Chapter . 4
Since I can bury him alive later, let's first think about the enemy's exact intentions. There might be something more than what I've guessed.
The ingredients for Lasilex are rare, so even in the past, it cost a fortune to manufacture. Especially now that the manufacturing method is lost, its value is beyond imagination.
‘Feeding such expensive medicine to me, the one with the least prospect of inheriting the throne? Not to Maximilian, who is a stronger competitor than Desmond?’
…Of course, they probably wanted to check if I had magic power and use me as a scapegoat if Desmond failed to contract with the dragon. I'm also easier to dispose of than Maximilian.
However, I couldn't shake the hunch that there was something more. I know what kind of person the Empress is.
The Empress, who even restored the Lasilex that I found out about through investigation, couldn't be unaware of the facts.
‘The Empress must also know the cases of those who drank Lasilex and became Emperor.’
But even if she wanted to prepare Desmond for the dragon contract, there are more people who died after drinking Lasilex than those who became Emperor.
So she must have had me drink it first.
If she secretly fed it to the first prince and his magic power increased, it would be a huge loss.
On the other hand, since I have no power, even if my magic power increases, they can just eliminate me before I contract with the dragon.
My master would have pointed out that due to the difference in the amount of magic power, the result from me couldn't be the same as Desmond’s.
But, if the purpose was to modify Lasilex depending on the result…….
Before regressing, since the result was so bad, she probably had to discard it thinking Desmond might end up like me…….
Ultimately, neither I nor the Empress are scholars like my master. Politicians who sometimes choose a gamble over logic even if there is only a faint possibility.
Above all, it was the Empress who branded me, a human, with the dragon's brand. This was also something that had been impossible.
However, a person who knew no magic and had no magic power, relentlessly abused magic by any means necessary, and eventually grasped the power of the throne.
‘So I was the test subject for the Empress’s Lasilex human experiment.’
It was a perfect plan. Except for the fact that I am now a wizard.
It was just when I reached the conclusion.
“Your Highness, I saw earlier that you had symptoms, so I brought some good medicine.”
The court physician pressed me.
“What symptoms are you talking about?”
“Didn't you fail to recognize me, swat away my hand, and struggle?”
He was as shameless as his face looked.
“It smells terrible.”
“What do you mean? It doesn't smell like anything. That might also be a symptom―”
“Your breath smells terrible. It makes me not want to drink your medicine either, so shut that mouth.”
Amidst the quiet, I fell into thought again.
I could smell Lasilex, so I could avoid it even if they secretly mixed it in my food.
I could also pretend to eat it with magic and secretly discard the contents.
‘But what if I drink it as is and test my hypothesis?’
My hypothesis that if I use magic while drinking Lasilex, I can turn the poison that kills magic power into a medicine that increases magic power.
Moreover, since I already know how to use magic, I don't need to rely on instinct like past Emperors. Perhaps some who were renowned as heroes secretly learned magic like me.
But…….
‘I thought I was dying…….’
The pain when I drank Lasilex was still vivid. Above all, if my hypothesis was wrong, I might lose my magic power again.
Could I endure that twice?
But I absolutely had to save Michelon. A dragon’s growth takes time. In the case of an Emperor who handled dragons exceptionally well, it is said there was record-breaking rapid growth.
‘The words sound plausible, but in reality, it must have been magic.’
Before regressing, all sorts of magic were mobilized to brand Michelon like a preliminary contract as soon as he hatched, and then to make him grow rapidly. It was a miracle that our contract succeeded even with such a cruel method.
I cannot let Michelon go through such a thing again. I have to hatch him, hide him with magic, and take care of him until he grows up. Still, since they grow faster than humans, by the time I come of age, Michelon will also be an adult dragon.
‘But Maximilian comes of age before me.’
Only adults can attempt a contract with a dragon. Of course, there were exceptions throughout long history, but the results were never good. Especially if I have a brother rumored to have assassinated our father to get his hands on a dragon egg before regressing, I had to move from now.
The problem was me, who had just started using magic. To become stronger than the competitors’ wizards, I had to increase my magic power significantly.
“Your Highness, are you really not going to take the medicine?”
