Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 132

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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 132
Raulus didn’t answer. I pressed my throbbing forehead with the heel of my hand.
“…You shouldn’t say things like that so carelessly.”
It was clear she was spewing whatever came to mind out of fear of being abandoned. Did she even understand the weight of those words?
“There’s nothing you won’t say, really….”
I paused mid-step, and Nia, who had been following right behind me, caught up. I flicked her forehead—though without much force, barely more than a light tap. Nia clenched both fists and spoke with determination.
“Why? I’m fine with it.”
“No. I’m not fine with it.”
Use yourself as bait if things get dangerous? Die in my place? What kind of nonsense was that? These were absolutely not words that should come from the mouth of a child barely thirteen years old. I gave Nia a helpless warning.
“Just follow along as best you can, and if things really seem bad, turn around and run. Understood?”
Nia opened her mouth to say something more, but I didn’t wait to hear it. I resumed walking, and my vision shifted abruptly. My shared sight with Raulus was still properly connected.
“….”
Raulus was running swiftly through the exact same underground tunnel I’d been traversing. It seemed there was still quite a distance before reaching the surface. I sighed and returned my vision to normal. Even so, the traces Raulus had left behind as he passed remained vivid and clear. The earring hanging from my earlobe swayed gently.
“…Left here.”
I arrived at the third fork in the path, breathing heavily. Nia reached out as if to support me, but I had to shake my head.
“I may look like this, but I’m quite strong…! I worked as a maidservant at the Marquis’s estate.”
“Ah, I’d love to be carried by you too. But if that happened, I’d be heading straight for the grave.”
The child’s body, which had been consumed by black magic, still carried residual magical energy. In truth, even standing this close was exhausting. I let out a sigh as deep as the earth itself and entered the left passage.
The path began to writhe and undulate. I desperately hoped that where this passage led, there wouldn’t be another horrific scene like before. It was at least some comfort that when I’d seen the path through Raulus’s eyes, there was nothing particularly alarming.
I collapsed onto the ground, thinking I’d rest briefly until the path stopped moving completely.
“…But wait a moment.”
That was when I remembered something I’d just glossed over. I quickly turned back to Nia, who had entered the passage following me.
“Where did you say you worked?”
“At the Marquis’s estate. At Elad Marquis’s Southern Villa.”
“Elad….”
Soleia’s family. My eyes widened.
“You were working at the Marquis’s estate… so why were you dragged here?”
“Because I knew too much.”
Knew too much? I frowned and looked at Nia. She answered matter-of-factly.
“My mother worked for the House of Lisard.”
Lisard. It was a name I’d heard only once—at the House of Lebanon, just before I was kidnapped by Hades, who had possessed Soleia’s body.
“I’m sorry. If I’d known you were coming, I wouldn’t have invited Lisard to dinner….”
That’s what Tezebia had definitely said. Referring to Soleia as Lisard. So it wasn’t an alias after all.
“My mother told me that the House of Lisard was destroyed in the year I was born. They said the entire family was burned at the stake for dabbling in forbidden magic. The whole of Belgot was in an uproar over the incident.”
Nia shrugged her shoulders.
“But no one knew that someone had survived the burning. That sole survivor was Lisard’s young daughter, Soleia….”
“….”
“The Master of the Magic Tower placed Soleia as an adopted daughter in the Elad Family. My mother was moving between jobs at that time, and when she stayed briefly at the Elad house, she happened to see Soleia again. After that, she became her nursemaid.”
“Her nursemaid?”
“Yes. She continued in that role until the young lady left for the Magic Tower in the Capital.”
I opened my eyes wide.
Soleia’s nursemaid. She must have seen her since the day Soleia entered the Elad Family, so it was natural that she knew much.
“Where is your mother now?”
But I regretted the words the moment they left my lips. Tears welled up in Nia’s eyes. I didn’t need to hear the rest to understand. So she’d even turned the nursemaid who cared for her into a doll…? She truly was a heartless creature. I clicked my tongue inwardly and quickly changed the subject.
“Have you seen Soleia up close?”
“Yes. Whenever she came to the Southern Region, she always stayed at the villa. Except when she went underground…”
“Underground? You mean here?”
