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Chapter 15
Rain fell on the day of my mother's funeral.
Belzeon remembered that day with perfect clarity.
Everything was drenched by the torrential downpour cascading from the heavens.
Yet the men of House Basilian shed no tears.
The ‌‌empty coffin was filled to the ‌‌brim with flowers.
I stood motionless, gazing at the ‌‌‌casket overflowing with the flowers ‌‌my mother had loved.
As I stared endlessly, my younger brother tugged at my sleeve.
"Brother."
Ishuel looked up ‌‌‌at me with anxious eyes.
"Where is Mother?"
...
"I can't see Mother. I've been looking for her since yesterday, but I can't find her."
...
"Brother..."
I turned ‌‌‌‌my head away without a word.
I felt the small force of his hands tugging at my sleeve, but I pretended not to notice.
I had no confidence in explaining this situation to my young brother.
Because I myself had not yet come to accept it.
After struggling for a long time to capture my attention, Ishuel eventually gave up and went elsewhere.
I heard his chattering voice as he approached Karha, who sat huddled ‌‌‌in the corner.
"Karha. Find Mother for me."
"I can't find her."
"Why?"
"I can't smell her."
"Why can't you?"
"I don't know."
"What if... what about my other ‌‌‌sibling? You said there was our sibling in Mother's belly. Can't you smell the sibling either?"
"I said I don't know. Go away."
"Ugh...!"
Ishuel kicked Karha with a sharp blow.
Normally, ‌‌Karha would have leaped up and struck Ishuel in return, but today he remained docile.
He simply curled his body small like a wounded cat and sat there.
"Father!"
Ishuel ran toward Kieran as a last resort.
His hurried footsteps gradually slowed.
Ishuel examined Kieran with worried eyes.
"Why are you like this? You're not even holding an umbrella.... It's raining so heavily that the ground is soaked."
...
"Father, please get up."
Ishuel tapped Kieran with the hand not holding the umbrella.
The small hand touched his forearm with cautious gentleness, yet his rigid body remained utterly motionless.
He ‌‌simply knelt there in silence, as though he had transformed into stone.
When Ishuel received no response ‌despite fidgeting beside him for some time, he turned back toward ‌‌Belzeon.
His voice emerged hollow and despondent.
"What is everyone doing...."
Belzeon bit down hard on the flesh ‌‌inside his mouth.
The skin tore, and the metallic taste of blood spread across his tongue.
He gripped the umbrella tightly and approached his father.
Drenched by the relentless downpour, the figure kneeling before his dead wife's coffin cut a ‌pitiful figure.
Black hair hung disheveled across his ashen, pallid face, while his crimson eyes stared vacantly into darkness.
Belzeon recalled the final words his mother had entrusted to him.
He turned them over in his mind dozens, hundreds, thousands of times.
After chewing on them until they were threadbare, he held the umbrella over Kieran's head.
"Compose ‌‌‌‌yourself."
Even after the rain ceased battering his own body, Kieran showed no reaction.
It was as though he felt nothing at all.
Raindrops clinging to his hair traced down his cheek.
They gathered at his chin, then fell—patter, patter—to ‌‌‌‌the ground.
Belzeon's voice erupted in a shout.
"You cannot be like this! You are Count Basilian, and you...!"
He ‌‌could not surrender ‌‌‌everything and be buried with the flowers as though none of it mattered.
Not as Count Basilian.
Not as the ‌serpent who rules the Black Forest, bearing responsibilities and duties.
Belzeon steadied his ragged breathing and whispered.
"Mother would not have wanted this...."
No answer came.
Only the sound of rain filled the silence.
A low laugh echoed out.
At first, it was so faint, mingled with the rain, that he thought he had misheard.
But the laughter grew louder.
"Hahahaha!"
Kieran laughed, his shoulders trembling.
Startled, Belzeon stumbled backward, and his father laughed wildly in the pouring rain without an umbrella.
The blood-tinged laughter continued for a long time.
"Ha.... Hah, haha...."
When the laughter finally ceased.
Kieran rose unsteadily to his feet.
Standing before his mother's coffin, he brushed back his disheveled, dripping hair with his hand.
He swept the wet strands aside to reveal his smooth forehead, and smiled radiantly.
The darkened crimson eyes gleamed brilliantly, like shattered fragments of ruby catching the light.
"That's right. I am Count Basilian."
My body trembled at the ominous premonition.
A sense of foreboding that ‌‌something had been twisted terribly wrong flooded my mind.
Yet the fall had already begun, and ‌there was no way to stop it.
Kieran pulled ‌‌flowers from the coffin in great handfuls.
Cradling the blossoms, drenched and drooping from the rain, he spoke with delight.
"Then surely I can resurrect even the dead, can't I?"
It was the moment of corruption, the beginning of madness.

***
After his mother's death, Count Basilian descended into complete madness.
