Chapter 241: The Disappearance of Qiu Tailang

The adults who cared for him, including Franz and the maids, of course continued to stay by his side, but the sense of loss Viktor felt was immense.

Apparently, he had hoped that if he learned holy magic like his sister, they could spend time together again. Unfortunately, Viktor had no aptitude for holy magic.

However, it was soon discovered that his talent for magic itself was exceptional, and Viktor began being taken to the elven village more and more often.

Elves were naturally peaceful and disliked fighting, but when they did have no choice but to fight, they preferred magical combat to close quarters combat. Even when they used weapons, they favored ranged weapons such as bows, while swords were rarely used.

Viktor had inherited this characteristic of the elves remarkably well.

His magical talent was extraordinary even among the elves. However, the elves were also strongly attached to bloodline and ancestry. No matter how remarkable Viktor’s abilities were, very few elves were willing to praise him wholeheartedly because he was a half-elf.

Rather, the more widely known it became that a child with human blood in his veins was exceptionally talented, the more isolated Viktor became within the elven village.

"At the time, my Father was working at the royal palace and had risen fairly high in rank. Apparently, he often did favors for the elven village as well, so no one openly said anything to me because I was my Father’s son. But that did not mean I felt comfortable there. On top of that, my Father’s lawful wife came from the main branch of the Silvermere family. She was also his cousin, but she held the stronger position in their relationship. I suppose that was another reason why the people around me treated me so coldly, since I was the child of his mistress."

Amid all this, Qiu Tailang would occasionally appear before Viktor and teach him magic.

The magic he taught was somehow different from what Viktor had learned before, yet it was superior to every technique he had studied up until then.

Qiu Tailang praised Viktor by telling him that he had a natural talent for magic, encouraging him to improve. Before Viktor realized it, his magical abilities had become so refined that no one could surpass him in the four elemental attributes.

However, that also meant that Viktor had reached a point where even fully grown adults could not match his magical abilities. As a result, Viktor became even more isolated.

Things were still bearable as long as Qiu Tailang remained by his side. But then, at some point, Qiu Tailang suddenly stopped appearing before Viktor, leaving him deeply confused.

"I knew that Qiu Tailang had stopped appearing in the elven village and was living at the royal palace, so I decided to go there even though I knew I would not be able to meet him. I used visiting my Father as an excuse to gain entry to the palace."

Still very young, Viktor searched the royal palace for Qiu Tailang with the reckless fearlessness characteristic of children, slipping past his father and the attendants who were supposed to keep an eye on him.

In the process, he became lost inside the palace.

And what he saw after getting lost was...

"Well, you could call it an intimate encounter between adults. The other person was, of course, His Majesty King Warrington de Velikorya. At the time, I did not know about their relationship, nor did I understand what the two of them were doing. I only knew that I had seen something I was not supposed to see. I ran away, and after that, I never saw Qiu Tailang again."

"When I asked my Father why Qiu Tailang no longer appeared, all he told me was that he had gone somewhere far away. He gave me Qiu Tailang’s hair ornament, almost as though it were a keepsake, but he told me nothing more. Perhaps he thought that even if he explained, I was too young to understand."

In the elven village, rumors spread that Qiu Tailang had been imprisoned by His Majesty the King, while others claimed that he had already died. No one knew the truth.

Even if anyone did know what had happened, no one was willing to tell the young Viktor the truth. Eventually, Viktor came to understand that he would never see Qiu Tailang again.

At the time, Viktor’s father, Cassian, had not yet reached his current position and was apparently still just another bureaucrat within the royal palace. Even so, he was in the king’s good graces and was rapidly climbing the ranks.

Then came the event that ultimately cemented Cassian’s rise to power: Viktor’s sister’s marriage.

After Qiu Tailang disappeared, Viktor had become increasingly withdrawn. Then he was suddenly told that his sister was getting married.

And when Viktor learned that her future husband was none other than His Majesty King Warrington de Velikorya, he trembled with rage.

Viktor had barely known the king in the first place. The cold expression and harsh words Warrington de Velikorya had directed at him when they first met had been more than enough for Viktor to dislike him. But by then, Viktor also understood that this man had taken Qiu Tailang away from him.

He had no idea where Qiu Tailang was.

And now, was that man going to take his sister away from him too?

An inexpressible anger burned fiercely within Viktor’s chest.

"Hey, Viktor, sorry to interrupt your story, but is your sister perhaps Saintess Catherine?"

"Yes, she is."

When Viktor nodded, Igor fell silent in shock.

Saintess Catherine... Qiu Nuoya had heard that name before.

She was said to have been the wife of King Warrington de Velikorya and the person who founded the Church in place of Qiu Tailang, whose existence had been erased.

Qiu Nuoya had never imagined that she was Viktor’s biological sister.

"Ah, but now that I think about it, I did hear that Saintess Catherine was from the Silvermere family, yet she had a short lifespan. So that’s what happened..."