Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 134

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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 134
Screech—!
Unable to burst forth, the sharply honed Holy Power scraped menacingly across the balcony floor and railing.
“….”
I remembered the last time I saw Yerenika, when I had filled myself with Holy Power. I had to stay calm. If my reason failed me now, everything would be lost. The silver cross I’d been gripping in my palm dug into my skin.
“Your Majesty!”
Aiven Count called out urgently. Below the balcony, in Duke Lebanon’s Garden, a crimson magic circle glimmered faintly as it began to activate.
Rosel’s teleportation magic circle.
“…They’ve arrived.”
My thoughts cut off there. Without hesitation, Auredhian Belgot vaulted over the balcony railing.
“What are you—!”
By the time Tezebia rushed to the balcony railing and looked down, the garden was already empty.
* * *
“Why is this happening, really!”
Bitter words spilled from my lips. Hades twisted my body in frustration at this uncooperative flesh. Unintended words poured out from my mouth in a torrent.
“You don’t care, do you? What happens to this Underground Base. What happens to my disciples. Isn’t that right?”
“Shut up. Why now….”
A conversation emerging from a single pair of lips was grotesque.
“From the start, you never intended to keep our contract, did you, Hades!”
“What?”
“This won’t work. This place….”
Hades raised a hand and struck my own cheek. Crack—!
“…!”
Soleia Elad reeled momentarily.
“You failed to bring me the mightiest Holy Power on the Surface.”
Hades sneered, forcibly suppressing Soleia Elad’s consciousness.
“The contract fell apart right there. Soleia Elad, you fool.”
A convulsion. My arm spasmed violently once. The fundamental limitation of Hades—his inability to fully control a human body—caught him by the ankle at precisely the wrong moment.
“If you interfere with me like this, I won’t return this body intact, Soleia Elad.”
I had given too much power to my contractor. Hades spoke even as he regretted that fact.
“If you let that Princess slip away again, it won’t be Raulus’s bloodline who slaughters everyone here—it will be me.”
Soleia Elad’s resistance ceased abruptly. Hades seized the moment and drove her consciousness far away to the other side.
“Being uselessly strong….”
Creak. Soleia Elad’s body still responded to his will half a beat too slowly. But there was no further resistance or convulsion. Hades smiled with satisfaction. There was no longer any reason to delay.
* * *
Once I escaped the Prison, it was nothing but a straight path forward. The passage that moved by Soleia Elad’s magical power seemed to have ended.
“Straight ahead… it is straight, but….”
I kept glancing anxiously at both sides. The main passage stretched open with such clarity that the meaning was unmistakable. The problem was the small side paths branching off beside it.
“….”
If another Prison like before appeared, or if there were still-living test subjects like Nia, it would be a disaster. I no longer had the luxury of worrying about others. I pressed forward with difficulty, muttering weakly.
“You really don’t listen to me, Nia. Not one bit.”
“You’ll need me, sister.”
Nia answered with measured precision. I had no strength left to argue further. I clamped my mouth shut and forced my eyes forward, deliberately avoiding looking to either side. Just ahead. Only ahead. Focus on climbing. Nothing else.
“She escaped?”
Creak. But my footsteps suddenly halted with a grinding sound.
Voices.
“…!”
I slammed on the brakes, my body lurching. I barely caught myself against the earthen wall, my eyes darting anxiously around the darkness.
“Sister, sister!”
Nia, who had been following me all along, called out in a hushed whisper. Her small hand seized the hem of my dress. Somehow she’d noticed my attempt to avoid contact with her—and now she pulled me forcefully toward her with a strength that seemed impossible for a child.
“This way…!”
I was dragged helplessly into one of the side paths branching off from the main corridor.
“She broke through a magic circle that strong? Is that even possible?”
“I know. It was solid enough that even a priest of Bishop Barishard’s caliber would struggle to break it in one blow.”
“She had priest-level abilities? She didn’t look like it.”
