Chapter 82
“Where the hell have these bastards gone?!”
Bang!
The loud sound from Zair, who slammed the desk in a fit of rage, was startling. His usual composure had been completely broken, a rare sight. His knight commander, Teren, knew all too well that whenever Zair lost control like this, it was almost always due to Sethian, the Crown Prince.
Teren watched as the wine glass on the desk teetered dangerously from the impact, then replied cautiously.
“If the body is dead, the soul should have been freed, but judging by the situation, I suspect that Sethian may have been dragged away when he escaped.”
The two knights who had gathered Sethian’s blood had been hiding near the stone tower since the time of his capture, keeping an eye on everyone who entered and left. The guards and wardens had consumed little of the possession drug mixed with their food, making it impossible for souls to enter them, so for a while, the loyal knights had been the only ones they could rely on.
But now, those knights had disappeared without a trace. And with them, Sethian had vanished the moment he escaped his solitary confinement.
Zair drank from his wine glass with an irritated expression. He’d been drinking wine like it was an addiction, but today it tasted even more bitter than usual.
‘Sethian’s close aides and household members should all be under the surveillance of the Imperial Knights,’ he thought.
The Imperial Knights had locked up all of Sethian’s close aides and household members in a section of Emerald Castle. Their guards were numerous, and all had been disarmed. These were people whose abilities were said to be on par with the commanders of most knight orders, so sneaking Sethian out from under their noses was nearly impossible.
‘But Sethian wouldn’t have escaped on his own,’ Zair pondered.
Just before the Imperial Knights, led by Tower Lord Roa and a few mages, entered the stone tower, Zair’s reconnaissance soul butterfly had been the first to detect something unusual. The butterfly, flying from the first floor to the top, gathered all the details and relayed them to Zair.
The bodies inside the tower had fallen in a particular direction, and their clear wounds, inflicted by weapons, pointed to an external attacker. That attacker had likely made their way up to Sethian’s solitary confinement.
Zair’s knights had previously entered the stone tower to collect Sethian’s blood, but at that time, the guards had been bribed, making it easier for them to move through. The only guards who had not been bribed had been killed.
‘So, someone other than Sethian’s aides must have taken him,’ Zair thought, his mind turning. ‘But is there anyone capable of doing that?’
For a brief moment, the name of Duke Antoine, who had always been particularly fond of Sethian, crossed Zair’s mind. But he dismissed it, reasoning that if it had been him, he wouldn’t have made such a reckless move. His mind grew more complicated, as he couldn't think of anyone else who might be responsible.
Zair poured more blood-red wine into his glass and muttered in frustration.
“First, let’s find traces of Sethian. Whatever happened, I’ll hear it from the ones who were dragged away…”
—Zair-nim.
As Zair continued, the soul butterfly that was supposed to be in his bedroom suddenly appeared, causing his brows to furrow. What new problem had arisen with Joo Yi-Gyeol, who had been deeply asleep?
—Joo Yi-Gyeol woke up and drank all the blood.
The butterfly's report, although minor, introduced a very out-of-place atmosphere in Zair’s otherwise cold laboratory.
—He seemed to struggle after drinking all of it at once. He looked really drained. Could you help him for a bit?
The butterfly’s cautious tone only made Zair’s expression more sour.
Zair, ready to snap at the butterfly, stopped abruptly, a sudden unsettling feeling creeping into his mind.
Joo Yi-Gyeol, who had been unable to eat anything due to nausea, had drunk all of Sethian’s blood in one go? The smell of blood must have been overwhelming. Zair’s brow deepened.
“What about the fruit I left next to it?”
Teren, who had been standing beside Zair, looked puzzled at the unexpected question, his confusion evident. Given the dire situation, Zair’s sudden shift in focus seemed odd, but he couldn’t dismiss the question.
—He didn’t seem interested in eating it.
“…Of course, he didn’t touch it.”