Belzeon witnessed every step of his descent.
How this man, who appeared utterly composed on the surface, shattered and crumbled within.
And finally....
"I've finally discovered how to resurrect Mother, Belzeon." ‌‌‌‌
Even to ‌‌‌the point of laying hands upon the forbidden.
Belzeon made a decision.
He alone had to keep his wits about him.
Forcibly dragging back a soul already at rest was something even his deceased mother would not have wished.
He tried desperately to stop it, but it was proving impossible.
The Count had even found a child to obtain ‌‌‌the Fairy Queen's Crown.
Using a sacred relic of the Hilderd ‌‌‌Holy Empire as a sacrifice, he intended to perform dark magic to resurrect the dead.
It was madness of the highest order.
The moment it was discovered, House Basilian would ‌‌face immediate annihilation.
The innocent child who had cooperated would be executed alongside them.
Yet Belzeon could find no way to stop the Count.
The new sibling he had brought home seemed ‌‌plausible enough that objective judgment ‌‌was difficult.
Especially since ‌‌‌his two younger twin siblings ‌‌were now endorsing the Count's madness.
"...."
Belzeon, pressing his temples firmly, glanced out the window.
The child was ‌‌‌‌visible in the garden, taking a walk with his younger siblings.
The Townhouse ‌‌in the ‌‌‌Capital, unlike the eastern Castle of ‌Serpents, maintained its garden properly.
The child fit ‌‌perfectly within the flower-filled garden.
My gaze was drawn to the golden hair that gleamed, catching the sunlight.
And to the delicate features and pink eyes as well.
If a younger sister resembling ‌‌‌‌Mother had been born, ‌‌she would have looked exactly like this.
After unconsciously observing the child for some time, I suddenly recalled the words that small lips had offered me.
"This place is really nice."
"Father likes it."
There was no hint of falsehood in the child's words about loving Castle of Serpents and Count Basilian.
I wondered if the Count had somehow manipulated her mind, but her clear, luminous eyes ‌‌suggested otherwise.
What could possibly appeal to her about this place?
Everything fills me with nothing but revulsion. ‌‌‌
"It seems you're beginning to develop some affection for your ‌‌‌‌‌younger sister, aren't you?"
Belzeon withdrew his gaze from the window.
"Perhaps ‌‌‌you could announce your presence rather than skulking about like a thief, Count."
"Ha ha."
Kieran let out a low chuckle.
With his arms crossed and his back against the wall, he gazed at the child playing in the Garden with gentle eyes.
From the satisfaction evident in his expression, one could infer that the Count had achieved favorable results at the Imperial Palace.
Belzeon could not help but jeer at him.
"So you've finally dragged a child into that repugnant scheme of yours."
"My, such harsh words. Her name is ‌‌‌Sunyae."
Belzeon abandoned the conversation.
Further argument would only exhaust him.
Instead, he broached a different subject. ‌‌
"What are your intentions going forward?"
"Regarding what?"
Belzeon answered clearly to the question posed as if he didn't already know the answer.
"You've announced your attendance at the Pure Child Prayer Ceremony. I'm asking whether ‌‌‌you intend to surface completely, or if this is merely a feint."
House Basilian had never ventured beyond the Black Forest until now.
This was the first moment when the serpent that had ‌‌remained submerged beneath the surface, never once rising above the water, might finally awaken.
"House Basilian will inevitably be exposed from this point forward. It would be a sound strategy to begin actively expanding your influence now."
Already, those taking notice of Basilian were increasing in number.
The kidnapping incident that had ‌‌‌occurred ‌‌‌‌at Castle of Serpents was evidence of this.
The kidnappers had been interrogated harshly, yet the mastermind remained unidentified.
They had come from 'that place,' but they were merely expendable pawns.
The layers of deception made it impossible to determine ‌‌‌the true client.
It was proof that the forces watching Basilian were of considerable rank.
As Belzeon recalled the kidnappers, he added slowly.
"Including that place. We have concealed it thus far, but perhaps the time has come ‌‌‌to reveal ‌‌‌‌it to the outside world." ‌‌
When Belzeon alluded to ‌‌another secret House Basilian harbored, Kieran laughed lightly.
"I'll give it ‌‌‌‌some thought."
Yet his gaze remained fixed on the child in the Garden.
It was clear he was thinking not of the House's future, but of someone long dead.
I recalled the Kieran from the funeral—the one ‌‌‌who seemed ready to abandon everything and be buried alongside a coffin overflowing with flowers.
"As for me..."
Belzeon's gaze shifted toward the voice seething with rage.
He glared at eyes identical to his own—crimson ‌red—and spoke through gritted teeth.
"I will protect the House, Count Basilian."
It was the mission ‌my mother had left for me with Belzeon.
Belzeon would safeguard House Basilian.
By whatever means necessary.

---------------
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our ‌‌official site: valirscans.org
---------------