Chapter 129
‘What should I do?’
He couldn’t reveal his identity.
Even if he wanted to, it was impossible.
His true identity was bound by causality, making it impossible to disclose.
Besides, he was a complete stranger to her now—there was no way she would accept some clumsy words of comfort.
Above all, Chris instinctively sensed it.
That Olivia’s heart wasn’t in a state to be swayed by a few words.
He could feel the firmly closed walls.
‘I had hoped she was doing well.’
Chris let out a sigh.
There was no other choice.
He decided to take a drastic approach.
“You asked why I came here.”
“Ah, yes. I came out of curiosity.”
“…What did you say?”
A thoroughly unpleasant smile formed at the corner of Chris’s lips.
“I heard this was where that crippled bastard, the so-called Cursed Prince, used to live. I was curious to see if he really was a Devil’s seed.”
“!!”
Olivia’s face flushed in an instant.
“How dare you! Take that back and apologize right now.”
“And if I don’t?”
“I’ll make you kneel at my brother’s grave and force you to apologize.”
Harsh words, not like the Olivia he once knew.
But they weren’t empty threats.
A white radiance like clouds began to leak from Olivia’s body.
A powerful aura that made the skin tingle with tension.
‘Was Olivia always this strong?’
When they were children, Olivia had never once shown her powers, so he’d had no idea.
Even now, just from what she was revealing, it was clearly at least 4-star power.
‘Her power leans more toward support than direct combat, though.’
Olivia’s abilities were different from those of knights or mages.
They came from the power of an Awakened—one who bore the blood of the Celestial Seat.
‘That power is the key to resolving this incident.’
For reference, an awakening of the Holy Blood occurred only once every few generations even in the royal family of Arhen, the Theocracy.
Thus, the only person currently able to use the power of the Holy Blood was Olivia.
“I only called a cripple a cripple. I don’t see why that should make you so angry.”
“Y-You…!!”
The moment Olivia couldn’t hold herself back any longer and pulled out a small staff, aiming it at Christian—
“He died without being able to say a single word to clear his name. So yes, he was a cripple.”
Olivia froze.
“What… what do you mean by that?”
“Exactly what I said. I heard the Cursed Prince was supposedly born as a Devil’s seed.”
Chris shrugged as he looked around the room.
“There’s not even a trace of a Devil’s presence left here.”
“……”
Olivia swallowed hard.
“H-How would you know that? No one can detect the traces of a Devil.”
She wasn’t wrong.
No Holy Knight or Inquisitor could identify a Devil’s trace just by looking.
That was because Devils hid themselves using their powers.
‘That’s exactly why so many innocent people became victims. Since you can’t identify it outwardly, they’d torture innocent people under accusations of being Devil worshippers, force false confessions out of them, and burn them at the stake.’
In a way, Chris was one of those victims too.
No trace of demonic power had ever been found in him, yet the people of the Theocracy insisted that the demon had simply hidden it.
“Our Dark Demonic House has a secret art that detects demonic energy. Even using that method, I don’t sense any presence of a Devil’s seed ever being here.”
That was a lie.
No such method existed.
That kind of secret technique would only be developed much later, around the midpoint of the Age of Ruin, to root out the widespread Devil worshippers hidden within the Union—but it didn’t exist yet.
“More importantly, Your Highness knows this too, doesn’t she?”
Chris gave a faint smile.
“That the Cursed Prince actually had nothing to do with Devils.”
“!!”
“You knew, and that’s why you’re in such despair, isn’t it? Because of the guilt of not being able to save him.”
Clang!
The staff she had been holding dropped to the floor.
Olivia stood frozen, her face pale as she opened and closed her lips without saying anything.
That’s right.
Olivia knew it too.
But she hadn’t been able to save Chris.
She had been too young back then, without the power to protect him.
Eventually, tears streamed down from Olivia’s eyes.
“…So what are you trying to say?”
Olivia growled.
“Who are you to act like you know everything?!”
It was a cry filled with anguish.
Seeing his sister like that made Chris’s chest ache for a moment, but there was no choice.
Right now, he had to push her to move.
Even if that meant hurting her.
For Olivia’s sake.
Not just to stop her from falling apart.
But also for the sake of her wounded heart.
So that when she faced the terrible truth later, she wouldn’t be completely destroyed—this moment was necessary.
“It’s just frustrating… seeing you drown in grief and do nothing.”
“What would you know…!”
Chris replied flatly.
In a voice different from before.
“Don’t you want to uncover the truth?”
For a moment, the surroundings fell silent.
Olivia’s eyes widened.
“What do you mean by that…?”
“If the Cursed Prince had no connection to Devils, then someone must have framed him. Isn’t that right?”
“……”
Olivia swallowed hard.
It felt as if a Devil was whispering in her ear.
“If you wish, I can reveal the truth with the power I possess. I may not look like it, but I have many talents. However.”
Step.
Chris took a step forward.
The distance between them shortened, and Olivia gazed at him blankly.
Chris raised a finger and wiped the tear from the corner of her eye.
A low voice flowed gently.
“Are you prepared to face the truth? No matter how vile it may be.”
“!!”
Olivia’s gaze wavered.
From within the shadows.
Chris’s blood-red eyes dimly glowed with a heavy light.
A light that held a pain no one could name.
“What do you mean by that? A vile truth?”
Olivia asked, as if she couldn’t comprehend.
‘Olivia probably doesn’t know yet that the Holy Emperor was the mastermind behind framing my mother.’
When Chris’s mother was accused of being a servant of a Devil, the Holy Emperor didn’t step forward himself, of course.
More than anything, the Holy Emperor always appeared to Olivia as a kind and loving father. Unlike with Chris, he truly cherished Olivia as his daughter.
