Chapter 59: A Miserable Life

“First.”

Perda opened the conversation.

A damp echo, fitting for the basement, resonated.

“I must sincerely thank you.”

“……”

“If you hadn’t attacked that day, I would have had to monitor Director Bernard for days and nights, which would have been an unnecessary waste.”

“If you’re so grateful… could you let me go?”

“Not that. I’m grateful, not an idiot.”

Perda dragged a chair and placed it in front of him.

“That transformation technique is quite interesting. It’s not magical imitation or perception distortion, nor a clumsy copy like that of doppelgängers.”

“If you find it so fascinating, I can turn into you as well, regent.”

He said with a chuckle, in a mocking tone.

“You can do it with me too?”

Perda took the joke seriously.

“As long as there is blood, it’s possible.”

Perda pulled a clean dagger from his clothes and cut his arm.

Red blood began to slide down his forearm.

“Do it.”

“……”

The man collected the dripping blood and drank it.

As he consumed a considerable amount, Director Bernard’s appearance began to change.

He transformed into Perda.

Gray hair, blue eyes.

A weak body that once wanted to be a knight, but couldn’t.

Though covered in bruises and with broken teeth, it was undoubtedly Perda’s image.

“It seems you can’t repair the injuries. What happened to that monstrous healing ability?”

“My function is to become that human. A human cannot have that kind of healing.”

“You’re meticulous.”

Deliberately removing the enhanced traits of demons and focusing only on imitating humans.

Perda stared at him.

The man, meeting his gaze, let out a laugh.

“Perda Valdrova… I thought you were crazy, but you exceed my imagination…”

“What do you mean?”

Perda tilted his head.

“What you’re seeing is yourself. Your own broken and shattered self. And yet, you stand there as if it were something interesting.”

“It’s not interesting.”

“And yet your eyes don’t even waver?”

It was true.

Perda neither looked away nor showed fear.

He was observing his own ruined state.

“You… were expelled from the Rosnova family, weren’t you?”

“……”

“I can feel how hard you tried. You have no muscles, but you broke your bones and filled your hands with blisters from all that effort, didn’t you?”

“……”

“But your father didn’t acknowledge it.”

“That’s right. And that’s why I ended up becoming a fiancé.”

“No. That was just an excuse to throw you out. You know it too.”

The man, wearing Perda’s face, smiled in a twisted way.

“You were abandoned for lack of talent. Just like me, discarded trash.”

In his eyes there was a plea for kinship.

The kinship born from sharing the same emotion called revenge.

The man with Perda’s face longed for revenge.

Revenge against the king who betrayed his loyalty.

Revenge against the father who abandoned his son.

That feeling of anger was something Perda could understand deeply.

“Yes, I was abandoned.”

Perda showed contempt.

“But you and I are different. Very different.”

“In what way?”

“The soul.”

Perda pointed to his chest.

“My soul was always mine.”

He looked at the man with disdain.

Hearing that, the man shouted in fury.

“My soul hasn’t been sold to anyone! This is the path I chose!”

“No. You sold your soul. You let that trash appraise you and didn’t hesitate to lower yourself. That’s why your desire for revenge became cheaper than that of a dog.”

The man shouted, outraged.

“And what does that matter? As long as I achieve my revenge, that’s enough! Even if I destroy myself, what matters is making that bastard suffer worse than hell!”

“No. Revenge requires a soul.”

Perda put his hand into the bag he had brought.

“Even if it gets dirty and breaks, it is only achieved when you keep your soul entirely your own.”

He took out a vial.

Without a label or distinctive color, it was impossible to know what it contained.

There were seven in total.

“So stop pretending you understand me just because you have my appearance.”

He opened one and stepped closer.

“And enjoy life.”

***

Upper floor of the castle, alchemy workshop.

The alchemist was tidying up.

“May I come in?”

Hearing the familiar voice of an elderly man, the alchemist stopped and bowed his head.

“Count Consilus, it’s an honor. Of course, you may enter whenever you wish.”

“Thank you for allowing Regent Valdrova to use the workshop.”

“Not at all. How could I refuse a request from the count?”

Consilus pretended to look around before speaking.

“By the way, do you know what kind of medicine the regent prepared?”

“Here is the list of materials he requested.”

The perceptive alchemist showed him the records.

Consilus reviewed them.

Although he was a knight and military man, he had basic knowledge, including alchemy.

That’s why he frowned.

“This… these look like ingredients for a recovery potion, don’t they?”

The alchemist nodded.

“Yes, correct.”

“He came all the way here just to make that? He could have asked you.”

“That’s what I thought too.”

“That’s what you thought?”

The sigh he was about to let out disappeared.

The alchemist hesitated.

“Well… that is…”

“Speak. Even mild criticism will be allowed.”

“Risking offense… Regent Valdrova… has no skill in alchemy… no, he’s worse than a beginner.”

His voice was filled with rejection.

Consilus blinked.

“That bad?”

“Yes. He made mistakes that not even a beginner would make. If one of my apprentices did that, I’d slap him.”

“Hmm…”

“Ah, sorry, that was disrespectful…”

Consilus stroked his beard and thought before speaking.

“I don’t think it’s a lack of skill.”

“But the methods and procedures were completely wrong. Unless he was a beginner…”

“Tell me. If the process is incorrect, what effect does it produce?”

“Well…”

The alchemist checked his notes.

“For example, he stirred too quickly.”

“And that?”

“It reduces the effect of the potion.”

“And more?”

“During cooling, he stirred the cauldron. That also reduces the recovery effect. And…”

He began listing mistakes.

More than twenty errors in a short process.

“All of that…”

The alchemist was astonished.

Alchemy is delicate.

A single mistake can completely nullify the effect.

But all of Perda’s mistakes had a consistent result.

