Chapter 14

 

Jayden briefly recalled Kallain’s unusual attentiveness yesterday—how he’d even checked Lady Sylvia’s condition himself.

Pressing his fingers to his temple, Kallain fell into thought. Jayden spoke again, calmly filling the silence.

“You may have seen her once, at the end-of-war celebration. Don’t you remember?”

“The end-of-war party?”

“Yes. The son of that house caused a scandal when he was caught making advances on another noble’s daughter.”

“Ah…”

Finally, a blurry memory flickered in Kallain’s mind—one of a drunken fool.

He still couldn’t remember the man’s face, but one thing was clear:

It hadn’t been a pleasant scene.

He couldn’t imagine that woman being part of such a household.

It just didn’t fit. Like a completely mismatched painting.

“She wasn’t there that night.”

If she had been, there’s no way he wouldn’t have remembered.

“Yes. After the adoption, the Langstons kept her confined strictly to the mansion. Most people didn’t even know they had a daughter.”

So they locked her up?

“Then why adopt her at all?”

“They adopted her right after her Purification abilities awakened. It’s likely that was the reason.”

“And what use did they have for Purification?”

Purification was certainly a powerful gift.

But it was only meaningful when the goal was to elevate a family’s honor—like enrolling a child in Agriche to represent their household.

And yet, she had only recently joined Agriche, hadn’t she?

What could have happened in that family during that time?

A bad feeling struck him like lightning.

“Before the adoption, Viscount Langston reportedly presented her Purification energy to His Majesty as a gift. His Majesty was said to be very pleased.”

That would’ve been shortly after the late Emperor’s death—around the time Periord Lutpherion ascended the throne.

By imperial law, extracting Purification from a minor was strictly forbidden.

But his brother… was exactly the kind of man who would do something like that without hesitation.

When the absolute ruler is a tyrant, exceptions apply to everything.

And Kallain’s brother was the type who applied that logic with a disturbing amount of enthusiasm.

As expected, Kallain’s suspicions hit the mark.

“It seems he couldn’t extract it directly, so he used the Langston household, who were holding her leash at the time.”

The general shape of the situation was easy enough to infer.

Even for an emperor, doing something so vile openly would’ve looked bad. So that Viscount family had likely been chosen as the intermediary.

It was no surprise—just another of his brother’s depraved acts.
Still, it left a foul taste in his mouth. More than usual. Strangely so.

“Did Periord visit the Langston couple often?”

Kallain’s casual use of the emperor’s name was unorthodox.

Jayden flinched slightly at the tone, but continued his report without delay.

“No, strangely enough, there’s no record of any such visits. I even managed to obtain a copy of His Majesty’s audience schedule—there’s no mention of the Langston couple.”

Jayden, seeing Kallain furrow his brow, carefully added more.

“It’s likely he used proxy purification.”

Proxy purification.

Kallain didn’t relax his scowl. His hand pressed the document down as if grinding it into the desk.

Purification didn’t always require direct contact.

There was a method where the Purifier’s blood could be extracted and refined into a serum.

But even that was only permitted if the Purifier had undergone their coming-of-age ritual—
And only with their explicit consent.

‘Extraction’ was an ordeal that caused severe pain for the Purifier. That’s why it was so heavily restricted.

The more he learned, the more disgusting and repulsive his brother’s behavior became—how relentlessly consistent he was in his depravity.

Kallain’s furrowed brow didn’t smooth out for a second.

“No high-ranking noble house would risk concealing such a crime, so the Langstons must’ve taken it on themselves.”

“…”

“After the fact, the Langston’s eldest son was appointed to one of the five most prominent positions within the Imperial Scribe’s Office.”

A viscount’s son landing a position at the Imperial Scribe’s Office was newsworthy enough—but one of the top five posts?

This wasn’t just suspicious—it was damning. A smoking gun.

Well, things like this often happened behind closed doors. It wasn’t exactly new.

Which meant—it shouldn’t have been something worth his attention.

And yet, something sharp and unpleasant scraped at him from the inside.

A shadow of ash passed over Kallain’s porcelain-smooth face.

A fresh document appeared beneath the stack he’d irritably turned over—a chart showing evidence of a large sum of money flowing into House Langston at the time.

“They sold the extract to others too?”

“Yes. Word got out that there was a Purifier powerful enough to receive the Emperor’s favor. Many sought to obtain the extract. The Langston couple sold it off for a high price.”

Those damn imperial bloodlines.

He knew exactly how many of them there were.

From the founding emperor to the late one—each had been overflowing with strength.
Not one of them had refrained from spreading their seed.

Maybe they hated suffering alone and wanted to pass their cursed fate down through generations.

It was laughable. Disgusting.

Then again, who was he to judge? He, too, bore the blood of those same berserkers.

He understood why, even with Agriche’s elite, some would go searching for stronger Purifiers.

