Chapter 116
---------------
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 116
Silence descended upon the hall.
Every man of House Basilian had gone rigid.
This time, they all seemed genuinely startled.
Miliod wore a satisfied smile.
'Even if they're provincial folk from the Eastern Region, they won't be ignorant of the Underworld.'
Having invoked the Underworld Master, they wouldn't dare question him.
Of course, he had no actual connection to the Underworld Master whatsoever.
It was all a carefully fabricated lie.
But Miliod's audacious falsehood was rooted in genuine confidence.
The Underworld Master was unknown to the public eye.
Only the fact that he possessed wealth beyond imagination had spread.
Though countless theories swirled about him, he had never once revealed himself.
Whether Miliod borrowed that name for his lies or did anything else, no one could possibly know.
Moreover, this was happening within the Holy Empire Hilderd.
Even the Underworld Master couldn't know of affairs conducted within Hilderd's borders.
And even if he did learn of it, he wouldn't dare touch a Cardinal.
'Besides, neither House Basilian nor Hailon would be able to properly investigate the Underworld.'
It was a lie born from careful calculation.
Of course, Miliod himself wasn't particularly eager to invoke the Underworld Master.
So he had prepared it but intended to avoid playing this card if possible.
'But given the circumstances, there's no helping it.'
Having drawn his trump card, Miliod gazed at Count Basilian with triumphant confidence.
The Count sat frozen, his eyes wide with shock.
A small exclamation came from beside him.
"...Wow."
It came from the young boy with sharp, fang-like features.
The boy's mouth fell open, revealing small canines, and he began to snicker.
At that moment, the men of House Basilian burst into laughter in unison.
They laughed wildly, as though they had just heard the most amusing tale.
Miliod's expression went blank at their laughter.
He couldn't follow the situation unfolding in a direction he had never anticipated.
It took a long while before Count Basilian finally suppressed his laughter.
He drew in a breath and exhaled before speaking.
"The Underworld Master, you say? How fascinating. Do they call him Master?"
His voice still carried traces of amusement.
Count Basilian cleared his throat with a soft cough.
His eyes narrowed into crescents as he smiled.
The elegant curve of his eye smile was bewitching.
In that moment, Miliod felt a sharp sense of wrongness.
The fact that such a being sat enthroned in the heart of the Holy Empire felt unbearably incongruous.
Simultaneously, an overwhelming urge to flee surged through me.
I couldn't fathom why.
There was only an intense, visceral desire to escape this place immediately.
Miliod, frozen like a mouse before a serpent, heard words spoken in a deceptively gentle tone.
"Now that I think of it, I recall hearing tales of the Master. They say he commands subordinates of unwavering loyalty who would never betray him...."
Miliod forced himself to regain composure.
He willed his increasingly rigid tongue to move.
"Are you... referring to the 'Executioner'?"
"Yes. Those who incur the Master's displeasure are executed by them, or so I've heard."
The Executioner was a term for the most overwhelmingly powerful subordinate under the Master's command.
Even the lawless rabble of the Underworld, who feared nothing in this world, grew docile at the mere mention of the Executioner.
Only one Executioner was publicly known.
A man with cloth binding his eyes in peculiar attire, wielding a whip as his weapon.
Since he sometimes stepped forward as the Master's proxy, his face was at least recognizable.
Everything else remained shrouded in mystery.
True to their name, the Executioners moved only when the Master desired someone's death.
Since all who had faced an Executioner perished, their identities naturally remained secret.
"The Cardinal surely knows of the Executioners as well...."
Count Basilian shifted his gaze.
A flinch.
Miliod, following the gaze without thinking, trembled violently.
The Count's eyes had turned toward the Twins.
The Twins, who had been listening obediently until now, grinned wickedly the moment their eyes met Miliod's.
That mischievous, nightmarish smile sent a chill crawling down his spine.
His heart shriveled within his chest.
Miliod hastily turned his head away.
Yet there too, crimson eyes awaited him.
Count Basilian spoke with an expressionless face.
"I trust you would not carelessly speak falsehoods concerning the Master."
The chilling warning stole his breath.
As Miliod's lips merely trembled, the Count suddenly smiled as though nothing had happened.
Then, speaking in a soothing, coaxing manner, he continued.
