Chapter 36

You have returned.”

“Yes, I did not expect you to be visiting, my lord.”

The emperor, who was arranging his own robe, smiled lightly.

At the emperor’s smile, ‘the Lord’ looked at the emperor from the darkness as if in disbelief.

At this early hour, when the sun was just beginning to rise, the one who had summoned him was none other than the emperor himself.

To think he would play dumb after calling him here himself, surely─

“Are you wary of Lord Lisitoel?.”

“Count Lisitoel is the teacher who instructed me in magic. There is no reason to be wary.”

No sincerity could be felt in his monotonous words.

Even if the emperor's throne was a position that required one to doubt all of mankind, he should have trusted his own teacher.

Had a rift begun to form in their relationship? The Lord's gaze sharpened slightly.

“I’m truly not, but it is vexing to be suspected.”

“Are you being sincere?”

“Who knows?”

The emperor shrugged lightly.

At that sight, the Lord let out a soft sigh.

“Lord Lisitoel left long ago. He has much to do for his beloved son, you see.”

Smiling faintly, the emperor straightened the slightly wrinkled clothes under his robe.

Leonald, now in the perfect image of an emperor, sat down in his office chair out of habit and began his work.

The emperor’s duties were many. Very many.

He could have left them to other nobles if he wanted to let them go, but the emperor never once did.

The emperor’s sleeping hours were always five hours or less.

“So, what did you wish to command of me that you summoned me here?”

“I would like you, my lord, to watch over the situation.”

“Me? To watch over the situation?”

The emperor chuckled, ha-ha, at the disbelieving question.

It was true that this individual was, in many ways, far from someone who would simply ‘watch over things.’

“However, there is no one as suitable as you, my lord.”

“I am not some son of a bitch who unconditionally follows your every whim, Your Majesty.”

He only moved according to the emperor’s will on rare occasions when their interests aligned.

He moved as he pleased. Nothing could dictate his path for him.

For that had long been his law.

The emperor, too, could not have been unaware of this. Therefore, he had to move his heart.

Because the moment the man before him became one of his own, he would be the most powerful piece on his side.

“You will have no choice but to follow.”

“Do try to give me a reason.”

The emperor smiled as he looked at the figure in the shadows.

“Do you know of the Descendants of the Hero.”

“Do you think there is anyone in the Empire who does not know of him now? He must be the most famous person after the emperor?”

The emperor laughed out loud at the incredulous question.

Indeed, the Descendant of the Hero, whom the Empire had yearned for for 1,000 years.

The emperor recalled a boy who perfectly resembled the Hero.

“What would you do if there was someone by his side who possessed a power not bestowed by Lucius?”

At those words, his aura changed in an instant.

“And what if that person had endangered the Descendant of the Hero, not once, but several times?”

“……”

A clear hostility was felt in the silence.

“Even if you are a non-believer, my lord, you will have no choice but to watch.”

Even amidst the stinging hostility directed at him, the emperor smiled ever so gently.

“In any case, you are a Heretic Inquisitor, my lord.”

* * *

Evan, who returned after seeing the emperor off, took out a bottle of wine for the first time in quite a while.

“Won’t you share some with me?”

Artemia, who opened the laboratory door, knocked belatedly.

Evan looked up at Artemia, took out another wine glass, and poured.

“What about the troublemakers?”

“The two who should be in the infirmary are asleep.

The other two are under watch, but there’s no movement from them.”

“That’s a relief.”

“It is a relief.”

Artemia gulped down the red wine.

“The Emperor’s reaction?”

“He doesn’t seem to have any intention of probing further.”

At those words, Professor Artemia was relieved.

To think he was just an ordinary student who caused trouble until five years ago.

He had come to bear such a heavy burden at a young age.

…She really was craving a drink. However, she only wet her lips and did not ask for more.

Ever since she became the professor in charge of the infirmary, Artemia had never once drunk enough to get intoxicated.

Her small wish was just to get dead drunk on the night she retired from being a professor.

“Iris Viden. That crazy X. I knew she was crazy, but I didn’t know she was this crazy.”

What did Artemia think when she heard that Iris had brought that little child, Lerwon?

She thought that maybe a friend who had lost her parents at a young age had found a family again, and she had felt a little happy.

Because in Artemia’s eyes, the person named Iris Viden looked so lonely.

But to Iris, Lerwon wasn’t family, but a mere tool.

“Do you have any idea how many marks of torture were on that child’s body?!”

“Artemia, you’re drunk.”

“I’m not drunk! It’s just, I….”

Was infuriatingly annoyed.

She could have checked on Lerwon at least once after he entered the Academy.

The fact that she never thought to check on him for two years and two months!

“She must have deliberately made you avoid him, knowing your temperament.”

“Damn it!!”

Artemia, unable to calm her anger, slammed her fist on the desk with a bang!

Watching her, Evan swallowed his wine.

