“Ah. I remember. That bloody ruby ring and laurel wreath.”

“…The ring and wreath. And…”

The sword. That’s it. The last divine item that Magnus couldn’t find. The final piece he needed to complete his not yet perfect power.

“Count Illeyan. Does that record also mention the location of the divine item?”

“The location of the divine item…”

“The three divine items of King Iker – the wreath, the ring, and the sword. Is the location of the sword recorded among them?”

Illeyan swallowed his saliva.

It had been a whole three years since he last read King Iker’s record.

Trying to suddenly recall the details now made his head ache as if it would split.

Nevertheless, he rummaged through his memories to the end and pulled out the knowledge Merche desired.

The moment he spoke it out loud, he felt nauseous and his body staggered, but Christine approached and held him, barely avoiding an unsightly scene.

“…It said the sword is in Venenum. King Iker bestowed it as a gift to the head of Venenum, and the next head inherited it from generation to generation, always carrying it on their person,” he said in a hoarse, powerless voice.

For Merche, it was a pain that tore her body apart and a lightning bolt that foretold an unspeakably cruel future.

– Prince Magnus may target Venenum.

That was the warning of Diego Fondo, who had searched for her with dozens of assassins in tow.

Merche bitterly regretted her misjudgment.

She shouldn’t have ignored that warning. She should have listened to it more carefully.

Prince Magnus had been targeting Venenum from the beginning. All his actions up to now pointed to that fact.

He had once even given his own ring to Joseph, sweeping through Venenum.

During those few days, Joseph held the position of head, even if only formally, and in just those few days, the vault of Venenum that only the head could open was torn apart.

Magnus’s purpose from the beginning must have been that vault.

He probably assumed the sword would be in the vault.

So he endured the cumbersome process of using Joseph to open the vault.

But the sword wasn’t in the vault at that time, and after experiencing one failure, Magnus began to wander again in search of clues to the sword’s location.

And today, he finally grasped an all too certain clue.

“…No.”

King Iker’s last divine item. The sword Magnus had been searching for was in Venenum.

None other than with the head of Venenum, Mariette.

“No! We have to go back right now, Rude. The sword that Lady Mariette carries on her person is the divine item… Prince Magnus will try to harm her…!”

Merche, her face drained of color, mounted Teresia’s eagle. Mariette, her life was in danger.

“Hmm… Is there no one out there?”

Mariette roughly pushed aside the documents she had finished signing.

After processing the family’s backlog of work for hours without getting up even once, fatigue had accumulated and her throat felt parched.

Usually, when she made a sound to call for an attendant at times like this, her quick-witted attendant would bring appropriately heated water and place it on the table.

“…Did she fall asleep or something?”

The attendant, who should have entered immediately when called, was nowhere to be found.

She contemplated pulling the bell cord but soon shook her head.

Enough. Heated water was something she could drink whenever she wanted. Wouldn’t it be a bit excessive to summon an already tired attendant for her own convenience?

Serving was truly arduous work, so as someone doing less strenuous work, she would easily endure a moment of thirst.

Putting aside her lingering thoughts, she was about to pick up the next document when…

Knock, knock.

A clear knocking sound belatedly reached the office.

Ahem. Despite pretending otherwise, Mariette cleared her throat, inwardly pleased.

“Come in.”

As soon as permission was granted, the heavy wooden door slid open smoothly.

However, upon encountering the familiar light blonde hair and the deep green eyes that followed, Mariette dropped the pen she was holding and had to rise from her seat.

Why was he here? It was a face that shouldn’t be seen here?

“…Your Highness, Prince Magnus?”

“Hello, Venenum. It’s been quite a while since our meeting.”

How delightful this encounter is…, Magnus smiled radiantly, calming his excited breath.

“Ah. I’m telling you this just in case, but don’t scold the knights for not properly guarding. They all had their throats slit by me, so they couldn’t reach you in time.”

“…I understand from your words. It seems you haven’t come with good intentions.”

“It’s a good intention for me. It may be misfortune for you, though.”

“What crime has this old man committed against Your Highness that you would personally bring misfortune?”

While calmly retorting, Mariette instinctively grasped the grip of the sword at her waist.

Seeing that, Magnus had to hold his breath once more to suppress his excitement.

To think I didn’t realize it was right in front of my eyes.

