Villain Family’s Strongest Butler - Chapter 20

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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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Episode 23

Upon arriving at the Grand Duke’s Mansion, Kardrian sent Freya on ahead and made his way to his study.
Yet even seated at his desk, the documents refused to hold his attention.
It was the conversation with the High Priest that wouldn’t leave him.
“I cannot say there is no trace of Black Magic present.”
“…….”
“It is faint, but I sensed Black Magic hovering about the edges of a formidable Aura.”
The High Priest had detected Black Magic in Freya. At those words, Kardrian’s own Aura suddenly roughened with violence. The High Priest continued at once.
“Your Grace, hear me out completely. The powerful Aura is undoubtedly the true core. What I sensed of Black Magic was merely brushing the surface of that Aura—a trace left behind by passing contact, nothing more.”
Whether it brushed or clung, either way meant traces of Black Magic remained in the butler’s soul.
“That sounds like you’re saying a sorcerer may have implanted another soul within her.”
At Kardrian’s words, the High Priest released a weary sigh.
“Of course, I do not claim to see through all things. Yet I can say with certainty that the soul dwelling in that butler’s body is not one corrupted by Black Magic. You felt it yourself, did you not? That is why you’re so troubled.”
“…….”
With that, the High Priest pressed a small Leather Pouch into his hands.
“Was it two years ago? When she awakened?”
Kardrian examined the contents of the pouch.
“……This is.”
“At that time, I found it at the tip of a branch. Though only a handful, sparse as they were.”
“…….”
“Has that answered your question, at least in part?”
Recalling his conversation with the High Priest, Kardrian rose from his chair.
Since concentration was impossible anyway, he reasoned it would be better to steal at least some rest.
Kardrian walked at a measured pace—neither quick nor slow. As he traversed the corridor and the central staircase came into view, he ascended it.
The staircase connected the third floor, where his study lay, to the fourth.
Upon reaching the fourth floor, Kardrian paused in the hallway, his gaze drifting toward the corridor where Freya’s room lay.
‘Not knowing her own circumstances.’
The image surfaced: her dozing in the carriage, cradling a Black Cat, nodding off with each sway of the wheels.
Kardrian exhaled softly, then turned directly toward the fifth floor.
Upon ascending to the fifth floor, an iron door of immense presence blocked the way forward, its dark surface imposing.
Yet Kardrian reached out with the ease of familiarity. His palm covered the ornate seal etched into the center of the black door.
The elaborate and mystical engraving vanished in an instant, hidden beneath his large hand.
Then, with a deep rumble—crunch-crunch-crunch—the iron door swung open on both sides.
The door that seemed it would never yield opened with remarkable ease the moment his hand touched it.
As the iron door on the fifth floor vanished, the dark corridor glimpsed through the grating disappeared with it, and an entirely different world unfolded.
Magic linking to another space had activated.
Crunch. As Kardrian stepped forward, grass compressed beneath his feet.
He moved along the stone path sparsely set among the grass.
After a short walk, an enormous tree appeared.
It was a World Tree—a phantom construct conjured by magic within a phantom space of magic’s own making.
Because it was conjured rather than real, it overflowed with majesty and grandeur, unlike the actual World Tree that now stood withered and leafless.
It was preserved exactly as the World Tree had been in its most vibrant and beautiful age.
Its thick roots driven deep into the earth and massive trunk seemed connected to all life in the world, radiating mystery.
Branches thrust powerfully skyward as if to cover all heaven, laden with living leaves that shimmered gold.
Each time the wind passed, the rustling leaves sang a soft symphony, as if nature herself were offering a concert.
And.
Beneath the shadow cast by those leaves lay a bed adorned with the World Tree’s own foliage and blossoms of every hue.
Whenever the wind stirred, golden sunlight broke through the leaf-gaps and scattered like fragments across the bed.
Kardrian gazed at the scene for a moment, then walked back beneath the World Tree’s shadow.
“…….”
He came to stand directly beside the bed, his eyes fixed upon it in silence.
The bed was empty.
The snow-white linens lay undisturbed, bearing not the slightest trace of anyone having rested there.
Yet as Kardrian’s gaze fell upon the vacant bed, it seemed directed at someone who had once lain there.
“Freya, come down from the tree. What if you hurt yourself doing that?”
“I hate that name! It sounds like a boy’s name!”
The little girl had protested that her name was too long and sounded too masculine.
—”It is a precious name given to me by God.”
—”I know. That’s why you don’t say anything about it in front of others.”
—”…….”
—”But I hate it when Kardrian calls me by that name too!”
The girl, who looked as demure as a flower cultivated in a noble garden, carried within her an intensity and rawness like a wild mare that had grazed on untended grass in open country.
One might say she was unlike any member of the Flanker Family.
The Flanker Family had been chosen by God across generations, resonating with the World Tree to protect and guard it.
Kardrian thought, perhaps it had been his own bias to assume that a child chosen by God would always be docile.
—”Come down for now.”
—”Give me a pet name.”
—”……A pet name? You mean me, sir?”
—”Yes. If you promise to give me one, I’ll come down.”
—”…….”
—”I won’t ask you to use it in front of others. Just a pet name that only you and I will know. All right? Kardrian.”
The girl’s eyes, entreating him with such warmth, remained vivid and clear.
The moment Kardrian agreed to give her a pet name, she leaped down from the tree with a light bound.
—”How about this one?”
—”You thought of one already? It won’t be strange, will it?”
—”I remember reading it once in an old book. There was an ancient city that now lies deep asleep at the bottom of the sea, and God cherished it so dearly that He sent His own child down to it. That child of God became the queen of that city—.”
—”There you go with the long explanations again. Never mind all that. Just tell me the name. What is it? What did you come up with?”
—”…….”
Kardrian, sweeping across the empty bed, spoke softly in place of his remembered self.
“Freya.”
The pet name Kardrian had given, the one only he had ever called her.
He had once asked her—the one who claimed to remember that name as her own.
—”Do you understand what it means that you know that name?”
As expected, she did not remember.
The small hope he had harbored seemed to crumble away.
He had believed that if she would only wake, everything would return to its place.
But with just that single word—that she had lost her memory—everything became opaque.
He could no longer even be certain that the soul dwelling within her was truly Freya’s.
Kardrian’s time, frozen twelve years ago, remained still frozen.

