Chapter 73
Up until now, Rion's survival strategy had been clear.
Stay by Renoa's side and keep her from causing trouble.
Because as long as Renoa never touched black magic, her slave Rion could live.
That's why he had become her guard knight and followed her to the academy.
Rion hadn't meant it, but Renoa didn't grow jealous of Elodi, nor did she obsess over Aiter.
It was the perfect situation. He thought maintaining the status quo would be enough.
He thought that, if not freedom, at least his life would be preserved.
'But it wasn't.'
Aiter had already started suspecting Renoa.
His trusted subordinate Bibi was a spy, and behind her was probably an unidentified mastermind.
That being was after Renoa's life.
As a result, Renoa had suffered irreparable damage. He couldn't keep insisting on maintaining the status quo and waiting anymore.
Now that an invisible evil hand was tightening around Renoa's throat, he had to deal with the mastermind as quickly as possible.
Otherwise, he might be branded the witch's knight and killed.
“If you promise not to harm Renoa, I'll cooperate with the witch hunt.”
So Rion reached out to Aiter.
He was the original story's top contributor to the subjugation of the black mage Renoa.
If he could bring the imperial family to his side, he could protect Renoa's safety no matter who he faced.
Of course, there were risks.
But if he wanted the imperial family on his side, they were risks he had to overcome.
“I don't understand. You'll help with the witch hunt if I guarantee the witch's safety?”
“Yes.”
“Why should I? Now that I know the young lady is the witch, your help is no longer needed. I'll just bring the army and take care of her.”
Aiter's words were certainly reasonable.
But Rion wasn't so inexperienced that he'd ignore the hidden chain of causality.
“Then you wouldn't have needed to call me out separately to test me. You also wouldn't have sent assassins to test me.”
“Hmm, assassins? What are you talking about? That's the first I've heard of it—”
-Whoosh!
In that instant, Rion's arm shot out like a streak of light and lunged at Aiter.
At the same time, the shadows of the beings hiding nearby swelled all at once.
The imperial family's proud elite assassins.
Their blue daggers flew with such speed that not even the sound of slicing through the air could be heard.
But just before the tips of their blades touched Rion's outer coat.
-Sshhk!
A speed impossible for the eye to follow.
Faint afterimages tangled in the air like a spiderweb. It was the arc traced by Rion's hand blade.
The assassins, having had their vital points cut in a single blow, buckled helplessly in midair.
Their unconscious bodies collapsed onto the carpet with soft thuds and fell silent.
It all took place before Aiter could even blink once.
A fleeting silence.
While the shadows that had burst out from every direction lay pinned to the floor, not moving at all.
Rion's posture had barely changed from the beginning. Not a single bloodstain marked him.
He only looked down at the fallen assassins with a leisurely smile.
“Familiar-looking outfits, aren't they? You there, you know me, don't you?”
Rion said this while pointing at one man. He was the same man who had once broken into the inn and tried to strangle Renoa.
It had been hard to tell from a distance, but up close it was certain. The aura flowing from him matched perfectly.
Rion turned his gaze to Aiter.
“Really don't know? I'll be blunt. If you don't, I'll drag Iscalon over and have him replay it for you.”
Aiter faced Rion without a hint of panic.
“Going after the crown prince? Do you think you can handle the consequences?”
“Going after the crown prince? What a terrifying thing to say.”
Rion thrust a fist out over the table.
In the center of his slowly opened palm lay the crushed corpse of a flying insect, so mangled its shape was unrecognizable.
“I only killed a bug, but these people misread my killing intent and rushed over on their own. It was self-defense.”
It was an utterly shameless excuse.
Whatever his intent, threatening the crown prince and subduing his guards was enough to warrant the harshest punishment.
But Aiter didn't show displeasure; instead, he started laughing lightly.
“Hahaha. Hahahahaha!”
His chuckle soon swelled into full-blown laughter.
After laughing for a long while, the corners of Aiter's eyes curved elegantly.
“Right. My guards were rude. You were just trying to kill a bug. I'll apologize on their behalf.”
“Then that's fine.”
Aiter left the fallen assassins where they lay and deliberately picked up a wineglass.
“You're right. The inn incident was my order. There was something I needed to confirm.”
“Would've been nice if you'd admitted it from the start. We were gambling with our lives here. Don't test me with nonsense.”
“I apologize.”
Aiter smiled and slowly tilted the glass, letting the wine touch his lips.
“All right, then let's go back to square one. The imperial family only needs to deal with the witch. And now we've identified that witch. So why should the imperial family cooperate?”
“The witch the imperial family is after isn't Renoa. It's probably her mother.”
