IPMB 09

Chapter 9

My body stiffened as though I had witnessed something I was never meant to see.

But the sense of wrongness lasted only for a moment.

“It’s been a while, Whisel.”

The corners of Kallion’s lips curved smoothly into a gentle smile.

I watched the change with a somewhat bewildered feeling.

The angel had returned.

Did I… imagine it?

While I composed myself, Kallion held out his hand toward Louise.

“We met once in Abhie a few years ago. How have you been?”

Louise slapped Kallion’s hand away with an expression as though he’d just bitten into something rotten.

Kallion looked hurt, and even though my heart was pounding, I couldn’t help feeling offended.

Why won’t you shake my brother’s hand?!

“Enough of that, little Winyak. Who is this child?”

Louise’s golden eyes turned toward me.

He lifted my chin with his fingertips.

Forced to look up at him, I saw his eyes narrow suspiciously.

“You seem rather close to the heir of Winyak.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Who exactly are you? You don’t even flinch when faced with the head of a Transcendent family. You even know the appearance of my transformed form, which hasn’t officially been announced yet…”

Oh my.

They haven’t announced that he’s a jaguar to the continent yet?

Ah, come to think of it, wasn’t this meeting supposed to be the first time the new head of House Whisel appeared publicly?

But I had plenty of excuses.

I answered sullenly while Louise stretched one of my cheeks between his fingers.

“I heard it from our head of house. Is that strange?”

“Your head of house?”

“Lord Oen Winyak.”

Rumors circulated freely among the Transcendent families anyway.

Louise shrugged.

“Fine. I’ll accept that.”

“Uh, huh?”

Before I knew it, he had grabbed my other cheek as well.

Louise Whisel pulled both my cheeks outward.

“How dare you think of climbing onto the back of a family head.”

Judging by the thorns in his voice, he really was sulking over that.

But you’re the one who gave me a ride. If you didn’t like it, you could’ve just shaken me off.

While my expression soured, Louise’s brow furrowed as well.

“And despite being so bold and clever, why on earth would you tell such an obvious lie…”

“Ah—”

Louise’s words were abruptly cut off by a perfectly timed voice.

Kallion let out a long sound that was somewhere between a sigh and a groan, then draped an arm over my shoulder and rested his chin on top of my head.

His face was outside my field of vision.

His voice, however, was filled with boredom.

“You talk too much, Whisel.”

“You certainly don’t talk much, Winyak.”

“I wasn’t talking to you.”

Kallion chuckled and lowered his head toward my ear.

Then he whispered playfully.

“Rosi. He’s kind of noisy, isn’t he?”

“……”

I couldn’t answer right away.

That strange sense of wrongness had been bothering me for a while now.

The sword aura that had faintly lingered around us until moments ago had completely disappeared.

It had vanished so cleanly that it was suspicious.

Since Kallion was resting his chin on my head, I could faintly feel the movement of his lips as he spoke.

I needed to know what he was saying.

If only to get rid of this strange, unpleasant feeling.

The tiniest vibrations transmitted through my head were enough.

I focused on the shape his lips and jaw were making.

She’s my precious treasure.

Don’t pay any attention to her.

There was nothing particularly suspicious about those words.

Kallion called me all sorts of things every day—my treasure, my princess, my rose, my darling, and countless other pet names.

Besides, whenever I acted sweetly toward someone other than him, he openly became jealous.

Then am I just being overly sensitive?

Was he simply upset because Louise Whisel had pinched my cheeks?

Or could it be that today is… that day?

I tilted my head as far upward as I could.

“Kali. Are you o—”

I tried to look up at him, but I couldn’t because he was leaning his entire weight against me.

Kallion gently tapped my braided red hair with his fingertip and murmured lazily.

“Oppa’s tired, Rosienne.”

“Tired? Ah, right. You didn’t get any sleep, did you?”

“Yeah. I’m hungry, too, and sleepy. I want to go back to the mansion now. Okay?”

Let’s go already.

There was a hint of childish whining in Kallion’s voice.

His manner of speaking and behavior didn’t seem noticeably different from usual.

Maybe I was just being too sensitive…

Come to think of it, he was already frail, and he’d spent the entire night enduring some terrible threat without sleeping.

Of course he’d be exhausted.

He hadn’t even eaten all day.

At that point, Delphiam’s image in my mind finally dropped into the negatives.

You bastards. Fine, kidnap someone if you have to, but at least make sure they get fed!

After Kallion Winyak and the unfamiliar girl went back up, a ridiculous laugh echoed through the drainage channel that had fallen silent for a moment.

