ICM Chapter 102

What was unknown at the time was that another marriage alliance between Igraine and Talion had almost been arranged. At least that one wouldn’t have been a political marriage.

“It’s not trivial. In my own way, I worked tirelessly to separate Igraine and Talion. I chose a moderate method rather than wiping out their bloodline entirely.”

Iben suddenly sprang up from her seat and lunged at the Marquis.

“Ahhh! You demon!”

However, the Marquis dodged to the side, and Iben’s frail body tumbled to the floor. Even after falling to the ground, her anguished cries continued.

“You took away my homeland, my children—everything! You cursed bastard. You will never die peacefully!”

“You should speak properly, Ibis. I didn’t know you’d end up clinging to Igraine either. I thought you were long dead. Who would have thought Ilerna would find you before I did!”

It was when Weive was desperately trying to marry Iben against his father’s opposition. Unfortunately, at that very time, the then-Empress Ilerna found Iben first. To be precise, she found Grand Duchess Ibis of Arkpella and her children.

“I didn’t know Ilerna hated you so much. No, was it fear? Or perhaps jealousy.”

The Marquis sneered with an incomprehensible expression. Blue light dripped from Iben’s eyes.

“Do you think only the imperial family was cursed? Gerbeau, you’re mistaken! The one who awakened the sleeping god was the former Emperor, and the awakened god wants to destroy the Divine Chamber.”

The foolish man didn’t realize that for this purpose, the god would stop at nothing. Mistaking it for a blessing.

“Just as the former Emperor’s mistake brought disaster, so will yours.”

“Whether it’s a mistake or not doesn’t matter now. Look at you and me, Ibis. A companion with exactly the same fate as me, who lives eternally. Could there be a more perfect destiny?”

“Eternal life? Don’t make me laugh, Gerbeau. This isn’t such a sweet blessing!”

She wanted to die but couldn’t. The god would never release her until it achieved its purpose.

From the moment the warning was ignored, the curse that seeped into the imperial family would intensify generation after generation, bringing terrible catastrophe. The disease that started in the Grand Duchy would continue to spread until the entire empire withered away.

“Do you think your body will remain intact just because you don’t age? You must be feeling it too, right? Moving becomes increasingly unnatural, doesn’t it? Somehow it doesn’t feel like your own. Isn’t that right?”

Marquis Maiheller’s face twitched. Iben’s words weren’t wrong.

“The keratinization disease started with the imperial family who ignored the god’s warning and abused their power. But 40 years ago, it suddenly began in the Grand Duchy too. Don’t you understand yet? The disease will spread further and eventually affect the entire empire. Everyone, without exception!”

And ultimately, it would bring destructive disaster.

“Eternal life? There’s no such blessing. Unless it’s a hell-like body that suffers eternally.”

The voice that came to her every night, pleading, threatening, pouring out nightmares and making threats. Even with her eyes open under the sun, that voice constantly echoed in her ears. It was maddening pain she could never escape from for long years.

[Child of Arkpella, open the door. Let me out.]

Just remembering it made her shudder.

Watching Iben shiver, the Marquis twisted his lips. It was a vilely gleaming smile.

“We can gradually narrow our differences. We have more than enough time. If you become obedient, I might spare one of Igraine’s children. At least that child is your bloodline, isn’t it?”

The Marquis walked to the bedside and pulled a cord. With the signal, the door opened and sturdy men entered.

Iben tried to flee from the approaching men. But in an instant, two men grabbed her arms.

“What are you trying to…”

“Why didn’t I think of the alchemist’s potion? Weive searched so desperately for alchemists in the past. He almost succeeded. The plan to disguise you as someone else and hide you in Igraine’s territory.”

Marquis Maiheller couldn’t contain his giggling laughter. The men holding Iben grabbed her jaw and forced it open, while a servant approached and handed a medicine bottle to the Marquis.

“You must have had a hard time too, Ibis. The side effects must have been considerable, but I’ll liberate you. Now you’ll live as yourself.”

Resistance was futile. Even when she tried to shake her head, the hands gripping her face didn’t budge. The medicine bottle was roughly shoved into her open mouth. The medicine, whose taste she couldn’t identify, filled her mouth and flowed down her throat and chin.

“Gah, cough. Cough.”

Only after confirming she had swallowed all the medicine did the men release Iben.

Iben’s vision became distant. In rhythm with her pounding heartbeat, her head also swayed. Cold chills spread from her heart throughout her body, and a tingling sensation like ants crawling climbed up her skin from her fingertips and toes.

At the Marquis Maiheller’s gesture, two maids who had been waiting outside entered.

“Do something about that filthy hair color.”

The maids bowed their heads and dragged Iben to the bathroom connected to the bedroom.

“Ugh… let go…”

Her feeble resistance was ineffective. While she was weakened by the medicine, they poured something on her hair and washed it out several times. The reddish-gold hair disappeared, revealing her original pale platinum hair.

Before long, her eyes also regained their original color, becoming a vivid blue-violet. They were beautiful like jewels but didn’t feel human.

The maid who met Iben’s gaze was startled and quickly lowered her head. Both maids were clearly flustered. Though they didn’t know what was happening, they sensed that the woman before them was of no ordinary status.

Even while the maids fussed over drying her hair and dressing her, Iben remained as listless as a doll. The Marquis, who had followed them in, gasped in admiration and muttered.

