Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 137

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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 137
“Yerenika!”
I felt Auredhian’s panic ripple through the air in rough waves of Holy Power. Hades’ magical energy stuttered noticeably as well.
[Ugh.]
Feeling two opposing forces simultaneously—and in this incorporeal state, no less—was twice as agonizing as it had ever been while clothed in flesh. It felt as though my soul would shatter into fragments and scatter into the void.
[…!]
Yet it was the right move. My body, which moments before seemed destined to cough up every drop of blood and collapse, visibly began to recover as it absorbed the Holy Power. Of course, Hades within me appeared to take considerable damage from it, but….
“Damn it. Why does nothing ever go smoothly!”
A magic circle of entirely different form materialized beneath Hades’ feet. I knew instinctively what it was.
[No, that won’t do!]
But before I could urgently incinerate the circle, it completed. A teleportation circle.
“…!”
A blindingly brilliant light flooded my vision in pure white. An immense surge of magical power erupted all at once.
Whoosh—! And in an instant, it vanished. A dazed cry escaped me.
[Ah.]
The erratic, rapidly fluctuating magical energy abruptly disappeared without a trace. All that remained was faint residual power seeping through the ground. My body, which Hades had seized, had vanished without a trace as well.
I stared in shock. Wait, he took my body with him!
* * *
It took Rosel less than an hour to arrive in Lebovni and deploy the teleportation magic to reach Kelkita. Yet from the moment Yerenika had been dragged away, nearly six hours had passed. For a man suddenly robbed of his beloved, those hours—less than half a day—felt no different than Hell itself.
Peace had been a harbinger. When Auredhian realized that the formless anxiety he’d carried almost daily for the past two years had become reality, he wanted to kill the version of himself who had decided two years ago to tear her from his side.
His mind held only one thought. He should have thought less. Whether Yerenika disliked it or not, whether she wept or not, he should have simply taken her straight to Belgot.
‘Share the danger? Foolish.’
Now that the feared situation had arrived, he understood. It had merely been hypocrisy to reassure Yerenika. He still didn’t want to leave her even a fraction of a fraction of danger. He especially couldn’t bear the thought of her suffering hardship in places he couldn’t see. What remained, burning deep, was self-recrimination.
“Your Majesty, please compose yourself for a moment…!”
“Move.”
Auredhian roughly shoved Diego aside, blocking his path. He carelessly tore at the cord strangling his neck. The black robe fell lifelessly to the ground.
“There may still be survivors in the Underground. Victims of dark magic!”
Even now. Anger flashed in his reddened eyes. Diego pressed on urgently.
“It’s an unstable region carved deeply below. If it collapses as is, the survivors will be buried alive. The mages are currently searching for passages connecting downward, so please wait just a moment…!”
“Slow.”
Even in this situation, there was too much he needed to consider.
“Damn it. So you’re telling me to do nothing and wait?”
His grip on reason was about to snap entirely. He felt no real need to hold onto it either. What lay below was the stronghold of the wicked. The total gathering place of the Belgot Black Mages. A hidden secret base where dark magic experiments were conducted. And Yerenika was in there.
“What else do I need to think about?”
As long as she remained safe, didn’t everything else matter not at all? Crack. The ground fractured beneath where he stood. The hairline fissure expanded its domain ever wider. Fire ignited along the cracks. A pale silver Holy Fire. Diego let out a sigh.
“Your Majesty….”
It was then that Auredhian’s eyes caught something rushing frantically toward him from a distance. What came bounding forward, silver fur streaming in all directions, was—
“…!”
Lari, the name of Yerenika’s pet wolf.
Though the creature appeared half its former size for some reason, there could not possibly be two wolves in this world with those clear, sky-blue eyes. The small wolf bounded toward him. Just before it could collide with him, Auredhian reached out and caught the wolf. A small whimper escaped it.
“Where is Yerenika?”
[-.]
The wolf that Yerenika never let leave her side. Auredhian immediately grasped the situation and released the creature.
“Guide me.”
