Chapter 70: Hatred and Obsession

“Wow. I always wanted to enter Valdrova Castle at least once, but I never thought I’d get an opportunity like this.”

Erdes caused a commotion as she advanced almost dancing.

The way she walked was irritating and chaotic, yet no one dared point it out.

That only showed how tense the situation was.

“But why is everything so quiet? Ever since the regent himself came out to guide us, it’s seemed suspicious to me. What’s going on? Did you kill everyone because you didn’t like them? Or are you preparing to attack us from behind?”

She truly knew how to choose her words.

“The people working inside the castle are civilians. They are not people capable of something like that.”

“Ah, yes, that seems true. If the knights are a guy who looks like a swallow and another crybaby covered in snot, then I can already imagine what the others are like.”

Erdes burst into laughter.

She acted like an immature child, but she must never be underestimated.

That woman was the number one mage on the continent.

Destroying an entire family with a single finger would cost her nothing, and even kings bowed their heads before her.

She was a living disaster.

A magical delinquent.

That was why Perda had locked everyone inside the castle.

The people working there were far from possessing elegance or the ability to withstand such pressure.

“Still, coming here really has meaning. Valdrova Castle is enormous. I once tried to infiltrate it illegally, but the defensive barrier didn’t even move.”

“Am I supposed to be pleased by that?”

“Of course you are. Do you know what it means to receive praise from the strongest mage of humanity? If I couldn’t get through it, then no human ever will.”

Perda muttered inwardly.

And yet I defeated you miserably.

The one who responded to those words was Goz.

“It is a castle built for a dragon. It is natural that a human alone could not touch it.”

“Are you defending it because you’re both dragons? Seriously, I never understand dragons.”

“Watch your words, Erdes Roton.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

As irritating as it was, Perda agreed.

It was suspicious that even someone who hated Valdrova defended her.

So even mortal enemies respected certain boundaries?

While Erdes continued grumbling, they reached the end of the red carpet.

It felt like standing at the edge of a lit fuse.

Would the bomb explode or would it fail?

With that feeling, Perda opened the door.

A guest hall made of gold and red marble.

And a single maid fully prepared to receive them.

She slightly lifted her wide skirt and greeted them.

“Welcome. I am Ruri, maid of Lady Valdrova.”

She remained calm as if nothing were happening.

However, her eyes deliberately avoided meeting Goz’s.

On the other hand, Goz paid no attention to Ruri.

Unlike when he had tried to take her away, now he showed a lukewarm reaction.

That was even more suspicious.

Meanwhile, Erdes threw herself onto the sofa laughing.

“Ahh, you people really make the atmosphere heavy. That’s why men are useless. In elegant places you’re supposed to laugh and converse, right? Hey, maid, bring me a cup of tea.”

“I will prepare it immediately.”

When Ruri tried to move, Perda slightly raised his hand to stop her.

“You’ll let yourself prepare tea for the greatest mage on the continent?”

“Then…”

“I’ll serve it myself.”

The reason Perda intervened was because he was beginning to sense something strange in Erdes’s behavior.

If he let her act at her own pace, they would end up being dragged around by her.

Perda prepared to serve the tea.

But he did not stand up.

The shadow beneath his feet began to move and took shape before rising.

It was Perda’s Shadow Hand.

Upon seeing that, Erdes’s expression hardened.

Openly showing “I use dark magic” was practically the same as provoking people by saying “kill me.”

Without caring about that reaction, Perda served a cup of tea.

His manners were perfect.

“It is the finest tea produced in the western plateaus. Have a cup.”

Warm steam rose from the cup, but Erdes’s gaze remained fixed solely on Perda.

Her dull eyes, like those of a rotten fish, looked ready to pull out a knife at any moment.

“What a shame. I’m not thirsty.”

“Didn’t you say you needed something refreshing?”

“That’s right. Women are difficult to understand, aren’t they?”

A smile filled with killing intent.

But Perda held that gaze directly while taking a sip of tea.

Let’s see if that shuts her mouth for once.

“Now let’s talk.”

Goz adjusted his posture and leaned forward.

“Explain why you secretly entered someone else’s territory.”

He was trying to understand the background of the incident first.

Perda answered.

“There was a demonic research facility near that area.”

“An imaginary facility?”

“Wasn’t there recently a landslide there? As if something had exploded.”

“……”

Goz did not answer.

That meant it was true.

