Building A Human Empire By Creating A Clan [EN]: Chapter 72

“You’ve arrived, Miss.”

The butler bowed deeply at the mansion’s main gate.

“And these people…?”

“Edar Seordret.”

The butler’s eyes widened.

“The young master of Seordret?”

“When addressing the family name, use Lündringen, not Seordret.”

“Lündringen?”

Julia tilted her head.

I simply smiled, not bothering to explain. (It’s a long story.)

She frowned slightly and turned away.

“Where’s Father?”

“He’s waiting inside.”

“Tell him I’ll see him now. This person will be joining me.”

“Understood.”

The butler glanced at me repeatedly.

He seemed to have many questions but was holding back.

It wasn’t every day that an exiled bastard returned with an army in tow.

They had hastily gathered forces, prepared for a battle, but now he was visiting the mansion as a guest, as if nothing had happened.

Considering that this bastard was her former fiancé, the situation must seem quite bizarre.

‘I feel like an animal in a zoo.’

Not only the butler but also the servants were stealing glances at me.

“Father, I’m here.”

Julia knocked cautiously on the door.

There was no response from beyond the door, but she opened it anyway.

A musty odor mixed with the heavy air flowed into the hallway.

“Father?”

“You’re early.”

A gaunt old man lay on the bed in the room, nothing but skin and bones.

Although I was seeing him for the first time, I knew he was Marquis Roesene.

“Did you complete your task successfully?”

The Marquis said in a weak voice, staring at the ceiling.

Julia knelt beside him and took her father’s hand.

Slowly, the Marquis’s head tilted to the side.

His eyes moved past Julia and focused on me.

“And you are…?”

He opened his eyes wide, then squeezed them shut.

“Father?”

Julia touched the Marquis’s forehead.

Her touch was filled with concern, wondering if he had a headache.

“No. It’s nothing.”

The Marquis gently pushed away Julia’s hand that was touching his forehead.

As she moved aside, he narrowed his eyes and looked at me again.

He seemed to have difficulty looking at me, as if the sunlight was too bright.

It was well past noon.

How much sunlight could possibly be filtering into the room?

I knew why he was reacting this way.

‘He’s dying.’

【Lv. 59】

The Marquis was close to death.

His soul had begun to separate from his body little by little.

That was why he could clearly sense the level of my soul.

“Who are you?”

Julia was taken aback by his polite tone.

“It’s Edar, Father. Don’t you remember?”

“Edar? Edar of Seordret?”

He blinked and opened his mouth.

I was her former fiancé, so her father must have seen me several times.

“That can’t be…?”

I pulled up a chair and sat in front of the Marquis, who was muttering blankly.

“It’s been a while, Marquis Roesene.”

“Is it really Edar?”

“Well, what do you think?”

“…I don’t know.”

He shook his head as if increasingly confused the more he looked at me.

“Explain what’s going on.”

Julia explained the circumstances of how she came to Zaouritz from the border.

After hearing the story, the Marquis chuckled, a cough mixed in.

“So? You brought your former fiancé home? And you’ve locked up your current fiancé, who has a hole in his hand, in a room somewhere?”

The Marquis laughed in disbelief, then coughed repeatedly.

“And you… you’ve really changed.”

A clear gaze, devoid of turbidity, turned to me.

He no longer seemed to have difficulty looking at me.

“It’s as if another being has taken over. Isn’t that right?”

I smiled without answering.

The Marquis was about to speak again but burst into another fit of coughing.

The coughing was so violent that his upper body lurched up, and phlegm mixed with blood came out.

“Father!”

Julia cried out urgently.

“Edar! You said you could heal him, right?”

Hurry and heal him, she shouted.

I stood still, watching the Marquis, and then said,

“I’d like to see how you usually treat him first.”

“Bring Bishop Bowler!”

With hurried footsteps, Bowler, the bishop of the Wolf God, Horvid [a prominent religious figure], entered the room.

【Lv. 31】

A faint light emanated from the bishop’s fingertips and swept over the Marquis’s body.

As the light permeated his body, the Marquis’s breathing quickly stabilized.

The Marquis let out a long sigh.

“Thank you. It seems I’ll manage to survive today as well.”

“Not at all. It is due to the Marquis’s own virtue. How could this be possible if the Marquis did not receive the grace of Horvid?”

I stopped Bishop Bowler, who was about to leave the room after finishing his greetings.

“Please, stay a little longer.”

“Excuse me, but who are you?”

“Edar of Seordret.”

The bishop trembled for a moment.

