"Are you strong?"
"As you can see."
"I heard that you have returned. Why didn't you go to the mansion?"
Terence told him that the academy where he taught the young men and the Barons of the capital were still there.
Indeed, the Baroness was perfectly managed, the same as it had been then.
It was swept and wiped without a single speck of dust to sit on. As if waiting for the owner of the mansion to return someday.
And who ordered it...
"You know my answer."
But Eratosthene's face still didn't move.
"I don't know how yet left me alone, but I'll sort it out now."
He thought it was a good thing.
It was a chance to be seen once again by the young guys who didn't listen to him like a wall window.
"If you do, please take the medicine. The period of the short covenant was too long. We can't afford any longer."
Eratosthene was suffering from a chronic illness in which his lungs became increasingly hard, making it difficult for him to breathe. That's why he always lived on medication.
But after the death of his daughter, he refused the medicine.
"It's a life well lived. I don't regret going anytime."
It was the self-punishment of a man overwhelmed by grief.
"You know he won't think so."
"..."
Suddenly, the atmosphere became tense.
Eratosthene's old woody aura quickly sharpened, and Terence chewed on the flesh in his mouth.
"You made a mistake because you were nervous."
"I dare not ask for much. Just don't turn away."
"..."
"Even with the Primal Curse, he kept his grandfather's medicine. Even if he never said it, he knew that his only real family was His late Majesty the Empress and Eratosthene."
This is the first time Eratosthene has returned since he left politics decades ago.
This meant that even as Cesare awaited death with the Curse, Eratosthene had not returned.
"I mean."
His face was as flat as a painting, and his voice sounded like a laugh from the corner of his wrinkled mouth.
"Wouldn't he rather just die?"
He would have hated him comfortably.
He would have used his death as an excuse to get rid of him nowhere to go, his resentment.
The silent words did not end anywhere but sank into Eratosthene's heart.
"...Baron!"
"Family, it's so thick that it makes my teeth tremble."
"..."
"Be careful. if you treat Katzen's blood-flowing creatures as human beings, you never know when you'll hang yourself like me."
Eratosthene walked on without hesitation.
The hatred in his upright stride made Terence unable to hold him any longer.
Ugh. Ugh. Mockery. Mockery.
The footsteps seemed to drag slightly on the floor, overlapping with the sound of small footsteps chasing after each other.
Eratosthene finally realized the presence of the little monk by his side and turned.
A handkerchief rested on his fern-like hand. As if to wipe his face, the boy pretended to use his other hand on his cheek.
"Why."
[Because your eyes look sad.]
He raised his hand, held it under his eyes, and drew it under his cheek. As if expressing tears.
Eratosthene paused.
The boy was deaf, but he was adept at seeing through people's hidden true feelings. And he didn't hesitate to express it.
"Ah... I did."
His wrinkled hands involuntarily rubbed the boy's eyes.
Unlike the boy's eyes, which were so pure, his eyes were immeasurably sinister and deep.
Its golden eyes, blazing like the sun, had the ambition to devour everything.
However, not all beasts are born beasts of prey.
"Maternal grandfather! Please take me away, eh?"
The beast of prey was once just a lovable, fragile cub.
Eratosthene has been part of his upbringing since he was very young.
He meant, those golden eyes were still the ones who knew the abyss, the moment before it contained the sinisterness.
"...Cough!"
Perhaps to punish the complacency of recalling the fragile days of the beasts, Eratosthene coughed heavily.
"Cough, cough!"
The incessant cough grew thicker and thicker. The boy stomped worriedly.
Eratosthene stopped the child by the small shoulder as he tried to call out to him, covering his mouth with a white handkerchief.
His handkerchief was soaked in blood as if he had never been white.
"Time... Cough, not much, not..."
Eratosthene looked up.
Hopefully, this old body will hold on until it finishes its last transgression.
At the end of the sunset, the spire of the Emperor's Palace hangs.
***
Valdina El Amuz Strait.
After a series of misfortunes, the Claudio family was devastated.
Raju was executed, and when he belatedly inquired about the secret assets he had left behind, it was long since he had been robbed, let alone the money.
There was no way Samon would have known that it had already been recovered under Kensington's command and had fallen into Medea's hands.
When he learned that the source of Raju's wealth was Emperor Katzen's treasury, he didn't dare to inquire about the lost property, lest he be treated as an accomplice.
The situation quickly deteriorated.
"Ugly Claudio! Get out of our Valdina land!"
He couldn't go out easily everywhere he went because of the scandals and gossip that followed.
Even in the palace the gates and walls were not crowded by the slings of the people.
Even the security forces turned away, and the mansion was in even more disarray.
"Master, servants, and gatekeepers... Raise their salary. If you don't, they'll leave..."
"Damn...!"
He let out a short breath and ran a rough hand through his tousled hair.
Damn, grub and stuff. Look at the money.
Samon, however, was not as quick to vent his anger as before.
Now there was no one left to deal with the aftermath.
Not his father, not his mother, and Raju.
In fact, the death of the last person Samon was leaning on inside and out was the most painful.
With Raju's execution, Samon's only hope for smuggling was in jeopardy.
"I'm sorry. I can't afford to give you any more things."
"Oh, our hands are full now! Stealing from Emperor Katzen and no one else? I didn't want to die!"
When it became known that Raju had been severely punished for stealing Emperor Katzen's property, the smuggling magnates began to pull out in a hurry.
"Still, my lord. That's true, though... Shouldn't you look for Miss Birna? It's been a few days since she disappeared."
The subordinate spoke cautiously.
Although Birna was not Claudio's blood, she lived her whole life as a young lady in this house.
Besides, she's her mother's daughter, so she's Samon's half-blooded half-sister.
"Who's responsible for getting things to this point?"
He couldn't help but think that he shouldn't be like this, but Samon threw his chin up in exasperation.
"She's not my flesh and blood. If I have the money and the money to spend on it, I can come up with a plan to get out of this situation!"
Clutching her jaw, his subordinate finally understood the definition of her master's 'fleas and blood'.
Whether or not they were truly connected by blood meant nothing in the end.
The important thing was that Birna, who had destroyed all hope instead of proving her usefulness, would never be treated like a sister by Samon.
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