<Chapter 141>
#16. Hidden Purpose (5)
“…What are you saying? My brother has been missing for two days already? What the hell have you been doing all this time?!”
Malek shot a fierce glare at Calix as he tightly gripped the edge of his blanket. Unlike someone who had been bedridden for days, his voice was filled with murderous intent.
“I apologize, hyung-nim.”
“No. That’s not what I want to hear from you.”
Calix merely bowed his head slightly at Malek’s firm and cold tone. Malek frowned at his subdued attitude, which differed from his usual demeanor. Wiping his face with his hand, which showed signs of exhaustion, Malek exhaled deeply.
“Didn’t you say you were going to marry my brother?”
“I will.”
“Really? How do you plan to do that when you don’t even know where he is?”
“I’ll find him. And bring him back safely.”
Calix’s voice was flat, showing none of the composure or smugness he had displayed during their previous arguments. Momentarily taken aback by Calix’s unfamiliar demeanor, Malek soon recovered and asked another question with renewed intensity. Calix’s attitude wasn’t important. What mattered more was his brother, whose whereabouts and even survival were currently unknown.
“How? Do you suspect someone?”
“I have someone in mind.”
“What? Who is the bastard?!”
Malek was poised to move immediately and sever the culprit’s neck. Instead of revealing the suspect, Calix placed his hand on Malek’s shoulder and pressed down gently.
“Now that you’ve regained consciousness, hyung-nim, you need to rest.”
“What? I’m perfectly—!”
“Given that the illness you suffered was contagious, you need to be careful for the sake of others too. While Melty would certainly be happy to see you, wouldn’t it be dangerous if he were to become infected?”
At Calix’s calm explanation, Malek clamped his mouth shut. Having just regained consciousness after losing it, he had no memory of how much he had suffered. But it must have been true that he had been bedridden for a long time, as his body hardly had any strength.
Moreover, it would be problematic if Melty became ill because of him when they reunited. His weak constitution was concerning, but currently, he was also pregnant. As Malek’s thoughts reached that point, his gaze became even more vicious.
‘My brother who’s pregnant with his child has been kidnapped, yet he acts so leisurely? That confirms it. This guy is no good. Absolutely no good.’
No matter how much his brother Melty liked him, he could never give him to someone with such an attitude. It was clear that if his brother stayed with Padrian, he would frequently face danger like this. And the other party was someone who claimed to love him yet couldn’t properly protect him.
“Shut up. If there’s even a single scratch on my brother’s body, I won’t let it slide, understand?”
Just as Malek’s opinion, which had tilted towards ‘approval’ seeing Melty’s happy face, was about to shift to ‘opposition,’ a smile crept onto Calix’s face, who had been expressionless throughout. His upturned corners of his mouth felt eerie against his cold, frozen eyes.
“I’m not known for having a good temperament in the first place.”
Suddenly? Is he looking for a fight?
Malek narrowed the space between his eyebrows, unable to grasp the context of Calix’s unexpected words. Ignoring Malek’s grim expression, Calix stood up. He still wore a smiling face, but a chilling aura emanated from him.
“But I’ve just been preparing a bit so that Melty won’t be surprised when he returns.”
“…Preparing? What preparation?”
Calix gave a brief answer to Malek, who couldn’t wipe the disgruntled expression from his face.
“A method to achieve high efficiency with minimal effort.”
Malek frowned at Calix’s ambiguous response. Despite Malek’s puzzled expression, Calix didn’t add any detailed explanation and left the room with a farewell, saying he was busy and had to go first. Simultaneously, the expression vanished from Calix’s face once again.
Angel, who had been waiting outside the door, carefully observed Calix.
“Um… Master Calix…”
“Prepare as I instructed.”
“But we haven’t received permission from the family head yet.”
“Oh? Is permission important?”
Angel made a distressed face at Calix’s question as he tilted his head to the right. Calix Kuse Padrian’s mood had been at its worst since Melty Crosel disappeared. Despite searching for two days, they hadn’t found even a strand of Melty’s hair. The biggest cause of this situation was a lack of manpower.
Although the thought of finding Melty immediately was intense, Calix had struggled to complete the cure based on the contents of the notebook Melty had written. He had to focus on this to save Malek Crosel, who seemed like he might breathe his last in a few days if left untreated.
His body moved automatically because the image of Melty’s sad face if his brother died was vivid in his mind. Whether what Melty had written was indeed the cure or not, Malek’s condition improved after two days. Additionally, the health of several others who received the treatment also significantly improved.
“Angel Fryce. I think it would be good for you to clarify whose faction you belong to.”
