Chapter 9: BWCGD

Chapter 9

“Phew.”

As Kallian ran a hand over his rain-soaked face, his black hair swayed beneath the pouring rain.

A dark, unpleasant emotion filled the shadowed face revealed beneath it.

It was only natural.

The tower before him was known as the place Count Lawrence had built to interrogate heretics.

Guessing what was happening inside, Kallian tilted his chin toward the aide standing diagonally behind him.

“Benjamin. What do you think the Count's daughter is doing in a place like this?”

Benjamin smoothed down his messy hair, disheveled from following him around all day, before answering.

“Hm. At the very least, I don't think she's personally interrogating prisoners. She does have noble blood in her veins.”

That was true.

Even if she was only a half-blooded illegitimate child who couldn't inherit the title, she was still a noble.

But what had she looked like?

Clothes worse than a maid's.

A body so thin that her bones protruded.

A voice desperately begging him to confirm whether her mother was alive.

Her appearance, worse than that of a slum beggar, made one thing painfully clear.

She wasn't in the position of interrogating others.

She was the one being interrogated.

Remembering the pale green light that had lingered at the woman's fingertips, Kallian drew his demonic sword from its scabbard.

“We'll know once we see for ourselves. Why it led me here.”

Whoosh!

With a fierce sound of air splitting apart, the stone gate blocking their way was cut cleanly in half.

* * *

“Your Grace! W-What in the world is this...?!”

The moment she heard that an uninvited guest had arrived, Louise rushed to the underground prison.

It wasn't only because Evelyn had been imprisoned and abused there.

A secret was hidden beneath this dungeon—one that absolutely could not be discovered by anyone, especially by the descendant of the dark mage standing before her.

Her vision darkened.

She threw herself in front of the passage leading underground, blocking it with her entire body.

“This place falls under my authority as the lady of the Lawrence family! How can you invade it so recklessly and disturb the order of my household? Disciplining a maid is not against the law!”

This was the Count's territory.

No matter how powerful a Grand Duke he was, he had no authority to use force or enforce the law by coercion.

Even knowing that, Kallian never slowed his steps.

The corner of his lips twisted as though he were about to spit out venom.

“A maid?”

Louise instinctively stepped backward in fear.

Ignoring her, he slowly swept his gaze across the maze-like underground corridors before asking in a cold, split voice,

“Are you calling someone who inherited a noble family's name and symbol... a maid?”

The surrounding air froze instantly.

Not only the knights accompanying Kallian, but even Benjamin had never heard such a murderous voice from him before.

Unable to even breathe beneath the oppressive atmosphere, Louise barely gathered enough courage to clutch at the rain-soaked hem of his coat.

“I-I was so flustered that I misspoke. Ah... perhaps we should go outside and have some tea first—”

“So I just need to go that way?”

“We'll have tea together with the young lady.”

No one had shown him the way.

Yet Kallian naturally turned left.

Louise's eyes trembled in panic.

Still pretending to remain calm, she tightly gripped her own thigh and pleaded once more.

“O-Of course this place could easily cause misunderstandings, but I was merely disciplining her over a personal matter. So, Your Grace... please...”

“Disciplining?”

“I don't know if you've heard... but Evelyn is engaged to Baron Fairfield. Rumors spread that she secretly entered Your Grace's residence. As her mother, I couldn't simply ignore such improper behavior.”

Engaged to an old drug-addicted man who could die at any moment.

Hearing the transparent excuse, Kallian felt only boredom.

Suppressing the curse rising to his lips, he rubbed his throbbing forehead.

He had already investigated both the Lawrence family's finances and Evelyn's circumstances.

Benjamin had quickly dug up the information through the intelligence guild stationed throughout the capital.

"Bill Fairfield, seventy-two years old. He has abnormal sexual desires and buys obedient young women to serve him in bed."

"The young lady happened to perfectly fit his preferred type."

"Preferred type?"

"Someone with no family she can run to, and no one willing to stand up for her. Someone he believes he can treat however he wants."

Suddenly, he remembered those eyes that had seemed to beg him for help.

Eyes that reminded him of fresh spring greenery.

Eyes he felt he had seen at least once during his endlessly long life.

“Hm.”

Looking down at the floor, he brushed the end of his eyebrow before taking a deep breath, as though trying to erase the lingering image of someone surfacing in his mind.

He didn't understand why his mood had sunk so deeply that it felt as though it had reached the bottom of an abyss.

“Isn't the one lacking decency the madam who became blinded by greed and borrowed money from anyone she could?”

Louise, the adopted daughter of the High Priest Julius, had emptied the Lawrence family's fortune into the temple under the excuse of making offerings.

