Ch 14

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The Duke of Spess searched all over the continent to find the missing Stella.
And it was only after 15 years that traces of her could be found.

 “Choose people who can escort the children.”

Precisely, the daughter she gave birth to, Eluana.
I learned about Stella’s death and marriage before the shock that my daughter was born and growing up was gone.
Even the existence of Louie that was born with Ron Vita.

 The Duke poured alcohol into his mouth in succession.
He was drunk, but now was not the time for him to be engrossed.
There was a lot of work to be done.

“yes.”

Noah replied promptly.

“And the Duchy’s clock tower.
Do you hear the bell at twelve o’clock?”

“At twelve o’clock and six o’clock, you hear the bells ringing all the time.
Last year, you replaced the wizard in the East Magic Tower and installed a new one.
It was a little over the budget, but now I am proud of the duchy.”

“From tomorrow on, don’t let the bell ring.”

 “yes?”

 “If you find it difficult to control in a way that does not ring the bell, you can remove it.”

 “Well, how much is that?”

Although Noah hated it, the Duke’s orders were not finished.

“Take care of the duchy’s clock tower by tomorrow, and make sure that all clock towers installed in the Spess Territory also have their bells turned off.”

Clever Noah realized that these strange instructions were for children.

 “I will take care of it.
How to make the bell stop ringing.”

After finishing the note, Noah asked gently.

“How much can you tell us about Stella-sama?”

“All.”

Noah, unable to hide his embarrassment, eventually closed the documents.
The review of the budget for this quarter was no less important than the problems at hand.

“All? Will I be surprised?”

 “It would be safer to know.
There’s even Louie, so you have to be more careful.”

Noah was about to add something, but swallowed it.
Instead, he drank glass of cold water to calm his frustration.

“It must have come as a surprise that you had appeared as her biological father.”

“I knew Ron Vita wasn’t her real father.”

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“Well.
But did you explain it well? First of all, you are her father, are you not?”

The hand of the Duke holding the glass trembled slightly.

 “Hmm.
She seemed to think I had abandoned Stella.”

Somehow, if we’re close, it’s okay.

“Common sense, it is difficult to think that the head of Spess has been abandoned.
You should have explained it better.
I am the one who was abandoned! I haven’t even gotten married until now and waited! like this.”

The Duke glared at Noah.
Of course he was right.
He was abandoned by Stella a month before the wedding.

 “Stella, why didn’t you trust me?”

“You must have been afraid.”

“Did I look so incompetent that I couldn’t replace the Emperor?”

 “That must have been what you were afraid of.”

Noah hit the mark without hesitation.
There are many crazy people in the world.
The most dangerous of these were the crazy ones who had the strength and faith to achieve what they wanted.
The Duke of Spess was one such case.
He would have been ready to go to war for Stella.

“Stella left to avoid imprisoning the child, but in the end, she was locked up and raised in that small estate.”

“At least Stella-sama lived with Eluana-sama.
There was no war.
While waiting for your Excellency at the inn, I stumbled upon the people of the Aden Territory and heard various stories.
During that time, Ron Vita took great care of her.
Even after Stella-sama died.”

The Duke knew about that.
Without Ron Vita, the lives of Stella and Eluana would have been even more difficult.
It sounded wild, but it was true that he owed Ron Vita.

“Thank you.”

At first, it must have been a relationship that paid back the favor.
If it were Stella, she would have gone to visit him to repay the favor.
But in the end, Ron Vita won Stella’s heart.
Louie was the proof.

“Come in.”

It was when the Duke tilted the bottle and filled the glass.
A faint presence was felt outside the room.

 The one who came in through the slightly opened gap was Louie, whose cheeks were stained red.
He had just finished bathing and his hair was moist.

Noah’s face softened at the cute appearance.

 “Child.
Do you have anything you need?”

Towards the Duke, who looked at him as if telling him to speak, Louie hesitated and opened his mouth.

“Thank you for bringing me here.
I will eat a little rice and not get into trouble.
Please just let me be with my sister.
“

After pouring out the prepared words, Louie lowered his eyes slightly.
The Duke and Noah’s faces suddenly hardened and they became a little scared.

He wondered if he had made any mistake, and Louie, who was worried, added bitterly

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“I can only eat one meal.”

A brief silence passed, and the Duke barely opened his mouth.

 “It is difficult to eat a little rice.
I want you to eat a lot and grow up heaIthy.”

 “Really? Okay.”

Round pink eyes rolled around.

 “I am confident that I eat a lot.
I will grow up healthy.”

 “It’s good.
Then it’s settled.”

“Thank you.
“

 After saying a belly button greeting, Louie left the room as if to run away.
And a typhoon raged in the hearts of the two men left behind.

Among the piles of papers piled up like a mountain, a green head sprung up like weeds.
The man sitting in front of a spacious desk reviewing documents was Rein, the head of the information group ‘Edelweiss’.

“Why haven’t you come yet?”

Rein, who was muttering to himself, pulled out the necessary pages from the documents and laid them out.
The silver-gray eyes moved swiftly.

“He should have arrived yesterday.”

Three days after receiving the notification that they had departed from Belua, there was still no news from Khazar.

“Did he die?”

It was when the Rein clicked his tongue, the office door opened and Khazar with a tired face entered.

“I’m not dead yet.”

 “Your Majesty?”

Rein put the papers down and jumped up from his seat.