“Yes, yes… If you wish…”

I watched the Marquis, who was breathing evenly, and said,

“You are deeply ill.”

“My time has come.”

“Father…”

Julia called out to the Marquis in a reproachful tone.

The Marquis shook his head.

“The bishop is using the power of God to prevent death from coming to me, but my body is gradually becoming less and less my own. But, you say you can heal me?”

I nodded.

“How? Do you even know what this illness is?”

“It’s the Emperor’s curse, I presume.”

“If that’s the case, then there’s nothing more to say, is there? Their blood, which has seeped into my body, is killing me. Only the Emperor, the master of all blood, can draw this blood out.”

There’s nothing you can do, the Marquis affirmed.

“We’ll see.”

I looked at the ring on my index finger.

The ring emitted a radiant red light and whispered to me.

– Dominate my children on this land. And thus, you shall—

“I know everything about the Emperor, Marquis Roesene.”

The Marquis flinched at the insignia engraved on the ring.

“That is…”

“As you can see.”

I gave a sly smile and grabbed the Marquis’s wrist.

The wrist, with only skin and bones, felt like it would break the moment I touched it.

“Do you know that the Emperor’s curse is not actually an illness?”

“Not an illness?”

“Yes. The Emperor’s curse is not an illness.”

It’s a parasite.

“Ugh!”

The Marquis clutched his chest and gritted his teeth.

The ring containing Blad’s soul fragment [a piece of a powerful being] unleashed its magic.

The magic traveled through the Marquis’s wrist and seeped inside.

Bubble, bubble…

Then, bubbles formed on the skin of the wrist I was holding.

Thick blood flowed out from the murky bubbles.

Thud!

A sound that should never come from flowing blood.

The blood took on a semi-solid form like jelly, wriggling.

It repeated contraction and expansion, as if a heart was beating.

“That is…”

Julia covered her mouth with her hand.

“The true form of the curse.”

And then, light erupted from my hand.

Light, a different energy from Blad’s magic, enveloped the Marquis.

The Marquis took in the light, exhaled evenly, and let out a sigh.

“Oh, oh…”

Color returned to his faded skin, and his half-closed eyes widened.

His body was still emaciated and his energy was depleted, but death had disappeared from his side.

He slowly raised his upper body.

“Father?”

Julia approached the Marquis.

The Marquis took her hand and gave an awkward smile.

“The energy that was devouring me has disappeared.”

“H-How?”

I had merely extracted the parasite that was roaming inside the Marquis and restored the body that the parasite had wounded.

“You’ve suffered for quite a while.”

I said, looking at the still wriggling lump of blood.

The lump of blood, smaller than a fist, was originally a worm that had parasitized the Marquis’s body.

Before taking root in the Marquis’s body, it must have been very small.

It had grown like this, gnawing at the Marquis.

“Bishop.”

I said politely.

The bishop’s shoulders twitched greatly.

His eyes bulged as if they would burst, and his mouth was agape.

He didn’t realize I was calling him and stared at the lump of blood.

“Bishop.”

I called him again with more force.

Only then did he lift his head, making a foolish sound, “Y-Yes?”

“Are you very surprised?”

“Ah, yes… It’s my first time seeing something like this…”

“What’s the first time?”

The bishop closed his mouth.

I twisted up the corners of my mouth and said,

“It must be the first time that a worm doesn’t listen to you.”

“……!”

The trembling stopped.

His breath was cut off for a moment.

An expression of being so surprised that he couldn’t even react.

I smiled even more intensely.

“I knew of your existence even before coming to this city, yet you still don’t know the existence of your master.”

“Y-You are…”

“Kneel.”

Thud!

Without even a moment’s delay, the bishop knelt.

Belatedly, he tried to resist, tried to stand up, and supported his knees with both hands.

But his body didn’t budge.

A situation where his body was not his own.

How could a mere servant, not even a blood relative, refuse the Emperor’s command?

The bishop, now a servant, looked up at me with trembling eyes.

“If you gave up being human and begged to become a slave, you must have been prepared for this. Isn’t that right?”

“W-What…?”

The bishop blankly looked up at me.

“What on earth is this…?”

Marquis Roesene opened his mouth and muttered.

He couldn’t accept the current situation and blinked blankly.

The person he had believed to be his benefactor was actually the culprit.

Moreover, that benefactor was a religiously prominent figure.

“What on earth is going on, Bishop?”

He asked Bishop Bowler in a trembling voice.

The bishop, kneeling at my command, just opened and closed his mouth.

“Did you… Did you curse Father?”

Julia Roesene asked, clenching both fists tightly.

