ICM Chapter 59

I had been curious for a while. Why was Drushia getting so involved in something that wasn’t directly related to Igraine and wasn’t immediately useful?

“Why, is it difficult to talk about?”

“Can’t we discuss this later? It seems we won’t have time to look at this document today. Thanks to someone.”

Her sideways glance at him was less than kind. Drushia must have anticipated this situation but still stubbornly refused to let Ashika go.

“Show me this again next time. It’s a promise. Instead, tell me more about what you know today.”

At the words “next time,” Drushia’s expression softened. His face became so satisfied that it seemed like this had been his calculation all along.

“What are you curious about?”

“I know there are three families in the founding mythology of the empire. The Imperial family, Talion, and Arkpella. The Imperial family has golden eyes, the Grand Duke Arkpella family has indigo blue eyes, but what about Talion?”

Not much was known about Talion. Even the fact they had such a characteristic was unknown to most people.

“Because it doesn’t show. Even if you knew, it would be difficult to distinguish.”

“What do you mean?”

Drushia leaned back in his chair, stroking his chin with his hand. With a contemplative face, he looked at Ashika, seeming somewhat hesitant.

‘Should I tell her?’

With her straightforward and honest character, she would keep a secret if asked.

‘Sharing my secret with this woman, huh.’

Though it was nothing significant, the trivial act felt meaningful, like something that would narrow the distance between them.

Drushia kept his gaze fixed on Ashika as he spoke.

“This is a secret only my grandfather knows, but do you still want to know?”

His voice was subtle.

Talion’s secret and Drushia’s secret. Learning it would bring them one step closer. That’s what Drushia was asking – if she would take that step.

Ashika didn’t avert her gaze as she swallowed dryly.

“I want to know.”

“No backing out.”

Seemingly satisfied with her answer, Drushia smiled gently. He rose from his seat, approached her, leaned down and brought his face close to hers. Ashika was flustered by the suddenly narrowed distance.

“What are you doing?”

“Look carefully.”

“At what?”

“My eyes.”

She wondered what he meant. Drushia met her questioning gaze silently.

His deep-sea dark blue eyes. Those eyes that once seemed cold had been harboring heat for some time now. Like a hunter’s eyes pursuing prey, they were persistent and filled with desire.

The direct gaze was overwhelming, and Ashika’s face flushed with heat.

“I don’t see what you want me to… Oh!”

“Can you see the difference?”

She had thought it was an optical illusion caused by the large, dark blue iris making the color appear to spread.

“The whites of your eyes aren’t white! My goodness!”

The faint blue edge became gradually lighter toward the outer part of the sclera.

Fascinated, Ashika reached out and carefully touched around his eyes. The muscles around his eyes twitched in surprise. But Drushia didn’t pull away.

“Unlike the Imperial family or Arkpella, it’s barely noticeable. Even knowing about it, it’s not easy to distinguish.”

“I’ve heard that the reason golden eyes are no longer born in the Imperial family is because the power passed down through bloodlines has disappeared. But there’s nothing known about what that power actually was.”

“It’s not that nothing is known, but that they erased the records. They say the power has disappeared to avoid damaging the Imperial authority. Even though it’s just a legend anyway.”

Drushia pulled a chair right next to Ashika and sat down. They were close enough that he could embrace her if he reached out.

“In the empire’s history, there are records of two miracles. Have you heard the legend that more than half of the current imperial territory was once desert and wasteland?”

Ashika quietly nodded. Conscious of the suddenly close distance, she shifted slightly backward.

In response, Drushia pulled his chair even closer, narrowing the gap. His long leg subtly brushed against the outside of Ashika’s thigh.

“When the kingdom was first established, they say that with divine blessing, water sprang from the desert and wasteland, and trees began to grow. That’s the current imperial capital, Trellyn, and its surrounding areas. And about 300 years later, the same miracle was performed once more, transforming twice as much wasteland into grassland. After that, the lineage of golden eyes in the Imperial family was suddenly cut off.”

“So it’s a power that gets depleted?”

“That part isn’t clear. Originally, it’s said that there was a divine artifact received along with the divine blessing. But the Imperial family’s artifact disappeared around that time.”

Ashika’s brow furrowed at the puzzling answer. A finger gently approached and poked her forehead.

“You’ll wrinkle that pretty forehead.”

“Could you please focus?”

His subtle attempt to get closer was firmly rejected. Drushia withdrew his hand, muttering quietly, “That didn’t work.”

“The divine artifact and the bloodline power – which is it? Since Talion was also a founding contributor, don’t they know?”

“According to family stories, it’s said that the bloodline blessed by the divine can also wield the power of the divine artifact. Those born with family characteristics, like me, fall into that category. But our family’s artifact was practically seized by the Imperial family before I was born, so I’ve never seen it.”

There was a subtle tension between Talion and the Imperial family, resulting in an uncomfortable past. The previous emperor had been hostile not only to the Grand Duke Arkpella family.

The difference was that Talion was a typical warrior family with no political ambitions, while Arkpella had strong independent power, enough to be called a grand duchy. Compared to the Imperial family that had lost its artifact and no longer produced golden-eyed children, Arkpella’s power had remained strong for a long time. That was the biggest reason they fell out of the emperor’s favor.

