TBFV 15

It rained on the day of his mother’s funeral.

Belzeon remembered that day clearly.

Everything was wet by the rain that fell from the sky.

However, none of the men of the Basilian family shed tears.

The empty coffin was filled with flowers.

He stood and stared at the coffin full of the flowers his Mother loved.

Watching it endlessly, his young brother tugged at the hem of his sleeve.

“Brother.”

Ishuel looked up at him with anxious eyes.

“What about Mother?”

“….”

“I can’t see Mother. I’ve been looking for her since yesterday, but I can’t find her.”

‘…“

“Brother….”

Belzeon silently turned his head.

He felt a slight force pulling on his sleeve, but he ignored it.

He didn’t have the confidence to explain this situation to his little brother.

Belzeon hadn’t accepted it yet either.

Ishuel, who had been trying to get his attention for a while, eventually gave up and went elsewhere.

He approached Karha, who was sitting in the corner, and heard a chattering voice.

“Karha. Find Mother.”

“I can’t find her.”

“Why?”

“There’s none, her smell.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know either.”

“By any chance, what about our sister? You said there was a little sister in Mother’s belly. Can’t you smell our sister?”

“I said I don’t know. Go away.”

“Huuh…!”

Thud, Ishuel kicked Karha.

Normally, he would have jumped up and hit Ishuel the same way, but Karha was calm.

He just sat curled up like a wounded cat.

“Father!”

Ishuel ran to Kiern for the last time.

The footsteps, which had been running quickly, became slower.

Ishuel looked at Kiern with anxious eyes.

“Why are you staying like this? You don’t even use an umbrella…. It rained a lot and the floor is damp.”

“….”

“Father, wake up.”

Ishuel tapped Kiern with the hand that did not hold an umbrella.

A small hand carefully touched his forearm, but his rigid body did not even move.

He just sat still, as if he had become a stone statue.

When he didn’t show any reaction even after a while, Ishuel returned to Belzeon.

A hushed voice murmured incoherently.

“What are you doing….”

Belzeon bites the flesh in his mouth hard.

Suddenly, the flesh burst and the fishy taste of blood spread.

Grabbing the umbrella, he approached his father.

Faced with the pouring rain, the man who knelt in front of his dead mother’s coffin was shabby.

Black hair flowed down and clung to his pale face, and his red eyes were sunken black without focus.

Belzeon remembered the last request his mother left for him.

He chewed it over dozens, hundreds, thousands of times.

After revisiting it until it became tattered, he put the umbrella over Kiern’s head.

“Get yourself together.”

Even though the raindrops that had been beating his body in a mess stopped, Kiern did not respond.

It was as if he couldn’t feel anything.

Raindrops on his hair ran down his cheeks.

It pooled at the end of his chin, then fell to the floor.

Belzeon shouted.

“You can’t be like this! You are, the Count of Basilian…!”

You shouldn’t act like you will throw everything away and be buried with the flowers.

As the Count of Basilian.

As the snake that rules the Dark Forest, there are responsibilities and duties.

Belzeon whispered, catching his wheezing breath.

“Mother wouldn’t have wanted something like this….”

No answer came.

In the silence, only the sound of rain was loud.

However, a low laugh was heard.

At first, it was so small that he thought he had heard it wrong because it was mixed with the sound of rain.

But the laughter grew louder.

“Ha ha ha!”

Kiern shrugged and laughed.

Surprised, Belzeon hesitated and took a step backwards, so Kiern went mad in the pouring rain without an umbrella.

The bloody laughter continued for a long time.

“Ha…. Haa, ha ha….”

When he finally stopped laughing.

Kiern staggered and raised himself.

Standing in front of his wife’s coffin, he swept his hand through the messy hair.

He brushed his wet hair back to reveal his straight forehead and smiled brightly.

His dark red eyes shone dazzlingly like shards of broken ruby.

“That’s right. I’m Count Basilian.”

His body trembled at the ominous intuition.

A premonition that something had gone terribly wrong filled his head.

But the crash had already begun.

There was no way to stop.

Kiern took out a bunch of flowers from the coffin.

He said joyfully, hugging the drooping flowers drenched in the rain.

“So, can’t we bring the dead back to life?”

