Chapter 50
When her father asked back in a voice filled with disbelief, Lottie snapped out of her own thoughts. What? The reason Mr. Britt ended up like that?
“It is the claim of an old man who is not of sound mind, but I felt I should convey it to you, my lord….”
Hanson trailed off. If her father hadn’t continued the conversation, Lottie would have been unable to contain her frustration and would have stormed inside to demand exactly what that reason was.
“Possession…. Do you mean to say a demonic soul took over Mr. Britt’s body?”
At her father’s hollow mutter, Lottie let out a sigh despite herself.
‘Possession.’
How could that make any sense? She would rather stick to the theory that there was a poisonous herb causing madness.
“It is said to have been found beside the deceased Mr. Britt.”
Mikhail held out a purple velvet pouch to Calyx. When he took it, it felt quite heavy.
Opening the pouch, Calyx poured its contents onto the desk.
It looked to be about the size of two finger joints, an uneven oval shape….
“What is this?”
“It is said to be amber.”
At Mikhail’s answer, Calyx’s brow furrowed. Amber.
“The color is too black for amber. You are correct. However, I am told it was not this color at first. It was supposedly the amber color everyone is familiar with.”
“Explain further.”
The person who had handed this to Mikhail was Mr. Britt’s young eldest son.
The boy, who had to care for his two younger sisters alone after both parents died at once, spoke fluently about what he knew once Mikhail handed him a bundle of gold coins.
When Father first found something precious and showed it to me, it was a brilliant amber color. Father insisted it must be a lucky charm and carried it with him every day. But….
I don’t know when it started, but the amber began to look red. I think it was around the time Father seriously injured the back of his hand while out gathering wood….
Coincidentally, it was around that time that Mr. Britt’s eccentric behavior began.
His food intake increased rapidly, and he felt hungry often. Even as the amount he ate increased, the man grew thinner by the day. Mrs. Britt had even joked that there must be a parasite in his stomach.
It became certain that something was wrong with Mr. Britt when he was discovered in the barn in the middle of the night. At that time, he was tearing apart and eating a live chicken.
- He wouldn’t even respond when spoken to and just kept saying strange things. That someone gave him orders, that a great flood was coming so we had to prepare…. We’ve had droughts and bad harvests for years; what flood could there be?
The rest was a story Calyx knew well. The auditory and visual hallucinations Mr. Britt reportedly suffered, the death of Mrs. Britt, and Mr. Britt’s mysterious death.
Just like Mr. Britt’s end, which was said to look as if he had burned to death, the amber sitting on the desk was a black color like ash.
“The son said that the place where Mr. Britt first obtained this amber was near Lake Mofit.”
“Lake Mofit?”
It was a place name familiar to Calyx as well. A summer resort for nobles famous for the legends of night fairies and the god of dreams.
He had never been there himself, but it was certainly a contradiction for such a place to be associated with terrifying madness.
“It will be necessary to check. Whether Mr. Britt was truly possessed by a demon, and if that is related to this amber that turned black.”
Calyx said as he picked up the black amber.
As he tilted his hand, the black light of the amber followed and tilted slowly each time. It was as if black smoke was trapped inside the amber.
Just when he felt the illusion that the amber was somehow speaking to him.
“Your Highness!”
At Mikhail’s call, Calyx finally looked away from the amber.
“What are you thinking about so deeply? And for several minutes at that.”
He thought only a few seconds had passed, but had it really been that long? Calyx closed and opened his stiff eyes and put the amber back into the pouch.
“Were you perhaps thinking of that lady and I interrupted you?”
“That lady?”
Ah. Realizing who Mikhail was referring to, Calyx let out a low exclamation.
“Stop talking nonsense and withdraw.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Mikhail, giving a polite bow, crossed the study.
Just as he was about to leave the study, Calyx called him to a stop.
“Mikhail.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Have you ever carved wood before….”
“……?”
When Mikhail blinked with a puzzled face, Calyx took back his words.
“No, it is nothing.”
“It’s frustrating, so frustrating.”
Mikhail muttered as he fed the horses. Since the horses were eating the fodder well every time he gave it, it seemed the word ‘frustrating’ was due to something else.
“It’s beyond frustrating….”
“What do you keep saying is frustrating?”
At that moment, along with a familiar voice, something flew toward Mikhail.
Just before it hit his forehead, Mikhail caught it nimbly. When he opened his palm, it was a single almond the size of a fingernail.
“I’m asking what is so frustrating.”
“Sasha!”
Mikhail shouted toward the tree rising behind him. Sasha, who was perched on a high branch, gave a smirk.
Sasha. Real name, Alexander Pivanoa.
Along with Mikhail, he hailed from the Great Empire of Deisnoia and possessed the snow-white skin characteristic of those from the Empire. Mysterious blue-gray eyes and navy-tinted black hair.
