Zion stared blankly out the window inside the wildly shaking carriage.
‘Did I speak too harshly…? I hope Father isn’t too heartbroken.’
A week ago, after the Count’s sentence ordering him to leave the House, Zion had bitterly retorted in anger.
Preparations for Zion’s “convalescence” had quickly been completed in the meantime.
Lady Mione had agreed without hesitation.
She wouldn’t want to cause turmoil within the family just to exclude Zion.
It was better to exclude him peacefully and preserve the House’s strength.
‘The Principality of Rituan, recognized as autonomous by the Empire 200 years ago. Its territory is slightly larger than the Margrave’s Domain. The Empire’s influence is much stronger than that of a kingdom, so it should be safe enough.’
For his recuperation, a villa belonging to the Count was chosen in the neighboring country.
Over the course of a week, Zion calmly accepted his circumstances.
That did not mean he had given up.
He had no intention of wasting away and dying young.
Someday, he planned to overcome his wasting disease, regain his health, and return to the House.
By then, inheriting the title of Count would be impossible, but he wanted to be acknowledged by the Count, Mione, and his younger brother Barand for having overcome the illness and endured.
If possible, he even wished to live with them as an ordinary family.
“- Hiiiiiiing! ”
Suddenly, chaos erupted outside the carriage.
Zion, lost in thought, snapped his head up.
Screams followed, then the sound of something collapsing.
Leaning out the window, Zion shouted, “What’s going on?!”
“Attack! Attack!”
“Bandits! Bandits have appeared!”
“Protect the young master! Guard the carriage!”
“Don’t panic! The strength of the Aleph House—”
“Ugh!”
An arrow flew and pierced the temple of the soldier shouting to boost morale.
The soldier fell with a final gasp, and the terrified horse reared wildly.
Zion groaned.
The road, surrounded by forests and hills, was the perfect place for an ambush.
The problem was that this was a route directly managed by the Royal Family and confirmed safe.
“Form ranks! The enemy are nothing more than bandits—”
“Arrgh!”
One of the knights leading the soldiers was pierced by a spear and screamed.
Zion almost screamed too.
The attacker wasn’t a bandit, though.
One of the soldiers escorting the carriage, feigning fear, had stabbed the knight.
‘No way…!’
The worst scenario unfolded in Zion’s mind.
After a moment of hesitation, Zion kicked open the carriage door and grabbed a sword lying nearby.
There was no clear evidence, but the situation was blatantly obvious.
Lady Mione had sent assassins to eliminate Zion for good.
Among the soldiers personally selected by the Count to exclude those influenced by Mione, some had joined this plot despite the escort’s reduced numbers—only about two-thirds of a normal carriage guard.
“Young master! You can’t come out!”
“They’re not bandits! They’re assassins!”
“What are you talking about…! Ugh!”
A knight trying to stop Zion was suddenly stabbed and collapsed with a scream.
A soldier silently approached and swung his sword, piercing the knight’s side.
Without hesitation, the soldier swung again, precisely cutting the knight’s neck through the thick armor gaps.
That was no ordinary soldier’s skill.
Moreover, Zion recognized none of these faces despite remembering every soldier’s.
‘Assassins!’
The assassin wiped the blood off his longsword and cast a cold gaze at Zion.
Almost reflexively, Zion moved his body.
A blade aimed at his heart clanged sharply off his defense.
Surprised by the block, the assassin’s movement froze briefly.
Seizing the slightest opening, Zion swung his sword wildly in a frenzy.
The assassin collapsed, foaming at the mouth, pierced through the neck.
Just before his last breath, the assassin threw a small needle.
In the brief scuffle, Zion hadn’t noticed the sharp decrease in his stamina.
The needle was embedded in his forearm.
“Ugh…!”
Suppressing the groan, Zion quickly pulled the needle out and threw it away.
A strong dizziness swept over him.
The needle was poisoned.
The toxin wasn’t lethal, but his vision spun, and his limbs weakened so much that standing was a struggle.
Bathed in sweat, Zion knelt down, planting his sword in the ground, and painfully scanned his surroundings.
The assailants who attacked the carriage wore shabby clothes like bandits, but their skill in killing knights and soldiers was chillingly refined.
