Chapter : 174

Iris graduated from the Academy.

Although she had just barely met the graduation requirements, Iris, holding her diploma, smiled leisurely.

“Revealing one’s skills right away is a foolish thing to do.”

The clueless professors at the Academy lamented that Iris’s genius had finally faded. They never realized they were being played in the palm of her hand.

Iris’s level had already far surpassed that of an ordinary student at the Academy.

At the point the professors failed to notice, Iris might have even been stronger than them.

“I’m going to start a merchant group now.”

“A merchant group… the Viden Merchant Group?”

“……”

Iris fell silent at Mordin’s question.

Mordin, who had been shorter than Iris, had at some point grown taller than her.

“No, the merchant group’s name is ‘Golden’.”

“Golden?”

At the whim of Iris, who had always sung about creating the Viden Merchant Group, Mordin looked at her in surprise.

Come to think of it, when was the last time she mentioned the ‘Viden Merchant Group’?

Since coming to this desolate, abandoned house, Iris had not once even mentioned the name of the Viden Merchant Group.

While Mordin was recalling his memories, Iris declared cheerfully.

“It’s a name that holds the bold ambition of controlling all the gold in the Empire!”

Since she was so blatantly changing the subject, Mordin decided to just let it go.

“In that spirit~ are you thinking of changing your name?”

“Change my name?”

Towards Mordin who was tilting his head, Iris waved her fingers like an orchestra conductor.

Hwek, hwek. Each time her fingers moved from side to side, a name floated in the air.

“I’m not planning on being in the public eye.”

“Why?”

“I told you. It’s best to hide your identity.”

The world of merchants is cruel.

There were plenty of people who wouldn’t hesitate to crush a budding sprout.

So it was important to keep Iris’s existence hidden behind a curtain.

“In that sense, I’d like you to be the fake Master of Gold.”

“The fake Master of Gold?”

“Yeah! My double! You might die, but I’ll save you!”

Contrary to her cheerful shout, Iris subtly glanced at Mordin.

Mordin seemed to ponder for a moment, then chose one of the names floating in the air.

“Mordegar.”

“Huh?”

“I think Mordegar would be a good alias.”

“Really? Changing your name too drastically would be awkward!”

At his virtual acceptance, Iris smiled brightly.

Looking at Iris, Mordin swallowed a satisfied breath.

When he saw Iris smiling brightly, Mordin could feel a strange emotion he had never felt before in his life.

Mordegar didn’t know if the name of the emotion was joy or relief, and he would probably never know for the rest of his life.

* * *

Iris’s strategy was correct.

With Mordegar at the forefront, the Golden Merchant Group soared high as if it had grown wings.

‘Tomorrow, there’s a big deal with the Alchemy Association.’

If this deal went through, they could grow to be one of the top 10 merchant groups in the Empire within the next 10 years.

Perhaps because of the important deal, Mordegar couldn’t sleep.

Come to think of it, he felt just like this on the day he left the back alley with Iris.

Sleep wouldn’t come, and the ominous feeling tangled in his heart just grew endlessly without any way to stop it.

It was then.

“Aack!!”

He thought he heard someone’s faint scream.

Mordegar’s heart, who had shot up from his seat, pounded like crazy.

What? What’s happening?

Amidst the tangled heartbeat, Mordegar rose from the straw bed he was still using.

“……”

Something was happening.

Mordegar lit a flame at his fingertips to illuminate the darkness.

Sensing that something was happening inside the mansion, Mordegar considered what to do.

With Iris here, this mansion should be safe.

But what if Iris was attacked?

It was hard to imagine that Iris, who had skills enough to deceive even Academy professors and had hidden her identity, would be easily discovered, but his anxiety showed no signs of abating.

Eventually, Mordegar moved his feet.

The direction the scream came from was definitely…

“The basement.”

It was the only space in the mansion they had given up on opening because they couldn’t find the key to the basement.

Did the enemy come in through there?

Mordegar, prepared to use attack magic at any moment, slowly opened the door to the basement.

Dal-kak.

The door opened surprisingly easily.

“?”

When they first came here, it was firmly locked and couldn’t be opened even with Iris and Mordin’s magic…

Come to think of it, no matter how much Iris grumbled about not being skilled in household magic, could a magician of an Academy professor’s caliber really not be able to do that much?

‘Was I deceived?’

He had been completely fooled by Iris.

At the hard-to-believe fact, Mordegar blinked his eyes repeatedly, then lightly slapped his own cheeks as if to come to his senses.

That wasn’t what was important right now.

‘If this isn’t important, what else is so important?’

Swallow the rising questions and fears.

Mordegar, still illuminating the darkness with the flame, went down.

How far had he descended the spiral staircase? Mordegar, who had finally reached the bottom, couldn’t breathe properly due to the sudden stench that hit him.

“……”

Having lived in the back alleys, there was no way Mordegar wouldn’t know what this smell was.

