Everything Leads to One

Ferda had always been curious.

Why she had killed the Third Prince.

Of course, the factor of uncontrollable bloodlust had been relentlessly tormenting her.

The publicly known explanation was that the Third Prince had died because he could not control his bloodlust.

‘I thought that was how it ended.’

If Valdrova had been a dragon whose eyes rolled back whenever she got angry, or if the Third Prince had been thoughtless to the point of recklessness, then that would have been how it ended.

But the questions continued to lead to more questions.

‘Valdrova had clearly suffered occasional power outbursts because of Godwin’s energy.’

But that bloodlust had been building up as well, and whenever Valdrova sensed it accumulating, she always resolved the matter by hurting herself in her room.

If she had regarded the Third Prince as a human being, she would undoubtedly have been careful.

It made no sense that a woman who loved humans would simply forget her own condition.

‘And it also made no sense that the Third Prince had provoked Valdrova by telling her that.’

His heart pounded.

Ferda’s Red Circle and Shadow Circle were rotating simultaneously.

That was proof that Ferda’s own emotions were unclear in this state.

“Why….”

Ferda asked calmly.

His reason hung precariously by a thread caught around his fingertip.

“Why did you do such a thing and make that woman unhappy?”

“This is something I heard….”

Akad began his story.

“He didn’t intend to make Valdrova unhappy…. Million Arken knew that he had fallen behind the previous emperor in the line of succession, so he tried to build a new power base through a political marriage….”

It was not surprising in aristocratic society.

Valdrova would have tried to marry humans without knowing any of this.

“Isn’t that something that happens all the time?”

“It wasn’t that…. He planned a rebellion to use the dragon to swallow up the Empire….”

“Was he really planning to start a rebellion?”

Ferda asked because seven times out of ten, such evidence had been fabricated for political reasons.

If it worked, the accused would be executed along with their entire family without any questions asked.

“It’s certain…. It wasn’t merely a pretext put forward for a purge…. He truly intended to start a rebellion…. There were even factions that intended to join him….”

The Third Prince seemed to have been different.

“Even my father, who never judged things as good or evil, didn’t look kindly on Million Arken…. He usually appeared like a humble prince should, but he wasn’t like that in truth. He was a cruel and arrogant man, and he regarded Valdrova, the Grand Duke, as nothing more than a stupid lizard…. So all that needed to be done was make him reveal everything he held inside.”

“So that’s why you made the Truth Potion.”

“Yes….”

Arrogant and haughty by nature.

Ferda imagined him revealing the darkness inside him without restraint.

An executioner holding a blade would tear apart and defile her tender heart.

His clenched fist tightened.

The Third Prince, who possessed the ambition to use Valdrova to establish a new faction.

Valdemar, who secretly drugged him to prevent that from happening.

Valdrova, sacrificed between them.

‘What Valdrova feared….’

Her pure love being trampled, her emotions surging like waves, and finally her bloodlust breaking free and running wild because she could no longer suppress it.

He suddenly remembered what Valdrova had said during the Ipchun Festival.

-If someone really said something like that to me, I would….

“Tell me.”

Ferda asked again in an icy voice.

“Who was the mastermind behind that plan?”

It had already been fifty years ago.

The previous king was dead, Akad’s father was dead, and only a handful of people involved in the incident were still alive.

But that did not matter.

When it came to dragons, the rule was to make an example of one person to deter the rest.

If that had been skipped, then leaving pain severe enough to haunt that generation would suffice.

“T-the mastermind was… ngh…!”

He stammered.

His reason was fiercely resisting the mere act of speaking that name.

But the more fiercely his reason resisted, the more violently the headache throbbed.

The only way to escape the headache was to tell the truth.

All he had to do was give the answer and be free of the pain.

“Gnnngh…!!! Aaaaaaaah!!!”

After resisting violently for ten minutes, Akad finally chose relief.

“Gaaah!!! Grand Duke Golt!!”

Golt.

Again.

That name had surfaced once more.

Amid the citizens’ cheers and behind the dirty plots,

everything led back to the name Valdemar Golt.

The detestable old man’s name seemed to inspire even greater disgust every time Ferda heard it.

‘To think I had considered joining hands with someone like him….’

Rather than distancing himself from the enemy who had made his already wretched life even more miserable, he had even imagined a harmonious future with him, if only for a moment. The thought was utterly repulsive.

“I heard that if we refused to obey, he intended to accuse us of seeking separation and independence. Is that true?”

He asked another question to cool his head.

“Gnnngh….”

“You’d better answer.”

“It’s idiotic…. The Far East can gain more by remaining part of the Empire…. Why would we do something like that? Grand Duke Golt said… all he needed to do was extract the magitech.”

Ferda had seen through that intention, and now that they had gained justification for autonomy, Valdemar would not be able to interfere too heavily.