It was the moment of depravity and the beginning of madness.

***

After his wife’s death, Count Basilian went completely insane.

Belzeon watched him go mad.

How someone that looks infinitely fine on the outside was broken and ruined on the inside.

And in the end….

“I finally found a way to revive your mother, Belzeon.”

Even the moment he touches the taboo.

Belzeon made up his mind.

He just wants to keep her father’s mind straight.

Even her dead mother wouldn’t want her soul to be forced back.

He tried to stop it somehow, but it was never easy.

The count even came with a baby to get the Fairy Queen’s Crown.

Using a Holy Relic of Hilderd’s Holy Empire with the black magic, to revive the dead.

It was not a trivial crazy thing.

The moment they were discovered, the Count of Basilian family was immediately destroyed.

An innocent child who cooperated with him will also be executed.

But he couldn’t think of any way to stop the Count.

Because the new little sister he had brought in was a plausible reason, it was difficult to judge objectively.

Even more so because his two year younger twins are sympathizing with the Count’s madness.

“….”

Belzeon, who had been pressing down on his temple, glanced out the window.

A baby was seen taking a walk with his siblings in the garden.

Their mansion in the capital, unlike eastern Snake Castles, have well-maintained gardens.

The baby fit so well in the garden full of flowers.

His gaze was directed to the blonde hair that shimmered in the sunlight.

And the elaborate features and pink eyes.

If a younger sister who resembled her mother had been born, she would look just like that.

After unconsciously looking at the baby for a long time, he suddenly remembered the words she had said to him with her small lips twitching.

“I like thish place the best.”

“I like Dad.”

There was no lie in the baby’s words that he liked the snake castle and Count Basilian.

He doubted that the count might have manipulated her mind, but because of the clear eyes, it was not.

What’s so good about it?

He hates everything though….

“Doesn’t it seem like you’re a little inclined to care for your sister now?”

Belzeon withdrew his gaze outside the window.

“Why are you showing no sign but walking around like a thief, Count?”

“Haha.”

Kiern let out a low laugh.

Arms folded and leaning against the wall, he looked with tender eyes at the baby playing in the garden.

From the satisfied eyes, it was possible to guess that the count had achieved satisfactory results in the Imperial Palace.

Belzeon couldn’t help but be sarcastic at him.

“You’ve been dragging a child into that disgusting plan.”

“Oh, that’s harsh. It’s pure love though.”

Belzeon stopped talking.

If he said more, it would only make his mouth tired.

Instead, he brought up another topic.

“What are you going to do next?”

“About?”

Belzeon gave a clear answer to the question that he asked back while knowing everything.

“Since you announced that you would attend the Pre-Saint Prayer Meeting…. Whether or not you will fully rise above the surface of the water, that’s what I am asking.”

The Count of Basilian has not left the Dark Forest yet.

It was the first moment that the snake, which had never risen above the water and had been quietly crouching under the water, might wake up.

“In the future, the Count of Basilian has no choice but to be revealed. It would be a good choice to actively expand our forces from now on.”

More and more people are already paying attention to Basilian.

The kidnapping that took place in the Snake Castle this time was also because of that reason.

The kidnappers were severely interrogated, but in the end, he could not find out who was behind them.

They were from ‘there’, but they were nothing but discarded cards.

Because of the double-triple twist, the real client could not be identified.

It was proof that the forces paying attention to Basilian were high-ranking.

Belzeon, who recalled the kidnappers, slowly added his words.

‘… Including ‘there’. We’ve been hiding it until now, but shouldn’t we reveal it to the outside at the right time now?”

When he mentioned another Basilian’s hidden secret, Kiern laughed lightly.

“I’ll think about it.”

But his eyes were on the child in the garden.

It was clear that he was thinking of the dead, not the county’s future.

He thought of Kiern at the funeral home, where he seemed to have thrown everything away and been buried with a coffin full of flowers.

“… I.”

Hearing the voice boiling with anger, his eyes turned to Belzeon.

Glaring at Kiern, he chewed and spat out.

“Will protect the House, Count.”

Because that was the mission his mother had left to Belzeon.

Belzeon would protect the County of Basilian.

By any means and methods.