Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 140

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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 140
“Speak.”
“Well, two years ago….”
Diego Schmart chose his words with unusual care. His golden eyes, clouded with confusion, wandered for a moment before lowering.
“I’ve seen a similar state before. That is to say… it was on ‘that day’ two years ago.”
“What?”
His voice pitched sharply. A dangerous glint flashed across his crimson eyes. Diego Schmart flinched under the weight of that direct gaze. Auredhian Belgot asked coldly.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“The Princess… made me promise most earnestly….”
….
Yerenika was meticulous in the strangest of places. I could easily imagine just how desperately she had kept this hidden all this time.
“This is maddening. Truly.”
Auredhian Belgot barely managed to hold onto the fraying threads of his patience. Later. Later. I would press the matter relentlessly—but later. In truth, I couldn’t immediately accept everything Yerenika had told me. It was simply too difficult to believe. A book. Another world. An unauthorized soul.
But,
“Such things….”
The real problem wasn’t those things at all. Where Yerenika had actually come from, whether this world was fiction or reality—what did any of that matter? What mattered was the crisis unfolding before my eyes right now. Udeta and Remordi. Raulus and Hades. I pressed my fingers against my throbbing temples. Raulus, at least, I could accept. Fine, let’s say that much.
“Beneath Remordi….”
The King of the Underground was an entity whose very existence remained unclear. No ancient text had ever detailed what lay beneath Remordi in such depth.
“Or perhaps not?”
But Auredhian Belgot quickly reconsidered. It might well be common knowledge among the Dark Mages in the shadows. After all, it had been only sixteen years since the Previous Emperor had expelled the Lisard Family, renowned for their dark magic. The dark magic of Belgot had a history as long as the Belgot Magic Tower itself. So it wasn’t entirely surprising that there existed an absolute being I knew nothing of. And besides, that wasn’t even the most pressing concern for me right now.
….
What I could intuitively grasp while listening to Yerenika’s account was just one thing: that she had been bearing an unbearably heavy burden all this time. That was what mattered most, what weighed most heavily on my mind, what was most….
“Your… Your Majesty.”
Diego Schmart called to me in a strained voice. I half-ignored his question. There were dozens of things I wanted to seize and ask about. I swallowed them all down—not because I wasn’t curious, but purely because Yerenika looked dangerously fragile. If I pressed her even slightly or persisted with my questions, she seemed as though she might shatter on the spot.
And what had I been doing while she endured all this? That thought gnawed at my mind. I was ashamed to the point of despair that I had thought merely purifying Belgot’s lands and protecting her in the Imperial Palace would guarantee her safety.
I had thought it would all end once I captured Soleia Elad, but perhaps my instincts had been sensing the presence of a greater shadow from much earlier… And all those times I insisted we return to Belgot—was that not coercion…?
I finally escaped the mire of self-recrimination when that grating voice reached my ears.
“How delightful to see you again, Your Majesty.”
A voice I could never forget. Auredhian Belgot didn’t even bother turning around. A glacial tone cut through the air.
“Yes. A day I’ve long anticipated.”
The Dark Mage I had vigilantly pursued for five years since my ascension, and hunted relentlessly for the past two years. The woman who had abducted Yerenika. Of course, even if the consciousness inhabiting that body wasn’t Soleia Elad herself, it made no difference to me. Either way, she posed a threat to Yerenika, and that was all that mattered. There was no way my words could be gentle.
“I’ve given considerable thought to what I’d do if I caught you….”
The corner of my mouth twisted upward.
“I’ve decided swift execution is best to avoid any complications.”
Sharp, radiant Holy Power surged through the ruined Underground in an instant. Whirring. Dozens of blade-like strands of Holy Power, as though sprouted from the earth itself, coiled around Soleia Elad’s wrists.
“You’re… as ever, Your Majesty.”
Soleia Elad frowned, as if trying to break free from her tightly bound wrists.
“You shouldn’t do this to me.”
“Why not?”
“Because the Princess wouldn’t like it.”
A crisp sound—invisible currents collided in empty air. They scraped against each other with a grinding noise, and gradually one began to encroach upon the other. The one losing ground was, unsurprisingly, Soleia Elad. Auredhian spoke curtly.
