Ancient Imperial Calendar Year 1798
Two years had passed. After the deaths of Zelfhaya and her sons, assassinations and intrigues had decreased in Kislavein Palace, and a temporary silence prevailed.
But behind this seemingly calm facade, deaths were still occurring.
The latest victim was a child… but this time not a boy, but a girl.
The killing of a girl was a strange situation.
It was natural to kill boys in order to reduce the number of rivals for the Lordship.
However, the killing of a girl suggested a very different reason behind it.
This incident had caused whispers not only inside the palace, but even among the nobles outside.
Yet no one except the girl's own mother had investigated this death.
At that time, Ricardo had just turned three.
Thanks to the memories from his previous life, he was considered extraordinarily intelligent by those around him.
He had learned to read, write, and grasp basic mathematical formulas at a pace far beyond his years.
But his mother Seliarnevre had learned from previous events and had sworn her servants to a blood oath to prevent gossip about Ricardo.
This oath demanded a heavy price for betrayal.
The person swearing the oath would take a drop of blood from a small cut in their neck vein, bring it to their lips, and murmur incantations.
If they broke the oath, their tongue would dry up and fall out, and they would lose their mind.
Thus, spreading rumors about Ricardo's intelligence and extraordinary abilities became impossible.
But Seliarnevre's mind was fixated on the murdered girl.
The victim was the daughter of Helgeya, the first wife of Orsman IV.
For her age, she was an extremely beautiful, affectionate, and friendly child.
Everyone in the palace believed she would grow up to be a noble and elegant lady.
But now she was dead.
Seliarnevre was determined to uncover the secret behind the incident.
She made contact with a nameless yet highly effective assassin organization operating within Kislavein Palace.
This organization only communicated with the wives and concubines of lords, providing child assassinations and espionage services.
Before Zelfhaya died, Seliarnevre had captured an assassin from this organization and, instead of killing him, bound him with a loyalty oath.
This gave her a chance to establish direct contact with the organization.
But the deeper she went, the more complicated the matter became.
So much so that even the spies and assassins within the organization didn't know each other; therefore, even if someone from the organization carried out the assassination, reaching them was nearly impossible.
Yet reaching the leader might have been possible, because the leader of the organization possessed all information regarding every assassination carried out by the organization, all espionage activities, the identities of every assassin—including those who had retired—their lives, relatives, pasts—in short, every kind of information about the assassins.
But reaching the leader was beyond impossible.
Seliarnevre was officially at a dead end.
RICARDO'S INTERVENTION
Ricardo, seeing how deeply his mother was involved in the case, no longer wished to remain indifferent.
After all, he was once an emperor who had ruled over the Ancient Empire.
In his previous life, he was known as Harloumen VIII, and one of his wives was Aherlenna, a Spirit Mother.
Spirit Mothers were Spirits with a special ability.
When they made a contract with a human, they would give birth to a spirit every year.
Through his contract with Aherlenna, VIII. Harloumen had given rise to countless powerful spirits.
But Aherlenna, as a Spirit Mother, had done something forbidden—she had fallen in love with Harloumen and married him.
Such a marriage earned the title "Spirit Father" and immensely strengthened the bond with the spirits.
However, if a Spirit Mother became pregnant as a result of a true marriage, she had to sacrifice her own existence to bear her child.
Aherlenna had taken that risk and died after giving birth to Harloumen's child.
Her death had filled her brother Ahamenna with rage.
In all his fury, he stormed the magnificent Palace in the Capital of the Ancient Empire, burned and destroyed it, slaughtered everyone in his path, and burst into the throne room.
Ahamenna had shouted with a voice full of anger, hatred, and sorrow:
"My sister died because of you!" Ahamenna had roared.
"You knew the child would cause her death, yet you still lay with her!"
But Harloumen had responded to these words with astonishment:
"Do you hear what you're saying? Your sister died in childbirth. What does that have to do with me? That's something that can happen to any woman!"
Ahamenna grew even more enraged:
"Spirit Mothers cease to exist if they bear children through marriage! You knew that… or even if you didn't, you should have! I will kill you!"
Enraged, Ahamenna attacked Harloumen.
But the result was the same; Harloumen defeated him but did not kill him.
Ahamenna left the palace with tears streaming down his face.
Remembering those moments, Ricardo took a deep breath.
"A thousand years have passed… Is Ahamenna still angry with me? One day I'll have to face him."
But for now, he had to set that question aside.
First, he had to solve the murder.
For that, he performed a spirit summoning ritual and called forth a shadow spirit.
His name was Giskar.
This Spirit was one of the highest-ranking spirits born from the contract between VIII. Harloumen and Aherlenna.
When Ricardo recognized his spiritual essence, his eyes widened in astonishment.
"Harloumen… have you been reborn?" he whispered in surprise.
Ricardo was also shocked.
"How did you know?"
Giskar smiled slightly.
"Even if the appearance changes, the spirit's essence remains the same. Besides, I've made contracts with three people who were reborn before you. So it's not that great a surprise to me."
Ricardo shook his head in amazement.
"Three? Actually, that makes sense… If I was reborn, others could have been too."
But that wasn't why he had called Giskar.
He told him about the murder case and asked him to investigate.
A month later, Giskar returned and revealed the horrifying truth:
The person who carried out the assassination was a perverted nobleman named Merchant Baron Eduard.
He was old, fat, and sadistic.
He was known for his perverted tendencies toward little girls, but because he was of Kislavein blood, no one could touch him.
Yet no one had predicted he would target the House Lord's daughter.
The Baron had gone mad thinking the little girl would grow up and lose her beauty.
At first, he wanted to rape her, but he didn't dare out of fear of the House Lord's wrath.
Instead, he wanted to end his mad desires by taking the girl's life.
He carried out the assassination himself.
Upon learning this terrible truth, Seliarnevre presented the evidence to Helgeya.
The little girl's mother went mad with rage at what she heard.
Baron Eduard was publicly executed after forty days and forty nights of severe torture.
His mansion was burned, his entire family was slaughtered and his bloodline wiped out, his wealth was set ablaze, and his name was erased from history.
This incident earned Seliarnevre and Ricardo loyal friends and shifted the balance in Kislavein Palace.
But this was only the beginning…