I Tamed the Slave Male Lead Chapter 37

“It’s difficult to tell you exactly where I got my information. For now, could you answer my question first?”

“…If I answer, will you give Yusiliph back? Tell me that first.”

The desperation in Regita’s voice was unmistakable. I almost felt a twinge of guilt for taking advantage of someone’s desperate situation.

‘But considering what you did to Yusiliph and Arabella, Regita, honestly, this much trouble is hardly anything.’

She had constantly ostracized and tormented them, openly treating them like errand runners and making them the butt of everyone’s jokes.

‘You can’t even imagine how horribly Arabella’s heart must have been torn apart during all those moments.’

I met Regita’s eyes, barely visible through the veil, and spoke.

“Your Highness the Princess. You must have already heard from His Highness the Crown Prince. Yusiliph is no longer a slave. What I mean is, he’s no longer in a position where I can simply give him back to you as I please.”

“Argh!”

Regita shrieked, and in the end, unable to contain her temper, began spewing accusations.

“Don’t give me that nonsense! A slave is a slave! How can a mere scrap of paper change anything after only a few days?! Do you think I came all the way here so we could play word games?!”

Crash!

Regita’s thin patience finally reached its limit. She struck the vase on the table, knocking it over, then sprang to her feet and screamed.

“You think I’m ridiculous, don’t you?! You think it’s funny that I came all the way here and lowered my head to you, don’t you?!”

Though I wasn’t sure she had actually lowered her head at all.

But I had no time to point out the absurdity of her words. A shard of the vase she had broken grazed my cheek, and I soon felt a line of hot liquid trickling down.

‘Oh, come on… I keep ending up seeing blood these days.’

I sighed inwardly and took out a handkerchief from my dress pocket, pressing it against the wound on my cheek.

Yet Regita seemed even more shocked by the sight of blood than I was. She plopped back down onto the sofa and muttered in a voice that had nearly dwindled to a whisper.

“…It’s because you keep making me angry.”

Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t have batted an eye after doing something like this. Regita must have truly been backed into a corner. That was probably why she was even watching my reaction for once.

I didn’t answer. I simply kept pressing the handkerchief against my cheek and glared at her.

After enduring my gaze for a few seconds, she suddenly shouted again as if having another fit.

“What am I supposed to do?! You said you’d never give Yusiliph up! Then what am I supposed to do?!”

“Your Highness, please calm down first…”

“Do I look like I can calm down right now?”

“Think about this calmly.”

“Think about what?! And why are you so calm in a situation like this?! You’re seriously getting on my nerves!”

After shouting that, Regita began gnawing on her fingernails. She seemed to be so anxious that she was on the verge of losing her mind.

“Your Highness. Yusiliph isn’t what you truly need. Am I wrong?”

“What?”

“Now, listen carefully. If Your Highness tells me about the ‘Saint’s Staff,’ then in exchange, instead of Yusiliph, I intend to give you what you truly need.”

“…I don’t understand what you’re talking about at all. What do I really need?”

Regita muttered in a dazed voice.

In the end, I gave up on speaking indirectly and got straight to the point.

“What Your Highness truly needs is the elixir, isn’t it?”

“…!”

A startled gasp came from behind the veil.

“H-How did you, Arabella, know about that…?”

“I only guessed. If that weren’t the case, I don’t think Your Highness would have any reason to be so thoroughly controlled by His Highness the Crown Prince, even though you’re siblings.”

“How did you even… know that…?”

Regita looked completely at a loss for words.

Fortunately, she neither had the presence of mind nor the intelligence to wonder how I also knew that Crown Prince Sota exclusively managed the Imperial Family’s elixir.

Right now, she was probably only concerned with the fact that I had discovered she needed the elixir to maintain her beauty.

Without giving her time to think deeply about it, I continued in a coaxing voice.

“You need the elixir, don’t you?”

“Well, that…”

Regita trailed off, hesitated, and eventually nodded.

I could even hear her swallow hard behind the veil.

“Then shall we make an official deal? I’ll tell you how you can obtain the elixir, and in return, Your Highness will give me the information you have about the ‘Saint’s Staff.’”

“……”

Regita didn’t answer, but fortunately, the silence didn’t last long.

“O-Okay. I’ll make the deal.”

“Good.”

I held out my hand to Regita.

She hesitated for a moment, but soon extended her own hand and clasped mine.

Even through the gloves, I could feel how damp her palm was with sweat.

