The Strongest Daughter-In-Law Of The Black Lion Family [EN]: Chapter 144

Right after returning to Sarvan Castle, Ivan quietly called me.

“While chasing Navi’s gang, we found a group tailing Lady Chersea.”

“Aha.”

I wondered why, even after shaking off the Sarvan family’s spies, there were more following me.

Just as Heathcliff said, it seemed there was another group tailing me besides them.

“So, did you catch them?”

“We managed to catch the leader and a few of the underlings, but…”

Ivan hesitated, uncharacteristically. He glanced around and whispered cautiously, “The leader was an acquaintance of Zerachiel.”

“Who is it that you have to be so secretive about?”

“I heard it was someone in the picture Lady Chersea carries around.”

“!”

I was startled and stared at Ivan. The only picture I carry around is the one Eve gave me.

Besides, I thought one of the people in the picture was already dead.

“Could it be… Father?”

“We’ve locked him up for now to confirm… but it seems we need Lady Chersea’s verification.”

Only then did I understand why Ivan was being so careful. I muttered with a serious face, “Mother clearly said she saw him die before her eyes…”

At that moment, a chilling thought occurred to me.

Eve said that the Sarvan Lord killed my biological father before her eyes.

But what if that was just a show?

What if he didn’t actually kill him but handed him over to Navi’s gang as a test subject?

I shuddered at the gruesome thought and ordered, “Take me there.”

* * *

Inside the secret prison Chersea had built underground.

Nahid was once again chilled by the fact that there was such a terrifying space beneath the North.

An elaborate prison that was hard to believe was underground. Most of those captured were locked in soundproofed solitary cells in preparation for any possible situation.

A meticulous act to completely block the possibility of them colluding to conceal information.

Zerachiel smirked in front of Nahid, whose arms and legs were bound.

“Were your memories even manipulated?”

Having already been interrogated once, Nahid was almost half-dead. He was barely clinging to consciousness.

But Nahid knew that the only reason he was still alive was that the other party still had questions to ask him.

Now, Nahid’s face was ashen, knowing that the thicker his smile, the more dangerous he was.

At that moment, his aide and a strange woman entered the prison.

The moment Nahid saw the woman, he felt frozen. She had a strangely familiar appearance.

Even though he had never seen her before.

“Isaiah?”

Meanwhile, Chersea frowned as she looked at Nahid, who was tied to the wall. He was in terrible condition, showing how much he had been tortured.

When Ivan nodded in affirmation, Chersea took a step toward Nahid.

The two sized each other up from a reasonable distance. Zerachiel stepped back and watched their movements.

Then Chersea took out a picture from her pocket and held it out.

“Do you remember the woman in this picture?”

“!”

Nahid stared intently at the woman in the picture. The woman in the picture looked very much like the woman holding it out.

Except for the eye color, they were so similar that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say they were the same kind of beast [referring to a shared lineage or species].

Nahid’s gaze turned to Chersea. And when he confirmed that her eye color was similar to his, he gasped.

“Heuk!” [A gasp or choking sound]

Suddenly, his head ached as if it would break. A creepy sensation of something crawling around in his head.

From the moment he was taken in by the cult leader, he only had the cult leader.

No previous memories remained. Only the thought of following the cult leader dominated his mind.

He had never felt the need to do anything on his own. He had never questioned it.

But at this moment, seeing the woman in the picture and the woman in front of him, Nahid became madly curious. What was the past that he couldn’t remember?

And then, Nahid’s body convulsed violently, as if he had stepped to death’s door.

“Cough!”

“Gasp!”

Finally, bright red blood flowed down his neck.

Chersea, seeing this, was startled and reached out her hand.

Using pheromones without even thinking, Nahid’s complexion, which seemed about to die, improved.

Nahid felt a refreshing energy swirling around his body for a moment.

The body that he thought would surely die was fine. It happened in the blink of an eye.

Then Nahid felt something crawling around in his head leaving his body.

“Ugh! What is that?”

Ivan was horrified to see the bug crawling out of Nahid’s ear. Chersea, seeing this, instructed,

“Don’t kill it, keep it alive. It must be one of the bugs Navi’s gang uses.”

At those words, Zerachiel, who had been waiting, sheathed his sword and picked up the bug. The pink bug, which looked like a maggot, had a grotesque appearance.

Zerachiel couldn’t help but frown at the sight of it, like a mosquito that had sucked blood.

“Give it to me.”

Ivan said, holding out a glass bottle. His face showed that he didn’t want to catch it with his own hands even if he died.

Who likes catching it?

For a moment, Zerachiel was furious and threw the bug at Ivan.

“You catch it and put it in.”

“Ugh!”

Ivan was horrified to see the bug flying towards him. But true to his reputation for being quick on the job despite being cowardly, he quickly landed the flying bug in the glass bottle.

“Hoo.”

Ivan wiped the sweat from his forehead as if he had accomplished something great. Seeing him like this, he was like the fastest lion [a humorous comparison highlighting Ivan’s surprising agility].

Nahid had already fainted. It was no wonder he lost consciousness, having something like that growing in his head.

When Zerachiel took a step towards Nahid, Chersea stopped him.

“Leave him alone until he wakes up.”

“Are you taking his side because he’s your father?”

“If he’s been a host for a long time, he might not remember much. He didn’t even remember who he was in the first place.”

“So? Are you just going to stand by and do nothing?”

“Deliver that bug to Merina. If it’s Merina, she’ll figure something out. It’s not too late to interrogate him after that, is it?”

When Chersea retorted quite logically, Zerachiel stepped back.

One of the reasons he stepped back was that her face was noticeably pale.

Zerachiel was about to ask her if she was okay, but he stopped.

“Whatever.”

Zerachiel left, uttering only a nonchalant word.

Chersea stared blankly at him, then gazed at the fallen Nahid.

Before she knew it, her eyes had turned cold.

Her father, who she thought was dead, had returned alive.

But to be used as a henchman of Navi’s gang after losing his memory.

Chersea had many thoughts, as the circumstances could not be unrelated to the Sarvan Lord.

The thought of Eve suffering from the loyalty bug came to mind, and she couldn’t just leave it alone.

How many people are suffering because of one greedy old man?

Chersea could no longer let things go according to the Sarvan Lord’s wishes.

Aside from Eve being her biological mother, she didn’t want to leave a fellow beast in trouble.

― You shouldn’t use pheromones as much as possible.

For a moment, Tebi’s words caught her, but only for a moment.

She had already used pheromones once for Nahid, but no seizure occurred.

On the other hand, seizures occurred inadvertently even when she didn’t use pheromones.

Then wouldn’t there be no reason to refrain from using pheromones because of the seizures?

If seizures were going to happen anyway, it would be better to use the precious pheromones usefully than to let them rot.

Besides, now that she knew how to alleviate the seizures, there was no need to be so cautious.

Meanwhile, Ivan stood blankly and carefully watched Chersea, who was lost in thought.

Judging that she must have many thoughts because of the sudden encounter with her biological father and her cold husband, he couldn’t help but step forward.

“Are you alright?”

But was it just unnecessary meddling?

The face of Chersea, who he met eyes with, was very calm. No, rather, she was burning with fighting spirit.

He didn’t know who she was fighting, but she might explode if touched.

“Oh, it’s hot! Is there a fire somewhere?” [Ivan attempts to lighten the mood with a joke]

Chersea left the prison without answering Ivan’s glibness. Left alone, Ivan couldn’t overcome his embarrassment and spoke to the wriggling bug in the glass bottle.

“Everyone’s going through puberty.”

Of course, the bug didn’t answer.