That night, the King called his son late in the evening.
Driene acted suitably insolent and defiant in front of him. The King could not detect any unusual behavior from the Crown Prince, who appeared as he usually did.
When the old king asked what kind of collateral would be appropriate, Driene spoke of the heart of a long-lost noble family. He argued that in an age where magic had disappeared, nothing could be more valuable than that, and eventually convinced the King to agree to accept a portion of it.
In truth, it was uncertain whether the Grand Duke could actually obtain the heart. All Driene knew was a theory, and that too was concluded after consulting with a few scholars in secret.
However, there was nothing to lose. The one proposing the deal would be the King, and it was up to the Grand Duke to accept or reject it. Driene merely had to observe from the sidelines.
When the man actually succeeded in obtaining the heart, Driene saw the light of hope for restoring his sister’s life.
The heart was green and smaller than the one he had received from the Emperor, but it was undoubtedly a heart. Driene immediately recognized it. There was no other thing in the world that emitted such a peculiar light.
“It’s the real thing.”
The king did not doubt his son’s words. It was a trust that was possible only because of their dry and distant relationship.
Driene took the heart as collateral, citing the need to manage it personally. The king agreed easily, and Driene couldn’t help but mock him inwardly.
Despite this, Driene was satisfied that things were going smoothly.
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With the heart secured, there was no reason to hesitate further. The next day, Driene left immediately with the Grand Duke. They did not prepare any special baggage, as it was not important.
The journey was unusually smooth. The roads were well-paved as if they had been worked on for a long time, and everyone they encountered was uniformly cooperative, clearly having received prior instructions.
And when they finally arrived at the residence, Driene realized it resembled the Rosenta royal palace.
The only difference was the foundation of the buildings; otherwise, the decorations and artworks were unmistakably from his homeland.
But what surprised him the most was his sister’s appearance. Even someone lying in a coffin would look better than her.
The appearance of his sister, whom he hadn’t seen in years, had lost all its former vitality.
Even with her emaciated body, Juliet embraced her brother. As Driene comforted his weeping sister, he felt something welling up inside him.
Juliet was like his first child. Like many parents with their children, he loved everything about her.
I can do anything. Holding his still childlike sister close, with the green heart hidden secretly within him, Driene thought, I can do anything for you. I am not like Father.
That was why he brought up past transactions.
The mansion, which was almost a replica of the Rosenta palace, and the price he had paid. Despite that, seeing the Grand Duke, who could not even show his face where Juliet was, Driene realized something.
The Grand Duke was much more devoted to Juliet than others knew.
So if he could be shown a way to heal her, he would gladly offer his help.
That fact alone made Driene willing to reveal the intimate secrets of the past. The fact that his sister’s illness was a secret that their ancestors had kept for generations and that many had lost their lives to maintain that silence was irrelevant. To him, the only princess who mattered was Juliet.
Of course, his words would corner the other party. Driene knew that the Grand Duke was still too young to face such a situation.
But the youngest was his sister, and she was also the one he pitied the most.
For his sister’s life, Driene could cast others into the abyss. Just as Kinas Nasant had done for his brother. In that regard, they were similar.
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“That is why the collateral was your heart.”
With those words, Driene handed him a small box.
Enoch looked at the familiar office scenery and his brother-in-law staring directly at him. Inside the box Driene handed over was a piece of what he had given to the King of Rosenta.
Until the heart was cut into pieces, its color could not be known, so Enoch only discovered the color of what was inside him when he reached Rosenta. It was an astonishingly familiar and transparent green.
In the same vein, he could easily guess the color of the heart Kinas had given. It was likely the color of the late Emperor’s eyes.
His mother, Letina, the Empress of Nasant, had been obsessed with everything of the late Emperor. Thus, the color that dwelled within her was also obvious.
As if it were inside her.
Enoch brushed the shining green piece with his hand. While it would be just material to others, it was different for him. The eldest sons of the Inovis family could carve out or reattach their hearts. This was possible because it was closer to a mass of magical energy than an organ.
If he gripped it any harder, it would seep beneath his skin.
Despite knowing this, it was a bit difficult to just look at it. It was obvious that he couldn’t survive with a fragmented heart.
But it wasn’t like he couldn’t bear it.
Thinking this way made the boiling turmoil inside him easier to disregard, so Enoch closed the box. The other person was observing his actions.
Perhaps Driene was waiting for him to be angry. Enoch thought as he briefly set down what he had been holding. It was a reasonable assumption, as a normal person would have turned red with anger when their family’s heart was mentioned.
However, Driene was unaware of something. The ownership of Letina’s heart had originally belonged to Kinas. That was her will.
And the fact that his heart belonged to Driene was something he had known from the start. The heart, a concentration of magical power, emitted a unique wavelength around it, and no matter how foolish one might be, no magician would forget their own wavelength.
Lastly, concerning Juliet’s illness, it would be accurate to say that while he didn’t know the full details, he had some idea of the disease.
The symptoms she displayed were familiar to him, as Letina had suffered from the same condition.
When he had briefly entered Juliet’s bedroom, Enoch realized that her illness was similar to Letina’s.
The reason he couldn’t easily connect the two was that Letina’s illness was something that could only affect her.
Magical deficiency.
Though the family was now extinct, it was one of the diseases that the eldest child of the Inovis family should never suffer from.
However, Letina, the eldest daughter of the family, vomited blood every night and became like a corpse, unable to handle the magical power escaping from her.
It was only natural, given that she had given the Emperor the core of her heart, which was the conduit and source of magic.
Enoch had tried to stop her from doing so before it was too late, but he failed. In fact, the two of them weren’t very close.
In the end, Letina died because she couldn’t withstand the loss of magic. This was during the time when he was exiled to the northern regions for the crime of harming a family member.
However, Juliet was far removed from any form of magic.
Like most people of this era, she couldn’t perceive magical power. Moreover, she disliked him using magic, so Enoch was always careful around her.
It was impossible for her to suffer from a loss of magic. This was why he couldn’t easily accept his hypothesis. It seemed like a contradictory and illogical explanation.
Even after writing a letter to Kinas and consulting scholars of the Imperial Academy, the responses were the same.
A person who cannot wield magic cannot suffer from a deficiency in it.
Nevertheless, Enoch couldn’t discard his hypothesis. It was a gut feeling that couldn’t be explained in words.
This was why he asked Juliet if he could touch her. By making contact, he could channel magical power through her body and read the flow of her physical energy. If she truly was suffering from a deficiency, there would be unnatural flow patterns, which would help him determine the validity of his thoughts.
It didn’t take him long to realize how foolish his expectations were.
Just thinking about that day left him speechless. Juliet was already in poor health. Yet he had failed to understand the situation and had angered her. Naturally, it was of no benefit to her health.
Still, she seemed to be feeling better recently, having seen her family.
She even smiled a little and complained a bit. Although he had reflected on this many times, whenever he felt a surge of pain inside, these thoughts came to him. It was as if, paradoxically, it cleared his mind.
He returned the box he had closed to the man resembling his wife.
“I understand.”
His tone was so calm it was hard to believe it came from him, but it wasn’t unpleasant. He had always longed for a life filled with serenity and completeness.
However, Driene seemed displeased.
He didn’t retrieve the box containing what was essential for his sister. Instead, he furrowed his brow and stiffened his lips, his face showing pure frustration and dissatisfaction.
With his familiar expression, he resembled Juliet. Enoch hesitated for a moment.
Driene, with his usual frown, asked:
“Did you know about all of this?”
