I Became the Teacher of the Imperial Family’s Bastard

081. Northbound (1)

There was a reason why Callios smiled brightly at Tibria.

First, strength.

At least equal to himself in physical prowess, and with the experience gained over the years, Tibria was a significant military asset.

To Callios, who had a great desire for talent and saw all talents as his pawns, Tibria was a very pleasing ally.

Second, the duel with Yuren.

It was said that in the duel at the Pharos Garden, Yuren was engulfed in flames and had to be treated by the Saint.

Anyone who could defeat Yuren was an ally, at least for now.

The psychological distance was reduced.

For these reasons, Callios wore a bright smile and put considerable effort into treating Tibria well.

Before the audience with the Emperor, at the meal, he even prepared northern-style meat dishes, having heard that the Grand Duke usually consumed ten servings of meat per meal.

Then Yuren asked.

“Why are you being so kind to me? I’ve never seen Your Highness treat anyone like this before.”

Is he jealous?

Kallios, with his extremely self-centered thinking, replied.

“You are my number one.”

“?”

“Don’t be jealous.”

“What kind of nonsense is this? Damn it?”

Despite the gaze full of disgust, Kallios was undeterred.

There was a reason to add.

“Don’t you need to get the seal of Heiron? Only one step remains to the Holy Sword.”

The last of the three great noble families of the empire is the Grand Duke’s family of Heiron.

Before the next schedule, he wanted to get the seal and bring out the Holy Sword, and for that reason, he paid special attention to today’s treatment.

However, to speak of the result, Kallios’s intention failed.

“Ah, I left it behind.”

“…?”

“Haha! I left the seal in the office! I have no face to show Your Highness! If you want, you can come with me and get it?”

Kallios blinked.

Is it right to say that she casually left the symbol of the family anywhere?

Doubts about her common sense arose, but even so, there was nothing Kallios could do.

“…Oh.”

“Rather, it’s good! Your Highness, come too! Aren’t you acquainted with my son?”

He would go.

Apart from that, he just wanted to take the Holy Sword before leaving for the north.

He felt a bitter taste in his mouth as one of his intentions was frustrated.

The goodwill he felt in terms of power quickly cooled.

‘Hmm, not very bright.’

The Grand Duke he met was intelligent.

Even though he was only about fifteen years old this year, his intellectual level was quite impressive.

It seemed that it was not due to his maternal lineage.

It was the moment when a small sense of disappointment welled up in him.

“Hmm, Northern-style meat, huh…”

Yuren murmured.

He was lost in thought as he ate the smoked steak that had been brought to the table.

Kallios couldn’t erase the disappointment that had risen just moments before.

‘Is he developing a new menu?’

Having been around him for quite some time, he knew.

Whenever Yuren focused on food like that, a new recipe would emerge.

A sense of satisfaction welled up.

“Did something come to mind?”

“Once this matter is resolved, I should visit the northern market. The smoked meat is quite good.”

“Oh.”

“I’ll make it for you, so please stop stealing the Third Princess’s meals.”

“I’ve never stolen them, you know? Aria prepared them for me.”

“Ugh.”

“Hmm?”

Kallios tilted his head.

* * *

The Grand Duke’s audience with the Emperor ended quickly.

Well, they weren’t particularly close to begin with, so he probably just fulfilled his duty as a vassal and left.

After that, preparations for the journey to the north began in earnest.

“This time, I’ll take Beatrice with me. Along with the royal guards… and if possible, we should bring at least one more priest.”

When the number of people increases, it becomes difficult to heal them with just the power of the necklace.

A request for priest support was sent to the Holy See, and Historia would soon handle it.

“It’s the cold season. Rather than increasing our numbers unnecessarily, it would be better to end it with this and then move the northern knights. The most important thing is to understand their movements.”

When I spoke, Erilda responded.

“I’ve looked into the influential figures who have settled in the north over the past few years.”

I nodded and listened attentively.

It was an important issue.

If those guys were plotting something, and their target was the Grand Duke, they would likely hold a position that made it easy to approach him.

“I’ve ruled out merchants and thugs, and there’s one person who seems suspicious.”

Thud, Erilda’s fingertip pointed at the profile of an old man.

