For My Birthday, I Was Gifted Five Husbands - Chapter 127

The Sabnac clan, who were preparing for their experiment, were horrified by an intruder suddenly appearing.

“Wh-who are you?!”

“How did you get in here—?”

But the twisted tree creature didn’t answer a single word.

Soon, thick, sturdy tree trunks stretched out from all directions, charging straight at them. Then, blood began to rain down inside the underground laboratory.

Eugenie wasn’t the type to faint at the sight of blood, but the brutal cruelty of the tree pervert she had faced at the Academy sent chills down her spine once again.

‘Was he always this strong…?’

Looking back, it was sheer luck she had returned safely after meeting Professor Racquette at the Academy —maybe even the man’s mercy played a part.

But what chilled her the most in this moment was the man’s indifferent expression, even as blood trickled down his own cheek.

Could someone really have so little guilt?

‘…Or maybe he’s done this so many times?’

At least this time, the victims were from the Sabnac family, who lacked any sense of human rights, so the psychological impact was less.

‘If it hadn’t been them…’

Though she was merely witnessing someone else’s memories, nausea rose in her stomach.

Meanwhile, the man brushed his long silver hair, stained with blood, over his shoulder as if it were a nuisance. After muttering a spell in a hoarse voice, the bodies impaled on the tree trunks began to twitch.

‘They’re pierced like that and still alive…? No, wait!’

Their clothes hung loosely as sticky purple liquid dripped from their sleeves and pant hems. Some of the skeletal remains were still intact, but far fewer compared to those affected.

“Cassius, keep your eyes open!”

The boy’s eyelids, heavy with fading consciousness, began to close. Eugenie desperately shouted in a voice no one could hear, struggling to see what the tree pervert was doing.

The man reached into the viscous purple liquid, which glowed ominously in his hand and quickly solidified.

The dull glow of the purple crystal he held was unmistakable to Eugenie.

‘…It’s magic crystal.’

A translucent purple mineral and the foundation of the empire.

The only remaining trace of magic from an era without wizards. A mysterious substance whose creation no one understands.

And… the source of the Schroder family’s wealth.

The source that gave Silvea the power to mock Theodora Norton’s misfortune in front of Eugenie. The power that made no one dare open their mouth when Tristan aimed a gun at an innocent woman.

Eugenie clenched her teeth without realizing it.

‘No wonder…!’

She had suspected that the tree pervert contributed to the Schroder family’s fortune!

The graduate student’s deduction finally bore fruit—but the joy was short-lived.

“Hmm…”

The tree pervert inspected the magic crystal in his hand, then smiled like a professor glancing over a student’s report.

“Ha, the quality’s awful.”

It must have really been terrible…

Eugenie watched warily but felt a pang at that expression. How bad did it have to be to liquefy what had just solidified?

The man sighed as if wasting his time and looked up at the ceiling.

“Hmm… so this is how magic crystals are formed.”

Before he could continue muttering to himself, voices drifted faintly from above. So many people must have been there for the thick ceiling to barely let their voices through.

“Don’t you hear noises coming from below?”

“No, there’s nothing down there—just storage.”

“But—”

“Stop your useless chatter and dig your quota! It’s drying up anyway…”

The color drained from Eugenie’s cheeks.

It was clear that above them were ordinary miners, not the Sabnac family. And the pervert, who must have been thinking the same thing, murmured lazily,

“Oh. This is Troys’ land, after all…”

Eugenie swallowed unconsciously.

Did the Troys family a hundred years ago have no idea that the magic crystals mined here were actually ‘byproducts’ of the Sabnac family’s secret experiments? It made sense if they didn’t know and just operated it normally.

“Hmm, hmm.”

The man tapped his chin with a long finger and murmured,

“I should try this too…”