. And I'll have to meet Sir Rosad in private, as you advised."

The Crown Prince, who interpreted the Master's silence positively, took out one more small sack of gold coins and smiled nicely.

***

"You look like you've been doing well."

Rosad, who came closer to me, slightly raised his thin lips.

With dazzling silver hair as if it was turning white, Rosad had a completely different atmosphere from Belreck, who had the image of a keen scholar.

With short hair and a trained body, I thought he looked like a German officer.

'I heard he was a battle mage.'

I fought back a chill as I looked at Rosad, who looked perfect as if he didn't have a single flaw.

It was a sensation imprinted on my body.

Deborah seemed to have had a harder time understanding Rosad, who she didn't know what he was thinking on the inside, than the nasty Belreck, who kept picking fights with her.

The smell of blood hovering on the tip of my nose became increasingly stronger, and I felt both fear and suspicion.

'Why is Purple reacting when it's Rosad who appeared?'

The novel didn't say he touched black magic.

'And why does this guy look fine?'

In the novel, Rosad returned to the capital with his left ankle heavily injured.

And the person who helped the war hero recover was none other than Mia Vinoche.

But seeing that he was unharmed, he had no reason to meet Mia.

"?!"

Suddenly.

A man who was lying next to Rosad like a dead corpse suddenly bent his body in a strange way and opened his mouth towards his left ankle.

The man's tongue and teeth were ominously pitch-black, so I unconsciously screamed.

"Rosad! Behind you!"

Suddenly, my vision turned white.

Purple had exhaled a white sphere out of its mouth.

"Aaack!"

The man who had been hit by the sphere of light that Purple had shot twisted his body around and was in pain as if he had been burned.

Rosad, whose ankle was nearly bitten by the man, swore fiercely and began to crush him brutally with his military boots.

'That zombie man that Rosad had brought back was a black mage.'

That's why Purple felt something strange earlier and reacted.

"This barbarian was cutely hiding poison behind his molars."

Rosad leaned down and forced the man to open his mouth, shoving a handkerchief into it.

Even though the blood went into his respiratory tract and he wasn't able to breathe through his mouth, the man's body only twitched and he didn't die.

The horrible sight made my fingertips colder and colder.

"Is he... a person?"

At my question, Rosad looked down at the man with disdainful eyes.

"Since his life force has been irrationally increased through alchemy, he is more like a monster than a human being."

"Alchemy..."

"They are bastards who disrupt the principle of causality by using human life and blood as sacrifices. They are worse than vermin."

Suddenly, the realization came to me.

'So black magic was related to the kidnapping of the people in the eastern territories.'

The reason why Rosad, Seymour's eldest son, left the capital and had been carrying out a massive anti-barbaric campaign in the east was because of the disappearance of the people.

Until now, all that happened was that the mounted nomads of the east had been invading agricultural lands and stealing grain, but the reason for the sudden kidnappings was to use the people as an offering for black magic.

After receiving a sharp gaze from the barbarian, Rosad looked at Purple patiently.

Purple didn't lose to him and also stared at him with fierce eyes.

"Is that cute white turtle a holy beast?"

"Yeah."

"You obtained something good. Thanks to you, I was saved some trouble. I almost got poisoned and wouldn't have been able to use my left leg for a while."

It seemed Rosad just owed Purple one leg.

'But the fact that he isn't the type to repay favors is a problem.'

In the novel, Rosad, whose leg quickly recovered thanks to Mia, coveted Mia's healing power, which was high in purity and low in after effects.

Moreover, he was so ambitious that he wanted to get the halo of the goddess that Mia had.

'She treated him, and in return, he was a bastard who kidnapped and imprisoned her...'

Just as his sudden appearance was making my head complicated, Rosad patted my head lightly with his bloodied hand.

"It's nice to see you after a long time, little sister."

"...?"

As I frowned and shook his hand away, he rolled up his thin lips and laughed.

"You're still the same. That's why I'm even more pleased to see you."

"Since when did Brother treat me like a sibling?"

In the fragments of my memory, Rosad thoroughly ignored Deborah. Should I say he treated her like she didn't exist at all?

"If you're saddened by my attitude, I'd better make an effort to treat you like a sibling from now on."

"Who is saddened? I like the feeling of distance we had."

"I think our distance will improve now."

The distance between me and him was only one step away.

"Your hair is sticking out."

Rosad, who pointed his chin at my bangs, grabbed the collar of the man who was wriggling like a worm.

"I would like to talk to my sister a bit more, but I have to find out who is behind this barbarian."

"..."

"I'll see you again."

Dragging the collar of a man who had turned into something like a zombie, Rosad disappeared in the direction of the main hall, where my father was.

The trail of blood left behind by the barbarian was pitch-black, like poison.

I might have fainted if it hadn't been dark everywhere.

My legs lost their strength belatedly, so I crouched down and took a deep breath.

As if trying to cheer me up, Purple licked my fingers.

'In any case, Mia and Rosad have no reason to meet now.'

Since I had already stolen the Duchess' letter, I was thinking of a way to somehow keep Mia out of Rosad's way if he got hurt.

I tried my best to think it wasn't too bad.

***

Ahead of the Saint Nyla Birthday Festival, Duke Seymour attended a meeting held by the imperial family.

Of the many guests in the conference room, Duke Seymour's expression was the best.

He cleared his throat while clenching his mouth and trying hard not to smile.

Before the meeting, the heads of the households had a brief refreshment session and talked about each other's recent events.

And Duke Seymour had too much to brag about recently.

'I'm envious.'

'He brought up his children very well.'

'His eldest son is a war hero, and now his second son and daughter united to develop an artifact out of filial piety. I can't believe it.'

In fact, the filial artifact was the most enviable. Most of the noble children always asked for this and that, but never really gave anything back to the family.

'And his youngest is aiming to be a four-circle wizard.'

On the other hand, Duke Montez was managing his expression in a different way to conceal his embarrassment and envy.

When he thought of his son, who was humiliated because he couldn't manage a social club properly, he was filled with anger.

"Duke Seymour. I heard about Rosad's performance."

"I can't believe he subdued the barbarians who used the terrible alchemy. The future of this country is bright, thanks to great people like Sir Rosad."

The heads of households, who were good at social life, started praising Duke Seymour.

"Hm. Rosad was a brilliant guy from the beginning."

Duke Seymour boasted under the guise of humility.

'What an intelligent move.'

Nowadays, he even laid the groundwork to show off his daughter, who was originally a nuisance to the family but was now doing fairly well.

It was human nature to go in if the board had been laid.

One head of the household, who was looking for a chance to be seen by Duke Seymour, opened his mouth.

"I heard that Princess Deborah and Sir Belreck worked together to make a magic tool called a 'massager'. How was it?"

"It is very effective. I even brought it to use at the Wizardry Association."

"Ohh."

"There are a lot of stairs in the Wizardry Association, don't you think? The massager quickly relieves fatigue. I am very proud to know that my daughter thinks of me."

The anecdote of how he shed tears at the group conference was famous.

"Oh, and thanks to Rosad's distinguished services in war, Princess Deborah's formulas are in the spotlight again these days."

"Yes, in fact, my son was able to play so well in the war because he made good use of the formulas my daughter developed."

"Oh, the relationship between your children is very good. I envy you, Duke Seymour."

As if the seal had been lifted, Duke Seymour could no longer hold back and began to boast about his daughter.

'How long is he planning on doing that?!'

Duke Montez, who was feeling jealous at the blatant bragging that naturally entered his ears even if he didn't want to hear it, suddenly began to feel regretful.

Didn't there used to be talks about marriage proposals between them?