“I discovered the place where they were carrying out their project and went to destroy everything. That’s why I had to move quickly.”

“So you crossed using a Bending Bridge to get there ahead of time?”

The words Bending Bridge came from Goz’s mouth.

Without a doubt, Erdes had given him that information.

“Why didn’t you inform us?”

“Because it had to be done in secret.”

“And why?”

“Didn’t I say it was secret?”

Goz’s face turned fierce.

He looked ready to unsheathe his claws.

“Perda Valdrova. Not only did you enter our territory without permission, but you also killed that man’s son with your own hands. If you truly do not want a war, you had better speak clearly.”

He would not run from a war if it came.

But he also had no intention of starting one unnecessarily.

“As I said before, I was the one who killed Abel Silverwind. And it is also true that I caused problems. But none of that happened because I wanted it to.”

Perda continued.

“That man was a demon worshipper. He was trying to obtain power through a rebellion supported by demons.”

“How did you discover that?”

“There was no need to overcomplicate it. He spilled everything on his own. I don’t know whether he saw me as a fish already caught or mistook me for a confessional priest, but he ended up confessing it himself.”

Goz did not explode in anger upon hearing the words “demon worshipper.”

That meant Sitri had perfectly hidden the contract mark.

The balance began to tilt slightly.

Perda decided to add something perhaps unnecessary.

“Do you know what he said? That Goz Silverwind was nothing more than a usurper. That he was unworthy of that power.”

“So there’s quite a bit of discontent inside Silverwind too? Did a simple piranha start having ambitions and strange thoughts—?”

“Silence.”

“You know I’m on your side, right?”

He stopped Erdes’s mouth as she kept digging into open wounds.

“For them to question my power is something that can happen. And to challenge it is also natural for the children of Silverwind. But if that challenge is obtained through a demonic contract, then the story changes.”

What they desired was pure power.

The power born from the blood inherited from the lord of steel and wind.

“And what does that have to do with you killing him? Am I supposed to think you did me a favor?”

“How could that be? I told him that if he wanted to overthrow you, I would personally help him.”

The wind rose.

How could he not become furious after hearing that someone openly proposed a conspiracy to kill him?

“But he did not accept. Not because he was noble, but because his own usurpation plan required me.”

The wind stopped.

“A mere human like you?”

“He said he would use me as bait and then absorb that power.”

“Whose? Valdrova’s?”

“Ruri’s.”

Upon hearing that, Goz’s body tensed slightly.

Erdes, who had been observing Goz’s reaction, intervened.

“Ruri? And who is that?”

“She exists. A girl like that.”

Goz tried to brush it off vaguely, but Erdes persisted.

She glanced sideways at the small silver-haired maid and clapped her hands.

“Could it be that little miss over there? Looking closely, I think so. There were traces of someone with a small body, was it her? That girl is the—?”

“Erdes Roton. I did not bring you here so you could chatter endlessly.”

His vertical pupils glared at her fiercely.

The look was even more irritating than before.

Erdes smiled awkwardly and pretended to shut her mouth.

Goz’s irritated gaze ended up unconsciously turning toward Ruri.

Ruri remained facing away and could not turn around.

Perda continued explaining the situation.

“Ruri came to save me. And because of that, I ended up having to kill Abel.”

“Hmm, then we could call our dear Ruri, who miraculously survived, and have her testify.”

Do whatever you want. I have nothing to hide.

Just as Perda was about to accept Erdes’s proposal—

“Enough. That is sufficient.”

It was Goz who rejected that testimony.

At Goz’s attitude, cutting the matter short, Erdes looked at him with displeasure before turning her gaze back to Perda.

Then she smiled again.

“Well, we’ve heard enough from the two men, so now it’s my turn to speak.”

Since when did this conversation have turns?

With how much you interrupted, I thought this was simply a disaster where everyone talked over each other.

Perda was about to mock her but restrained himself.

Erdes stretched widely while showing a relaxed smile.

“Yes, yes, it was a touching story, Regent Perda. But I can’t accept your account so easily.”

It was the reaction he expected.

“There should be traces that that man made a contract with demons, shouldn’t there?”

“Yes, I found them. They were hidden in quite a curious place. The heel of the foot. I suppose nobody checks all the way there, so it’s understandable that even the Silverwind didn’t notice them.”

She acknowledged that the mark had been placed somewhere easy to overlook.

However, the gaze directed at Perda was unsettling.

“But I am Erdes Roton.”

