Chapter 157

“I met my master.”

“Was it as planned?”

“It was more than I could have imagined.”

I shared my gains with Amethus.

I joyfully told him what Beluchian Pollinglight had brought me.

Amethus also listened with a joyful heart.

Their goal was drawing near.

In the basement of the Art Gallery Lamponé, there is a secret place.

Even though they started spending more time at the Verchello mansion, the most secretive matters were handled in the basement of the Art Gallery Lamponé.

Here, reachable only by passing the gallery's stairs in a secret way, there are seven rooms.

One was piled high with money and treasures, one was where Shadi Shandor slept, and one was mine and Amethus's training ground.

Another was a kind of alchemy room.

“If it weren't for my master, how would I have obtained these things?”

I looked down at the items passed to me through Jeberk.

A scale from a thousand-year-old giant bird, the coldest ice crystal, hardened karma-fire, and so on.

It was full of things that no one but Beluchian Pollinglight could easily produce.

I hummed a tune as I pounded, crushed, or melted them.

I wasn't a mage, but I knew the basic ways of handling magical ingredients.

Soon, I put all the ingredients together in one place and began to simmer them gently.

I covered the lid to prevent the indescribable five-colored light from leaking out.

I wore a light smile.

“It needs to simmer for a good four months like this… but I can finally complete the specific remedy for the ‘Calamity that sprung from the land’ in the north.”

“Are you mixing it with the one you made before?”

“Yes. A lot of work, isn't it?”

I clicked my tongue.

“Before the regression, it wasn't a fully developed medicine, so it took too long. If I had completed it sooner, I could have moved faster, but to think it took seven years……”

“It can't be helped. Let's be satisfied that we can complete it now.”

“I suppose so.”

A bitter smile formed on my lips.

I was already looking ahead to the next calamity.

Even though the calamities of Guidone and Santia had not yet arrived.

It was because I was a regressor.

I often failed to see the present because I was looking too far into the future.

“The fire can't go out, not for at least four months. It's an item essential for the next calamity.”

“I know that well.”

Amethus nodded his head.

“I will depart for southern Bururade immediately. I will attend the wedding of the Guidone family head as a representative of the Dawn Brotherhood.”

“I will remain in Merion. I will guard this cauldron and Verchello.”

“I try not to trust anyone, but at times you feel reliable, Amethus.”

“You praise me too much, Your Highness.”

“That damn ‘Your Highness’……”

Amethus and I laughed facing each other.

It wasn't a laugh born solely of joy.

Both of us held a certain bitterness and sorrow.

But our gazes were upright and strong.

“More importantly, Shion……”

Amethus glanced sideways.

He looked at the black-haired girl with a displeased face.

“…Who in the world is this girl?”

“Ehem, ehem, ehem!”

Valziart giggled. She pretended not to hear my conversation with Amethus and just ran around the basement of the Art Gallery Lamponé.

If I hadn't ordered her in the name of Pollinglight to stay still, she looked ready to rummage through every room.

“Sweet, so sweet. How can the scent of the world be this sweet? Beautiful, so beautiful. How can the world I see without being bound be so beautiful!”

The girl was savoring her freedom for the first time in 400 years.

Being a being from the shadow dimension, the light was piercing.

But the joy was so great that a little pain was nothing.

It would be a lie to say there was no reluctance.

There was still anger and hatred in her heart.

The fact that it hadn't transformed into a form of guilt proved her shamelessness.

It was a feeling directed at Sen Sorti who imprisoned her and me who used her.

But that anger slowly melted away in the face of freedom.

“Aha, ahahahaha-! It's a strange feeling, Master. How can it feel like this? Both you and Sen Sorti were so hateful that my insides twisted, but now I feel it wouldn't be so bad to serve you sincerely, you know?”

“Master……?”

Amethus slowly raised his head.

He had a dumbfounded expression as if he couldn't believe it.

“You, Shion, don't tell me you told her to call you Master……”

“How could I? I told her not to call me Prince, and now she's doing that.”

I shook my head.

“Valziart. We need to decide on a title.”

“I'm calling you Master to show respect to my master, is there a problem?”

“It's great to hear. Call me something like an Employer.”

“Hmph. I don't like that. You don't even pay me a salary.”

“You want a salary? Should I give you money?”

“No thanks, to a human's lump of stone.”

Valziart shook her head.

“If you give me a tasty magical beast, I'll call you Employer.”

“…Alright. I'll take you to a magical beast colony next time.”

“Great, employer!”

The shadow girl smiled sweetly.

Having gotten what she wanted, the girl turned her gaze to Amethus.

“By the way, employer, this jade-eyed man is also quite something.”

Valziart flared her nostrils.

Since she wasn't a being of this dimension, she could smell the lingering scent of many things.

“Hmm, what is this smell? The smell of sunlight, the smell of a blade, the smell of regret and tears… above all, the smell of an ancient god is wafting all over.”

“…It is a very unpleasant feeling to have someone smell me. Do you know that?”

“I have no reason to consider a human's discomfort.”

The girl stuck out her tongue, bleh.

It was such a detestable sight that Amethus slowly moved his hand toward his sword.

Valziart furrowed her brows.

At first, it was because she thought, ‘How dare a mere human be so impudent,’ and then it was because she was overwhelmed by Amethus, who exuded a different aura as soon as he gripped the sword.

“Ugh……”

The shadow girl flinched.

She was in a state where she couldn't even exert half of her original power.

But she instantly realized that even if she were at her full strength, she would not be a match for Amethus.

