Episode 124. Come Back Safely
2024.01.02.
A carriage stopped in front of a villa located in the forest on the outskirts of Nerha.
Men in black robes who had been waiting opened the carriage door. The person who stepped out of the carriage was Gerard, likewise wearing a black robe.
Gerard accepted their greetings and asked.
“Are the preparations complete?”
“We have prepared everything as you ordered.”
As he stepped into the room on the second floor of the villa, a fireplace came into view straight ahead. When the leading man pulled one of the fireplace bricks, the wall that had looked like a fireplace opened, revealing a staircase leading underground.
Gerard descended underground alone, leaving the men behind.
In the center of the spacious basement, which was as large as the entire villa, lay a giant magic circle that looked as if it were drawn in blood, and at the center of the magic circle sat a black goat’s head.
This was the place where his revenge, planned over a lifetime, would be completed.
“That child… Since he resembles you to a terrifying degree, older brother, his agonizing appearance will surely resemble your face as well.”
Gerard—no, ‘Logan Delmark’—let out a chilling smile as he recalled the target of his revenge, Cassion, and his son Herdin, who was the spitting image of him.
Truly terrifying and sickening faces.
Faces he had hated terribly from the very moment he first stepped into the Delmark Ducal residence forty years ago.
‘What’s that filthy thing? I don’t need a sibling.’
Logan, who had lived alone with his mother in the slums, lost her when he was five years old and was brought into the Delmark Ducal family.
Esmeralda took pity on Logan and accepted him as a younger brother, but Cassion denied and loathed the existence of a sibling who had suddenly appeared one day.
It was likely an instinctive sense of crisis that his place might be taken away by his sibling.
Cassion was only seven years old at the time.
Cassion, who had been displeased with Logan due to his childish immaturity, grew a little older and secretly took care of Logan, albeit while grumbling.
However, Logan did not welcome such Cassion.
It felt like Cassion’s generosity toward him stemmed from the complacency of a winner who knew that no matter what he did, he could never surpass him.
In a caste-based society, Cassion was the predetermined winner, and Logan was the predetermined loser. Cassion was the legitimate eldest son who would inherit the family’s power, while Logan was a powerless bastard.
That victory and defeat could not be overturned no matter what method was used.
When he realized that he could not win even if he surpassed Cassion in intellect and trained in swordsmanship day and night.
Logan decided to change himself if he could not change the world. He would discard his own body and steal Cassion’s body.
Thus, Logan began researching black magic with bloated dreams, but he was soon found out.
‘You laid your hands on black magic forbidden by imperial law, and attempted to harm the heir of Delmark using it. The sin is heavy, but out of pity for you since you are still young, I shall confine you to the Delmark main estate instead of executing you.’
The Duke of Delmark said he could not execute Logan, a bastard though he was, as they shared the bond of father and son, and sent him to the Delmark main estate.
However, that was merely a formal punishment mindful of the eyes of others, including Cassion and Esmeralda.
The Duke sent assassins to the carriage heading to the Delmark main estate, ordering them to kill Logan and disguise it as an accidental death. He judged that keeping Logan alive would pose a threat to Cassion’s future.
It was a wise judgment as the head of the family, but a terribly ruthless denial as a father.
However, as if God had not completely abandoned him, divine power manifested within the dying Logan.
Having survived so miraculously, Logan faked his own death, hid his traces, and began researching black magic once again.
As a result, although he could not ultimately discover the black magic to swap bodies, he found a way to bring ruin to Cassion and Delmark.
A black magic that could surpass the second severed restriction.
Upon reaching adulthood, Logan changed his name to Gerard and entered the temple as a priest.
It was not very difficult for him, who was talented in addition to being hardworking, to become the High Priest and then the youngest Pope. Unlike in the ducal household, where no matter how hard he worked, he could not become the heir simply because he was a bastard.
After becoming Pope, Gerard first approached Cassion’s wife, Eloise. And through her, he also became acquainted with Cassion.
More than twenty years had passed, and his changed face was unrecognizable even to Cassion; Gerard cast black magic on Cassion while his guard was down.
The black magic engraved a mark on Eloise, whom Cassion loved, and finally, Cassion went on a rampage, ensnared by the trap Gerard had laid.
Everything was so easy. Absurdly so.
That was what he thought. Until an unexpected variable appeared.
‘The young duke killed his father and survived.’
‘…What?’
‘It seems that before the Duke died, he regained his sense of self and was killed by his son’s hand.’
Although that variable was annoying, he thought it no longer mattered.
Cassion was dead, and due to this incident, Delmark’s prestige had fallen so low that it would be difficult to recover.
However, that thought changed the moment he first saw Herdin at the two’s funeral.
