“Thank you as always. Without you, I would not have had this opportunity, Your Imperial Highness.”
“Not at all. I am glad that I can help the Marquis in this way.”
Renato forced a smile at the Marquis who gave his clichéd thanks. The urge to immediately break that glass bottle soared up. He knew that the Marquis would make medicine from his blood and use it to trade with the nobles.
Using human blood as medicine?
People who weren’t familiar with the situation would be surprised about that, but it made sense in the Fleurette Empire.
In the long history of the Empire, fairy blood had performed miracles many times, such as healing patients with rare diseases, saving near-death people from lethal poisons, and treating infertility.
Renato vaguely speculated that he might have regressed because of the fairy blood. It wouldn’t be impossible if the last voice he heard before his death was the Fairy King’s.
In any case, fairy blood flowing through the imperial family members’ bodies was very special, and the imperial family actively used it to strengthen the imperial power. They made a special medicine out of fairy blood.
‘Fairy’s Tears.’
The elixir, which the Emperor who succeeded in manufacturing for the first time named ‘Fairy’s Tears’, had such a powerful effect that its reputation spread across the sea to other continents. In some countries, Fairy’s Tears was also called the elixir of immortality. Thus, wars aimed at Fairy’s Tears also broke out several times.
Naturally, Fairy’s Tears was not something that anyone could make and own. Although it was known that the elixir needed the blood of the direct imperial family members who received the blessing of the Fairy King, together with flowers and herbs that could only be found in a specific region at a specific time, only the Emperor and one guardian in case of an emergency knew the exact recipe.
In addition, the quantity that could be made at one time was very small, so it was only possible to make about 10 bottles a year. This was due to the supply and demand of essential materials. For that reason, the scarcity value of Fairy’s Tears was equivalent to several boxes of gold bars.
Once successful in making it, wealth and power would be guaranteed, so many people, including collateral imperial family members who had been pushed out of the struggle for imperial power, tried to make Fairy’s Tears or similar medicines to it over the past several hundred years. However, all of them failed.
The imperial family did not let it slide, either. Even if a person was an imperial family member, if they were found to have used fairy blood for private use, they would be heavily punished. The nobles and merchants who helped them would also be punished according to the crime of treason.
Even under the strict control of the imperial family, the forces that tried to use fairy blood would still somehow appear. Marquis Medus was one of them.
He was able to collect Renato’s blood thanks to his position as a doctor and a maternal relative of the Empress and the Prince. And after long research, about 3 years ago, he succeeded in making a medicine that was not as effective as Fairy’s Tears, but still quite powerful.
“Thanks to you, our Medus family is prospering day by day, Your Imperial Highness. It will be a great help in the fight for the throne in the future.”
Marquis Medus once again thanked Renato. It was nine years ago that the Marquis started researching using Renato’s blood.
At first, it was research to find out whether Renato could transform into an Alpha or Omega even if it was late, and if it was possible to change his trait. This was because there were several cases of Alpha or Omega transformations around the coming-of-age ceremony time among the imperial family members who were born as Betas.
Whether Alpha or Omega, once Renato transformed, there was no need to join hands with Maximo or increase his force, so the Marquis was obsessed with changing his trait for a long time. However, there was no significant result.
Then at some point, Marquis Medus changed the direction of his research. While trying to change Renato’s trait, he also decided to use his blood to make medicine.
The former eventually ended in failure, but the latter performed beyond expectations. The Marquis named the medicine he had created ‘Snake’s Breath’ and sold it to nobles or used it as a trading tool.
The secret deals made to escape imperial surveillance had brought immense wealth and power to the Medus family over the past few years. Using the medicine made from Renato’s blood, the man had many nobles under his feet.
In the past, Renato was the troublesome nuisance that ruined his plans and twisted his path because he was born a Beta, but now, Renato to him was a goose that laid golden eggs.
“Father, you are praising him too much. What did that child do? He only provided a few drops of blood.”
Perhaps not liking Marquis Medus praising Renato, Blanche, who had been sitting quietly until now, suddenly interrupted the conversation.
