Chapter 106
“When are you coming back?”
“Why?”
“Why, you ask? Because Asil needs a dad too. After all, it’s best for her real dad to be by her side.”
“If we live separately, we won’t be able to see each other often anyway.”
“Won’t Mom and Dad live together?”
Asil’s two eyes widened in surprise.
“Why?”
You live together with the other four dads, so why not live together with the black dragon dad?
Briana, whose words were blocked, stammered.
“Uh…….”
“That is, Mom and Dad have circumstances—”
“Asil wants to live together with both Mom and Dad.”
It would be so nice.
Asil’s pink eyes, filled with hope, sparkled beautifully.
At this, Arcian froze.
In contrast, Briana forced a smile that looked broken, then suddenly slapped Arcian’s back repeatedly
“Yeah, well, let’s all live together—Asil, Mom, and Dad.”
“What a horrific thing to say! Absolutely not—”
“Asil wants to live with Dad.”
Sparkle sparkle sparkle. Asil’s eye attack struck Arcian’s heart directly.
What beastman in the world could refuse after seeing that.
“……Fine, let’s all live together. I’m really looking forward to that day.”
Arcian recited like reading a Korean textbook, having half given up his soul.
However, Asil was only fixated on the word “Fine” and grinned widely, not noticing it.
Briana glanced sideways at such Asil. Then she whispered to Arcian so Asil couldn’t hear.
“When Fear went berserk, by any chance, did you see a suspicious-looking snake beastman half-blood nearby?”
“……A snake beastman half-blood?”
Arcian made a puzzled expression at the incomprehensible question.
That was natural, since exchange between beastmen and humans had been completely cut off starting from the war 500 years ago. It was a situation where half-bloods were hard to appear.
Moreover, even if there really was one nearby, Arcian had no way to recognize it.
“Well, I don’t feel any waves from half-bloods, so I wouldn’t know. Why?”
“Hmm, in the original work, the male lead recognized it at once. I guess that’s because he’s the male lead…….”
“What?”
“No, it’s nothing. The story has changed so much from what I knew that I can’t tell who it has transformed into……. Anyway, if you ever see a snake beastman half-blood who can transform into a giant snake—”
Briana brought her lips to Arshian’s ear.
“Be sure to kill it. It will become the greatest enemy of us beastmen in the future.”
“……A half-blood?”
Arcian had a dumbfounded face.
If it’s a half-blood, half of it is beastman, so it didn’t make sense that it would become the greatest enemy of beastmen, surpassing humans.
Because 500 years ago, when half-bloods were commonly seen, it was humans who persecuted them, not beastmen.
Moreover, a half-blood that can fully transform into an animal.
Half-bloods were beings completely incapable of animal transformation.
However, thinking there might be something he didn’t know, Arcian hardened his expression and fell into thought.
That moment it was.
“Mom and Dad are kissing.”
“No!”
“Absolutely not!”
How could there be such a misunderstanding! The two beastmen jumped apart in horror.
Right at that moment, Puuu— the steam sound signaling imminent departure was heard.
Kissing, ugh! Briana, shuddering in disgust, took Asil and boarded the ship as if fleeing.
Asil quickly jumped onto the deck and waved her hand vigorously.
“Daaaad! Asil will come back soon after becoming a potato!!!”
“Potato……?”
“Yes, my daughter! You must not forget Dad!”
“Ung!!!”
Leaving the puzzled Briana behind, the father and daughter waved their hands vigorously until they could no longer hear each other’s voices.
Thus, Asil returned to the beastmen’s forest.
* * *
A few days after Asil left, the imperial palace.
The crown prince was pouring out his anger at the imperial magician.
“This is the result of assembling assassins and sending them to Duke Skya as you instructed!”
He threw the document he was holding as if flinging it away.
It stated that Ikart’s reinstatement was being discussed, as he had made great contributions in calming the berserk Fear and even recovered the divine beast.
That wasn’t all.
It was also written that due to someone’s scheme, the divine beast pact of the Monlepe ducal house and the Starafit ducal house had been broken, and the grand temple was furiously searching for the culprit.
The crown prince was currently the prime suspect.
Because he had long been conducting divine beast research, and he was the last external person to meet Fear.
Thus, he couldn’t even move freely until the investigation was over.
“I clearly told you that a risk had to be taken.”
