ICHV 7

Chapter 7

“Customer! Your clothes are ready.”

Just then, however, the shop assistant appeared with both hands full of shopping bags and stepped between Sella and Rody.

The sharpness in his eyes faded, and at the same time, Sella, finally freed from the shackles of the man’s gaze, turned her attention to the shop assistant.

Her eyes widened.

Good heavens! Were all of those clothes?

Just how much money did this man have if he could buy so many clothes from a shop like this?

There were so many shopping bags, and they were so large, that the shop assistant looked as though she might stagger under their weight.

Sella sneaked a peek inside the bags. If he could afford that many clothes, surely he had more than enough money to cover the cost of the lace her sister had torn.

However, before Sella could properly estimate the number and variety of clothes inside, Rody took the shopping bags from the employee, said, “Excuse me,” and swept past Sella, leaving the shop.

It was as though he were telling her not to even dream of borrowing money from him.

Geez… He said he had no money. Just how much money does he actually have? If he doesn’t want to lend me any, he could simply say so!

There was little doubt that the woodcutter’s parents were wealthy landowners who owned Mount Tolto.

Was being a woodcutter just his hobby? Was that why he seemed so indifferent to money?

Sella watched the man’s retreating back, lost in thought.

Her mind kept circling around two things: Rody is rich, and I need money.

After returning to the orphanage, finishing her chores, and getting ready for bed, Sella once again calculated her finances out of habit.

The only money she could save was the ten gallons she could put aside each week by getting a little extra out of the woodcutter, Rody.

That amounted to forty gallons a month. It would take her more than ten months to save up six hundred gallons.

It was fortunate that the hidden villain and Kesselaya hadn’t met yet, but there was no telling when they might cross paths.

Ah!

Sella’s eyes flew open.

Something she hadn’t considered until now had suddenly occurred to her.

The novel had never clearly stated where Rodiak, the hidden male lead, was living in seclusion. But if he and the heroine had encountered each other at Bliss, didn’t that suggest that Rodiak lived somewhere near this village?

Rodiak had originally been the first in line to inherit the imperial throne. With his naturally noble bloodline, outstanding looks, and exceptional abilities, he had been the object of everyone’s hopes and expectations, from his father, the Emperor, to the people of the Empire.

Then, a little over ten years ago, when he went through puberty and developed his secondary sexual characteristics, his supernatural abilities manifested as well.

The first in line to inherit the throne, endowed with supernatural powers that allowed him to wield extraordinary abilities.

He was nothing short of the ideal heir, surpassing even perfection itself.

Ever since the first Emperor had founded the Empire using his powerful supernatural abilities, his descendants—the members of the imperial family—had occasionally manifested abilities of their own.

However, not every member of the imperial family possessed such powers. Consequently, those who had supernatural abilities, or whose abilities were stronger than those of others with the same kind of power, were generally favored as the next successors to the throne.

Of course, even if someone possessed supernatural abilities, unless those abilities were particularly powerful, it was difficult for them to displace the legitimate first heir and claim the throne.

Bloodline came first.

But Rodiak had not only manifested supernatural abilities; he was already the legitimate first heir to the throne.

On top of that, the abilities he manifested were so powerful and varied that there was hardly any precedent for them.

He possessed all kinds of supernatural abilities, with no limitations on his targets. Nature, animals, objects, and even human beings were all within his reach.

It was only natural, then, that Rodiak became the undisputed Crown Prince, bearing the full weight of the Empire’s hopes and expectations.

However, just when it seemed that he was destined for continued success, he encountered an unexpected problem: the backlash caused by his supernatural abilities.

Normally, anyone who manifested such powers had to endure certain side effects. Mild headaches and a sensation of feverish heat were the most common symptoms.

But Rodiak possessed far too many abilities for any one person to handle, and as a result, he suffered from backlash that was almost impossible to endure.

After all, the severity of the backlash increased in proportion to the power and variety of the abilities involved.

In other words, Rodiak had to endure unbearable pain at an unbelievably frequent rate.

The novel had described it as feeling as though a mass of molten lava were churning inside his body while someone repeatedly struck his head with an axe.

An axe splitting his head apart while molten lava boiled inside his body…

Good grief. Just imagining it was horrifying.

In the end, the manifestation of Rodiak’s supernatural abilities became a curse rather than a blessing. Instead of being able to use his powers properly, he could barely maintain his sanity whenever the pain struck.

Fortunately, Rodiak possessed a stronger will than anyone else, allowing him to endure the pain for several years.

But his abilities continued to grow stronger with each passing year, and the backlash grew more severe along with them. Eventually, whenever the pain struck, he would lose his reason and descend into a state of violent madness.

What do you think happened when someone with unprecedentedly powerful supernatural abilities lost control and unleashed his suffering on the world?

Tearing his clothes to shreds and inflicting wounds on his own body were, in fact, relatively minor problems.

