Chapter 115
When he first brought Chesha from the orphanage.
He had already finished all the background checks.
As was typical for most children who ended up at the orphanage, tracing her origins wasn’t easy.
Kierne hadn’t been able to obtain any meaningful information.
That’s why he had harbored even more suspicion and kept a close watch on Chesha.
Of course, now he had resolved to accept Chesha no matter what kind of being she was.
However, the process leading up to this point had been far from smooth.
Chesha, Kierne, and the three Basilian brothers.
They had all endured painful conflicts before barely achieving this peace.
Yet now, this cardinal who had suddenly barged in was trying to shatter it.
Kierne barely suppressed a twisted smile.
You claim to know a truth that even I, the master of the underworld, don’t know?
It was so absurdly presumptuous that he could hardly bear it.
He wanted to tear the man limb from limb right then and there.
But…
Even though he knew full well that the cornered cardinal had come rushing in with a bundle of lies and deceit.
On the other hand, he couldn’t completely dismiss the dark thoughts.
His malfunctioning mind arbitrarily assumed slim possibilities and imagined them.
What if Cardinal Milliod had really discovered her biological father and brought him before Chesha?
What if the severed blood ties were reconnected?
‘The daughter of the enchantress’ was still acceptable.
Lichesia was one of the few people Kierne held in good regard, after all.
It had been a bit difficult because of her fairy nature, but now he was making good use of it as an excuse to boss around the heretic inquisitor Hailon.
However, the biological father…
The worthless scum who had allowed the enchantress to abandon the child at the orphanage.
No matter if he was the real father, it would be hard to accept.
Kierne posed a new question to himself.
What if the biological father had unavoidable circumstances that forced him to part with the child?
What if he had searched high and low to find Chesha again, leading to a tearful reunion.
‘That would be even more troublesome.’
Kierne was a snake raised on the sinister energy of the Black Forest.
Born with a gloomy and obsessive nature, he could never be a normal father from the start.
If someone came along with something he himself couldn’t provide and tried to claim the spot beside Chesha, he would feel jealous.
Especially if Chesha started to grow attached to this so-called biological father.
Kierne liked it when Chesha called him Dad.
He didn’t want to lose that title.
Just imagining the child smiling brightly and calling someone else Dad made his mood plummet.
They say blood is thicker than water.
Perhaps as soon as Chesha met her real father, she would shower him with affection right away.
The thought of some guy easily devouring what he had struggled so hard to earn, just because of a blood connection, twisted his insides.
“This is annoying…”
“What did you just say?”
Without realizing it, he had voiced his thoughts aloud, and a sharp voice immediately pounced on him.
Kierne smiled brightly and replied.
“It’s nothing.”
First, he needed to deal with this cardinal who had stirred up such complicated thoughts.
There probably wasn’t a biological father anyway.
He didn’t believe the cardinal had found something he himself couldn’t.
At best, it was fabricated information pieced together from rumors he’d picked up somewhere.
Well, even if by some chance he really existed…
Kierne swallowed his sinister intentions and drew a smile.
“I know nothing about the child’s biological father.”
The cunning snake’s tongue turned toward the cardinal.
“Please, enlighten me.”
Though few in number, fantastical beings were far superior to humans.
Especially the fairies, the most famous and well-known among fantastical species, were a race that evoked even awe.
Milliod could never forget the shock he felt when he first saw a fairy.
They were beautiful, and also strong.
When gazing upon such clearly superior beings, it was natural to think:
They must receive more love from God than humans do.
It was humans who praised God.
Yet it was the heretics who received the love—that was unbearably unjust.
Even so, he couldn’t resent God.
Thus, the method he devised was for humans to become ‘perfect beings.’
The desperate struggle to get a little closer to God, to somehow earn His love, seemed almost pathetic at first glance.
But Milliod deeply understood and empathized with the choices of his predecessors.
That was why he had willingly joined the experiments that had continued over hundreds of years.
