Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 159

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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 159
Auredhian Belgot’s brow furrowed immediately. He seemed to dislike even the slightest attention I paid to Soleia Elad. His response was curt.
“I sent her to the Temple Underground.”
“Pardon?”
“Beneath the Altar, to guard the seal of Remordi that Raulus reinforced.”
Ah. I recalled the seal of Remordi that I had last seen that night and nodded. So they had sent the Black Mage to the Temple Underground. It was ruthless in a sense, but there was no more fitting place to keep watch over Soleia Elad.
“It’s surprisingly close. I could see it coming and going.”
“Don’t concern yourself with it. Rather, Yeni—do you prefer daytime or nighttime?”
“Ah, then I should ask Soleia Elad to curse through the seal whenever she has a moment.”
“Would afternoon be better?”
“I can’t forgive this. Really. Who left such marks on your neck?”
I ground my teeth as the anger surged back. And Auredhian Belgot continued asking nothing but strange questions.
“Do you also like things that are large and glittering and magnificent?”
“…What have you been saying this whole time?”
When I looked at him with a puzzled expression, he closed his mouth. But shortly after, he opened it again. This time, it seemed less like he was asking me and more like he was muttering to himself.
“How large would be large enough…?”
“…?”
What on earth is he talking about?
* * *
Auredhian Belgot asked several more strange things after that. He would suddenly ask if I liked flowers, then inquire whether I was pleased with the restored Grand Hall of Luxia Palace. Then one day he asked my favorite color, and when I answered purple, he seemed quite satisfied.
“What are you even thinking about…?”
Yet I, who was answering his questions, could not fathom the intention behind them at all. Raulus asked in a voice tinged with amusement.
[Do you dislike flowers?]
“No. They’re beautiful—there’s no reason to dislike them.”
[Then why did you say you dislike them?]
“If I said I liked them, it looked like you’d pluck every flower in the Garden.”
Diego Schmart, who was strolling beside me, let out a stifled laugh. But the moment I turned to look, he quickly composed his expression. I narrowed my eyes. There was definitely something… off.
“Something’s strange.”
“Yes?”
“Everyone around me lately seems a bit odd. Am I imagining things?”
[You’re imagining it.]
“You’re imagining it.”
The answers came almost simultaneously.
“…”
When I stopped walking and sent them a suspicious look, both Raulus and Diego Schmart laughed identically. How could they even laugh the same way? Like god, like worshipper, I suppose. I thought absently and resumed walking.
“Something’s suspicious. I’m telling you, it’s suspicious.”
[Didn’t you say you had something to do, little one?]
“And changing the subject like this is also strange.”
Each time I pressed him, Raulus visibly flinched. I giggled and stepped deeper into the Garden. As Raulus had said, I had come to the Garden today for a specific purpose. It was to properly test the authority of the Priesthood that Raulus had granted me.
It didn’t take long to grow accustomed to Raulus’s power. Fundamentally, Raulus’s divinity was remarkably similar to Auredhian Belgot’s divinity.
“Look, watch this!”
A bluish-silver flame erupted with a soft pop from the palm of my hand. Diego gazed at it with genuine admiration.
“Remarkable, Princess. I’ve never seen purification fire refined so cleanly and purely before.”
“Really?”
“Yes. The flames His Majesty summons are somewhat… occasionally rather rough.”
That made sense. I clicked my tongue and extinguished the flame. After spending nearly a week confined to my bedroom since awakening, stepping back into the world felt achingly beautiful. Since Auredhian Belgot still worried about me wandering outside freely, I had Felix keep him occupied in his office before I could slip away from the Central Palace. In truth, there was nothing to worry about. The area I roamed was less than a tenth of the entire Imperial Palace. At most, I’d stroll through the Garden for a while before returning to my room once Felix began to protest. These days, my walking companion and conversation partner was Diego. He marveled anew each day watching me wield the sacred power. I enlarged the flame slightly and asked him, “Would this be useful?”
In truth, there was really nothing to worry about. The area I roamed around in was less than one-tenth of the entire Imperial Palace. At most, I would take a brief stroll through the Garden, and once Felix started complaining about his limits, I would quietly slip back into my Room. And these days, my walking and conversation companion was Diego Schmart. Diego was growing more amazed by the day as he watched me handle divine power. I asked him while trying to make the flame a bit larger.