Thump-thump. My heart hammered violently. I crouched in the shadows of the side path, holding my breath as I listened to the conversation continuing.
Tap-tap-tap. The urgent footsteps of more than just a few people echoed through the passage.
Their target was me. Me.
“Damn it.”
My vision shifted. Raulus’s perspective unfolded before my eyes once more. Fortunately, it seemed the Dark Mages hadn’t detected Raulus. Well, they couldn’t sense Holy Power any more than I could sense their presence.
“…?”
But something felt off. I furrowed my brow. Raulus was racing through a passage that was twisted and partially collapsed in a chaotic mess.
Where are you going…? I looked around through Raulus’s eyes in confusion. Bound. Raulus leaped over a chasm in the ground as if an earthquake had torn it open. For such a small body, the jumping power was almost impressive.
“What on earth… Hah.”
I muttered absently before catching my breath. In the distance through Raulus’s vision, faint light glimmered above a steep incline. Light from the Surface—something that shouldn’t exist Underground. We were almost there. I instinctively knew Raulus was nearly at ground level.
“Sister.”
Nia called to me. I checked the remaining Holy Power within me and answered indifferently.
“Yeah. What is it?”
“You need to go up, don’t you?”
“I have to. We need to get out of here.”
Remaining Holy Power. Ten percent. Or maybe not even that? I gnawed at my lip. Seven percent? Eight?
“When I was dragged down here.”
“Yeah.”
“I remember the path we took.”
Damn it. If I clashed with them even once or got blocked by a magic circle, I’d be finished with such a pittance of power. To make matters worse, the earring hanging from my earlobe kept vibrating with an ominous hum that felt far from ordinary.
The conduit binding Raulus to this world. It had been an incomplete summoning to begin with, and if the conduit broke, the contract wouldn’t simply sever—Raulus wouldn’t just be reverse-summoned beyond Udeta. Raulus had warned me repeatedly to be careful not to damage the earring….
“This side path isn’t long. Besides, it’s a dead end anyway—practically a storage room for test subjects.”
Even as I was lost in thought, Nia continued speaking.
“It would be perfect for luring them away.”
“Yeah. I see. …What did you just say?”
I scratched at the ground anxiously before suddenly lifting my head.
“What did you just say?”
“It would be perfect for luring them, sister.”
Nia’s fists were clenched so tightly that the backs of her hands had turned white. I repeated her words back to her like a fool.
“Luring them? What do you mean by luring—”
“I told you I’d be needed. There are many Dark Mages wandering above the Prison where the test subjects are locked up. I can’t climb up alone.”
“You…”
“You have to come back. You absolutely have to.”
A chilling thought flashed through my mind. The moment it struck me, I reached for her. But my hand grasped only empty air. Nia flinched backward to avoid me, her voice trembling as she continued.
“After all, after all. There will still be many people who haven’t been sent to the experiment table yet. They won’t kill me right away.”
“Nia, don’t say such strange things!”
“But it doesn’t seem like that will be the case for you, sister.”
What was she saying right now? I forced strength into my trembling legs and pushed my upper body upright.
“Ah.”
But I was one step too late. Nia simply stepped backward. Light from the torch wedged in the earthen wall poured down over the child’s body. Below the vast corridor stood a gaunt, battered and torn form, utterly alone. I gasped in shock.
“You…”
“Please come back. Sister, blessed by Raulus.”
The child’s voice was trembling violently. With those words, Nia spun around sharply.
“Who’s there!”
“Isn’t that an escaped test subject?”
“What are you doing? Catch her!”
Patter-patter-patter. Nia’s small form raced down the path in the opposite direction from the Side Path where I stood. I heard several Dark Mages, their faces pale, all chase after her.
“What… what is this…”
The sound of footsteps and shouts gradually faded into the distance. Far away, I heard something tumbling to the ground accompanied by harsh curses.
“…”
The surroundings fell silent almost immediately. Alone in the shadows of the Side Path, I remained. My body moved before my mind could catch up. It was an instinctive motion.

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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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