Holy King Sianor patted Milliod on the shoulder when he expressed his intent to cooperate.
“Thank you. I knew you would follow the will of our forebears.”
It was a responsibility shared by the Holy King, who had borne the heavy truth alone.
Milliod didn’t find the bloody responsibility burdensome.
Rather, the fact that he had become the most loyal servant filled him with such pride that his chest swelled.
No matter how much those heretic inquisitors rampaged, they were just ignorantly swinging swords outside and getting their hands dirty with blood.
It was Milliod who assisted the Holy King within the empire and knew Hilderd’s deepest secrets.
He even prided himself on aiming for the next Holy King’s position—a grand dream that began to go awry starting from the Little Saints’ Prayer Assembly.
To be precise, it was because of those Basilians.
Count Basilian, who appeared before the Holy King, declared his unchanging loyalty to God.
Milliod scoffed at his words.
‘What ridiculous nonsense.’
It slightly improved his mood, which had been dragging at the bottom due to Remil’s incompetence.
But then the situation took a strange turn.
He had expected Sianor to naturally respond with mockery.
Instead, his face hardened completely.
What was this promise of the Black Forest that caused such a reaction?
It was a promise that even he, who knew the Holy Empire’s innermost affairs inside and out, was unaware of.
However, the Holy King was visibly shaken and even shouted.
Seeing that, Milliod sensed something amiss.
So he locked Remil in the lab and hurriedly came to meet Count Basilian.
‘I didn’t really want to play this card.’
Milliod barely smoothed out his face, which kept trying to crumple.
It was something he had prepared to prevent the unfortunate event of the Basilian County winning at the Little Saints’ Prayer Assembly, but he hadn’t wanted to use it unless necessary.
And for good reason—the men of the Basilian County were…
‘They give me a bad feeling.’
Milliod glanced at the men before him.
Count Basilian, Kierne, sitting leisurely at the innermost spot, along with the three brothers seated on either side.
And Milliod sat opposite Kierne, forming a square arrangement.
Unconsciously, Milliod swallowed dryly.
They were clearly younger and less experienced than him.
Count Basilian was one thing, but the boys who hadn’t even reached adulthood still had youthful faces.
Yet when he met those crimson eyes, Milliod felt an illusory pain as if he were being pierced through.
It was like sharp, pointed awls tearing his skin, burrowing into his muscles, and stabbing down to the bone.
In his rise to the position of cardinal, he had encountered all sorts of people.
But the men of the Basilian family were somehow different.
He couldn’t pinpoint why, but at times they felt like beings of another species.
In any case, it was the family chosen by the heretic inquisitor Hailon.
They couldn’t be ordinary, so it wouldn’t hurt to be cautious.
Milliod spoke, careful not to let his voice tremble with tension.
“…The adoptive child’s biological father is a heretic who deals in black magic in the underworld.”
The red eyes focused on him widened slightly.
It was certainly a story worth being surprised by, so the reaction was natural, but it felt oddly lukewarm.
Their gazes seemed closer to interest than shock.
Count Basilian interlaced his long fingers and leaned back leisurely against the sofa.
It was a rude posture to take in front of a cardinal.
But to the tense Milliod, his insolence barely registered.
“In the underworld, dealing in black magic, you say.”
The languid voice clearly enunciated each word Milliod had said, retracing them one by one.
“That’s right. Since she inherits the blood of a heretic who wields black magic, if this fact comes to light, it will cause a great uproar.”
Milliod persuaded the count with a grave expression.
“Is there any need to create such unnecessary noise?”
“Well, that’s true, but…”
Dragging out his words, Count Basilian countered.
“Shouldn’t you at least provide me with some minimal evidence?”
As if he couldn’t believe that his truly cherished daughter inherited heretic blood, he drooped his eyebrows.
“Where did you learn this fact?”
“Don’t be too surprised.”
Milliod cleared his throat and said.
“In fact, I… have connections to the master of the underworld.”
