Favored By The Villain

Don’t tell me… I never expected that Elizabeth would ask about Farid. Instead of wondering how she knew him, the thought of why she did ran round and round in my mind.  

When I couldn’t say anything, Elizabeth straightened her tilted head and asked, 

 
“Did he run away, by chance? Is that why you’re acting like a sick chicken these days?”  

A sick chicken…? I was mesmerized by the weird analogy for a moment and snapped back to reality.  

Elizabeth seemed to have looked around to find the cause of why I was acting strange lately. That’s how she must have come around the fact that Farid was gone. 

‘She didn’t ask me anything about Farid in particular.’  

I answered with relief after knowing Elizabeth does not recognize Farid. 

“It’s not like that.” 

Elizabeth continued to stare at me. It meant I should keep talking. 

I lowered my gaze at an angle and made up an absurd reason. 

“Following Sheila, Pel’s health also deteriorated considerably recently. Since his hometown is nearby, I told him to take some rest there and return to the palace afterwards.”  

I wasn’t originally this clumsy at making up lies, but considering that I had no choice, I spoke whatever came to mind. 

Elizabeth took a doubtful and long glance at me and said, 

“How come the things around you are only troublesome?”  

“…….” 

It was a lie anyway, so I had nothing to answer her with. I cleared my throat and turned my head for no reason. 

“Hm, so you didn’t act that way out of concern for him, did you?”  

Elizabeth’s voice was much softer now. 

“Yes, your highness.”  

“Alright, I understand, for now.”  

The words ‘for now’ were very disturbing, but didn’t make that much of a difference, so I couldn’t help it. 

“I have no choice but to think that it’s a good thing that this trip is going like this.”  

Elizabeth did not pry further, as if to keep her previous promise. 

I took my eyes off of her as she began to get back to her work and turned to the window. I sighed at the hurdle I’d somehow managed to pass for now. 

 ‘What do I want to do?’ 

I was relieved when Elizabeth didn’t recognize Farid’s identity, but worry still wells up in me about the future of the Kraidens which will be trampled upon by Farid. 

 ‘But I can’t do this forever.’  

It has already been a long time since I’d set aside making the decision. Now that Farid has left, I have to decide my stance on the future that will soon come. 

Looking up at the cloudy sky, I wasn’t aware of the gaze that Merril had on me the entire time. 

* * * 

Everyone stared at the scene in front of them dumbfoundedly. The same went for me. 

“This land is all…” 

The vain murmur of someone was carried by the wind throughout the empty field. 

I blinked when I heard the voice, but the scenery in front of didn’t change still.  

When it came to the farms of Viscount Ged, the pride of the south, everyone expected a wide golden field that filled all the eyes could see. 

But now, before the inspectors who had stepped into it for the first time was a desolate and dark, empty field. It was not simply the result of a bad harvest. It was questionable whether grain could be planted again in this land, which seems difficult for any living creature to live on. 

It was hard to imagine that an over-flowing amount of once grain existed in this accursed land. 

“The land is dead.”  

Aurora, who sat down and stroked the soil, said in a calm voice. 

Her words, blessed by the earth fairy, were nothing short of a declaration that she’d given to this land. 

The word ‘dead’ held a lot of meaning. It meant that one shouldn’t even touch the land with their hands. 

“Does that mean we should just leave this vast piece of land be?” 

Cassian approached Aurora and asked. Aurora, who stood up after shaking the dirt off her hands, nodded. 

“I can’t help it. I do not feel the energy of life in it.”  

“How could this happen?” 

I heard a solemn voice filled with grief. When Cassian and Aurora saw the emperor approaching the field, they left their places and stood to the side. 

I looked at the Emperor from faraway. The side of his face that I saw was drenched in misery. 

Everyone became solemn and quiet. There was no way to understand the emperor’s feelings as he looked at the field silently, so no one could easily put their words out.  

‘Isn’t this land more of a cursed land, instead of a blessed one?’  

Everyone had similar thoughts, but it was something that couldn’t be said out loud.  

If the fairy king had not taken back his blessing and cursed it instead, the land that had been intact until now couldn’t have become so ruined. 

 Some turned their heads away from the terrible sight, among them was Count Ged.  

“Your Majesty, how can you say that? There are people here who prove with their existence that the blessing given by the fairy king had made the land healthy.” 

His Majesty’s aide, Count Donan, said so and turned around. His eyes reached the nameless royals after gazing past the six Kraidens and ended on me.  

I flinched without realizing it. Count Donan turned his head on such a day without looking carefully. 

“Your majesty, there is no doubt about the glory of the Kraidens. 