“They all reduce the speed and efficiency of recovery…”

It wasn’t the error of a beginner.

It was completely intentional.

***

“Ugh…!”

The man’s entire body tensed to the limit.

The veins in his neck bulged, blood vessels protruded, and as he clenched his broken teeth, even those began to crumble.

“Do you feel it?”

Perda shook the empty vial as he asked.

Everything that had been inside was now in the man’s body.

“Doesn’t it feel like your entire body is a field of flames? Like it’s burning you slowly, but unbearably hot.”

“Ugh…! What the hell… did you do to me?!”

He couldn’t finish the sentence.

But Perda answered.

“A miserable life.”

“W-what… is that?!”

“That’s what I called it. It’s the most painful life that can be given to someone like you, who was already prepared to die. And what you’re feeling now is the growing pain of nerves that had died from torture and are coming back to life.”

“Ugh…!?”

“That’s right. I’m not killing you. I’m keeping you alive.”

“Shut up…!”

That couldn’t be recovery.

Perda shook the empty vial.

“Strange, isn’t it? The better a recovery potion is, the faster and stronger it regenerates. That’s why high-level ones are always popular. They’re well refined and leave no side effects, even if used in combat.”

The man had been a knight.

He had been on the battlefield, so he knew well the effect of high-quality potions.

“On the other hand, cheap ones are painful. They recover slowly and poorly. What I made is the cheapest of the cheap. So, if I press here…”

Perda gently pressed a bruise with his index finger.

“Aaaaah!”

A tearing scream burst from his mouth.

The man who had endured the executioner’s torture screamed for the first time.

“Newly regenerated nerves are extremely sensitive. If a finger does this…”

Perda picked up an object the executioner had left behind.

It was long and sharp.

A needle.

“What do you think will happen with this?”

Clink, clink.

“Stop… stooop!!”

The man began to lose his mind and struggle.

“I’ll tell you everything! I’ll tell you everything!”

“Tell what?”

“There must be a reason for this torture, damn it! I’ll tell you everything! I’ll tell you where our base is! Just stop! Please! Pleeease!”

Five minutes.

That’s how long it took for someone who had resisted the executioner to break.

It was ridiculously fast.

Of course, he learned to endure dying, but never to endure living.

“No.”

Instead of interrogating him, Perda placed a gag in his mouth.

“Your surrender was expected, but not now.”

He set the empty vial down and took another.

The liquid inside swirled.

To his sensitive ears, it sounded like waves crashing in a storm.

“Sing a little more. Enjoy a little more that miserable life you abandoned.”

On the spiral staircase leading down to the basement,

the screams of a sinner in hell did not cease.

***

Three hours later, Perda met again with Count Consilus in the hall.

“I discovered some interesting things.”

“What kind of things?”

“They call themselves Doppler.”

“Doppler? Sounds derived from doppelgänger.”

“That’s right. They say they are a superior version of doppelgängers.”

“What arrogance. Very fitting of demons.”

Count Consilus let out a laugh.

“I never imagined we’d obtain information about demons.”

“It’s because they’re closer to humans than anything else. If they weren’t, the torture methods I know wouldn’t have worked.”

“Truly impressive. You’ve created something we couldn’t even imagine…”

Even the castle’s alchemist, with thirty years of experience, was astonished.

Perda had ruined the recovery potion in a far more complex way than making it correctly.

It was practically art.

“These so-called Doppler… Bernard must not have been the first. Do you know how long they’ve existed?”

“He said they started ten years ago. He was servant rank and only recently rose to knight, so he doesn’t know precisely.”

Demons have hierarchies.

Those of servant rank are expendable human followers.

From knight rank onward, they begin to truly use demonic power.

“If they’ve existed for ten years, they must already be infiltrated everywhere.”

“In Escolea, and probably also in the Grand Council.”

“That… can’t be. How can there be chaos within Blancaros’s absolute domain?”

“They already knew what Bernard said in the Council. Whether human or Doppler, it’s a fact that there are demon followers inside.”

Consilus understood it, but fully accepting it was another matter.

“The Grand Council, symbol of the continent’s unity, will lose credibility.”

A place created for the harmony of Serdes.

That the subordinates of the evil dragon Godwin were infiltrated within Blancaros’s territory would shake the continent.

“What do you plan to do?”

Consilus asked.

Perhaps Perda had a solution.

“The best option is a preemptive strike.”

“A surprise attack is an excellent tactic. But we need to know where they are.”

“Of course.”

Consilus reacted with surprise.

“Did you discover their location?”

“Not the main base, but a key facility. He was the guard captain of a research center where those beings are created. That’s why he knows their weaknesses well.”

“Then we can attack immediately.”

They had the location. It was perfect.

“There’s a problem.”

“What is it?”

“That facility is within Silverwind’s territory.”

“Ah…”

Consilus understood the gravity.

“How complicated. If Silverwind cooperated…”

“They won’t. And asking would take time.”

“True… then sharing the information isn’t a good idea either.”

“If we only wanted to eliminate them, we could destroy the entire mountain.”

But that place was not just a military target.

It was an information center.

There, they could obtain data on the Doppler and demonic plans.

Perda decided.

“We’ll have to infiltrate, destroy it, and withdraw.”

An extremely dangerous operation.

Just as Perda was organizing the plan—

Consilus spoke first.

“With due respect… could you grant me that opportunity?”

“Opportunity?”

“Yes.”

Count Consilus knelt, placing his hand over his chest.

“As the shield of the Empire and a knight loyal to the Great Power… I wish to be of help to you, regent.”

He was an old man with white hair.

But in his prime, he had been a renowned knight.

Now, a man who had lost everything.

Perda accepted.

“We leave tomorrow. Prepare immediately.”