The West Wind's Destination - Chapter 26
“Now that you mention it, you spent a fair amount of time in the West.”
Indeed, due to environmental reasons, many alchemists hailed from the West, and Aseph had sent him there for years to search for Bea.
“What do you think could be the reason?”
“Well… uh…”
The aide, usually forthright, hesitated, scanning the room. Everyone was listening intently when the archduke, impatient, urged him on.
“Come on, spit it out!”
“If the bedroom experience is unsatisfactory, they treat it as if it never happened.”
The servants, suddenly privy to too much information about the archduke, bowed their heads and quickly vacated the drawing room.
“……”
For a moment, the drawing room was left with a dumbfounded archduke, an aide scratching his head, and a chuckling butler.
“If it didn’t happen, there wouldn’t be a child.”
“Haha, indeed. You’d expect them to say that property or status doesn’t matter in such cases.”
“You’d think that, wouldn’t you, butler? Unless it’s about becoming a retainer, marriage is a bit…”
“Good thing the house is wealthy.”
“Some people do consider the bedroom activities most important.”
Aseph abruptly stood up.
“No, that’s not it!”
“……”
“……”
Both men stared at the Duke with a mix of pity.
“It’s not like that!”
Aseph felt deeply wronged but couldn’t just drop his pants there and then to prove his point.
Briefly losing his temper, he slumped back into his chair, exhaling deeply.
“I broke my promise.”
He held his forehead, weary.
“If I knew there was a child… Instead of asking to wait, I would’ve taken Bea with me then and there.”
The situation had been especially harsh for Aseph. He thought he had lost everything, and when he accepted the reality, he wanted to escape it.
So he lost himself in a dream-like time with Bea, the alchemist.
His decision to return was born from wanting her by his side.
He sought stability, to formally court her, to have their relationship acknowledged.
Bea had anchored him when he wanted to give up everything after losing his family.
Even when he decided to return to his duties, he didn’t want to drag Bea into his war. He wanted to find stability first, then later to formally and properly meet her again.
But he delayed too long.
And to make things worse, he left her alone to raise a child.
Now that he had found Bea again, she was so detached that she wouldn’t even let him kneel and beg.
“All this time Lady Bea—or rather, ‘Zephyr’—was the one Your Highness was looking for?”
The butler, who had been silently attending, asked cautiously.
“…I didn’t know. I knew she was an alchemist, but I had no idea about that nickname.”
“If she decided to hide, it would’ve been hard to find her. But more importantly…”
The butler’s previously jovial demeanor vanished, revealing a sharp expression.
“Your Highness, Zephyr was the right-hand man of Myron Devesis.”
“…….”
The atmosphere instantly grew heavy at the mention of that name.
Myron Devesis.
An alchemist, he had been a public enemy, sowing chaos across the world until his death.
It was Myron Devesis who sparked and led the great war between mages and alchemists.
Myron Devesis, the alchemist who instilled fear across the continent, pillaging renowned guilds, clashing with noble mages, and brutally slaughtering the citizens of the Empire.
They conducted human experiments using people as guinea pigs and incited wars with their followers when they needed more subjects.
And Zephyr was the moniker of the alchemist who was Myron Devesis’ closest associate, known for their ruthless efficiency.
Aseph knew Bea was a skilled alchemist, but he never imagined she was the infamous Zephyr, especially not a woman of such small stature.
“Myron Devesis’ right hand.”
“And his cruelty only intensified with Zephyr’s participation,” added the butler.
Aseph responded somewhat irritably.
“…Does that change anything?”
Aseph’s blindness in love wasn’t just about being stubborn.
Even if the world still regarded alchemists with suspicion, it held little significance for Vilkanos.
In fact, it was mages, not alchemists, that Vilkanos found inconvenient.
The world believed that the Vilkanos domain and the Frieblanda Empire to be the closest of allies. Yet, Vilkanos had no ancient ties with the Empire. Despite the massive mountain range separating the two, Vilkanos’ participation in the war between alchemists and mages was an unusual move.
Vilkanos played a key role in defeating the alchemists, earning the title of archduke from the Empire.
…That was what the uninformed said.
In truth, the Empire was at Vilkanos’ mercy, and they had offered land and titles in a desperate bid.
Separated by the vast mountain range and Vilkanos’ lack of interest in the Empire’s ‘central politics’, the Empire remained independent in name only.
The defining trait of the Vilkanos family, their anti-magic power, made this possible.
Not only did it nullify magic, but it could also cripple mages. Even materials imbued with magic became useless in Vilkanos’ presence.
Understandably, mages had long shunned Vilkanos, located beyond the mountains.
This continued until the rise of the alchemists.