Zair’s face stiffened, and his voice dropped to a dangerous level.
The fruit and the blood left beside it had both been laced with a special drug. Colorless and odorless, it gradually weakened the mind and body, leaving the person in a state close to mental incapacity. Zair had used this as the first step in conditioning Joo Yi-Gyeol to his will.
He had assumed that Joo Yi-Gyeol, being mentally fragile, would have simply refused to eat anything because of the stress and shock, but it seemed he had been wrong. Despite the blood’s overpowering smell, Joo Yi-Gyeol had drunk it all. This was a stark contrast to his usual behavior, which led Zair to wonder if Joo Yi-Gyeol had known about the hidden drugs all along.
‘He tricked me.’
The fact that he had refused the food and taken only the vitality seemed to show that Joo Yi-Gyeol had not decided to make Zair his master at all, but had instead been thoroughly wary of him.
Zair had always known that Joo Yi-Gyeol was sensitive to negative emotions. That was why, even when they first met, he had noticed that Eda looked down on him and found him filthy. Unlike Eda, Zair had no negative feelings toward him. In fact, Zair had a slight fondness for Joo Yi-Gyeol and believed that he could use his mental state to get closer to him.
But there had been one misjudgment.
Joo Yi-Gyeol wasn’t a fragile human being merely sensitive to negative emotions. He was sharp enough to recognize even negative feelings directed toward his master, Sethian.
Zair threw the wine glass across the room in frustration, the sound of it shattering on the wall filled the room, the strong scent of wine overwhelming the air.
Breathing heavily to calm himself, Zair gestured for the soul butterfly to approach.
“Go to the Magic Tower and bring Eda here.”
The soul butterfly, receiving its orders, quickly left the room. Zair followed it shortly after, and Teren, who had been trailing behind, could easily tell from his pace how deeply Zair’s rage had reached its peak.
Zair’s footsteps quickened as he headed to the bedroom. His mind kept replaying the fact that Joo Yi-Gyeol, who was usually so sensitive to the smell of blood, had consumed all of it in one sitting. Something about that was gnawing at him, like a thorn in his side.
But it wasn’t until he reached his bedroom and saw two collapsed guards that everything clicked into place. A knight patrolling the hall had seen the fallen guards and rushed to inspect them, but before he could check them thoroughly, he suddenly collapsed.
Teren, alarmed, stopped Zair and motioned for caution. He scanned the area, assessing the surroundings before moving quietly toward the door. The collapsed guards showed no signs of injury, and their breathing was steady. However, it seemed that their sudden forced sleep had also put the souls possessing them to sleep.
Zair covered his nose and mouth with his cravat and flung open the bedroom door.
There was no one inside. Only the wide-open window seemed to show the route Joo Yi-Gyeol had taken. Zair rushed to the window and looked around, but there was no further trace of him anywhere.
No matter how much vitality he had replenished, that frail body could not have leapt down from the third floor in a single jump. Nor, unless the person with him had possessed extraordinary agility, could he have jumped to a nearby tree and used the flower bed below as a cushion to escape.
Zair’s eyes narrowed. After glancing past the empty glass bottle that had held the blood, he looked down at the liquid spilled on the floor by the bedroom door. It seemed this was what had suddenly put the guards’ bodies to sleep.
‘Not exactly a sleeping drug… closer to a sleeping fragrance.’
It wasn’t something that could be obtained easily. And only a few people had access to such substances.
Zair clenched his teeth.
Because the guards outside had fallen asleep, Joo Yi-Gyeol had managed to escape through the window—with someone.
Zair left the room, making his way to the location where Ju Yi-Gyeo had likely fled. Once at a safe distance, he lowered his cloth mask and ordered Teran.
“They haven’t gotten far. Send the knights and the soul butterflies after them.”
Zair’s teeth ground together in frustration.
“We can restore the body later. Just bring him back alive. Once I get him back, I’ll make him understand who his true master is.”
