Chapter 28

Upon hearing that Simon had returned from his frenzied rush to find Kalia, the Crown Prince called him into the palace. On his way back to the Tower from Kalia's mansion, he headed to Raymond's office. With a rather cold look on his face, he entered Raymond's office.

"You're here?" Raymond looked up. He seemed to be in the middle of changing clothes

He was dressed in a refined manner. His clothes seemed to emphasize comfort rather than formality.

"There was an inspection. Hold on," he quickly dismissed the maids who were helping him tidy his clothes and turned towards Simon1.

"Did you find her?"

Simon looked at him silently and shook his head in reply.

He had expected that Kalia would not be caught so soon but Raymond's expression couldn't help turn sad at Simon's face.

"I see," he answered, sympathy filling his voice. Raymond looked at his sixth cousin with a slightly nervous expression.

Since that day, there'd been hostility in Simon's attitude and behaviour towards Raymond.

How could you hide it from me? Raymond, how could you! His eyes seemed to accuse Raymond everytime his gaze was on him.

In addition to the spree through Kalia's mansion, he had flown into the palace and blown up one side of Raymond's annex. This was also within Raymond's expectation so he wasn't too surprised but the palace staff went berserk. This was different from just blowing up the imperial garden. It was a section where the royal family lived, considered a sacred place. No matter how much imperial blood he had in him or the title he held of Archmage of the Century, what he did was sufficient enough to have him investigated and found guilty of treason.

However, no royal family questioned him, let alone punish him. Not only Prince Raymond, but also the Emperor, who was currently ill in the Southern Palace, didn't seem to mind Simon's outburst. He was only ordered to restore the parts of the Palace he had destroyed.

Such was the power of Simon Terroan, Duke of Mando's existence.

Now that Kalia was gone, the Imperial family could not afford for him to leave too. He didn't even really go crazy. Pressured by Kalia's fierce determination, they were forced to temporarily let her go, something even Simon didn't accomplish but Simon… They needed him more than ever now that she was gone.

Though his heart was very hurt right now and he was directing animosity at the Crown Prince because of the matter, the friendship between the two would not collapse just like this. If Simon had really lost his mind, he wouldn't have returned and be back in the palace now.

Raymond looked at him with regret for a moment before changing the subject. "You brought back a suspicious body?" all the while tugging on a pair of gloves.

Simon's gaze met Raymond's. His golden eyes gleamed coldly.

"I heard at first glance, it looks to be one of the fae species… " Raymond continued.

"Not sure yet," came the reply.

Raymond nodded lightly, recalling an incident that he had previously been briefed on. He told Simon what had happened in a nutshell.

"As a matter of fact, I recently received a slightly strange report. A foreign aristocrat had bought the old imperial castle. Furthermore, the castle is located near the fairy forest…. and the problem is that there's been a rumour going around that the aristocrat has a hobby of collecting fairies," he summarized.

Simon's brow wrinkled. In the human realm, fairies and elves2 were considered inviolable3 species.

Both species lived in different territories. Though they were not as numerous as humans, they were both very powerful races.

Fortunately, unlike monsters, they were not aggressive and did not appear unless it was a special occasion or there were important matters. Normally, there was no chance to bump into them. That's not to say that they were powerless nor were they too few4.

Half of the world was occupied by humans while the other half was occupied5. Of course, most of the land the two species occupied were mountains, seas or deserts. They weren't greedy for more land like humans were either. There was once a time where the three tribes were at each other's throats and tried their best to drown the other species in their own blood. But, they had long left that bloody history behind and now lived in co-existence after a series of agreements.

Elves who were friendly with humans often roamed through human territories. Sometimes, they even fell in love with the humans they encountered. However, they were shy and cautious so they usually never appeared alone.

Fairies, on the other hand, were much more reclusive. Sometimes, there were a few who settled on human territory in natural objects6, but it was in very small numbers.

Both elves and fairies had long life spans but their population was fairly constant, never significantly increasing or decreasing in number. Pregnancy was difficult for them and the gestation period could be as long as five years. Half-elves were shorter, at around 2 years7.

Therefore, elves had tremendous protective instinct for their own race.

That being said, even if the contents of the report turned out to be false, this was something Raymond could not afford to ignore simply due to the nature of the case.

"So, Simon, can you look into this matter a bit more?"

Simon was silent for a moment, taking in Raymond's state. He smirked and though there was the semblance of a grin on his face, the words which came out of his pretty lips were cold and sarcastic, "Your Highness."

His address was not said in a friendly manner; it was a formal and distant acknowledgement to Raymond. The prince faced him with a nervous expression and mentally braced himself for what he was about to say.

"I can understand that, at Kalia's request, you hid her plan from me. Her will is naturally very firm and you are very weak against her," though he seemed to just be stating facts, his tone indicated he thought his words were anything but facts.

"…"

"Logically, I can understand it but my heart does not accept it."

"Simon," Raymond groaned.

