The Blood Knight’s Villains

My Villains Episode 346

59. Go Won (6)

“The first thing I noticed was the Vernal Equinox Day two years ago.”

Similar to Earth, the vernal equinox is also considered the beginning of spring in earnest in this world.

At this time, it has been a long tradition of Gwangmyeonggyo to dedicate a festival to the ‘flower maiden’ in hopes of a good harvest and fertility.

“After the group worship, we were given time to observe the festival for half a day. No matter what the wind blew, Princess Yuril also got permission from the abbess and went out with her.”

Yuril suffered from extreme grief after losing her mother, Queen Besen, and in order to overcome it, she voluntarily entered a convent… It was announced by the royal family. Of course, few people believed this straight away.

“The princess was very happy because it was something she would never have dreamed of doing normally. Mass at the cathedral is often banned, but it’s a festival.”

Seven years ago, Princess Yuril took monastic vows around the time when Ulkar was gathering power in earnest.

Because the timing was so precise, rumors spread that Lionel III forced Yuril to take monastic vows in order to keep Ulkar in check.

Lionel III regarded the two siblings of Queen Bessen as not his own children. From his point of view, if Yuril married a powerful nobleman, it would have been like having a reliable ally for her brother Ulkar. Confining Yuril to a convent would have seemed like a pretty good option.

Ulkar, who had been listening to the story with a hard expression, slowly parted his lips.

“I guessed that there would be a lot of restrictions on action, but that was it.”

“There was a time when I couldn’t leave the monastery for a whole year. At times like that, I would jump over the wall to see the princess.”

“Climb over the fence?”

“yes. I can’t even dream of going outside because there are so many guards, but the wall between the monastery where I was and the princess’s convent was rather weak.” I only shrugged my shoulders as Ulkar looked back at me with slightly widened eyes. I didn’t even know Angie was like this.

“Oh, that’s not important… After going out like that, I was watching the festival, but the guards disappeared before I knew it.”

“A guardsman?”

“yes. When the princess leaves the convent, the guards always accompany her. But it doesn’t make sense that people who act like they’re going to go to the bathroom will let go of the princess at the festival.”

Shea continued talking with a little excitement.

“Somehow, I was going to go back because it was ominous, but as expected, some assailants attacked. In the square where the festival is in full swing before the sun goes down.”

“The gangsters tried to kidnap the princess, and I and the other nuns clung to each other. Meanwhile, Bree and Rebecca are stabbed. As the children spurted blood like a fountain, people flocked to it, and the guards came running later. Only

after the assailants run away and Bree and Rebecca are dead.”

Ulkar crossed his arms and cupped his forehead. The darkness in the tent cast a long, deep shadow on his face.

“I thought that the royal capital would be turned upside down for a while, but why, let alone the royal capital, even the religious order acted as if nothing had happened.”

“…Has that happened again?”

“It was only once that it was so blatant and dangerous, and it hasn’t happened since the guards who were attached as escorts completely changed. Rumor has it that the captain of the guards personally manages the princess’s escort, so

…

“Yes, he is.”

“…I guess so. Lord Calliora hates such low-level swindling.”

calliola. It is a familiar name.

Even though he was a commoner, he was a great man who won the title of the strongest knight of this era.

“Still, strange things continued. There was a case where a crow smashed its head into the window of the princess’ room and died, and a cat the princess secretly kept was torn to shreds and thrown in front of the chapel. There was also a case where a nun who was close to the princess was poisoned.”

“…Poisoned? At the convent?”

“yes. No matter how much divine power the senior nuns poured into it, it was not detoxified. At first glance, it was said that it was a magic poison made by mixing mercury and flight. What was the name-”

“’Brilliant Dream’.”

“Oh yes, that’s right. It’s a very expensive poison that costs five gold coins per drop…

Maybe it’s because he heard the terrible story, Ulkar kept silent for a while. Looking out of the corner of his eye, his hand groping his forehead was trembling slightly.

Is it the fear of losing his beloved sister, or the anger at those who have done such a terrible thing?

As the prince’s silence continued, Shea calmed down her excitement and rolled her eyes.

After making eye contact with her, I opened my mouth after sneaking a glance at Ulkar.

“So, what is the specific story the princess asked me to tell?”

“Ah, that’s…

She hesitated for a moment, then closed her eyes tightly.

“Actually, there is no such thing.”

“.♦♦♦♦.what?”

“Sorry, I lied.”

“What nonsense are you talking about? Are you saying everything you’ve said so far is a lie?”

The growl involuntarily caused Shea to get scared and shrug her shoulders.

“Oh no no. What happened to the princess is real.”

“Then what is a lie?”

“That’s all I have to say to His Highness.”

“No, why would you lie like that?”

“The princess is not someone who can ask for unreasonable favors. I’m not the kind of person who would go to a prince wandering around the battlefield and ask me to give him a message.”

“Then what I am doing now is…

“It is purely my judgment. She thought that the only

person who could help Princess Yuril was the prince .

“Please forgive me, Prince Nari. I lied because I wanted to help because I felt so sorry for the princess, not Yu-ril.”

