Chapter 92
Kierne had always been inherently suspicious by nature.
He trusted no one, allowing only a very few people into his heart.
Instead of revealing his true feelings, he always wore a mask-like smile.
That was enough.
For most people, anyway.
In Kierne Basilian’s life, there were two people who had shattered his mask.
The first was his wife, and the second was his youngest daughter.
From the moment he first met her at the orphanage, he knew she wasn’t an ordinary child.
Those pink eyes that showed no fear of the Basilians, who carried the blood of the black snake, were clearly extraordinary.
She was the perfect child he had been searching for, to serve in the Little Saints’ Prayer Assembly.
And yet, she turned out to be a fairy.
The flowers and butterflies blooming on the parched earth were undoubtedly the power of a fairy.
Watching that scene, Kierne swallowed a hollow laugh.
She had a face that resembled his deceased wife so much, a child who had captivated him at first sight.
And on top of that, she was a fairy, just like his wife?
Even if it was fate, it couldn’t possibly align so perfectly and conveniently.
His habitual train of thought seized his mind first.
It was suspicion.
Could the child be some fabricated existence created by someone?
‘Otherwise, how could she be so…’
Kierne clenched his teeth firmly.
The muscles in his jaw tightened stiffly.
It wasn’t publicly known that he was the master of the underworld.
But there were no eternal secrets.
A few knew the truth, so the secret had leaked out somewhere.
The scale of the interests entangled in the underground economy of the underworld rivaled that of a nation.
Because of that, various attempts had been made against Kierne.
All sorts of schemes to shake the master of the underworld.
When he first met Cheshire.
He had even put a mana restraint on her to check if she was transformed by magic, for that very reason.
In fact, there were people who came claiming to be blood relatives of the countess, having picked up who-knows-what information, so verification was only natural.
Even after that, he didn’t let his guard down.
Cheshire Basilian was ‘too’ perfect.
The moments when a child resembling his wife smiled like his wife and whispered the words his wife had said to him shook his heart in a terrifying way.
So Kierne suspected, and suspected again.
He watched her meticulously, waiting for her to make even a small mistake that would reveal her true nature.
But the more he observed and watched, the more he sank into her like a sticky swamp.
He fell so deeply that eventually, he even thought he couldn’t live without the child.
And yet, in this very moment.
Seeing the child who had first noticed the fairy’s illusion and bloomed flowers covering all directions, his long-dormant suspicion boiled up again.
However, Kierne, who had been burning with fiery suspicion, soon realized.
Even if the child was a fabricated existence created to deceive him.
Even if it was clear that it would end with a knife driven into his heart.
Still, there was nothing he could do.
No matter what kind of existence the child was, he could only accept and love her.
No, rather, he was in a position where he had to beg for the child’s love.
“Chesha… can I still be Basilian?”
So that the child would continue to want to belong to the Basilian name.
He had already given his heart to the child…
Kierne looked at the inexplicable anger of the fairy child.
The scene of flowers and butterflies blooming everywhere was fantastical.
It was beautiful like a scene from a fairy tale, but somehow eerie as well.
It felt like the bloomed flowers could open their large petals at any moment and devour people.
‘She started getting emotionally shaken from the moment the slave hunters appeared.’
It was likely that she had been influenced by the emotions of the fairy who created the illusion.
That fairy had been chased by the hunters, after all.
Her small body trembling with anger was pitiful.
The suspicion that had flared up like fire had long since extinguished.
Kierne hoped his child wouldn’t be sad.
He covered the eyes of the child who was at a loss with anger.
Patting her flinching body, he whispered slowly.
“Why are you so angry?”
The promise to grant everything if she fulfilled just one thing was still valid.
The shadow at his feet writhed.
“Chesha, stay still. Babies don’t do hard things.”
He glanced obliquely at the wide-eyed slave hunters.
Their eyes, standing trampling the flower field, held filthy excitement.
