# Chapter 87
It felt as if the satisfaction from a pleasant fantasy had completely vanished. With each twitch of the blood vessel embedded in his collarbone, the strange fog that had filled his mind gradually receded, and the sensation of being forced to look in one direction began to disperse freely.
Chepel, now liberated from the forced emotions and loyalty to Ion Verdit, faced Hest with a tense expression.
Hest, who had been watching the changed demeanor of Chepel with a composed face, slowly opened his mouth.
“Three days.”
The short word pierced intensely into Chepel’s mind.
“That’s how long you can remain free from the blood owner Ion’s commands, and also…”
Hest’s gaze fixed on the pulsating blood vessel connected to Chepel’s heart.
“The time limit until you face complete death.”
Hest, with his arms crossed arrogantly, tilted his slightly raised chin.
“When the time is up, that device will stop on its own, and you’ll become ashes with no trace of ever having been human. Before that happens, I’ll tell you what you need to do for His Majesty.”
Chepel, who had been looking down at his collarbone, buttoned up his shirt and picked up the white cravat that had fallen to the floor.
“I haven’t heard about you from His Majesty.”
“Of course not. If you had known, you would have spilled everything to Ion the moment you were revived.”
Hest snickered and picked up his teacup while watching Chepel tie his cravat. With the shirt buttoned and the cravat in place, neither the black mark on the collarbone nor the blood vessel was visible anymore.
Chepel placed his hand on the throbbing area of his collarbone, which was pulsating so hard it made his neck vibrate, and carefully assessed his situation.
It felt like he had been in a long dream from the moment he died at Ion Verdit’s hands and was revived by him until now.
The absolute monarch whom he dared not even think to defy and the master he revered without end had always been Emperor Raziel of the Caron Empire alone. Yet, simply by dying and opening his eyes again, that subject had completely changed to someone else.
He could have died smiling dozens, hundreds, thousands of times in front of Ion if ordered. For Ion’s sake, he could have revealed any secret his previous lord had commanded him to protect with his life, and if Ion had just given the order, he would not have hesitated to infiltrate the Caron Empire’s palace and take Raziel’s head.
Due to the infinite loyalty and devotion comparable to intense hypnosis, and the strange sense of fulfillment from being Ion’s subordinate, his allegiance to his lord Raziel had been disappearing without a trace.
If Hest hadn’t undone the brainwashing, it would have remained that way until now.
‘Truly a terrifying ability and absolute power.’
He had heard that Ion’s blood had the power to create immortal soldiers with such abilities, but experiencing it firsthand was so frightening it left him dumbfounded. Chepel unconsciously swallowed dry saliva as he recalled Ion’s cold eyes when he had revived him.
“Why did I return to my senses?”
Hest, who was bringing the teacup to his lips, nodded toward Chepel’s cravat. More precisely, toward the black mark and red blood vessel hidden beneath it.
“That blood belongs to Levi. The pendant acts as a medium between that blood and your body because it was made from a part of the Black Hand.”
A part of the Black Hand turned into a pendant.
It was cut not from Levi, but from Raziel.
Raziel, too, was a possessor of the Black Hand like Levi, though it lacked the ability to take life. If nowhere else, the Black Hand itself had self-healing abilities comparable to Ion or Levi, so even if a part was cut off, it could fully recover after some time.
Raziel had cut off parts of his Black Hand three times, matching the number of his close aides.
The pieces of the severed Black Hand hardened as they absorbed Levi’s blood afterward. Levi’s red blood also solidified along with the surface of the Black Hand, taking its place like a jewel in the center of the black fragment. Although it had hardened, only the surface became rigid while the blood remained contained inside.
Hest clicked his tongue briefly as he imagined Raziel calmly cutting off part of his Black Hand with an expressionless face. He savored a sip of the warm black tea in his cup before adding:
“While Levi’s blood flows, you can return to being your original ‘human’ self, but since a part of the Black Hand with its poison has been implanted in you, you won’t last long. Three days at most.”