The magician, not yielding at all to the crown prince’s anger, smiled faintly.
“It was Your Highness who made the choice.”
“Isn’t the result different from what you told me? You said if it succeeded, it would become Duke Skya’s divine beast, and even if it failed, it would become an idiot and there would be no problem. Then what is this!”
“Hmm……. The intervention of Ikart Monlepe and the fox divine beast was something even I didn’t anticipate.”
The magician’s expression, which had only been smiling, changed slightly.
“It clearly failed and became an idiot.”
“……?”
The crown prince, who was about to retort coldly, paused.
Something about the words was strange.
It failed and became an idiot?
With eyes saying he couldn’t understand, he stared at the magician for a moment, then opened his mouth with a “could it be” thought.
“Could it be that you are the one who broke the Monlepe ducal house’s divine beast pact?
“That’s correct.”
“……!”
The astonished crown prince jumped up.
Everything alive and breathing in this empire belonged to him, the future emperor.
Divine beasts were also something only he could touch.
Yet this person dared to touch what was his without permission?
As the crown prince’s face twisted, the magician tilted his head as if he couldn’t understand.
“Thanks to that, weren’t you able to experiment on Starafit’s divine beast as well?”
“Is that something to say right now?!”
The crown prince, veins bulging in his neck, roared.
“How dare you touch a divine beast without my orders! Was Skya’s divine beast also something you tampered with?!”
“That one, regrettably, no.”
The magician smiled as if he truly regretted it.
“It would have been really great if that one could have been used for experiments too……. I wonder where it went.”
“Ha, there’s not even a hint of reflection!”
No matter how skilled, if someone wasn’t obedient to his words, they were useless.
How could he keep a dog by his side that might betray its master at any time.
He had to clearly teach who was above and who was below on this occasion.
With that resolve, the crown prince shouted toward the outside.
“Guards! Guards! Go bring the magic-blocking handcuffs, this arrogant fellow right now—”
“That would be a bit difficult.”
Suddenly, the temperature in the room dropped sharply.
It hadn’t actually lowered, but the crown prince, meeting the magician’s eyes, felt that way.
Step by step, the magician walked toward him. His face was still smiling.
“I was getting a bit tired of this body anyway. The magic remaining in the body is almost all used up…….”
“……W-What do you.”
While stammering, the magician came right up to his face.
Feeling as if facing a giant venomous snake, the crown prince involuntarily stepped back.
Only after his back hit the window frame with a thud did he come to his senses.
Suppressing his panicked expression, he screamed viciously.
“Do you think you can harm the empire’s crown prince and still live?!”
“I’m doing this because I’m confident, aren’t I.”
With a full smile, he bowed deeply from the upper body in greeting.
It was etiquette so precise it was hard to believe he was from a wandering magician background.
The crown prince usually liked this elegant yet disciplined appearance of the magician very much.
That was why he thought him worthy to be by his side.
But now, for some reason, that precise movement gave him chills.
And that instinct was exactly right.
“I am truly grateful that you made me the imperial magician. Thanks to that, I could observe the imperial family up close. I had a lot of worries about which imperial family member to eat so that no one would recognize me…….”
“……!”
“Among them, the closest to me was Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
The smiling magician’s form collapsed in an instant.
Then, in that place appeared a giant white snake enveloped in black aura. The aura was so deep it looked almost like a black snake.
“Snake…… beastman!”
The crown prince’s face turned deathly pale.
“Is anyone out there!? Guards! Guards!”
“It’s no use. I’ve cast a soundproofing spell over the entire room.”
The snake flicked its tongue as if savoring.
“Thanks to Your Highness ordering the magic-blocking handcuffs to be brought, I gained some time.”
“Get away, uwaaaah! Don’t come closer, I said get away!”
The terrified crown prince grabbed and threw whatever he could get his hands on.
In the process, he accidentally cut his hand deeply on a shard from a flowerpot.
Looking at the dripping blood, the snake stuck out its tongue as if regretful.
“Oh no, a wound on such a noble body…….”
“Guards! Is no one outside?! Guards! Guards—!”
“Was Your Highness’s honorable name Reinhardt de Aliope?”
The snake tilted its head and looked straight down at the crown prince, whose face was pale with fear.
Then it opened its huge jaws wide.
“I’ll make good use of that name.”
“Aaaaaaah!”
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