 “No, why are you here now?”

Khazar said as he lay down on the sofa.

 “Bring the antidote.”

 “Tell me about your symptoms.
The Belua branch says they don’t know what kind of poison it is.”

 “Can you see?”

“It was almost invisible.
After taking the antidote, I can see some of it.”

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The Rein that spit out a small profanity began to rummage through the drawers divided into compartments.
Rein mixed a few herbs and made a healing potion in moderation.
It was a movement that other people would think of as ‘roughly’, but it was a very delicate work.
The green drug in his hand turned black.

“Drink it.”

 What Rein gave was a color close to poison rather than an antidote.
Even though the light was gloomy enough to take a step back, Khazar drank without hesitation.
Rather, Rein frowned and opened a tin case.

“Would you like some candy? That must be the taste of death.”

 “It’s edible.
While coming this far, I was just getting close to death.

Khazar’s life has been like this for most of his life.
He lived with one foot in the grave.
Khazar put down the vial and closed his eyes.
When he saw that his somewhat rough breathing became calm, the effect seemed to be revolving quickly.

Rein pulled out a chair and sat down in front of the sofa.

“Tell me.
How have you been? We searched everywhere,and  there was no trace of His Majesty.
You didn’t get caught from the Tana estate, so we thought you were buried somewhere.
Then, suddenly you appeared from Belua.

 “It’s because you’re incompetent.
“

“Wow.
Do you know that there is only one person in the Empire who sees me as incompetent, His Majesty?”

Khazar slowly opened his closed eyes.
Rein’s hair that looked like weeds became clearer.
Realizing that his sight had fully returned, he immediately stood up.

When I did some light stretching, my condition wasn’t bad.
My body, which had been stiff, became even lighter.
It will take a few days to fully recover.

“The effect is fast.”

“I made it, isn’t it natural?”

As head of the intelligence community, Rein’s real talent was in drug manufacturing.
Had it not been for his abilities, Khazar would have ended his life long ago.

If you betray even the Rein, you really have no choice but to die.

Khazar swallowed the bitterness and sat down on the sofa.
Now was not the time for him to indulge in sentimentality.

“Bring information about Ron Vita, everything.”

“Ron Vita? “

It was a sudden instruction, but Rein got up immediately.

“You said ‘A Brilliant Mortal Night and the Silence of the Black Sun’ was back on the auction house a few days ago.
The price went up a lot.
The other two swords were purchased by the Spess family.
Thanks to that, we are getting a lot of inquiries about when the next project will be released.”

Line refers to the recently collected data, and found the name of Ron Vita in the document column classified as Level 5 information. Level 5 information was sought by many clients, but did not affect the situation on the continent.

“Well.
Information updated 6 months ago.
Ron Vita, he survived alone when the Vita family went bankrupt 30 years ago.
The place where he appeared after he came of age after 10 years of unknown whereabouts is Aden.
It’s a palm-sized estate at the western end, where I opened a forge.
“

“Why did you deliver weapons to the Imperial Family before the Vita family went bankrupt? Maybe he had a secret recipe, so he made a pretty good sword.”

 “Are you okay?”

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Rein responded as he read through the paperwork.

 “It’s not noticeable, but it’s a good value for the price? His wife died shortly after giving birth to her second child, and by today’s calculations she has one 15-year-old daughter and one 6-year-old son.”

 “The ‘Brilliance of a Mortal Night and The Silence of the Black Sun’ are not good value for the money.”

 “Well.
After his wife died, he suddenly had a talent explosion.
All the swords that came out after that were sold for around a thousand gold.”

After hearing all the stories, Khazar leaned back slowly.
And he picked up the unfinished sword he had brought from Aden.
This sword that Eluana gave him was not ‘good enough’.

“The Brilliance of Mortal Nights and the Silence of the Black Sun, price will rise.”

“What?”

“At least five times.
“

“I think you haven’t heard the news yet.
It was sold for 1,780 gold a few days ago.”

 “yes.
five times.”

 “no way.”

Five fold is 8,900 gold.
Unless it was a dragon’s relic, there was no way the sword could be traded for that amount.
Khazar added an explanation for the unbelieving Rein.

 “Because it’s alchemy.”

The eyes of the Rein that had been loosened rose sharply.

“It’s an alchemy sword, I’ve never heard of it.
Although it is rare, there were cases in which handicrafts and accessories obtained by the Dukes of Spess were released on the market.
Each time, the items had renewed their highest auction price.
The same was true for ornaments that had no function, but a sword.
“

 If Khazar’s words were true, it was difficult to even estimate their value.
Rein’s voice became impatient in the face of the opportunity of one hundred thousand gold.

 “What was the basis for judging the alchemy?”

 “The Crown Prince’s treasured sword was broken by the sword Ron Vita crafted.
That’s why Ron Vita’s children were locked up in prison.”

“No, why is the Crown Prince’s sword broken? suddenly? Isn’t that a national treasure?”

“I think Regis-nim brought it out secretly.”

“He bought it right.
So anyway?”

“Ron Vita’s daughter used her alchemy powers.
She bent the barbed wire nicely and strung a man up.
She didn’t even know what she was doing”

“She’s a genius.
If the friendly material is iron, the uses are limitless.
Isn’t it invincible when fully bloomed? “

“That’s natural.
“

 Khazar put down the unfinished sword he had been looking at.

“All swords are made of iron.
”