Whenever one of his episodes began, everything around him was destroyed and shattered, whether it was alive or inanimate.

While suffering from his madness, he couldn’t even recognize what—or whom—he was destroying.

As these incidents continued to repeat themselves, Rodiak gradually became more and more broken. Of course, enduring prolonged agony had also made his heart and mind increasingly cynical and desolate.

The first Emperor had established the Empire by using his supernatural abilities to subdue the monsters that had spread across the continent, threatening the very survival of its inhabitants. Thanks to the efforts of successive Emperors who possessed supernatural powers, the monsters had since been reduced to the point of near extinction.

For that reason, protecting the people of the Empire from monsters had traditionally been regarded as the foremost duty of the Emperor of the Raellus Empire.

Under those circumstances, it was impossible to tolerate a future Emperor who, instead of protecting his people, was committing mass destruction with power comparable to that of the most powerful monsters.

Even so, the Emperor hesitated until the very last moment to strip Rodiak of his position as Crown Prince. He simply couldn’t bring himself to give up on a son who possessed such an impeccable bloodline and such formidable supernatural abilities.

In the end, Rodiak was the one who made the decision first.

In truth, Rodiak, who had been born and raised as the Crown Prince and possessed immense pride and self-esteem, was the person who suffered the most from watching himself turn into a monster.

He voluntarily relinquished his position, disappeared from the Imperial Palace, and vanished without a trace.

The former Crown Prince, Rodiak, who had disappeared from the world, would not return to the Imperial Palace until Kesselaya’s debutante ball. Having fallen in love with her, he would appear at the palace to follow her.

But seriously, why did his pain subside when he was with the woman he loved?

What a mess. She had skipped almost all the explanatory sections of the novel, focusing instead on the dialogue and steamy scenes. Combined with her terrible memory, that had left her with enormous gaps in her knowledge.

She needed to know the details, yet her information was full of holes.

In fact, most of what Sella knew about the first Emperor’s responsibilities, the imperial bloodline, and supernatural abilities came not from her memories of the novel but from the common knowledge she had absorbed from the original Sella.

At least she clearly remembered one thing: Rodiak’s condition improved, even if only slightly, when he was with Kesselaya.

That was why he became obsessed with her.

The problem was that Kesselaya’s heart belonged to someone else.

Unfortunately, Kesselaya would fall in love with the current Crown Prince, who was born to the Emperor’s second wife and had taken the position Rodiak had relinquished.

So, in a way, it was only natural that Rodiak, rejected by the woman who was his sole salvation, would turn to the dark side.

In any case, considering where he and the heroine had first met, there was a very high chance that the hidden villain was living somewhere around this area.

And if he rarely met other people…

Did he live somewhere deep in the mountains?

The only mountain around here was Mount Tolto.

…Mount Tolto?

Following the train of her thoughts, Sella suddenly shuddered.

Mount Tolto was far too close! Wouldn’t the safest option be to get her older sister away from the heroine’s vicinity and then leave this village altogether?

Even if Rodiak didn’t live on Mount Tolto, the same logic applied. The hidden villain was definitely somewhere near the heroine.

Exactly. Living close to someone like that was dangerous in the first place. If she were unlucky, the person she happened to run into while walking down the road could turn out to be the hidden villain.

And if she happened to encounter him while he was going berserk, she might be torn apart by the force of his supernatural abilities and die!

In any case, if she could avoid him, avoiding him as much as possible was the best course of action.

“Haah… First, I need to deal with the money problem.”

First, she had to get her older sister out of that household.

After that, she needed to repay both her and her sister’s upbringing debts and escape this village—and this orphanage—where the hidden villain might be lurking.

Right up until she fell asleep, Sella remained preoccupied with thoughts of money.

However, even six days later, when it was time to order firewood again, Sella still hadn’t found any promising solution.

She was beginning to think it might be more realistic to pray that the hidden villain and the heroine wouldn’t meet until six months later, when she would have finished paying off the debt, or perhaps that the heroine would never meet the hidden villain at all.

After all, Sella was so busy working herself to the bone at the orphanage that earning extra money on the side was practically unthinkable.

“Hello, Lord Rody.”

Not long after entering Mount Tolto to place her firewood order, Sella somehow managed to run into Rody at exactly the same spot where they had met the previous time.

“It’s been a while.”

Huh? Formal speech?

It seemed the man had learned a little about manners in the meantime.

“Um, Lord Rody. The weather has gotten a little warmer, so I’d like to order only forty-five bundles this week… Would it be all right if I paid you just thirty gallons for the firewood?”

Fifty bundles had cost forty gallons, so forty-five bundles should have cost thirty-six gallons.

But every penny mattered to her, and this man had been rather easy to take advantage of during their previous transaction…

“Wouldn’t it be thirty-six gallons?”

“Pardon?”

No way! Had this man really stopped being a pushover in just one week?