Chapter 43
The battle ended the mont the last poisoned trump card the Third Prince had trusted in proved useless.
The fight, which had already seen many die and ground lost, ended almost anticlimactically fast when the potent poison that had been their ntal crutch failed to take effect.
Tang Yuwon had hurried off to find Hastings Bartlett and was absent.
After the one-sided slaughter, only Third Prince Bernid remained in his half-ruined office, ruined by the battle’s aftermath.
“Everyone’s dead….”
The battered Third Prince muttered as if he had given up on everything.
A handful of elite soldiers—chosen from the elite—had all died overnight.
Each of them had been pillars for the Third Prince. With all those who had followed his orders fallen, the Third Prince’s faction’s disintegration was obvious.
“To end like this, how hollow. Heh, heh heh….”
The Third Prince laughed as if he had gone mad.
Creak—
The battered door opened with a bleak sound.
Tang Yuwon, who had gone in search of Hastings Bartlett, returned to the room. His expression was dark.
“Where is he?”
“Heh, what do you an where?”
“I went to that underground prison you ntioned. But Hastings Bartlett wasn’t there. Do you understand what I’m asking now?”
“Not there? That can’t be. He was there as of this afternoon, wasn’t he?”
“Answer again. Where is Hastings Bartlett, Bernid?”
“I don’t kn— I don’t know… ugh!”
It was not the answer Tang Yuwon wanted. He thrust the White Dragon Sword into the man’s thigh. Blood welled up.
Tang Yuwon asked in a chilling voice.
“Answer again. Where is Hastings Bartlett?”
“Guh, I-I don’t know! If you can’t find him, ask that damned Marcellus! It’s all that bastard’s doing!”
The na he most wished not to hear had been ntioned again. Tang Yuwon’s face tightened.
“So you still don’t know after getting beaten like this, Bernid? You expect to believe Marcellus did it? Marcellus and this trap? You an you made Marcellus do it.”
Betrayal by Marcellus, who Bernid had trusted like bedrock!
The Third Prince’s pupils trembled with shock. He looked so stunned that he forgot the pain from his thigh.
“Th-That…! How could Marcellus…!”
“I used the only poison and its antidote in this world that I alone could make. I wanted everyone to be fooled and to have them secretly feed you poison for ten years. I hoped you’d have enjoyed that ti enough. It’s all over now.”
“Poison…? What are you saying. I don’t know much about poisons. I used them sotis—at most for assassination or torture. Ten years? What does that an?”
The Third Prince’s face, twisted by pain, showed that he had never heard of it.
“Don’t play dumb. Do you think I wouldn’t know that you’d been fed poison for over ten years?”
“I fed you poison? For over ten years? Heh heh… I see. So that was it….”
As if realizing sothing, the Third Prince managed a bitter smile.
“For the sake of my life, I’m not lying, so listen carefully. Yurion.”
At the Third Prince’s next words, Tang Yuwon’s face hardened.
“If soone used poison on you, it was probably Marcellus. The bastard knew poison pretty well. I myself had helped him a few tis. Even the poison we prepared today was like that.”
“…That’s not a lie, right?”
“Guh… it hurts like hell… whew….”
The Third Prince groaned in pain and continued.
“That’s the truth. He already betrayed , so there was no point in covering for him. Ha, I never thought he’d betray … I should’ve known when he ca to of his own accord… that he was a bat’s brat.”
Bernid’s lants did not register. Tang Yuwon busied himself piecing the new information into the current situation rather than listening.
‘Marcellus again… Bernid doesn’t seem to be lying now… Was Marcellus behind all this from the beginning…?’
The feeling was bad.
Marcellus had been involved from the very start.
Since Hastings Bartlett disappeared, Marcellus had been disturbingly intertwined with the matter.
“You, Yurion, be careful. That bastard is a venomous spider that bites its master. If you think he’s a useful insect because he toppled and keep him close, one day you’ll suffer badly too. Heh heh.”
The Third Prince, not knowing his place, even worried about Tang Yuwon. Tang Yuwon snorted—he found the sight sohow amusing.
“Venomous spider? Don’t worry. I’ll chew that poison up and swallow it.”
Whether the Third Prince’s words were true or not, Hastings Bartlett and Marcellus had both vanished.
Rather than panic at how things had tangled, Tang Yuwon quickly organized the situation and searched for new answers.
There was no need to get flustered and frantic just because he did not know where the enemy had gone.
‘I don’t know where or why that bastard moved Hastings Bartlett. But if Marcellus had taken Hastings as a hostage for so reason, it was probably to trade for the antidote that completely nullified the poison I gave him. Hastings would be the only lifeline given to him. Hastings should be safe.’
The Marcellus Tang Yuwon knew was not foolish enough to ruin his own hand.
‘There was no need to be impatient just because Hastings hadn’t been rescued imdiately. Enough ti had passed since the antidote was taken that Marcellus would certainly co back to . I’d finish it for good then.’