The court physician, who had been silent for a moment, asked anxiously.
I silently reached out and took it.
“Your hands are trembling. I will hold it for you, so just put your lips to it.”
Even though I managed to survive before regressing, forcing an experiment with an uncertain hypothesis now might kill me. Even if I don't die, losing my magic power is irreversible.
But the opportunity to gain the power to save Michelon was also irreversible. It would be difficult to find Michelon, and even if I found him, if I couldn't protect him, a situation more terrible than before regression could occur.
To do that, I had to become stronger than now.
‘I can save Michelon, Master, and those who saved me… Drink it, coward.’
Even so, when the fear of losing the barely gained power persistently held me back, a question suddenly arose in my mind.
‘Did Michelon know? That the regression would succeed?’
A question no one knows the answer to.
But he carried it out. Even betting the freedom he barely gained.
I swatted away the hand the court physician offered and gripped the cup tightly. I brought it straight to my mouth.
Like that, I drank the poison that had harmed me again.
As I emptied the poisoned cup in one gulp, terrible pain swallowed me.
“Y-Your Highness?”
Blood gushed from my throat. The unique thick floral scent of Larsil became stronger. Invisible flames burned me.
I wanted to give up and let go of all my magic power……. Thinking I could overcome the toxicity of Lasilex by using magic was a delusion.
Using magic amidst the pain of burning to death alive, the attempt itself was impossible…….
‘So I die like this. Without saving anyone.’
I wanted to save Master too, before she suffered tragedy…….
Sadness swallowed me. Enough to make me forget even the pain for a moment.
Ultimately, no matter how great the pain of the poison, my sadness was greater.
In that case, I was stronger than the poison.
The moment I realized, the poison rooted in every vein flowing through my body ignited all at once.
‘Now.’
If I don't succeed now, the pain I overcame until now will be in vain. As I gathered the burning pain throughout my body to my heart, a flow was created. Like a river of fire.
Fire, river, and magic power are all energies overflowing in the world, but if I move them with my will, they become my power.
It was a solitary belief. One that no one hears.
But soon, it was the new beginning of my magic.
How much time had passed?
While I died and woke up about a hundred times alone, I stood enduring with my whole body against the world that flowed like a river leaving me behind. Expressing my will to that world.
Either sweep me away, or be swept away by me.
Finally, the river of fire changed its course according to my command.
Using my scar as a starting point, tracing its shape.
Pushing out from the heart it had flowed into, it circled around.
Like a snake biting its own tail with the poisonous fangs that bit me. Generating magic power with every turn.
‘Still not enough…….’
No matter how painful, I couldn't stop.
The moment I cut this flow of magic power, Lasilex would become a deadly poison and swallow my body.
After enduring and enduring, finally, magic power began to fill my whole body where the dragon’s poison had spread.
It felt like being struck by lightning, and that lightning running down my spine.
The moment that lightning struck my heart directly with surging power, a thrill ran from head to toe.
I had never felt the sensation of being alive penetrate deep into my bones as much as now.
Before manifesting outwardly, a new magic transforming me from within.
Feeling the mighty magic power swirling inside me, I closed my eyes. A faint smile naturally appeared on my lips.
Like that, I was reborn from a victim of the enemy's conspiracy to a wizard who would defeat the enemy.
A room so shabby it was hard to believe it was a prince’s residence.
The boy lying on the bed looked like an alabaster statue carved from a dead person at first glance. If not for the stream of blood that flowed down from the corner of his mouth to his neck, dyeing his upper garment red.
‘He is breathing, but there is no hope.’
The court physician thought.
A prince who was originally frail and then struck by illness, dying despite using good medicine and doing the best to treat him…….
‘He received no attention while alive, but perhaps he will receive sympathy in death.’
He didn't know exactly what medicine it was, but he heard that one could die after taking it if they weren't of the Balaska imperial bloodline.
If so, the suspicion regarding his birth that always followed Prince Leontes turned out to be true, and the court physician did nothing wrong.
‘I only gave it knowing him to be a royal.’
The court physician tried to leave the room, leaving the prince as he was.
