The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 97

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 97
* * *
Crash!
The moment the door slammed shut, Pereus seized every object within reach and hurled them wildly across the room.
“Ugh! Ughhhh!”
Rage that could not be contained twisted into strange, guttural sounds that forced their way between his clenched teeth. The meticulously ordered chamber descended into chaos in seconds.
“Your Highness, please compose yourself.”
Rasid, the knight commander, spoke from where he stood guarding the doorway.
“Shut your mouth!”
A costly ceramic vase shattered at Rasid’s feet with a sharp crack.
One of the jagged fragments pierced through his trousers, and blood began to seep slowly into the fabric.
“A cotton candy machine? A cotton candy machine?”
Pereus exhaled in disbelief.
“You actually invoked Demon power just to sabotage a single machine?”
“I did not anticipate the Heresy Inquisitor’s arrival.”
“Stop making excuses! You’re pathetic!”
…….
“Damn it, you can’t do anything right!”
“There is still an opportunity.”
“An opportunity for what? To tinker with more cotton candy machines?”
“It appears that High Priest Saikupu has disappeared.”
Over the past several days, Rasid had been moving about outside the estate.
Officially, it was announced that he had gone to observe developments in the Primordial Forest, but in truth, he had been searching for High Priest Saikupu.
“As for High Priest Saikupu…….”
“In fact, that is…….”
The priests affiliated with the Deste Temple all guarded their words carefully.
Finding this suspicious, Rasid seized a red-haired young priest and pressed him aggressively for answers.
“Eek! A-a few days ago, he vanished!”
The terrified priest blurted out more than he had been asked.
“After the Angel descended, a feather believed to be a Holy Relic was discovered…….”
“A feather?”
“It was being kept for authentication by the Central Temple, but it disappeared a few days ago. The very day High Priest Saikupu vanished!”
…….
“It’s true! Soon a Holy Knight dispatched from the Central Temple will arrive……!”
Apparently, that Holy Knight was the Heresy Inquisitor.
“The Deste Estate has become sacred ground through the Angel’s descent. It would not serve us well if the Temple’s influence grows, would it?”
“So?”
“We must create a reason for the Knights to garrison here.”
The Crown Prince, now considerably calmer, had been listening intently.
“Use High Priest Saikupu?”
“More precisely, he must kill someone.”
“Hmm.”
The Crown Prince’s lips, rigid until now, finally relaxed.
He picked up the brass scissors that had fallen to the floor during his outburst.
“Molle Rebus?”
Rasid nodded.
“If a priest murders a nobleman, the Imperial Knights have more than sufficient cause to deploy. Furthermore, this would…….”
“Put tremendous pressure on the Magic Engineering Academy.”
It was a plan that pleased him.
Yet deeming it insufficient on its own, Pereus quickly proposed another victim.
“Kill the Duchess as well. That will have far greater impact.”
“Are you certain about this?”
“Getting tedious, really.”
The watchful gaze of the old man as he observed the temple—that wary glint in his eye.
His cautious restraint, never allowing the slightest opening.
“Once the Duke of Stria’s bloodline thins out, he’ll hold me in higher regard.”
“I shall prepare the plan.”
“Don’t fail this time.”
Pereus dangled the scissors loosely in his hand.
“Now that I think of it.”
Curiosity kindled in the Crown Prince’s blue eyes.
“All the employees here are Undead, yes?”
“That is correct.”
“May I kill one of them?”
“That should be acceptable.”
“Then bring that bastard to me.”
The Crown Prince spoke.
“The one shielding and protecting Hebeniya.”
“…….”
“I need to tear that creature’s face to shreds with scissors — only then will my remaining irritation finally be spent.”
* * *
[……shreds with scissors — only then will my remaining irritation finally be spent.]
A suffocating silence pressed down upon the Underground Prison.
“…….”
“…….”
Ian and Pex, who had been eavesdropping on the conversation between the Crown Prince and the Knight Commander, hastily tore off their headsets.
Both their faces had gone pale.
“Tsk.”
Verity, by contrast, merely frowned as if watching some ill-mannered child at play.
“It happens from time to time.”
She muttered on in her usual indifferent tone.
“There are those born inherently twisted from the start.”
“So does everyone end up like that? Like the Crown Prince?”
Pex asked in a trembling voice. Verity shook her head.
“What is twisted can be straightened with sufficient effort. That is why children learn rules and order — the effort may be greater, but there are times when those very individuals save the world.”
The conversation fell silent after that.
“What will happen now, do you think?”
Ian spoke as if to himself.
“The Duchess of Stria has discovered this place is a den of Undead, and the Crown Prince intends to kill her.”
“And he means to shred Verity with scissors too……!”
Pex wrapped his arms around himself and contorted his face in anguish.
‘The Empress will weep in hell!’
Most of those who supported the Crown Prince were driven by compassion for his dead mother, the Empress.
But her son had turned out to be this kind of madman?
It would have been better if the Empress’s son had become Emperor instead.
“Please look after Modi rather than me.”
Verity stood with her arms crossed, deliberating over something intently.
Ian, observing her, ventured carefully: “Is something troubling you?”
“Is there something on your mind?”
“The method by which the Emperor summoned the Demon keeps nagging at me.”