***

The Kadea Empire and the Tenasis Empire had once been a single land.
The World Tree stood firm, protecting it, and all who dwelt there enjoyed prosperity beneath the Blessing of the World Tree.
Yet there is no peace that lasts forever.
The World Tree was positioned at the southwesternmost edge of the map, and as time passed, an economic imbalance grew between the regions close to the World Tree and those far from it.
With this came discontent among nobility and commoners alike, born from disputes over control of that boundless resource.
In the end, the accumulated grievances erupted into a great war, and the one nation fractured into two independent kingdoms.
The Kadea Empire and the Tenasis Empire.
They were divided into the empire that received the Blessing of the World Tree and the one that did not.
And the family that had protected that World Tree eternally, generation after generation, was the Flanker Marquis Family.
The Flanker Marquis Family was known not only as the protectors of the World Tree but also as the family blessed by it.
The descendants of that house were not bound by the title of marquis. They were held nobler than any aristocratic family, more revered than the High Priest of the temple itself, more honored than the princes of the imperial house.
Yet that Flanker Family had been erased from history twelve years ago, when their sole heir fell into Deep Sleep.
The World Tree had begun to wither from that very moment.
Freya Flanker.
The owner of this now-empty bed.
At that time, Kardrian had been Freya’s betrothed.
Though it had been a one-sided promise made by the adults, Kardrian held no displeasure toward the engagement.
From the moment he first laid eyes upon Freya, his heart had already been given away.
Kardrian leaned back against the bed and drew a Pocket Watch from his inner pocket.
Click—.
On one side of the golden Pocket Watch’s lid, tiny letters showed the initials of Freya and Kardrian engraved there.
Even a small heart shape between them.
As Kardrian gazed at that heart, he found himself smiling softly, almost without meaning to.

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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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