Jay and Sayed spent a beautiful time together like a heartwarming story. If there hadn’t been little time left until class, they would have spent even longer together. But regrettably, they soon parted due to time constraints.
Alone in the preparation room, Jay even hummed a song while muttering.
“He was a much better kid than the documents suggested.”
* * *
Since I didn’t have first period class, I calmly looked around the school. Since it was a place I would escape from someday, I needed to know the interior well. Vigilance quickly filled my eyes as I carefully examined the location.
A strange tension. In the hallway, an atmosphere that somehow squeezed one’s chest was surging. Like a tightened joint right before battle… A fishy metallic smell brushed past my nose. As I stood completely still with all my muscles tensed, a gentle voice was heard from behind.
“Hello.”
It was Jin Chung, who had been assigned to the same class. A sparkling existence like a ruby who received treatment incomparable to C-rank students like me. The moment I turned to look at her, all the other students who had been scattered in the hallway disappeared.
Am I really at school right now?
I was. If I had been moved somewhere, I would have surely felt traces of mana. No matter how incompetently I had been dragged here, my inherent abilities hadn’t all disappeared.
Then what was this phenomenon?
I drew up all my energy sense and felt my way up the unique energy in all directions. It wasn’t magic. The place I was in hadn’t changed either. As long as it wasn’t magic, the options narrowed. Something similar to mana but not mana. When I recalled the knowledge my mother had taught me, the answer came quickly.
“Are you a shaman?”
Since the other party had shown their ability, there was no need to pretend. My appearance asking with sharply raised eyes must have been fierce.
Even though I drew up my body’s energy and a domineering aura surrounded me, Chung smiled without blinking an eye. Not just the shamanism, but from that attitude alone, I could sense that the opponent was formidable.
“And you seem to be quite good with a sword.”
“Ha. So what’s your purpose in setting up a barrier and coming to meet me?”
Seeing that she had also assessed my capabilities, I could tell she had even more powerful strength than the riffraff professors at this school.
She didn’t answer my question and waved her hand in the air. It was a supple hand gesture as if dancing. As if responding to that gesture, beautifully glowing red butterflies fluttered about in a swirl.
It was a beautiful sight like an enchanting dream, but far from being impressed, I frowned and stepped back. A shaman’s familiars were different from what they appeared—they were the source of power and no different from flying bombs.
“Don’t worry. I have no intention of attacking.”
When the butterflies disappeared, in their place was a dignified tea set and tea utensils placed on a wide stone.
A barrier this perfect. Chung’s abilities were more outstanding than I thought. It was an unexpected situation. I thought this school was full of useless dogs… but here was a crane among chickens. Well, Chung wasn’t someone who should have been dragged to this school in the first place.
“Please sit.”
Chung sat down first as if showing off and poured tea into a cup. A fragrant green tea scent spread around. I frowned fiercely but said nothing and sat across from her. Since I had already entered the barrier, there was nothing I could do.
I didn’t know how to break through this space. It was frustrating, but it meant the other party’s abilities were several moves above mine. How skillful and elaborate it was. I couldn’t see any gaps in the barrier.
So in the end, I had no choice but to sit as she told me to. However, I didn’t touch the tea Chung poured. I hadn’t been educated so carelessly as that.
“So what’s your purpose?”
“Don’t you even have the leisure to drink tea for a moment?”
Leisure? My situation wasn’t good enough to look for such things. For me, obtaining the Holy Grail immediately was urgent. That was the only hope left to me now.
I smirked mockingly and spread my arms to both sides exaggeratedly while saying.
“Can’t you see what state I’m in?”
“I can see. You got trampled because you stupidly couldn’t control your anger, didn’t you?”
The face sharply mocking me was still beautifully picture-perfect. Even knowing she was provoking me, I couldn’t control the surging anger and roughly overturned the tea set in front of me.
*Crash!* The tea utensils that had looked expensive rolled around pathetically and shattered. Even at the sudden violent behavior, Chung didn’t lose her smile. It was a natural sequence that the gentle appearance made my heat rise even more.
I couldn’t endure it, but there was also no reason to endure it. The barrier isolated us from reality. The fact that they couldn’t see us from outside meant that even if I used force, no one would know.