First, however, he needed to neatly finish the situation in front of him. Tang Yuwon alternately glanced at the White Dragon Sword in his hand and the battered, spiritless Third Prince.
‘I planned to kill him to finish things cleanly….’
Originally Tang Yuwon had planned to kill the Third Prince to neatly conclude matters, but the situation had shifted a little.
‘If Marcellus truly was the mastermind of all this, it would be advantageous to keep Bernid alive. He had long-standing, close contact with Marcellus and, more importantly… Marcellus had magic I did not. Either way, until Marcellus was dead, it would be beneficial to keep this man alive.’
Magic was Tang Yuwon’s weakest field. If Marcellus did not co to him of his own accord, the Third Prince would play an important role—like a scenting hound—in tracking Marcellus down. Tang Yuwon’s deliberation over whether to spare Bernid was a kind of insurance. After a brief consideration, Tang Yuwon decided.
“Bernid. Answer the questions I’m about to ask properly. Each question will be tied to your life.”
They said destroying a person ca from hope, not despair. Tang Yuwon offered hope to Bernid, who had already given up and fallen into despair.
Bernid, who had assud death was certain because of what he had done, now had a lifeline fall in front of him. He grabbed it without hesitation.
“Ah… all right.”
“Good. Like that.”
After the crushing defeat, Bernid’s eyes—half-mad and unfocused—returned to normal. Seeing that, Tang Yuwon continued.
“I’m going to kill Marcellus and retrieve Hastings Bartlett. Will you help with that?”
“I-I will. Definitely!”
“That answer was too short. If you can help, explain how. Don’t make ask more than once.”
“…It’s like this now, but my nickna was ‘Genius of Magic.’ I might not know where he is right away, but I could be of help to soone like you, who is ignorant of magic.”
Just as Tang Yuwon had thought. He nodded.
“Hm… it’s not a sharp solution, but it’s better than bluffing that you can do what you cannot.”
But that was not enough.
“I understand why I should keep you alive, Bernid. But what if I spare you and you join with soone else later to harm ? Should I keep soone who doesn’t offer imdiate, certain help at the risk of that danger?”
It was Tang Yuwon’s safety catch. Bernid was already prepared with an answer.
“…If I were the kind to betray like that, I wouldn’t have thought of using Marcellus in the first place. Call servile and insult if you want. If I can save my life, I’ll accept anything.”
‘This guy… he wasn’t the type to pursue the throne from the start.’
His subordinates had bled and died carrying out his orders; and yet here he was begging for his life. Tang Yuwon could not understand it.
‘But… precisely because of that, I can spare him.’
With the leash applied and carrot-and-stick in place, he could be a fairly useful human. Bernid’s answer was close to exactly what Tang Yuwon wanted.
“Alright, I understand. I’ll spare you. I’ll take your life as collateral, so work for , Bernid.”
“Th-thank you… Youngest.”
Tang Yuwon reached into his robes and took out a small vial. He handed the vial directly to Bernid.
“Drink it.”
“Is this perhaps that…?”
Tang Yuwon nodded.
“You’d best not even think of betraying until you find the antidote for that poison. There might be soone other than who can do it, but I doubt it.”
Having seen Tang Yuwon’s cruel hand with his own eyes, Bernid swallowed the poison without hesitation.
This was his only way to survive.
“From this mont, two days. If you don’t drink the antidote I give you within that ti, you’ll writhe in agony so unbearable that you’ll beg for death but be unable to die. Ah, no.”
Bernid’s eyes widened at that single word—‘no.’
“…?”
“If you take the antidote, it lasts two days. But right now, you only drank the poison and not the antidote, so the pain will start in, what, about three hours?”
He said it so casually, as if it didn’t concern him in the least. Bernid was the one panicking.
“You said you’d spare ! Please—just give the antidote…!”
“Before that… shouldn’t you pay for your life?”
“What are you… what are you planning to do?”
The Third Prince’s voice trembled, sensing sothing ominous. Tang Yuwon gave a slow, knowing smile.
“They say magicians are all rich, so I got curious what kind of wealth the so-called ‘Genius of Magic’ might have.”
‘The victor takes from the defeated.’ It was an utterly natural right granted to the winner.
Tang Yuwon, as the victor, intended to exercise that rightful privilege.
Led by Bernid, Tang Yuwon went straight to the Third Prince’s private stacks.
Bernid used magic to pull out a book sitting on a shelf far beyond reach.
Rumble—
One of the bookshelves forming the wall of the library shifted like a hinged door. Before Tang Yuwon and Bernid, the Third Prince’s secret storeroom appeared.
“A secret storeroom connected directly to your study… Isn’t that a little too careless a setup?”
“No one can even clean this place without my permission, so there’s no need to hide it further. You’re the first person other than to ever step in here.”