It was because they had discovered a young, pretty fairy that wasn’t broken yet.
Seeing their eyes gleaming as they tried to put a price on his precious child, Kierne smiled.
And to not startle the child, he hid his emotions and darkness one layer deep, whispering.
“This kind of thing is for Dad to do.”
The moment his words ended, the shadow surged up.
The darkness, obeying its master’s will, was more cruel than anything.
The slave hunters began to scream horribly.
They had always been in the position of predators.
Having never once been prey, they desperately fled in the unfamiliar situation.
They ran wildly over the flower field, letting out shrill screams.
Kierne chuckled as he tore at the fleeing ones bit by bit with shadows.
It was like a child playing by pulling off an insect’s legs, cornering the hunters and curling their bodies round.
“Stop at moderation.”
White chains extended with a clatter.
The chains that pierced through the black shadows and shot out grabbed the slave hunters, whose limbs were being torn as they fled, in one go.
Hailon glared coldly at Kierne with his blue eyes.
“I told you not to use black magic in front of others.”
“No one here will leave alive, so it’s fine, isn’t it?”
“Don’t be certain about uncertainties.”
“Ah, so the inquisitor thinks he might let one or two of these slip away when dealing with them?”
At Kierne’s sarcasm, Hailon’s mouth twisted slightly.
His blue eyes grew a bit duller in saturation.
“I’m worried the count might let them slip.”
“……”
“My skills are certain, but the count’s aren’t.”
Kierne burst out a short hollow laugh.
At the same time, the chains rang with a clear sound.
A loud clang echoed widely, followed by screams of death.
Kierne frowned his eyes.
He hugged the child deeper into his arms so she wouldn’t see the cruel scene and cast a light spell.
It was a spell to prevent her from hearing the sounds the slave hunters made.
The chains writhed, and blood sprayed like a fountain over the wide flower field where butterflies flew.
White petals soaked red.
Like holding raindrops, the flower field wet with red blood looked eerie.
Kierne, who had been watching, smiled slowly.
That bastard wasn’t in his right mind either.
If he weren’t an inquisitor, who knows what he would have become.
‘I should use him moderately and discard him.’
One person obsessively attached to the child in a creepy way was enough.
Kierne drew up his power.
Black shadows surged between the blood-soaked flowers.
He extended shadows toward Hailon as if by mistake, and Hailon lightly frowned his eyebrows and shattered the shadows with chains.
The shadows scattered into pieces against the chains filled with divine power.
Kierne nonchalantly turned the shadows elsewhere and moved them.
The shadows swallowed the corpses of the slave hunters, twisted in nauseating shapes.
It was perfect evidence destruction, leaving no trace of black magic or holy relics.
“It’s someone else’s illusion, so we should clean up before leaving, shouldn’t we?”
At his shameless words, Hailon retracted the chains without reply.
He approached immediately and checked on Cheshire.
Not to be outdone, Kierne also scrutinized Cheshire carefully.
“……”
With her face buried in Kierne’s arms, only her round little back of the head was visible.
The child, gripping Kierne’s hem with small fingers white from strain, was somehow silent.
Overwhelmed by surging anxiety, Kierne licked his dry lips with his tongue.
He had made sure she didn’t see all the cruel parts…
Did he make a mistake somewhere?
Was the child scared by the Basilian’s inhumanity?
Should he have pretended to be shocked and horrified when the inquisitor killed the hunters?
All sorts of thoughts swirled around.
The child’s body trembled faintly.
Knowing he should wait, but unable to hold back, he carefully extended his hand.
He gently cupped the child’s face and made her look at him.
The child was biting her lips as if trying to hold something back.
Biting so hard her chin wrinkled, she alternated looking at him and Hailon with large eyes.
Her pink pupils quickly moistened with tears.
Wetting like a rose touched by dawn dew…
Small droplets began to fall, plop, plop.
Kierne and Hailon turned to stone just like that.
