Chapter 179 - Parting After Reunion

“Miss Josephine. This is the messenger, Paras, whom I mentioned before. Please have a chat. I will be waiting outside.”

With those words, the Head Maid left the workshop.

At the appearance of the woman who was practically in charge of all of Eclipse's administrative affairs, the apprentices could only glance around nervously.

They didn't know what was going on, but they knew they shouldn't enter the workshop right now.

Belir, which had unintentionally become a quiet and clean space.

The collateral branch and the illegitimate daughter of Wisdom, who were left alone, didn't seem like they would be awkward, but time was not something to be ignored.

However, it was definitely not that there was nothing he wanted to say.

“All this time…. How have you been?”

Paras spoke first.

Josephine, still unable to meet his eyes, stroked the workpiece she had been touching just a moment ago with her hand.

“Just, doing what I like. Sleeping in a warm place, eating well. That's how I lived.”

“…I see. You look healthy.”

“What about you, Oppa? Is Wisdom still the same?”

“……”

He felt like she wouldn't come back if he said it was the same, so he couldn't easily open his mouth.

But if he lied, he wouldn't be forgiven even in a lifetime.

“They don't have much interest in us. Still.”

“…I guess so.”

Josephine forced a smile and stretched.

“And here I thought, when my father came to me in my dream, that something might have changed. But it's still the same.”

To receive the family's support or attention, one had to prove oneself without any of it.

It was a much more difficult proof than for the direct line, and only a very small number like Paras were entrusted with the family's work.

Josephine, who knew that, could congratulate Paras.

“But you seem to have adapted well in that Wisdom, Oppa. You're even conveying the family's words as a messenger like this. Isn't that an honor?”

“It is. I even heard from other collateral branch children that I am their dream.”

“Really? Hahaha. Well. I also used to be unconditionally envious of the successful half-breeds.”

A laugh, not big but definitely not small, was exchanged.

“Shall I tell you more about the West?”

“Yes. I want to hear.”

What Josephine wanted to hear was not Wisdom's recent successes.

Stories of the cat she used to take care of. The sound of the woodpecker that always came from that lush forest.

The ducks that could be seen at the riverside and the parrots that the butler uncle raised.

The songs of those parrots.

They could only be heard in the West, and with each story, Josephine was steeped in memories.

The coldness her hometown gave her was etched in her mind, but the warmth remained deep in her heart.

A single tear fell down her slightly raised lips.

“Here.”

“Ugh, yes. Thank you.”

She dabbed her eyes with the handkerchief Paras gave her.

“Sorry. I cried after seeing you for the first time in a while.”

“No. I'm actually happy. It means you still think about the family.”

“I've never forgotten the memories from there. And.”

Wisdom's smart head did not only remember that.

“I haven't forgotten the pain from there either.”

“…Josephine. If you come with me now, you can continue the research you were doing here, and everything you wanted to do.”

“No. I'll just be doing the research the family ordered me to do. For example, a Dark Elixir separator.”

“……”

“The family isn't trying to give me freedom. They've only opened the path to Magitech, and after that, I'll be controlled again.”

Paras shook his head as he listened.

“It won't be like that.”

“How can you be so sure? The family doesn't give the collateral branches any attention, but they don't hate them either. But it's different for an illegitimate daughter.”

Her eyes, which she had barely dried, were wet again.

“Too much of the direct line's blood is mixed in to be called a collateral branch, so they have to be kept in check and stamped on so the bud can't grow. That was my life.”

“Yes. I know that too. That's why I'm saying it will be different from now on. Look at yourself now.”

Standing before Paras's eyes was his sister, who had grown a little taller but still had refreshing blue hair.

Whether it was because she had suffered a lot in the East, her eyes had an unhideable firmness.

She was not the soft-hearted young lady of the past, and in front of the anvil, she was stronger than anyone.

“Think about it the other way around. If you're the only one who can uncover the secrets of the Dark Elixir, the family has to rely solely on you. At that moment, you become the one in charge.”

“……”

“Doesn't it sound thrilling just thinking about it? Since the Dark Elixir is a variable that even the Family Head-nim can't easily judge, the entire Wisdom will be at a loss.”

Josephine's heightened emotions slowly subsided.

Paras's words were certainly sweet. But as an illegitimate daughter, she had seen much more of Wisdom's ugliness.

“Wisdom will immediately pressure me in another way if I try to take the upper hand as you say, Oppa, or do something reckless.”

“…Another way?”

Her thin, long finger pointed at the person she had been close to since they were young.

“They'll torment you, not me, and the more I try to enjoy the thrill you mentioned, the wider that scope will become.”

Paras smiled slightly and shook his head.

“Josephine. That's a conjecture. Our family is the pure Wisdom. We've been recognized as representing the highest justice even in the empire─”

“Those who do not follow the will of Wisdom are those who go against that highest justice.”

The hand that had been pointing at him now swept around.

“This East is a representative of that, and since it is only a representative, it does not end here. You know what our family motto is, right?”

The family motto of Wisdom.

It is a saying that is engraved on the body of any pure sorcerer who is with Wisdom, regardless of whether they are a collateral branch, an illegitimate daughter, or a direct line.

“…To be the purest in this world, one must remove the most impurities.”

Josephine nodded.

“The moment I go to Wisdom, I am an impurity. I have been from the beginning.”

She pulled up the sleeve of her puffy blouse.

Her skin, which had not lost its pure white color even in the heat of the furnace, had been brushed by something more aggressive than a furnace.