“Well, fair enough.”
Perhaps desperate to drink the antidote quickly, Bernid started bringing out gold, jewels, and treasures without hesitation.
Bernid led the way, and Tang Yuwon followed. Considering the entrance and the overall size of the Third Prince’s palace, the secret storeroom was unreasonably vast.
“Is this place maintained by magic too?”
“Of course. Not only —my brothers all have sothing like this. You must have one too, Yurion.”
If asked, yes, he had sothing similar—though it was a far larger, shared chamber within the Imperial Library.
“Well, yes.”
There was no reason to tell the Third Prince that. Tang Yuwon slowly glanced around.
“Hm… this is rather impressive.”
Indeed, the saying that magicians were wealthy wasn’t false. The Third Prince’s secret storeroom overflowed—gold bars and jewels were stacked on one side, and on the other lay rare materials used to craft magic potions.
It turned out the Third Prince wasn’t rely rich, but a great magnate. Not only did he profit from the vitality tonics derived from studying the Snow Serpent, but he also had several hidden sources of wealth.
“Wow, there’s nothing you don’t have. You could start a war if you used all this money to hire rcenaries and even a mage corps.”
At Tang Yuwon’s genuine admiration, Bernid looked proud.
“Did you think I aid for the throne relying only on a single mage corps?”
“That’s true. Though it’s aningless now.”
“….”
“Still, don’t look so dejected. Here, I’ll keep my word. Drink.”
Tang Yuwon took the antidote from his robes and handed it to him. Bernid took it eagerly, as if he’d been waiting for that mont alone.
“I just drink this, right?”
“Drink it. And rember exactly: two days from now.”
Bernid nodded in response and swallowed the antidote in one gulp.
Gulp, gulp—
“Ugh… bitter.”
“Just bear with it. You’ll have to take it once every two days from now on.”
“Sigh… I will…”
Perhaps feeling he’d passed a critical point, Bernid let out a faint sigh that sounded almost like regret for his own situation.
“Then. I’ll make sure to take full paynt for your life.”
“Do as you wish…”
Having already given up, Bernid no longer showed any attachnt to his wealth.
From that point on, the situation was entirely in Tang Yuwon’s hands. He began thoroughly examining the Third Prince’s secret storeroom, sorting through what he would take.
‘Hmm… hollyleaf blossom?’
It was a poisonous herb, but also used as an ingredient in restorative dicine.
Depending on how it was used, it could aid internal energy recovery—a negligible effect for Tang Yuwon, but perhaps useful for Terrien and Hastings.
Next to it, between neatly stacked bundles of dried herbs, sothing glead faintly.
Wrapped in fine silk and hidden in a corner, it was clearly no ordinary item.
“What’s this that you’ve wrapped up so carefully…?”
“Ah, th-that’s—!”
“Life. Collateral. Paynt.”
Tang Yuwon’s cold words reverberated through the secret storeroom.
After that, Bernid couldn’t bring himself to stop Tang Yuwon.
Each ti Tang Yuwon discovered one of his carefully hidden treasures, Bernid only groaned, making faint, pained noises.
“This sword. Not bad. I’ll give it to my knight—sound good?”
“…ugh.”
“Thanks. I’ll make good use of it.”
Inspecting the weapons, Tang Yuwon unerringly picked out a true masterpiece. It was the finest sword in Bernid’s collection, one he had gathered rely as a hobby.
“This should be enough. Shall we head back?”
“Yes. Please, let’s.”
Tang Yuwon stood, holding the looted goods in his arms.
“Ah, my arm’s getting tired though…”
“…I’ll carry it.”
Just two hours ago, they had fought to the death. Yet now, both followed their newly defined roles as if nothing had happened.
‘Phew, thank goodness he didn’t notice that most precious one…’
Bernid sighed inwardly in relief. He had saved it for the right mont and had almost handed it over to Yurion by mistake.
‘Before Yurion cos back, I’ll deal with it myself.’
“Let’s go now.”
“Y-yeah. Okay.”
Tang Yuwon, having no further business there, gestured to leave. Bernid led the way again.
Rumble—
With another loud sound, the bookshelf in the study returned to its original form.
As Tang Yuwon and Bernid exited the storeroom, the door closed back to normal.
Imdiately after, Tang Yuwon pulled a book from Bernid’s shelves.
“Wait, just one book.”
“…?”
Bernid, watching what Tang Yuwon was taking, read the title.
“Ma…gic… Prir? What are you going to do with that? Aura users can’t learn magic anyway.”
Tang Yuwon shrugged casually.
“Oh, nothing much. It’s just hard to fight without any knowledge. I may not be able to use magic myself, but I want to learn more about it.”
“You did all this to without even knowing proper information about magic…”
Using magic to levitate a heap of items, Bernid made a bitter face.
Tang Yuwon smiled faintly.
“Besides that, there are things I want to confirm.”
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