Cases like his—those who were especially difficult to purify—were rare.

For the majority, Agriche’s top-tier Purifiers were more than enough.

So why turn to the black market?

It wasn’t necessity. It was pleasure.

A Purifier of elite caliber, young and unregistered, impossible to find in the Empire—and yet available, for the right price.
Who could resist?

The Langstons had exploited that, raking in coin.

And the girl with that clear, delicate face—she must have withered day by day, dying bit by bit.

He knew exactly how excruciating extraction was.

Long ago, he’d passed by and witnessed a lowborn dancer die during such a procedure, right in front of the late emperor.

In that way, a power too great for one’s station could only become a curse.

To be born an orphan and subjected to that kind of horror…

He found himself thinking her life had been more twisted than he’d first assumed.

‘So that’s why there was resignation and apathy in her eyes?’
She hadn’t shown the slightest trace of fear toward him—

Only quiet curiosity.

If she had really gone through something like that, most with royal blood would recoil at even the sight of one of their own.

‘So how did she end up at Agriche? And why stand before me?’

“There’s no way the Langstons willingly sent her to Agriche,” he said aloud.

“They wouldn’t dare risk ruining their son’s future by disobeying the Emperor. Especially not by throwing away such a lucrative source of profit. They would’ve kept her locked up.”

“She apparently couldn’t endure the extraction and eventually escaped,” Jayden answered. “While on the run, she caught the eye of Frozen Agriche’s head and was accepted into the branch.”

“She managed to escape and not get caught?”

“The Langston couple has been searching for Lady Sylvia ever since.”

“And His Majesty still doesn’t know she’s in Frozen Agriche?”

“That seems to be the case. It would make sense—His Majesty rarely travels this far north.”

‘Then she must’ve known that, and fled all the way here. That’s probably how she came under Kostia’s eye.’

Whether it was coincidence or calculated inevitability, he didn’t know.
But from what he’d seen of her personality so far, he suspected the latter.

Not that it mattered.

The fact was, she’d survived—miraculously—and now she was his Purifier, right here in this house. That alone was interesting.

Still, what a stroke of bad luck for her.

After all that running, the one she ended up in front of was him.

‘Talk about misfortune—meeting a master with a particularly nasty temper.’

But then again… maybe it was fortune.

At least she hadn’t fallen into the hands of that cursed half-brother of his.

That brother’s brutal tastes and twisted mind would’ve broken a girl like her.
That clear-eyed woman wouldn’t have survived it.

Though from her perspective, one bastard might seem just like another.

Still, it was clear that his half-brother Periord must’ve been informed of her disappearance by now.

A cold instinct pricked at the back of Kallain’s mind.

“Periord. That bastard—he’s looking for Sylvia, isn’t he?”

Only the ruler of Detroit could call the Emperor that bastard without repercussion.

Jayden, long used to this, answered calmly.

“Yes. On the day Sylvia disappeared, His Majesty dismissed Riodel from his scribe position. That likely means the disappearance was reported.”

Poetic justice, one might say. A fitting end—if this were a simple tale of good and evil.

But it wasn’t.

Because if Periord was the male lead in this twisted play, then this wasn’t a tale of redemption.
It was a tragedy.

And the moment Kallain brought that woman into his estate, the whole story had already gone off script.

The fact that the Emperor had fired Riodel… it only meant one thing.

Periord was very, very interested in that woman right now.

And honestly… it made sense.

She was the kind of woman who, once seen, left any man shaken—unable to look away.

A woman who looked like she could be blown away by the wind—was there truly a man who could just pass her by?

‘Was I the only one who felt the urge to break that pure, winter-snow gaze? What a stupid thought.’

If that damned brother of his had laid eyes on her, then of course he would be looking for her now.

The very fact that she had managed to hide her identity and sneak into his estate was a miracle in itself.

‘The woman he’s looking for is hiding in my mansion…’

Now that was interesting.

Kallain lit another cigar, exhaling smoke in a long, thin trail.

Beyond the drifting haze, the image of the woman flickered in his mind.

Just the thought of her performing Purification for another man made his neck prickle with heat.

That cursed emotion—disgusting, intrusive—rattled inside him.
And it was only a thought, no more than a hypothetical.

Pointless. Senseless. Completely unnecessary.

“He’ll come soon, that damned brother of mine.”

Up until now, the woman had stayed safe only because she’d remained far outside Periord’s reach.

But now that she was inside the Grand Duke’s manor… that was an entirely different matter.
This place, unlike the vast northern territories, was within reach.

And Periord had never stopped keeping a wary eye on him.

The woman wouldn’t be able to escape his gaze.

Whether that gaze would be blindfolded—or bathed in light—depended entirely on him.

She had taken a dangerously bold step.

“I just hope nothing goes wrong,” Jayden said cautiously.