Zion looked at the Count’s garden with his chin propped up. The sight of the well-organized landscape was enough to bring peace to the mind, but Zion’s heart was not so.
‘Spear…divine power.’
When he closed his eyes, the scene of Irina gracefully swinging her spear passed by.
And the sight of her treating a pregnant woman yesterday…It was really surreal.
A clear and clean light burst from her hand. Even for Zion, who was ignorant of divine power, it was an overwhelming amount.
Irina had never used divine power in front of him.
‘Rather than not using it…It was closer to not being able to use it.’
There were quite a few moments of crisis where she could use divine power.
Yet, she never showed her strength. It was a tense moment to say that she did not use it to hide her identity.
The day she encountered assassination on the hunting competition day, and the day she was trapped in the Empress’s Palace.
So… Does that mean that a large amount of divine power suddenly appeared? He had never heard or seen such a case.
‘And…that guy.’
When he thought of Lucas, Zion’s expression instantly turned cold. He was as annoying as Hills.
The way he looked at her and what he did were the same. But the look in his eyes was not like looking at a woman in love, which was peculiar.
A little more, it was a look filled with respect and awe.
Either way, it was just as unpleasant.
Right now, while I’m away, she needs a mercenary to protect her, so I’m just watching Lucas and Hills. But I’m ready to deal with them if they ever cross the line.
I thought so in my head, but my heart was just as heavy as if something was stuck in my solar plexus.
It’s natural for bugs to get tangled in flowers, but around Irina, there were only annoying and persistent guys.
Especially, that guy with the purple eyes.
I wanted to get rid of him out of sight, but I still had to use him.
But it wasn’t easy to use him as I wanted.
When I held hands with him to find out the identity of the power, I felt like vomiting.
I still find it extremely disgusting to touch others. It was even more so because it was him.
I need to find out about this power soon, therefore I had to endure it for a while longer.
Even now, an unknown power was churning inside me. It felt like I was holding a huge bomb in my body. I couldn’t even guess what would happen around me when the trigger was pulled.
Especially, the factor that scared Zion was Arundel.
‘…If something bad happened to Irina because of me.’
Zion bit his lip hard.
It’s a conclusion I never want to be right.
Zion, who closed his eyes once and opened them, looked out the window again.
Now I had to focus on the plague.
That way, I can return to the palace quickly. It was uncomfortable to leave Irina here. It was dangerous, and although Irina said it was okay, it would definitely be uncomfortable.
Zion’s eyes moved sharply at the figure that appeared outside the window.
‘Count Lillit.’
Perhaps the plague could be resolved sooner than I thought.
I found a strong suspect.
The reason I first doubted him was simple. As soon as he raised his hand and stood up at the banquet, an unpleasant sensation ran through my body.
Normally, I didn’t trust uncertain and subjective experiences like sensations. But since the power exploded, I felt that the so-called intuition was sensitively developed.
Of course, there was no evidence or data to prove it. Just my whole body was shouting that this person is suspicious.
I looked at the Count’s left eye blinking unnaturally beyond the window. It seemed like something was reflected for a moment.
I knew that my suspicion about the Count was not wrong when I entered the mansion.
‘There’s something unnatural.’
I felt a damp aura emanating from a non-human being in the mansion.
****
“What do you plan to do, Your Majesty.”
It was the third day of staying in the mansion. Count Lillit approached and asked.
Zion looked at the face of the Count who was wearing a harmless expression.
Unlike at the banquet, when I looked at the Count’s left pupil, I couldn’t find anything.
“I think I’ll take a little walk because the garden is beautiful.”
“Shall I accompany you?”
At the Count’s words, Zion smiled and said.
“That’s okay. I visited freely, so I shouldn’t steal the busy time of the Count. It must be busy managing this large mansion alone.”
“…Yes, then I will step back.”
“Ah, wait a moment, Count.”
Zion called the Counte who was about to turn around.
“Do you run the largest livestock industry in the eastern region, Count?”
The Count answered with a nervous expression.
“Yes, that’s correct. The livestock industry is an old family business.”
“Then, is the barn you mentioned last time also yours, Count?”
“…Yes.”
The answer was late.
But Zion just smiled kindly and said he understood. At his gesture to go, the Count disappeared from his sight.
Zion approached the window and opened it. The smell of animal manure stimulated his nose as it rode the wind without fail.
Before coming here, he had ordered Cain, who was left in the temple, to find out about the Count.
The reply arrived yesterday, and it was written that the Count’s family had been running a livestock business for generations. The jerky produced is distributed throughout the eastern region.
He asked Cain if there was any food common to the eastern region other than the jerky produced by the Count, but the answer was that there was none other than the processed meat distributed by the Count.
He closed the window and left the room. Zion, who was looking at the long corridor, suddenly thought.
‘There was not even a sound of a rat passing by.’
If there was one thing he felt while staying in the mansion, it was that the mansion was unnaturally quiet.
Even the servants he saw on the first day, as if they had been silenced by magic, did not hear them say a word.
But suddenly a sound came from the quiet corridor.
The source of the sound was behind a firmly closed door. Zion quietly approached and pressed his ear against it.
“…I’m so annoyed.”
The owner of the nervous voice was Count Lillit.
“When the hell are you going to stay!”
Then ‘bang-’, clearly telling his angry emotions.
“No matter how good you are, you won’t be able to do anything this time.”
