“Why? What on earth are you all afraid of?”

Marianne laughed coldly.

“Since when has Venenum trembled at a mere faction?”

“……”

“Whoever tries to become king, whoever joins forces to growl. It’s all external affairs. Venenum does not interfere.”

Marianne’s gaze turned towards the gap in the half-closed door of the conference room.

There, a pair of blue eyes floated like stars in the night sky, blankly standing and observing this place.

“Venenum protects its people. Even if beasts jumping like mudskippers try to trample us, even if we die in the process, Venenum is Venenum.”

Who do you think will die easily?

Marianne, with eyes like a viper, chuckled.

“The symbol of Venenum is the snake and poison. Even if we die, we never die alone. If they want to step on me, they should be prepared to die too.”

“As expected of our grandmother! Of course, the symbol of Venenum is the snake and poison!”

Carla, her eyes red from crying and laughing, was about to leave shouting that when she was caught by her grandmother’s call.

The conference room was silent after all the other retainers had left.

Amidst the chaos as if a storm had passed, Marianne struck Carla’s head like lightning.

“Ouch! Why are you hitting me, grandmother!”

“You brat. Who told you to butt in like that! Do you think the retainers will treat you as an heir that way?”

“Hmph… What if they don’t? I’m the heir, what can they do!”

“Can’t you be quiet! …Haah. Merche over there. Stop being so cautious and come in.”

Only after Marianne’s order fell did the presence hesitating at the door come in.

Huh? What’s this? How long have you been there? Carla asked with her eyes wide open, but quickly shut her mouth when she saw her grandmother looking at her as if she were the biggest fool in the world.

“I’m sure you heard everything, so I won’t beat around the bush. Merche. What do you want to do?”

Merche, sitting next to Carla, carefully chose her words.

“I don’t want to, Duke Lupinus. I won’t marry you.”

She had blurted that out before, but now the situation is different. Isn’t Venenum’s decision riding on her choice?

What should I do? Should I accept after all…

“Putting aside all the other headaches, I’m asking for your opinion. Don’t say things you don’t mean out of unnecessary sense of responsibility. The heir of Venenum is Carla, this brat, not you.”

Ah. She felt like her innermost thoughts had been completely read. As she hesitated and raised her head, she saw the grandmother and granddaughter looking at her with the same expression.

Merche bowed her head and buried her face in her clasped hands. A dejected laugh escaped through her neatly arranged fingers.

“I don’t want to. I don’t want to marry Rude… Duke Lupinus.”

“I see. I understand.”

“Instead, I want to be engaged.”

“…What?”

The gazes focused on her were sharp. Nevertheless, Merche calmly composed her expression and lowered her hands that were covering her face.

As always, it was a quiet and cool face.

“I will be engaged to Duke Lupinus. If he insists, I will persuade him to change his mind.”

The two, grandmother and granddaughter, were frozen, unable to say anything, holding their breath.

Merche smiled at them as if to show them.

Indeed. I can’t put them in crisis with my personal feelings.

If sacrifice is needed, if it can protect them with that. Then I will choose sacrifice without hesitation.

Marianne and Carla took turns asking her intentions several times, but Merche confirmed her sincerity several times.

Because Merche rarely reveals her inner thoughts, no matter how much they pressed, there was nothing particularly gained.

“Please ask Duke Lupinus for his intentions. He will probably accept without refusing.”

Marianne, though doubtful, sent a servant to Rude.

And before half a day had passed, the servant returned to Marianne with his answer.

“He says he will accept.”

With such clear intentions of the parties involved and eloquent agreement. That’s how Merche and Rude’s engagement was established.

“Keep a close eye on Merche.”

“Of course. I was planning to do that even without you saying so.”

“And Carla. For the time being, have some guards accompany you.”

“What? Guards?”

The head that had been nodding resolutely stopped. Why? Carla’s innocent voice followed right after.

“All the snakes I attached to Joseph have disappeared.”

Joseph Venenum. Though from a branch family, his power was no less than Carla’s, another of her bloodline.

Marianne recalled Joseph’s face as he left the main house, as if being driven out after losing the heir succession battle.

Despair and shame, and even greater than that, desire.

“Joseph is not the type to back down easily. Just look at how he removed all the snakes I attached. He’s clearly trying to pull some trick.”

“Well… that’s certainly true. He’s always been a gloomy kid. But grandmother, Joseph was driven out penniless, wasn’t he?”

“I can’t accept this… I, I am far superior to that wench! This can’t be!”