“Is this enough to be useful?”
“More than useful.”
Diego smiled kindly.
“Even half of what you’re doing now would be sufficient for many things, Princess. Truly.”
“Oh…”
“You could easily fulfill the role of a high-ranking priest.”
The role of a priest. I turned the words over in my mind. I knew what the primary duties of a Holy Priesthood member, especially a high-ranking one, entailed: being dispatched to disaster zones and impoverished areas throughout Belgot where the Emperor himself could not walk, conducting purification work and caring for the vulnerable.
I gazed quietly at the flame burning in my palm. During these days of lounging in my bedroom, I’d thought of only one thing: what I could do going forward. How far could I go?
A brief silence fell. Diego spoke first.
“Has His Majesty said anything particular?”
It was a question that diverged slightly from our previous topic. I tossed the flame into the air and answered with a sigh.
“He worries constantly. Acting as though I might collapse—or worse—somewhere tomorrow…”
“No, not worry, but something else…”
I tilted my head.
“Something else?”
“Never mind.”
Noticing I hadn’t understood, Diego smiled kindly. There was something oddly meaningful about that smile.
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
“…?”
Find out what? I studied him with suspicious eyes for a long moment, but Diego said nothing more. There was definitely something there. I shrugged and turned away. Pressing him wouldn’t get me anywhere. Besides, what mattered now was understanding exactly what I could do and how far I could go. I’d succeeded with the purification flame, after all…
I settled onto the edge of the Fountain and reached my hand toward the cascading water.
Whoosh. Sacred power wrapped around my fingertips.
“Wow.”
The moment my fingertips touched the water, something glowing with blue light burst through the falling stream.
“How cute…!”
Tiny water droplets shaped like wolf cubs bounced through the cascade in succession. I stared at the sight in wonder. Raulus, who had been dozing at my feet, suddenly lifted his head.
[Like master, like servant. You only ever do cute things.]
Plink. Plink. Plink. The thumbnail-sized wolf-shaped water droplets I’d created leaped in succession into Raulus’s wide-open mouth.
“Wait, you swallowed them.”
I stared at Raulus in shock. He gulped down the water droplets and splashed at the Fountain’s water with his front paws.
[Once you grow more accustomed, you’ll be able to perform large-scale purification too. Water. Fire. Wind. Earth. There’s nothing you won’t be able to handle. Whose power do you think you have?]
I regarded Raulus with slightly sullen eyes for a moment, then my eyes widened at his words.
“Really?”
[Then. Folding the earth. Altering the flow of air. Parting the sea in two…. Shouldn’t divine power be at least capable of that much?]
“My abilities suddenly became excessively powerful…?”
[Well. But for you to wield power as freely as I do originally, wouldn’t it take at least 100 years?]
“100 years. I see.”
I laughed benevolently.
“Then it’s nothing but pie in the sky, isn’t it? You… charlatan!”
“Princess, a charlatan, you say!”
Whenever I bickered with Raulus, it was always Diego who gasped in horror. I paid him no mind and rolled across the grass with Raulus, tumbling endlessly. The earth was so light that no matter how much I rolled, it never tired me. I continued squabbling with Raulus while Diego hopped anxiously on his feet, only rising to my feet again after I’d had my fill.
“Hm?”
It was while I sat by the fountain afterward, absorbed in shaping the dirt into the form of a wolf. I froze at the sight of a familiar hue flickering in the distance of my vision. Diego spoke with a face that looked as though he might weep at any moment.
“It would be best if you returned inside, Princess. Before His Majesty discovers us…. Princess?”
But I was no longer listening to him. I leaped up from the fountain.
“Wind…. Earth.”
[Ah, wait. Little crumb, you still can’t just….]
“Folding the earth….”
“Oh, Princess!”
Diego gasped in shock. And rightfully so. Even I was startled enough to be knocked backward.
The earth surged upward.
* * *
“No, this wasn’t what I intended…!”
I’d caused a disaster. I stared grimly at the courtyard I’d overturned.
“You’re quite clumsy. You’ll need to practice.”
Soleia Elad clicked her tongue. …So, Soleia Elad had.

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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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