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

Chapter 8
It felt like I'd been struck on the ‌‌‌back of my head.
My first thought was this.
'Is he insane?' ‌‌‌‌
My second thought was that.
'No, of course he's mad.' ‌‌‌
But this was truly a mad act.
Even among black mages who wielded forbidden power, there existed taboos.
The act of resurrecting the dead was one of them.
Life and death ‌‌belonged to the realm of the divine.
No matter how nobly born into the imperial family, death must be met the same as a beggar on the ‌‌‌street. ‌‌‌
To touch death was to stand ‌‌in direct defiance against God.
Thus, it was a spell ‌even the most wicked black mages would not attempt.
I had even heard that an enormous price must be paid for it....
'Who on earth is he trying to resurrect?'
The moment that thought crossed my mind, something came to me immediately.
The deceased Countess. ‌‌‌‌
The tale of Count Kieran of House Basilian falling in love with a commoner woman he met by chance in the Black ‌‌‌Forest was famous.
In truth, calling her a commoner was generous.
Whether she was a slave or an Underworld resident, her identity remained unknown—a mysterious existence shrouded in obscurity.
Yet Count Kieran loved her nonetheless.
To marry her formally, he had even sought out the Emperor himself and obtained a minor title, elevating her to nobility.
After ‌arduous effort, they married, and their union was so fruitful they bore three sons. ‌‌
Then one day, the Countess died suddenly.
Countless rumors swirled about her death.
She had been pregnant with a fourth child and died in childbirth along with the infant.
Others claimed the marriage had been forced and she died attempting to flee from the Count. ‌
Unable to find her body, they held a funeral with an empty coffin.
All manner of absurd rumors flourished, yet nothing ‌‌‌‌was ever properly ‌‌‌clarified.
House ‌Basilian offered no statement and merely maintained a quiet silence.
As they always had.
The Count, who had rarely engaged in public affairs to begin with, became completely reclusive in his castle after ‌‌his wife's death.
After such ‌‌‌a long silence, he suddenly emerged with news of adopting a baby.
"I will not condone the vile act the Count is attempting to commit."
Belzeon moved his lips slowly as he made his declaration.
"And I will not create a sacrificial offering to be consumed by it."
"I had no intention of offering the baby as a sacrifice either, Brother."
"But if the situation continues to unfold as the Count desires, then eventually...."
Belzeon, who had been arguing with Ishuel, suddenly fell silent.
Then he bit ‌‌his lower lip firmly.
The shadows in the room rippled like water.
The ‌‌writhing darkness surged upward as if alive.
A man with hair as black as ‌the shadows themselves emerged from the gloom.
"Were you having fun without me?"
Along with his playful voice came a thick, coppery stench that permeated the air.
It was Kieran, dressed in a hunting coat stained dark with blood.
He smiled wickedly and strode toward Chesa.
He tried to embrace her at once, but stopped short. ‌‌‌‌
Blood dripped from his outstretched pale hand.
The fallen droplets left ugly stains upon the carpet.
"Ah... my apologies."
As Kieran hesitated with his apology, Ishuel openly frowned and tossed him a handkerchief. ‌‌
Kieran caught the handkerchief ‌mid-air and wiped the blood away, smiling habitually.
His gaze remained fixed upon Chesa.
"Were you startled, Chesa? I came straight here as soon as I returned from the Black ‌‌‍‌Forest."
Blood was something Chesa had grown weary of ‌‌seeing long ago, so she was hardly surprised.
Yet something about Kieran's state seemed peculiar.
He spoke as though nothing were amiss, but something felt loose—as if a screw had come undone.
Kieran, his eyes hazily unfocused, gazed at Chesa and laughed.
"My daughter."
Kieran seized Chesa and hoisted her high into the air.
"Chesa."
Then, gazing intently into her pink eyes, he called her name again and again.
"Chesa, Chesa, Chesa...."
Ishuel shook his head disapprovingly, but Kieran paid no heed.
Rather, he was in no state to notice. ‌‌
Slightly unhinged as he was, he focused his entire mind solely upon Chesa.
"How could Father use Chesa as a sacrifice? That's absurd. Didn't you say you'd give me everything if I brought you just one thing?"
His words were disjointed and rambling.
It was utterly unlike his usual self, when he would articulate his desires with clarity.
Chesa studied Kieran intently.
Taking advantage of the sinister man—who resembled a black serpent—losing his grip on reason, she posed a question.
"What is it?"
Kieran was the sort who always ‌‌deftly evaded inconvenient questions.
But not this time. He was honest.
He looked up at Chesa and whispered.
"Bring Father the Fairy Queen's Crown."
"...!"
Chesa froze entirely.
To the now-frozen Chesa, Kieran smiled brilliantly.
"Come with me to the Holy Empire, Chesa."