The incident that occurred at the Magic Engineering Academy.
The Cotton Candy Machine had been damaged by a Demon’s power.
‘Stagnation.’
The state in which fluids and the like cannot flow, becoming trapped and still.
She recalled the roster sent by the company that had listed a Demon with this ability.
“But how would one summon it?”
Demon Summoning itself was nearly miraculous.
It required three things in equal measure: extraordinary luck, talent, and effort — only then was Demon Summoning barely possible.
And on top of that, the price demanded of a summoning was also astronomical.
“It must be connected to Gongseok, that much is certain…….”
“Gongseok?”
Ian and Pex tilted their heads at a word they’d never heard before.
“Ah, it is the name of the ore you two excavated at the place of exile. A stone hollow within, possessing the ability to absorb Magical Power or Holy Power.”
“So that’s what we were mining.”
“Then could the Demon Summoning have been performed using that?”
Pex mused aloud as the thought occurred to him.
“If it can absorb Magical Power and Holy Power, might it not absorb other things as well?”
“Such as Spiritual Power or life force?”
“Right. Spiritual Power hasn’t been proven, but life force would be possible…….”
Boom!
“Gack! Ack!”
Pex, shoved against the wall without warning, trembled violently as he found himself trapped within Verity’s arms.
“W-what is this force!”
“Pex, don’t blush like that…….”
“I’m blushing because I’m startled! Startled……!”
“What did you just say?”
Verity asked in a rare tone of surprise.
Pex, flustered in turn, repeated what he had just uttered.
“I, I mean to absorb…….”
…….
“So, life force and spiritual power too…….”
His speech slowed incrementally.
“Ah.”
Shocked, Pex clamped both hands over his mouth.
Verity stepped back from him and turned to Ian.
Ian’s eyes met his, and his face bore the same expression of impact.
“Finally found it.”
Verity let out a grim laugh.
[In the case of corpses treated with special agents, the efficacy of Gongseok increases further…….]
The research that Hebeniya had uncovered, that Ppoppi and Chutchu had emphasized to examine closely.
‘So that was the purpose of Gongseok.’
The use of Gongseok.
Undead research.
The creation of Possessors.
The price of Demon Summoning.
“Gongseok brimming with life force.”
It was a combination of words that reeked of blood.
Pex forced strength into his trembling body. His analytical mind began calculating instinctively.
‘A single high-grade Mana Stone filled with magical power could drive a train across the empire.’
Mana Stones were precious.
And their rarity matched their power.
Then how much life force could be contained in Gongseok, the original form of Mana Stones?
How many lives would need to be taken for that?
And how many was the Emperor hoarding?
“……Ugh.”
Unable to bear the rising nausea, Pex lurched outside the cell and vomited.
* * *
When Hebeniya had just awakened from sleep.
“Beni, Aunt. Are you awake?”
Frelia entered with a warm smile.
“Oh my, our precious Beni!”
Like a scatterbrained aunt, Frelia embraced Hebeniya and whispered.
“Verity is looking for you.”
“Where is she?”
“In the Underground Prison. And the Crown Prince is looking for Verity.”
“Why?”
“You’ll understand when you go.”
With Frelia’s help, Hebeniya tidied her tangled hair, rinsed her face briefly, and changed her clothes.
Click.
Then, using her ability, she connected the space beyond the door to the Underground Prison.
“Everyone’s faces…….”
Hebeniya was startled to see the weary expressions of those waiting there and the Demon.
“What happened while I was asleep?”
“Young lady…….”
Verity stepped forward and gave a brief report.
“The Heresy Inquisitor told the Duchess everything about the Undead, and the Crown Prince intends to kill the Duchess and pin the blame on Chief Priest Saikupu.”
“Oh.”
It was an exclamation of shock.
But Hebeniya shrugged lightly, as if she had expected as much.
‘Everything’s gone according to plan so far…….’
A single request Ian had left with Verity before falling asleep at the Magic Engineering Academy.
“Tell Olive that the Deste Estate is an Undead den.”
“That will provoke quite a reaction, won’t it?”
“Exactly why she needs to hear it.”
The plan hinged entirely on his faith in Olive’s competence and temperament.
‘The Deste Temple hasn’t sensed the Undead presence.’
Even with Verity, a Demon, occasionally prowling the territory, they remained oblivious.
At best, they’d detected only the Demonic force that had subdued the territory a few months prior.
Which meant Olive, elevated as the youngest Heresy Inquisitor in history, would absolutely sense the Undead infesting the Deste Estate.
‘And she won’t sit idle about it.’
That stubborn streak—the same obsession that had nearly driven her to drag Hebeniya to the Central Temple, mistaking her for a Saint—was the linchpin of this entire scheme.
But.
“……The Crown Prince actually told you to kill his own grandmother?”
Even Hebeniya, resourceful as she was, couldn’t hide her shock at this.
The surprises didn’t end there.
“He said he’d tear me apart with scissors.”
“What? Verity? Why?”
“He seems to think Undead deserve it.”
“Jesus, the boy’s insane.”
“And he’s taken quite a fancy to you, apparently. He singled me out specifically. I think it bothered him that I was holding onto something of his.”
“Good grief. Didn’t anyone teach him manners?”
No sense of propriety whatsoever.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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