"Might I have the opportunity to meet this biological father of whom you speak? Not out of distrust, but merely out of curiosity."
It was around the time when, hearing he was a dark sorcerer, Miliod had been asking various questions about whether he was being held in the Heresy Interrogation Chamber.
Suddenly, a brilliant white light flashed beyond the window.
The source of the light that instantly illuminated the oppressive darkness was holy power.
The men of House Basilian and Miliod alike froze momentarily like statues as the holy power suddenly flooded the exterior with daylight.
Count Basilian was the first to move.
He immediately sprang to his feet and seized his sword from where it lay in the corner.
"The two of you check on Chesa. Belzeon, come with me."
The three brothers moved at once.
The Twins kicked through the door and bolted out, while the eldest drew his sword.
Miliod cried out belatedly.
"Wait, hold on! Drawing a blade within the Holy Empire—!"
It was the most fundamental rule of conduct: one did not unsheathe a sword carelessly within the Holy Empire.
Yet Count Basilian issued a command to Miliod instead.
"Do not venture outside. Wait here with the guards."
"What? What do you mean! Where are you going, Count!"
Passing by Miliod, who stood in his way with mounting indignation, Count Basilian spoke tersely.
"A monster."
Beneath eyes that gleamed with irritation, his lips curved into a thin line.
"Follow if you wish to die."
***
If I could only secure evidence that a Fairy was imprisoned within the Holy Empire.
Then Hailon could launch a full investigation as a Heretic Inquisitor.
Ordinarily, he would begin investigations on suspicion alone, but this time he needed irrefutable proof.
Because the accused might be the Cardinal and the Holy King themselves.
He had to gather evidence flawlessly, encircle them with no escape, and strike all at once.
Chesa was quite taken aback by the fact that he had resolved to condemn even the Holy King.
'I'm the first one.'
Every time I recalled Hailon's words, my face burned with heat.
To appear unaffected, I had to exert considerable effort.
"...So I just need to find the Fairy, right?"
To my words, spoken while deliberately looking elsewhere, Hailon answered briefly.
"If possible."
In the past, I would have concluded it impossible outright.
I had searched long for another Fairy, yet never once encountered one.
But now it was different.
Ever since I touched the Fairy Queen's crown and was dressed in that strange gown, I felt something within me had changed.
I couldn't pinpoint exactly what or how it had shifted.
Only that somehow...
'I might be able to find the Fairy?'
This strange confidence kept welling up from within me.
"I'll give it a try."
To move alongside Hailon, I extended my hand to him.
He gazed at the hand offered to him for a moment, then slowly clasped it.
My hand was enveloped within his large one.
From the moment I resolved to find the Fairy, an intense sensation coursed through me.
Chesa carefully guided her power according to her instinct.
Where the blooming flowers led her was an Underground Cavern.
Surveying her surroundings, Chesa murmured in bewilderment.
"...A Wine Cellar?"
Torches flickered throughout the cool, damp cavern, and wooden barrels filled with spirits lined both sides of the passage.
And before Chesa and Hailon stood a massive Iron Gate.
If her instinct was correct, fairies must be imprisoned beyond this barrier.
Indeed, she could faintly sense fairy essence emanating from the other side of the Iron Gate.
Yet something felt deeply wrong.
As though she were touching upon something forbidden that should never be opened....
Her entire body erupted in goosebumps.
Two voices whispered simultaneously in her mind.
One urging her to open the door, and another commanding her never to open it.
Both were so desperately compelling that she could not choose easily.
Hesitating, Chesa turned to look at Hailon.
"...."
Though this moment might yield crucial evidence, Hailon did not press her forward.
He simply waited quietly beside her.
Thanks to his serene blue eyes, the choice became clear.
The journey had ended, so she could release his hand now.
Yet Chesa held Hailon's hand firmly while opening the door with her other hand.
Strangely, the Iron Gate swung open as lightly as a feather.
As if it had waited for an eternity, it opened effortlessly to her touch, without a single lock.
"...!"
The moment the door opened.
Darkness poured forth.
What awaited Chesa beyond the closed door was not fairies.
What engulfed everything in sight was....
Monsters that should have been in the Black Forest.
---------------
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
---------------