‘The smell of a corpse.’

The foul stench of a corpse filled the small space.

He barely managed to cover his nose with his sleeve and proceeded down the only passage.

When he slowly opened the door, Iris was standing there in front of someone who had collapsed.

“…Iris-nuna.”

“Mordin. Ah, the scream was a bit too loud. I woke you. I’m sorry, I’ll take care of it quickly and go.”

“What on earth is this…”

“An assassin sent by a rival merchant group. Really, it’s about time they gave up.”

Those words, as if it was all too familiar.

He could sense from her monotonous tone, saying it was about time they gave up, that this was not the first or second time this had happened.

“There’s a big event tomorrow, so you should think of it as a dream and go on up.”

“…That’s true for you too, Nuna.”

“That’s why I’m taking care of it.”

Iris smiled with blood on her cheek.

It was the same smile, the same voice as before, but he felt a sense of incongruity.

His hand, gripping the doorknob, trembled.

“Di, die!!”

The assassin, who had been enduring the pain, suddenly got up and rushed towards Iris to stab her with a sharp dagger.

“Ah, no!”

Mordin threw the flame he had created to light the darkness directly at the assassin.

It was a final attack that burned his life force. Mordin’s strike hit the assassin squarely, and his breathing stopped.

“Ah.”

Shock filled the eyes of Mordin, whose mouth was slightly agape.

He had killed someone. Even if the person was dying, I killed someone.

“I, I didn’t mean to…”

His legs lost their strength.

His heart pounded wildly like lava.

His hands trembled, and his body froze.

At that moment, the smell of blood hit his nose. Only the word ‘killed’ echoed in his head.

I, killed, a person.

“Ugh…”

An unknown sound came from his throat.

He felt nauseous and tried to stick his fingers down his throat to force himself to vomit, but even that was impossible.

“The shock must have been a bit much, huh?”

In the midst of all this, Iris’s voice was no different from before.

Still gentle, still warm.

Was this woman before him really Iris Viden?

Was this the same Iris Viden that Mordin of the back alleys knew?

Just before he could answer his own question, Iris patted Mordegar’s back.

“It’s okay, they were our enemy. The ones who hired the assassin are the bad ones in the first place.”

“Huu—”

“You’re not bad. You were trying to save me.”

His brain replayed her words.

To escape the shock of having killed someone. To protect himself.

“You know too. How insignificant a person’s life is. How ridiculous it is. When someone dies in the back alley, no one cries for them.”

Iris held Mordegar’s trembling body tightly.

“It’s okay. This is how the world works. You’ve just finally come to know the same thing as me.”

“I’m going to go to hell.”

His voice trembled, unable to escape the shock.

“It’s okay. You’re not the only one falling into hell.”

Iris smiled with her eyes.

“Mordin, you won’t abandon me, will you?”

I’m not the only one falling into hell.

How wicked humans are. That fact alone was enough to reassure Mordegar.

* * *

“Master.”

After that night, the relationship between Mordegar and Iris changed quite a bit.

He no longer called Iris ‘Iris-nuna’, and Iris strictly called him only Mordegar.

Even within their changed relationship, Iris still smiled.

She still smiled, but Mordegar no longer felt the indescribable, heart-tugging emotion he had felt in the past.

Iris was simply his master, and for her, he would expand the influence of Golden.

That was Mordegar’s reason for living and the purpose of his breathing.

Nothing else mattered.

The only things that mattered were Iris and Golden.

“Master, that is.”

“My adopted son.”

One day, Iris brought a much smaller child with her.

Mordegar looked down at the child silently.

The child, who had been starved for a long time and neglected in prison, cowered at just an adult’s gaze.

“You wash him up and raise him well.”

Was it Iris’s whim?

It didn’t really matter. He just had to wash and raise him as commanded.

“The child’s name is.”

“It’s Lerwon. I’ll give him my name, so he’ll be Lerwon Viden.”

Surprised by those words, Mordegar looked at Iris.

Iris left, not caring whether he was surprised or not.

“I am Lerwon, Viden.”

Looking at the small child, Mordegar sighed.

Why on earth did she give this child the name ‘Viden’?

But he thought it probably wouldn’t hold any special meaning for Iris.

“Ah, he ran away? Yeah, it’s fine.”

Even when the child she had brought ran away, Iris didn’t even blink an eye.

“Kuaaaack!!!”

Both Iris, who calmly performed torture, and Mordegar, who spoke to her as if nothing was wrong, must have been crazy.

“I’ll bring him back soon.”

Iris smiled gently.

And her words became reality.

Lerwon was caught quickly. What happened to Lerwon after he returned… was it important?

Lerwon wasn’t Iris, who would fall into hell with him.

The only thing that mattered was that after that, Lerwon had his will completely broken.

He became an obedient son who listened well to Iris’s words and became her special pleasure.

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