Episode 49
“Is the drink not to your liking?”
Marquis Eurys asked, sipping from a glass filled with blood.
“Y-Yurys? What is this…?”
“What are you so afraid of?”
Elizabeth’s face turned ashen.
“Are you afraid of death?”
“P-Please…!”
“Oh, please, don’t be so frightened.”
The blood-red marquis leaned in, his lips brushing against Elizabeth’s neck as she struggled.
Crunch!
His sharp fangs pierced her neck, drinking deeply.
“Death is a blessing.”
After the kiss, Marquis Eurys pulled back.
“Like petals that bloom brilliantly and then fall beautifully.”
What remained before him was no longer a beautiful noblewoman but a withered corpse, resembling a mummy.
“In contrast, a life without death is…”
Leaving Elizabeth’s body behind, the blood-red marquis continued.
“Truly empty, hollow, and filled with meaninglessness.”
In an indescribable void and twisted pleasure.
“Like weeds that will never bloom.”
He spoke softly, his voice filled with futility.
Some time later, in the Duke of Saxon’s study.
“Send me to the capital.”
“It’s too dangerous.”
The Black Duke shook his head quietly at Dale’s audacious request.
The imperial message praised the Saxon Duke’s efforts against the demon migration and invited Dale to the Red Tower’s academy to foster exchange between the two towers.
It was clear that Marquis Eurys’s influence was behind this.
“Are you walking into the lion’s den willingly?”
“The son of Marquis Eurys has also agreed to stay at the Black Tower for the exchange.”
The proposal from the Red Tower was meant to be a mutual exchange.
“Since we have the heir of the Red Tower as a hostage…”
Dale continued.
“They won’t make any rash moves.”
“Have you forgotten the Purifiers’ attack already?”
“If they try to harm the Black Duke’s heir in the capital, at the Red Tower’s academy, even the blood-red marquis knows the consequences.”
It would ignite a conflict involving all the towers and potentially the entire empire.
The death of the Black Tower’s heir wouldn’t just end there; it would mean the other towers couldn’t escape the Red Tower’s threat either.
“Besides, the empire fears you more than me, Father.”
At least for now.
”…”
Dale’s reasoning was sound. In fact, it was flawless.
Even the empire couldn’t afford to eliminate Dale and wage total war against the Saxon family. Such a scenario would turn many vassals against the empire, not just the Saxon family.
“Then how do you explain the Purifiers’ attack?”
“Perhaps…”
Dale began.
“If they truly intended to eliminate me, it wouldn’t have ended with just ‘twelve Purifiers.’”
“Hmm.”
“The Red Tower is merely testing us, Father.”
“A test, you say.”
The Black Duke chuckled, finding it absurd.
Indeed, Dale was the one calmly assessing the situation. As a father concerned for his child, maintaining composure was a separate matter.
“Do you have another purpose in the capital?”
“I want to see the empire with my own eyes.”
Not just the northern territories or the papal states.
“And since the Red Tower has provoked us, it’s only right to respond in kind.”
In the heart of the empire, against the Red Tower, known as the executor of the empire’s spirit.
”…I can’t quite understand your thoughts.”
The Duke of Saxon gave a wry smile at Dale’s words.
“I’m merely thinking of you, Father, myself, and the Saxon family.”
Dale replied, as he always did in their father-son conversations.
The imperial capital and the Red Tower.
The Imperial Academy, affiliated with the Red Tower, was more than just an academy of a single tower.
Its scale and curriculum were unmatched, producing the empire’s elite and serving as a stage for socializing and fierce underground battles among noble heirs.
Graduating from the Imperial Academy and becoming a mage of the Red Tower was a guaranteed path to success for the empire’s nobility.
The empire’s most promising talents gathered at the Imperial Academy, where the competition was intense. The graduation process itself was incomparable to other towers. Even reaching the third circle wasn’t enough; without passing the Red Tower’s ‘graduation exam,’ one couldn’t graduate.
And it was during the weeks leading up to that graduation exam that the empire’s greatest prodigy, the young heir of the Saxon family, arrived.
Right in the midst of the academy’s most intense competition.
Years had passed since the emperor last appeared in public, remaining secluded.
Thus, when the young heir of the Saxon family arrived in the capital, a procession led by the Saxon family’s night raven knights crossed the city’s streets, and it was the emperor’s representatives who greeted Dale.