Watching Hest casually stating ‘you’ll die in three days,’ Chepel recognized his situation once more.
Although it was unavoidable, serving the enemy commander while turning his back on his lord was something that could never be forgiven. Therefore, for atonement as well, he couldn’t waste these three days.
Hest, sipping his tea while observing Chepel’s determined expression, took out a small note from his jacket’s inner pocket. He handed the note to Chepel and spoke in a low voice.
“Two days from now, Ion will be detained at the imperial palace for quite a long time.”
Chepel received the note from Hest and carefully scanned the brief content written on it with cautious eyes. What was written on the note was the location of a commoner’s district in the Delos Empire, with detailed descriptions of a specific building’s appearance.
“Take advantage of Ion’s absence and search that house. I couldn’t find it no matter how hard I tried, but the part of the Black Hand embedded in you should indicate its location through resonance.”
Having perfectly memorized the location, Chepel unhesitatingly put the note in his mouth. After rolling it around in his mouth a couple of times, he swallowed it without hesitation.
Hest glanced at the door where attendants and guards would be standing and continued in a hushed voice.
“You must find that object and deliver it to Levi before Ion returns from the imperial palace. Without fail.”
“May I ask what this object is?”
Chepel also lowered his voice, perhaps because of how cautious Hest sounded.
The corners of Hest’s eyes curved like crescent moons.
“Levi’s third fragment that Princess Claudia possessed.”
❖ ❖ ❖
The Black Forest.
A bizarre place so famous that there was no one across the entire continent who didn’t know it, a place with all sorts of terrifying titles attached to it.
The nest of man-eating thorn trees.
A barren forest devoid of life.
The habitat of ferocious black beasts.
But for Levi, the Black Forest was a cozy place that didn’t match those brutal titles at all.
When Levi first opened his eyes in his current life, what he saw was a musty stone chamber artificially created by someone. Nevertheless, Levi instinctively knew that the Black Forest was his homeland, and he longed to return there.
The Black Forest engraved in Levi’s memory was a sharp and cold space that seemed like pieces of pitch-black darkness had been sharply carved and erected everywhere. Stepping into its entrance would bring a chill as if entering the maw of a giant black beast, enough to send shivers down one’s spine. Just like when he entered the Black Forest with Raziel.
“…?”
It should have been that way, but this time, something was different.
Levi carefully surveyed the forest full of black thorn trees with his eyes before moving his halted feet.
He felt something different besides the characteristic coolness of the Black Forest.
Something alien yet comforting.
Levi quickly took steps toward the inner part of the forest to identify its nature. The deeper he went, a peculiar scent carried by the cold-laden wind became more noticeable.
Levi, who had been walking quickly in silence, stopped his steps. Ion, who had been following closely behind him, also slowed his pace.
What filled Levi’s vision was a different color from what he had seen until now.
On the damp ground that had been covered in black, from a certain point onward, fresh green sprouts and colorful flowers were blooming. The nearby thorn trees had shed their black bark and were gently rustling countless leaves in the wind, making sounds.
The damp and extremely cold air was as warm and cozy as the sunlight filtering through the dense trees.
Levi couldn’t close his slightly parted lips as he beheld the scene unfolding before him. This continued until he reached the pond deeper inside.
According to Levi’s memory, the pond should have been filled with dark black water. Around the stones encircling the pond, there should have been, at best, dry leaves strewn like corpses and traces of blackened flowers.
But what appeared before his eyes was not the black pond from his memories.
Clear water sparkling as if light particles had dissolved in it despite not being directly under sunlight, vibrant flowers of various colors surrounding the pond as if in praise, thorn trees emanating even more vitality than the path he had just walked, waving their leaves as if in welcome.
The beautiful scene, completely different from the ominous appearance seen from outside, pleasantly dazzled his vision.
Levi, who had been staring at the pond and its surroundings as if entranced, crouched down in front of the flowers. Among the colorful blooms, he picked up a yellow flower that resembled Ion’s hair color.
The small flower gradually pulled out conversations with a young boy that had been submerged in his mind.