Yet Ferda knew Valdemar’s power would continue to grow, so that autonomy now felt like a candle standing before the wind.

“Does Grand Duke Golt know you’re doing this?”

This was the place where the darkness Akad had intended to seal forever in his mind had been made real.

“Y-yes, he knows…. Even so, he can’t touch me….”

“Because you’re an alchemist he values?”

“Yes, because I’m useful….”

To be honest, his hobby was probably not important to Valdemar.

The Empire was not a village.

If a corpse were found in a village, people would cremate it according to proper custom, but the Empire was a place where, even if someone died in the street, people stepped over the body and went to work.

The disappearance of one or two people because of Akad’s deep, dark fetish was nothing more than adding another corpse to countless others.

“Yes.”

Ferda took the recording crystal ball and rose from his seat.

“This should be enough.”

Ferda picked up another bottle.

The label on the bottle read ‘Love Potion.’

It was the anesthetic Akad had tried to make him swallow.

“No.”

Seeing the bottle, Akad shook his head.

Ferda paused with the bottle and asked him,

“What can’t you do?”

“That potion…. I don’t want to drink it.”

“Why? Isn’t this your love?”

“N-no…. I hate that potion…. I hate it.”

He tried to resist with his limp body.

But he could not escape Ferda’s grasp.

“How ironic.”

Ferda sneered as he watched him.

“You hate people who profane love like that, yet you can’t accept your own love.”

Ferda put his love into Akad’s mouth.

“Ghk… gurgle….”

The focus in Akad’s eyes fell once more into that distant place.

Ferda sat across from him and caught his breath.

The story he had heard echoed in his mind, tangling his emotions into a mess.

He wanted to strangle Akad right then and there.

No, that would not be enough.

Just as Erdes had done, he wanted to lock him inside something like a cube and crush his entire body.

‘But I mustn’t.’

Ferda was not the one who should handle this man’s ugliness.

Therefore, Ferda’s role ended here.

He rose from his seat.

Without thinking, he looked around the room one more time.

“…….”

Where his gaze fell, he saw someone bound to the wall.

It was a woman.

Her body was a wreck, and she watched the room helplessly with vacant eyes.

‘Judging by her condition, her mind may already have collapsed.’

Her body had been left battered and broken by Akad’s violence and experiments.

The injuries were enough to break ordinary people, let alone trained knights, beneath drugs and torture.

The Love Potion merely separated the body from the consciousness; it did not make one forget pain.

It was a miracle that she was still breathing.

Ferda reached out toward the woman.

‘Should I… deal with her?’

It would be better for this matter if no evidence or witnesses remained.

Even if he killed her, he could simply pin it on Akad rather than himself.

‘And this would be the more merciful choice.’

A clean death was better than a life of pain.

That was what he would normally have thought.

But at this moment, with his emotions in turmoil, Ferda was not a man armed with cruel reason.

Those emotions made him act differently from usual.

It was as if Valdrova were leaning against his back and embracing him warmly.

It was as though she were whispering that she was by his side.

If.

If, like her,

this woman too had experienced profound despair yet still believed there was a way out….

“Soon….”

He withdrew the mana from his outstretched hand.

“Someone will come.”

With that hand, he gently closed her eyes so they would not dry out.

“So rest easy.”

Ferda offered comfort that did not suit him and left the room.

* * *

The Imperial Palace.

No one was allowed to approach Olivia’s bedchamber.

Normally, the only person permitted to enter her bedchamber was the maid who assisted her in the bathroom.

But even that assistance had been taken away.

Because of the recent runaway incident, every means of helping her had been eliminated.

Olivia actually preferred it that way.

At least she no longer had to endure the sinister practice of someone secretly checking her complexion whenever she slept.

The night Ferda obtained what he wanted was a little different.

She felt a thin, light touch stroking her hair.

A chilly winter breeze accompanied her as she opened her eyes.

Pretending to turn over, Olivia carefully took the dagger hidden beneath her pillow.

There were very few people who could enter a princess’s bedchamber.

If she saw Alexander’s piggish face, she intended to stab him without hesitation.

But the silhouette standing with the moonlight behind him was slender.

Olivia raised her head and looked at the intruder.

“Princess Olivia?”

His eyes glowed red behind his mask.

Olivia did not answer.

It was not because she was frightened and unable to speak.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Zed Swallow. I came here at the command of Regent Ferda.”

Somehow, that was exactly what she had expected.

He knelt and spoke in a beautiful voice.

“The Regent said he wished to give you a small gift. Would you please come with me?”

“…….”

Instead of answering, Olivia rose from her seat.

She pulled on the robe she had hidden beneath the bed and approached him.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes.”

Zed led Olivia through the escape route he had prepared.

The whole thing proceeded so smoothly that Zed found himself surprised instead.

‘She isn’t flustered at all.’

A single pure flower.

He knew that nickname was merely something created by nobles who had looked at her, formed an impression, and been deceived by it.