Artemia, who had been panting for a while, let out a deep sigh and asked.

“How are you so calm? I thought you would have charged in and killed that Iris thing by now.”

If it had been the Evan from his Academy days, he would have smashed everything to bits long ago.

“Because I carry too much on my shoulders to act as I please.”

As Evan gently swirled the wine glass, the crimson liquid sloshed.

A chill settled in his eyes as he looked down at the wine glass.

“What are you planning to do?”

“About what?”

“If Iris makes a move, we’ll have no choice but to hand over Lerwon. You know that, right?”

The Academy also had no wish to be hostile with the master of Golden.

As a healer, she thought it wasn’t right for Lerwon to return to Iris Viden, but as a professor, she couldn’t put several students at risk to protect one.

Evan, who was silently swallowing his wine, was likely in a similar position.

“Lerwon enrolled in the Academy as ‘Lerwon’, not ‘Lerwon Viden’. Since when did the Academy entrust a student’s well-being to someone with no connection to them?”

“Isn’t that a complete stretch?”

“It is a stretch. But, a justification is always important.”

And, the justification was currently on the Academy’s side.

Evan filled the empty wine glass to the brim with wine.

However, as if he had quickly lost interest, he made it disappear with magic.

“The Academy will not be swayed by the likes of Golden.”

“Easier said than done.”

Artemia swallowed a sigh instead of wine.

Yes, but if Evan Lisitoel was going to act like that, she was relieved.

Artemia, who couldn't leave the infirmary empty forever, rose from her seat.

Although the only patients at the moment were Theo and Lerwon, new patients could arrive, and she had to closely monitor their conditions.

“I thought you would abandon Lerwon to protect Theo.”

Before leaving the laboratory, Artemia stopped and looked at Evan.

“He is your precious son, after all.”

“That method would be easy, I suppose. But─”

“But?”

“Because without Lerwon, Theo can’t keep up with my classes.”

So he had no choice but to keep him by his side, even if he didn’t like it.

He was a son who made his father worry in many ways.

As magic gathered on his staff, Artemia asked once more.

“Are you going to solve it?”

“I must.”

Because he wanted to give his son good news when he opened his eyes.

* * *

“I heard you caused some trouble.”

Tap, tap, the sound of a staff tapping on the wooden floorboards echoed clearly.

The woman with golden hair, who was half-lying on the sofa languidly tilting her wine glass, knocked it over.

Red wine spilled onto the table, but the woman paid it no mind and called out the name of her uninvited guest.

“Boreas Nevera.”

“Do you have any idea how much of an uproar your tyranny has caused in the Nevera Duchy residence.”

“The vassals? Or the nobles under your command?”

“You’d be wise to assume it’s both?”

The man standing opposite Iris Viden, making the sound with his staff, had a face that looked like an aged Zephyros.

Lightly ignoring his words, Iris tapped her chin with her finger and asked.

“Have you ever cared about the vassals being noisy?”

“I have not.”

At the frank admission, the woman burst into a small laugh.

Indeed, a man who lives for his own greatness wouldn’t be swayed by the words of mere vassals.

“Were you planning to kill that child, Zephyros?”

“Why? Didn’t you want me to kill him?”

At Iris’s question, Boreas remained silent.

Silence was affirmation.

Because Boreas Nevera truly wished for the death of ‘Zephyros Nevera’, who resembled him so frighteningly.

Thus, he thought it wouldn’t matter if that was hastened just a little.

“It is not yet his time to die.”

The corner of Iris’s mouth lifted slightly at his tone, which implied that Zephyros’s death was under his plan from the very beginning.

“This is why I hate you, you know?”

If I were to put a name to this feeling, it would surely be ‘kin hatred’.

“Besides, I never intended to kill him in the first place.

How could a mere merchant like myself dare to aim for the life of Nevera’s one and only noble young lord?”

“Shut your mouth, Iris Viden.”

Boreas’s grip on his staff tightened.

A menacing wind, as if to snatch Iris’s life away, began to gather around his body.

She tried to take his wind as she had taken Zephyros’s, but the wind did not move. As if it had been subservient to him from the start.

Iris, feeling the flow of the wind, smiled lightly.

“It’s not my fault. What am I to do when the young lord doesn't understand my intention to courteously invite him for a brief conversation.”

“Is that your way of saying it’s fine?”

“If the Duke wishes, I could take care of it separately. I won’t charge a price for that, considering our friendship.”

“There is a limit to listening to your nonsense.”

At his firm words, Iris’s eyes welled up with tears as if she were heartbroken.

“Evan was like that, and now the Duke of Nevera too. How is an ordinary merchant with no title supposed to live with all this sorrow.”

“Ordinary, you say? A passing son of a bitch would laugh.”

“You’re truly being too harsh. Don’t you think?”

At Boreas’s words, Iris giggled and asked the ‘intruder’.

In that spot stood Evan Lisitoel, his eyes calm.

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