That’s why Olivia had no idea her father was such a monstrous being.
Not yet.
‘Perhaps never knowing would be better for Olivia.’
But that wasn’t possible.
Because at the end of this incident, Olivia would inevitably come face-to-face with the harrowing truth.
“…Can you really uncover the truth?”
“Of course. With the power I possess, it’s more than possible. However, there is a condition.”
“What is it?”
“First, you must personally cooperate in uncovering the truth behind this outbreak of the Black Plague in Gold Cross.”
Olivia nodded.
She had turned away in despair, but this was something she was meant to do.
“Is that all?”
“Of course, there’s more. The second condition… is the one I truly desire.”
The ominous tone in his voice made Olivia’s expression harden.
“What kind of condition is it…?”
Chris silently stared at her for a moment.
Just as a flicker of doubt passed through Olivia’s sapphire eyes.
Chris spoke.
“Form a Pact with me.”
* * *
“!!”
Olivia’s eyes widened at the unexpected words.
“What are you talking about? A pact, all of a sudden?”
“Ah, please don’t misunderstand. I’m proposing this because I wish to join hands with the Princess.”
A Pact was, quite literally, a vow-based promise between two people.
If the terms of the pact were broken, it exacted a heavy toll—making it an extremely binding agreement.
The contents of a pact could vary greatly.
From simple contracts, to lovers’ vows, to master-servant bonds, and more.
Among them, what Chris was proposing was an alliance.
‘I’ll likely be active within the Alliance more often from now on, and I need someone within it who can support me.’
Olivia was the perfect candidate.
If everything went well with this case, Olivia would become one of the most esteemed figures in the Alliance.
Of course, Olivia’s reaction wasn’t favorable.
“…Do you really think I’d accept that condition?”
Chris was a demon.
He stood at the opposite end of everything Saintess Olivia represented.
Setting that aside, she was seeing him for the first time.
What basis did she have to form such a pact with him?
“I’m not asking you to decide immediately. Once we’ve resolved this incident together, you may decide after watching me closely.”
“……”
“I assure you, Princess—you will come to trust me.”
At those confident words, Olivia’s delicate brow furrowed.
‘So irritating.’
To be honest.
The moment Olivia first laid eyes on Christian, she felt a shock that made her heart nearly stop.
She was clearly meeting him for the first time, and yet… it felt like her chest was being torn apart.
Something she couldn’t understand.
‘Is it because his name is the same as my brother’s?’
It made no sense.
More than anything, her brother Chris and this demon before her shared no resemblance at all.
If she had to find something—they were both handsome?
Smooth talkers?
Geniuses?
‘If my brother had been raised in a proper environment, he would’ve become someone far greater than this insufferable bastard.’
As thoughts of Chris surfaced again, Olivia felt a dull ache in her chest.
Only she in this world knew just how remarkable Chris—who had been condemned as a demon’s seed—truly was.
Above all, her brother Chris was a warm and good person. So much so that comparing him to this wretched demon felt like an insult.
—Thank you, always.
Chris had always said that to Olivia.
But the truth was, it wasn’t so.
It was always her who had been helped.
Olivia recalled the past she shared with Chris.
Their first meeting was by chance.
‘I ran away crying from the pressure, and ended up at the tower where my brother lived.’
When she was young.
Olivia carried an immense burden on her shoulders.
She was the awakened bearer of the Holy Blood—the first in a hundred years.
Everyone in the Holy Nation wanted her to attain even greater divine power, and she was forced to devote every day to cultivating it.
Without even a moment’s rest.
Carrying the weight of everyone’s expectations.
To someone not even ten years old, it felt suffocating.
Always struggling within what felt like the bars of a prison, she met her brother by chance, who said with an expressionless face:
—You can rest here for a while.
Why?
Why did those words shake her heart so deeply?
In front of her brother whom she had never met before, Olivia broke down in tears.
From that day on, she would often go visit Chris, and every time, Chris would silently make space next to him.
If it hadn’t been for that warmth, Olivia wouldn’t have been able to withstand the pressures of her childhood—she would have collapsed.
That wasn’t all.
Chris had even saved her life. More than once.
30%.
That was the final probability for a Holy Blood Awakener to completely awaken their divine authority.
Just because someone awakened the Holy Blood didn’t mean they could all handle the power smoothly.
The authority of a Celestial Throne was an overwhelmingly difficult power for humans to wield.
If one slipped even slightly during the process, the power could go berserk, or the internal body would collapse, leading to death.
Especially since there was never more than one Holy Blood Awakener per generation.
So they could receive help from no one and had to learn to handle the power entirely on their own.
Olivia, too, faced a moment of near death—and the one who helped her then was Chris.
—That... move the energy below your navel with the gathered flow in your right shoulder...
As incomprehensible as it was,
Chris somehow knew how to handle the authority of the Celestial Throne.
When asked, he simply said he knew by instinct. That he could just see how the energy should move.
At that moment, Olivia realized for the first time that Chris was not an ordinary being.
Thanks to him, Olivia overcame that brush with death—and such incidents repeated more than once.
If it hadn’t been for Chris, Olivia would have died long ago.
And the grace she received from Chris didn’t end there.
As a Saintess, she could not open her heart to anyone. Chris, staying by her side, became a friend and a source of emotional comfort.
When she grew older and began to see the horrific reality of the Holy Nation that didn’t align with her ideals, it was Chris who firmly helped her find her resolve again.
She still hadn’t forgotten the sound of the whistle Chris made by rolling a leaf and playing it to comfort her when she was despondent.
And there were countless other things she had received from Chris.
That was why—
Why Olivia missed Chris so deeply.
Chris was not just an older brother to her.
He was her savior, her teacher, her support, her friend—he was everything to her.
‘And yet I let him die.’