Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 126

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 126
Aiven Count’s eyes widened in shock.
“No, I naturally assumed I would receive an official response and escort her away….”
“We could call it a lovers’ elopement.”
“Pardon?”
“As long as she consents, isn’t that enough? This is a perfectly justified abduction.”
“A justified abduction is certainly a phrase that can exist…yes, indeed. Yes, that’s right. Perfectly justified. Then, then yes.”
The Count’s words shifted like lightning as he caught my gaze with those crimson eyes. Though the Emperor’s expression held no particular reproach, an inexplicable chill ran down my spine.
“So, should I wait until dawn?”
“Yes. We depart for Barishard immediately….”
Auredhian couldn’t finish his sentence. Something clattered to the floor—a silver cross embedded with a violet gemstone at its center. It had been hanging from his necklace. Auredhian blinked slowly, staring down at the small cross on the ground. The clasp connecting the cross to the chain had snapped clean away.
“Why would it suddenly…?”
This hadn’t happened once in the past two years. He bent down slowly and picked up the fallen cross. It was the very cross that had guided him to find Yerenika in Lebovni in an instant.
“….”
Aiven Count seemed to be saying something, but his voice didn’t reach Auredhian’s ears. He didn’t think he could wait until dawn. That thought struck him suddenly. And indeed, he wouldn’t have to wait until dawn. Hours later, as the sun dipped below the horizon and dusk settled over the land, it wasn’t Yerenika who came to him, but the ashen-faced Prince of Lebanon.
* * *
My head was spinning. It felt as though I’d been struck on the back of my skull with an enormous, solid iron rod. A sharp, throbbing pain crept in slowly.
“Ah….”
I let out a groan first. If I didn’t expel something, anything, the headache would consume me entirely. What tumbled from my lips next was a curse.
“Damn…it. This is really a mess….”
But before I could finish those words, the creeping pain suddenly sharpened into clarity.
“Ugh.”
It was excruciating pain. Not just my head, but my shoulders and back felt as though they might shatter. My limbs, my fingertips, my toes—everything. I know this wretched agony. Mana incompatibility. My cursed diagnosis. My body reacted faster than my mind. Over the past two years, my body had been trained to instinctively repel mana whenever incompatibility symptoms manifested, and it responded automatically now.
“…Hah.”
I felt the mana coursing through my veins being expelled outward. I gasped for breath and blinked. There was almost no difference between closing my eyes and opening them. Everything around me was pitch darkness.
“Where am I…?”
I seemed to have been thrown somewhere. My body was crumpled on the ground in an awkward position. I waited quietly for my body to grow accustomed to the remaining pain. It was a hard-won truth earned through bitter experience. To recover my body with the meager divinity I possessed, I had to minimize movement. Fortunately, I still had quite a bit of divinity left that I’d absorbed from Auredhian.
“Right. It’s not the absolute worst.”
I tried to console myself and slowly pushed my upper body upright. My limbs still tingled with numbness, but I couldn’t afford to waste any more divinity. I could endure this level of pain.
Whether that was fortunate or unfortunate, I couldn’t say…. I clicked my tongue and surveyed my surroundings. I truly couldn’t see anything. All I could discern was the sensation of the ground beneath me, the stale and musty air for some reason, and the weight of gravity pressing down on my entire body.
“The weight….”
I instinctively understood where I was. Belgot. It was Belgot.
“Wow.”
I let out a sound that was somewhere between a sigh and a groan. From Lebovni, I’d come back to Belgot. I must have been dragged here by teleportation magic.
“At least I’m not dead yet…?”
I muttered absently, rubbing the back of my neck with numb fingers. My neck had no sensation either. I tried not to imagine what state I was actually in.
Right, well. Two years ago it was worse than this…. Why is my life such a topsy-turvy mess? It felt strange to even think back on it.
I shifted the direction of my thoughts. How much time has passed? After I sent Brizni away from that terrace…. I struggled to turn my sluggish mind and searched through my memories.
“You’re quite clever. I like that you don’t resist much.”
It seemed as though Hades, wearing Soleia’s face, had said something like that. Recalling that seductive voice made my head throb again.
“And then the spatial displacement….”
I remembered all the way up to the moment those tentacle-like cold fingers had gripped my throat. Two years ago, when I was kidnapped from Lebovni to Belgot, I’d lost consciousness during the teleportation magic too—how was the repertoire exactly the same?
