“Help? You’re going to help me? Vivian Bright?”
‘What a joke!’
“Stay right there. The priests will make you comfortable soon.”
“Do you think I would believe that?”
Farell hesitated, pulling back as he saw the priests approaching. He had a gut feeling that if he got caught by them, everything would be over.
He was unsure how his actions would be perceived by others.
“Don’t come any closer! How dare you doubt my words? Vivian, how could you…!”
“…”
“It’s a lie! It’s all a complete lie! That black magician definitely told me I could have a child!”
“Now, brother, please calm down for just a moment…”
“Get away! Just try to lay a finger on me! If I’m not pregnant, how could my belly be this swollen!”
Farell struggled fiercely, as if he would never allow it, but it was useless.
The priests, working together, restrained Farell and began to examine his body with holy magic.
“Ugh, ugh!”
“Ah, we found it! It’s indeed forbidden magic. It’s a simic!”
“Fortunately, it hasn’t hatched yet.”
Simic? Hatched?
While he couldn’t fully understand what was happening, everyone present could grasp one thing.
Farell Underwood had become obsessed with the Countess and had fallen into the black magician’s trickery, while Countess Bright and her partner were trying to help him.
“No wonder the wedding was arranged so hastily; this was the reason.”
“Indeed. I must admit, when I heard they were going to hold a wedding without annulling the engagement, I was shocked. No matter how much times have changed, that goes against etiquette.”
Amidst the reversed atmosphere, Farell, surrounded by the priests, widened his eyes in disbelief.
“Not pregnant? Are you saying I’ve been played by that black magician?”
“Now, my lord, there’s no immediate danger, so for now…”
“Ha, haha! You think you can deceive me, Farell of the illustrious Underwood family? You, you lowly black magician…!”
“Milord! Please stay calm!”
“Get out of the way! I need to make that bastard pay! Hey, come out! I know you’re here, so show yourself!”
At Farell’s outburst, the expressions of the priests who were restraining him grew serious.
“Are you saying… that black magician is here?”
“Clearly, if it takes time to end a person’s life, and you needed to draw attention… that was a lie too? Ha! No wonder Ivan Ernest was perfectly fine!”
“Oh dear, goddess! Go and call the holy knights. I’ll try to use tracking magic here.”
“Yes!”
The presence of a black magician using forbidden magic in such a crowded place was more dangerous than they had anticipated.
They were the kind of people who wouldn’t hesitate to take lives if necessary.
Just as the priest was maintaining a calm demeanor to prevent panic among the crowd while casting tracking magic, a low click of the tongue reached Idel’s ears.
Sigmund grabbed Idel’s head, which was turning reflexively.
“Hey, don’t make it obvious; look ahead.”
“Is that our target?”
“Yeah, it seems so. Because that guy just used magic.”
“Magic?”
Before Sigmund could respond again, Idel understood what he meant.
“Ugh! Ah!”
Suddenly, Farell, who had been angrily shouting behind the priests, doubled over, clutching his belly.
“Milord? Milord! Are you alright?”
“Ugh!”
“Oh no, it looks like he detonated the magic mixed with the simic to destroy any clues!”
In other words, it meant they were ready to abandon the plan and hide if things went wrong.
“Sigmund, if you confirmed the magic, that means you can follow the traces, right? Then now….”
“No. I can’t allow both of you to chase after him.”
“What?”
Idel’s expression showed surprise at the unexpected response from Vilred.
“The magic that Sigmund just detected wasn’t meant to kill the simic; it was to change the target of the magic from Ivan to Farell Underwood.”
Vilred glanced briefly at Gianna, but he kept his mouth shut. However, Idel understood what he meant.
In other words, the magic prepared to kill Ivan was redirected towards Farell. To eliminate the ‘witness’ named Farell.
“It seems like Farell is a bit of a loose cannon, but the other side is quite thorough. The fact that they even deployed a curse capable of countering holy magic shows that.”
“W-What about Farell?”
“It’s alright, Miss Gianna. This old man will save him.”
Vilred comforted Gianna gently and lowered his voice as he looked at the two.
“Not every black magician can easily commit such acts. While I agree that the perpetrator might be a lead, acting rashly will only lead to danger. Do you both understand?”
“…Yes.”
“I understand, Master.”
“Good. Then wait here with Miss Gianna. Diane, may I leave the children in your care for a moment?”
“Ah, yes! Yes!”
With those words, Vilred moved in the direction where Farell was.
Among the magicians, there were quite a few without affiliations, so the priests welcomed his help without suspicion.
As Sigmund watched Vilred examine Farell quite seriously, he frowned slightly.
“…That’s strange.”
“What is?”
“Master. Even if the master isn’t a bad person, he’s not the type to help someone just because it’s ‘morally right,’ right?”
“Is it strange for him to help Farell?”
“Yeah. He must be really crazy. I should have noticed when he suggested helping Ivan.”
At Sigmund’s words, Idel’s mind raced quickly.
Although she had gotten used to it, Sigmund was actually the villain and the crown prince in the original story. Vilred was his “black magician master.”
‘But Vilred is acting strangely? And in a crazy world like this?’
Then there must be something going on with the black magician who just fled. Whether it was a lost family member or a close friend, it didn’t matter.
‘That’s the rule of this messed-up world.’
And the connections among these bad characters usually led to clues about the main villain in some form.
‘For example, like Melisa.’
Indeed, they needed to chase that black magician.
Having reached that conclusion, Idel grabbed Sigmund’s arm and whispered to him.
“Hey, let’s go after them.”
“What? Ah, no way.”
“You’re also suspicious about Vilred’s behavior. There’s definitely something going on!”
At Idel’s whispering, Sigmund’s eyes wavered slightly.
If one were to argue, he was more of a character who acted on his own whims rather than a good child who followed the adults’ words.
Seizing on Sigmund’s intrigued reaction, Idel half-turned and tugged at his sleeve.
“This is our only chance. Come on, hurry!”
“Ah, okay, I get it.”
They had reached an agreement.
The two, exchanging glances for an opportunity to bolt, dashed in the direction the black magician had gone while Vilred was distracted.
“Hey? Idel! Where are you going? Idel!”
“Miss!!”
“I’ll be back soon! Don’t follow me!”
Sigmund let out a hollow laugh at Idel’s shameless attitude.
“Is that something you should be saying?”
“I’m different from them.”
“Sure you are.”
“Which way? Is it this way?”
“Uh, it is, but…”
He instinctively replied to Idel’s words but trailed off.
Vilred’s behavior was too suspicious, and while he had reluctantly agreed to Idel’s suggestion, it was nearly impossible for them to extract any clues from the black magician.
‘Catching him is one thing; even tracking his movements will be tough.’
So, thinking rationally, there was a high probability that running like this would yield no results.
“Hey, you know you won’t catch him even if you go now, right?”
“Do you think I’m an idiot? Of course. How could the two of us catch someone that Vilred warned us was dangerous?”
Sigmund frowned at Idel’s dismissive expression, as if asking such a question were ridiculous.
“So what then? Should we just follow him around like a dog?”
“Even if we can’t follow him around, we might find some traces.”
“That guy isn’t stupid. He’s trying to kill witnesses and escape; there’s no way he’d leave something like that behind… What the…”
They had reached the end of the alley, where the trail of magic had disappeared. He turned his head to Idel and raised his eyebrows slightly.
On the ground lay a small cufflink engraved with suspicious patterns.
Idel, crouching down to examine the cufflink, glanced up at him with a smirk.
“Well, it looks like he is an idiot.”