The prince’s nanny died when he was young, and there had been no one since. A servant or maid would come only if he pulled the calling cord.
Since he had no exclusive attendants, be it knights or valets, no one knew the court physician had come, and the prince couldn't pull the cord in that state.
‘If I leave him like this, there will be no witnesses.’
A prince who fell ill suddenly when no one was around, vomited blood alone, and died a lonely death. That would be better for the boy too. Rather than rumors circulating even after death that he was an illegitimate child born from the late Empress’s affair and not a royal.
‘Ah, I must take the cup the prince drank from.’
Just before leaving the room, when the court physician looked back to destroy the evidence.
The long eyelashes cast on the pale cheeks lifted, and blue-gray eyes opened twinklingly.
“Y-Your Highness?”
“Court Physician.”
The boy’s voice rang clear and distinct.
-It is regrettable. If not for the insidious gray of the Roncer Imperial Family mixed in, they would have been the unique deep blue eyes of the Balaska Imperial Family.
-Compared to the First Prince’s eyes, they look muddy. It is no wonder rumors circulated questioning if they are really brothers.
-Indeed. If they were a completely different color like Prince Desmond’s, we would have just accepted it.
The boy’s appearance was gossip in the court. Saying he looked gloomy and dark.
Since the boy always had a shadowed complexion and wore shabby clothes unlike a prince, he became a target for the courtiers. Because there was no restraint whatsoever even if they openly enjoyed slandering a royal.
However, facing the eyes like a snowy winter sea, all those slanderous words vanished from the court physician’s mind as if washed away.
“Court Physician.”
When the prince called again, the court physician flinched. Because he didn't realize he had been staring blankly.
“Show proper manners.”
“…Yes, Your Highness.”
The court physician unwittingly closed his mouth, which had been gaping open in front of a royal, and bowed politely.
“Yes, you should.”
Even if he was a prince, being treated like a child by a boy was unpleasant. Ultimately, even if he is a prince, he is powerless―
“I drank the medicine you gave and vomited blood. Do you have anything to say?”
At the prince’s following words, the court physician swallowed dry saliva.
He wasn't like the boy who usually walked with his head bowed low, unable to even make eye contact. If he had rather felt even a little anger, his chest wouldn't have tightened this much. However, he was the Empress’s man, not a novice unable to cope when things went wrong.
“…But Your Highness has woken up safely. If it were poison, you wouldn't have been able to. Your Highness vomited blood because you were expelling the toxins accumulated in your body all at once with that medicine.”
“A plausible inference.”
The prince nodded with a gentle face, far from showing signs of anger.
A greenhorn after all. It was when the court physician smiled in triumph.
“In that case, you could drink the medicine I drank to prove your words.”
You want me, a commoner, to drink medicine that nearly killed a royal?
After seeing this mess, I wouldn't want to drink it even if I knew the medicine well.
The court physician bit his lip but soon smiled.
“I prepared the best medicine for the sick Prince, and it can be said that Your Highness, who has been weak all this time, survived because of that medicine.”
“Is that so?”
“…It is. Yet, since Your Highness does not believe me, how could I not follow your words?”
The court physician continued speaking without hesitation, with a look of injustice.
“But unfortunately, what Your Highness drank was the last of that medicine.”
It was a lie.
The court physician kept the remaining medicine in his bosom. The order was to return any leftovers immediately.
“I can make the medicine again, but the ingredients are so rare that obtaining them again would exceed the budget. Of course, if Your Highness grants the cost, I will gladly make it again and drink it directly in front of Your Highness.”
Another lie.
The budget for royals was overflowing.
However, taking advantage of the Emperor’s neglect of his children, the Empress blocked expenses for Prince Leontes with all sorts of excuses.
‘If he is really smart, he will realize on his own that continuing to act like a prince here will only be disadvantageous.’
The prince asked back in a resonant voice.
“Did you say there is no medicine?”
“Yes, as I mentioned earlier, unfortunately, all the medicine was offered to Your Highness―”
At that moment, the court physician felt something strange. His chest suddenly felt hot and his heart beat faster, while conversely, a chill ran down his spine.
It felt unpleasant. As if an invisible hand was groping inside his clothes.