“He is the Grand Duke’s alchemy teacher.”

“A teacher…”

“It’s peculiar. He was invited as a guest lecturer at the academy when the Grand Duke enrolled, and he retired a few months before the Grand Duke graduated.”

“And then he headed north?”

“Well, considering that alchemists and wizards are the kind who pass on their visions to a single disciple and then die, it might not be a big deal. But doesn’t it smell a bit fishy?”

It was a good insight.

Not just fishy, if there was a problem, it was almost certainly this man.

I recalled the incident before the regression.

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense.

‘Passing on the vision. That must have been the problem.’

Indeed, if he hadn’t learned it from someone, how could the heir of the Grand Duke’s family attempt something like ‘creating life’?

* * *

As with other incidents, I heard the news of the accident while in prison.

However, regarding the disaster that occurred in the north, I encountered it in a slightly different form.

It was at the end of the current emperor’s reign, just before the second prince ascended the throne.

―The Grand Duke has passed away.

That day, my sister delivered the obituary with an unusually weary expression.

The death of the Grand Duke.

It was almost like the death of a complete stranger, with only a few childhood memories, but I felt quite a shock at the death of such a giant of the empire.

So I asked questions I hadn’t asked during other incidents.

―How did he die?

―It was an accident. …Or rather, is it right to call it an accident?

My sister was in a state of great shock.

I immediately understood the reason after hearing her story.

―The Grand Duke challenged the secret of alchemy. Creating life… Yes, that was it.

―…What do you mean?

―I don’t know the details. A few months ago, I told you that the Grand Duke had gone missing, do you remember?―Yes, didn’t the Grand Duke send a letter asking if anyone in the capital had seen him?

―To put it simply, the Grand Duke remained in the north. He settled in the snowy mountains there and was using the spirits’ energy.

I was utterly dumbfounded upon hearing that.

What the Grand Duke intended to do was just that.

He challenged the task of creating souls in inanimate objects by using the spiritual energy of the spirits who had been the masters of that place before humans lived there. In other words, he attempted to use their life force.

The concept itself seems plausible.

There had also been speculative research suggesting that such a thing might be possible.

However, that task is clearly classified as a taboo.

Because it is inhumane?

No, simply because it is ‘dangerous.’

―Do the spirits stay still? Isn’t spiritual energy more precious to them than their lives?

To the spirits, spiritual energy was like evidence of the years they had lived.

It was the trace of the waves emitted by their souls, and only when it accumulated could ‘class’ be formed. Therefore, spirits became more obsessed with maintaining their spiritual energy than with maintaining their existence.

An easy example is Dea in the Imperial Forbidden Library.

Hadn’t she been stuck in one place for a thousand years, compressing her spiritual energy to sublimate it into divinity by resonating her soul with the taboo flowing from the forbidden books?

What would happen if you touched that?

If something akin to a natural phenomenon were to have something more precious than life stolen, and if the target were a mortal, what kind of phenomenon would occur?

Take an avalanche in the snowy mountains as an example.

If the spirits, who press down the entire region with a cold wave every season, started to come out in earnest, the avalanche they caused would erase everything alive.

To prevent that, the Grand Duke did something.

―…Yes. It was the wrath of the spirits. The energy of the snowy mountains was unusual, and there were several explorations. At the end of it, the Grand Duke realized the cause and went to negotiate directly.

―What happened?

―The Grand Duke executed the Grand Duke’s son.

―…?

―And he burned his own soul to return the amount of spiritual energy the Grand Duke’s son had used to the spirits.

It was an easy transaction to understand.

The reason the spirits were angry was that their spiritual energy had been stolen.

Even at the current level, the soul of the Grand Duke, who was just before becoming a Sword Master, could compensate for their loss to some extent.

No, because it was a strong soul, it might have given them a specialness different from the spiritual energy generally accumulated.

In summary, the Grand Duke’s son stole the spirits’ spiritual energy.

The Grand Duke died to clean up the aftermath.

It was a tragedy that ended that way.

If it weren’t for the war, it would have ended with the fall of the thousand-year-old Grand Duchy.

―Damn the North. If only the Grand Duke’s family had been intact, the barbarians wouldn’t have used that place as a path.