Her extravagance was so excessive that once the family budget ran dry, she shamelessly borrowed money wherever she could.

“If your goal is to have your debts forgiven, wouldn't it make far more sense for you to become the Baron's mistress?”

With a calm expression, he slowly drew his demonic sword before tilting his head, as though offering her one final chance to confess.

“I fail to understand why you're trying to force someone else to bear that burden.”

“You've gone too far! How could I possibly become the mistress of that insane old man—!”

Louise blurted out the words before immediately realizing her mistake.

She bit down hard on her lower lip.

Beneath the black hair hanging over his forehead, Kallian's golden eyes darkened as they settled upon her.

“I believe I've given you more than enough chances.”

As he muttered darkly, murky green aura flared around his demonic sword like flames.

“Words are useless.”

The family heirloom, Tartarus, normally shone with a purple glow.

However, after absorbing demonic energy, it emitted a muddy green aura instead.

The reason its color had changed...

...was because traces of the drugs and curses used to cast hexes had accumulated within the sealed underground chamber.

Kallian lightly snapped his fingers.

“To think you dared use such wicked power to take another person's life.”

The eerie aura leaped into the air, circling the collapsed Louise like the flames of hell.

“Demonic energy hates the righteous and is drawn to corruption. Tell me... wouldn't you like to experience what it feels like to be consumed by a curse?”

Louise frantically waved her hands as though she had seen a ghost.

“Aaaah! Stay away! Get away from me!”

The face of the dying Marcella began appearing before her eyes.

It was an illusion born from her own evil thoughts.

“I-I only did what I was told! What did I ever do wrong...?! Ahhh!”

At last, she crawled on her knees and threw herself at the Grand Duke's feet, trembling uncontrollably.

Kallian looked down at her without moving.

“Take her away.”

“Mmph! Mmph!”

I only had to endure a little longer!

She wanted to protest.

But her mouth had already been sealed by a contract spell that prevented her from revealing anything.

She had been abandoned as nothing more than a disposable pawn.

“How exhausting.”

After his men dragged away the struggling Louise, Kallian silently walked through the long corridor.

Then—

Clank!

Even within a prison cell where not a single ray of light could enter...

...he found a woman who still possessed a sacred radiance.

His eyes narrowed.

Has she lost consciousness?

Suspended by crude iron chains, Evelyn hung limply with both arms raised high above her head.

“I'll handle the rest. All of you, leave.”

Squeezing his large frame into the prison cell, Kallian dismissed all the knights before removing the chains and restraints binding her one by one.

Clang!

The moment the final shackle hit the floor...

Kneeling on one knee, he slipped one arm beneath her back and the other beneath her thighs, lifting her securely into his arms.

Her delicate body and faint fragrance softly settled against his chest.

“Ha... haa...”

Just as he was about to leave, shallow breaths escaped from the woman who had finally been freed.

Thinking she had awakened, he looked down.

But her eyes remained tightly shut.

Even unconscious, her flushed cheeks were as vivid and disordered as the desire he kept suppressed.

For a brief moment, Kallian forced away the memory of that night floating into his mind.

Then, supporting her closer against his chest to keep her from slipping backward, he carried her out of the prison.

Where should I take her?

Leaving her in the Count's mansion would be dangerous.

While slowly climbing the spiral staircase from the underground prison, wondering where she should stay—

“This... isn't a dream... is it?”

Evelyn's clear eyelids slowly lifted.

Her face resembled a porcelain doll coated with smooth glaze, utterly devoid of vitality.

Just looking at it revealed how desperately poor her circumstances had been.

Enough to imagine how much of her life had been filled with resignation and despair.

“Unfortunately not.”

Kallian answered in a flat voice.

The strangely pounding heartbeat within him...

...was probably nothing more than faint anger after witnessing the scene of abuse.

Holding her frail body more securely, he heard her trembling voice again.

“I knew you would come.”

The expression she wore was like someone who had finally found the greatest hope of her life.

A dull ache spread through one corner of his chest.

“I believed in you. Truly...”

Born with the destiny of a guardian carved into his soul, he had been surrounded by the hopes and expectations of the Empire from the moment he entered the world.

So there was no reason why hearing someone say they truly believed in him should suddenly weigh upon his heart like a heavy stone.

That was precisely why Kallian found himself confused.

“Didn't I tell you? Even if you rose into the heavens, I would find you.”

After a brief silence, he stared directly into her eyes as they gradually began losing focus again.

“I have no reason to let go of someone I absolutely need. So don't even think about running away from me again.”

The golden eyes that had been clouded with confusion slowly settled into quiet stillness.