She must have been on edge, knowing that if Sota found out she had made a deal like this, she would be finished.

“All right. I’ll tell you how you can obtain the elixir first. You need to listen carefully to what I’m about to tell you and remember it. Understood, Your Highness?”

“Y-Yes.”

Regita listened intently to everything I said, as though she didn’t intend to miss a single word.

Eventually, as if the veil had become an obstruction, she even partially lifted it and focused on me despite exposing her face, which was a mess from inflammation.

 

***

 

“There. You understand, right, Your Highness? You understood everything we talked about, correct?”

Regita’s eyes trembled slightly as she met my gaze, which was seeking confirmation.

“Is… all of this true?”

“I swear it is.”

“I simply can’t believe it…”

“Just do as I told you. Then you’ll know for yourself who was telling the truth.”

“But…”

“Your Highness. How long are you going to keep letting His Highness the Crown Prince control you?”

“……”

“Don’t forget, Your Highness. You are an Imperial Family member who has exactly the same right to the elixir as His Highness the Crown Prince.”

I deliberately stirred her emotions so she wouldn’t lose heart.

“Arabella, you…”

Regita, who had been silently listening to me, suddenly opened her mouth.

“You really have changed.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s as if… someone else entered your body. How can a person change this much in just a few days?”

She tilted her head, studying me.

I subtly avoided her gaze.

‘Sometimes, stupid people can be strangely perceptive out of nowhere.’

I deliberately removed the handkerchief I had been holding against my cheek and grimaced.

“Ow, that hurts.”

“Ugh.”

Regita made a disgusted expression at the wound on my cheek.

Taking advantage of the distraction, I changed the subject.

“Well, I think I’ve given you enough information. So, this time, shall we hear what you have to say? Tell me everything you know about the ‘Saint’s Staff.’”

As I asked with my expression completely changed, Regita hesitated before finally opening her mouth heavily.

What she told me was quite bizarre—and suspicious.

 

***

 

The next day.

Clatter, clatter.

As the carriage headed toward our destination, I sat with my arms crossed, lost in thought.

‘So, there was some kind of secret pact between the Founding Emperor and the first Count Maiona, and the Saint’s Staff is a tool that proves it?’

The two people who had saved a continent devastated by the appearance of the labyrinths and founded the Atel Empire were Emperor Kalita and Erich Maiona.

Apparently, the object known as the ‘Saint’s Staff’ was evidence of the secret pact the two of them had made over a hundred years ago.

The owner of the staff in question was said to be the blind saint, Ram, who had closed the labyrinth alongside the two of them.

It was said that he had imbued the staff with his holy power and life force, leaving it behind as proof of the secret pact between the two families.

Assuming Regita’s story was true, only the heads of the two families who were parties to the pact knew its exact contents.

Until the position was passed down to the successor, it was customary for the contents of the pact to remain a secret known only to the current heads of the two families.

‘But the current Emperor fell ill a few years ago, and in preparation for his death, he passed the contents of the pact down to Crown Prince Sota as his final testament.’

But contrary to expectations, the Emperor recovered his health.

As a result, there were now two people in the Imperial Family who knew the contents of the pact: the Emperor and Sota.

What I was most curious about was why Count Maiona had been killed.

I had tried asking about it indirectly, but Regita had only shaken her head.

‘I know absolutely nothing about that. The only reason I know this much is because I happened to overhear a conversation between His Majesty the Emperor and my brother. I was curious about what that secret pact actually was, so I did some investigating on my own, but I didn’t find anything useful.’

I furrowed my brow and sank into deep thought.

‘What on earth could be in that pact for them to keep it this thoroughly concealed and maintain the secret across generations? Wait. Then now that Count Maiona is dead, does that mean Lucas, his successor, inherited the contents of the pact?’

But if Count Maiona really had been killed by the Emperor or the Crown Prince, then perhaps the contents of the pact had never been passed down to Lucas and had simply been buried with him.

What if cutting off the transmission of the pact entirely and making it disappear without a trace was precisely what the Imperial Family intended?

The more I thought about it, the more determined I became to properly investigate the ‘Saint’s Staff.’

That was when—

“Looks like we’ve arrived.”

The dry voice from across from me brought me back to reality.

I absentmindedly raised my eyes, only to find a pair of beautiful dark-red eyes quietly staring at me.

The look in those eyes seemed to be asking what I could possibly be thinking about so deeply.

I finally tore my gaze away, and through the window, I saw a massive structure towering toward the sky.

It was the Magic Tower.