During the war, the North was a dagger stabbing into the heart of the Empire.

The barbarians living in the Sacred Mountains used it as a passage to invade the Empire.

If only the Grand Duke had been alive, if Heyron’s army had been intact, it would have been possible to gather forces and defend other directions without worrying about northern invasions. But with one more defense breached, the Empire suffered too much damage.

That was the judgment at the time.

My initial goal was to somehow beat the Grand Duke’s son before he went to the snowy mountains to prevent the creation of life.

But now, it’s different.

Through regression, I learned a lot.

I know that the incident was not just a simple flight, and that Rebecca was a demon.

Then a question arises.

‘What could it be?’

What was the reason the demons, those b*stards from the Outer Realm, made the Grand Duke’s son attempt to create life?

Let’s look back at all the incidents with the premise that this was their intention.

Then a pattern emerged.

They tried to summon another demon through Beatrice.

They researched species mutations through Verheim.

In the case of Girgoor, although they were also backstabbed, what they attempted in Igrosia was clearly ‘resurrection of the dead.’

And finally, the Grand Duke’s son’s ‘creation of life.’

If we roughly consider the purpose,

“It seems that what they want is to create some kind of entity.”

“If not, it could be to summon or resurrect it…”

“It could be both.”

What they researched through the so-called golden generation, who thought they were so great, was the creation of something that does not exist now.

I can’t tell anyone about the incident the Grand Duke’s son will cause, but what has been revealed is enough to convince the Crown Prince of this causality.

Thus, the conversation went on.

“What do you think?”

“How would I know?”

“We need to look into ancient books. If it’s what the goddess of fate wants, it might be something from the past rather than human history.”

“The third prince would know. If it’s a forbidden book, there might be clues.”

“Hmm, I’ll ask him to investigate.”

I have finally come this far.

The things I thought were in such a distant place are gradually getting closer.

And, in this situation, there was something I wished for.

“I hope those cult b*stards are in the north too.”

“I want to bring them back alive this time.”

“We need to deal with their master first.”

I hope those cult b*stards are here this time too.

* * *

Once engulfed in great chaos due to the fall of the saint, the Papal Court had now reached a state of stabilization.

For the first time in a thousand years, the Hope Cult had taken power as the main force, and except for this significant change, the Papal Court was able to fully perform its previous roles.

Of course, this did not come without sacrifices.

For example, the tearful labor of a woman groaning over overnight paperwork.

Rattle―

There was an old priest moving with a large tray full of documents.

He was a bishop of the Hope Cult, one of Historia’s close aides.

It was already past sunset.

He felt guilty.

After all, weren’t these documents the very things that made Historia lose her smile, which she used to respond to everyone with?

Delivering them to her personally made him feel sorry.

‘I should at least bring some sweet snacks.’

The old priest, thinking of the snacks Historia would like, stopped by the kitchen for a moment.

Since it was a depressing time, he had to comfort her in this way.

Why wouldn’t he?

Today, during the day, the head of the Pharos family left for the northern ‘Heiron Festival’ to give a congratulatory speech.

At this point, with Verheim dead, the only person Historia relied on had left, so how great must her sorrow be?

The old priest, who had watched Historia since she was young, prepared the snacks with great concern.

And, right after arriving at Historia’s office, he was stunned.

“Saint…?”

The office was empty.

Neatly organized documents were placed in a corner, and a letter was left on the chair.

‘No way, no way!’

The old priest read the letter on the chair with a hurried step.

Then he fell to his knees.

“L-Lady Saint!!!”

The content of the letter was short.

[I can’t live like this. I’m going on a vacation.]

Historia has run away!

* * *

I sat across from Historia in the carriage, staring at her absentmindedly.

She was happily devouring her seventh meat bun.

I asked first.

“But are you sure it’s okay for you to come along in person? I thought you were busy.”

At that, Historia flinched, her shoulders twitching, and then she began to tremble all over.

Then, for some reason, she shouted at me, venting her frustration.

“I-I’m a person too! A person! I can’t just look at documents like a machine!”

I held back from saying, “Why are you getting mad at me?”

…Tears were hanging from the corners of her eyes.