“I still vividly remember the day he brought me that treasure.”

Dietrich, recalling the past, caressed the row of experiment journals lined up on the bookshelf.

“An ancient scripture that was fortunately lost was discovered in the perpetual snow of Prunig.”

The Prunig mountain range in northern Ideana.

A hunter discovered an old book in that perpetual snow and presented it to Baron Felix Ideana.

It was the lost latter part of the Book of Desiderata.

The story after the demon Mephistopheles was sealed.

Felix Ideana read the contents written in the scripture and became captivated by the powerful force.

However, lacking knowledge of black magic and spiritual power, he could not make any significant progress in his research.

In the end, the baron came to Dietrich with the latter part of the Book of Desiderata.

“It was a wise choice for him to seek me out.”

Even back then, Dietrich was famous in the monastery as an eccentric who obsessively delved into things that caught his interest.

Moreover, he had already published several important research papers on black magic in the monastery.

Felix believed that the young but brilliant new priest could provide answers to his research.

“I was a bit surprised when he said he wanted to give that power to his daughter, but I could understand.”

Felix Ideana introduced his young daughter to Dietrich.

Louise Ideana, a sickly girl around ten years old.

“Sometimes that happens. The innate spiritual power is so outstanding that it doesn’t mesh well with the body.”

Dietrich muttered while looking at Louise, who was standing like a doll.

When he first saw Louise, Dietrich was quite surprised.

Because she had innate spiritual power that rivaled his own, even after he had undergone long training.

It was only natural that her young body couldn’t handle it.

“She was the perfect experimental material. According to the Book of Desiderata, the stronger the spiritual power, the higher the success rate of black magic experiments.”

Spiritual power and black magic are two sides of the same coin.

Strong spiritual power is the source of strong black magic.

That’s why the great priest Mephistopheles could become a terrible demon.

“It was a stroke of luck. An opportunity to test all my curiosities.”

Dietrich took out the most recent experiment journal, opened a clean page, picked up a pen, and muttered.

The latter part of the Book of Desiderata that Felix brought contained detailed dangers and warnings about black magic.

Thanks to the excessively detailed descriptions, the Book of Desiderata was sufficient material for researching black magic.

Dietrich thought.

Perhaps Desiderata realized the danger of what he had written and removed it from the world himself.

But Desiderata was wrong.

It’s foolish to destroy such precious knowledge just because it’s fearsome.

This dangerous and stimulating secret was enough to provoke his overflowing curiosity.

Passion for exploration, the belief and noble will of a scholar to uncover the secrets of the world.

It reached an extreme, becoming more madly pure than any love.

“I was young and full of enthusiasm back then. Now that I’m older, I’ve somehow become more conservative.”

Dietrich rubbed his chin glumly as if regretting the years gone by.

The experiments of his fearless youth quickly accumulated results.

“But I couldn’t stay in Ideana for long. I was a novice back then and had to move as instructed from above.”

Before long, Dietrich was transferred from the Ideana territory to the Lester territory.

Seeing that he couldn’t get along with the other priests, the head priest of Ideana sent him to Lester.

Not being able to conduct research together near the experimental subject was a huge loss.

“My heart ached so much back then… Above all, it was my greatest regret not being able to take the latter part of the Book of Desiderata with me.”

But thanks to that, Dietrich could become a priest unrelated to black magic research.

He took off his priest robes and often visited the Ideana household to observe Felix’s research.

It was relatively easy to come and go as the Lester and Ideana territories were adjacent, and others didn’t find it strange if the eccentric Dietrich disappeared for a few days.

“Felix also became more and more immersed in my research. Sometimes he would do things I didn’t even tell him to do and ruin it, but he was quite sincere too. Ah, he’s your grandfather.”

He dipped the pen in ink, wrote letters on the journal, and muttered.

Eve had been covering her mouth with her small hands, terrified of Dietrich muttering to himself.

It felt like something terrible would happen if she made a sound.

An ominous red light kept rising from the ground where her mother was standing.

What if Mom dies? What should I do about the bad man?

It wasn’t this scary even when she was hanging from a tree and about to fall.

Even when she jumped off a high cliff in the arms of the villain, she was startled but not trembling.

But now, even though she wasn’t exerting any strength, just sitting down, her hands were shaking visibly.