“Then, how will you explain the land before your eyes?” 

Count Donan’s expression hardened when he saw the place where the emperor’s chin pointed. But it lasted only a moment. He turned to the 6 Kraidens guarding the emperor and said, 

 “We have the children of the fairy king, do we not? They have the greatest blessings out of anyone else. They might be able to resolve this situation.”  

The emperor also turned his back at the words. A heavy look fell on the heads of six Kraidens. 

“Do you remember what I said before the inspection?” 

“Yes, Your Majesty.” 

It was Cassian who answered as a representative. The emperor glanced at him and looked at other Kraidens as well.  

“Aurora was not there at the time, so she couldn’t hear it.”  

“I was at the port at the time, I apologize.”  

When Aurora bowed her head, the emperor clasped his hand as if in approval. 

Seeing as if everyone but the Kraidens looked confused, it seemed the emperor had gathered only his successors and said something separately.  

I still stared at them from a step back. 

“This is an unprecedented disaster that has befallen our Empire. But this is just the beginning, and this may become a frequent problem in the future. You must be familiar as to what the reason is.” 

“What does that mean?” 

“This is just the beginning?” 

Only the Kraidens remained unperturbed while the others buzzed with anxiety.  

“A true successor to the Kraiden name should know how to deal with this problem.”  

At the words, something in the Kraidens’ eyes seemed to stand out in unison. 

“So, I’d asked all of your siblings to look for their own answers earlier. Have any of you gotten an answer now?”  

None of them answered. As if he knew it, the emperor looked around the desolate field and said, 

“Then Aurora also has the same starting point as the rest. Find a way to get this field back; this is the task of the first succession examination.” 

The people became quiet at the words ‘succession examination.’ the moment has come when the Kraidens who’d quietly been growing their respective powers will truly come to confront each other.  

In the first place, they’d been born with extraordinary abilities. Unable to determine who was superior and inferior with their natural abilities alone, the emperor declared that he would select his true successor through a test. 

“You can join your heads to find the answers, or look for them on your own. The most important objective is to solve the current predicament.”  

“Yes, your majesty.” 

The Kraidens bowed their head in unison. I watched them while clasping my head tightly. 

The battle for succession has been sparked.  

Now what I had to do to live was to put out these embers before they grew in size. 

His Majesty returned to the Earl Castle with Count Ged first, leaving only the Kraidens and their helpers behind.  

I looked around with my back to the carriage. It wasn’t hard to find the Kraidens scattered throughout the black field; all I had to do was find a head full of colorful hair. 

The nearest person was Elizabeth. I came in the same carriage as her and couldn’t return to the Count Castle. Although even without that reason, I wouldn’t think that Elizabeth would send me back alone.  

I took a look at the people around Elizabeth. Helga the maid and two unknown aristocratic men and women. 

Any aristocrat on the inspection team’s schedule would come from a fairly high-ranking family. If not, he would a seat somewhere in the palace at the least. 

I looked around the other Kraidens this time. The situation seemed similar for all of them as well, they seemed busy looking down at the ground and talking to people around them. 

‘Looking at it like this, there really is a power divide.’ 

The nameless members of the Imperial family were also on the sides of the Kraidens they supported.  

On Merril’s side were the 17^th prince and Jedian, and besides Cassian stood the 5^th princess Luna Rizia. 

Surprisingly, next to Aurora, who had been away from the empire for a long time, was the 13th emperor Hable Ian. It would not have been easy to maintain and grow her power within Kraiden while being in another country, so I was surprised.   

‘Two of them are with Siaphyl.’  

The 11^th Imperial princess Lilian Jeanne, and the 13^th princess Kori Shua. The two were inspecting the surrounding ground with Siaphyl.  

“It’s a bit surprising.”  

Among the Kraidens, the two most likely successors were Cassian and Elizabeth, but the people by their sides were shockingly small. In particular, no nameless royal was by Elizabeth’s side. 

‘It wouldn’t be easy to be with Elizabeth, I guess.’  

Considering Elizabeth’s pride, it wouldn’t be easy to support without being patronized.  

‘But then again, I’m alone too.’ 

This feeling of being left out one by one among the Kraidens and nameless royals…  

As soon as I thought about it, I heard voices from both of my sides. 

“Everyone looks stupid just staring at the ground.” 

“I found you, Levy.”  

I blinked once on the left side and then the right. 

The men who escaped through the row of wagons were none other than Roman Dussel, the ninth prince, and Lidan Serger Kraiden. 

A question mark seemed to pop up in my mind when I looked at the two faces alternately. 

What kind of combination is this? 

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things are getting tenseee