If You Devour Poison / Doku wo Kurawaba Sara Made

Chapter 3: Sage Asbal

In the dim underground passage.
We followed Malacia, who led us with a lantern in hand. With her hand still holding mine, Julieta’s footsteps sounded joyful.

“You seem to be in great spirits, Julieta.”

As I smiled at her while swinging our interlocked hands lightly, Julietta replied mirthfully.

“You see, this is the first time Father has walked together with me like this.”
“...That is true.”

I gave a bitter smile. Though I had recovered my memories from my past life, it wasn’t as if I had lost the memories of my time as Anderheim.
Prime Minister Anderheim couldn’t be called a good father. In addition to his only daughter Julieta, he did not even bother to pay attention to his eldest son Sigurd.

“The pain and despair of being abandoned still lingers in my heart… but if Father walks with me like this, I do not mind becoming the Sacrificial Priestess.”
“You’re such a…”

Nevermind, it’s pitiful.
I drew my face close to Julieta and dropped a light kiss on her silver hair. Malacia, who walked ahead, was round-eyed, but Julieta smiled bashfully.
At long last, when we reached the end of the underground passage, an enormous gate of steel towered over us.

Ahead of them, with half of his body soaking in the underground lake, sealed with a part of his soul stolen, was the Ancient Dragon Kharis.
Palcemith’s history dates back a thousand years.
Ruled by the Ancient Dragon Kharis, it was situated at the northernmost tip of the continent of Yugena: a land where no crops grew, game for hunting were few and far between and even the ground was frozen and barren.

At the end of a fierce struggle with an army with the hero Palcemith and the Sage Asbal at its centre, a part of the dragon’s soul known as the ‘Core’ was taken away, and his four limbs were nailed to the ground and he was sealed in an underground lake. Just before he was sealed, Kharis placed a death curse upon the hero Palcemith who faced him. Sage Asbal protected him and received the curse himself.

But utilising a secret spell that made use of the surface of the underground lake, he wrote his life of twenty-two years, into one that lasted fifty-five.
Since then, the descendants of Sage Asbal all died exactly at the age of fifty-five, unless they met an unforeseen accident or injury. No doubt, Anderheim and Julieta were not exceptions.

Incidentally, Julieta’s grandfather died at the young age of forty-two by being swallowed up by a landslide on a visit to his domain. Whether it was an assassination or not, the truth was unclear. Anderheim’s fate was also partly due to his father imposing a heavy tax upon the citizens of his domain. With the changing of hands each generation, the taxes had kept on increasing and the accumulated profits turned into gold. The gold was stored in a treasury, hidden deep under my residence. I intended to make use of it later on.

“Let me go on ahead to Kharis’ side alone for now. You two wait here.”
“That goes unsaid...It is frightening being near a starving Lord Kharis.”
“Fufu, but leave the gates open. I want to see what’s going to happen very clearly.”
“Father...take care.”
“Ah, Julieta. Thank you.”

It was the duty of the present Head Priest to open the gates that led to the underground lake where the Ancient Dragon Kharis was sealed.
Malacia’s hands gently pushed open the gates that were to only open when a sacrifice was offered.

“...!”
“Oh...”

A presence full of mana appeared out of thin air.
Even Malacia and Julieta held their breaths in fear, but I took the lantern from Malacia’s hands and stepped through the gates unbothered.
It was a sight I had seen countless times in the game in my past life.