(Asher’s POV)

          I brought the Baron’s body closer to me as the colour of his face drained. In that moment, my mind went blank. I have killed the Baron, now what? Oh, right... I have to make his body a display for people who wanted to tarnish the kingdom’s name.

Then...

What comes after that?

          Strangely enough, seeing as his soul slowly slipped away from his body, I also felt like all of my emotions had faded away.

I felt empty.

          I gazed again at his soulless body. He looked very stunning in his outfit, a soft turquoise green long coat paired with white shirt and white trousers. Unexpectedly, he also used an ear cuff on one side of his ears, making him look beautiful, even when he was dying.

          I clenched my trembling hand that was smeared with his blood. Earlier when our eyes met, I unexpectedly almost mouthed a praise to him just like what I was about to do back in the hall.

As he basked in the moonlight, looking as if he was waiting for me, my heart was beating fast when his amber eyes stared deep into me, and they still do even when he stared at me in his final time.

I frowned; anguish started to pile up inside me.

          Aran appeared from one of the pillars of the corridor not far from where I knelt.

“Your highness...”

“I know.”

          The Baron didn’t die from my sword, he died from the poison and the claws of the demonic beast. At the last moments before I stabbed him, I see him stagger, maybe trying to supress the poison’s effect.

I glanced at the black blood stain on his face that he coughed up earlier. All of the last stage patients for the Miragela poison have the same symptoms, black blood inside their body. As the poison does not yet have any cure, we can only prolong their life duration by giving them medications that slowed down the poison effect. Though, death is absolute.

          I gazed again at his pale face. As I caressed on his cheek with my hand, he felt very cold. Then, although I know that he wasn’t alive anymore, I tried checking his pulse. There were none.

The surrounding fell silent, for a long, long time.

Suddenly, we heard a soft cracking sound. We looked around to see where it had come from and to our surprise, the emeralds on the Baron’s ear cuff cracked, and something came out from it.

          What seemed like small sparks turned big eventually, as they surrounded the Baron’s dead body in a form of green light spirits and placed their hands on his stab wound. Then the surrounding suddenly lightened up with green aura as the spirits earlier started to chant something.

          Little by little, small lights appeared from the magical forest and they flew near the spirits and circled them.

“This is... fairies?!”

Aran spoke out of shock.

“Yeah...”

I am in loss of words. I have seen fairies many times in my life, as I was one of the gifted ones to see them. Yet, I have never seen an amount so enormous, our surroundings literally lit up and sparkled as they filled the corridor until the depth of the forest.

That amazing phenomenon continued on until the spirits finished their chanting and the wound in the Baron’s body had healed. Slowly, the scenery turned dim again as they retreated back to the forest and the spirits vanished without a trace.

“KUGHKK!!!”

          Baron Constance suddenly raised up and coughed even more black blood from before. He looked like he was in great pain that the veins on his neck looked like it would almost pop out any second. After coughing blood, he panted and soon after that, lost consciousness again.

          I placed my hand on his back as I leaned him against me, and slowly transferred some of my holy energy into his body to keep him alive.

“Your highness!-”

“It’s okay, Aran.”

He looked at me with a worried expression.

“…What should we do? After what happened earlier, I don’t think killing him again would be a wise option.”

I chose to stay silent as a response. “...”

After transferring some of my holy magic, I covered the Baron with my cloak and carried him in my arms.

“Listen, tell father about the whole incident and tell him that I will be in the mansion in South. I will interrogate the Baron there. We might be able to get something out of him about other culprits.”

Aran nodded.

“Understood.”

He said that and walked away.

“Also-”

I leered from behind me, knowing full well that Maria was somewhere near me.

“Tell the others that he was fine. And send my regards to the one who made this ear cuff, they really worked.”

I flashed a smirk before I used the teleportation stone to teleport to the south mansion.

(Izana’s POV)

“Izana?”

I jolted at Cecilia’s call.

“What is it?” I asked her.

“You were in a deep daze earlier, are you okay?” Cecilia asked in concern.

          Rather than me, won’t she need to concern about herself especially after the Miss of the Marquis Family caused a ruckus in the hall? We were now hiding somewhere near the room after Louis asked us to. Well, I could just make the Miss disappear into thin air in a snap of a finger but Cecilia forbade me to do so because that will cause bigger problems to the royal family.

I really don’t understand human standards.

“I’m fine. You worry about yourself.”

Cecilia laughed nervously after she heard my words.

“Though...”

I continued.

“I strangely feel like blessing someone right now, but I wonder who?”

          Avery

“...we failed to retrieve the scroll, my lady.”

One of the surviving spies said.

          They never expected to meet the assassin troops before they could even reach the treasury. And worse, most of them were eradicated and they could barely escape.

          Avery fell silent. Behind her fan, she gazed towards an indistinct direction.

“How about the Baron?” Her tone icy cold.

“Yes, apparently, on our way to escape the palace, we saw the first prince assassinate him with our own eyes.”

“...Are you certain?”

“Yes! We are very certain that was what happened.”

Avery lowered her gaze.

“If that’s so, you’ve done well.”

She walked pass the spies and headed to the exit of the secret room.

“But I won’t tolerate more fails next time. You better not make any mistake.”

She glared at them before leaving the room.