The Deal
The Deal
The survival strategy Irion had stuck to until now was clear.
Take care of Renoa by her side and prevent her from causing trouble.
Only if Renoa didn't dabble in dark magic could Irion, her slave, survive.
That was why he became an escort knight and followed her all the way to the Academy.
Though it wasn't Irion's intention, Renoa didn't grow jealous of Elody, nor did she become obsessed with Aether.
It was a situation that couldn't be better. He thought that just maintaining the status quo like this would be enough.
He didn't know about freedom, but he believed he could at least preserve his life.
'But it wasn't like that.'
Aether had been suspicious of Renoa for a long time.
Her confidante Bibi was a spy, and there was likely an unidentified mastermind behind her.
That existence was aiming for Renoa's life.
As a result, Renoa suffered irreversible damage. He could no longer just wait while shouting for the status quo.
Now that an invisible demonic hand was tightening around Renoa's throat, he had to deal with the mastermind as soon as possible.
Otherwise, he might be treated as the Witch's knight and killed.
"If you promise not to harm Renoa, I'll cooperate with the witch hunt."
So Irion reached out to Aether.
He was the number one contributor to the subjugation of the dark mage Renoa in the original game, after all.
If he could make the Imperial family his ally, he could protect Renoa's safety regardless of who the opponent was.
Of course, there was a risk.
But it was a risk he had to overcome to make the Imperial family an ally.
"I don't understand. You'll help with the witch hunt, so I should guarantee the Witch's safety?"
"Yes."
"Why should I? Now that I know the Lady is a witch, your help is no longer needed. I can just bring in the army and deal with the Witch, and that's it."
Aether's statement was certainly the logical conclusion.
However, Irion was not so immature as to overlook the hidden causal relationships.
"If that were the case, you wouldn't have bothered calling me separately to test me. You wouldn't have sent assassins to test me either."
"Hmm, assassins. What are you talking about? This is the first I've heard——"
-Sswaek!
In an instant, Irion's arm shot out like a flash of light toward Aether.
It was simultaneous. The shadows of those hiding nearby expanded all at once.
The elite assassins the Imperial family took pride in.
Their blue-tinted daggers were thrust with such agile speed that not even the sound of tearing air could be heard.
But just before the tips of the blades touched Irion's outer garment.
-Shishishik!
A swiftness that was impossible to follow with the eyes.
Faint afterimages intertwined in the air like a spiderweb. It was the trajectory drawn by the edge of Irion's hand.
The bodies of the assassins, whose vital points were slashed in a single blow, buckled helplessly in mid-air.
The unconscious, limp bodies collapsed onto the carpet with a tuk, tuduk, soundlessly.
The time it took to reach that point was before Aether could even blink once.
A moment of silence.
While the shadows that had jumped out from all directions were slammed into the floor without even a twitch.
Irion's posture hadn't changed much from the beginning. Not a single drop of blood was on him.
He just looked down at the fallen assassins with a relaxed smile.
"You're wearing familiar outfits. You there, you know me, right?"
Irion said, pointing specifically at one man. He was the man who had broken into the inn in the past and aimed to strangle Renoa.
It was ambiguous when he was far away, but seeing him up close, it was certain. The energy flowing from him matched perfectly.
Irion turned his gaze to Aether.
"You really don't know? Just say it. If you don't, I'll bring Iskalon-nim over and have him perform a memory playback or something."
Aether faced Irion without any sign of fluster.
"To target the Prince. Can you handle the consequences?"
"Targeting the Prince. What a scary thing to say."
Irion held out his fist over the table.
In the center of his slowly opening palm lay the carcass of a flying insect, crushed beyond recognition.
"I just caught a single bug, but these people misread the killing intent and rushed in on their own. It's self-defense."
It was a brazenly stubborn argument.
Whatever the intention, threatening the Prince and neutralizing his guards was a capital offense.
But instead of showing displeasure, Aether began to laugh hollowly.
"Haha. Hahahaha!"
The chuckle soon turned into a loud laugh.
Aether's eyes, after laughing for a long time, curved into a graceful arc.
"Right. My guards committed an impoliteness. You were just trying to catch a bug. I apologize on their behalf."
"As long as you know."
Aether picked up his wine glass as if to show off, leaving the fallen assassins neglected.
"You're right. The incident at the inn was my instruction. There was something I absolutely had to confirm."
"Then it would have been better to admit it from the start. I'm putting my life on the line here. Don't test me with nonsense."
"I apologize."
Aether smiled and slowly tilted his glass to take a sip of wine.
"Now then, let's go back to the starting point. The Imperial family only needs to deal with the Witch. And that Witch's identity has been revealed. So why should the Imperial family cooperate?"
