“Wait a minute. Was that the day the rebellion happened?”
As Erne nodded, Marquis Mosley's face turned even paler than before.
The Marquis recalled the day the rebellion broke out when the current Empress ran away bleeding without even being able to stop the bleeding.
“I thought the Empress got hurt while running away from those guys, but was it you?”
“If it weren’t for me, the Empress would still be in the hands of the followers, so you should be grateful to me.”
The Marquis suddenly wiped his face as if he was tired. Erne was right. At that time, the current Emperor, who was the Crown Prince, and the Imperial Knights did not even know where the Empress was.
Even if they had gone to rescue her, they would not have been able to get the Empress out of there completely. There was no one there crazy enough to stab the pregnant Crown Prince's lover.
“But that bug is after me this time? It’s because someone hasn’t caught the rebel hiding in the capital yet.”
“Is that my fault?”
The Marquis looked dumbfounded, but Erne glared at him with cold eyes.
“Then whose fault is it? I bring Cliff and offer him up, I bring Ceres and bring us information. But who has allowed them to run wild all this time?”
“That, that...”
The Marquis of Mosley had nothing to say about that.
“Tell me honestly, Mosley. Are you a follower too?”
“How could I do that!”
The Marquis of Mosley jumped.
“You know how much I hate them!”
The Marquis' face turned red as if he really hated being asked about being in league with the followers.
“How did my mother pass away...”
Cain Mosley began to tell stories from his childhood with a darkened face.
***
Originally, the Mosley family was as wealthy as the present-day Baron Briggs. Cain was the third son of Baron Mosley and his wife.
Then one day, the Baron, Cain's father, took a mistress. Naturally, this incident caused the couple's relationship to deteriorate rapidly. However, the real problem began when the woman became pregnant.
At the moment the woman became pregnant, Cain's older brother died. As the woman's belly grew, his second older sister died of an unknown disease.
Mother became increasingly destitute day by day. Then, when Father's wife was nearing full term, Mother killed her.
“I’m sorry you had to live as the son of a murderer, Cain. But this was the only way to save you. This mother has no regrets.”
The mother, who was imprisoned after his angry father reported her, said something incomprehensible during his last visit and died in prison.
It was years later that Cain learned why his mother had done what she had done.
When Cain became an adult, a noblewoman who was a friend of his mother gave Cain his mother's diary.
She said that it was something his mother had asked her to do while she was alive. She asked her to give Cain this diary when he became an adult.
The diary states that although the woman does not appear to be a Sharitan, she is in fact a Sharitan, and is also a member of a group called the 'Followers'.
It is said that she deliberately approached his father in order to take over the Mosley family and cast a spell on the Baron and herself.
If a man has sex with a woman while under the influence of magic and has a child, all of the man's other children will die.
If a man does not have any other children, he will never be able to have children with another woman.
That is, a man is left with only one child, born to a woman from the follower's group.
“The followers absorbed the families one by one in that way.”
I nodded as if it was the first time I had heard the story from the Marquis of Mosley, but in fact, I knew it too.
This is because in the original work, before falling in love, the female protagonist also used the spell on the male protagonist, who was the Crown Prince.
The female protagonist, who later fell in love with the male protagonist, tried to break the spell, but unfortunately, there was no way to break it. In the end, the female protagonist confessed to the male protagonist about the spell.
Then the male lead replied that it didn't matter since he had no intention of hugging any other woman besides the female lead.
So, the male and female leads are probably still under the spell of the afterlife. They have no problem loving each other, but most people don't.
“A child with the blood of a follower becomes the successor to the family and eventually the head of the household. Since the mother is a follower, the child is naturally brainwashed from an early age.”
It took a long time, but there was no surefire way to win them over. The followers grew their power secretly in this way. That was why they were able to stage a rebellion.
“She tried to kill me. She even sent me to war.”
That was the battlefield where Cain met Erne. The battle took place in three places, but the eastern snowy mountain where Erne was was like a deadly place where eight people died when they got ten.
Fortunately, Cain met Erne there and returned alive.
During the war, Baron Mosley, who lost his wife, his mistress, and his unborn child, lived in seclusion in his mansion and did not come out.
The family naturally took the path to decline.
“My clan was useless, so the followers didn’t care about me. That’s why I survived.”
And Cain swore revenge. For his mother, and his brother and sister whose faces he could not even remember, he sharpened his sword of revenge.
And in the end, he managed to suppress their rebellion and get his revenge. No, he thought he did.
Until the remnants of thr followers escaped from prison.
“Anyway, Madam, how could I become a member of the followers? Who could possibly hate followers as much as I do?”
The Marquis insisted that he was innocent and that he was never on the same side as the followers. I nodded in agreement. But what good would it do if I agreed?
“If you hate it so much, why can’t you catch it?”
Erne's mood did not improve one bit.
“You said you were going to use Ceres to contact the Red Wine Medium, but what happened? Why haven’t you contacted me?”
“No, that’s...”
The Marquis trailed off again.
“Ceres kept trying to contact them, but there was no response from them at all.”
Ceres and the medium of red wine communicated through letters. Ceres buried the letter under the promised tree and broke off a branch, and the medium of red wine took it.
But this time, for some reason, even after several days of asking about the letter, they did not show up.
“It seems like information was leaked from within...”
The veins on Erne's neck stood out at the Marquis' words.
“How on earth do you do your job? You just have to take what information and people I offer, and you can’t do that? No, then you have to catch at least one clue. But what? You can’t even catch the follower’s tail, and you’re leaking information?”
“I didn’t mean to spill it because I wanted to. But the fact that they approached you shows that they haven’t left the capital yet. That’s because I’ve been thoroughly checking.”
“They’re really thorough. So thorough that they’re just setting things up in the middle of the capital city square, huh?”
Erne thrust his bandaged arm toward the Marquis.
“How did you get the title of Marquis when you do things like this? The Emperor has no sense of judgment. If you give a title to a guy like this, the followers will run wild in the center of the capital. If you keep doing this, they’ll even end up in the palace.”
Who knows, maybe they'll start another rebellion? Looking at the state of that Marquis, I'm sure he'll lose next time.
Erne looked at the Marquis with a bitter laugh. His face now looked as if he was about to cry.
I, unable to stand watching, quietly held Erne's unbandaged arm and shook my head as if to tell him to stop.
“What, are you taking the Marquis’ side now?”
When did you see that and take that side?
Erne felt resentful of Judith for not taking his side again. Judith shook her head and pulled Erne towards her.
“Why do you even like that guy?”
“No, but haven’t you noticed anything strange since you entered the Marquis’ residence?”
“Something strange?”
“Yes, there is no such thing as the latest trendy scented candle in the capital city, Harrington. It is the Marquis’s.”
...So what is that? A question mark appeared above Erne’s furrowed eyebrows.
“He is our prospective client. I have to sell candles to the Marchioness of Mosley later, so please take it easy.”
Ah, that's what it was. In the meantime, the Marquis was crying out loud. He wanted to sell the house in this dangerous situation where rebels were roaming the capital and insisted on his innocence.
How consistent. Erne could not stop admiring her. However, he had no choice but to tell Judith the bad news.
“The Marquis is unmarried.”
Oh. Judith's eyes shook with shock. The Marquis, who had been quietly eavesdropping on their conversation, did not miss the opportunity.
“Is there a law that says men can’t buy candles? I was just about to stop by a candle shop anyway.”
Judith's shaking eyes finally found their place. Judith placed her hand on Erne's forearm again and whispered.
“Don’t say anything too harshly to our customers.”
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