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Chapter 09
Unlike the imperial palace banquet hall, where fireworks had begun exploding in brilliant flashes, the Wood Palace grew only darker and darker.
A silver-haired man with violet eyes was on his way back there.
In this vast yet lonely imperial palace—where there were scarcely any people who remembered his existence—he had secretly attended Isabella’s birthday, the one day of the year she was almost the only person who still looked after him, and was now returning unseen.
Prince Divalian Belshkin, who would normally have spent this entire walk wrapped in a sense of helplessness, found himself thinking instead of the Yuspoff Countess.
Her sunset-colored hair swaying softly in the wind, and her light green eyes that sparkled with life even as she spoke complete nonsense.
The cute voice that chattered away beside him without pause had left a strong impression.
Already, four encounters.
The first time had been when he was lying lazily in a corner of the palace garden as usual, basking in the sunlight. The second was when he had gone to meet a client in Ban’s form. The third was near Sweetie Bakery. And the fourth was today, at Princess Isabella’s birthday banquet.
Every time they met, he had been flustered by the countess speaking to him without hesitation—but this time, he had been surprised again.
Because he had confirmed that no one was around and slipped quietly into the most remote terrace to avoid being discovered, watching Isabella from there.
Yet the countess had come in there again.
She was unusual—possessing outstanding physical abilities and a lively, energetic personality that didn’t resemble an ordinary noble lady at all. Normally, wouldn’t people hesitate to speak so easily to strangers?
If Raf had been with him, he might have muttered, “She’s just as strange as you are, Ban-nim.”
‘How strange.’
Why was she so kind to him?
Then again, even at the market he had visited with Raf back then, the countess had shown kindness to a child she didn’t know. Perhaps she was simply someone with a warm heart. Her words jumped unpredictably from topic to topic and were mentally exhausting, but each word was honest, without falsehood.
She was kind despite knowing nothing about him.
There was a high chance she knew absolutely nothing about his true identity.
After all, there were still many people in this empire who didn’t know he existed.
No—rather than not knowing, there were many who had forgotten.
‘…It doesn’t matter.’
In fact, he preferred it when people didn’t care. It allowed him to live more freely. Besides, he knew himself well—he wasn’t the type of person who felt greed toward anything.
So the chances of her learning his true identity were slim now, and likely slim forever.
Even when the day eventually came for him to end everything and reveal himself to the world, there was almost no chance she would be involved with him.
Thunk—
At that thought, his slow footsteps came to a halt.
‘…This feels bad.’
Why did it feel bad?
It was strange. No matter what anyone said about him, he wasn’t sensitive enough to care. Only Raf, who was always by his side, reacted in his stead.
But whenever he met that countess, strange things kept happening.
She bothered him.
Her kindness to everyone despite knowing nothing. Her compliments about his looks. Her bright, bold way of approaching him. Her gentle demeanor.
Ban let out a small sigh.
For him, it was a rather extreme expression of emotion.
That was how suffocating and confusing this felt—how the Yuspoff Countess kept coming to mind.
I returned to the ducal estate feeling vaguely unsettled, having neither met the handsome information broker with ash-gray eyes and hair that I had been waiting for, nor danced to my heart’s content.
That was, until Seizar—his face unusually full of anxiety—rushed in after a single knock, opened the door, grabbed my shoulders, and said something incomprehensible.
“Asha. Did you eat anything at the banquet?”
“Huh? Yeah.”
I said I had, because I had eaten—but Seizar’s face hardened instantly.
“…What did you eat?”
“Alcohol!”
“Do you feel okay?”
“I’m perfectly fine. Why?”
I tilted my head and examined Seizar’s serious expression.
Only then did I notice Floe standing beside him.
Seizar’s expression had been so grave that I hadn’t even realized she’d come in with him.
“Oh? Hello. I didn’t know you were here. I didn’t even get to greet you.”
“No, it’s fine. But Countess, do you feel thirsty, or sleepy, or anything like that?”
“Whaaat? I’m totally fine. Why is everyone acting like this?”
What was going on?
I thought everyone would be exhausted and asleep after the banquet, but the fact that they’d rushed over like this suggested something was wrong.
Perhaps sensing my urging gaze for an explanation, Seizar scrubbed his face roughly and dropped onto my bed.
“It’s a trap.”
“Huh?”
“After returning from the banquet, I met Floe. She said she sensed a wavering aura of drugs coming from me.”
“Yes. That’s right. A dirty black magical aura was lingering in the banquet hall. Drugs must contain powerful magic capable of bewitching people… This is definitely a magical drug. I know well, because I once saw someone very close to me suffer from it. A black aura flickered from it. When I didn’t yet know I possessed divine power, I just thought it was a strange black aura… but after taking the drug, they always behaved like someone absent-minded. That’s when I realized it was a drug.”
“T-Then where was it?”
“That’s the problem. The drug aura coming from the Young Master was very weak. Yours is a little stronger, Countess—but it doesn’t seem like you actually took the drug.”
Was there anything about drugs in the novel?
Trying to sort through the confusion, I calmly recalled the story.
The novel unfolds while Floe stays at the ducal estate. Around the time a strange tension develops between Seizar and Floe, they attend a banquet and dance together. Isabella, seeing this, becomes consumed by jealousy and puts them in danger. She joins hands with a dark mage, creates monsters, and threatens Seizar and the Yuspoff Knight Order—but he ultimately survives.
‘Right. Up to here is certain.’
What came after that…?
Digging through my hazy memory, I vaguely recalled Floe nearly falling into danger and awakening the ability to draw out vast divine power. Yet Isabella, who never gave up, eventually deceives House Yuspoff and goes so far as to ally with another empire—willing to do anything as long as she could drive Yuspoff into ruin.