"Because the Witch the Imperial family is chasing isn't Renoa. It's probably her mother's side."
"Why do you think so?"
I just told you not to test me.
He didn't like Aether's stalling stance in a situation where every second counted, but he decided to play along just this once.
Irion began his deduction based on his memories so far.
"Renoa lived her whole life confined in a villa. To the point where it was difficult for her to even leave it. Even so, the Imperial family targeted Renoa. As if you knew she was a witch from the beginning."
Aether tilted his head as if telling him to keep talking.
"Witchhood is atavistic. In other words, you know about Renoa's mother. That's the real Witch the Imperial family is chasing."
"An interesting deduction, but the Duke's concubine passed away immediately after giving birth to the Lady. We only need to eliminate the Lady who inherited the Witch's blood."
"That's the key point. If the goal was to dry up the Witch's seeds, you would have killed Renoa and been done with it. But you didn't. You went through various tests just to confirm her identity."
Aether tilted his head with interest.
"Why would that be?"
"Because you couldn't touch Renoa recklessly. For example, there was a risk that the target, the real Witch, would sense something and flee."
When all the circumstances were pieced together, it led to only one conclusion.
"It means Renoa's mother is alive and breathing somewhere."
That was the reason they attempted Renoa's assassination in the capital and only pretended to kill her.
If it were the Edelheid family with many enemies, someone other than the Imperial family could target Renoa.
Not Renoa the Witch, but Renoa the Lady.
They targeted her while wearing masks so the identity of the attacker couldn't be specified. To confirm if Renoa was a witch.
But there was a strange part.
"Even though Renoa's mother is separate, the Imperial family targeted Renoa and tried to figure out her identity. Renoa isn't that Witch, but her daughter. Why?"
A question he threw out himself.
Irion didn't wait for Aether's answer and answered it himself.
There wasn't a shred of doubt in his voice.
"Because the Witch has the ability to move between the bodies of others."
"......."
"You thought the Witch had already taken over Renoa's body."
The Witch was content that didn't appear in the original game, so Irion didn't know about her.
However, she was an existence that couldn't be left out in the current flow.
Thus, Irion had searched the Empire's history books in the library and was eventually able to find her.
"Sercia, the Puppet Witch. Right? The Witch the Imperial family is chasing."
The Great Witch who made the continent tremble about 20 years ago.
Her ability was manipulation-type magic that snatched people's bodies and controlled them like dolls.
The Imperial family stepped in directly to attempt her subjugation and almost succeeded, but lost her at the final moment.
'It was suspicious.'
A scene he had seen in the game in the past flashed through Irion's mind.
In the original, the Imperial family massacres everyone in the Ducal house.
From the direct bloodline of the Duke to the vassals, the low-level servants, and even the lowest slaves, without leaving a single person.
In the game, it was described as being because dark magic was such a heavy crime, but there was another truth behind it.
Since they didn't know whose body the Witch would switch to and escape in, they eliminated every single being in that space.
To put it simply, it was a massive quarantine operation to surely kill one Witch.
"......Ha."
Breaking the suffocating silence, Aether let out a low sigh.
As if hit where it hurt, the smile that had been on Aether's lips at some point had vanished.
It was a natural reaction, as a mere slave was reciting the Imperial family's top-secret matters and the entire core of the witch hunt without missing a single word.
"Irion. Just what kind of guy are you...... What is your identity? How much do you know?"
Irion shrugged his shoulders.
There was a sense of piecing it together, but seeing Aether's reaction, it seemed he was accurate.
"I have a pretty rich imagination. Oh, sometimes I imagine things like this. An imagination that the noble Prince-jeonha might have fallen in love with the commoner Elody at first sight."
"Kh-hop...!"
Whether he suddenly choked, Aether burst into a rough cough.
It was the most flustered look he had shown since starting the conversation with Irion.
"You, suddenly what is that......."
"Elody does have pretty eyes. She has a charm that you don't know where it'll bounce, and she's pure because she's not tainted like the snobbish nobles."
Irion picked out the impressions Aether had while looking at Elody like a fortune teller.
As if he were looking into Aether's heart.
"Don't worry. I'm rooting for you."
Irion playfully gave a thumbs up.
He was sincere. Irion had no intention of taking away their happiness at all.
He liked both Aether and Elody.
As a single user and as their fan, he would willingly wish for a happy ending.
He was just inserting Renoa a little bit into that happy ending.
"Whew. I really can't beat you."
Aether gave a hollow laugh and tilted his glass out of habit, but the contents were already empty.
Irion quickly picked up the wine bottle and filled the empty glass.
Aether didn't refuse. He sipped the wine once more and moistened his dry throat.
