episode_0103

103. Gresha (3)

Knock knock-

“Miss.”

“…..”

Chloe, the exclusive maid who serves Sion, sighed as she watched Sion not come out of his room today.

Two weeks and three days ago, Zion, who had started to help the master with his research in earnest, stayed in his room for ten days, but after that he came out, but his complexion seemed to be getting worse.

Of course, I thought it was presumptuous of me, a mere maid, to interfere. Still, as a maid serving her, it was extremely heartbreaking to see Zion, who was the greatest genius in the empire and also had great beauty, looking so pale.

For 20 years, I have lived with this family and cared for Zion, but recently, Zion, who always showed her perfect appearance, has been in bad condition, and I feel bad seeing her, who is like my daughter, struggling.

The reason for this was something that all the vassals and servants deeply involved in this clan knew, but even knowing it, Chloe was left devastated after seeing Zion’s haggard face for two weeks.

Squeak-

“The nanny.”

“Oh…I have a schedule today too….”

“Okay. Don’t come looking for me until lunch.”

Tamar-!

Chloe, who heard that Zion, who opened the door with a worn-out face and was looking for a nanny, was skipping a morning bath again today, took the bathing supplies she had prepared in advance and moved again.

“Huh? Chloe.”

“Lukewarm Miss.”

If Zion skips her morning bath, it means she will also skip breakfast. As she quickly moves to report to the head maid, the second daughter of the Gresha family, Mion, notices her.

“Sister, are you done bathing already?”

“Ah….”

“Huh?”

Mi-on, who resembles her mistress with silver hair as bright as moonlight instead of the blond hair that is the symbol of the Gresha family, asks with a mischievous smile.

Because the difference in talent was so great, rather than persecuting her, the head of the household raised her as if she were a free-spirited animal, so Mi-on never even went to the academy and grew up like a tomboyish commoner girl.

Mi-on, who was not overbearing to those around her and showed a friendly and simple attitude, was liked by all the employees.

The moment Chloe saw the innocent face of Mion, who had no idea about the secret of the Duke’s family that was the cause of Zion’s ruin, she felt nauseous without realizing it.

“Ugh…!”

“Oh my! Chloe, are you okay? Are you feeling unwell?”

Ahh… Such a kind person, you won’t find anywhere in the empire a duke’s daughter who would look at the complexion of even a mere maid with such concern.

“It’s…okay, miss. Lady Sogaju has been skipping her morning bath and meals recently because she’s not feeling well.”

“Really? Sigh… Is there something wrong with you, Unnie? Hee-ing…”

Although she grew up as a tomboy, Mion respects and likes her older sister, and she doesn’t do things like barging into Zion’s bedroom.

Even though she had only heard that Zion’s condition was not very good, Chloe felt guilty when she saw Mion’s worried attitude and crying as if she was sick.

“Then, I have to go report to the head maid….”

“Oops! Sorry. Thanks for your hard work, Chloe!”

Leaving behind Mi-on, who was waving with a bright expression, Chloe headed towards the office where the head maid was with even quicker steps.

As if it had to be done that way.

***

At that moment, in Zion’s room.

“Ugh….!”

Zion was shivering, curled up in a blanket.

It is true that she has helped her father, Gaju, with his experiments since she was young.

However, it was not only her magical talents but also her outstanding genius in alchemy that she helped Leon Gresha, the head of the household, in researching the mixing ratios of herbs and drugs, and this was the first time she actually participated in an experiment.

Zion was puzzled by the order from her father to wait until she became an adult to participate in a full-scale experiment, but she thought that there was a reason behind the words of her father Leon, who she had seen as perfect and infallible, so she waited until she became an adult.

And the night after the ball that turned the second prince of the empire’s mind upside down.

“Come to my office at midnight tonight.”

“Your lord.”

After hearing the dry words of the head of the household at the dinner table, Zion finally began to feel excited about the fact that he would be participating in his father’s experiment that would fulfill the family’s long-cherished wish.

And that night.

“Follow me.”

“Yes…!”

Seeing Zion in light clothing and a robe, Gaju took her to the basement of the castle without saying anything.

“This is…..”

“For security reasons, when you were growing up, I just told you not to approach. This is the entrance to the lab.”

“Yes…”

In a place that was once used as an underground prison, but is now closed, the owner skillfully places his hand on the opening and closing mechanism and releases his magical power.

Kiiing-

Crunch-! Crunch!!

Kukukung-!

A thick iron door strangely imbued with magic opened on its own with a loud noise, and a staircase leading down to the basement appeared before my eyes.

And the stairs were dark, like the entrance to an abyss.

“Follow me.”

“Yes…yes!!”