Even so, the fact that she was not at all surprised by this unexpected situation felt strange.

‘As expected… what I sensed was right.’

In the past, captivated by her appearance, he would have casually invited her to dance.

But after observing her from a distance, his swallow’s instincts had begun screaming.

If he tried to seduce this woman, his life would become thoroughly tangled.

They succeeded in leaving the Imperial Palace and boarding a carriage.

“Where are we going?”

Olivia, who had followed quietly, asked.

“We’re going to Marquis Develung’s residence.”

“To the marquis’s residence….”

Instead of asking why, she offered a different response.

“I see….”

She murmured as though she understood, then tilted her head to the side and gazed out the window.

Every one of her gestures looked like a scene from a painting, yet Zed could think only of escaping this situation as quickly as possible.

A short while later, they arrived at Marquis Develung’s grand mansion as instructed.

As they stood before the firmly closed gate, a gatekeeper approached.

Instead of servants in the splendid attire appropriate to the mansion, people in black robes with their identities concealed greeted the carriage.

The mansion gate opened, and before they entered, Zed climbed down from the carriage.

“I’ll be going now. It was a great honor to escort you, Princess.”

Zed pulled the hood hanging down his back over his head and blended in with those concealing their identities.

The carriage entered and came to a stop before the mansion’s main entrance.

“Welcome.”

A masked woman politely greeted Olivia.

Olivia followed suit, observing proper etiquette as she asked,

“Is the Regent inside?”

“The Regent is away.”

Displeasure settled across Olivia’s face.

She was capable of expressing even that emotion with a smile.

“Then what reason do I have to be here?”

“The Regent left a gift for you. This way, please….”

He had come to someone else’s residence and even arranged a gift.

There were no servants in sight, so a quick-witted woman like Olivia could easily understand the situation.

That was why she quietly followed the masked woman.

After passing through the alchemy workshop, they reached the basement through his secret passage.

“Please prepare yourself mentally.”

Before opening the door, the woman warned Olivia.

Then the dark fantasy that had existed only in Develung’s mind was laid bare before Olivia.

The scent of blood and filth had seeped into the bricks and wafted faintly through the air, seeming to create the auditory hallucination of screams.

Instead of vomiting and making a fuss in that shocking room, Olivia shifted her gaze to the center.

No—it would be more accurate to say that her gaze had been stolen.

At the center stood a single chair, surrounded in a circle by torture instruments and shelves of medicines.

Nail marks and abrasions from ropes remained on the armrests of the wooden chair, revealing the screams and pain that had once filled the room.

Develung, the owner of the mansion, was sitting in that horrifying chair.

Olivia quietly looked down at him, his appearance seeming as though his soul had left his body.

“I heard that Marquis Akad Develung had a nasty hobby, but this is truly disgusting.”

She said that, but a smile rested on Olivia’s face.

It was not some mask she was wearing.

She was genuinely enjoying this situation immensely.

“Is this the Regent’s gift?”

“Yes.”

“That’s rather cruel. I’m a woman too; I would have been touched if he had sent me a flower….”

She murmured as though disappointed, then asked her,

“What would you like me to do?”

“He said it didn’t matter what you did with him. He said you would surely be able to put him to good use.”

“Hmm~.”

Olivia tapped her lips lightly with her fingers as she thought.

“I suppose I can turn this into ammunition with which to counter the scheme to undermine the Alte Church’s standing. The Church officials will be up all night tonight, so there shouldn’t be any problem calling them here, either.”

“…….”

“Then we can also publicize that followers of demonkind did not infiltrate the Alte Church alone.”

This would thwart Valdemar’s means of strengthening his power, while making it impossible to openly deny the Alte Church’s system.

“The Regent is amazing….”

For Olivia, boldly entering the mansion, subduing its owner, and exposing his true face was no easy task.

He was, after all, the right-hand man of Valdemar Golt.

There was no way an Imperial noble could target the right-hand man of the person who enjoyed overwhelming support.

“Don’t you think so, Ms. Garnet?”

“…….”

“Let’s not be so stiff with each other.”

Olivia already knew who was hiding behind that mask.

“I deserve much of the credit for giving you such a good ally, too, don’t I?”

“Of course.”

Although Garnet knew she had already been found out, she did not remove her mask.

“But now that we’re here, I can’t help being wary of you.”

“Why?”

“Because your actions have become impossible to predict lately.”

Ferda regarded her as an ally.

But Garnet knew that Olivia was not merely a good ally.

“The scandal involving the Regent and the princess.”

It was another assignment she had received from Ferda long ago.

There was nothing more difficult than finding the source of a rumor, so it was only natural not to expect any results.

But Garnet was the head of the finest secret intelligence organization on the continent.

She had ultimately reached the truth.

“Because I know that you were the one who spearheaded the spread of that rumor.”