Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 151

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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 151
[-!]
The brittle bones that had been reassembled shattered into fragments. Silver sanctity spiraled around the bone shards and hurled them onto the altar. My gaze followed. A colossal oppressive force crushed my lungs. I let out a small whimper.
“Ah, Raulus….”
A flutter. My vision shifted. It was a familiar sensation—sensory sharing with Raulus. How strange. Our summoning contract should have been severed already…. I saw myself through Raulus’s eyes. I saw Auredhian Belgot. The world as viewed by an absolute being.
[I shall ensure you never rise again.]
Raulus spoke coldly. The moment those words left his lips, the altar cracked wide open.
“…!”
Everything trembled violently. Auredhian Belgot hastily pulled me backward into his arms. While all else shook, Raulus alone remained serene. The sensory connection with Raulus, which seemed to snap from the impact, reconnected once more.
[You shall rot in the Underground for thousands of years more, just as you have until now.]
White, voluminous sleeves fluttered in the night wind. Long silver hair undulated through the air.
[Beneath this altar. In that narrow space of punishment.]
A tremor as if the earth itself split far below the towering altar shook heaven and earth. It was no mere conjecture—it was real. Beneath the fractured altar, deep within that distant underground, a faint boundary became visible.
“Remordi….”
I heard Auredhian Belgot murmur like a groan. I knew he saw the same thing I did. His arms tightened around me with force. Fragments of the shattered altar shot skyward. Hades, imprisoned in that distant abyss, roared like a scream.
[This bastard…!]
[Farewell, wretched brother.]
Raulus’s final words fell cold. They were filled with contemptuous mockery.
[Farewell to your eternity.]
In that instant, the boundary of Remordi beneath the fractured earth blazed with light.
[I bless you, brother.]
And everything that had split began to fuse back together. The twisted, torn earth reconnected like regenerating cells. The crimson-flickering boundary, Remordi, vanished between the rejoining earth. The altar, split in half, began to seal from below. Pale silver sanctity bounced upward like droplets.
It was Raulus’s blessing.
“Ah….”
A faint exclamation mixed with a gasp escaped me. Everything that had fractured was restored without a trace, and the fragments scattered in all directions began to find their places again. Marble shards and earth scattered like meteors were sucked into the cracks.
At last, even the marble altar that had been split returned to its original state. The surroundings settled into silence.
[Ah….]
Raulus exhaled a short breath.
[It seems I shall live after all.]
“….”
[The difference a summoner makes is indeed substantial. Yes, that’s right. Now there’s proper dignity to it.]
“….”
With a soft snap, the sensory connection I shared with Raulus abruptly severed.
“Ugh….”
My head spun dizzily. Auredhian Belgot, holding me firmly, called out urgently.
“Yerenika?”
I opened my mouth to respond. But what poured forth was neither a bright answer nor reassuring words, nor even sorrowful tears. What rose through my throat was a clot of blood.
A violent cough erupted. Now my vision truly blurred. It was not from tears. A high-pitched ringing echoed in my ears.
“-.”
I heard him calling out to me urgently. I could not discern exactly what he said. In that moment, what I felt was not much. The metallic taste of blood flowing across my lips and jaw. A broad, warm, solid embrace. Safety.
Ah, it’s finally over. This godforsaken night has finally ended.
“You’re alright—”
Auredhian’s voice cut off mid-sentence. My thoughts followed suit, stopping right there. My vision plunged into absolute darkness.
* * *
“Yerenika!”
Each time I called out, a sharp, piercing pain lanced through my throat. Yet I barely registered it. Blood clung to strands of pale pink hair scattered across her head. Her condition looked far worse than it had been two years ago on that fateful day.
“Your Highness!”
Diego Schmart rushed to my side in desperation.
“For heaven’s sake, please regain consciousness. Your Highness!”
Even as I continuously absorbed divine essence, Yerenika’s ragged breathing showed no signs of stabilizing. I couldn’t even begin to fathom where or how she had been so grievously damaged.
“….”
I bit down hard on lips already torn long ago. Words wouldn’t come—as if thorns were lodged in my throat. I had thought seeing her so severely injured would be the last time. I had sworn to myself that this suffocating dread, this sensation of my heart stopping, would never happen again.
“…Yeni, please.”
My voice shattered pathetically. Had I ever wanted something so desperately? Probably not. Auredhian Belgot had been a ruler and possessor my entire life. I had never been particularly greedy by nature, and with so much already in my hands, there was no need to desire anything. I only had to pour boundless affection upon those I had chosen to care for.
“….”
If the one to whom I had given such an unexpectedly vast heart were to disappear….
[Oh, my little fragment.]
Raulus leaped down from the Altar in a flurry. The hem of his voluminous, antiquated robes fluttered.
[She’s not dead, is she?]
“Shut—”
With nearly superhuman restraint, I clamped down on the harsh words threatening to spill from my lips. This was a god. A god. The god whom Belgot served. The god who had blessed Laigar…. In response, my arms tightened around her weakening frame, then loosened at the faint whimper that escaped her. I quickly pulled Yerenika from my embrace to examine her face.
“Yeni…. Open your eyes.”
Yerenika still gave no response.
[The little fragment has overexerted herself far too much. It’s admirable that she endured this long.]
Raulus sighed and bent forward. I looked up at my god with bloodshot eyes.
[A new summoner. My child. Your gaze toward me is most disrespectful.]
Raulus’s face, beautiful beyond measure and bordering on miraculous, twisted into a smile. A hand suffused with divine radiance descended lightly upon Yerenika’s back as I held her.
[Still, you have summoned me in full…. Though the timing is several years premature, I suppose a small ceremony can be conducted.]
“What do you——?”
[I made a promise with the child long ago. When the day of summoning arrived, I would make her my Priesthood, I said.]
Yerenika’s breathing became noticeably easier.
[A body already damaged cannot be helped, but….]
Wherever the Absolute’s hand passed, divine essence bloomed. It was the very source of power that he, my father, and all my ancestors had inherited.
[Still, you must become healthy enough to live without worry beside you, in this land.]
A pale, silvery divine essence gathered in the air, forming the shape of a cross.
“The Priesthood’s ceremony….”
I heard Diego Schmart murmur. The silver cross formed in the void shattered down upon Yerenika’s body. Thousands upon thousands of fragments of light burst forth. Raulus’s gentle voice descended alongside them.
[You’ve suffered much, child.]
The secret name Raulus whispered to her last was one they could not hear.
“…You’ve suffered much.”
After the Priesthood’s ceremony concluded, Auredhian Belgot whispered those words to himself one final time. His beloved slept soundly in his arms, offering no response, yet he felt compelled—as though he would suffocate if he did not speak them now.
“….”
After a moment of silence, his lips moved of their own accord.
“I….”
Love you. Perhaps far more than you could ever imagine. After uttering those words of gratitude, only this confession had filled his mind—consuming it entirely.
“I truly love you so very much.”
Auredhian Belgot repeated that confession again and again—sweet yet heavy, melting into something viscous and profound. For an eternity. A true eternity. Then, at some point, he lifted his gaze and realized the night was drawing to its end.
“….”
After the long dawn, light finally broke. The highest Altar overlooking the entire Capital was bathed in golden radiance. The sun, in its purest and most brilliant hue, rose above the elegant Capital, illuminating it with grace.
At last, morning had come again.

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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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