The Baby Isn’t Yours

The news of Simon’s rush to see Kalia immediately upon hearing that she had been found reached the Crown Prince, and he summoned Simon as soon as he returned to the palace.

Simon, returning from Kalia’s mansion to the tower, headed to Louismond’s office.

With a somewhat aloof expression, he entered Louismond’s office.

“You’re here?”

Louismond was adjusting his attire, and he turned to Simon with a clothes that seemed to emphasize comfort over formality.

“There’s been an investigation. Just a moment.”

He quickly ushered the maids who were adjusting his clothing out of the room and turned back to face Simon.

“Did you find her?”

Simon stared at him silently for a moment before shaking his head.

He had expected that it wouldn’t be so easy to find Kalia, but upon seeing Simon’s face, Louismond couldn’t help but look saddened.

“So, it’s true.”

Louismond glanced at Simon with a somewhat anxious expression.

Ever since that day, Simon had shown hostility toward him.

How could you hide it from me, Louismond? How could you! His eyes seemed to accuse Louismond everytime his gaze was on him.

Not only had he destroyed the mansion in Kalia’s estate, but he had also wreaked havoc in one of Louismond’s guesthouses.

Louismond had already anticipated that, so he wasn’t particularly surprised, but the palace was in an uproar.

It was different from just destroying a garden; it was a sacred place for the imperial family.

Despite having royal blood in his veins and bearing the title ofArchmage of the Century, it was something he could be heavily penalized for.

However, no one in the imperial family interrogated him, not even the ailing Emperor in the Southern Star Palace.

They only instructed him to restore the palace.

Even though Kalia was absent, he had to return to the palace, and he couldn’t go mad.

At the moment, his heart was greatly disturbed, and he was at odds with the Crown Prince, but their friendship wouldn’t be destroyed like this.

If Simon really had left his heart here, he wouldn’t have come back to the palace.

Louismond, with a regretful expression, watched him for a moment and then put on gloves, turning the topic around.

“I heard you brought in a suspicious corpse.”

Simon’s gaze followed Louismond’s. His golden eyes gleamed coldly.

“I heard it looks like one of the fairies…”

“I’m not sure.”

Louismond lightly nodded, remembering an old report he had received. He summarized it and told Simon.

“To tell you the truth, I received a somewhat strange report recently. It said that a foreign noble purchased one of the Empire’s ancient castles. It’s a castle near the fairy forest, but the problem is that the noble is rumored to have a hobby of collecting fairies.”

Simon’s forehead wrinkled.

Fairies and elves were inviolable races in the human realm. They were not numerous, but they were a powerful race. While they didn’t engage in aggressive activities, they had a strong presence, and without good reason, no one had ever crossed paths with them.

However, those races didn’t show themselves easily in the human realm.

Occasionally, friendly elves interacted with humans and even fell in love, but fairies were shy and cautious and rarely revealed themselves.

There were a few fairies that naturally settled in the human realm through items or nature, but they were a very small minority.

Elves and fairies with long lifespans didn’t increase in number much.

Pregnancy was difficult, and even when they did become pregnant, the gestation period was as long as five years. Half-elves had a shorter pregnancy period of around two years.

Therefore, they had a strong instinct to protect their own race.

That was why even if the content of the report was groundless, Louismond couldn’t easily dismiss it.

“Well, Simon, could you look into it for a bit?”

Simon was silent for a moment. He stared at Louismond, then suddenly smiled, his mocking voice flowing coldly through his pretty lips.

“Your Highness.”

He called Louismond not by a friendly name, but with a title to emphasize his formality.

Louismond looked at him with a tense face.

“If Kalia had a request and you understand why she hid her plans from me, Your Highness would understand as well. Her determination was firm, and I am quite weak when it comes to Kalia.”

“…Simon.”

Louismond called his name as if he were groaning. Simon answered firmly.