About 40 years ago, Talion was almost swept up in the Grand Duke Arkpella family’s treason. The emperor presented absurd evidence and demanded Talion surrender their divine artifact if they wanted to avoid punishment. The Duke of Talion at the time handed over the artifact without resistance.

However, the artifact that went to the emperor apparently had no power. That’s why Talion had given it up without much regret.

The emperor was furious but couldn’t question Talion about it. Afterward, it was rumored that the seized artifact was tossed away somewhere in the Imperial storage.

Ashika tilted her head.

“Don’t you even know what it is?”

“I’ve never seen it, but I’ve heard about it.”

Ashika waited for what would come next. Enjoying her curious, shining dark eyes, Drushia deliberately dragged out the moment.

“They say it’s a gemstone. Close to an indigo blue raw stone.”

“Indigo blue?”

Ashika’s face froze. Seeing her change in expression, Drushia’s face filled with question.

“But indigo blue stones are common anyway. Your necklace is indigo blue too. Most of that kind are more like pretty raw stones than jewels.”

Drushia spoke casually. But Ashika couldn’t agree. She had searched every jeweler in the capital and couldn’t find a similar stone, yet Drushia spoke as if he had seen it easily.

Suddenly, Ashika noticed something strange.

“You said you’ve never seen Talion’s divine artifact. How do you know it resembles mine?”

“Ah.”

It was something Drushia had said previously. He had said he saw it in a dream, but telling the truth now would destroy the credibility of everything he had just told her.

‘If I say I saw it in a dream, and then mentioned a trade based on that, she would be horrified.’

Since he hadn’t actually seen it, nothing was certain. Thinking about it again, there was no way Talion’s divine artifact and Ashika’s necklace could be the same stone.

‘Well, they could be the same. The divine artifact might have been just an ordinary stone.’

Legends tend to be exaggerated. Thinking this way would explain why the past Duke of Talion readily gave the artifact to the Imperial family, and why Neoren doesn’t mention it.

Drushia didn’t believe in mystical powers that bordered on delusion. He also had little interest in family heritage that had no practical value.

“Well, anyway, I know. It’s like it’s surrounded by some kind of membrane.”

It was a subtle difference that showed minimally depending on the direction of light. Whether Drushia knew from being told or from seeing records, his description wasn’t wrong.

Ashika lowered her unsteadily shifting gaze.

The only information about a similar stone was Talion’s divine artifact that Drushia had mentioned. She couldn’t bring herself to tell the truth – that not all indigo blue stones are the same, and that hers was a type that couldn’t be found anywhere else.

“Which families possessed these divine artifacts?”

“Naturally, the founding families. The Imperial family, Talion, and the last one was in the Grand Duchy of Arkpella, which was exterminated.”

Ashika’s face became blank, as if she’d been struck on the head.

“Then… what happened to the artifact from the Grand Duchy?”

“That’s a bit ambiguous. Seeing how the previous emperor seized Talion’s artifact, he probably took the one from the Grand Duchy too. After all, the previous emperor led the army. But there was no mention of him obtaining it. Perhaps it was also useless and tossed into the Imperial storage.”

The final divine artifact from an exterminated family, with whereabouts unknown. Ashika was so shocked she even forgot to breathe.

There were three direct descendants in the Grand Duke Arkpella family at that time. The eldest daughter from the first wife, and siblings from the second wife. The second daughter became empress, and the third child, a son, was designated as heir but died in an accident. Only the eldest daughter from the first wife remained.

On the day the Grand Duchy became ruins, she was also reported to have died there. But what if that wasn’t true?

‘What was the timing again?’

Struggling to gather her scattered thoughts, Ashika raced through calculations in her mind.

The Grand Duchy fell 40 years ago, and Ashika’s father was born the year after that chaos, she had heard.

‘My father’s younger brother…, my young uncle was killed along with my grandmother a few years later.’

Ashika’s father, Lanche, who survived alone, was formally adopted into the Igraine family. She remembered him telling her that he was registered as two years older than his actual age, which is why he was often told he was small for his age when he was young.

She never asked why his age was falsely recorded. Ashika was young and didn’t understand what it meant.

Weive had forbidden Lanche from ever mentioning his mother. Lanche would often embrace Ashika and long for his mother, with whom he couldn’t share memories with anyone.

[This is my mother’s keepsake. When she gave this to me, she told me never to show it to anyone. She said I shouldn’t tell even my father.]

It felt as if her heart dropped to the floor with a thud. The sound seemed to pound like a drum, making her whole body vibrate.

Ashika’s hand unconsciously moved to her chest, afraid that Drushia might see the necklace hidden under her clothes again.

What if he noticed? Her agitation, and who the real owner of this necklace was. Fear washed over her so intensely that her vision blurred.

But try as she might to hide it, it wouldn’t be hidden. Ashika was revealing the shock with her entire body.

A face drained of blood, unable to breathe, frozen, with her shoulders trembling as her heart pounded.

“Ashika.”

She needed to answer, needed to pretend nothing was wrong, but though her lips moved, no voice came out.

“Ashika, what’s wrong? What’s the matter?”

Drushia sensed something was off and studied her face. But his voice, though right next to her, seemed distant to Ashika.

Weive’s lover with no identity records. Ashika’s grandmother who gave birth to her father as an illegitimate child. The keepsake that grandmother left to her father, telling him never to show it to anyone.

A truth too overwhelming to accept struck Ashika’s mind.

‘I might be the descendant of a traitor.’