Bang!
The loud sound from Zair, who slammed the desk in a fit of rage, was startling. His usual composure had been completely broken, a rare sight. His knight commander, Teren, knew all too well that whenever Zair lost control like this, it was almost always due to Sethian, the Crown Prince.
Teren watched as the wine glass on the desk teetered dangerously from the impact, then replied cautiously.
“If the body is dead, the soul should have been freed, but judging by the situation, I suspect that Sethian may have been dragged away when he escaped.”
The two knights who had gathered Sethian’s blood had been hiding near the stone tower since the time of his capture, keeping an eye on everyone who entered and left. The guards and wardens had consumed little of the possession drug mixed with their food, making it impossible for souls to enter them, so for a while, the loyal knights had been the only ones they could rely on.
But now, those knights had disappeared without a trace. And with them, Sethian had vanished the moment he escaped his solitary confinement.
Zair drank from his wine glass with an irritated expression. He’d been drinking wine like it was an addiction, but today it tasted even more bitter than usual.
‘Sethian’s close aides and household members should all be under the surveillance of the Imperial Knights,’ he thought.
The Imperial Knights had locked up all of Sethian’s close aides and household members in a section of Emerald Castle. Their guards were numerous, and all had been disarmed. These were people whose abilities were said to be on par with the commanders of most knight orders, so sneaking Sethian out from under their noses was nearly impossible.
‘But Sethian wouldn’t have escaped on his own,’ Zair pondered.
Just before the Imperial Knights, led by Tower Lord Roa and a few mages, entered the stone tower, Zair’s reconnaissance soul butterfly had been the first to detect something unusual. The butterfly, flying from the first floor to the top, gathered all the details and relayed them to Zair.
The bodies inside the tower had fallen in a particular direction, and their clear wounds, inflicted by weapons, pointed to an external attacker. That attacker had likely made their way up to Sethian’s solitary confinement.
Zair’s knights had previously entered the stone tower to collect Sethian’s blood, but at that time, the guards had been bribed, making it easier for them to move through. The only guards who had not been bribed had been killed.
‘So, someone other than Sethian’s aides must have taken him,’ Zair thought, his mind turning. ‘But is there anyone capable of doing that?’
For a brief moment, the name of Duke Antoine, who had always been particularly fond of Sethian, crossed Zair’s mind. But he dismissed it, reasoning that if it had been him, he wouldn’t have made such a reckless move. His mind grew more complicated, as he couldn't think of anyone else who might be responsible.
Zair poured more blood-red wine into his glass and muttered in frustration.
“First, let’s find traces of Sethian. Whatever happened, I’ll hear it from the ones who were dragged away…”
—Zair-nim.
As Zair continued, the soul butterfly that was supposed to be in his bedroom suddenly appeared, causing his brows to furrow. What new problem had arisen with Joo Yi-Gyeol, who had been deeply asleep?
—Joo Yi-Gyeol woke up and drank all the blood.
The butterfly's report, although minor, introduced a very out-of-place atmosphere in Zair’s otherwise cold laboratory.
—He seemed to struggle after drinking all of it at once. He looked really drained. Could you help him for a bit?
The butterfly’s cautious tone only made Zair’s expression more sour.
Zair, ready to snap at the butterfly, stopped abruptly, a sudden unsettling feeling creeping into his mind.
Joo Yi-Gyeol, who had been unable to eat anything due to nausea, had drunk all of Sethian’s blood in one go? The smell of blood must have been overwhelming. Zair’s brow deepened.
“What about the fruit I left next to it?”
Teren, who had been standing beside Zair, looked puzzled at the unexpected question, his confusion evident. Given the dire situation, Zair’s sudden shift in focus seemed odd, but he couldn’t dismiss the question.
—He didn’t seem interested in eating it.
“…Of course, he didn’t touch it.”
Zair’s face stiffened, and his voice dropped to a dangerous level.
