Chapter 54
At the Duke Bellomon’s estate, I was nothing more than a timid guest.
After all, I was living under someone else’s roof, so I had no choice but to be cautious and watchful of others. Having no one to rely on made me feel even smaller.
But originally, I wasn’t the type to just endure things quietly.
Especially not in front of my uncle.
I never hid my disgust toward him.
He not only welcomed my parents’ deaths but also abused my sister and me.
When my parents died, my sister was already old enough to understand things, but I wasn’t. I was going through the rough storms of puberty.
All my bottled-up anger exploded during that time, and I clashed with my uncle often.
He always tried to crush me, and I never backed down.
My sister must’ve been really worried. Our uncle had power, and I had nothing.
She probably thought it was better to keep me with her than let me disappear one day without a trace.
“Ha!”
My uncle scoffed at me as I stared back at him without flinching.
“You’re acting so bold. Just because you’re living in the duke’s estate, you think he’ll back you up?”
“I don’t think it’s impossible that he might.”
“What?”
I lifted my teacup with my right hand—wearing the ring given to me by Duke Bellomon.
“That ring…!”
My uncle’s eyes widened as he recognized it.
“I somehow ended up getting a key position in the duke’s household.”
“You? How could you…”
“Well, maybe the duke won’t back me entirely, but I think he’d at least take my side if something happened.”
I added with a smile, “I am one of his retainers, after all.”
“….”
My uncle didn’t say a word. He seemed genuinely shocked to hear I had become a retainer of Duke Bellomon.
I didn’t mean to brag… but I guess the duke can be useful sometimes.
For the first time ever, I felt a tiny bit grateful to him.
“Is that all? You came to show off just because you saved Marquis Agris’s niece? Think that makes you somebody?”
So even that story has spread already.
“Unlike someone, I don’t get full of myself over something like that. I’m just here to check on something.”
“You don’t get to ‘check’ anything without my permission! This is my house!”
Just as I expected.
“You will give me permission—unless you want to see Jake drafted for the monster extermination mission.”
Jake was my uncle’s son.
“What?”
Sure enough, as soon as I mentioned Jake, his expression changed.
“What are you talking about? Monster extermination?”
So he didn’t want his son going into danger, huh?
“Since when do we share information?”
I stood up without hesitation.
This was all about psychology. From now on, he was the one who had to beg.
And of course, my uncle—
“…I don’t know what you’re trying to confirm, but I’ll let you do it. Just tell me.”
—was incredibly weak when it came to his only son.
“Well, it’s not much. I just heard something by chance…”
I pretended to be generous as I shared my prepared lie.
“You know our family, Rilfrey, is also called the Guardian’s Bloodline? We supposedly produced the first pope.”
“That’s right.”
“For monster hunting, they need someone who can sense dark energy. But apparently, not many priests or paladins can do that well.”
He nodded, urging me to continue.
“So they’re looking for regular people who might be sensitive to it. But they can’t test just anyone. They want to start with those most likely to have the ability.”
Rilfrey produced the first pope—known for sensing dark energy better than anyone.
“Abilities like that often run in the blood.”
“Nonsense!”
He shouted before I even finished.
“Guardian’s bloodline, my foot! It’s been centuries since the first pope died! There’s no way that power still exists!”
This was coming from the man who used to brag about our “honorable family”…
“You never know.”
“What’s there not to know! If anyone in our family had that power, we’d have noticed it in the past 50 years! I’ve never seen or heard of anyone in our house with such power. You just want to use our family for your own purposes!”
Gotcha.
‘He really doesn’t know.’
He had no idea about sensing or purifying dark energy.
‘Good thing I made it all up.’
Yes, everything I told him was a lie—crafted carefully within what I could manage.
I did teach Lucian that lying was wrong, but… some exceptions had to be made.
“Well then, I’ll be off.”
I left my uncle, still fuming, and walked out of the sitting room.
Now that I had his permission, I was going to start digging into the purification ability for real.
“The library was this way, right?”
I headed there, relying on childhood memories. There was no better way to find old information than books.
I reached the library and pushed open the heavy doors with a grunt.
Cough cough.
The doors were stiff, but the real issue was the thick dust everywhere. The smell of moldy books filled the air.
“This guy really doesn’t manage anything properly, huh?”
If the house was this bad, I could only imagine how poorly he ran his lands.
I shook my head and headed deeper inside.
“Let’s see… books about Rilfrey history… found it.”
I went straight to the shelves of old books and began searching.
There were books about the empire’s history, the founding of our house, and achievements of our ancestors.
It took me about an hour to find what I was looking for.
In a history book detailing the first pope’s accomplishments, his powers were described in detail:
-“[…For that reason, some descendants of Rilfrey rarely inherit the ability to sense and purify dark energy. However, this ability has nearly disappeared in modern times.]”
“Claude was right.”
The powers Lucian and I had must’ve come from the first pope.
“But why didn’t this appear in the original story?”
I dug deeper and found the answer:
-“[…This power awakens faster when one is near others with the same trait.]”
“So we need to be around other Rilfreys for the power to grow?”
Like fire needs wood to grow, this ability needed someone with a similar nature to fully awaken.
Then Lucian in the original story never awakened because…
Lucella ran away.
With no fellow Rilfrey around to awaken his power, Lucian would’ve never known he had any.
And Lucella never appeared, so her powers likely never surfaced either.
This is a power I only discovered because reality changed from the original story.
I turned the page, thinking of everything I’d changed.
Luckily, there didn’t seem to be any major cost or side effects to the ability.
I was worried I’d return empty-handed, but this is a real find.
I tore out the important page and put it in my pocket before leaving the library.
It was already late evening when I left the count’s estate. Instead of resting, I immediately got on a carriage.
By the time I returned to Duke Bellomon’s estate, the sun was rising.
I went straight to Claude and told him what I’d learned.
“So it really is a hereditary power.”
“Yes. It’s rare, so I doubt there are many others with it besides us.”
Lucian and I already had the ability.
“I see.”
Claude looked very disappointed.
Of course. You can’t bring a seven-year-old to a monster hunt.
“If you don’t mind, may I report this to the royal family? It’s an incredible power—I’m sure the higher-ups would be very interested.”
“Hm…”
I hesitated.
The purification ability was extraordinary.
It might even help Lucian, whose position had been threatened by Edwin’s arrival, regain some standing.
He might even be recognized as the family heir.
But then again, they might drag him into the monster hunts.
Lucian could end the battle against monsters—but I didn’t want my baby involved in something like that.
Even if it’s selfish, I don’t care. My goal has always been to keep Lucian safe and alive for a very long time.