“Ahaha. Seriously, what a joke…”

Louise stared into the darkness of the sewer and spoke bluntly.

“Come out now, Kirges. We need to talk.”

After a brief silence, something rustled.

The person who emerged beneath the dim light was Regina.

Louise’s golden eyes briefly shifted toward the space behind her.

His beastly eyes, several times sharper than a human’s, caught sight of another figure rolling around on the floor of the drainage channel.

Even upon seeing the pathetic state of the Imperial Guard Captain, whom he knew as well, Louise showed not the slightest disturbance.

“I was definitely against it. Since it seemed that the heir of Winyak was somewhat lacking in the head.”

“Was that what you meant by it, Whisel?”

I thought you meant he was lacking in character.

Louise and Regina simultaneously recalled Kallion Winyak’s final appearance.

As he left the drainage channel with the huffing girl, he had turned his head toward them.

With the sunlight pouring through the entrance resting above his head like a crown, the boy had smiled seductively and waved at them languidly.

Even after witnessing it with their own eyes, his appearance had been so sensual that they had momentarily lost themselves in it.

A sinister Satan wearing an angel’s skin.

That was how Regina had defined him.

And once they left this place, she had decided she would tear Oen Winyak apart like a rat.

Crazy bastard. Couldn’t he have explained himself properly?

What the hell are you raising your son to be?!

Louise’s blunt voice brought her back to reality.

“What did you promise the little Winyak?”

“…An alibi. Erase the memories of the emperor and the captain of the Imperial Guard, and ensure that everything that happened here today remains absolutely secret.”

“Nothing too extraordinary. Understood. We’ll cover this up. In any case, we do need the little Winyak to subdue that thing. There will be another opportunity.”

Regina nodded.

No matter how badly they needed a way to calm the rampaging Sacred Relic, there was no way she could personally hand an invincible weapon to a lunatic.

“Let’s keep watching for a little longer. More importantly… Whisel. That red-haired girl from earlier.”

Louise had been about to leave without another word now that their business was finished, but he stopped.

Regina remained silent for a moment before cautiously asking,

“The little Winyak called her Rosi, didn’t he?”

“He called her Rosienne. Apparently, she’s a disciple of Winyak and was given the family’s surname.”

“Winyak gave such a young child the blessing of their guardian star?”

The entrance examination to become a disciple of Winyak was notoriously brutal.

Furthermore, Winyak was a family that adhered strictly to hereditary succession. It was extremely rare for them to bestow the Winyak surname upon someone who wasn’t of their bloodline.

Then did that little girl named Rosienne possess extraordinary abilities impressive enough to catch the head of the family’s eye?

Her mana certainly was impossible to gauge accurately.

The girl’s mana, as far as Regina could tell, seemed similar to Winyak’s, yet instead of being linear, it was closer to a structured, web-like formation.

Web-like mana was one of the defining characteristics of Kirges mana.

And then there was the spell the girl had carved into the Delphiam Imperial Guard Captain.

Regina’s gaze shifted toward the unconscious man at her feet.

This is an advanced mind-control spell that interferes directly with the mind.

Regina carefully extracted the command engraved into the captain’s forehead.

Kallion Winyak is a weakling who hides his power.

Touch him and you die.

“……”

She had no idea why the girl had bothered to implant such an obvious command…

But the spell the girl had carved in less than a second was far too perfect.

It was so flawless that even Regina, the head of House Kirges and considered the greatest sorcerer of the current era, would have failed to notice it without examining it carefully.

Regina’s black eyes grew distant.

She had suddenly been reminded of a girl from twelve years ago who had possessed exactly this kind of insane talent.

Rosietti?

In truth, Regina had already thought of her the moment she heard that young voice calling out for her brother.

A once-in-a-generation genius who had wielded the power of the stars freely, her red hair flying behind her, a lovely face framed by proud green eyes.

The sorcerer who had once been the most likely candidate to become the next head of House Kirges.

The mutation of House Kirges.

The blessing of the entire universe.

Rosietti Kirges.

Within House Kirges—a gathering of physically inept people who did little more than stare through telescopes and study the coordinates of stars—she had been almost the only child who actually knew how to use her body.

And what about her sorcery?

Was it merely average?

No.

Even at the young age of seventeen, she had been capable of wielding more than fifty different spells.

It had already been twelve years since they had lost that girl whom every member of House Kirges admired and envied.

I thought I’d never see her again.

But for the first time, the possibility that perhaps that wasn’t true crossed Regina’s mind.