The child resembled his father to a terrifying degree.
Enough to take Gerard back to the day he first met Cassion in an instant.
‘…You look so much like the Duke, Young Duke.’
This was an opportunity.
An opportunity to plunge the child, who was the spitting image of him, into the same despair, so that his unsettled heart, even after finally completing his revenge, could be relieved.
Gerard cast the same black magic on the unstable Herdin as he had on Cassion. He thought that this time, too, he just had to wait quietly like his father.
However, a hitch occurred in the plan he had thought to be perfect.
By Esmeralda, who began to question Cassion’s death and uncover the truth.
Gerard killed Esmeralda and stimulated the fear of Katrina, who had been her political rival, to cover up the truth.
Thus, Katrina, who had become his excellent pawn, eventually handed over even her own daughter to be used as a pawn for Gerard’s revenge.
After going through all sorts of things, the summit was now right before his eyes.
“If you had killed that child back then, older brother, he might have died by his father’s hand, but at least he wouldn’t have had to bear the fate of threatening the life of the one he loves.”
Gerard stepped forward in front of the black magic circle and added in a mumble.
“Therefore, that child’s misfortune is entirely your fault, older brother.”
This time, it was truly the moment to sever the long-standing dark ties that had continued for ages.
* * *
Blair, who had been taking a nap, felt a hand stroking her stomach and opened her eyes.
As late autumn set in and the sun had set early, the surroundings were already growing dark. Facing the familiar blue eyes in that darkness, Blair asked.
“…What are you doing?”
“Saying hello to the baby.”
Blair, still half-asleep, wondered what greeting he was talking about all of a sudden, but only after seeing Herdin’s attire did she remember that a banquet was being held at the mansion today.
“Will you be back early?”
“Would you like me to be?”
A casually thrown question was met with a cheeky counter-question. Blair frowned at his over-interpretation.
It wasn’t like she would wait for him. Why would she find anything pretty about the hateful man who had forcefully kept her when she wanted to leave?
Herdin saw Blair’s reaction and still let out a chuckle, adding,
“Then I’ll come back quickly.”
At him arbitrarily interpreting her reaction in a positive light, Blair drew a firm line.
“No, then I’m going to sleep first.”
“In that case, I must return quickly. My wife is waiting anxiously.”
“I didn’t say that—”
Before Blair could counter his cheekiness, Herdin rose to his feet and cut her off.
“I’ll be back.”
Along with his low voice, a large hand reached out, gently stroked her hair, and fell away.
Blair watched Herdin’s retreating back in disbelief.
Was he a simpler man than she thought?
The only thing that had changed was that she had given up running away from his side, yet he had become affectionate as if nothing had happened. Just like that spring day when he handed her a roasted marshmallow.
She hated that man for constantly making her expect when she wanted to resign and give up. Despite giving her countless wounds, that handsome face of his was infuriating.
With large strides, he quickly left the bedroom.
Looking at the door he had exited through, Blair belatedly gave him a send-off as if mumbling.
“…Come back safely.”
* * *
“Welcome, Your Grace the Duke! I was worried about what to do if your schedule was too busy for you to come, but thank you for gracing us with your precious presence, Your Grace.”
When Herdin arrived at the Nerha County estate, Raymond ran over at once as if he had been waiting and welcomed him.
Around them, the nobles of Clania who had arrived first gathered with bright expressions.
Raymond, the very person who had brought Herdin all the way to Nerha, showed off his friendship by introducing the nobles to Herdin one by one.
“This is Bernard, who rules over the Slate Earldom. He is an old friend of mine.”
“It is an honor to meet the Empire’s greatest magic swordsman, whom I had only heard rumors about.”
Herdin listened to the now uninspiring, formal greetings and shook hands with them.
After finishing the greetings, one of the nobles looking around asked subtly.
“By the way, did the Duchess not come with you? I really wanted to see her at least once.”
As Blair’s name inevitably came out of the nobles’ mouths, Herdin’s eyes, which had been sipping wine, sank coldly in an instant.
He wondered why that topic hadn’t come up yet.
‘How incredibly fast a footless rumor travels.’
Whether in the Empire or in distant foreign lands, the sight of packs of jackals chasing rumors and swarming in after catching the scent was quite an eyesore.
Herdin put down his wine glass and answered their curiosity.
“The baseless rumors circulating lately don’t seem to be of much help to my wife’s recuperation, so she is avoiding social activities.”
At his words, the atmosphere in the room instantly turned frosty.
Herdin spoke with a relaxed smile, but the eyes of the man saying so were by no means gentle.
It was a look that made one guess that anyone who brought up ‘that rumor’ would not escape unscathed.