The sound of hooves echoed through the night forest where the cries of wild beasts could be heard. Soon after, five men on horseback appeared.

They stopped their horses in front of a villa located in the sparsely populated forest. At the center was Herdin.

As Herdin dismounted and approached the villa, the men guarding the front greeted him.

“We will escort you inside.”

Herdin gestured to stop the Delmark knights trying to follow him, then entered the villa alone.

The dark interior was lit only by a single lamp on the central table, where a man in a robe sat.

Herdin placed a note he had taken from his inner pocket on the table.

It was a note that had arrived for him an hour ago.

[Twelve years ago, the deaths of your father and mother were not an accident, but an intentional murder.]

The note, which began with this sentence, ended by saying that this was not a matter to be discussed in writing and that they wanted to meet face-to-face for a direct conversation.

“Unless you have a death wish, you wouldn’t casually bring up someone else’s family matters.”

Although Herdin’s voice was calm as he spoke, his eyes held a chilling murderous intent as he looked at the man.

The man flinched for a moment, overwhelmed by the pressure, but soon replied politely.

“I’m not of a status worthy to visit you directly, and if I sent documents to the duke’s residence, I feared others might see them. So I had no choice but to invite you to this humble place. Please forgive my rudeness.”

“Skip the unnecessary talk and explain. What’s the content of this note, how did you come to know it, and how much do you know? Everything.”

Without further words, the man handed Herdin a document. On the first page was a magic circle.

“This is a document we recently obtained. At a glance, it seems to be related to the Delmark ducal family. I thought it would be faster for you to see it than for me to explain, so I’m presenting it to you.”

Herdin looked at the man and the document he offered with suspicious eyes before picking it up.

However, as soon as he discovered the handwriting below the magic circle, Herdin’s previously bored eyes shook violently.

[It is said that there is black magic that connects the second condition of the contract with the divine beast that was severed long ago. Perhaps…]

It was a familiar handwriting.

The handwriting that filled the letters that arrived daily, like salvation, when he was young and suffering after losing his parents.

It was Esmeralda’s handwriting.

Suddenly, he remembered what Blair had said after waking up following the kidnapping incident.

‘It wasn’t a memory of the day of the accident, but of seeing Her Majesty the Empress hiding something in her bedroom at some point. …In the end, I lost those documents.’

He had a feeling that the document in his hand now was the one Blair had lost then.

“…Where did you get this document?”

“A few months ago, a gambler who frequented gambling dens picked it up on the street. When he realized the magic circle drawn was black magic, he got scared and sold it instead of paying for drinks before leaving.”

The timing roughly coincided with when the kidnapping incident occurred.

Herdin quickly opened the next page.

[…Perhaps Kasion and Eloise were not simply victims of an accident, but of an intentional murder.]

This was the content that was also written in the note he had received from the man.

Below that were Esmeralda’s personal investigation into the details of Kasion’s rampage incident and her inferences based on it.

[The heirs of Delmark, being at risk of going berserk, train from a young age to control their power.

Kasion showed exceptional talent in handling and controlling the divine beast’s power from childhood, to the extent that the elders acknowledged it.

For such a Kasion to go berserk while merely facing a magical beast… When he had dealt with countless magical beasts?

As his sister who has watched him for many years, this incident is utterly incomprehensible to me.

My investigation began with this question.]

The point where Esmeralda had doubts was also where Herdin had felt suspicious.

Herdin continued to read the document, following Esmeralda’s thoughts.

[…After investigating numerous possibilities, I learned about black magic that reconnects the second constraint of the family’s power, which was said to have disappeared.]

When the heir of a family inheriting the divine beast’s power first has a relationship with someone they love, if that person also loves the heir, an imprint is engraved on that person.

At first glance, it seems romantic, but in reality, it’s the opposite.

This imprint becomes a channel for sharing mana and using stronger power at the cost of the partner’s lifespan.

As those with strong powers often face dangerous situations, from that point on, they must weigh the life of their loved one against the safety of countless other lives.

One of Delmark’s ancestors, finding this horrifying, completely severed this constraint, and the descendants gave up stronger power in exchange for no longer experiencing the tragedy of putting their loved one’s life on the scales.

This was the content about the second constraint that Herdin knew.

But now, there’s black magic that can reconnect this severed second constraint?

[Using this black magic, an imprint is engraved on the loved one like the original second constraint, and from then on, one can use stronger power at the cost of the partner’s lifespan.

