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Chapter 4. The Eye and the Butterfly
Evren grinned bitterly. It naturally brought to mind the Second Prince, Kyle Tarandia, who was at the imperial palace. Kyle was somewhat more dignified, but in terms of being grating on the nerves, he was cut from a similar cloth as this wretch.
Evren glanced sideways at the knights who had caught up, supporting Lillian. Lillian was a mess.
Thump, thump….
The hellish drumbeat kept sounding from his heart.
Ramio Tillard.
‘How should I break him to make it fun?’
Shadows flickered in his eyes where the light had vanished. The ‘Ability of Annihilation’ whispered dangerously to him.
He tried to break ours first. Let’s experiment on just how broken a human can become. We’ve never tried it on a human before, after all.
No matter how decrepit his body was, Evren had never yielded to this voice. Surrendering to an unseen entity was ridiculous, wasn’t it?
“……Maybe.”
That had been true until this very moment. The Ability cheered.
Excellent! You have no idea how long I’ve waited for permission to break something! Live true to your nature, Euren Tarandia. And remember, breaking things feels good.
Thump.
Another hellish drumbeat sounded from his heart, and…
“……Ah.”
The rampage erupted.
A pure white space began to expand from where he stood. Trees crumbled like dust in an instant. It was a hell utterly devoid of even a speck of impurity. Evren smiled with satisfaction.
It’s so easy when you hit rock bottom like this.
To think I struggled so hard, refusing to do it…
‘How shall I play with you?’
He contemplated the life form gripped in his hand. But then, an afterimage flashed before his eyes. A shimmering, pink butterfly-like illusion.
‘What’s this?’
He reached out and cupped the illusion with his hands. The butterfly scattered a clear, sweet, transparent fragrance. The Ability, which had been about to run wild, paused.
When was it that it had said the scent was so good, that it wanted to break it…?
His whitening vision gradually began to clear. And when he opened his eyes…
Evren was holding the pink-haired woman by both arms.
“Your Highness.”
“……Tillard?”
It was Lillian he was holding. Ramio had collapsed on the ground, and the whitening world had returned to normal.
Lillian gritted her teeth, panting.
“My younger… If you kill Ramio Tillard here…”
Lillian, barely standing, slumped down weakly.
“…Who on earth is going to handle the real fallout…?”
“Wait, you.”
Evren hurriedly caught Lillian. Her body was burning hot like an ember.
“Your Highness… I…”
“Tillard? Open your—”
“I’m just going to faint now.”
Having finished her announcement, Lillian closed her eyes.
A few hours later.
Ramio, along with the unconscious Tillard knights, were all restrained. After herding them to the center of the campsite, a memory-erasing spell was cast on them.
“Trash bastards.”
Sounds of spitting could be heard intermittently. They were the sounds from the Shadows. Among them, Ramio received the most spit-shower.
“Hey, did you hear what this bastard said?”
“It’s my first time seeing someone whose inside and outside are so different.”
“As expected, a hypocritical Tillard scum…”
“No wonder the knights of that household are garbage too!”
Ramio Tillard’s reputation was extremely good. A pleasant, dignified young knight popular with both ladies and gentlemen. He was also known to be affectionate toward Lillian.
‘Honestly, my sister Lillian is such a pitiful person. Even if she lacks ability, it would be nice if she tried a little harder.’
Thus, Lillian Tillard stood out even more as the ‘flaw of the household’. However, through the communication artifact he carried, the Shadows had also overheard some conversations.
‘Has your head turned because you were running around outside? Get over here now!’
‘Why? To take me back and use me as a maid again? Even now, the reason you’ve ‘come to get me’ is because your own work piled up, isn’t it?’
‘This monster, isn’t it nice to see you after so long? It’s the one that likes you the most, sister.’
When the Creator gave birth to Ability users, it was for the purpose of subjugating monsters. In present times, there were those who summoned monsters for underworld entertainment. But for an imperial palace knight to do such a thing was beyond reason. And to even use it on his own flesh and blood…
‘If the youngest in the household is like this…’
Didn’t it mean the eldest, Young Duke Queen, and Iris were complicit? If even the household knights dared such insults…
Elias crossed his arms and muttered.
“……She said she was running away from home.”
When he heard it while guarding the Prince, he had inwardly scoffed at Lillian’s words. What kind of person, so desperate for attention, would cause such a big fuss over running away? But that wasn’t it. Perhaps, truly…
‘Was running away just an excuse, and she really intended to die…?’
While Lillian’s chilling decision was spine-tingling…
‘His Highness’s rampage subsided.’
It wasn’t that he had learned to control it. The Ability of Annihilation didn’t allow for that. Then, as expected…
“……Was it thanks to Lillian Tillard?”
That woman who was still burning with fever in the tent right now.
The tent where the Prince’s party was staying.
The physician accompanying them on this schedule repeated Lillian’s diagnosis.
“This appears to be awakening fever.”
“I’m not asking because I don’t know what that is.”
“M-my apologies, Your Highness.”
The Prince’s rampage had subsided. Internally, though not shown outwardly, what had been tattered was restored. But there was no time to breathe a sigh of relief.
Evren quietly listened to the sounds leaking from the curtained-off side room. Pained moans, as if struggling for breath, kept coming through.
Awakening fever. Literally, the fever that Ability users and Controllers go through when their power awakens. It was a symptom that passed like a brief cold around the age of three or four. But…
“Tillard is not at the age to experience awakening fever, is she? And originally, it shouldn’t be this painful either.”
“Miss Tillard was a non-ability user for a long time, wasn’t she?”
The fever that should have been experienced in childhood had been condensed intact and erupted now. Therefore, the backlash was bound to be that much greater, the physician replied, but…
“Is such a thing actually possible?”
“It’s exceedingly rare, but there have been cases like this once every few decades, Your Highness.”
The physician furrowed his brow at Evren expression.
‘Truly astonishing.’
He had served the First Prince for quite some time. He wasn’t cruel to subordinates, but he was indifferent. After all, if he showed excessive interest, the Ability of Annihilation would incite him to break things.
‘But were he and Lillian Tillard that close…?’
First, this wasn’t the time to be curious about such a situation.
“Your Highness, first, we shall arrange for her to be nursed by female Ability users.”
Awakening fever occurs due to excessive power, so Ability users can absorb the uncontrolled power through contact. However, he couldn’t allow someone of the opposite sex to touch her without permission.
“Do so.”
“Yes. Understood.”
The physician was relieved. After the rampage, Evren condition was much better than expected.
‘He always suffered due to that destructive Ability…’
He must no longer be hearing the voice opposing his reason.
After his reply, Evren silently stared only at the tent flap of the room where Lillian was. Contrary to the physician’s thoughts, it wasn’t that the Ability’s voice had stopped being heard. They had become perfectly one.
A faintly glowing red spiderweb pattern shimmered and then disappeared.
