Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 149

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

Chapter 149
Ah, truly a terrifying older sister. I sighed softly to myself. Regardless of the circumstances, she was fundamentally terrifying.
Whoosh. My vision shifted again. This time, I found myself in a darkened room. Soleia Elad was here as well.
“Why are you doing this again?”
[….]
“You’re reacting so strangely. Even more so lately.”
She now bore the perfect appearance of Soleia Elad as I remembered her. Probably from two years ago, when I was in the Imperial Palace of Barishard.
[Urgent.]
“What of our plan?”
[Irritating feeling…. If discovered, things become complicated.]
Huh? I sensed something amiss at that moment. Just before, he had clearly said it didn’t matter how long it took, only to bring her before him….
‘Ah.’
An instinctive realization. My mind rang like a bell.
Hades couldn’t perceive Raulus’s presence through sensation, but he had intuited something nonetheless. The way Raulus would occasionally mutter about irritating feelings….
So the hidden cause behind that incident from two years ago was me. From the moment I went to the Temple and met Raulus, from when I began hearing his voice. That’s why Hades grew impatient, why he urged Soleia Elad on. That’s why she acted. Only then did I feel as though I’d discovered the missing pieces of a hidden puzzle.
‘Hmm…. So that’s how it is.’
Yet it wasn’t a piece that particularly helped my current situation. So the one impression I gained from glimpsing Hades’s memories was singular.
‘Meticulous.’
Truly a meticulous world. So much so that it was hard to believe it was born from someone’s hands. The original work never had such a worldview woven into it.
No matter how carelessly I’d skimmed through all the background explanations, the original work was fundamentally a romance novel. It wasn’t a story containing such an enormous narrative….
The content of the original work was substituted with fate, and I—an unexpected impurity wedged within it—had redirected all those countless destinies in entirely different directions.
A broken flow. Shattered destiny. An entirely different future. A world that moves and breathes, not mere letters on a page.
‘How strange….’
I thought indifferently. Wasn’t this the very thought I’d had two years ago when I left Belgot? I couldn’t fathom why I was entertaining such pointless thoughts now.
In truth, I needed only one thing. Someone to call my name. Someone who would love me regardless of what I was.
‘That would be enough. What else could I possibly need… huh?’
But I couldn’t linger in that thought for long.
‘Wait, what?’
Without warning, a terrible sensation of falling engulfed me.
* * *
Raulus’s unsummoning and resummoning. The time required for that process was actually mere minutes. Even accounting for the difference between Surface time and time beyond Udeta, it was the blink of an eye.
Crash!
Beyond the shattered ceiling, the sacred light that had surged toward the distant Udeta plummeted downward along with something else. The entire Altar trembled with violent intensity as though it might shatter.
“…!”
A bluish-silver light erupted once more. What appeared was not the wolf cub that had vanished before. Long silver hair undulated through the air, tangling like threads. White robes. Long, voluminous sleeves. A loosely tied sash. Diego Schmart cried out in a voice brimming with rapture.
“Oh, divine one…!”
An appearance identical to what was painted in Barishard Temple. Attire. An overwhelming presence that rivaled the Emperor’s divinity.
[Ugh, seriously!]
And that frivolous tone…. Auredhian Belgot’s already deeply furrowed expression creased further. As his entire being sensed connection to the absolute, a clear voice resonated through his mind.
[Persistent, aren’t you? Like some reckless fool.]
It was absurd that he could be so certain of his absolute nature with such a frivolous tone. But what was even more absurd than that—
[I can’t just hack off his limbs like this!]
What was he planning to do to whom? Raulus was not alone. As the sacred smoke that had bloomed like proliferating spores began to dissipate, the scene atop the Altar came dimly into view. There was no need to lift my head to confirm further. My vision shifted once. The sight as seen through Raulus’s eyes.
“…!”
Mingled with silver hair and scattering in the wind was unmistakably a pale pink hue. Crimson eyes widened sharply. Before reason could issue its command, my body reacted first.