With long hair covering the nape of his neck and a pretty appearance that could pass for a woman’s, he was nonetheless a former mercenary who once enjoyed notoriety in Deisnoia. Code name: Silver Fox.
“You pick a fight as soon as you arrive… Ack!”
An almond, faster than words, struck the bridge of Mikhail’s nose this time.
Before the indignant Mikhail could launch a counterattack, several bullets—almonds—flew in succession. The large-framed Mikhail screamed in pain. He managed to throw one almond back at Sasha, but it fell to the ground without even getting near the branch.
“As expected. Misha is best when he’s being beaten.”
While the horse licked up and ate the almonds that had fallen on the ground, Sasha chuckled and hopped down below. As he approached, Mikhail glared at Sasha with a face full of resentment.
“When did you get here?”
“Just now. You were sighing so deeply like someone who’s lived their whole life, so I was watching out of curiosity.”
Had he been sighing? As Mikhail tilted his head, Sasha popped the last remaining almond into his mouth and asked.
“Why is that?”
“A woman has entered His Highness’s heart.”
“That’s a good thing! Is our boss finally getting married?”
Sasha, who had been away, did not know the details about the existence of the daughter of the House of Count Ix.
When Sasha clapped his hands while saying such mindless things, Mikhail let out a long sigh instead of scolding him.
“Married, my foot. His Highness intends to be satisfied with just a one-sided unrequited love.”
“Why? Is he some kind of pervert?”
“He says if he confesses, the woman will be terrified and run away.”
Mikhail replied in a gloomy voice. Sasha became bewildered. Well, granted. If the boss, whose past and appearance were nothing short of terrifying, were to confess, where indeed was the woman who would remain standing in place?
“Then what if that woman goes to another man?”
Sasha muttered in a tone that suggested he truly didn’t understand.
“Wouldn’t it be better to at least try confessing in that case?”
“Exactly! That’s what I’m saying!”
Nodding his head vigorously, saying it was almost the first time he had agreed with Sasha, Mikhail realized what he was frustrated about.
He still disliked that woman.
He hated that she disturbed His Highness’s peace of mind with that innocent face, but even more than that, he hated seeing His Highness unable to move one way or the other because of that one woman.
“It’s because the boss doesn’t have a sense of crisis yet.”
Just what is love? Mikhail, who had been muttering in a lamenting tone, blinked at Sasha’s words.
“A sense of crisis? What sense of crisis?”
“The sense of crisis that if he’s not careful, he might lose that woman to another man!”
Mikhail listened seriously to Sasha’s words, then soon snorted.
A man in this world who could make His Highness feel a sense of crisis? If such a man exists, I’d like to see him too.
‘Possessed by a demonic soul, is it….’
Robert, Count Ix, was lost in deep thought.
If someone could have opened his head and peeked at his thoughts, they would have thought he was recalling a fantasy novel or certain passages from the scriptures.
In truth, it was neither. Robert was recalling the conversation with Hanson. Every story he said he had personally seen and heard while visiting the Britt family.
That Mr. Britt becoming like that was due to being possessed by a demonic soul. As the lord ruling the County, it was a superstition and nonsense that he could not and should not believe.
However, as Robert Evanshire, who had been the husband of one woman, there was a reason he could not help but be shaken by that ridiculous superstition.
‘May.’
His wife, May, had passed away around the time Lottie turned eight.
It was known to the world that she died of illness as her tuberculosis worsened, but the truth known only to a tiny few in the family was different.
His wife’s expression and behavior, which seemed like she had become a completely different person, her incomprehensible words, the auditory and visual hallucinations, and those blue eyes.
If there was anyone who remembered his wife’s appearance, they would have surely had the same thought as him. That it was a sight utterly incomprehensible unless a demon had possessed his kind-hearted wife’s body.
‘If the madness passed down in Dempis is truly related to possession, what should be done? Should I even bring in an exorcist?’
“My lord. It is Coleman.”
“Come in.”
Fortunately, thanks to the butler’s appearance, Robert’s thoughts, which had been stretching out boundlessly, were interrupted.
Coleman held out a paper on a silver tray to Robert. It was a message sent by the shadow.
K was the code name referring to Kayan, the swindler currently posing as his daughter’s fiancé.
The shadow he had secretly attached to him would often report to Robert like this; though there were differences in expression, the content was always the same. It wasn’t that the shadow was being lazy, but that this was truly all there was to report.
The man his daughter had declared she loved more than her own life was being faithful to his role every day. Meeting his daughter to enjoy dates, whispering sweet nothings, sometimes holding hands….
“My lord…?”
Crumple. As the note was ruthlessly crushed in Robert’s grip, Coleman’s eyes widened.
Robert raised his hand over his head as if he were about to hurl the note at any moment, but soon stopped with a long sigh.
“My situation is laughable. A father ordering someone to spy on his daughter’s private life.”