***
Everything was ruined.
Completely and utterly ruined.
Chesa brought her small fist down hard against the cushion.
She had hoped for a satisfying crash, but reality offered only a soft thud as ‌‌her fist sank into the stuffing.
Still, if she didn't do something, she felt as though she might ‌‌‌explode, so she ‌‌continued pummeling the cushion with fervor.
"Why didn't he just ask me to kill someone instead!"
If he had ordered her to take a life, she would have done it without hesitation.
She would have used her beloved carnivorous flower—the one she'd nurtured so carefully—and her cherished axe to grind them to dust.
"But a dark mage's task! And the Holy Empire, of all places!"
It made no sense that a dark mage would covet a sacred relic of the Hilderd Holy ‌‌Empire.
The "Fairy Queen's Crown" was a floral wreath woven from flowers that never wilted.
It was a sacred relic of the Holy Empire, steeped in legend—a crown ‌‌that the fairy queen had presented to the Holy King while praising the divine.
Yet because it was an object created ‌‌‌‌by a heretical being, opinions differed on whether it deserved to be kept as a sacred relic.
Conservative holy priests had even argued that the crown should be burned ‌‌‌immediately.
After prolonged disputes over the crown, a decision had finally been reached recently: it would be ‌‌‌removed from the sacred relics.
Since it was still a precious object, rather than destroy it outright, the Holy Empire had decided to dispose of it in a presentable manner.
That method was the Pure Child Prayer Ceremony. ‌‌‌
They had gathered pure children untouched by the corruption of the world and announced ‌that the crown would be given as a prize to the child who demonstrated the greatest piety.
The true intent was to glorify the divine while secretly indoctrinating children of ‌‌noble birth who would become future leaders.
The reason they limited it to children was simple.
Ordinary ‌‌‌‌humans could not touch the crown.
Only children under ‌‌five years old with pure hearts.
The Holy King, recognized by the divine.
And fairies could touch the crown.
Chesa had heard rumors of the ‌‌‌‌Pure Child Prayer Ceremony being held.
Residents of ‌‌‌the Underworld had eagerly told her about the Fairy Queen's Crown appearing, each one trying to inform her before the others.
But she had paid them ‌‌‌no mind.
'My mother was a mad fairy, after all!'
She was naturally unrelated to anything like a ‌‌‌‌fairy queen.
There was ‌‌‌no reason to travel to ‌‌Hilderd, where holy knights and priests swarmed like insects, just to obtain a single crown.
It ‌would be like walking willingly into ‌‌‍‌‌the lion's mouth.
Yet because of Kieran, she found herself about to be shoved straight into that mouth.
"There's a prayer ceremony where babies gather, and ‌‌‌‌Chesa needs to come in first."
Kieran, interpreting ‌‌‌‌‌her vacant expression ‌‌as worry, began to coax and comfort her gently.
"There's nothing to worry about."
"I'll make sure Chesa comes in first no matter what."
He laughed softly and lifted her up, spinning her around in circles.
Unable to bear it any longer, Ishuel snatched Chesa into his arms.
Belzeon forcibly dragged Kieran away somewhere.
"I'll bring him back to his senses."
And Chesa, left alone ‌in the bedroom, was pummeling a cushion.
After throwing a proper tantrum, I exhaled a deep, heavy sigh.
Information, schemes—none of it mattered. I simply had to escape.
And attending a prayer ceremony as a demon? How absurdly ridiculous.
The mere image of myself praying in the Holy Temple made me gag.
"I absolutely despise this."
Shaking my head vigorously in disgust, I clenched my fists with determination.
"I'm definitely breaking out of here."
With that resolve firmly set, I drew upon a thread of power and conjured a butterfly.
"Bring Hata."
The butterfly, having received its command, fluttered for a moment ‌‌before dissolving into wisps.
My loyal subordinate would find ‌‌‌‌‌the ‌‌‌‌Castle of Serpents within days at most.
Once Hata brought the antidote, I would consume it, restore my body to its original state, and flee the castle.
Of course, not before settling what needed to be settled.
Flowers bloomed at my feet.
A flowering vine climbed up my small frame.
When my body was completely concealed by the blossoms.
I vanished without a trace.
The place where I reappeared from the bedroom was the darkest corner of the gloomy Castle of Serpents.
The Underground Dungeon itself.
There was a truth I had learned while crawling through the Underworld.
Kindness could be forgotten, but grudges must always be repaid.
The moment one resolved to forgive with a soft heart.
Those who smelled weakness would swarm like a pack of dogs and tear you apart—such was the law of the Underworld.
'I've been kidnapped. I cannot simply let this pass.'
Therefore, I intended to tear off at least one arm each from Morgan and the One-Eyed Man.

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