“In that little jar? Are you crazy?” 

“Stop talking nonsense, check it out and answer me.”

Melanie gritted his teeth inside at the cold words. If he wasn’t Lindel’s cherished human, he’d kill him right away!

“It’s not there either. Rather, what is that? Is there a corpse’s head in it?”

When he heard that there was no soul left, Lionel’s face fell into thought again.

Melanie, who was expressing his displeasure with his arms crossed, ended up walking nervously due to the lack of response.

“What is this? What-”

He passed the coffin, approached the jar, and opened the lid of the jar with a firm hand.

“What the!?”

With a harsh sound, Melanie threw the lid he was holding on the floor.

The lid rolled across the floor with a clanging sound, but Melanie’s eyes were still fixed on the inside of the jar.

Inside was a red lump with a disgusting bloody smell.

A human heart. The thing in the jar was a dark red human heart. But that wasn’t the only problem.

“What is this?!”

Melaine’s eyes shook wildly. The human heart lying there was still beating.

As if alive.

At that time, Lionel’s voice rang monotonously from behind Melanie.

“The heart of the sorcerer.”

“What?”

“If they are dead for sure, is it not to do with the Empress Dowager’s side?”

“Hey, what are you talking about…”

Melaine’s embarrassment was already beyond Lionel’s concern. He ignored the commotion and fell into thought again.

What exactly is the danger that threatens Lindel? Before coming here, Lionel had suspected another curse.

Because the curse was the only thing that could leave no trace like this.

That’s why Lionel had no idea about the curse that Lindel had previously received instead of him. But here without a soul, it was certain that they were dead.

‘Is someone else responsible? Or the aftermath of the previous curse? Neither is certain.’

“Hey! Answer me! What the hell is this?”

“Melanie Crostan.”

As Melanie stomped closer, Lionel stopped thinking and stared at him.

Melanie forgot how angry he was and flinched at the still creepy, static gaze.

What kind of person has eyes like that?

“Please stay in the Imperial Palace for the time being.”

“What?”

“I have something for you to do.”

“Oh, I’m going crazy.”

* * * 

As I wiped the drool from the corner of my mouth, I barely awakened my delirious mind.

I think I fell asleep while reading the contract.

Even though I was trying to read it every now and then, I kept falling asleep due to the extremely boring content.

Thanks to that, there was no progress at all.

“When are you going to finish reading all of this?”

When I looked at it closely, it seemed like not even 400 of the 1,700 pages of contracts had been read yet.

Part of the reason was because I wasted time lying down during aura practice, but the main reason was the lack of sleep.

I couldn’t hide my depressed mood as I put aside the contract that had drool marks left on it.

‘Why on earth is this useless information included?’

When I first found out about the existence of this contract, I thought that Laroque must have done something. However, when I looked at the content, it was full of bullsh*t.

‘All contracts must be made of paper made from the bark of a 200-year-old tree-’

‘This contract originally originated in the Jacarse region’

‘The Jacarse region is along the stream flowing south of the eastern strait-‘

“Why would I care where the Jacarse region is?! Why is that explained in the contract?”

The contract must have been written according to a stream of consciousness, and all sorts of useless information was written in it.

The paper’s material, the contract’s origin, and even the best time to read the contract were listed.

It was something I neither wanted to know nor was curious about.

“AAAAH! LAROQUE!”

If this thick contract had been presented to me from the beginning, I probably would have rejected the contract without even looking at it.

In that sense, it was a very good strategy for Laroque to just sheepishly present a summary.

“I don’t want to read it…!”

As I was hanging out like a zombie, the knight outside the door knocked on the door.

“Madam Lindel. A guest has arrived.”

‘Who is it? Is it those guys?’

Since there weren’t any guests to visit me here, I wondered if Utilia and my other friends had come to visit.

It was a possibility because we hadn’t seen each other for a long time since that day.

First, I roughly organized the contract that was in disarray on the bed and hurriedly hid it.

“Come on in.’

As I straightened up from my lying position and waited for guests to come in, the people who opened the door and appeared were unexpected.

A beautiful man and woman with cream-colored hair were there.

“Duke?”

“Long time no see. Lady Bachne.”

Among them, the intelligent handsome man was someone I knew well.

Cassius Areta.

The prime minister of the empire and the Emperor’s right-hand man came to see me.

The woman next to him who looked exactly like Cassius was his younger sister, Julia Areta.

I was more surprised by Julia’s appearance than Cassius.

“Julia…?”

Cold sweat ran down my spine under her cold gaze.

“It’s been a while since I saw you, Lady.”

Julia’s smile towards me was cold.

Julia was originally considered the strongest candidate for Empress.