Simon firmly continued, "For the time being, I will not accept any work regarding imperial affairs. Although we are called the Imperial Wizard Corps, traditionally the Tower used to work across borders. Besides, the Tower offers their magic based on our foundational values of patriotism and loyalty, right?"

"Simon!"

"Unfortunately, I don't have much patriotism left in me. And my loyalty is…" he paused and looked to the window behind Raymond, "My loyalty is not here8."

Raymond looked at Simon with complex eyes. He wanted to reply but he didn't know what to say. With a sigh, Raymond murmured in a weak voice, rubbing his forehead with one hand, "I've been apologizing, Simon and I will apologize more if it's not enough. I'll also award you Kalia's first sword you wanted from that museum."

"Sorry isn't a word that can undo the past," Simon answered coldly with a light snort.

Without a moment's hesitation, he turned away and headed for the door.

What the…

Glaring at Simon's retreating figure, Raymond murmured," ….that bastard."

***

Simon immediately returned to the Tower, stoic coldness emitted from his every step.

To him, it was funny that Raymond ordered him to go on a business trip despite the fact that he had hid the news of her leave from him. Though Raymond was a cousin he dearly loved, when Kalia was involved, it became a different story altogether…. His mind was now completely focused on finding Kalia. He couldn't imagine anything else, nor did he want to think about anything else.

Though he wasn't willing to, he immediately headed to the joint lab once he got to the Tower. The gathered wizards greeted him with nervous looks at his presence.

"Who is the woman?" Simon asked, looking down at the magically frozen body of the woman whose heart had been ripped open.

Henry answered with a stiff face, "We still have to do some research but there are a lot of suspicious details."

"Such as?"

"The remaining blood traces are clearly similar to that of a fairy's but….her organs are much closer to human organs. In terms of appearance, it's similar to a banshee9

Relative to TBIY, I don't think there has been any mention of this in the past chapters. I'm assuming it's either a type of fairy (because of the blood) or monster. Tbh, the author hasn't really defined what a "monster" is either so…. I can't make a judgement.

But for now, from previous scenes, we can guess that she's probably Malina, the one who was with Prince Buford and also the one who casted the lightning strike onto the fairy tree. but….it's hard to say. They're usually more hideous than this."

Each individual magician specialized in one specific type of magic. However, there were also different fields of interests that a wizard could study. A magician's magic specialty could be different from their field of study.

Henry was an expert in the study of fairies so he felt even stranger than the other wizards when he saw the body of the woman Simon had found.

Theo10, who had been waiting, stepped in to explain. His specialty was therapeutic magic; his field of study was in genetics and racial differences.

"The waves of mana left in the body are also a little unusual. I don't think they knew how to correctly handle mana as the found traces were not properly refined but instead, a mess. Fairies, on the other hand, can use spells as naturally as they breathe."

Simon, who had been listening to the story, reached out to the frozen body and injected his magic into it. He traced the remnants of mana in her body. As if it was perfume she had been wearing, the remaining fragments of mana from the spell she'd casted had almost dissipated away, but not to the point where Simon couldn't read the traces.

As Theo said, the woman's magic was in a terrible state. It was as if someone had forcefully injected mana into her. After completing the verification process, Simon nodded as if he agreed.

Theon was stunned; within that short period of time, Simon had accurately pinpointed and followed the traces of mana left in that body. It had taken them six hours of meticulous work just to restore the body's mana; with Simon, he had finished the examination in just a minute.

He looked at him in awe for a moment and was startled when Simon gaze turned to him, silently prompting him to finish explaining what they'd found in their research.

"So, what's the conclusion?" Simon asked when Theo didn't reply.

"…no, that's- that's it…." Theo nervously trailed off and looked to the other wizards for help.

The rest were all too afraid to speak up. The concluding words were on the tip of every one of their tongues yet they said nothing.

You do it, you do it!!

While the group were still nervously exchanging glances, Simon took a closer look at the body which had become like ice. His hand lifted a handful of hair to inspect the white hair. The stiff hair fell through his fingers. Simon's gaze narrowed. Among the wizards who had been fighting to become invisible until then sensed a shift in Simon's body manner. Theo eventually lost the silent fight.

He came to Simon's side, crying on the inside, "Well, I'm afraid…. that body-" he began.

Theon's lips had barely opened before Simon's murmur cut him off, "Chimera11."

Gasp.

"….we found a chimera body," the word, that the wizards were so reluctant to say aloud, was broached by Simon himself.

The wizards became rigid after the initial gasp and Simon's eyes deepened.

'As a matter of fact, I recently received a slightly strange report. A foreign aristocrat had bought the old imperial castle. Furthermore, the castle is located near the fairy forest…. and the problem is that there's been a rumour going around that the aristocrat has a hobby of collecting fairies.' Recalling his earlier conversation with Raymond, Simon pressed his thumb against his throbbing temple.

'Damn it.'

….a reason to accept the offer that he had just coldly rejected had surfaced, and very evidently too.