"Why should I watch you? Didn't I clearly say that I would only help you this one time?"

Despite his words, Enon was not as cruel or indifferent as he pretended to be. Yuder, who had received his help on several occasions, knew this fact better than anyone.

The ones I am trying to save are not only Kishiar La Orr. You are also included. And so are the many others who have been lost due to ignorance in the past.

Swallowing the words he couldn't say to Enon, Yuder reached out his hand.

"Are you not giving it to me?"

"You... You're not really planning a rebellion, are you?"

Despite his numerous assurances to the contrary, Enon repeated the same question before handing over the paper, clearly still uneasy.

"No."

"..."

Even after hearing the firm answer, Enon hesitated a bit before slowly handing the paper to Yuder. As Yuder unfolded and began to read the document, Enon couldn't hide his suspicious gaze and opened his mouth.

"By the way, you must read and leave it here. It's absolutely forbidden to take it outside."

"Understood."

Since highly classified information was often read and disposed of quickly on the spot, Yuder wasn't surprised and simply nodded.

Enon's eyes grew perplexed as he watched Yuder, a mere soldier from commoner background, reading the document filled with difficult terms and seeming comfortable handling confidential information.

It was far too early for such a look. What exactly was this familiar sight?

Regardless of Enon's thoughts, Yuder remained focused on the document in his hands. The paper contained detailed information about the imperial family, a topic he had never been curious about in his previous life.

'Most of it is information I already roughly knew...'

There were a total of ten people who had become dukes with the imperial family's surname 'La Orr,' including the current Duke Peletta, Kishiar La Orr.

Considering the empire's thousand-year history, it seemed a small number. However, on the flip side, it was astonishing that these ten had largely been forgotten, with their names barely recorded in history.

There was hardly any official information about them. Only the years of their birth and death, and the names of the territories they had ruled as dukes, were known.

Rumor had it that the dukes who bore the surname La Orr all had significant defects that made it difficult for them to live normally as princes. They received the nominal title of duke, thereby permanently losing their rights to the throne, but in return, their lives and safety were guaranteed until death.

Yuder was about to skip over the sections containing information he already knew when a particular part caught his eye. It was the section transcribing the birth and death years engraved on the tombstones of the previous dukes who had held the surname La Or before Kishiar.

'Come to think of it... they all died quite early.'

According to the records, all nine of them died before they turned 30. It was too soon. Even peasants, struggling to live day by day, mostly lived past 50. This made it even more surprising.

'I wonder if the major defects... included physical aspects as well as mental.'

"They share quite a few common traits. They all died young, never married, had no children, and severely restricted their external activities. Considering they even died within their own territories, it's almost like they were imprisoned."

Enon opened his mouth with a grim face as if he realized where Yuder's gaze had stopped.

"You know, apart from Kishiar La Orr, whom you said you'd protect, there isn't anyone else who showed their faces in the Capital's high society. Very few remaining portraits, and there were six who were isolated in remote areas and raised from the time they were born. But do you know what's more interesting?"

"What is it?"

"Out of ten, six were born in the last 300 years."

Hearing that, he looked down at the paper once again, and indeed, it was as Enon said. Yuder realized that including Kishiar, a total of six people were born within the past 300 years and his eyes widened.

"It's really strange considering that the duke with the surname of La Orr first appeared 200 years after the empire was established. Even I found out while researching this time."

"So is it... a problem related to the imperial bloodline?"

As Yuder opened his mouth, thinking about a certain hypothesis that crossed his mind, Enon nodded.

"It's plausible to think so."

The imperial family of the Orr Empire has long been revered, being referred to as having inherited the blood of the Sun God. Although the geopolitical situation of the continent has changed a lot now, with countries that were once vassal states gaining independence or increasing their power, and the Orr Empire no longer occupying the absolute position it once did, people living on the continent still held a degree of reverence for the imperial family.

Having superior abilities and overwhelming appearance befitting the inherited blood backed up such reverence, but what if there was a problem with the so-called perfect bloodline?

Just imagining it felt like blasphemy, denying the god. However, Yuder had long realized that the imperial family was ultimately just human, like him.

'They are humans, after all.'

And many people who face insurmountable problems tend to avoid them and just hide them well enough to not attract attention, like the mere title of Duke given to the ten royals including Kishiar...

"The remaining records are extremely scarce, so it's not clear exactly what the problem was with the Dukes bearing the surname of La Orr. But it's likely not physical. There hasn't been a case where someone was deprived of their succession rights because they had a minor physical disability, right? Like Tilar who had difficulty with his legs since birth, or Crown Prince Zekeim who returned half-paralyzed after a war."

"Indeed..."

Yuder agreed with Enon's assumption, nodding. Among the past emperors, there were those who had physical disabilities from birth, or those who had acquired physical problems. However, he had never heard anyone questioning their abilities as royals.

'So is it mental? But Kishiar seems perfectly fine.'

There must have been some common defect between the nine previous Dukes and Kishiar to have maintained the title of Duke of 'La Orr'... yet he had no clue what it could be.

Yuder flipped through the bundle of papers, lost in thought. The next page contained rumors and remaining records related to the nine deceased Dukes. Most of it was nonsense, near groundless rumors, but Yuder focused on a certain common point that appeared among them.

Before death, they had rapidly weakened over several months, and their appearance was like a corpse drained of all blood by a monster.