Only then did the bishop jerk his head up and wave his hands.

“No! How could I curse—”

“Quiet.”

The power in my words sealed the bishop’s mouth shut.

I placed my hand on his shoulder and whispered.

“Don’t lie in front of me.”

The bishop trembled.

“Tell me. Who are you? Whose servant are you?”

“I, I, I am B-Bowler, a s-servant of Chuter.”

His lips trembled, resisting the urge to answer.

But the resistance didn’t last long.

How dare he resist?

The command given by the Emperor’s soul.

I placed my ringed index finger on the bishop’s forehead.

“What have you done here?”

“Chuter-nim ordered us to place a curse on the border lords. Accordingly, we were assigned to the territories with targets and secretly placed curses on them.”

“Why?”

“To increase faith further, that is.”

“What does that mean?” Julia muttered.

“In other words, to dominate more easily.”

“Dominate…?”

I gestured with my chin towards the wriggling lump of blood on the floor.

The lump of blood that had come out of the body was struggling to live.

Since it was born as a parasite, it couldn’t live outside the body for long.

It wriggled, searching for a body to parasitize in order to avoid death.

Thwack!

Calliope threw a dagger and stabbed the lump of blood.

A hissing sound, like air escaping, was heard.

“This is like poison. A poison that can be administered without anyone knowing. If you had no conscience, how would you use this poison?”

“……”

Julia remained silent.

Rachel answered instead.

“Of course, they would use it for their own benefit. To assassinate political enemies, or to weaken them and create chaos in the government.”

“Or to strengthen faith even more.”

“Faith…”

Julia muttered.

Her eyes widened.

“Your father, Marquis Roesene, would call the priests, and they would come running for free?”

“Of course—”

“Yes, of course, they would come running. They would come immediately when called. But didn’t you give them something in return? Saying, ‘Thank you for saving my life.’ Praising them as benefactors. You must have given them something. Isn’t that right?”

They must have given them a lot.

Gold, estates, privileges… What wouldn’t they do to beg for their lives?

Or what wouldn’t a child do for their beloved parents?

Julia took a deep breath and trembled.

“If they had only said to believe, faith would have quickly reached its limit. But, if they actually saw the appearance of getting better, it would no longer be a matter of faith. That is one of the ways the Horvid Church dominates the world.”

They give the disease and then offer the cure.

Hiding the fact that they were the ones who inflicted the disease.

“Why would a priest do such a thing…?”

Julia Roesene covered her face with both hands.

Her hands trembled, and she repeated the same words over and over.

There is no one who is not devout in this world.

How could she accept the betrayal of the existence she had so believed in?

“There’s no need to be surprised.”

Julia lowered her hands and looked at me.

She opened her mouth, trying to argue.

“It’s a common occurrence. It’s hypocritical to be surprised now.”

She flinched at my firm tone.

“Don’t you hand over humans to other races as tribute? And now you’re surprised that they’ve used their hands on you?”

“Th-That’s…”

“That’s? What are you going to say next? That slaves aren’t human?”

I sneered and faced her.

“Who said that slaves aren’t human? The god you believe in. Isn’t it because the god said that slaves aren’t human that you follow?”

If the god inflicts a curse to increase faith, then shouldn’t you follow that as well?

“You should trust human reason. The result of believing in fabricated gods is this.”

Wolf Hunt [a term for exposing and punishing wrongdoers]

I grabbed Bishop Bowler by the scruff of his neck and lifted him up.

Calliope took the bishop and dragged him out.

“What are you trying to do?”

“If there are parasites in the body, they must be caught, and if the parasites have spread widely, it must be made known, wouldn’t you agree?”

Marquis Roesene’s eyes widened.

“Do you know what you’re saying?”

“Marquis.”

I said with force in my voice.

“I don’t do things I don’t know about. And I don’t worry about what my actions will bring.”

“He is a bishop. Even the king would not dare to punish him.”

“Then what about the Emperor?”

“The Emperor?”

“What if it was someone who killed the Emperor?”

The Marquis closed his mouth, then widened his eyes as he understood the meaning.

And he looked at my ring.

He looked at the insignia engraved in the center of the ring.

The target indicated by the insignia that he had momentarily forgotten.

Recalling that, he opened his mouth and trembled.

“You…?”

I smiled slyly.

The Emperor’s insignia engraved on the ring, the magic flowing out of the ring, the harmony created by the magic, if he knew this, unless he was a fool, he would know that the ring was genuine and who the Emperor I killed was.

“What humans should fear is humans. Not some petty ghosts.”

I stood up and walked out of the mansion.