Even after seeing the snakes following Carla’s orders instead of his own, Joseph had screamed at the top of his lungs.

Moreover, all the retainers present witnessed him trying to lunge at Marianne, unable to control his anger.

Rebelling against the family head. It was an outrage that couldn’t be tolerated.

Even the few retainers supporting Joseph withdrew their support after seeing that spectacle, so there was nothing more to say about that day’s events.

“Yes. That’s why it’s more dangerous. Because he has nothing left. Those who have nothing to protect go mad and then some.”

“But…”

“Heed my words, Carla. Carelessness invites disaster. I don’t want to lose you in vain.”

Rarely, a gentle hand stroked the dark green hair.

Carla mumbled her lips but finally nodded obediently, unable to do anything.

Joseph opened his eyes, shivering from the cold.

When he came to his senses, his body was tied up so tightly he couldn’t move an inch, and from head to toe his whole body was damp as if hit by ice-cold water.

The sound of teeth chattering came out involuntarily.

Even his vision was strangely dark as he was crawling on the floor, when someone grabbed his face and suddenly removed what was covering his eyes.

“…!”

A beauty like one from a dream. A man with pale golden hair as if made by lightly dissolving sugar, and clear green eyes curved mischievously, smiled.

Despite being in a situation where he had been kidnapped and dragged away by someone, Joseph was flustered and couldn’t even speak, enchanted by that smile.

“Hello, Joseph.”

“Wh-who… do you know me?”

“Of course I know. You’re the poor victim who unfairly lost the heir position, aren’t you?”

The man clicked his tongue.

“My, my. Falling for the schemes of an incompetent cousin and losing the position you should have rightfully had. What a pitiful fate this is.”

“Carla! That damned thing, did she really scheme? …Ha! I knew it. There’s no way that wench could beat me…”

“Doesn’t it make you feel wronged?”

“Of course it does! I should have been the heir. That arrogant thing, not knowing shame, took my place…!”

“Is being deceived all there is to it? Joseph, you almost died. These were secretly following behind you. Here, want to say hello?”

Joseph’s eyes widened. In the man’s hand were dozens of snake corpses.

Green, white, black… Though each had a different color, Joseph could recognize them. They were definitely Venenum’s snakes. Having been born and raised there, Joseph couldn’t mistake them.

His head, lowered in a sense of betrayal, trembled.

How dare that wench try to kill me? That thing, to me who has the rightful qualifications to be heir?

“Joseph. Don’t feel wronged, look at me. An opportunity like this has come to you, you see.”

The corners of the man’s eyes curved round again. Joseph unknowingly opened his mouth and turned his eyes this way and that following the man’s nod.

“I’ll give you a chance for revenge. In return, you should give me something too, right?”

“Anything! Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you!”

“Now, now. Quiet down, you should lower your voice and not cause a commotion.”

The man’s bony fingers lightly patted Joseph’s shoulder like down.

At the end, it seemed to just brush past his hand. But when he came to his senses, there was an unfamiliar ring on the ring finger of his right hand.

What’s this?

Joseph stared at the ring on his finger. It was a ring that gave him a strange feeling somehow.

It seemed to have a bright red ruby embedded in the center, but unlike its outdated and clumsy outer appearance, the color was quite vivid as if well-maintained.

“Joseph.”

“Y-yes?”

“Do you know the myth of the Ypero Kingdom?”

“Uh, what myth are you referring to…”

“The first king. Did you know that one of the mythical monsters he controlled is in the land where Joseph was born and raised?”

Basilisk.

The beautiful voice whispered thickly.

“After the first king died, all the monsters he controlled fell into a deep sleep, they say. The basilisk was no exception. But what if…”

What would happen if that monster wakes up and runs amok?

A monster that could easily reduce Venenum to ruins and more, that terrifying basilisk. What if it obediently bows its head to the exiled bloodline of Venenum?

The green-tinged eyes slowly scanned Joseph’s skin as if measuring prey.

Joseph, already enticed by the sweet words, listened blankly to the man’s words with clouded eyes.

“Wake the basilisk. Then you’ll go back into Venenum with it, Joseph.”

“Yes… I’ll wake the basilisk and go to Venenum…”

“After that, save Venenum from crisis and take the family head position.”

“Yes… The family head position, I…”

“There’s a safe in Venenum that only the family head can open, right?”

The man fiddled with the ring on Joseph’s right hand.

The red ruby glittered strangely, shining at different angles.

“When everything is over and I come to find you, that’s when you’ll open the safe. If you can do just that properly, I’ll give you Venenum. How about it?”