Kori suddenly remembered the woman’s name.
“Jane?”
From the depths of a distant, fading memory, her image surfaced.
Back when the Alliance forces had captured her village in Kurui, Jane had told Yuri to kill all the orc prisoners. Hearing the bitterness and resentment in her plea, Yuri had slaughtered them without hesitation.
Kori had assumed she was living peacefully after being transferred to Briol, so why had she suddenly appeared here?
He stood there, puzzled, watching her silently. Jane spoke up.
“You can’t hide your roots.”
Her voice was laced with disgust—a feeling Kori knew all too well.
With a cold expression, Jane stared at him and continued.
“I thought being taken in by His Highness would teach you some humanity, but you’re no different from those filthy, vulgar orc brats. You betrayed your own kind, and now you’re clinging to the Empire? Half-orc scum…”
Her voice was weak, as if her body was failing her, but her tone was sharp and cutting.
Kori stood quietly, enduring her verbal assault.
“You look disgusting, and your actions are just as vile. His Highness must have trusted someone like you…”
Slowly, Kori lifted his head. Jane kept babbling, as if casting a curse, spewing venomous words.
Suddenly, Kori moved his hand.
Jane, slapped hard, collapsed to the floor.
Looking down at her, Kori shouted loudly.
“Sh-shut up!”
His face twisted with anger, no longer awkward or hesitant. He glared down at her and spoke fiercely.
“I don’t know how you ended up with the Empire, but you’re arrogant.”
“Arrogant?”
Even after being struck, Jane didn’t back down.
“Do you even know what that word means? You filthy half-orc…”
Kori raised his hand again. Jane twisted her mouth defiantly.
“Go ahead, hit me. If you want to hit me, then hit me. Typical orc…”
A flood of thoughts raced through Kori’s mind.
But all those thoughts boiled down to a single question.
Cedric’s voice echoed in his memory.
“Kori. You felt joy watching the pathetic, fallen Laurent, didn’t you?”
Kori nodded.
It was a truthful answer, coming straight from his heart without any pretense.
That moment had made Kori realize what he truly was. There was no more confusion.
He understood clearly, without a shred of doubt, what he had to do—and how to treat this woman—just as he had when he nodded at Cedric’s question.
So Kori smiled.
Jane, still sitting on the floor, flinched at the sight of his expression. Kori took a step closer. Jane backed away. He felt a surge of satisfaction.
“Jane, I know why you’re here.”
“Sh-shut up. You…”
“Silence.”
Kori reached out, and his magic sealed Jane’s mouth shut.
“No need to say another word.”
Yuri had told him that all the orc prisoners rescued had been transferred to Briol, and that Cedric was in charge of handling them.
Yuri believed they had all safely returned home, but in reality, Cedric must have taken them all away.
Most likely, they were being prepared as materials for dark magic.
Kori nodded.
“I know what I have to do now.”
He smiled again at Jane. She trembled, still sitting on the floor.
Kori’s magic gently brushed her back. She lowered her eyes and said nothing more.
Kori spoke.
“Finally, you’ve quieted down.”
Since Cedric had sent him to Zbeta, he had to live up to expectations.
“Jane. I’m going to cast a spell on you. You just have to endure it.”
“No…”
“Shh.”
Kori muttered the words toward Jane.
Powerful Words of Authority—Kill.
He unleashed the incomplete power of the Dragon Words on her.
The air trembled.
The world responded.
“Ah…”
Jane’s eyes widened. Her body began to convulse slowly.
Kori felt he was beginning to understand the Dragon Words, even if just a little.
Words themselves were magic.
Just as invisible mana creates miracles through magic, invisible thoughts are realized in the world through language.
It was a miracle.
Jane’s body shook violently before she collapsed to the floor with a thud. Kori approached and checked her breathing. She wasn’t dead yet.
A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
“Lord Cruar, I think I’m starting to understand. Heh, hehe…”
It would still take time and many more experiments to perfect the Dragon Words.
But now that he had a clue, it seemed only a matter of time before he mastered them.
Kori felt a slight weight lift from his heart.
He knocked on the door.
“Hey. Are you out there?”
A knight waiting outside entered.
“Yes.”
“The experiment is over.”
His gaze fell on the collapsed Jane, and he immediately said,
“Yes. We’ll incinerate her.”
“No, she’s not dead.”
Kori pushed Jane’s body aside with his foot.
“She’s still alive. I want to use her more, so take her and treat her. I’m going to have a lot of fun with her.”
“Understood.”
“Are there many humans captured here in Zbeta?”
“Yes.”
“Hm, I want to take a look around.”
The knight stared at Kori silently. Kori no longer hid beneath his hood. With his ugly face fully revealed, he looked the knight straight in the eye and gave a crooked smile.
“Seeing other humans might make me feel better.”
“Understood.”
The knight seemed emotionless. After entrusting Jane to another soldier, he led Kori through the detention center.
It was a massive prison.
In the center was a large open space where prisoners were digging pits with shovels. Imperial soldiers mixed among them cracked whips relentlessly.
“Work properly!”
“Move! I said move!”
“No more warnings!”
As a grim warning, bodies skewered on spikes were displayed around the edges. The prisoners, terrified, kept digging frantically.
A brutal scene.
“Impressive,” Kori muttered.
Escorted by the knight, he passed through the worksite.
The soldiers who noticed him snapped to attention and saluted.
“Sir!”
“Sir!”
Kori awkwardly nodded.
“Y-yeah. Keep up the good work.”
The prisoners digging glanced up, wondering who was passing by, then quickly cast fearful looks at Kori.
He looked down at them and said,
“What are you staring at? Tch…”
He knew well enough that they were digging graves for themselves.
