Little Pink Starfish

“They said you just had to infuse a little magic into magic-related tools and they’d give you 200 gold coins. But you had to stay in one place for a month, with room and board provided. They invited me to join too, but I couldn’t be away for that long… so I had to turn them down. …My friends left a week after that, and even after a month, they never returned.”

Clench. Glen looked on the verge of tears but managed not to cry.

“Then, a week ago, this paper was transmitted through the magic device my friends and I created.”

“A magic device?”

“Ah, yes. About this big… Honestly, it’s hardly worth calling a ‘device.’ It’s a box I made—it can transmit a single sheet of paper regardless of distance with just a small amount of mana. I wanted to bring it to show you, but it’s too large to sneak past my grandfather or the attendants, so it’s still at the duke’s estate…”

“We can discuss that later. Why are you so certain the one who took your friends was the Duke of Superzen?”

It was a subtly probing question, but Glen didn’t seem to notice. His eyelids fluttered before he closed his eyes briefly and took a deep breath—his cheeks were so pale that his veins nearly showed through.

“The day before, I had gone to my grandfather’s study and overheard him speaking with his aide.”

“He wouldn’t not know you were there.”

The Duke of Superzen’s aide was a mage—a powerful one, skilled enough to have been made a vice leader if he joined Esche.

Even with Glen’s immense talent, there was no way they’d speak carelessly if they knew he was around.

“I used a spell Veloan taught me. An invisibility spell. Like this…”

Shff. Glen’s body faded until it was semi-transparent. At the same time, his presence—his mana—was completely erased.

Ishar, instantly grasping the structure of the spell, was quietly impressed as he turned to Veloan. As if expecting it, Veloan looked back with a slight smile in his crimson eyes that tickled Ishar’s chest.

‘As expected of my student.’

Judging by the structure, this spell was one Veloan likely created about three years ago, before joining the suppression force.

Of course, Ishar had known back then that Veloan’s skills were far superior to his peers—but still, seeing that the Duke’s prized mage couldn’t detect it brought a faint smile to Ishar’s lips.

‘Not the time to be impressed.’

This was a serious matter—possibly the very lead he had been chasing for years. Ishar forced his expression back to neutral and looked away from Veloan, lest his concentration falter.

“Then what did your grandfather say?”

“I’ll quote him exactly…”

Glen’s trembling voice recited the conversation he had overheard between the Duke and his aide—words that laid bare their true nature.

Phrases like “those crude half-finished lowlives that tainted Glen’s caliber” and “they’re vermin, yes, but stubborn—like weeds that won’t die” were too raw, too specific, for a child to have made up.

After quoting their words and handing over documents he had secretly recorded onto a memory crystal, Glen added something about Aled.

“I thought Aled-hyung was sent to the countryside to recuperate from illness. But he was actually there to oversee things on behalf of my grandfather.”

Aled. Ishar recalled the name—once spat with contempt at Veloan, calling him a male whore.

“I found out because of Aled-hyung’s old servant. He came recently to serve my mother. I asked him why he wasn’t attending Aled anymore, and he said grandfather gave Aled such a good opportunity that he hadn’t served him in a long time.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Glen continued. He had tried to contact other servants who had attended Aled—but apart from the one who came to serve his mother, all the others had vanished.

Whether it was related or not, something felt deeply wrong.

Ishar listened intently—watching Glen’s gaze, the tremors in his voice, the hitch in his breath. He was certain the boy was telling the truth.

‘Unexpected.’

The place Aled had been sent was in one of the most remote parts of the empire—not even enough homes to call it a proper village. The Duke had effectively exiled Aled there like a quarantined patient.

‘I assumed Aled was discarded—unsuitable as a successor compared to Glen. Especially after I confirmed he lost his mind from the ghosts in that estate… Was that just an act to avoid my eyes?’

Ishar felt an unpleasant jolt—like the Duke had blindsided him.

He paused his thoughts as Glen spoke again.

After carefully piecing together Glen’s story with the information he already had, Ishar finally asked the boy, who was now weeping openly,

“Do you understand what will happen to the House of Superzen if everything you’ve said is true?”

“Yes… I do.”

His face was tear-streaked, but Glen’s eyes burned with resolve—proof that he had risked his life to come here.

Even at twelve years old, he would have known what Ishar had done to noble families who assisted Karsha’s human experimentation during the early days of his reign. He would know this was no empty threat.

“I see.”

“I want to bring you the magic device.”

He meant: Please track the origin of that bloodstained message.

For the first time since Glen arrived, Ishar’s expression shifted slightly.

“I’ll send someone later. You may go now.”

“…Yes, Your Majesty.”

Glen, clearly stunned that Ishar smiled at him, stared wide-eyed before finally bowing and following Elam out.

Once Glen’s presence had completely faded from his senses, Ishar stood and picked up the imperial crown that had been tossed aside earlier.

“It’s already this late.”

Murmuring with some regret, Veloan gently took the crown from Ishar’s hands.

“Allow me, Ishar.”

Ishar stepped forward, thinking how small the crown suddenly seemed in Veloan’s hands—when it had always looked so large.

The weight of it pressed heavily upon his head.

“Do you believe Glen?”

“I do not.”

Even if he was the Duke’s youngest grandson, Glen wouldn’t be unaware that he could be seen as an accomplice and risk execution.

Though he sounded like a victim, he could just as easily be playing the part of a guilty party trying to save himself.

Even if Glen was truly a poor boy whose friends were sacrificed, the fact that he came to Ishar first rather than using his own influence was suspicious.

At twelve, raised as a successor and taught politics by those selected by the Duke himself, it was hard to believe he would risk so much for a few recently made friends.

‘It’s all too perfectly aligned.’

Too many things Glen said were just a little too convenient.

“You told me not to frown, yet you’re frowning yourself. Here, relax.”

A gentle hand pressed between Ishar’s brows, and the tension eased. Veloan nodded in satisfaction, brushing down a stray lock of hair before stepping back.

“…You look rather pleased.”

“How could I not be?”

Veloan’s hand, which had just touched Ishar’s hair, now gently cupped his chin.

“You’re dying to ask me questions, aren’t you? I can see it in your eyes.”

“…”

How could he read him so easily? Ishar sighed and brushed Veloan’s hand away.

“I won’t deny it. Then come to my chamber tonight. …There are things I want to discuss—regarding what Glen said. I’m not inviting you for anything else. Understood?”

“Understood.”

‘He doesn’t look like he understands at all.’

Ishar wanted to stress it again, especially seeing Veloan licking his lips with that suggestive smirk—but just then, the soft chime of a bell rang from outside the private room.

A signal that he had ten minutes before he had to head upstairs for the next audience.

“Then I’ll go. You’d better come. Just talking, I mean it. Just talk. Got it?”

“Yes, don’t worry.”

Only after seeing his student kindly waving goodbye did Ishar finally feel at ease and head upstairs.