[Crumb, snap out of it!]
“Get away. Won’t you let go?”
“Yerenika….”
My lips, which had reflexively begun to call out her name, froze.
“…No, that’s not right.”
I knew it instinctively before even hearing those words. It was the same sensation as when I first saw Yerenika’s body in that state. This was not her. Then where was Yerenika?
Raulus snarled.
[Shut your mouth, you unlucky thing. If it weren’t for the child’s body, I would have already snapped your neck!]
He was pinning down Yerenika’s neck and shoulders, keeping her immobilized.
[Shayer, you mustn’t come any closer yet—.]
But before Raulus could even call out, Auredhian was already at Yerenika’s side. Raulus let out an open lament.
[Good grief. Like master, like servant—you both refuse to listen!]
“What is happening?”
[Can’t you see? She hasn’t fully regained consciousness yet. There’s nothing for it but to go in and wake her.]
Raulus clicked his tongue and pressed down harder on Yerenika’s struggling body. I could see her shoulders, gripped by Raulus, flushing a deep red—a sign of being heavily saturated with magical power. Raulus spoke rapidly.
[You, since you’re here, hold the child steady. I’m keeping her pinned, but the damage is too severe.]
Before the words even finished, Raulus’s form became translucent.
[I’ll wake her shortly. Once she comes to, drive that unlucky wretch away immediately. Understood?]
He didn’t wait for Auredhian’s response. Whoosh. The absolute being’s form vanished, leaving behind a bluish luminescence. Auredhian let out an exasperated breath.
“Ha. Truly doing as he pleases…!”
The moment Raulus concealed his form, sky-blue eyes flashed fiercely. Hades spoke harshly through Yerenika’s lips.
“Damn it. Summoned again right after being unsummoned. Who in the world is this summoner to—!”
But that eerie voice didn’t finish, cutting off abruptly midway. Flashing sky-blue eyes and crimson pupils met in the empty air. Yerenika’s pale face twisted grotesquely. Hades spoke as if understanding dawned.
“Ah… Raulus’s bloodline….”
Auredhian was no longer looking at him. His gaze swept urgently over Yerenika’s body. Not a single part of it looked intact. Strangely filled with unfamiliar sacred power and rippling, yet half-consumed by corrupted magical force.
If I purified it carelessly, the body would burn away with it. The body must not die—Yerenika had said so clearly. Hades seemed to have seen through that very thought. The corners of Yerenika’s mouth were pulled upward grotesquely on both sides.
Hades whispered low.
“You cannot attack this body.”
“….”
“Yes, you… The child who possessed this body despised you. The Emperor of Belgot.”
I could not let go, but neither could I attack. Auredhian spoke in a suppressed voice.
“Yerenika.”
“Ah, so that is this child’s name?”
Hades sneered. Auredhian murmured to himself as if reminding himself.
“I made a promise.”
I won’t leave you alone. Crimson magic surged through the void and seized hold. Yerenika’s body, which had been lying on the Altar, shot upright in an instant. She lunged at Auredhian with terrifying speed. The two intertwined bodies plummeted below the Altar.
“-!”
In that moment, I understood that thought was a luxury. I knew that what dwelled within her wasn’t truly the woman I loved, and I knew it all, and yet….
“Ugh….”
Still, Auredhian couldn’t bring himself to lay hands upon Yerenika’s body. Hades babbled with an exhilarated voice.
“Dying together with this child wouldn’t be so bad, would it? Don’t you think so, ‘Shayer’?”
Fingers cold as a corpse clung to my throat like tentacles. The acrid stench of burning seared my nostrils. A choking smell so mingled that I couldn’t tell whether it was my neck burning or Yerenika’s hands—the reek was indistinguishable.
* * *
The sensation of falling without end was horrifying.
‘-!’
A plummeting sensation like dropping from a vertiginous cliff while shackled to iron. The feeling of hurtling from beyond Udeta toward the Surface. I couldn’t fathom what Hades had done to my body to cause me to fall so soon after ascending.
Crash-!
My body slammed into something before long.
‘Agh!’
Thanks to someone’s hands supporting my back, my body didn’t shatter completely. Yet the impact was unavoidable. My mind reeled.
‘My back….’
[AAAAAAAAAAA!]
A piercing voice assaulted my eardrums at that moment.
[AAAAA- YOU CRUMB!]

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