Chapter 49: How the tables turn
"I don’t understand what you mean by the curse, young one." She sat back down in her place, looking back at him with a more serious expression.
The past was something that was best left untouched, and the boy who wanted to move forward instead of digging up the decayed graves, seemed to be on the same page for that.
"You know what I’m talking about. His eyes may have been changed with that enchantment, but the curse is still pulsating."
"...?"
She looked back at her son and confirmed that her enchanted earring was just fine.
Then, what was this ’pulse’ that this boy was talking about?
"You will see it as well if you focus on the third junction of your enchantment’s fifth section’s first array."
Only the White lady in this room understood what he was saying. And when she looked at the point where he had just pointed out, strangely enough, she could see a glimpse of black: one so small and hidden behind her son’s eyelashes that it was completely camouflaged.
"You see it, right?" She didn’t want to admit it, but her enchantment did have a gap. Still, finding and seeing a glimpse of something so small can’t possibly tell you what exactly it was.
"You may not believe it when I say this, but I do know about those black eyes." The warm smile that he maintained until now somehow seemed warmer than ever before.
In her eyes, that warmth was almost like a fire: one so strong that she was reminded of the Sungrade Patriarch, the Lord of those bloody flames.
"Not being able to see the darkness, not getting any sleep without powerful medicines, the strange cold that spontaneously spreads throughout the body, I also know about the ’sadness’ that it causes."
The boy must have a death wish.
He was openly suggesting some very inappropriate things.
"It seems like you do know about it." Rainin was the only one aside from the two who understood the context here, and he still couldn’t stomach his shame.
Still, the two representatives of the family continued glaring at each other, and for a moment, nothing was spoken further.
{ "You do know you’re making a mistake here, no?" }
She used voice transmission to speak in his head directly.
"I won’t call it a mistake, m’Lady." But Sam had no plans to hide any of this from his family.
After all, he had prepared so much just to back everything he had said.
Making the fake sources and coming up with all the data behind his words wasn’t an easy task by any means.
"We gathered here to talk about the things you did for our family and the things that we would like you to do to make up for those things so that both of our families could live in peace once again."
The smile on his face finally vanished, and replaced with it was an expression of utter seriousness.
"If you want to walk out of here, it will not hurt us one bit. But, you should still think about what the people in high society would say when the rumors about your ever unknown past and much worse spreads throughout the world."
He was done trying to get through to her but if she was going to keep up this act, much of their time would be wasted.
He was still not done teaching the elder how to communicate with his high-level spirit well, so he wanted to get this done with and go over there to do something more important.
She was going to get the fruits of everything she had done later on. For now, he just wanted to start the chain reaction that’d spread like a wildfire in the oh-so-pretty world she had built around herself.
"You’re so full of yourself, young Sungrade."
"I could say the same about you, White woman."
Sparks flew between the eyes of red and blue.
The two were ferocious in their own way. One was young and too smart for his own good, while the other was too old and too arrogant to see the reality.
The world did not revolve around her. She was no absolute being.
But even if it were her own son telling her all this, she would still go ahead and do as she pleased.
Her utter weakness against her evil urges was just the thing that made her title of ’white’ a comically ironic one.
"What do you want?" She asked the boy directly, not wanting to waste any more of her time in this damned place.
"I want you dead. Alas, it’s not in my hands." The young boy was neither gullible nor wet behind his ears.
He hit just the right nerves that triggered her, earning just the reaction that pleased his dear ladies.
"You..." She was angry right now.
The blue aura of rage that spread out throughout the room could have choked even a powerful knight or mage.
The three ladies present here could feel the power as well. However, they did not suffocate under this pressure.
They were ladies of the Sungrade house. A Serulian did not threaten them.
"Calm down now, will you? For now, we just want three things from the Serulians and two from you, the White Lady."
Sam’s eyes were glowing when he endured the pressure from her. He wasn’t strong enough by himself, but he had made his preparations from the moment he had walked into this room.
-Slam!
"Just tell me what you want and get this done with." Rainin had to intervene first to calm her down, but the moment he touched her shoulder, she slapped his hand away.
She wasn’t even looking at him anymore even though Prism grabbed her attention with his ’curse’ as an excuse.
He felt a little hurt, but the young man got back into his position and waited quietly.
"The Serulians must pay a total of three hundred coins as a token of sympathy for all the individuals who passed away after going near the Serulians."
Dragon gold was the biggest denomination of money in this continent maintained by the empire.
If we say a single gold coin can buy enough food for a common family of six to last for about three months, then one Dragon gold was 10,000 times the value of a single gold coin.
Essentially, Prism was demanding three hundred of such gold coins from her as compensation for the people who died because of her.
"Done."
Even for a family like the Sungrades, a lump sum of three hundred dragon golds would be a lot. But to the great Serulians, this much was practically nothing.
"Secondly, your family will confess their involvement with the incident that happened after we captured the Faceless Manipulator."
"What?"
The demand came as a surprise at first, but when she thought about it, admitting the Serulians had spies inside the Sungrades would be seen as a ’safety measure’ by a noble family rather than a hidden assasination plot.
If they say the Faceless Manipulator used their spies for his own plot, then the Serulians would be freed from this whole ordeal.
"What would you get out of this? This is the complete opposite of what you want." If their involvement was confirmed, then they would catch her and they would punish her according to the empire’s laws.
And Prism didn’t want exactly that.
"You are due for something way worse than a little assasination plot against just a single family. You don’t have to take the fall here."
If she did do something foolish, however, Prism would have overestimated her by a great degree.
"Fine then. Let’s have it your way." She didn’t know who told him to say all these things but from the looks the ladies around him had, it didn’t seem like they knew anything about anything going on right now.
Besides, thanks to her centuries of developed intuition, she could tell this boy was far more dangerous than she had estimated.
"Lastly, the Serulinas will collaborate with the Sungrades in the raid." His last demand was something that truly took everyone by surprise.
"What? What the heck?" She was speechless right now. And the rest of the people present in the room were the same. "You’re telling us to go die with you?"
If there were legendary beasts in this world then there were legendary monsters as well. These monsters had already destroyed countless lives, and they were a national threat.
A monster like the one he just spoke of was also called a [Calamity]. And, even the Sungrade commander seemed to know nothing about this operation.
"There was finally some peace between our houses but thanks to you, m’Lady, there’s chaos once again.
Father truly wanted to go and demolish your grand castles in the south, but we convinced him that you’re not worth his attention.
I’m pretty sure the current patriarch isn’t moving against you because he loved his brother, but his love for him can only protect you for so long."
If anything he was giving them a golden chance to make things right by working together to defeat a national threat.
If the two houses famous for their rivalry do this, their success would bring new waves to both south and the east.
"I want you to lead your people in this mission as well. That is my first request to you."
The Serulian patriarch was absent for the same reason the first lady of the Sungrade was away. Both of them, along with all the other representatives of the three dukedoms and six margrave families, were gone to a very important meeting.
Their meeting won’t take too long now, but she still needed to be the one to lead this operation from their side.
"I see... we will have to consider this proposal internally."
In a way, she found Prism to be frightening.
But at the same time, she felt an inkling of naivety in his actions.
"Consider the proposal positively." He gave her another warm smile, instantly making her reconsider her previous thought.
"Lastly." and he was still not done with his demands.
There was still one last thing that he wanted from the White woman.
"If you want to cure your son, you will have to give him up to me."
"...what?"
And even if he weren’t serious, this ridiculous demand of his was simply and utterly enraging for a mother like her...