Leon, who had turned on the light magic and illuminated the surroundings, gave orders to Sion in a dry tone, and Sion groped his way down the stairs, following the lead of the owner, which somehow gave off an eerie feeling.

And as you get closer to the end of the stairs

Zion, who felt as if a scream like that of an animal was coming out, spoke to the head of the household with his pupils trembling violently.

“Ah….Father?”

“Don’t make a fuss.”

“That…That’s…!”

As they descended further and further, the desperate screams grew louder and Zion’s shoulders began to tremble.

And when the head of the household reached the giant iron door at the end of the stairs, he used his magic power to manipulate it again, and the heavy iron door opened on its own.

Grrr-

And the sight that unfolded before Zion’s eyes was…

A space appeared that was two to three times as large as the parade ground where the knights trained.

Inside, which was as bright as daylight due to the luminescent stones imported from the Labyrinth City and larger than a person’s head embedded throughout, there were glass bottles large enough to fit a person lined up on both walls.

“What the…what is this…!!”

And in those bottles, men and women, humans and other races, as if stuffed animals, were lined up against the walls on both sides of the laboratory, filled with blue liquid, and in the center were numerous beds that looked like those found in a doctor’s office, and people covered in blood were moving around busily.

“AAAHHHH!!!”

“Stop!!! Stop it!!!”

“Save me!!!!”

One section of the laboratory had bars like a prison, and inside were numerous aliens lying with their eyes dead in their throats.

A person who approaches such a race of aliens, carries them through the bars, and places them on a bed; a person who draws blood; a person who stabs the aliens lying on the bed here and there with a knife of similar size to the one used when eating; and a person who removes and carries the corpses of those who have died from among the screaming aliens.

They were all servants working in their own families.

No, not only the servants, but also many people from the Duke’s collateral lineage were seen.

“Ah! Lord Soga, finally starting today!!!”

“Fred, guide Zion.”

“Yes! I understand, my lord.”

The butler approached her like that, and at the head of the household’s order, Zion went to look around the laboratories with the butler.

Fred, the butler and the most trusted member of the family after the nanny Marie, speaks to her with a moved expression, wondering if this is what it would feel like if her grandfather, who is over 70, were still alive.

“Haa~ The young lady is finally participating in the experiment!! The master is really looking forward to it!!!”

The butler had an expression on his face that seemed like that of a fervent fanatic, an expression that Zion had never seen before.

“ji…butler, what the heck is this…?”

“Oh my, I guess our young lady is a little surprised, hehe.”

“What the hell is going on???”

“Oh my… Seeing you like this reminds me of when you were young, lord…”

“What?”

“But our Zion girl has been smart and extraordinary since she was little, so I thought she wouldn’t be surprised, but this is it, haha!!”

Zion could not keep up with the butler’s conversation and situation at all.

Feeling confused for a moment, Zion looked at the surroundings and began to make inferences based on the knowledge he had provided to the head of the household with alchemical knowledge, his own growth process, the support of his family, and all the circumstances.

‘The secret of the family… An experiment to maintain the bloodline that opens up magical power for a thousand years…’

‘Enrolling in and graduating from the Academy… Were those just formalities for external activities or to show that one’s bloodline is nominally that of a duke?’

And the conversation with the owner of the tower I met just a little while ago.

The business of supplying the territory with the alien races that he had talked about with the Tower Lord was the work that Zion took on after graduating from the Academy.

Zion thought that the process of selecting experimental participants was a bit forced due to the imperial decree that humans and other races were equal, and that they were using some tricks.

I came up with a business plan that would release humans from hunters and explorers onto the continent to bring foreign races to the territory, and the family would offer appropriate ‘rewards’ to encourage them to volunteer for the experiments.

Creepy!!!

Crunch!

“Ouch… It’s heavy.”

Dragging and dragging-

During the day, the servant who worked as a gardener at the castle realized that this was not a simple blood draw or experiment when he saw the corpses of the alien race, already reduced to pieces of meat, being carried away in a sack.

Creepy!!!

“No way….”

“Oh! Miss?”

“This…this kind of inhumane experiment…!!”

“thousand years.”

“ in?”

The butler answers Zion, who is about to scream in anger, in a gentle voice.

“Lady. It’s an experiment that’s been going on for a thousand years.”

“What is that…”

“This is an order and right from His Majesty the Emperor. Unlike the external support we receive from the other two ducal houses, our family of Gresha receives support from the Imperial Household for everything related to this experiment.”

“….!!!”

Sion, who only knew that the first head of the Gresha family had awakened the method of awakening magical powers in their bloodline and that this bloodline was inherited, was the moment when he discovered the secret of a long-standing magical family.