"Your guess is right. The one the Imperial family is chasing is the Witch Sercia. A public enemy who massacred countless citizens and destroyed several villages and cities."
And then he began to tell the story one by one.
"Our Imperial family succeeded in driving the Witch to the brink of subjugation, but we lost her by a hair's breadth. Taking advantage of the moment our attention was diverted, she switched to another body and fled."
"To the Duke's territory?"
"I didn't know at the time. However, as time passed, I received information that the Duke had taken in an unidentified concubine. That she died as soon as she gave birth to a child, and that the illegitimate child was hidden away somewhere."
"It's Alderin. There's a villa in the forest there."
"It's the middle of nowhere. I've never even heard of it. So there was no way to know."
Aether laughed bitterly in dejection.
"We judged that the critically injured Witch needed a perfect body, and that's why she gave birth to the Lady. If the blood of Edelheid and the Witch were mixed, it would be perfect as a vessel."
"A vessel......."
"After that, it's as you guessed. We were certain the Lady was Sercia and tried to eliminate her, but she wasn't. But it turns out she was a witch herself."
"Because of that old man, Iskalon."
"Haha."
If it weren't for that, she would never have been caught.
Irion blamed his past self, thinking it was right to have burned it after all.
"So when I heard the Lady had consumed the Stone Phosphorus Flower, I was quite surprised. If her mana core was broken and she couldn't use magic, her value as a vessel would disappear."
At those words, this time Irion flinched and stiffened.
"......Could it be?"
"Perhaps that maid's actions were a twisted sense of loyalty. Of course, the judgment on her is for the Lady herself to do."
If Renoa couldn't use magic, her value as a vessel would drop, and the reason for the Witch to aim for that body would also disappear.
In other words, Bibi was not a traitor.
Rather, because she cherished Renoa so much, she fed her poison to pull her out of a tragic fate.
Because even if the Witch switched to a body that couldn't use magic, it would be like the Witch walking into a prison with her own feet.
'Of course, because of that, Renoa dabbled in dark magic and eventually met her death.'
But this time, he would change that future. He, and no one else, would make it so.
"You're curious about whose body that Witch is in, right? I'll tell you. In exchange, guarantee Renoa's safety."
"What if I refuse?"
"I'll have to tell her the Imperial family is trying to kill her. Then, well, won't the Witch run away and look for the next opportunity? If you miss her this time, it'll be even harder to catch her."
"Innocent victims will emerge in succession. Don't you feel pity for them?"
"You're the one killing them, Aether. Innocent people die because you won't do something you only need to yield a little on. Keep this in mind. They are your people, not mine."
Aether gazed intently at Irion with narrowed eyes.
Irion smirked mockingly, swaying his upper body left and right like a roly-poly toy.
As if it didn't really matter what Aether chose.
After all, a slave had nothing to lose.
The staring contest continued for a while.
The one who finally moved their mouth was Aether.
"Is there a guarantee that the Lady won't become a harm?"
"I'll raise her well."
"I guess these days, slaves even raise their masters."
"That's why being a slave is hard. Don't you ever do this. Whew."
Irion even cracked a joke playfully in this situation.
Aether shook his head with a bitter smile as if he couldn't handle him.
"Fine. I promise. I will guarantee the Lady's safety on the name of the Prince."
"Hmm, the name of the Prince alone is a bit lacking."
Irion tilted his head as if it were ambiguous.
"Put your dad's name on it too. You should at least add the name of His Majesty the Emperor, the supreme being of the Empire, to feel at ease, don't you think?"
"You really seem to not know how precious your life is."
"I'm doing this so surely because I only have one life."
Aether frowned.
It was displeasing, but if he could save countless lives with a single word, His Majesty would also readily forgive him.
"I, Aether, swear on the name of His Majesty the Emperor, the supreme being of the Empire. The Imperial family will take responsibility for Lady Renoa's safety until the end and will not inflict any harm. Is that enough?"
"Good."
Only then did Irion show a satisfied smile.
Aether let out a long sigh.
Clearly, the one in front of him was a slave, but the pressure was as much as a high-ranking noble.
He felt like he was being played with in the palm of his hand.
"Now I should receive the reward. Whose shell is the Witch wearing?"
"That, well. It's obvious."
The Witch must be waiting for her time somewhere in the Ducal house, having snatched someone's body.
There was no need to even think about who that was.
The person who locked Renoa in a rural villa and managed her like a jewel so no problems would arise.
The person whose personality changed overnight and showed excessive kindness to Renoa.
The person who could control everything in the Ducal house from the highest position.
"Duke Pascal Edelheid."
There was no mistake.
He was the Witch Sercia.