The remaining soldiers fought desperately, but the tide had already turned hopelessly against them.
“Everyone… run…”
His words were weak, barely forming through nausea, weakness, and dizziness.
A flood of helpless tears welled in Zion’s eyes.
At the same time, a dark and ugly feeling stirred in his chest.
‘What on earth did I do wrong?’
A resentful thought with nowhere to go.
‘I… just tried. I followed Mother’s teachings, never gave up, never lost hope.’
Slow footsteps grew closer from all directions.
In his blurred vision, Zion saw the assassins approaching.
The escort was annihilated.
None of the retainers had survived.
Zion squeezed his eyes shut.
They were like him.
Innocent but killed for irrational reasons.
“He’s been hit with capture poison. The bat… is dead.”
“Shall we kill him here?”
“It has to look like a bandit attack. Cutting the throat or stabbing the heart would be unnatural. Bandits would try to capture the noble’s young master to sell abroad rather than kill him.”
“Then we’ll make it look like an accident that happened while subduing the resistant young master.”
“He won’t be able to escape anyway, poisoned like this. We’ll slit his stomach and watch him die.”
Zion’s consciousness started to blur, and the assassins’ conversation barely reached his ears.
Buried in his self-made emotions, he just thought.
‘Was Mother’s teaching wrong? Were all her words just useless scolding? ‘
‘Gah…’
Something pushed Zion’s body, causing him to fall.
Moments later, something cold yet blazing pierced his abdomen.
His vision cleared somewhat.
Zion looked down at his stomach.
Blood poured out from the gruesome wound with the sword still lodged in his abdomen.
“Ha…”
A faint sound came, neither laughter nor sobbing.
His hand instinctively pressed against the wound was instantly soaked with blood.
‘Mother…’
Without realizing it, Zion tightly gripped the Pendant—a memento from Naia—in his bloodied hand.
‘I’m sorry.’
With an apology, Zion resigned himself to everything and closed his eyes.
[…Naia? Y-you’re Naia? Is it really you?!]
At that moment, a male voice he had never heard before echoed in his mind.
***
“More persistent than expected.”
“They said he’s wasting away, but he’s got more life in him than most.”
While the assassins waited for Zion to die, wounded deeply in the abdomen, he was having a conversation with the mysterious voice in his head.
‘Who are you?’
[Huh? That’s not Naia’s voice. Wh-who are you?]
‘Naia… you know my mother?’
Though he naturally asked back, Zion found the situation absurd.
Hearing a voice in his head as he was dying was obviously a hallucination.
He must be going mad facing death.
[Naia’s… son? Damn it, what crazy nonsense is this? Wait a moment. Voice communication is on, so if I’m lucky, I might even get video comms through… If I do what they taught me… Got it!]
The man’s cheering voice rang out.
Suddenly, Zion’s mind painted a strange scene: a disheveled man in his late twenties pacing around a surprisingly wide and luxurious room that didn’t fit his appearance.
[You’re crazy! What are you doing?! He’s dying!]
The man in Zion’s vision jumped back in alarm.
‘What… is this? Is that you? Why am I seeing you in my head?’
[Why are you so calm while everyone’s dying?! Damn it, there has to be a way… Oh, right, Avatar summoning! Hey, kid, hoo, chi, calm down and do exactly what I say. If you don’t want to die!]
‘I don’t know what that is, but please calm down.’
[Someone’s dying right in front of you and you want me to stay calm?! Damn it, yes, you have the Pendant, right? The Pendant. The reason you’re able to communicate with me is because of it. Press the sixth vertex out of the eight points on the Pendant. Starting from the top point, count clockwise to the sixth one!]
‘What are you talking about all of a sudden…?’
As if possessed, Zion clutched the Pendant and pressed as the voice instructed.
The assassins ignored this meaningless act.
[Good, you pressed it right! Now repeat after me! ‘Apocalypse’!]
“Apoca…lipse.”
[Damn it, your voice’s too low for the Pendant to recognize! Kid, focus and listen carefully! Apocalypse, Frey Alkoth! The only family of Almighty Naia Alkoth, the end of all monsters! That’s me! Say it! Who am I?!]
“…Apocalypse.”
Zion squeezed out the fading voice and finally spoke the name.
At that moment, a light descended.