“This is insane. Truly.”
Pop. A bluish-silver light burst forth. I focused all my attention on drawing my divine power carefully, gradually coaxing the light brighter. My vision brightened incrementally.
“Ah….”
No wonder my voice had echoed so strangely—I’d collapsed inside an enormous cave. A cavern sealed on three sides with no opening for light to penetrate. There was only one path forward.
“….”
No matter how much I amplified the light, I couldn’t see what lay at the end of that passage. Only pitch-black darkness. Could I even go…? Should I venture somewhere, anywhere? Or should I simply wait here?
“Wait for whom, exactly?”
I let out a hollow laugh and forced strength into my trembling legs. Whoever had dumped me in this forsaken place had vanished without a trace, but I couldn’t just stand here passively waiting.
The fact that I’d come this far without resistance was already enough! They’d taken the entire House of Lebanon hostage, so I had no choice but to be dragged along, but I had absolutely no intention of surrendering myself to Hades.
First, I needed to understand where I was….
“….”
But fear still gripped me. Resolve didn’t transform fear into fearlessness.
“…Lari.”
In the end, I opened my mouth. I knew summoning Raulus would consume all the divine power within me, but I simply couldn’t muster the courage to plunge alone into that darkness.
“I suppose this is the limit of my bravery.”
[That much is admirable.]
Glittering silver light swirled and coalesced into one spot. Soon a small wolf cub tumbled down onto the cave floor with a soft thud. It was half its usual size. Raulus blinked his sky-blue eyes up at me.
[Child, why have you grown so large?]
“Lari has shrunk….”
I extended my hand, and the wolf cub—now barely larger than my fist—bounded onto my palm. To conserve divine power, I had no choice but to reduce Raulus’s size. The now squirrel-sized Raulus grumbled.
[My dignity is utterly destroyed the moment I meet you.]
“Don’t talk about dignity. Right now your summoner looks like she’s about to die.”
I was about to flick his head, then realized he’d go flying at this size, so I stopped myself. Instead, I began rolling my fingers across his head.
“How much time has passed?”
[Only a few minutes since we fell here. You woke up faster than expected.]
“That’s a small mercy at least….”
I decided to test something and spoke aloud.
“Adrea.”
[Hey. That’s not a name to call carelessly.]
Raulus reacted sharply at once.
[My firstborn is the most painful of my fingers.]
“It has no effect…?”
[Of course not. The location itself is all wrong.]
Raulus grumbled and lightly scratched the back of my hand. I exhaled a fading sigh. He was right. The fortune of borrowing another’s baptismal name wouldn’t strike twice.
Over the past two years, I’d tried countless times to borrow the divine power of baptismal names I knew, but my track record of failure was substantial. And besides, this wasn’t even the Temple Altar in Barishard where Raulus would descend.
Summoning an Absolute required three things: the summoner’s divine power, a sanctioned location, and a medium. I’d already lost two of these three.
“So this really is all I have.”
I checked the remaining divine power within my body with a heavy heart. It seemed roughly two-thirds remained. Probably not quite seventy percent….
[Better than usual. Where is it?]
“…Somehow it feels sad.”
[If you didn’t have that, you’d already be dead and gone.]
“If you really don’t want to get hit, stay quiet.”
A sigh escaped along with the grumbling. Still, after exchanging a few familiar quips, my heart—which had been pounding anxiously—seemed to settle somewhat. I murmured worriedly.
“I hope Brizni delivered the message properly.”
[She’s a smart girl. She would have.]
“Right? I’m not sure how many hours have passed, but by now, probably….”
Sergei Lebanon would have told Auredhian Belgot. At the thought of him, my chest tightened with a sharp sting. He must be shocked. He was already someone who had been growing increasingly tense and anxious. In the end, he had even swallowed his pride and asked me to share half the danger with him. I exhaled softly.
“I hope he doesn’t blame himself….”
When we meet again, I’ll embrace him and whisper my apologies a thousand times over. That I’m sorry for not making my decision sooner. That I’m sorry for making him lose me….
“….”
Somehow, tears threatened to spill again. I barely managed to compose my trembling heart.
[Don’t cry, little one.]
“I’m not crying.”
For that to be true, I had to move quickly. Now, while Hades was absent, might be my last chance. I bit my lip hard and spoke.
“Let’s go. Anywhere.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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