“Why do you think that?”
Didn't I just tell you not to test me?
Though I didn't like Aiter dragging this out when time was running short, I decided to humor him just this once.
Rion began his deduction based on the memories he had gathered so far.
“Renoa had been locked inside that villa her entire life. Even leaving it was difficult for her. And yet the imperial family still targeted Renoa, as though they had known from the start that she was a witch.”
Aiter tilted his head as if to say, go on.
“Witches skip generations. In other words, they know about Renoa's mother. That's the real witch the imperial family is hunting.”
“Interesting reasoning, but the duke's concubine died right after giving birth to the young lady. We only need to eliminate the young lady who inherited the witch's blood.”
“That's the key. If their goal was to wipe out the witch's bloodline, they would have killed Renoa and been done with it. But they didn't. They went through several tests just to confirm her identity.”
Aiter tilted his head, looking intrigued.
“Why is that?”
“Because they couldn't touch Renoa carelessly. For example, there'd be a risk that the real target—the witch herself—would notice and run away.”
If you put together all the circumstances, they lead to one conclusion.
“It means Renoa's mother is alive and well somewhere.”
The attempt to assassinate Renoa in the capital, and the pretense of only trying to kill her, were for that reason.
If it was the Edelheid family, which had plenty of enemies, someone other than the imperial family could target Renoa.
Not Renoa the witch, but the young lady Renoa.
They wore masks so the attacker couldn't be identified, all to confirm that Renoa was a witch.
But there was something strange.
“Even though Renoa's mother exists separately, the imperial family targeted Renoa and tried to identify her. Renoa isn't that witch, but her daughter. Why?”
A question he had asked himself.
Rion answered it himself without waiting for Aiter's reply.
There wasn't the slightest hint of doubt in his voice.
“Because the witch has the power to move into another person's body.”
“…….”
“You already thought the witch had taken over Renoa's body.”
The witch never appeared in the original story, so Rion knew nothing about her.
But she was an essential piece of the current situation.
So Rion had searched through the empire's history books in the library and soon found her.
“The Puppet Witch, Sercia. Right? The witch the imperial family is hunting.”
A great witch who had made the continent tremble some twenty years ago.
Her ability was manipulation magic that stole a person's body and controlled it like a doll.
The imperial family had personally led the subjugation effort and come within a hair's breadth of success, only to lose her at the very last moment.
'It had been odd.'
A scene from the old game flashed through Rion's mind.
In the original story, the imperial family slaughtered everyone in the ducal house.
From the duke's direct bloodline to his retainers, low-ranking servants, and even the lowest slave, not a single person was left alive.
In the game, it was explained as black magic being that grave of a crime, but there was another truth behind it.
They had eliminated everyone there because they didn't know whose body the witch might jump into to escape.
In short, it was a massive purge to make absolutely sure one witch was exterminated.
“……ha.”
Breaking the suffocating silence, Aiter let out a low sigh.
As if struck at the heart, the smile that had been on Aiter's lips had vanished before he knew it.
The mask that had been watching with interest until now had shattered completely.
That was only natural. A mere slave was reciting the imperial family's top-secret witch-hunt core without missing a single word.
“Rion. Just what are you……? What exactly are you? How much do you know?”
Rion shrugged.
He had admittedly been making some leaps of deduction, but judging by Aiter's reaction, he must have been right.
“I have a pretty vivid imagination. Ah, sometimes I even imagine this: that Your Highness the Crown Prince might have fallen for the commoner Elodi at first sight.”
“Cough!”
Aiter suddenly burst into a rough coughing fit, as if something had gone down the wrong way.
It was the most flustered he'd looked since the conversation with Rion began.
“You, what are you suddenly talking about…….”
“Elodi does have pretty eyes. She also has that unpredictable charm, and unlike those snobbish nobles, she's pure and unspoiled.”
Rion rattled off the impressions Aiter had of Elodi one by one.
As if he could see straight into Aiter's heart.
“Don't worry. I'm rooting for you.”
Rion raised his thumb with a shameless grin.
He was sincere. He had no intention whatsoever of stealing their happiness.
He liked Aiter and Elodi too.
As a player and as their fan, he'd gladly wish them a happy ending.
He'd only tuck Renoa into that happy ending a little.
“Phew. You're really impossible.”
Aiter let out a dry laugh and habitually tilted his glass, only to find it already empty.
Rion, quick to catch on, lifted the wine bottle and refilled the empty glass.
Aiter didn't refuse. He took another sip and moistened his dry throat.