He didn’t know exactly how Cedric planned to conduct the sacrificial ritual, but it seemed likely they’d be locked in here and subjected to whatever horrors awaited.
Suddenly, Kori looked up.
At a vantage point overlooking the entire prison stood a strange statue.
Like all products of dark magic, it was grotesque.
Then, he realized someone was standing beside it. At first, he hadn’t noticed the presence, but then he recognized it was a person.
Dressed entirely in black, the figure stood motionless like a shadow.
Kori asked the knight accompanying him,
“What’s your name?”
The man bowed his head.
“Santos.”
“Santos. Who’s in charge of Zbeta?”
“Count Eduard.”
“Is he responsible for this prison too?”
“Yes.”
“Is that man the one in charge?”
Santos looked up.
“No.”
“Do you know who that is?”
“No. I’ve seen him a few times, but I don’t know his name.”
“I see.”
Kori nodded and turned his gaze back to the prisoners bleeding and laboring below.
He had to finish perfecting the Words of Authority soon.
“Send about five people here later. I need to run more experiments.”
“Understood.”
Feeling the fearful gazes directed at him, Kori smiled.
Yuri’s eyes snapped open.
From the bubbling fluids of the monster, Cedric’s form emerged.
[Impressive.]
He spread his arms as if genuinely amazed.
[Yuri, I never thought you’d get this far. You finished everything before I even had to do anything. It’s like you’re reading my mind. It’s the first time I’ve been caught off guard.]
“Is that all you have to say?”
Yuri glared at Cedric with a casual, defiant stance. She no longer treated him as an older brother, only as an enemy.
“You’ll be foaming at the mouth and dying like this bastard soon enough, so you might as well prepare your grave.”
[Hahaha…]
Cedric laughed.
[If things had gone according to my original plan, I’d be laying siege to Briol by now.]
“Yeah. Things are going my way right now. In a week, I’ll kill you and display your corpse as a warning.”
[Don’t be so harsh, Yuri.]
“Why? Do I look weak to you?”
[No. It just hurts. The person I care about is cursing me, and that makes me so sad.]
“Crazy. You’ve lost your mind.”
Yuri had no intention of listening to him any further.
Cedric was a genius—brilliant, calculating, always thinking several steps ahead. Listening to him would only cloud her mind.
“Get lost.”
She channeled the power of her Soul Severing Slash into Guilty.
Despite the sudden attack, Cedric remained calm. With an expression devoid of emotion, he quickly finished speaking.
[Come to Zbeta, Yuri. I have a gift for you. You’ll like it. If you don’t come, you’ll regret it forever. Hahaha.]
By the time Yuri slashed through Cedric’s form, he had already said everything he wanted.
A rapid-fire barrage.
“…”
Yuri trembled, feeling as if she had been defeated.
Jared, who had been quietly watching nearby, applauded.
“Impressive. You spoke so fast, yet your pronunciation was clear and your voice steady. I even caught a rhythm in your words. I heard there’s a musical genre where they speak with rhythm—could it be you’ve mastered that?”
“Shut up.”
“I’ve prepared a gift for Her Majesty in Zbeta. They say if you don’t go, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”
“I heard that too.”
“See? The delivery was spot on.”
“That’s why I didn’t want to listen. Ugh…”
Zbeta was a city quite far from the capital. There was no intention to visit it. The plan was to march straight to the capital.
But now, because Cedric had mentioned it, it was gnawing at their minds.
“Zbeta… what kind of place is that?” Roland asked.
“Idiot. Are you seriously thinking of moving the way the enemy wants? Just ignore it,” someone snapped.
“I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“About what?”
“Cedric might have brought up Zbeta on purpose, hoping to get us fixated on it.”
Yuri frowned deeply.
“It’s a trap, meant to make us avoid Zbeta altogether. They’re hiding something important.”
“Maybe they expected Her Majesty to be suspicious and are trying to manipulate us in reverse.”
“What if they’re double-crossing us, anticipating our suspicion?”
“What if they anticipated that we’d anticipate their anticipation…”
“Ahhh!”
Yuri ruffled her hair in frustration.
“That’s why I didn’t want to listen!”
“You spoke so clearly and directly, I had no choice.”
“Damn it…”
Yuri stood up.
“Let’s head back to the main force for now.”
Leading the two others, Yuri exited the village and mounted her horse, then rode toward the main army.
By now, the main force had drawn quite close.
Ainzar, at the front, smiled upon seeing Yuri.
“Looks like you’ve been through something.”
Yuri gave a brief rundown of the situation.
Ainzar frowned in thought.
“Zbeta…?”
“Yeah?”
“Just a feeling. It’s long been called an ill-omened city. Doesn’t sit well with me.”
At that moment, Hernando approached Yuri.
“Your Majesty.”
“Hm?”
“I have something to report…”
But his voice carried an unusual gravity.
Yuri felt a chill.
“I have a suggestion.”
“What is it? No, don’t say it.”
“I must.”
“I don’t want to hear it.”
“Your Majesty.”
Hernando’s expression was more serious than ever.
He hesitated, then spoke.
“The celestial signs have been disrupted.”
“Celestial signs?”
Hernando sighed.
“I read the heavens. I lost that ability for a while, but suddenly, a dark omen overwhelmed me, and I saw the celestial decree pass before my eyes. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“What did you see?”
“It’s dangerous. We must eliminate the seed before it’s too late.”
“How?”
“There.”
Hernando pointed.
“The capital isn’t what matters right now. We need to go there immediately. We have to destroy the seed of tragedy.”
“There?”
Ainzar, who had been quietly listening, spoke up.
“Oh, that’s the direction of Zbeta.”