“So I trusted and left it to Felix for a while. He wasn’t particularly trustworthy, but I had no choice. The temple was keeping an eye on me. But you know what, soon after, news of Ideana’s rebellion reached me. How stupid to let the secret leak out.”

Dietrich put down the pen and gritted his teeth.

“And that damn fool made the precious experimental subject go berserk and ruined all the research.”

Flames of anger flared in his blue eyes.

The day the Ideana territory completely fell.

Upon hearing the news that imperial troops were coming to charge them with treason, Felix made his last move.

He tried to repel the imperial army with Louise’s power.

Louise, who opposed the war, resisted, and Felix ended up casting brainwashing and enhancement spells on her.

However, his final spell failed.

It was unclear whether the spell was wrong or Louise’s will to resist was too strong.

But Louise went berserk like never before, and Paradel…

“When I returned here as a priest, it was nothing but ruins.”

Literally, a hell on earth.

Baron Felix Ideana was found as a blackened corpse.

The other experimental subjects were the same.

Dietrich ground his teeth as he saw his experiments completely ruined.

He directed the priests and searched for the cause of the incident.

Fortunately, the underground laboratory and experimentation rooms were not collapsed and remained intact.

He distracted the priests’ attention and sealed the place with a barrier so others couldn’t see it.

But the most important thing was missing.

‘Louise Ideana is gone.’

The finished product of the experiment.

That final experimental subject who absolutely couldn’t die had disappeared without a trace.

“Priest Dietrich. A corpse that appears to be Louise Ideana has been found over there.”

In the place he rushed to at the report of the other priests, a pitch-black corpse was discovered, just like the other corpses.

Wearing Louise Ideana’s clothes, with blond hair fluttering, it was a corpse.

An appearance intentionally arranged to be similar.

Dietrich sensed that the corpse wasn’t Louise.

“Moreover, the latter part of the Book of Desiderata was also swept away and lost in that calamity. I don’t know where Felix kept it… Well, it doesn’t matter since every letter is etched in my mind. Though… some of the unnecessary stories written there might be better off gone.”

Dietrich pressed his eyelids hard, recalling the bothersome and annoying past.

Using his position, he reported that the entire Ideana family had perished.

Since Louise wouldn’t die anyway, he thought he could find her if he pursued her.

“I didn’t know it would take 8 years to meet Louise again. Even more so, I had no idea I would lose her again and have to wait another 4 years.”

Dietrich slowly approached Louise.

The light rising from the red spell formation drawn on the floor eerily illuminated Dietrich’s face.

Dietrich grinned ecstatically as he looked at Louise standing obediently.

“You have no idea how happy I was when I met you again, Louise.”

Dietrich’s fingertips brushed Louise’s cheek.

“Ah, don’t touch Mom…!”

Eve, trembling with fear, shouted upon seeing the bad man approach her mother.

She was afraid that the white man would harm her mother.

Then a chilling gaze turned toward Eve.

“Eek!”

Eve froze in place as if asking when she had mustered the courage, gasping for breath.

The blue eyes were mixed with a reddish hue, the gaze entangled in a strange, unknown color.

A crazed face seemingly intoxicated with something sent shivers down her spine.

Eve thought of one person while frozen like a rock.

‘Villain mister, please come and save us…!’

Just like he always appeared like a hero and saved Eve and her mother from danger.

She hoped that the villain would show up now and defeat that scary monster.

“There were many trials and tribulations, but I finally completed this great research.”

Dietrich stepped away from Louise again, fetched a bucket from a corner of the laboratory, and brought it over.

A revolting fishy smell wafted from the sticky, bright red liquid filling the bucket.

“Haha, I wanted to boast, but with no one to tell, I ended up talking too much in front of a kid like you.”

Dietrich set the bucket down with a thud near Louise.

Dietrich made a regretful expression as he looked at the frightened Eve.

I haven’t done anything yet, so why is she afraid of me?

From a universal perspective, this is all for the sake of humans, for you.

“Since ancient times, such great deeds have been difficult for ordinary people to understand.”

Dietrich sighed deeply as if it couldn’t be helped and tidied himself neatly like someone about to perform an important ceremony.

“The time has come to commercialize the results of this great research.”

The extremely elated voice echoed in the closed laboratory.