It was a few months ago when Ruben had run away from the Aether household. Although he used magic, his powers were so pathetic that he could not withstand the continuous assassination attempts.
He made his visit to the mage tower as an excuse to run away from the castle, and the eldest prince had been tracking him ever since. But thankfully, the eldest changed his target. It seemed he began to worry more about Kalion, whose power was growing larger and larger, than Ruben, who had nothing special going on.
However, unlike with Ruben, the prince could not find a way to Kalion. The protection spell inside the castle was the biggest barrier for the oldest prince.
To bypass it, several wizards had to work together for a long time and there had to be one wizard inside the castle to pull in the spell.
So the prince made an offer to Ruben.
He wouldn’t kill Ruben if he helped disable the spell that guarded Hessenguard. He would also help him become the duke of Hessenguard. However, once he became the duke, he would have to swear Hessenguard’s absolute obedience to Aether and promise to return three times more tribute to Aether.
Ruben had no choice but to accept the offer as he was exhausted from running away.
He figured it would not be much different dying by the hand of his brother, or Kalion, but…
Who knew I would get Erna.
Recently, Erna’s attitude became friendlier towards him.
I’m still not fond of everything she does yet, of course.
She, who was the duke of Hessenguard, still treated Ruben as beneath her. As Ruben carefully tried to call Erna by her name, she looked at him pathetically.
Arrogant, he thought.
She was younger than him and was a woman. Ruben, who grew up under a system where men were regarded as higher beings, felt shame from Erna’s attitude.
Just once if I could get my hands on her…
Perverted thoughts crossed Ruben’s head. He planned on tying her up so that she couldn’t use her spells on him and taking advantage of her as soon as she let her guard down.
He would have her until she begged on her knees for forgiveness. He would do so until they had a baby.
There’s a higher chance of having a wizard baby when two wizards mate.
He believed he and Erna had a good chance of giving birth to a great wizard. The baby usually directly inherited the mother’s powers.
If an heir is born…
Erna would be useless. In fact, Erna as a wizard would also be useless. He would cut off all her powers with the help from Aether and simply make her a puppet.
She would be more than enough to have in bed.
Just thinking about having her made his lips dry. He was sure that she was amazing in bed, considering how she made Kalion lose himself. Ruben starved with lust from thinking about submitting her so that her glaring eyes would turn obedient.
He moved towards the window. He was unable to contact the wizards of Aether as Erna had casted new defense spells all over the castle.
As Ruben opened the window, a pigeon approached him from the nearby forest. Ruben habitually picked up a small piece of bread and fed it to the pigeon. From afar, it looked like he was feeding a wild pigeon. However, the pigeon was in fact a messenger pigeon from the Aether wizards who were stationed in a nearby village.
When he was about to write a letter about the invitation from Erna, someone knocked on his door.
He groaned as he hastily sent the pigeon back to the woods with resent. He closed the window and told the person to come in. Then, a servant entered with a handcart. Like usual, the servant prepared food on the table in the middle of his room.
Ruben quickly sat down and drank the soup. He had a busy schedule ahead of him. Also, he had to write a letter to the wizards of Aether soon. This made him eat in a hurry.
And as he reached for the main course, his tongue stiffened and eyes twirled. By the time he noticed something was wrong, he was already lying on the floor.
“W, what…”
Ruben, having realized that he had been poisoned, looked up at the servant who still stood there in his room. The servant, who seemed to have expected this to happen, crouched in front of him and whispered.
“This is a message from the prince. ‘I appreciate your hard work. It seems that I have a chance to get Kalion, so you must disappear for me now.’”
Ruben’s eyes widened at the servant’s words. It turned out the servant was from Aether, and the prince had changed his mind and decided to kill Ruben.
“T, that bastard… You promised me the duke position… You even prepared the poison…”
“May you rest in peace.”
“You really think… I’m going to… die like this? I’ll tell Erna everything… That you’re the culprit and…”
Ruben’s eyes closed. However, he was still breathing. After the servant checked Ruben’s pulse, he snapped his fingers. Then, the servant turned into Erna.
Erna put her foot on Ruben’s head.
“I knew it was you.”
Ruben continuously told Erna that the prince’s spy was still in the castle. Erna acted like she was afraid and dependent on Ruben.
But she was sure he was the spy.
However, there was no way Ruben would be that honest in front of her. So, she came up with a way to make him talk. Fortunately, she made clear that the prince was the main culprit and Ruben was an accomplice.
Erna added some force on the foot stepping on Ruben. Despite his unconsciousness, Ruben grunted as if he was in pain. But Erna didn’t mind at all and kicked his nose with the tip of her boot.
Blood spilled out from his snobbish nose. Yet, Erna’s anger did not go away. She then kicked the back of his head. This one was for his filthy eyes that always looked toward her bre*sts.
“I’m not going to kill you, Ruben.”
He wasn’t going to die. However, he would stay unconscious for at least a week, and by the time he woke up, he would find himself a mess.
“I’m quite busy right now and I can still use you.”
Erna opened the door and two wizards, who had been waiting outside, wrapped Ruben in a piece of cloth and dragged him out.
He would be locked up in the basement of the wizard’s base. He would wake up long after.
Erna quickly put on her cloak and headed out. She got on her horse and looked up at the dimming sky. She then hurriedly left the castle.
The time she had promised to meet with Kalion was tomorrow evening. Before then, she had to get to the place they had decided to meet.