It didn’t seem like he was talking alone as if he was having a conversation. But the other person’s voice was not heard.
“Are you still worried? No, honey. We have Lord Baphomet, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
The Count was talking to his dead wife. Since the wife’s voice was not heard, it was not clear whether he was just having a monologue.
But there was a point to note.
‘Unnatural existence.’
He felt it as soon as he entered the mansion. It was an existence that should not be there.
If he opens the door now, he can confirm it with his own eyes right away, but later. Now there was no need to create a collision with the Count.
The important thing was the evidence of the relationship between the plague and the Count.
****
The next day, wondering if there would be anything to gain from looking around the patients in the infirmary, he followed Irina.
In addition to seeing her use divine power, there was another harvest. That is, the healed patients lost their black spots.
Zion, who quickly returned to the mansion, wrote a letter to Cain. It was about investigating whether there were cases where black spots disappeared with divine power.
And not long after, a reply came.
[There were no cases of black spots in the past plagues. But the interesting thing is, there is a report that these spots appear on people when the contract with the demon is about to end.]
Zion’s eyes quickly read the letters.
[There is also a record of saving such people with divine power. But just one, it seems hard to see in general.]
Zion, who burned the crumpled letter, picked up his clothes and went out.
Leaving the mansion and borrowing a horse, Zion asked the owner of the stable for the location of the barn operated by the Count.
[If you ride a horse and go straight for about an hour to the north, you’ll be fine. There’s a huge barn in the middle of nowhere, so you should be able to find it easily.]
As the owner of the stable said, the more he went north, the less populated it became, and only a large barn was located on the vast land.
As he got closer, a foul smell wafted around.
As he entered the large barn, a manager with a dark expression, like the mansion’s employees, approached.
“What brings you here?”
Zion, who was contemplating what excuse to make, raised his finger and swung it a few times.
Bang!
At that moment, the man fell to the floor. He was knocked out and wouldn’t get up for a while.
After dismounting from the horse, Zion, who entered the barn, looked around. As befitting the size of the barn, there were a tremendous number of cows.
He first examined the appearance of the cows, but they were no different from ordinary cows. Zion, who was looking down at the feed trough, put his arm in and picked up some dry grass.
Again, there was nothing unusual.
Zion looked around for a while, then left the barn. The manager he had knocked out earlier was still there.
When he slapped his cheek a few times, startled eyes appeared between his slackened eyes.
“If you don’t answer properly, I’ll burn this place down.”
At his extreme words, the manager’s eyes widened.
“Is there another barn besides this one?”
“…”
Zion summoned a large flame in his right hand. The flame flickered threateningly. Seeing this, the manager licked his lips.
“There…there.”
He turned his eyes to where his finger was pointing. There was a neat building that didn’t look like a barn.
“Is that a barn?”
The manager swallowed his saliva and barely nodded his head.
Although he had seen it when he entered here, anyone would not think that the neatly maintained building was a barn.
When Zion let go of the manager, he closed his eyes again.
The puzzle was almost solved by the suspicious behavior of the Count who had neatly decorated the barn.
When he entered the neat building that looked like a dormitory for the managers, it was full of cows.
But there was a different feature even at first glance.
‘Black spots’
On the brown fur of the cows, there were black spots like those of a Holstein cow.
Similarly, when he examined the feed trough, it was full of black water. The feed was not visible separately, it seemed that these cows only drank this black water.
Zion picked up a glass bottle and filled it with black water.
The unknown liquid filled in the transparent glass bottle was as profound as an endless abyss.
Then a name passed through Zion’s head.
Baphomet.
It was the name mentioned by the Count.
****
Zion, who returned to the mansion, headed straight to the Count’s office. Zion, who stood in front of the door, opened the door without hesitation.
Bang!
The Count was sitting in a chair. Alongside a woman who looked like a corpse.
As if he knew someone was coming, the Count showed no signs of surprise.
“You’ve been to my barn.”
The Count said with a calm expression.
The manager who had been knocked unconscious wouldn’t have spoken in the meantime. One of Zion’s eyebrows raised.
“If you had told me in advance, I would have guided you.”
“No, in the first place, I had something to check without your knowledge.”
Saying so, Zion calmly sat down on a chair. Since the Count seemed to roughly know the situation, there was no need to hide it.
The Count’s face crumpled in an instant.
“So, what did you see?”
“This.”
Zion put down a glass bottle filled with black water on the table with a thud.
“And I just saw the doll pretending to be your wife.”
“She is my wife! Don’t speak carelessly!!”
When he touched a sore spot, the Count’s mask easily broke.
The Count, with a vein popping in his neck, trembled his hands. But Zion spoke as if he didn’t care at all.
“You know Baphomet, right?”
At the name that came out of Zion’s mouth, the Count’s head shot up.
“Don’t say too much, guide me there.”
The Count got up from his seat in an instant and approached Zion. And he grabbed Zion’s collar.
“How dare you mention Lord Baphomet…You’re not someone who can talk about him casually!!”
The Count, whose eyes were rolling back, seemed to have already lost his mind. Zion calmly removed the Count’s hand.
The Count’s hand, which had been clenched hard enough to pop a vein, fell off in an instant.
“You don’t listen.”
Saying so, Zion quickly drew the dagger stuck in the Count’s waistband.
It was a matter of moments to aim at the Count’s neck.
That’s when it happened.
“Zion!”
The door swung open and Arundel rushed in.
