Chapter 247

Chapter 247. Prelude to Dissonance (4)

I saw Rashar walking down the opposite corridor.

She walked slowly with her head hung low.

‘Is this the first time I’ve seen her since the sacrificial incident…?’

She might have seen me in Santorna, but it was the first time I had seen Rashar in a while.

Perhaps that’s why her drooping shoulders particularly caught my attention.

I wondered what thoughts occupied her mind as she sighed heavily as if the ground were sinking.

I stood silently, observing her, and at that moment, Rashar suddenly lifted her head.

The moment she saw me, she flinched, seeming startled.

However, that reaction was brief. She soon nodded softly in greeting.

Then she brushed past me.

I watched as she walked by, my fists clenching tightly.

Unable to resist a sudden impulse, I spoke out.

“It’s been unusually quiet.”

Rashar stopped a few steps away.

“Didn’t Ahel say anything?”

I waited anxiously with my back to her, and soon a bitter response came.

“Making it known would only exacerbate the chaos.”

“……”

“If the end is predetermined, it might be better to live holding onto hope for a while.”

I quickly turned around, making a sharp sound, but Rashar still had her back to me.

“I wish there was an opportunity to have a final conversation…”

In a steady voice, she continued.

“Thanks to you and your people’s blood spilled in this unfamiliar land, we have gained hope and a future. I will forever be grateful for that deep in my heart.”

“……”

“So, if your decision weighs on you, I hope it doesn’t. Everything that comes forth was something we were meant to face from the start.”

I bit my lip as I watched Rashar walk away, her silhouette diminishing.

How could one think like that?

‘If they knew they might be buried alive with this world, anyone would kick up a fuss, begging the association for mercy.’

Survival, the pursuit of life, was instinct.

I knew because I had faced countless life-threatening moments on the battlefield.

Had it been me in Rashar’s shoes, I’d have scrambled to every possible way to stay alive.

No matter how unsightly it seemed, I wouldn’t have cared.

But Rashar didn’t partake in what seemed like her natural right to survival.

All for the sake of the courtesy and loyalty promised as allies.

Does she know how profound such an act against human nature is?

Crunch.

I bit down so hard that a dreadful noise escaped between my teeth.

The impulse to follow Rashar and pour out my thoughts surged within me.

But I came to an abrupt halt.

Because what I was about to do was solely for myself.

A selfish act born out of a desire to relieve this burden and take a breather.

‘If I make a mistake, it’ll only serve as false hope.’

Therefore, I suppressed the impulse and headed in the opposite direction from where Rashar had gone.

*

In the underground prison of the Order’s headquarters in Gemal.

There lived more creatures than convicts.

Squeak, squeak.

Rats.

Scuttle, scuttle.

And insects as a bonus.

“Sigh.”

Vellego was living among them.

‘These wretched little rats.’

He was now weary of jumping up every time a rat or insect popped out.

Due to the months he had spent in the underground prison, Vellego was forced to adapt to all sorts of filth, mold, rats, and insects.

Otherwise, breathing and surviving in that place would have been nearly impossible.

As a result, Vellego had grown accustomed to rats and bugs crawling over him, accepting them as the norm.

Today was no different.

“To think I have to be in this damned place for another half a year.”

His current sentence for bribery was lenient.

Had his crime of kidnapping outsiders been revealed, he wouldn’t have gotten off so lightly.

But Vellego didn’t see this as fortunate either.

“Why do I have to eat this stuff?”

He complained, staring at the hard, dry bread and water.

His stomach had become gaunt from the meager diet long ago.

“Six months, just six more months…”

Even the mere thought of spending another six months here suffocated him.

The bigger issue lay in what would happen after he left this place.

He had lost his position as a priest, which he had bought with a great sum of money.

He could have repaid his wealth by collecting donations as a priest.

But that ordained role had vanished like a mirage.

All that remained for Vellego was an empty vault.

Moreover, he still had to fund the orphanage every month!

“If I’d known I’d be stripped of everything, I wouldn’t have bribed the temple with so much money…”

Mundane threats such as filth and mold didn’t bother him.

But the thought about the money vanishing overnight was enough to make him jump out of bed.

Vellego sulked as he pondered the lost money, beating his chest frustration.

“Oh, oh! It’s all because of that damned outsider!”

Even though he lost the battle for succession, he could still have led a moderately well-to-do life thanks to his wealth.

But everything crumbled the moment he got entangled with K.

“Oh, my money!”

Just when Vellego felt sorry for himself and began to cry alone, a voice he couldn’t ignore spoke.

“Don’t feel too down about it.”

Even if he wanted to forget, he couldn’t forget that voice.

“Because I can help you inherit more than just the money you lost from that damned outsider.”

He spun around, and beyond the iron bars stood a familiar dark figure.

“You, you, you!”

The very one haunting his dreams, pushing his blood pressure to the brink—K.

Vellego shot up, reflexively pointing his finger.

“What makes you think you can show your face here!”