Even though she was a Magical Beast among Magical Beasts, called the king of living shadows, the jade-eyed man before her was stronger.

“…What are you people, really?”

She looked back and forth between Amethus and me.

Two humans, when even one in an era would be too many.

The two of them were gathered together, plotting something.

What on earth were they plotting, and what were they trying to achieve by being so busy scheming?

Even she, who had lived for a thousand years, could not guess.

“This jade-eyed man doesn't seem human either. What are you trying to do?”

“Is there a need to tell you?”

“That's true.”

Valziart quickly put on a smile.

The world of humans was outside her interest.

As long as she could be free without being sealed, and could occasionally swallow a tasty magical beast, it didn't matter to her if the world turned upside down.

“Shion.”

Amethus opened his mouth.

He was glaring fiercely at the shadow girl with his jade eyes.

It was a gaze as blue as a blazing fire, yet Valziart's nonchalance was astonishing.

“My intuition says this is dangerous.”

“I know it's dangerous, too.”

Valziart giggled.

“Hello? I'm Valziart. Unlike my appearance, I'm very dangerous.”

“You need to keep that tongue of yours still.”

“Oh my, is that something for you to say, employer?”

“Enough. I have to leave.”

I commanded Valziart.

Valziart could not speak further.

It was because I was a Pollinglight.

The girl wanted to talk more but couldn't, so she just pouted her lips.

“She's noisy, but she'll be useful. There's no fear of our secrets leaking, so it'll be convenient to have her do various chores.”

“…Hmm. That's certainly true.”

Amethus stroked his chin.

He was just feeling that two people, he and I, were not enough hands. I took out a small letter from my bosom.

“I'll be going.”

“What is that?”

“A wedding invitation.”

It was a letter announcing the marriage of the Guidone family head and Santia Hostanio.

“I'll be attending as the representative of the Dawn Brotherhood.”

“No one would know the meaning of this marriage.”

“If not for us, they couldn't possibly know.”

The regressed prince chuckled.

“I'm going to pretend I know nothing. So the Empire fools are completely deceived. Then, at the most crucial moment, I'm going to overturn everything.”

I stroked my cheek.

I recalled the past.

Seven years ago and twenty-six years ago.

Both were times when I was called the 5th Imperial Prince, Zionis, in the Cordis Grand Imperial Palace.

“I'm going to the calamity that came from the sea.”

***

Grand Duke Pret, one of the seventeen elders who moved the West, the de facto master of West-Erta and the head of the anti-Empire faction.

He was the one who gave me a seat in the Lower House of the Dawn Brotherhood.

Grand Duke Pret was astonished to the point of fainting at the marriage of the Guidone family head and Imperial Princess Santia, and he made this request to me.

‘…When you see an opportunity, please eliminate the 2nd Imperial Princess of Cordis, Santia Hostanio.’

I accepted his request.

At least, I pretended to be in front of him.

He organized me as a member of the Dawn Brotherhood's special delegation and sent a carriage and servants all the way to Verchello so that I could travel comfortably to Guidone.

It was proof that Grand Duke Pret was very anxious about this marriage.

‘He trusts me in this matter. He even said he would give me a seat among the seventeen elders, so he'll think I have no reason not to kill Santia.’

The carriage sent by Grand Duke Pret was very comfortable.

I smiled, leaning back halfway.

‘How foolish.’

I have no intention of causing harm to Grand Duke Pret unnecessarily.

But I have even less reason to move as he wishes.

I was someone who moved with my own plans and goals.

In fact, I was often like that to an excessive degree.

‘It will take three days to arrive, so let's get some rest. I have to move busily as soon as I arrive in Guidone.’

I popped a lozenge into my mouth.

“Somehow, this has turned into something like a honeymoon, Lady Serena.”

“…Hmph, enough.”

Serena de Verchello snorted.

She was in the same carriage as me.

Grand Duke Pret had included me and my wife in the Dawn Brotherhood's special delegation.

It was because he thought it would be strange for a newly married couple to travel separately.

“Is there something unpleasant, by any chance?”

“I said it's nothing!”

Serena turned her head.

“Just do what you always do, dear husband. And leave me completely out of it!”

“Aha……”

I chuckled. I couldn't help but laugh.

Serena de Verchello is nineteen years old.

To me, a regressor, she is very young.

So she can't help but look cute.

The length of time I had grievously suffered from her sobs made me feel all the more emotional.

“I'm sorry. There was so much to take care of. It wasn't easy swallowing Del Conti whole……”

“…I wasn't asking for an apology.”

“But I'm still sorry.”

I changed the subject.

“Did you know? Near the Guidone family estate, the salted fish pickled with Olam berries is absolutely delicious.”

“…Olam berries and salted fish?”

“Yes. Imagine lightly frying that and putting it in bread. And having a glass of Seram-ade while looking at the vast sea……”

“…Ehem, do you think I'll fall for such words……?”

“It seems you already have.”

Really! Serena ended up smiling.

It was because I persistently spoke to her.

She hadn't been that upset in the first place.

I carefully took her hand and Serena didn't stop me.

Serena's face flushed with the flutter of first love. Even though my smile grew sadder from recalling the past loss.

‘Amethus will do well. Valziart too… she won't want to be trapped again, so there shouldn't be any trouble.’

I wiped my face.

This damned fatigue that never thinks of leaving.

‘Ah, sister Santia, to think I'll see you after so long, just because we share some blood… I'm quite pleased.’