“So, did you create this meeting to mock me?”
“Let me be straightforward.”
Chung smiled brightly as if flowers were blooming in full. The ruined tea set and utensils turned into butterflies and swirled around Chung. It was a graceful sight as if painted by a skilled artist. However, that face held a chilling bleakness filled with venom that inspired fear.
“Won’t you bring down this school?”
Bring it down? At the absurd proposal, my boiling anger subsided. A cold expressionlessness occupied my face like a mask.
The other party’s proposal was an opportunity of heavenly fortune. She was a more advanced practitioner than me, and the cooperation of such an existence was absolutely necessary in the current situation. However, since I knew nothing about Chung, I couldn’t tell whether this situation was heavenly fortune or misfortune.
I couldn’t easily trust the person before my eyes. To me, she felt like a flower as beautiful as an oleander. A material also used as medicine, but a beautiful plant that kills people if overused and misused.
The life of royalty was neither purely noble nor wealthy. Ascending to the Sulurta’s position was also difficult, but enduring it wasn’t entirely easy either. Thanks to that, I was familiar with poison and had to become familiar with it. Everything was my mother’s choice.
‘Prince. This flower is mother’s most cherished flower. But I want you to stay away from it.’
‘But this flower is very pretty. I generally have resistance to poison, so I’ll be fine.’
At my innocent words, my mother only smiled palely without answering. The flower in her hands was precisely an oleander.
Only after growing a bit more and experiencing hardships could I guess the words my mother had swallowed. It’s difficult to hear a young child’s cries in a harem. Even if one is lucky enough to conceive, miscarriages are common. For my mother, the oleander must have been a beautiful flower that made her confront her own sins.
‘Prince, you must always exist as one who shines.’
But mother, I can no longer exist simply as one who shines.
To survive, I had to seize what I wanted, and to survive, I had to be willing even for muddy fights. I didn’t have the luxury to be picky about rotten straw ropes now. I had to grab anything.
“Why are you talking to me? With this ability, even without me, you could achieve what you want, couldn’t you?”
Her shamanic abilities were above standard level. Those luminously beautiful spirit beasts with no cloudy parts proved that ability. It was a realm impossible with ordinary skill.
There was no reason for an existence with such abilities to need me. Moreover, with such abilities, her planned destruction of this school was surely progressing to some extent.
“Because what I want won’t end with just the school.”
Her red eyes were distant, as if gauging the far future. I knew an existence that resembled those eyes.
‘This mother will do her utmost to ensure the prince sits in that position.’
My mother, who became the highest-ranking consort by using all manner of evil from being the lowest slave. Her beautiful eyes were scheming while imagining her son sitting in the Sultan’s position. My mother, who lived seeing the future and living for the future, was the person I loved most.
It was true that I was seized by longing upon seeing Chung’s eyes. However, my mother who had those eyes ultimately fell to another’s vicious hand and ended her life. Though she had her own karma, I clenched my fists as anger surged up from recalling the sight of my mother who ended her life more miserably than anyone.
“How do I know… whether you’re a fire moth or not?”
My words were sluggish from trying to contain the surging anger. After coming to Connubium, if I didn’t desperately try like this, anger would quickly consume my reason. Whether it was a side effect of the drugs or accumulated stress, I didn’t know the cause, but the result brought terrible violence.
No matter how excellent Chung’s shamanic abilities were, if she carelessly got hurt by my attack, the rotten straw rope might burn away completely.
Moreover, she was someone with eyes exactly like my now-dead mother’s eyes. I didn’t want to harm her. Even if anger dominated me, I had one baseline I had to maintain. For me, that was my mother.
“And what about you—will you stay like this?”
She said with a smile. Her bright face that seemed to know no pain was so perfect it was rather alien. I could immediately tell she was acting.
“While receiving that disgusting education?”
The way she tilted her head would look lovely to others. But seeing that appearance, I could no longer contain my anger and kicked my seat to stand up and shouted.
“That education? Education? Do you think that can be called education?!”
Images digging into my head. Voices. The work of kneading the brain. Thinking about it made my brain feel like it would burst. My appearance now, recalling the indoctrination education, was terrible even to me. My two eyes reflected in the clear teacup were glaring fiercely and even bloodshot.