“I will not take on any imperial duties for the time being. Although I am a member of the Imperial magician Corps, traditionally, magicians have been active across borders. I provided magic based on our patriotism and loyalty, didn’t I?”

“Simon!”

“Unfortunately, I don’t have much patriotism left in me right now. And as for my loyalty…”

He paused, looking beyond Louismond by the window.

“My loyalty isn’t here.”

Louismond looked at Simon with a complicated expression.

He wanted to say something, but he didn’t know what to say.

“Haah.”

Louismond let out a tired sigh and muttered with a weakened voice, running his dry hand over his forehead.

“I’ve already apologized to you numerous times, Simon. If it’s not enough, I’ll apologize more. I’ll grant you Kalia’s first sword stored in the museum you wanted.”

“An apology won’t work as a spell to rewind the past.”

Simon retorted coldly with a slight sniff.

He turned away without any hesitation, walking towards the door.

Louismond stared at Simon’s retreating figure and muttered to himself.

“Geez, that stubborn brat.”

* * *

Simon immediately returned to the Mage Tower with measured steps.

The order to go on a business trip issued by Louismond, hiding Kalia’s retirement news, felt ridiculous.

He loved his cousin, but when it came to Kalia, it was a different story.

His mind was focused solely on finding Kalia.

He couldn’t imagine or think about anything else.

He didn’t even have the will to do so.

He walked straight to the shared research room of the Mage Tower. The magicians gathered there welcomed him with tense expressions.

“What’s the woman’s identity?”

Simon asked, looking at the frozen corpse with a missing heart.

Henry, with a stern face, was the first to answer.

“We still need to investigate further, but there are many suspicious traces.”

“What kind of traces?”

“The remaining blood clearly resembles that of the fairy, but… the body organs are much closer to humans. Just by appearance, it’s somewhat similar to banshees, but… calling it exactly like banshees would be ambiguous.”

Each magician had different specialized fields and interests.

Henry was an expert in fairy research, and he felt the most abnormalities while examining the corpse.

Teon, who had been waiting, interjected.

His specialized field was healing magic, and his secondary research area was genetics and racial differences.

“The remaining magical wave in the corpse also appears somewhat peculiar. It’s not well-purified magic; it seems haphazardly manipulated. She didn’t seem to know how to handle magic properly. If she was a fairy, she should have been able to use inherent magic naturally.”

Listening to their explanations, Simon concentrated on the corpse that had turned into ice.

His fingertips reached out towards the frozen figure, and he infused his own magic into it.

The magic flow circling the corpse allowed him to trace the residual traces of magic.

Although almost all of the remaining traces of her magic had dissipated as if she had sprayed perfume a long time ago, Simon managed to glean some information.

Teon’s description was accurate: her magical state was chaotic. It was as if someone had forcibly injected magic into her.

Having completed the verification process, Simon nodded in agreement.

Teon was in awe that Simon had completed the recovery of the corpse’s magic in just a single minute.

Even though it took six hours to perform a thorough restoration of the corpse’s magic, Simon had finished it in a mere minute.

He stared in astonishment at Simon’s demeanor and then turned to look at him as if to ask for more information.

“So, what’s the conclusion?”

“No, I, um…”

Teon looked at the other magicians, and they exchanged glances.

None of them wanted to be the first to speak. Under their mutually questioning glances, Simon reluctantly uttered the word they were all hesitant to say.

“Chimera.”

“Huh.”

“…We’ve found the body of a chimera.”

The word they hesitated to speak, Simon said directly.

The magicians became stiff, and Simon’s gaze grew even more intense.

“Actually… I received a somewhat strange report recently. It said that a foreign noble purchased one of the Empire’s ancient castles. It’s a castle near the fairy forest, but the problem is that the noble is rumored to have a hobby of collecting fairies.”

Simon pressed his temple with his thumb, recalling the discussion they had earlier.

‘Darn it.’

…The reason he had no choice but to accept that proposal he had coldly refused was because a reason had arisen.