CH 16

Upon arriving at his personally arranged research lab in his castle, Zair went inside, leaving only a message to his attendant to call for an imperial physician.

He passed a desk full of various books and stood in front of a wall with a velvet curtain next to it. At first glance, it looked like a curtain hung for interior purposes, but as soon as it was removed, a cupboard filled with glass bottles was revealed.

To others, they may look like empty glass bottles, but in Zair’s eyes, the shapes of butterflies flapping their wings were clearly visible.

‘Sethian will die soon anyway. So before long, I could definitely catch it and do some research.’

Zair, who was born and grew up watching butterflies containing souls, was also interested in soul magic because of such an environment. Naturally, he also knew what the owner of the first Magic Tower had written about the ‘golden butterfly.’

‘If that butterfly is the kind of soul that the owner of the first tower saw….’

Maybe he could study not only soul magic but also dimensional shift magic.

He was already imagining locking up Sethian’s golden butterfly and conducting various magic experiments.

⋆♚⋆♛⋆♚⋆

−Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you for a long time.

Yi-Gyeol, who arrived at the drawing-room with Sethian, asked in a worried voice.

It’s a relief to finally meet him, but a belated complaint that his insides almost got burned while looking for him naturally came. However, he cannot criticize Sethian, who is a prince and most probably busy, for not being in the castle in time when he came.

Sitting alone in the upper seat of the drawing-room, Sethian did not open his mouth even at Yi-Gyeol’s words. He seemed to be thinking deeply about something.

−Seth…?

When he thought that Seth might have felt bad that he had been with the man named Zair earlier, Yi-Gyeol was more worried than dissatisfied. Don’t tell him he thinks he told Zair everything about him.

In order for Sethian not to misunderstand, Yi-Gyeol approached him and spoke urgently.

−I didn’t know that person was your older brother. It’s just that he can hear my voice and see me, so I talked to him for a while since it was really fascinating….

“It doesn’t matter.”

It was a voice that seemed as unconcerned as the words that were uttered. Sethian asked Yi-Gyeol, recalling Zair’s annoying face.

“Zair seems to have seen you.”

−That’s right. He said I look like a butterfly.

Yi-Gyeol, whose mood has just improved, added what Zair said to Seth.

−He said I’m also a golden butterfly like the one I’ve been chasing to get here.

At this time, even Sethian thought that Zair’s ability was enviable. It was said that he had already seen numerous ghosts since childhood, and he also heard that he could sometimes touch some of those ghosts with his hands.

In the garden, he remembered Zair trying to catch Yi-Gyeol, who was behind him. Perhaps he could also touch Yi-Gyeol.

Thinking so, Sethian felt a sense of displeasure for no reason. He thought that he should have cut off those fingers altogether.

Knock, knock-

“Your Highness, the tea has arrived.”

Usually, tea was prepared by an attendant, but since an assassin had been caught dusting off poison from his nails in front of Sethian’s eyes, for a while, Lenox and one other knight decided to serve his meals and tea instead. Even though it seemed too much for Lenox, the Commander of the Knights, to attend and serve Sethian directly by himself in other people’s eyes, everyone kept their mouths shut because he was the one who volunteered and wanted to do the task on his own.

“Come in.”

As soon as Sethian’s permission was granted, Lenox approached with a tray and courteously bowed his head. He set the teacup down on the table in front of Sethian and poured it skillfully as if he hadn’t only done it once or twice.

“I have received a report that you have met Prince Zair.”

“I only greet him for a second.”

He didn’t mention that it was a kind of greeting that needs to break the opponent’s finger in the process.

Lenox put the teapot down on the table and said with the tray on his side.

“It seems that the atmosphere is too quiet these days. The number of assassination attempts has decreased.”

“At this rate, we can expect that there’ll be chaos soon.”

It was obvious without even having to look into it. Pretending to be quiet but simultaneously attacking at the same time was something that his siblings often did. Moreover, since they never know when the emperor will die, there is no way that they can stay still.

How much more fun will they make it to be next? They are the kind of siblings who don’t get tired of pouncing at him, so it is quite fun to deal with them.

−Come to think of it, I heard an important conversation earlier. 

Sethian, who was bringing a cup containing fragrant black tea to his lips, stopped moving.

−They seemed like a prince and a princess, but those people said that they would get rid of you.