Sweat ran down Angel’s back as Calix smiled faintly. Raising both hands with his palms visible, Angel opened his mouth with an awkward smile.
“Wh-why are you asking something like that? Where does my salary come from?! O-of course I belong to Master Calix’s faction!”
The corners of Calix’s mouth, which had risen, returned to their original position as Angel spoke frantically and urgently.
“Good. Then do as you’re told.”
***
Calix looked at the murmuring crowd with a bored expression. They were fools who couldn’t even think of handling the drought or epidemic with their own power. They were also the damned bastards who had refused to cooperate when asked to help search after Melty was kidnapped.
Calix, who had been scanning those who had barged into Padrian territory and spouted nonsense about Padrian being responsible for all this with cold eyes, waved his hand to direct those waiting. At Calix’s gesture, those standing around poured liquid from large containers they were holding onto the ground.
“I thought you were finally ready to negotiate with us… and you call us all the way out here.”
A middle-aged man cleared his throat loudly and stepped forward as he spoke. Though not seen at Durasen’s mansion, he was a face occasionally spotted at the exchange meeting. Naturally, he was also a figure not particularly memorable to Calix.
“You’ve been repeating the same thing from before, but what negotiation are you talking about?”
“Well! I’m talking about the negotiation to clean up this absurd situation created by the Padrian family!”
“Hmm…”
As Calix prolonged the end of his word as if contemplating, the man puffed out his chest and shouted triumphantly.
“If you provide the cure for this epidemic and help clean up, the amount…”
“It’s strange. The Padrian family hasn’t committed any wrongdoing.”
“What are you saying! Did you think I wouldn’t know that you saved those men locked up in that villa with the cure?!”
“That’s right.”
“This is why Padrian is…”
Based on his shouting, the murmuring voices grew louder. Calix roughly guessed why these people were causing such a disturbance. Among those participating in the exchange meeting, Calix was the youngest. Nevertheless, through his authority as the proxy head of the family, he had to make overall decisions for the family on his own.
Everyone knew that, as the only direct blood relative of the family, Calix would become the next head of Padrian. So their actions were a kind of power struggle. Their intention to bring him down to their liking before Calix fully inherited the family was clearly visible.
Knowing that such petty hearts were mixed with jealousy and envy, Calix had been quite lenient with them so far. He accommodated their unreasonableness one by one, making himself seem like an easy person to deal with, because he pitied these pathetic individuals.
But even in this situation, Calix wasn’t generous enough to tolerate their nonsense. With a faint smile, Calix whispered softly.
“It’s true that I discovered a cure. Though I’m not completely certain yet, it can at least quell this epidemic. And those herbs behind me are one of the essential ingredients for the cure.”
“Then hurry up and hand it over, what are you waiting for?”
At their shouting voices, Calix turned around. In an open area of the hill behind, far from the Padrian mansion, the same type of flower was blooming. Gazing at the flower’s form, which seemed like it would wilt with a light touch of a finger, Calix smiled faintly, lit a match, and threw it there.
The small flame hanging on the match spread as soon as it touched the ground. The blooming flowers were quickly engulfed by the flames. Those who had frozen in shock at the sudden situation screamed.
“F-fire!!”
“No way… What you were pouring earlier…”
Calix smiled calmly, receiving their astonished gazes. As they had guessed, what had been sprayed here was oil to help the fire spread easily.
The people who witnessed one of the cure ingredients burn in an instant became agitated. Some people busily waved the edges of their clothes to try to extinguish the fire.
“You bastard, what the hell are you doing?!”
“It’s my field that I’m burning, so naturally it’s my choice, isn’t it?”
Calix shrugged nonchalantly as he replied and spoke in a low voice.
“So you should have accepted my request for cooperation from the beginning. As I mentioned before, my fiancé has been kidnapped.”
Calix naturally drew the gazes of people focused on the flames with his calmly delivered voice, and continued in an indifferent tone.
“Wh-what are you suddenly talking about?!”
“It has nothing to do with us. Just provide the cure quickly!”
Looking at the people who were shouting in an excited state, Calix tilted his head slightly.
“Since you don’t seem to understand, let me explain it simply. The person who orchestrated this incident kidnapped my fiancé, and because of that, I’m in quite a bad mood.”
Smiling faintly, Calix added an explanation in a low voice.
“From now on, I’ll burn one herb field every hour. Who knows? Your lives might fly away just like that.”
After finishing his words, Calix whispered to those frozen in place.
“So if you don’t want to die, find out the whereabouts of my fiancé by any means necessary.”
