CHAPTER 1

That night, Duke Artus rushed to contact a man from the Holy Empire.

The mess in the house was not organized until that night.

Bringing someone into such a mansion was too hurtful and painful, but he had no choice.

'If only Meldon is gone, if only he is gone, no one can touch us.'

We are Artus.

Just need to get rid of him, and quickly get Felix or Merida to get married and have children. Then one of them will be a transcendent.

Meldon was the biggest mistake of his life.

Now he just needs to remove the mistake and then everything will return back to normal. It's not too late yet. It's not too late....

He was waiting impatiently when someone knocked on the door.

For a moment, his heart was filled with expectations, but it was his daughter, not someone from the Holy Empire.

He sank his half-standing body back into the chair. And said in annoyance.

"What else is going on?"

"... Father, I have something to confess."

Merida's expression was serious.

"Can't we listen to it later? As you can see, the mansion looks like..."

"It's something that I must tell you now."

He was angry for a moment, but he wanted to hear what it was and quickly get it done with.

Duke Artus rubbed his brows and said.

"...Ok, fine. Tell me quickly."

However, contrary to what Duke Artus had thought, Merida bit her lip and hesitated for a while.

"The family seal that father has now is a fake."

"...What?"

"A while ago, I just wanted to try to have it, so I secretly made a fake one. I've had the real one until now."

Duke Artus' mouth was wide open.

His daughter was generally obedient. She was a child who grew up beautifully, only her tongue was like a poisonous viper, but she had never rebelled much.

He stormed out of his seat and flew into a rage.

"Why, why did you do that! Do you think the family seal is a joke?"

"...I'm sorry. But something like this happened to the family... I thought something really bad would happen if I kept doing this. I thought it would be better to say it first and apologize. I'm sorry."

Merida obediently placed the seal on the office desk.

The family seal was indeed the real one.

Unable to believe what his daughter had done, Duke Artus kept his mouth open.

He should have been more angry and questioned her more, but he still had an important guest.

He gnashed his teeth.

"...Alright. That's enough of the pranks. You're a grown lady now.... Let's talk about this later."

"I'm sorry."

Merida bowed, apologized and left the room.

Duke Artus held the seal. Still, he couldn't believe that the good child had done this.

Then the door opened again.

This time it wasn't Merida. He was the man from the Holy Empire he had been waiting for. It was the same person who came last time, but he was still dressed in a strange robe.

He hastily hid the seal. How can he expose the family's flaws here?

The young man sat down and had a light conversation. It was supposed to be longer, but he didn't have much time.

The Duke hurriedly got to the point.

"... I can't help it now. I need that."

"What are you talking about?"

As if he had read the situation roughly, the young man of the Holy Empire in front of him only laughed.

Duke Artus groaned.

"That potion! That, d, drug that drives the transcendent crazy! I need that!"

"Aha. That's what you mean. Of course, I'll give it to you."

The young man ceased his laughter in an instant.

"If you give us the information we want."

"I'll give it to you! I will give it to you, please!"

With those words, Duke Artus took out the family seal that Merida had just brought.

Then the young man took out a scroll containing information.

It was a scroll with the shape of a family seal in the middle. On top of that, when the duke stamped the seal he had just taken out, the scroll was unwound.

Duke Artus clicked his tongue inwardly.

'Damn, really that girl....'

He thought he would have to investigate the matter again later.

Satisfied, the young man rolled up the scroll and took it back.

"But you kept us waiting this time, didn't you? So there's one more condition."

Duke Artus' expression was distorted. But he had no choice.

"You didn't say that before?"

"Don't worry. It'll be easy."

He spoke quietly.

"In the basement of the Imperial Palace, there is a colleague of mine who has been imprisoned for over seven months. You just need to set him free."

And the young man held out a schematic diagram of the Imperial Palace's basement prison and a dagger with a crooked edge with the emblem of the Holy Empire.

"Set him free by death. This is my request."

'You, you're going to kill your colleague?'

It was unbelievable.

However, Duke Artus could not further comprehend how bizarre the matter was.

He was weak. This path was the only option left. He took the dagger. Only then did the young man offer him what he desperately wanted.

The potion had a very ominous yellow color, like the eyes of a dragon.

* * *

After Aceras entered Duke Artus's mansion, Kelsion looked up at the mansion alone.

Empress Siord's mind was already sufficiently disturbed, all he had to do was wait for the snowball to grow as it rolled downhill.

Now all that remains is to wait.

Everything was going well.

However, anxiety had been building up in his mind for some time. Although denying faith in the Holy Empire is above all useless.

After waiting for Aceras for a while, he left a note saying something had happened and headed somewhere in a hurry.

He arrived at the Imperial Palace's basement prison.

Directly entering the Imperial Palace has a great risk of being caught. If caught, it will cause great trouble to the Holy Empire and the Pope.

Though he thought that it was crazy, he had to come.

He disturbed the guard captain's mind again.

Originally, this method did not work well for those who had been brainwashed once, but fortunately, the guard captain easily opened his mind.

While he was unconscious, Kelsion quickly went underground.

In order to open the door to the deepest part, where his colleague were imprisoned, he had to have the permission of the head of the four Ducal's family or the Imperial family.

Because the door is composed of high-level magic and only reacts to them.

Unable to cross the door, Kelsion used a magic orb in front of it. Then he saw his colleague behind the door.

It was a miserable sight to see for the first time.

Kelsion held back his tears and said urgently.

"Argel, wait a little longer. Everything is going well. You'll be released soon."

Argel couldn't even raise his head and looked at him only with his eyes. His eyelids blinked rapidly.

It wasn't long before Kelsion realized that it was a signal between them.

A signal consisting only of two things.

He was using the signal by switching between short and long eye blinks.

Kelsion carefully interpreted his signal.

'His Holiness The Pope wants my death.'

'So I will die.'

Kelsion bit his lip. It was the truth that he had been trying to deny.

"That's not true. We will return alive."

There was no answer. Argel powerlessly closed his eyes again.

There was no more time for him to delay.

As he ran up the stairs of the underground prison, Kelsion suppressed certain emotions that were constantly rising in his chest.

All the colleagues who came to this capital city died and were buried in this land. This place was hell for them.

'But we didn't die. We will return to the Holy Land again.'

The Pope loves us. That's why he won't let us die here.

He constantly mumbled those words to himself, as if trying to brainwash himself.