The fruit and the blood left beside it had both been laced with a special drug. Colorless and odorless, it gradually weakened the mind and body, leaving the person in a state close to mental incapacity. Zair had used this as the first step in conditioning Joo Yi-Gyeol to his will.
He had assumed that Joo Yi-Gyeol, being mentally fragile, would have simply refused to eat anything because of the stress and shock, but it seemed he had been wrong. Despite the blood’s overpowering smell, Joo Yi-Gyeol had drunk it all. This was a stark contrast to his usual behavior, which led Zair to wonder if Joo Yi-Gyeol had known about the hidden drugs all along.
‘He tricked me.’
The fact that he had refused the food and taken only the vitality seemed to show that Joo Yi-Gyeol had not decided to make Zair his master at all, but had instead been thoroughly wary of him.
Zair had always known that Joo Yi-Gyeol was sensitive to negative emotions. That was why, even when they first met, he had noticed that Eda looked down on him and found him filthy. Unlike Eda, Zair had no negative feelings toward him. In fact, Zair had a slight fondness for Joo Yi-Gyeol and believed that he could use his mental state to get closer to him.
But there had been one misjudgment.
Joo Yi-Gyeol wasn’t a fragile human being merely sensitive to negative emotions. He was sharp enough to recognize even negative feelings directed toward his master, Sethian.
Zair threw the wine glass across the room in frustration, the sound of it shattering on the wall filled the room, the strong scent of wine overwhelming the air.
Breathing heavily to calm himself, Zair gestured for the soul butterfly to approach.
“Go to the Magic Tower and bring Eda here.”
The soul butterfly, receiving its orders, quickly left the room. Zair followed it shortly after, and Teren, who had been trailing behind, could easily tell from his pace how deeply Zair’s rage had reached its peak.
Zair’s footsteps quickened as he headed to the bedroom. His mind kept replaying the fact that Joo Yi-Gyeol, who was usually so sensitive to the smell of blood, had consumed all of it in one sitting. Something about that was gnawing at him, like a thorn in his side.
But it wasn’t until he reached his bedroom and saw two collapsed guards that everything clicked into place. A knight patrolling the hall had seen the fallen guards and rushed to inspect them, but before he could check them thoroughly, he suddenly collapsed.
Teren, alarmed, stopped Zair and motioned for caution. He scanned the area, assessing the surroundings before moving quietly toward the door. The collapsed guards showed no signs of injury, and their breathing was steady. However, it seemed that their sudden forced sleep had also put the souls possessing them to sleep.
Zair covered his nose and mouth with his cravat and flung open the bedroom door.
There was no one inside. Only the wide-open window seemed to show the route Joo Yi-Gyeol had taken. Zair rushed to the window and looked around, but there was no further trace of him anywhere.
No matter how much vitality he had replenished, that frail body could not have leapt down from the third floor in a single jump. Nor, unless the person with him had possessed extraordinary agility, could he have jumped to a nearby tree and used the flower bed below as a cushion to escape.
Zair’s eyes narrowed. After glancing past the empty glass bottle that had held the blood, he looked down at the liquid spilled on the floor by the bedroom door. It seemed this was what had suddenly put the guards’ bodies to sleep.
‘Not exactly a sleeping drug… closer to a sleeping fragrance.’
It wasn’t something that could be obtained easily. And only a few people had access to such substances.
Zair clenched his teeth.
Because the guards outside had fallen asleep, Joo Yi-Gyeol had managed to escape through the window—with someone.
Zair left the room, making his way to the location where Ju Yi-Gyeo had likely fled. Once at a safe distance, he lowered his cloth mask and ordered Teran.
“They haven’t gotten far. Send the knights and the soul butterflies after them.”
Zair’s teeth ground together in frustration.
“We can restore the body later. Just bring him back alive. Once I get him back, I’ll make him understand who his true master is.”
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