“Yes. This is my first time coming here too, but…”
Nia’s eyes darted nervously as she glanced around. The passage continued to move without any sign of stopping.
“I heard it was a place she treasured greatly.”
“I see…”
Indeed, Soleia had tried to prevent this place from being purified, even while letting me escape. Nia muttered dejectedly.
“Still, Miss Soleia was such a kind mistress.”
“What?”
What was she talking about? I stood there dumbfounded, my mouth agape.
“Kind? Who?”
“Miss Soleia. Until two years ago, she was incredibly kind, but something happened and she became so cold after that…”
“Ah, two years ago…”
Two years ago was precisely when Hades took over Soleia’s body.
“After that, she became really strange, and all the servants in the mansion were dragged underground. The mistress I knew would never have done such a thing.”
“…”
“She was always kind to her disciples and to us.”
I lost my words and closed my mouth. It seemed that Soleia was, in some ways, similar in nature to Auredhian. The kind of person who became infinitely tender toward those within her circle.
In truth, I knew very little about Soleia. I didn’t know what ending she met in the original work, nor did I know anything about her background. All I knew was that she had constantly seduced her son to reach beyond Udeta. But if I considered that it was all due to a contract with Hades, the perspective shifted slightly.
If she had been a kind mistress to her disciples and the servants of the mansion, then perhaps Soleia was actually…more gentle-natured than I thought.
“But she was going to use them as test subjects anyway.”
However, Nia’s cynical voice cut through my thoughts.
“Besides, when you think about how she was constantly bringing in corpses from all over the place almost every day, she wasn’t objectively a good person.”
“Mm…”
I quietly retracted my previous thoughts. That woman definitely had a fundamentally heartless nature.
“I have no intention of witnessing that execution ceremony with my own eyes again.”
But Soleia’s words lingered in my mind for a long time. The scenes I had witnessed and heard from beneath Remordi two years ago through Raulus came back to me as well.
[You said with your own mouth that you wanted to drive the sacred from the surface and create a world for the oppressed Black Mages. That this was how you would avenge your dead parents.]
“Revenge…”
Yes. Soleia’s true purpose wasn’t reaching beyond Udeta at all—it was revenge. Vengeance against the Belgot Imperial Family, who had destroyed her house. The words I had shouted so carelessly at Soleia earlier suddenly came back to me.
“This place is full of your disciples. Your final remaining sanctuary!”
Then had my words struck a blind spot? Perhaps that was why Soleia had momentarily wrested control of her body from Hades.
“Ah, it stopped!”
Nia let out a small exclamation. My thoughts were cut off there. The passage that had been writhing and moving toward somewhere came to a halt. A completely different new path appeared before us. But it looked familiar. It was the path Raulus had passed through.
“…Let’s go. I’ll hear the rest later once we get back up.”
“Yes!”
Nia answered cheerfully. I looked at the child, who was just as battered and scratched as I was, and forced myself to laugh.
Laugh, yes. Laughter brings good fortune…!
And the situation truly did take a rather amusing turn.
“Holy Maiden!”
“….”
I genuinely wanted to die because of the people clinging to both my hands like lifelines. Not from despair or frustration, but because my hands felt as though they would be torn clean off from the pain.
…Damn it.
* * *
So this is how the amusing situation came to pass. The path we traveled opened into a vast space similar to the exhibition hall from before. The difference was that instead of corpses, this space was filled with living people. A prison. This was a prison. I stared blankly at the iron cages, each holding roughly ten people.
“How many people are there…?”
There wasn’t just one or two prisons. By rough count, there seemed to be at least ten more. I gazed distantly at the cages stretching far into the distance.
“Nia!”
Someone called out to Nia from beyond the nearby cage. Behind me, I heard Nia cry out and run forward. I watched blankly as Nia gripped the bars and stretched her hand inside.
“Uncle Harry…!”
“You were alive, Nia!”
It was a joyful reunion. Nia sobbed and tightly grasped the burly man’s hand. For some reason, I wanted to cry along with her. Soleia’s warning to not soften my heart clearly wasn’t about the exhibition hall.
“Get a hold of yourself, Yerenika.”
I shook my head and clenched my fists tightly. My nails dug painfully into my palms.

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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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