If it was a prince and a princess, they would probably be the 3rd prince Raminez and the 1st princess Elina. Although the two are children of the same second concubine, they are so close that the people who don’t know them see them as lovers.

“There’s never a time that they don’t want to get rid of me.”

“What?”

Lenox, who was standing next to Sethian, reacted to his words.

−There were a lot of words they mentioned that I wasn’t actually familiar with, but they said they handed over the contract somewhere and would wait for you to disappear in five days. That it will be treated as disappearance.

Sethian’s eyebrows wrinkled when he heard Yi-Gyeol say ‘five days later.’ Because five days later, was when he will be leaving the castle to meet the Duke of Antoine in the north.

−But what the hell is Canael?

At the name that came out of Yi-Gyeol’s mouth, Sethian put down the teacup without even drinking the tea.

“Canael? Have those two contacted Canael?”

Lenox made a strange expression on Sethian’s words and called to him anxiously.

“Your Highness?”

“Lenox, shut up for a second.”

“Yes.”

Lenox immediately closed his mouth without even thinking of making a comment, but was somewhat bewildered by Sethian’s strange behavior.

“Tell me everything you heard.”

“…?”

−Umm, if I were to start from the beginning….

Instead of Lenox, who almost opened his mouth, Yi-Gyeol told him what he had heard one by one sequentially. Throughout the story, there seemed to be no change in Sethian’s expression, but his eyebrows twitched from time to time as if something was bothering him.

‘I don’t know what kind of reward they decided to give Canael’s Deputy-Guild Master Pair, but it looks like it’s big enough for the four of them to hold hands.’

Sethian recalled the two men belonging to Canael who had infiltrated his bedroom the other day. It was clear that they, too, had come under orders from someone, and as soon as they woke up, without him having to do anything, they killed themselves of their own will.

Apparently, they commissioned the assassins belonging to Canael to cut his neck just as always, but how big of a compensation should there be for the second-ranked best of Canael to make them move?

In any case, the information Yi-Gyeol brought was great. If he had to deal with such talented people without any preparation, no matter how it was Sethian, it is bound to be too much.

‘Since I learned it beforehand, should I postpone my private meeting with the Duke, or….’

In fact, there was nothing to think about.

Even if he knew the information, evading or moving recklessly was not something he would do. Above all, the opportunity to fight with such talented people is rare, so he was actually looking forward to it. It had been a long time since he had gotten sick of fighting Lenox and Kirsty every day.

‘Still, I have no intention of kicking the bucket yet, so I’ll also have to take some measures.’

In the past, it didn’t really matter whether he enjoyed the threat of assassination or died fighting for his life while competing with a powerful person as long as it was enjoyable. However, he can’t do that anymore since he has something more interesting now.

“Lenox, contact the Bandit’s Guild.”

“As you command. What task would you like them to do?”

Sethian took a sip of the tea that had cooled down while he was listening to Yi-Gyeol and calmly ordered.

“Get information on Canael’s Deputy-Guild Master Pair. And make sure to find out where Canael’s base is. I need to get in touch with them.”

“Yes? But Canael is….”

It was understandable that Lenox’s expression was not good. Canael was notorious as an assassin’s guild, but also called the ‘Sewer Rats’ which is called the dirtiest race in the world. In addition, he heard that it is not easy at all to hire an assassin from them since the better the skills, the more frivolous rewards are demanded.

Sethian threw his gaze from the teacup at Lenox. Facing his indifferent and cold eyes, Lenox eventually bowed his head without much words and left after answering that he understood.

Silence naturally fell as Lenox left the drawing-room. However, Sethian was still quietly listening to the voice penetrating into his head.

−I hope… I’ve been of some help.

“You’ve helped. A whole lot.”

−Really? I’m glad….

While Yi-Gyeol was relieved, Sethian was filling his evaluation of him again one by one as if overwriting the existing ones.

‘It’s great to be able to move around freely in the soul state for sure. There is no one to see, no sound, no sign. You can easily get any information if you put your mind to it.’

Sethian, who is closely related to the bandit’s guild that buys and sells information, was extremely envious of Yi-Gyeol’s ability. But because his body is in a different world, the time that he can stay here is only for about two hours, and once the connection is lost, it’ll take him three days or several hours again to come here because of the time difference. Such a point was clearly a disadvantage, but it was an ability that could be more than offset, so he couldn’t help but get interested.