The most powerful mage on the continent.

Model of all mages, witness to history, and war heroine.

Her words were law.

A tyrant without borders.

And at the same time, the greatest authority on dark magic.

Someone once said that love and hatred are separated by only a single sheet of paper.

Erdes understood dark magic as well as she hated it.

“The tricks of those miserable demons are detected immediately. For example, the exact moment when a mark was engraved.”

A smile appeared on Erdes’s face.

She looked like a spider observing prey trapped in its web.

“The contract mark engraved on Abel Silverwind had not even dried yet.”

Not even Perda knew it was possible to determine when a mark had been engraved.

Demonic contracts had never interested him.

Or more precisely, the nature of those contracts lay outside his interests.

What mattered to him was how demons trapped humans and how to avoid it.

Most people focused on that.

But Erdes’s obsession was far broader.

She was obsessed with everything related to dark magic.

It was a sick obsession.

The kind that would do anything to cleanse the continent of the disease called dark magic.

And that obsession was driving Perda into a dead end.

“Do you want to hear my theory?”

She began presenting her deduction.

“Regent Perda, you made a certain deal with the great demon Sitri. You said you came to destroy a demonic facility, right? Perhaps that was the deal. What would you do if the facility collapsed not in days, but within hours? For Sitri, it would be the perfect excuse. You ignored the saying about never making deals with demons and quietly crossed over using a Bending Bridge.”

Her words were astonishingly accurate.

Enough for Perda to feel pressure.

“But then something unexpected happened. The Bending Bridge you crossed through closed for some reason. Regent Perda was left completely alone, and then Abel appeared. Could that unexpected event have been Sitri’s trap?”

As she asked that question, Erdes narrowed her eyes with a smile and stared directly at Perda.

She was trying to see beyond the mask Perda wore.

And Perda did everything possible to conceal it.

“No. It wasn’t. That was not part of Sitri’s plan.”

Did she read his expression?

She continued with another explanation.

“If it had been such a shallow trick, you would have noticed it. Because you are not an idiot, Regent Perda. You surely checked over and over to make sure there were no traps in the Bending Bridge. But even so, you still could not reenter the return bridge. That means you took something out of that demonic facility. Something so important that you wagered your own life to obtain it.”

His throat went dry.

She slowly rotated her finger, as though hypnotizing someone, while continuing to speak.

“Making you encounter Abel Silverwind was probably one of the traps that bitch Sitri had prepared. Someone assigned to punish you if you started having strange thoughts. An excellent card, because even if he died, consequences would remain. But for some reason, she did not use that trap. Instead, she helped Perda by engraving a contract mark onto Abel Silverwind.”

He could not help but feel admiration.

Even while cornering him, she was this impressive.

Was it possible to go this far simply by hating something with such intensity?

Erdes’s depth was on an entirely different level from anything Perda could comprehend.

“Why would a demon help you? If she had simply left everything as it was, without engraving the mark, the Silverwind would have come to interrogate you, and you would have been sweating while trying to convince them. War would have become practically inevitable. So then, why would she willingly abandon a chaotic situation that demons love so much?”

His mouth felt completely dry.

He feared even moving his Adam’s apple, so he maintained maximum tension.

“The three clues that led me to this conclusion are the following.”

Erdes raised her index finger.

“First, the fact that you use dark magic.”

Her middle finger.

“Second, the fact that a great demon of hell saved you instead of trapping you.”

Her ring finger.

“Third, the fact that the scent of a demon can still be faintly perceived in this house.”

She had struck directly at the blind spot.

No matter what happened, there was one conclusion Erdes absolutely must never reach.

‘Penelope.’

The situation was already dangerous enough with the mere suspicion of whether he had made a demonic contract or not.

If they discovered that he was hiding a demon inside the castle, Erdes’s hostility would tilt completely against him.

And the problem was not simply that it would be troublesome.

Erdes was someone even the First Prince, the most influential figure after the emperor, tried to cling to.

She would undoubtedly place obstacles in the development of the far east.

Everything was unbearably tangled.

‘And that’s not the only problem.’

If, during the explanation, it were revealed that Penelope was a medium capable of controlling the life of a great demon, the problem would become even worse.

It was obvious that Erdes would become desperately obsessed with Penelope.

That could not be allowed.

Everything that existed in this castle existed solely for Valdrova.

Just as Perda was about to open his mouth, Erdes smiled with her eyes and asked—

“Are you the child of a demon?”