“Obviously, it’s a prison.”

K nonchalantly replied to Vellego’s words, picking his ear with his finger.

“I know it’s aggravating, but did you not hear about the inheritance discussion?”

Vellego’s shoulders shuddered.

“What, inheritance…?”

Now that he mentioned it, K had said something about inheriting more wealth.

Why would he mention inheritance? He’d already received what was his.

While his mind was abuzz, Vellego’s finger slowly lowered.

Watching this, K chuckled and spoke.

“Mentioning money caught your interest, didn’t it?”

Vellego couldn’t deny it and swallowed hard.

With a smiling face, K continued.

“You seem to be out of the loop; your brother is in a similar situation.”

“Eh?”

“No, actually, he’s in a more pitiful position. He’s about to be executed for being caught trying to kill me.”

Vellego’s somewhat small eyes widened considerably.

“The title’s already been revoked, but that’s moot since the Ferrel royal family went under, right?”

But inheritance is a different story, isn’t it?

As K went on, Vellego’s mind buzzed with thoughts.

It’s rare for a ruling to confiscate property unless it’s treason.

Typically, when someone is sentenced to death, their estate is passed to their kin.

‘Reitan doesn’t have children… right?’

Despite being brothers, they barely interacted, so he wasn’t sure.

If there really were no children and no parents or grandparents, Vellego would be the top heir.

Yet something felt off.

No legal officer had informed him about inheritance procedures.

‘I wasn’t sentenced to death, and I’m to be released. In that case, my inheritance rights are valid…?’

The inheritor’s residence should be notified about the inheritance proceedings, requiring confirmation of acceptance.

Even if that person is in prison, procedures remain the same.

So why was K, and not a legal officer, the one approaching him?

As Vellego pondered alone, K clicked his tongue.

“How long are you going to think? You have many relatives, you know.”

“!”

The realization hit Vellego with a dull thud.

‘The, the collateral relatives must be stalling!’

If the inheritance procedures weren’t completed within the grace period, the rights would pass to the next in line.

Exploiting that point, the collateral relatives likely bribed legal officers to prevent them from reaching him.

To seize the enormous wealth of the Protoram family!

“Those wretched vermin!”

Vellego’s thin face trembled with rage.

“Do you grasp the situation now?”

Watching him, K made an unexpected proposal.

“If you help me, I can assist you in inheriting the wealth.”

Vellego’s trembling shoulders stiffened.

“I’ll also process your parole procedure.”

He claimed to have helped the chair of the order’s general assembly before.

If he asked personally, he wouldn’t be flat-out refused.

Seeing K teasingly dangle the bait, Vellego furrowed his brows.

He wasn’t the brightest, but he sensed something was amiss.

“… What do you gain from this?”

Though he didn’t expect a straightforward answer, K replied surprisingly openly.

“I need some of your family’s wealth too.”

He said he didn’t care how Vellego used it once he got what he needed.

“How, how can I trust you…?”

Met with a question filled with distrust and wariness, K smirked.

“To be fair, have I ever lied to you? All I did was mooch off you here and there.”

He added that he hadn’t exposed Vellego’s attempt to kidnap him.

“That…”

It wasn’t a lie.

K had taken money from Vellego’s vault and the orphanage funds, but he never lied.

‘Thinking back to our encounter at the capital…’

It was a misunderstanding on his part because K hadn’t spoken clearly.

‘That guy never directly lied.’

Vellego was never an admirable person.

But he wasn’t shameless enough to insist that something was right when it wasn’t.

That was why he never significantly retorted against his father and brother, who hurled harsh words at him.

They weren’t incorrect, after all.

While Vellego briefly considered this, K pressed for an answer.

“So, what’s it going to be?”

Judging by the situation, declining would be foolish.

Regardless of K’s intended budget, squandering all of Count Protoram’s estate wasn’t easy.

‘Unless he’s planning to buy a nation.’

If it wasn’t such an expense, a considerable amount would remain even after K’s expenditure.

The family’s wealth, built upon a long history of warfare, loomed large.

Nevertheless, Vellego hesitated, vacillating over K’s offer.

Out of suspicion that K couldn’t possibly act in his best interest.

“Well, I can’t force someone who doesn’t want to accept.”

But those suspicions and hesitations were all pointless.

“If you don’t like my offer, you can just rot there.”

Because Vellego never had a real choice.

“Yes, yes!”

And so he clung to the bars, desperately calling after K, who turned away as though without a second thought.

“Wait, wait!”

Vellego still couldn’t fully grasp K’s intentions.

He remained skeptical of any favorable act K might make for him.

“I’ll do it!”

But suspicious or not, as long as it got him out of there, he’d do anything!

“I’ll do as you say!”

So he pleaded with K not to leave, and K stopped, turning back to him.

Seeing that wry smile curling on K’s lips, Vellego realized he might have been caught in a snare.

‘Better to deal with him than to rot here endlessly.’

Yes, that should be it. Vellego tried consoling himself.

Damned System