“Your guess is right. The one the imperial family is after is the witch Sercia, the culprit who slaughtered countless citizens and devastated several villages and cities.”
Then he began telling the story piece by piece.
“Our imperial family succeeded in driving the witch to the brink of defeat, but missed her by a hair's breadth. While our attention was elsewhere, she switched bodies and escaped.”
“To the duchy?”
“We didn't know that at the time. But as time passed, we learned that the duke had taken in an unidentified concubine. She died as soon as she gave birth, and the illegitimate child was hidden away somewhere.”
“Olderin. There's a villa in the woods there.”
“A backwater place. I've never even heard of it, so there was no way I'd know.”
Aiter gave a bitter laugh, full of helplessness.
“The critically wounded witch needed an intact body, so we judged that she had given birth to the young lady. If Edelheid and the witch's blood were mixed, it would be a perfect vessel.”
“Vessel…….”
“After that, it's just as you guessed. We were certain the young lady was Sercia and tried to eliminate her, but that wasn't it. In the end, it turned out the witch herself was the real one.”
“Iscalon, that old geezer.”
“Hahaha.”
Had it not been for that, they would never have been exposed.
Rion blamed his past self, thinking that burning it all down had indeed been the right thing to do.
“So when you said the young lady had taken Seokrinhwa, I was quite surprised. If her mana core were ruined and she could no longer use magic, she'd lose her value as a vessel.”
At that, Rion went rigid.
“……Don't tell me?”
“Maybe that maid's actions were a twisted kind of loyalty. Of course, judging her is something the young lady herself must do.”
If Renoa could no longer use magic, her value as a vessel would drop, and the witch would lose any reason to covet her body.
In other words, Bibi wasn't a traitor.
Rather, because she cherished Renoa so dearly, she had fed her poison to pull her away from a tragic fate.
If the witch switched into a body that couldn't use magic, she'd be walking into prison on her own feet.
'Of course, because of that, Renoa ended up reaching for black magic and eventually died.'
But this time, he'd change that future. He himself would make it happen.
“You're curious about whose body that witch is in, aren't you? I'll tell you. In exchange, guarantee Renoa's safety.”
“And if I refuse?”
“Then I'll tell you the imperial family is trying to kill her. In that case, won't the witch run away and wait for another chance? If we miss her this time, she'll be even harder to catch.”
“There'll be a flood of innocent victims. Don't you feel sorry for them?”
“You're the one who'd be killing them, Aiter. If you won't make even a little concession, innocent people will die. Remember that they're your people, not mine.”
Aiter narrowed his eyes and stared at Rion.
Rion swayed his upper body left and right like a roly-poly toy, grinning provocatively.
As if it didn't matter which choice Aiter made.
After all, a slave had nothing to lose.
A staring contest went on for a while.
In the end, it was Aiter who spoke first.
“Is there any guarantee that the young lady won't become a danger?”
“I'll raise her well.”
“These days, slaves even raise their masters, huh.”
“That's why being a slave is hard. Don't make me do things like this. Hah.”
Rion kept up his easy banter even in this situation.
Aiter shook his head with a bitter smile, unable to outdo him.
“Good. I promise. In the Crown Prince's name, I swear that I'll guarantee the young lady's safety.”
“Hmm, the Crown Prince's name alone isn't enough.”
Rion tilted his head, as if that were still a bit vague.
“Add your father's name too. I won't feel at ease unless you put His Majesty the Emperor's name, the supreme ruler of the empire, on it too.”
“You really don't seem to know how precious your life is.”
“I only have one life, so I'm making sure of it this way.”
Aiter frowned.
Though he disliked it, if a single sentence could save countless lives, His Majesty would surely forgive him.
“I, Aiter, swear in the name of His Majesty the Emperor, the supreme ruler of the empire, that the imperial family will take full responsibility for the safety of Lady Renoa and that no harm shall come to her. Is that enough?”
“Good.”
Only then did Rion smile with satisfaction.
Aiter let out a long sigh.
The thing in front of him was clearly a slave, yet the pressure he gave could shame even a high-ranking noble.
It felt as though he were dancing in Rion's palm.
“Now I want my reward. Whose body is the witch using?”
“Well, that's obvious.”
The witch was surely somewhere in the ducal house, hiding inside someone's body and biding her time.
There wasn't even any need to wonder who it was.
The person who had kept Renoa shut away in a country villa and managed her carefully like a jewel so nothing would happen to her.
The person whose personality changed overnight and who started showering Renoa with excessive kindness.
The person who could control everything in the ducal house from the highest seat.
“Duke Pascal Edelheid.”
No doubt about it.
He is the witch Sercia.