“You brought the demons because of your ambition to become king, and you made it to this point. Thanks to that, my father is just keeping his place as a puppet king.”

“So! For your puppet father, or rather, for you who will be king in the future, do you intend to make Kuran your own by controlling all the guilds? Are you aiming for the situation where I can’t move here?”

“No way. I know that you won’t let that happen. I also know well that you are trying to seat Maria as the next great king. All I need is to have control over all the guilds as I do now.”

The Duke glanced at Balder, who spoke lightly, shrugging his shoulders. This insolent brat was exceptional in mind, so he must not be unaware of the meaning of his words.

“That place is just like the seat of the real king.”

“But I don’t wear a crown on my head, do I? Let’s hand that over to your daughter, my cousin sister.”

“Balder.”

“Yes?”

“What do you think you are now?”

Balder’s brows furrowed sharply. It was a short word, but he sensed that the conversation would not go in the direction he wanted.

“What on earth are you saying?”

“Do you think you are human?”

“Or what?”

“Don’t forget that I gave you magic.”

The Duke’s words, subtly threatening, momentarily closed the noisy Balder’s mouth.

“……Well, I appreciate it. But wasn’t that just for your convenience?”

“Whatever reason I gave the magic, what’s important is that you gained power because of it. Just don’t forget that fact. Don’t disappoint me.”

With a gesture that seemed to bid him to go, Balder clenched his fist in what appeared to be anger at the Duke’s action.

On the fourth finger of that hand was a mana ring given by the Duke. Feeling its presence sharply, he spat on the ground in anger and left.

Duke Kuran, watching his nephew’s receding figure, spoke to his subordinate.

“You have planted someone around that child, haven’t you?”

“Yes. He has risen to become one of the closest confidants. You don’t have to worry.”

“If necessary, cut off his finger and take the ring out.”

“Understood.”

“You may leave too.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

Gedis, left alone in the quiet hall after his subordinate left, looked down at the ring on his finger.

An opaque rainbowcolored gemstone ring.

Fifteen years ago, he had absorbed magical power from the gap in the demon world and made seven rings. He then bestowed each of the seven, whom he had infused with power to make ‘Gatekeepers’ to protect himself and Kuran, a ring of a different color.

While all the others were rings to amplify magic, the ones given to Balder, his younger sibling, and Maria were rings to confine magic.

He reminisced about the past.
He could not give up on the dream of becoming a king, and fell to the devil’s temptation, ruining everything. The woman he loved died, and he had no choice but to send his young daughter to a neighboring domain. Since she was to be the next queen, he wanted her to grow up ordinarily, far away from himself.

Thus, 15 years passed. She seemed to have become quite the ordinary noble lady, but the changes in appearance due to the magic infused in her at a very young age were inevitable.

Anyway, until teaching her the way to control magic, he wished for her to live a normal married life. To settle down and have a child, that is.

For this, it seemed best for her marriage partner to be a person without any foundation, someone who would not interfere with his daughter’s future.

So, he decided to bring in a poor noble named Rominin as his soninlaw.

Since Maria’s nanny had died and there was need for someone to watch over Maria, who sometimes wandered around like a mad person, it was an ideal fit. Creating a scheme was slightly troublesome, but if a problem arose, he could just deal with it.

Similarly, he had paired Balder with Rominin’s younger sister for the purpose of monitoring and managing him.

But some time ago, the Camun heir died. And it was said that his younger sister had rejected Balder’s engagement proposal and run away. He was regretful that this carefully chosen person had led to such a disaster.

Balder.

He had stopped him from becoming a complete monster, but he intended to remove the ring the moment he acted recklessly.

“I cannot forgive anyone who looks down on my position.”

He looked out at the garden outside the hall. Flowers and trees of such a dark sludge color that it was hard to believe it was a garden, with not a spot of color to be seen.

If those returned to their original color, it meant that there was a problem in the region of the demons.

To be trapped in this hall in exchange for fully possessing Curan, he could no longer tell whether it was good or bad.

But this was his life. If he couldn’t endure it, he would be annihilated, soul and all.

The Duke looked again at the garden starting to be dyed in bright colors and called another servant.

“It’s the southern sector. Go and check it.”