“These are the scars the direct line members carved into me when I was young.”

The shapes of the scars were varied.

Some were from cuts, some from stabs, and there were also faint burn marks.

“This is what they did after taking me out, who had barely learned basic magic, under the pretext of magic training.”

“…Damned bastards.”

“After getting hurt like this, the butler uncle would treat me. I couldn't get a good potion, so that's why I have these scars.”

Josephine, who had forced a smile, lowered her clothes.

“I know why you came to see me, Oppa. To your eyes, this place must look like a pile of filth.”

“Yes. This place is full of filth for you to be in. When the East-West war begins, Millesdusk will not leave you alone.”

“That might be true.”

Josephine calmly affirmed.

“Yes. So come with me quickly. This is the only way.”

“But I also have someone I can rely on.”

Paras, who was momentarily dazed, thought of a certain person at the words 'someone I can rely on'.

“…Don't tell me. You're talking about the Fifth Son?”

“Dante is strong. Not just in terms of brute force, but in a way that he's strong in a crisis.”

From the side, the crisis looked like one where hanging oneself with a rope would be the most painless way to die.

Nevertheless, the Youngest Son never lost his smile and overcame it time and time again.

As crises and overcoming them repeated, his position rose so frighteningly that even Wisdom became wary of him.

Just a year ago, not only the world but also his own family had no interest in him.

That sight was just like her own, Josephine thought, and that was why she respected him.

Because the Youngest Son had not run away from his hometown, but rather had firmly planted his roots and made flowers bloom.

“Dante is a person who has done things that neither I nor anyone from Wisdom, nor anyone from Millesdusk, could do. I will bet my life on him.”

“Life… you say?”

Paras's expression momentarily went blank. Questions sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain.

“Then, are you saying you'll marry the Fifth Son or something?”

At those words, Josephine's earlobes momentarily turned red. But she had made that resolution long ago.

“What can't you do to survive? I abandoned everything in my hometown and came here to do what I wanted to do.”

“I thought you would have abandoned your hometown but not our pride. What you're saying now is the same as saying you'll sell your body.”

“Value is only value when others recognize it. I sold my craftsmanship, not my body, and Dante has always paid a price worthy of its value.”

“…We're not getting through to each other.”

“It really seems so.”

He really hadn't known that his family, with whom he shared the same memories, would have changed so much.

Both Josephine and Paras thought so.

“I'll take that as your answer. I'm leaving now.”

“Okay. Goodbye. Take care of yourself.”

“……”

Paras was about to leave without answering. But Josephine's next words stopped him in his tracks.

“My father said something strange.”

“…What did he say?”

“That Dante would be defeated by the hands of Wisdom and Millesdusk. Do you, by any chance, know what that means?”

Paras was silent for a moment, then turned his head to her.

“Even if I do, why should I tell you? We're enemies now.”

With those words as his last, he left the workshop, polymorphed into a blue bird, and flew into the sky.

Josephine watched the back of her family member, who was gradually moving away, and said softly.

“Goodbye, Oppa.”

There was no time to be sentimental. She returned to her place and immersed herself in her work again.

In the corner of the workshop. There was an item she had been making even before talking to her family.

“Just a little more work and it'll be done.”

A new spatial artifact created by disassembling and dismantling the spare spatial artifact Dante had.

It was a spatial artifact wide enough to contain a Magic Dragon.

Although she didn't know what the Wisdom Family Head's words meant, Dante would overcome it with just this much of a hint.

She firmly believed that he would.

***

The messenger of Millesdusk reported to the Family Head.

“The messenger of Wisdom left Eclipse just a moment ago. It seems the Elixir was handed over to the Fifth Son-nim.”

“The probability of that being a fake Elixir.”

The Family Head listened to the report while slowly walking outside again today.

“I can't say it's impossible. Although the contents are the same as the records, Millesdusk has never had an Elixir before.”

“Yes. I also think the probability of it being a fake is higher.”

“Furthermore, there is a collateral branch prisoner from Wisdom that the Fifth Son-nim captured in the West. It is said that he was caught making a teleportation magic circle in the neutral zone near the frontline.”

“They're doing the same things as always. The hypocrites.”

The Family Head, who had smiled lightly, continued to ask.

“What is the youngest playing with that prisoner?”

“He is in the process of learning ice attribute magic.”

“Magic, huh. The youngest has many interests.”

“Because he is young.”

“Yes. The youngest is young.”

He sometimes forgot, but the youngest was still very young. This was even more so when he thought of him as a blood noble.

“Come to think of it, the youngest has captured a prisoner right before the war. I should give him a suitable reward for that.”

“Even though it's a war that the Fifth Son-nim himself practically started.”

“It was I who decided to ride on that war without refusing it. Arguing about the starting point of the war is a meaningless act.”

“Yes, yes. So what do you plan to give him as a reward?”

The Family Head, who was walking with his hands behind his back, smiled. It was the smile that Ransis said he made when he was plotting a scheme.

“Without having to put in much effort, I will bestow the Elixir that Wisdom gave to the youngest.”

“…You're going to give him an Elixir that you don't know what kind of trap it contains as a reward. Is that a reward?”

“Why do you care so much about someone else's reward when you're working for free?”

Having nothing more to say, she kept her mouth shut.

“The youngest will also know that the intention behind the Elixir is not pure. This will be an opportunity for the young youngest to learn more about Wisdom.”