“Nonsense.”
“Is it?”
Soleia Elad’s smoothly curved lips did not waver.
“Perhaps you have need of me. The lovely Princess of Lebovni, after all.”
“You dare not speak that name with such a mouth, Soleia Lisard.”
Yet the moment he uttered Lisard, Soleia Elad’s expression froze cold. She cried out sharply.
“And you have no right to speak that name either, do you?”
“When I consider how many murders that wicked family has committed, how many corpses they have abandoned, and that I am the master of Belgot—”
Anger finally crept into the edges of Auredhian’s words.
“And when I consider what you have done to Yerenika all this time.”
Flames ignited along the chains of Holy Power. The groans Diego Schmart made from behind never reached his ears. Auredhian spat out his final words.
“Do I still have no right to speak that name?”
“You were the ones who began oppressing us in the first place!”
Soleia Elad shot back venomously.
“Against those tiresome summary executions, that merciless burning—what wouldn’t we have done to resist?”
“And how does blaming me help anything?”
Belgot had begun rejecting the Black Mages nearly two hundred years ago. It had been a good hundred and fifty years since the order for summary executions was issued. Auredhian spoke with cold precision.
“If you must blame someone, blame your ancestors who slaughtered the Imperial Family and commoners alike without purpose. If that displeases you, blame the Previous Emperors instead.”
There was no reason to consider the circumstances of the Black Mages one by one. He had no desire to, and no time for it either. The magical energy trembled roughly. Soleia Elad’s power shuddered.
[Ah….]
A faint whimper reached them at that moment. Both their heads turned simultaneously.
[What are you two doing…?]
“…!”
“…!”
The moment they saw those vacant sky-blue eyes, now shimmering with silver light, the surging forces from both sides came to an abrupt halt.
* * *
It hurts.
What woke me from my light sleep was a strange queasiness. I couldn’t feel pain exactly, but I had no other way to describe it. Raulus, nestled in my arms, stirred and grumbled.
[What are those two doing? Right in front of the child?]
As I rubbed my eyes open, the scene before me came into focus. I blinked for a moment, taking in the situation.
[…?]
Auredhian, who I was certain had been beside me before I fell asleep, was now standing at a distance. And who was he glaring at so fiercely….
[Ah….]
A thin whimper escaped me. The one he was glowering at was Soleia Elad. Bound tightly in Holy Power. But she wasn’t sitting idle either. Though weaker than Auredhian’s Holy Power, her magical energy still felt thick and vivid.
[It hurts….]
It wasn’t those two who were taking the brunt of the clashing forces. It was me. Just as it had been before. Damn it. I cursed my wretched body and forced myself upright. My hands, glancing down at them, wavered and rippled as though they would vanish at any moment.
[Hey.]
I finally opened my mouth. My voice, like a droning wave, rang out through the Underground on the verge of explosion.
[What are you two doing…?]
“…!”
“…!”
Crimson violet eyes and pitch-black eyes turned toward me simultaneously. I raised both hands to ensure they could see clearly—hands whose boundaries with the void were beginning to distort. It was Auredhian who looked the most alarmed.
“Yerenika.”
“Ugh…!”
He immediately brushed Soleia Elad aside with a gentle motion and hurried toward me. Out of habit, he reached out to touch my hand.
“Are you alright?”
[Mm… Yes.]
“I’m sorry. I keep forgetting that you’re in an unstable state.”
[Is apologizing just a habit for you…?]
I hummed softly and settled close beside Auredhian. As Holy Power was gradually absorbed, my trembling fingertips returned to their proper form. Once I confirmed that my hands and body had regained their shape, I curved my lips into a small smile.
[Don’t fight.]
“Hm?”
I had dozed off briefly, but upon waking, my thoughts were clearer than before. I felt considerably better than I had before sleep. I glanced toward Soleia Elad, whose dark eyes were still fixed on Auredhian with fierce intensity, and continued.
[Don’t fight. If you must, go somewhere without me. Actually, it would be best if you didn’t fight at all….]
What am I saying? I stopped mid-sentence and took a slow breath. My gaze met those pitch-black eyes boring into me. I spoke slowly.
[We had something unfinished to discuss earlier, didn’t we, Soleia Elad?]

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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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