Chapter 118

“Kuugh!”

I took advantage of his carelessness and plunged the dagger in deep.

It was his miscalculation to try and take me hostage, thinking I was a delicate Duchess.

Unlike Roon, I couldn’t kill him in one blow, but I stayed right with him as he pulled his body back, digging the blades deep into his flesh.

Vegner the Butler, or rather, the cult leader, let out a short groan and swiftly leaped, landing on the second-floor railing.

I could see bright red blood gushing out from beneath the hand he used to cover the wound.

‘Red blood?’

Was he not a human-shaped monster?

I stanched the wound on my neck with my sleeve and looked up at him in confusion.

Nine rushed over to me.

“Chacha!”

“I’m fine. It just grazed me.”

My neck had been slightly cut by the blade Vegner was holding, but fortunately, the wound was not deep.

Nine visibly relaxed upon confirming the injury on my neck, but his expression immediately hardened with savage fury and murderous intent.

Wilhelm, who followed Nine, looked somewhat bitter, but his face showed relief when our eyes met.

“More importantly, Vegner the Butler… is he not a monster?”

I quietly asked Wilhelm. Just like with Roon, it seemed Wilhelm had a way of knowing whether someone was a monster or not.

And Wilhelm quietly nodded at my question.

Nine and I looked at him with surprised eyes.

“But he used hypnosis like Roon, and when he came at me just now…”

“…This is my conjecture.”

Wilhelm opened his mouth, then hesitated for a long time, as if unsure himself, before continuing.

“I can’t be certain, but I suspect he might be a hybrid of a monster and a human.”

“What?”

“…Hahaha.”

At that moment, Vegner’s laughter cut through our conversation.

The quiet, creeping laughter soon filled the central hall as if he had gone mad.

His appearance—bursting into laughter while clutching the wound that was spurting blood—was utterly bizarre.

The face that had only ever flashed foxy smiles contorted, revealing various emotions without filter: anger, regret, and sorrow.

Soon, Vegner’s face became chillingly expressionless as he looked down at us.

“Yes. That is correct.”

“…”

A chill ran down my spine.

The possibility of a hybrid between a monster and a human being born was something I had never read about or even considered in the original novel.

Others, too, looked up at him, unable to hide their shock.

However, Vegner seemed to have no intention of elaborating on that.

He looked at Nine and continued with a different topic.

“Your Eclipse Dukedom was always like this, even when you were an independent royal family.”

Nine’s brow furrowed at the abrupt content.

When they were an independent royal family? That was history from a century ago. History that was rarely covered even in the academy, and which few people in the Empire now even remembered.

“Even back then, you were the ones who found the Spinelle Tribe coexisting with monsters abhorrent and took the lead in suppressing them.”

“…”

“Do you know how your royal family collapsed? That military power that even nations on the verge of continental unification dared not touch.”

It was a story I had never heard.

I turned to Nine in surprise, but he also seemed to know nothing, narrowing his eyes and listening in silence.

Vegner clenched the sword he was holding and shouted in a voice that sounded like it was scraping his insides.

“It’s thanks to us! The Spinelle Tribe joined hands with the current Dragon Empire’s Imperial Family and brought you down. The current Dragon Empire was born that way. We are nothing short of founding contributors!”

He gasped for breath after venting his resentment, then slowly, precariously, walked along the railing.

“But the Imperial Family repaid that favor with betrayal.”

Vegner slowly stepped down from the railing, meeting us at eye level.

His complexion had visibly worsened, clearly indicating that he did not have much time left.

Pools of blood collected where he set his feet.

Vegner’s gaze turned toward Wilhelm.

“If I hadn’t been betrayed. If I had lived under the protection of good Imperial citizens, like you, would things have turned out differently?”

Even for me, who had only recently learned about the Spinelle Tribe, his words felt poignant.

How must they sound to Wilhelm, who was of the same tribe as Vegner and had endured considerable hardship before coming to our family?

I glanced at him in concern, and sure enough, Wilhelm wore a deeply distressed expression.

“Our skin color is different, and we have slightly special abilities, that’s all. We have the same red blood as you! Why are you human, and why are we monsters?!”

A clot of blood spilled from his mouth as he poured out his bitterness. Because he was not a monster, the wound inflicted by my non-Swordmaster blade was driving his life toward its end.

“…I wanted revenge on your two families.”

“…”

“I wanted to kill your two families and bring chaos to the Empire.”

Sensing his imminent end, Vegner slumped to the ground.

It was a miracle he had held out this long in the first place. Not being a monster like Roon, he was facing three Swordmasters, even with Iris as a hostage.

But now, he had no hostage, and no skill left to utilize his remaining time.

“Kill me.”

His voice, now devoid of emotion, quietly spoke.

Nine walked toward the kneeling Vegner. I watched him for a moment, then briefly held him back.

Feeling his questioning gaze, I spoke to Vegner.

“I have lived a comfortable life as an Imperial citizen my whole life, so anything I say might be deceitful.”

I had no right to comment on his anger.

I was ignorant of the Spinelle Tribe, and because of that ignorance, I was no different from one of the Imperial citizens who suppressed him.

Yet, the reason I spoke to him now, on the verge of death, was because I knew someone who had tried to walk the right path even in this situation.

“It may be easy for me to say this because I don’t know the pain you’ve suffered. But right beside me is a person who has striven differently than you.”

I felt Wilhelm staring at me with wide eyes.

I had been ignorant, but because of his long efforts, I was able to break free from that ignorance and try to help him.

The Emperor was also striving to create a different kind of Empire.

All of this was thanks to people like Wilhelm, who, unlike Vegner, had not abandoned their humanity.

“If you are a hybrid of monster and human, perhaps your very existence could have proved certain things.”

“…”

“That the Spinelle Tribe doesn’t control monsters, but can communicate with them. That you were born from such a mutual bond… Perhaps you could have laid the foundation for that.”

Vegner looked up at me, his red eyes wide. I met his gaze directly and calmly spoke.

“I am not scolding you for why you didn’t do so. It must have been an incredibly difficult path. It wasn’t something you could be certain of accomplishing, either. But… the Spinelle Tribe is progressing thanks to the efforts of people like Wilhelm, not you.”

Vegner looked at me with wavering eyes upon hearing my words, then finally closed them.

Knowing Vegner’s circumstances, I couldn’t help but feel a pang of pity.

However, he had caused too many casualties. Thinking of the innocent lives lost because of him, I hardened my heart.

Swish!

Nine’s sword severed his neck.

Thud.

Vegner’s face, fallen to the floor, wore a calm expression, unlike the time he vented his bitterness.

A heavy silence descended upon the wide hall. The one to break the quiet was Wilhelm’s voice.

“Lady Chacha.”

I merely offered him a small smile in return.

I had stepped forward because of what I had seen in Wilhelm, but a part of me still wondered if it was okay for me to say such things.

‘Wait, more importantly…’

I took my hand away from my neck, where the bleeding had stopped, and hurried up the stairs.

I looked out the window from where Iris had been thrown and shouted.

“Iris!”

At my voice, Norman looked up at me, holding Iris in his arms. Fortunately, the height wasn’t too great, and she didn’t seem seriously injured.

My legs gave out and I slumped down, but Nine came over and swiftly lifted me into his arms.

“Norman.”

Nine called out to Norman through the window, and soon a signal flare was fired.

With a bang, the flamboyant flames of the Red Camellia, the symbol of the Eclipse Dukedom, were embroidered across the pitch-black night sky.

It was the signal announcing the successful completion of the operation.