The pint-sized wolf, despite its unassuming appearance, proved remarkably clever. It glared at him with a growl, and the moment he let it go, it bolted away with surprising speed. Auredhian wasted no time—he simply overturned the ground where the young wolf had stopped.
The mana woven into the earth ignited in Holy Power, blazing upward. The surface of the ground crumbled downward in a cascade. Acrid dust and debris scattered in all directions, obscuring his vision. The stale, oppressive air trapped beneath erupted upward like an explosion, bursting onto the surface.
“…!”
The moment the hidden underground was revealed, a faint presence caught his keen senses—Yerenika’s distinctive, delicate Holy Power, sharp at its edges.
“Ah.”
Only then could Auredhian finally breathe properly.
…Found her.
Yet relief came far too soon. The moment he saw Yerenika, he forgot to think and went rigid. She was nothing like any of the horrific scenarios he’d imagined—in fact, in his twenty-eight years of life, he’d never once conceived that something like this was even possible.
[…Gasp.]
Taking advantage of his shock, she burned her own ‘body’ away, and the moment it vanished without a trace on a stream of spatial distortion, she scrambled backward. Her eyes darted nervously before she ducked behind a massive boulder.
“….”
His gaze slowly drifted downward—to his own hand, the one he was certain had touched her. A translucent form. Something that couldn’t be grasped….
“….”
And the ‘body’ that vanished on the spatial current. The moment Auredhian saw it, he knew it wasn’t Yerenika. No one with sense could fail to understand. Just because the shell wore her appearance didn’t mean the essence inside was entirely her. The exterior was irrelevant.
‘That’ wasn’t Yerenika. Then why? What? How did this…?
The unresolved questions and anxiety finally exceeded what he could bear. The translucent hair jutting out from behind the boulder shattered his emotional restraint entirely. Auredhian opened his mouth with a heavy heart.
“…Yeni.”
* * *
I was facing a fundamentally primitive predicament. I had no body. The King of the Underground had taken it and vanished.
“….”
But the immediate problem before me was far larger and more troublesome than that. I crouched anxiously behind the massive boulder, trying to gauge his mood from behind.
Auredhian hadn’t spoken a word since Hades disappeared. But it wasn’t difficult to guess his state of mind. He’d suppressed all his mana, and instead, the space was saturated with Holy Power—sharp and jagged. Not the quiet, serene Holy Power he usually emanated, but raw, unrefined power radiating outward.
[Ah… really….]
I clutched my head and groaned. Of course, my hand simply passed right through my head, so I couldn’t actually grasp it.
[This is really not a welcome situation.]
Raulus, no larger than a finger, muttered cheerfully as if commenting on someone else’s problem.
[At least your body didn’t die outright. The earring is safe too.]
[That’s good, but….]
I cautiously peeked my head around the boulder.
[…!]
And I quickly pulled it back in. Crimson eyes stared directly at me. The indescribable turbulence contained within them left me utterly at a loss for words.
“Yerenika.”
A subdued voice reached me. I remained crouched behind the boulder, my eyes darting nervously.
“Yerenika. Yeni.”
Footsteps approached. I flinched and pressed myself against the boulder. Because that was the problem right now. How on earth was I supposed to explain to Auredhian that I’d lost my body and become a spirit?
[What… what do I do…?]
[I’ll tell you everything.]
Raulus answered with clarity. I clutched the fairy-sized Raulus tightly, my face crumpling with distress.
[From where to where…?]
[From the beginning to the end. You should have told me everything from the start. You shouldn’t have kept it all bottled up inside.]
His tone carried a note of reproach. I muttered dejectedly.
[I’ve already reflected on it so much….]
Perhaps I should have revealed everything on that day two years ago when the incident occurred. Not just what concerned Hades, but also this strange peculiarity of mine—how I occasionally found myself in this spirit state.
But what good was regret now? Besides, even if I could return to that time, I doubted I could bring myself to speak aloud about everything connected to me. I exhaled deeply.
[Where should I even begin…?]
Should I start with the bus accident where Seun-seo died…? But would that man even know what a bus is…?

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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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