‘No. There’s nothing like this.’
This drug incident wasn’t in the novel.
‘Then what is this?’
Was it just a minor, unrecorded incident that never made it into the story?
The questions kept piling up, making my head ache.
“First, I think it’s important to figure out what contained the drug,” Floe said.
Seizar nodded.
“I should inform Father and the imperial family as well—”
“Wait.”
I grabbed Seizar as he turned to leave.
Thinking about it, something didn’t add up.
I had never strayed far from the food.
You could practically define it as: ‘I was wherever there was alcohol and finger food.’
If there had been drugs in the food, it would’ve been hard for me not to notice.
And now that I thought about it, even when I was drinking, people around me kept eating dessert as if they were possessed.
“Dessert.”
“Dessert?”
“Yeah. Dessert.”
No matter how good it was, banquet guests wouldn’t normally obsess over finger food and eat nothing but dessert.
“When I tried to get some dessert, all of it was gone. But now that I think about it, people were eating an abnormal amount of dessert.”
Seizar jumped to his feet.
“There must be quite a lot of addicts.”
“…My goodness. Who would do something like this?”
“No idea. Whoever could pull off a crime on this scale won’t be easy to catch.”
A chill ran down my spine.
If there had been dessert left and I’d eaten it…
‘I almost became a drug addict!’
I’d only wanted to save my own life in this novel—how was everything becoming so turbulent?
The woman entering the underground space grimaced as the musty stench of mold assaulted her nose.
Sticky mold and bloodstains clung to every damp wall, loudly announcing their presence.
“I always feel filthy when I come here.”
Her red eyes flashed as she swept her gaze around.
After thoroughly confirming that no one was present, she strode up to a tightly shut wooden door.
“Are you inside?”
“Come in.”
A grating, metallic voice echoed through the underground chamber.
The moment she heard the man’s voice, she flung the door open and stared at the man lying filthy on the floor, his entire body wrapped in bandages.
“It worked.”
“I told you it would. Kekekek.”
“You’ll pay the money, so wait patiently.”
“Well, of course. Who do you think you’re talking to?”
“And don’t forget—this must be detoxified on time.”
“Just make sure you come to retrieve it on time.”
As the woman turned to leave and reached for the doorknob, a foul breath suddenly brushed her ear—she hadn’t even noticed when he’d stood up and approached.
“But you know…”
“……”
“I’m not good at waiting.”
“……”
“Go tell them. Never forget me. Never again.”
The woman froze, then hurriedly opened the door and fled the moment he finished speaking.
Even after closing the door behind her, the man’s chilling laughter followed her as she staggered out of the reeking basement, gasping for breath.
“Damn it.”
She had to return to her master and report this immediately.
The day after the banquet was as chaotic as if a war had broken out.
Most of the nobles who attended the banquet experienced strange thirst and mental confusion.
The imperial family announced they would begin an investigation into all banquet attendees, but most people complained in frustration, unable to understand what was wrong.
And there was one family that might hold the answer.
House Yuspoff skipped breakfast and convened in a tense meeting.
“So, putting all your accounts together, this was clearly intentional,” said Liam Yuspoff, Duke of Yuspoff, speaking with an expression that showed he understood everything.
“Yes. I think so too,” Seizar replied.
“I need to go to the imperial palace immediately, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to secure evidence.”
“According to Floe, it doesn’t seem to be an ordinary drug. It’s a dangerous substance that can cause hallucinations—and in severe cases, even mind control.”
“And how can we trust Lady Floe’s words?”
Seizar agreed with his father.
His father was right—he himself had doubted it at first.
If she’d only claimed to have sensed it through heightened smell, it wouldn’t have been believable.
But the key reason he trusted her was that her divine power had reacted.
“She says a curse strong enough to trigger divine power was embedded in it.”
“Are you saying she has that much faith in her own divine power?”
At the duke’s sharp question, Floe—who had been listening quietly—shook her head.
“No. The reaction was faint. Honestly, I still don’t know for sure whether I even possess divine power, or when it manifests. But… I’ve experienced this situation before.”
“This situation?”
The duke, Seizar, and even Asha—who had seemed lost in thought—turned their eyes toward her.
“Shortly before my family fell, my father would sometimes be surrounded by a flickering black aura. I sensed it too. I didn’t know what it was, but whenever that black aura enveloped him, he would become vacant. And not long after, as if possessed, my father took his own life.”
“That’s right. The strange behavior of Marquis Diante was infamous even back then.”
“After my father’s odd behavior, our family collapsed. While packing up the estate before selling it, I discovered drugs in the study.”
“Then… are you saying those drugs are the same kind as now?”
Only now did everything click into place, and Seizar asked urgently.
“Yes. It’s the same foul scent I smelled back then. And the strange behavior of the nobles causing an uproar today is the same as well.”
“…I need to go to the imperial palace right away.”
The duke leapt to his feet, grabbed his coat, and left the room in an instant.
After he departed, silence lingered for quite some time.
Seizar was the first to speak.
“Lady Floe. Then… are you able to heal those who are addicted?”
“I honestly don’t know. Back then, Father said his mind felt clearer when he was with me, but whether that was a healing effect—or simply a father’s love for his child cutting through his hazy consciousness…”
“…Alright. I’ll contact someone who might know about that curse.”
Sensing that everyone now had something to do, Seizar turned to leave—but noticed that Asha, who normally would’ve added a comment, remained quiet.
“Asha, what about you?”
“I thought of a place to go.”
Based on all the information I’d heard so far, one location lit up clearly in my mind.