“Yes. Countless men were enchanted by this appearance and sent marriage proposals.”

Even after she was rejected by the Crown Prince for being barren, it was the same. Though none among them were men of appropriate rank for the Grand Ducal house or legitimate heirs of proper families.

The Marquis approached and lifted Iben’s chin.

“I should have created an even worse reason than barrenness. Preferably a disease that no one would even glance at.”

Iben raised her trembling hand. But she couldn’t push the Marquis away, and her powerless hand simply slipped and fell.

“You bastard…”

Her words wouldn’t come out properly, and Iben’s voice became slurred and faded.

She had expected it. She had definitely been told by the Grand Ducal family’s physician that she couldn’t bear children, yet she became pregnant with her first child less than six months after living with Weive.

That’s when she realized. It wasn’t only her mother who had been poisoned. Feeding poison to a young girl from childhood to prevent her from menstruating would have been much easier.

She shuddered thinking about how long ago Marquis Maiheller had been targeting the Grand Ducal family, and how persistently he had tried to get his hands on her.

Suddenly, the Marquis narrowed his eyes and looked around. The scent of the fragrant oil used while washing Iben was particularly irritating to his nerves.

“This smell—who brought this fragrant oil?”

“Pardon? It’s the fragrant oil specially brought in today under your orders, my lord…”

He dismissed it, thinking it probably felt unfamiliar because it was a new fragrance.

“Move her to the bedroom.”

“Yes, my lord.”

The maids grabbed Iben’s arms and lifted her up. But they couldn’t take more than a few steps before one maid slipped and fell. Because of this, Iben also sat down on the spot.

“S-sorry.”

“What are you doing? Get up quickly.”

Her colleague urgently scolded her. The maid who had composed herself tried to get up again, but her head drooped lifelessly.

“What’s wrong with her?”

The other maid let go of Iben and approached to help her collapsed colleague. But as soon as she got up from her position, her upper body collapsed forward.

The two maids who had seemed fine just moments before lost consciousness in an instant. Iben looked down at the two fallen women with a half-dazed expression.

It wasn’t fragrant oil. Air of different density, foreign in nature, was seeping in through the door cracks. Marquis Maiheller belatedly grasped the situation and rushed out of the room.

“My lord! What’s happening?”

“Everyone cover your mouths. Get away from the building!”

The Marquis shouted this and ran to the garden in front of the annex. But the strength draining from his body was instantaneous. The moment he thought he had gotten away from the annex, his vision spun around and the Marquis’s sight went dark.

Iben, sitting in the room, kept her gaze fixed on empty space. Her heterogeneously beautiful blue-violet eyes were like jewels drained of life.

Iben didn’t realize this might be her only chance to escape. Tears welled up in her eyes that had been staring into space, and her lips moved.

“…Baby…”

Tears flowed from her slowly blinking eyes.

“Where are you…”

Her words trailed off sluggishly and became slurred. Her wet eyes fell downward pitifully. Iben looked down at her own hands, mottled with gray spots.

Once white and beautiful, now ugly from being soaked in medicine, she felt around the wooden floor with these hands.

“Where are you… Mama is looking for you.”

She swept the smooth wooden floor with her hands and crawled forward, dragging her powerless legs.

“Is our baby playing hide-and-seek…”

Drip, drip. Black stains spread dot by dot over the dry wooden floor.

“When Mama finds you, our baby will be ‘it’…”

Every time she dragged her legs forward, the gorgeously flowing dress scraped against the floor. Iben continued crawling forward, groping her way to somewhere unknown.

Meanwhile, death throes passed by outside the window, but they didn’t reach Iben’s ears. A dull thud followed as something collapsed into the grass. Throughout this, Iben was still crawling around the room, feeling around with her arms and legs.

After a while, the door burst open roughly. Those who rushed in were horrified to see a woman crawling alone around the room.

“Good heavens. Is that woman really the target?”

Nile, who entered after them, discovered Iben and his eyes widened as if they might pop out.

“I think… she is.”

Nile also looked confused. It was definitely a face he knew, but he was speechless at how completely changed her appearance was.

In his confusion, Drushia roughly pulled off the mask covering his face.

“Didn’t Ashika tell you anything?”

“That’s what I should be asking you. How can someone closer to the young lady than I am ask me that?”

While the two men stood frozen, those who followed them examined the interior and discovered the collapsed maids in the bathroom.

“There are two women here.”

At the voice from the bathroom, Nile and Drushia collected themselves.

“They’re not dead, are they?”

“No, they’ve just lost consciousness.”

It would be troublesome if today’s events resulted in deaths. Even if they were just maids.

“But why didn’t that woman faint? Even the strong men lost consciousness.”

At Drushia’s question, Nile also looked troubled. Iben was conscious but not in her right mind. Despite the presence of intruders, she continued searching for something somewhere in the room.

“Maybe there were hallucinogenic components?”

“What is she muttering?”

Drushia sheathed his sword and carefully approached Iben. And immediately froze in place.

“My baby… where are you.”

The barely audible whisper was still sobbing.

“I’m sorry… Mama couldn’t protect you…”

Nile, who had come closer, also covered his mouth and froze.

“Huu… ugh. Poor baby. Don’t cry. Don’t cry…”

The tears of the woman crying sorrowfully were pitiful. Her voice searching for her lost baby was heartbreakingly desperate.

Iben’s memory was buried somewhere in a forest decades ago.