“Rather, the Prince should thank you, Father. If it wasn’t for Father, he would still be a piece of trash that only knows to eat.”
Blanche, who was sitting close to the Marquis, spoke amiably and glanced at Renato. There was no affection in his eyes when he looked at his son. What was contained in the bewitching purple eyes was terrifying hatred and endless loathing towards Renato.
‘Useless thing! Do you think I worked so hard to make you the Empress only to see this?!’
‘Beta…… This is a big deal.’
On the day Renato was born after a difficult childbirth, Blanche had to face his father’s anger and his companion’s disappointment. Marquis Medus was no longer an affectionate father, and his relationship with the Emperor, which had never been good, became worse. To make matters worse, he was even diagnosed as infertile.
After that, the attitude of the people around him changed 180 degrees. Those who looked up to Blanche turned their backs on him, and the nobles who were skeptical of an Empress from a Beta family were excited and dragged him down further.
It was an unbearable humiliation for Blanche, who was born, raised, and loved as a dominant Omega. In the end, he collapsed, unable to overcome the ordeal that fell upon him.
‘It’s all because of that child.’
The resentment with nowhere to go naturally turned to Renato. To Blanche, Renato was nothing more than something that completely ruined his life.
If Renato had been born as an Alpha or Omega, the Emperor would not have met the Imperial Consort, the Marquis would not hate him, nor would he have to enter a battle for the throne to protect his position as the Empress. So he hated his son and treated him like an enemy.
“Oho, what do you mean by trash? Please don’t talk so carelessly like that.”
“F, father?”
Blanche stammered in shock when Marquis Medus took Renato’s side and reproached him differently compared to usual.
“It is unavoidable that you dislike His Imperial Highness, but even so, you can’t ignore this contribution, Your Majesty. It was thanks to His Imperial Highness’ risky donation of blood that my research paid off and we have grown so far.”
The Marquis scolded Blanche in a harsh voice. For now, Renato was more helpful than Blanche. And above all, the Emperor’s recent move was suspicious. In this case, it was better to throw carrots at Renato so that he wouldn’t have other useless thoughts.
“My apologies. I made a mistake……”
Blanche, overwhelmed by Marquis Medus’ momentum, hastily apologized. Seeing that, the Marquis lightly clicked his tongue and turned to look at Renato.
“Please don’t be too offended, Your Imperial Highness. You already know that His Majesty usually has a habit of using too strong words, right?”
“I’m fine.”
Renato forcibly raised the corners of his mouth towards the Marquis who was comforting him and carefully spoke.
“Now that we are done, can I return? I’ve been doing unfamiliar work for the past few days and I’m a little tired now.”
“Of course. Still, your complexion is bad, so I’m quite concerned. When I return to the Marquisate later, I will make and send over a fatigue reliever to you.”
“I’d appreciate it if you could do that. I will tell the attendants.”
After finishing the conversation with Marquis Medus, Renato got up slowly. Then he bade farewell to Blanche.
“I’ll be leaving now.”
“……Yes.”
Blanche nodded his head with a sullen expression. Renato left the noble lounge without any regrets. When he came out, Louis, who was waiting in the hallway, approached like a puppy waving his tail.
“Your Imperial Highness.”
“Where is Luna?”
Renato asked, walking over as fast as running. There were many eyes and ears in the Empress’ Palace, so it was impossible to talk comfortably with Louis. And even if it wasn’t the case, he didn’t want to stay here for long.
“She hasn’t come back yet.”
What happened inside? Louis looked at Renato who seemed down. Luna had been away since last night to carry out Renato’s orders.
“Ha……”
As he stepped out of the Palace, the cold winter air clung to his skin. Renato took a deep breath.
“If she leaves for too long, she might be suspected. She doesn’t have to find out right away, so tell her to come back.”
“Understood.”
Renato hurried his steps, whispering in a low voice so that only Louis could hear. As he was about to get on the carriage, he felt slight dizziness and stumbled.