“……Uhm.”

She wanted to soothe the stinging Shea, but cheating on the royal family was clearly a felony. I couldn’t come forward and forgive Ulkar while he was silent.

And it was unlikely that Ulkar, who was called the great warrior of the weak, would punish She Ah, the daughter of a mere merchant.

“…yes, I guess. Because Yuril has a good heart and is a tender child.”

Ulkar wiped his face and looked down at Shea with dry eyes.

“I want to believe in your good intentions. But we need proof.”

“…evidence?”

“okay. Proof that you are Yuril’s friend. Can you prove that you came to see me as Yuril’s friend and not as someone else’s swindler or impostor?”

“Uh…

Shea, who twitched her lips with a frightened expression, pondered for a moment and then quickly nodded as if she remembered something.

“yes yes! There is a story that Yuril told me that you should never tell anyone else. It was a story only I knew.”

“What is it?”

“Uh…

when she glanced in my direction, the prince hurried on with an expressionless face.

“Tell me.”

“Uh, but sir.”

“Sir Phoenix is my knight, so I don’t care. There are no secrets between us that we cannot reveal.”

…yes? Were we like that?

Whether or not I was embarrassed inside, Shea swallowed dry saliva and parted her lips.

“That’s because when Yuril was young, he said that he was sworn to by his older brother when he was seven years old.”

“vow?”

“yes. At that time, the token of the oath was buried in the backyard of Baekpo Palace (白薄宮殿)… under the cherry tree.”

Ulkar, who was still looking down at Shea, burst into laughter.

“ha ha ha!”

He laughed loudly, rubbing his eyes and nodding his head.

“Yeah, there was a time like that. There was a time like that… he muttered with a faint smile.

“Then he insisted on marrying me when he grew up, so he said he would understand. So he even asked me to swear not to trust him.”

“I couldn’t stand the guy who usually couldn’t say a single thing I wanted to do, so he cried and cried and shouted at me. I heard that Yu Lil has grown up to be the most beautiful woman in the royal capital. It’s just mind-boggling.”

Seeing her leaning back on the backrest and closing her eyes, it seemed that she was reminiscing about past memories.

“Yes, Baekpo Palace. There were times like that.”

After smiling like that for a moment, Ul Kar got up and went to Sheah.

“Yes, I do not believe you.”

“yes yes’?”

The prince knelt down in front of Shea and gently wrapped her arms around her shoulders.

“Thank you for coming to me. He is a rare good boy.”

“Your Highness.”

“I said I was Yuril’s friend, so you can consider me your brother.”

Ulkar said something, but Shea didn’t hear anything. It was evident from the way his eyes were spinning with his face dyed red.

After a light hug, Ulkar put his hand on Shea’s shoulder and their eyes met.

“If there is anything you want, tell me. Listen to me as far as I can.”

“Uh, no, I… just for that Yuril, Your Highness.”

“I see.”

The prince nodded and turned to me.

“Lord Phoenix, could you give me this child? I want to stay by your side and take care of you.”

“yes? uh what Let Shea do it if she wants to.”

“Right.”

As her gaze returned to me, Shea murmured, looking back and forth between me and Ulkar.

“I want to do as Her Highness said, but I also have friends from my hometown. Goleman and Cavas, but they really like Mr. Phoenix and other people.”

“hmm. I see what you mean.”

Ulkar lifted Shea up with a smile and slowly stroked her hair.

“Looks like I’ve troubled you.”

“…Uh”

“If you’re under Lord Phoenix’s tutelage, I’ll see you again sometime. If you have anything you want from me or need help, please come to me.”

“Yes yes.”

That prince went there on purpose.

Looking at her, it seemed like she was just acting selflessly, but Shea seemed to have already lost her mind.

Well, it’s not like a nobleman of the size of Ulkar is trying to flirt with an ordinary girl. It must be that he has a knack for bewitching women instinctively. If you do that, there will be a lot of troublesome things in your life.

“Do you have anything more to say?”

“yes? uh no.”

“okay. If you do, it’s late at night, so go back.”

“Ah… Your Highness.”

As Shea, half-fazed, left the tent, Ulkar sat back and looked back at me.

“It’s the first time I’ve heard of Kyeongdo.”

“Ah yes. He said he had to tell His Highness directly, but kept his mouth shut until the end.”

“is it.”

Ulkar nodded after asking a few more questions about Shea.

“…He seems like a good kid, but please take good care of him.”

“of course.”

“What do you think of the story about Yuril?”

“Well… I trust my men, but what about the prince? Are you feeling a bit long?”

The prince shook his head resolutely.

“No, I don’t mean that. Shea also believes that the child’s story is believable enough.”

Ulkar leaned against the backrest, rubbing the corners of his eyes as if his eyes were stiff.

“Actually, I had guessed from the time I brought up the story of Yuril. I already expected that kind of danger to come upon him.”

Perhaps because he was tired, his eyes were slightly bloodshot. A yellow light shone in her indigo blue eyes, giving off a dark and slightly eerie glow.

“The timing and method were unexpected. I didn’t know it would be so fast or so dirty… Whoa. No matter how much I hate my stepsisters, how can they be so cruel when they are still family?”