However, as it unnaturally reconnects a constraint that was already severed, there are side effects.]

Originally, the second constraint allowed descendants who inherited the divine beast’s power to share mana with their imprinted partner, enabling the use of stronger power.

But the second constraint reconnected by black magic is imperfect, making it difficult to stop once it’s crossed.

In other words, one of the two must die to stop the second constraint.

Especially for Delmark’s descendants who have lived forgetting the second constraint for a long time, they are unfamiliar with mana sharing, so there’s a higher possibility of going berserk due to inability to handle the side effects, according to the content written in Esmeralda’s following document.

[However, this is merely my speculation. For a hypothesis to be true, there must be evidence to prove it.

So, in search of that evidence, I found testimony that Eloise, who had visited the temple for volunteer work a few months before Kasion’s rampage incident, had suffered a scratch, and the priest who treated her claimed to have seen the black magic circle on her.]

Upon reading that far, Herdin’s eyes wavered aimlessly.

Seeing the black magic circle means someone had already reconnected the second constraint, and as Esmeralda hypothesized, his parents were indeed victims of “murder,” not an accident.

[Who could have killed Kasion and Eloise? I have one person in mind, but…]

The document ended with those words.

However, judging by the appearance of the very back of the document, it seemed that the next page had been attached but was now missing.

Herdin looked at the man across from him and gave a cold smile.

“How much are you planning to sell the next page for?”

“Regrettably, what I’ve given you is all there is.”

“I don’t particularly like this kind of bargaining.”

If it was a merchant’s calculation, it was obvious. He was probably holding out for more money.

Although it was vexing to do business with someone else’s family matters, the fact that he had brought this document to him and not to Ivan was worth a high price.

“Name your price. Whatever you ask, I’ll pay that much.”

But the answer that came back was no different from before.

“I apologize.”

Herdin, who had let out a laugh of disbelief, soon hardened his expression. It really meant that this document was all this man had.

“If it’s not money you want, what’s your reason for giving this to me? From my perspective, it looks quite suspicious to be offering pure goodwill for someone else without any purpose.”

“…If I say it’s to repay a debt of gratitude to the previous duchess, would you believe me?”

Even Herdin had to accept that answer.

In fact, even after more than ten years since Eloise’s death, there were still many who honored her kindness.

Herdin, who had been gauging the man’s sincerity with cool blue eyes, swallowed a sigh and rose from his seat.

Although there were still unclear parts, it seemed there was nothing more to be gained from the man before him.

“If you find the back page, bring it to me.”

“Of course.”

Herdin left the villa, leaving the man behind.

As he watched the retreating figure with tense eyes, the man recalled his master’s voice in his head.

‘Just hand this over to Duke Delmark. Say you don’t know the whereabouts of the back page.’

The man’s master, Mikhail, had said this while taking the back page.

Having delivered the front page to Herdin as ordered, the rest was now up to Mikhail.

“…Everything is according to the master’s will.”

* * *

When Herdin returned to the duke’s residence, it was just as the dawn light was beginning to brighten.

Herdin went up to his office, put the document he had brought into the desk drawer and locked it. However, he couldn’t leave the office right away and sat there blankly.

The facts he had learned overnight were confusing.

He was overwhelmed by various emotions: the emptiness of realizing that his father, whom he thought he had killed with his own hands, was actually the victim of an intentional murder; the self-reproach for being manipulated by that plan; and the guilt towards Esmeralda, who must have struggled alone to uncover the truth in place of her broken nephew.

The days that hadn’t bothered him when he stayed up all night watching the sleeping Blair suddenly became extremely tiring today.

“…”

Leaning back in his chair and swallowing his drowsiness for a moment, Herdin carelessly brushed up his bangs and habitually took out a cigar from the drawer.

Just as he was about to light it, Blair’s face came to mind. As did the promise he had made with her.

He needed to return to the bedroom.

Today was the day he was supposed to go out with Blair.

Feeling his mood lift a little from its sunken state, Herdin put down the cigar and left the office, heading to Blair’s room.

But the moment he entered the room, a chilling sensation enveloped him, creating an inexplicable sense of unease.

Following that unease, he entered the bedroom and stopped in his tracks at the sight before him.

“…Blair.”

In the room where the dawn light was seeping in, the bed where Blair should have been sleeping was empty.