“Ah, welcome. We’ve been expecting you.”
The emperor’s faction of nobles, led by Marquis Eurys, all with appearances as greasy as their intentions.
“The young lord of the Saxon family has made quite the difficult journey!”
Their sycophantic smiles were nauseating.
Amidst the snake-like tongues, a red-haired man watched him. How could he forget that face?
”…Marquis Eurys.”
“We’ve been waiting for you, young lord of the Saxon family.”
The man who ruled the Red Tower and earned the nickname of the blood-red marquis.
A man who could stand shoulder to shoulder with Dale’s father, the Black Duke, as the continent’s greatest dark mage.
“It’s an honor to meet you.”
“An honor? I’m the one grateful for accepting my invitation.”
“I’m deeply grateful for the Red Tower master’s invitation.”
“I’ve heard of your exploits against the demon migration.”
Dale nodded calmly, showing his respect, and Marquis Eurys smiled again.
“Your bravery in not just scholarly pursuits but also on the battlefield! Your tales of valor are celebrated throughout the empire.”
”…”
Dale didn’t respond immediately, maintaining silence as he recalled the twelve Purifiers who ambushed his cavalry on the upper Saxon River.
It was this man.
This man who colluded with demons, infiltrating the Red Tower’s Purifiers to lead Dale and the Saxon family’s night raven knights into the flames.
He remembered his knights who perished in the fire that day.
Clenching his lips lightly, Dale maintained his composure, hiding his hatred in a cold demeanor.
“Every time the tales of the ‘Black Prince’s’ valor reach us, it’s truly astonishing.”
“Stories tend to be exaggerated.”
“Oh, not at all.”
Marquis Eurys laughed dismissively, revealing his white, slender teeth.
“The talent of the empire’s greatest prodigy…! I’m already looking forward to seeing your abilities at the academy.”
“Dale of Saxon, at your service to the imperial representatives.”
With his loyal knight Veil and the elf mage Sephia by his side, Dale bowed respectfully.
Masquerading as an innocent 11-year-old, amidst the malice that seemed ready to devour him.
The young heir of the Saxon family was invited to the Red Tower’s Imperial Academy for ‘exchange between the red and black.’
The news that he would be attending the ‘3rd Circle’s highest division’ just weeks before the graduation exam sent shockwaves through the noble heirs at the Imperial Academy.
Dale, the young heir of the Saxon family.
At just 11 years old, he had reached the third circle and passed the tower’s test, breaking through 20 levels. Moreover, the ‘Black Prince’s’ talent wasn’t limited to magic. He possessed the strategy and strength to lead the Black-White Rotation to victory, halt the demon migration, and defeat an orc warboss, making him the empire’s greatest prodigy.
The noble heirs at the Imperial Academy were well aware of the Black Prince’s fame, which the gossipers couldn’t stop talking about.
And that made it all the more unbearable.
The highest division of the Imperial Academy. A place where the empire’s most talented noble heirs gathered, marking the start of their elite mage careers.
The pride of the Imperial Academy’s students was immeasurable.
From their perspective, Dale’s reputation seemed nothing more than an overblown myth, inflated beyond reason.
No matter how much he was touted as the successor of the Black Tower, he was still just an eleven-year-old kid. Could someone from the remote northern reaches, like the Black Tower, really have achieved the third circle of magic? Even if he had, was it truly a circle built through diligent practice? How many rotations could his circle manage? Probably not even a hundred RPM.
The tower’s trials must have been the same. Surely, he received special treatment simply because he was the son of the Black Tower’s master. And the tales of his victory in the Black and White Rotation and stopping the demon migration? Those were likely victories won by the knights of the Saxon family.
It was undoubtedly a reputation inflated to boast and flaunt the Saxon family’s prestige.
This was the prevailing thought among most of the academy’s students. In fact, it was the only way they could think.
To their proud minds, accepting Dale’s talent was akin to confronting an uncomfortable truth they didn’t want to face.
If, on the other hand, the rumors about the “Black Prince’s” talent were true… then their entire lives would be invalidated by the abilities of an eleven-year-old child.
Their pride as the empire’s elite was at stake.
Thus, acknowledging the “Black Prince’s” talent was tantamount to denying their own worth, and it didn’t take long for their pride to begin to crumble.