“As for the family… you mean Zacharys?”

“There must be an older brother behind it, but Aekaris must have done the work himself.”

‘The Dry Lion’ Aecharis.

The second son of Lionel III and the younger brother of Crown Prince Zacharis.

He is the prime minister of the kingdom and assists Zacharis, the king’s deputy, and is a person who holds the senior civil and military positions of chief butler and cavalry superintendent.

“If my father, his majesty, or my eldest brother had stepped forward, I wouldn’t have heard this story. On the other hand, the second older brother is surprisingly incompetent.”

I was a little surprised. It was the first time I had ever seen Ulkar put someone down, and it was because the target was another prince.

“…well, that’s fortunate.”

“Not really. Maybe the worst.”

“yes? Worst?”

“The second older brother coveted Yuri for about ten years.”

The dirty nuances in those words frightened me.

“You mean your brother?”

“I’m not the kind of person who cares about that in the first place, and I don’t consider him a younger brother by blood anyway, so there’s nothing to hold back.”

Ulkar kept his composure even as he said these things. It was just that his eyes were glazed over.

“It’s fortunate that Lord Calliora is keeping her place. If he’s there, at least Yuril… won’t get hurt.”

“Does he seem trustworthy?”

“He was the one who completely erased the prejudice against commoners that I had unconsciously harbored. He knows honor and does not know how to bend his convictions. Even if Lord Calliola had never wielded a sword, I would have called him a knight without hesitation.”

It’s just raining rave reviews. I’m jealous.

“But when my eldest brother officially ascends the throne, Lord Calliora will be no different.”

“What are you going to do?”

“…well. I don’t know what to do either. What do you think, sir?”

“Well, I don’t know anything about the situation on the royal capital side, so I have nothing to say. Still…

“Still’?”

I said with a wry smile.

“I understand that this is not the kind of situation where I have to give up everything and go save Princess Yuril.”

“You are cool.”

Ulkar smiled bitterly and nodded as if he were following me.

“However, you are right. It’s not a situation where you can drive an army and run to the capital.” The King’s direct jurisdiction is enormous, but it is also the most fertile land on the continent. Thanks to this, the population is also huge, so if you make a decision and conscript, you can easily gather 30,000 to 40,000. Of course, the standing army of more than 7,000 people is separate.

To challenge the royal capital with such forces was like trying to raise a rebellion with no possibility of success in the first place.

If Ulkar only listened to Shea’s words and aimed his sword at the royal capital, wouldn’t half of the army following him fall away?

“Then why don’t we send someone else to get the princess out?”

“Do not ignore the king’s spies. The Royal Road is a place that is difficult even for ordinary informants to enter, and the St. Thomas Convent is in the center of it. It’s next to impossible to get Yuril out of there.”

The prince sighed with a heavy face.

“And above all, I will not drive my man to limb. I won’t let you bear the stigma of a traitor.” When I was silent, the prince opened his mouth after pondering.

“…we’d better keep quiet about this for the time being. Take care not only of you but also of Shea to keep the secret.”

“…Are you all right?”

“Now our immediate task is not Yuril, but the Elector Counts of Mittergerland. I can’t break the crowd.”

When I looked down, there were all sorts of emotions in my eyes, so I didn’t dare to say anything.

Then I suddenly remembered a conversation I had with Heila the other day.

“Then why don’t you use the priest of the Church of El Ganore to try a trick?”

“Priests? It won’t be easy. Even a decent bishop-level priest can’t influence the religious order.”

“How about a member of the denomination?”

Ulkar was puzzled but answered.

“If you are a delegate, you are not the equivalent of a cardinal. That would be possible, but how are you going to move the only five delegates in the church?”

“…Uh, I see.”

What was that uncle’s name? I think it was ‘somehow Baptist’.

Heyla’s grandfather, and the cleric who is said to be a concubine of a man who is the equivalent of a true grandfather to me.

Even now, it seems that the strings are connected to our family, so how can we rub them together?

When I hesitated to say such a thought, the prince smiled and gestured.

“Soon it will be dawn. Please go back soon and close your eyes.”

“Is that so?”

“If the knights are waiting, tell them that you will stop digging today.”

As I was about to leave the tent, I suddenly looked back.

Prince Ulkar still lowered his eyes, clad in silver prostheses and rough hands. A deep darkness could be seen beneath the eyelashes.

Then the darkness looked at me.

I held my breath for a moment. Something sticky was wriggling in the darkness that didn’t match the Ulkar I’d seen so far.

somehow familiar.

It was an intent to kill. A deep, dark fleshly intention that I have ever faced through an artist.

“…Sir Phoenix?”

“Umm. Ah, good night, Your Highness.”

Blinking his stiff eyes, Prince Ulkar smiled as if he had never done that before.

It was a very nice smile even for a man to see, but I left the tent as if I were running away.

“Huh huh.”

The knights and soldiers who had been waiting in front of Ulkar’s tent gathered, but nothing was heard.

…Perhaps the darkness I have just witnessed is the seed of ‘Ulkar the Killer’.