If I had known earlier, there would have been no need to use the greedy and ignorant Joseph Venenum, even awakening the Basilisk.

“Crime, you say? Impossible. On the contrary, I came to thank you. Today, you are scheduled to give me something I have long desired as a gift.”

“I don’t have any precious items to offer Your Highness… There must be some misunderstanding.”

“Oh my. Venenum, your very existence is a precious gift to me. It’s a pity you don’t know that?”

I… Just as he was about to continue, a hidden viper lunged at him, curling up its body.

This was the reason he deliberately prolonged the conversation with her, and Mariette’s sinister move.

But before those sharp fangs could sink into his flesh, the tensely raised head drooped, and Mariette, who had tried to slip through the gap with her sword in hand, collapsed to the floor.

Thud! The sound of her knees hitting the ground echoed loudly.

“Venenum. The gift King Iker bestowed upon Venenum, you have it, don’t you?”

“…You bastard, don’t even dream of it. It’s out of the question! Rather than giving it to you, I’ll… break this with my own hands!”

Mariette gritted her teeth and tightly grasped the blade of the sword, resisting his power.

She intended to pour strength into both hands and break the blade.

“Venenum. You should think of your granddaughter, who still has many days ahead of her. You have a lovely bloodline. Would it really be alright if your granddaughter follows you and is torn to death?”

However, the moment Carla, none other than her granddaughter, was mentioned, Mariette’s eyes, which she had stubbornly raised, trembled.

“If you don’t hand over that sword to me, I will torture your adorable granddaughter to death in the most painful way possible. Keeping her alive for a very long time, making her fully experience every pain without exception. Until she begs to be killed instead.”

“You bastard−! Shut up!”

“Ahaha…! How truly pitiful. Your fate is really unfortunate too.”

Step by step, Magnus walked with long strides and approached right in front of Mariette, who was crawling on the floor.

He knelt on one knee, lowering his body.

Then, slowly and attentively, he met Mariette’s pale pupils that glared at him as if to kill.

“Merche. If that child had been here, you wouldn’t have been so helplessly overpowered by me. Then… Hmm. Right. Even for me, I would have had to go through quite a bit of trouble to obtain that sword, wouldn’t I?”

Magnus stretched out his hand demonstratively.

Smoothly, like the movement of a snake crawling.

The silently extended fingertips caressed the grip of the sword and began to detach Mariette’s fingers that roughly covered it one by one.

Seeing that and unable to resist in any way, tears of frustration fell from her wide-open eyes.

“Fortunately, the timing coincided. It wasn’t prearranged, but Teresia Aquila moved clumsily, and her mother, Lena Aquila, moved swiftly with discretion. Thanks to that, Merche is now in the land of Sano, not here. …Yes.”

That child can no longer stop me, no matter what she does.

As Magnus whispered, he drew the sword from its sheath.

“It may be unjust and sorrowful, but think of it as sacrificing yourself to save your granddaughter. If you pay the price with your death here, Carla Venenum will live. That’s enough, isn’t it?”

“…You bastard. …Merche will never…”

Let you get away with it. The unfinished words dispersed with her last breath.

“Lady Merche.”

When she returned to the main residence of Venenum, the first person Merche encountered was Iler Widentia blocking her way.

“Where is… the head? Where is she now?”

“Don’t you already suspect it? Do you still truly wish to see Venenum?”

“I have to see her, I must see the head… Please.”

Merche pleaded with empty eyes as if her soul had left her body.

From the time she left Sano until she arrived in Venenum, she was literally like a person whose spirit had left, cutting through the wind again and again.

Please don’t be too late. May no incident or catastrophe have occurred in Venenum.

For the first time since birth, she desperately prayed to the gods Niram and Nisha.

But when she returned here…

The moment she heard the sound of crying from here and there, saw the knights and servants hurrying about, she had no choice but to intuitively realize.

What had happened inside that tightly locked office.

Why such a thick, fishy smell flowed from there, making her nose sting.

Why the lingering attendants and even strangers she had never exchanged greetings with hastily grabbed and dissuaded her from entering.

It would have been better if she were an ignorant fool.

Then, even after seeing those ominous signs, she could have remained ignorant a little longer, as if nothing came to mind.

But Merche was not like that.

She was not a fool, and she was not ignorant.

Thus, she realized the terrible truth far too soon.