Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 24

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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 24
In the original work “Brizni Wants to Be Happy,” Soleia’s lines were as sparse as Yerenika’s. Yet every word she spoke left a powerful impression, each one seared into memory. If Yerenika had been mere background filler—present or absent, it mattered not—then Soleia Elad was the true architect of her son’s descent into villainy, the shadowy mastermind pulling strings from the darkness.
A side story from the original work about Decarve Belgot flickered through my mind.
[Mother had always whispered to him as though it were habit.
“You are a monster born of the most radiant divinity and the most wicked sorcery, Decarve Belgot.”
It was true. Decarve Belgot carried within him the purest bloodline of the divine that remained upon this earth, while simultaneously flowing with the darkest currents of the most ancient and rooted shadows.
“If you but desire it, you could possess all things in this world. Even the distant realm of the gods beyond Udeta itself. If only you would wish it.”
The woman who had borne the boy spoke with tenderness.
“How does it sound, to hold the power of this world in both your hands and make it tremble?”
What Mother said was always the same refrain. She longed for him to inherit her dark sorcery—a desire she had likely harbored since marrying his father. An experiment to answer the question: could a human simultaneously wield the two most formidable forces available to mortalkind? Perhaps, in truth, Mother had wished to create a monster.
Decarve laughed dryly—a laugh that ill-suited the tender face of a ten-year-old boy. The child murmured softly.
“I do not desire what lies beyond Udeta, Mother.”
For Decarve Belgot had ever wanted one thing and one thing alone.]
“Ugh, how chilling.”
I found myself shuddering involuntarily. Whether Soleia Elad loved Auredhian Belgot was irrelevant. What mattered was that she harbored some purpose. Why would she deliberately marry a man whose nature stood in direct opposition to her own? Discovery would mean swift execution.
Perhaps she truly intended to cross Udeta—that boundary between earth and heaven. To reach for the gods’ realm using the power of the underground itself. If she sought to accomplish this through her son, everything fell into place.
But I knew that terrible “experiment” had ended in failure. Decarve had lost his divinity as he learned dark sorcery. In the end, it proved impossible for a human body to simultaneously wield both the power of the heavens and the power of the dead.
“Ugh…”
The more I dwelled on it, the more terrifying she became—a woman utterly devoid of mercy or compassion. An ordinary person would never dare conceive of such a thing: to reach the divine realm with a mortal body. Why would she go so far? Why would she exploit even her own son to grasp both forces at once?
What hidden purpose could she possibly have?
I racked my memory for details from the original work, but nothing came to mind. There had been so few scenes featuring Soleia in the first place.
I exhaled a long sigh. Perhaps Auredhian’s advice was sound—staying confined to Bellirook Palace tomorrow might indeed be safer for me. After all, I had provoked her so thoroughly at our first meeting. She was surely sharpening her claws for revenge.
Yet I could not avoid Soleia Elad for the entire duration of my stay in Belgot. So how could I possibly separate her from Auredhian? Even if I failed to seduce him and was sent back to Lebovni, I could not allow him to marry Soleia.
So the method to separate Soleia from Auredhian would be…
“Hmm.”
Regrettably, I could think of only a few options at present.
First: sabotage their every meeting. Second: sacrifice my own body to expose her as a dark sorcerer.
“No. Not the second option.”
I shook my head vigorously, erasing the second method from my mind. All of this was for survival, after all. I could not sacrifice this fragile body—as delicate as a sunfish—to such a cause.
If I actually died in the attempt, not even Auredhian’s grandfather could resurrect me. Sob.
Yet the first and second methods seemed not entirely unrelated. If I sabotaged their meetings and then got myself killed by dark sorcery, Soleia Elad’s true nature would be exposed. And with my death, Auredhian would live out his days in peace.
-But that’s a bad ending!
In the end, I resolved to simply remain true to my nature. When had I ever meticulously planned anything? Life should be lived boldly, spiritedly, and recklessly, should it not?
* * *
The morning had been gloriously sunny. The sky stretched blue and cloudless. The well-tended courtyard had burst into fuller bloom, even the flowers that had been mere buds now opening wide. A gentle breeze occasionally drifted through, carrying the fragrance of blossoms and grass.
Auredhian Belgot walked through a corridor on the first floor of Belgot Palace. Today marked Soleia Elad’s visit to the Imperial Palace for the first time in three weeks. Having already postponed their usual weekly meeting twice, he could delay no longer.
That he needed to see her regularly was not something he had chosen. Soleia Elad would become the next Master of the Magic Tower once Rosel passed. She was also the mage responsible for delivering the Tower’s regular reports to him.
Given such an intimate relationship, Auredhian saw no reason to withhold proper courtesy and appropriate treatment, regardless of his suspicions concerning her.
Moreover, Soleia Elad knew when to strike and when to withdraw. Had his exasperation ever reached its breaking point, he would have cast her out long ago. She was skilled at reading such boundaries, which was why he had tolerated her thus far. Suspicious though she was, she remained an excellent mage and a symbol of the relationship between him and the Magic Tower. Perhaps, if nothing untoward occurred, she might truly become his lifelong companion.
Yet Auredhian felt a faint weariness at the prospect. To spend a lifetime wary of the Empress, watching her every move. Should he marry that woman, the gentle peace Auredhian Belgot desired would be utterly destroyed from that very day. The thought alone suffocated him.
He reached up habitually to brush back his hair, then paused—realizing it had been neatly swept back and styled just moments ago. Today, every detail of his appearance was flawlessly composed, not a single thread out of place. It was always this way when facing someone he could not afford to show weakness to.
The precisely tied purple cravat constricted his throat uncomfortably. Three weeks without setting foot in the Imperial Palace—he dreaded to imagine how suffocating it would feel today. The thought made his head ache, so Auredhian simply abandoned the line of reasoning altogether.
Then his gaze drifted to the view beyond the window, and his headache only deepened.
“…Really.”
The landscape visible through the window was painfully familiar. Flower beds blooming in vibrant colors, meticulously trimmed verdant shrubs, a labyrinthine garden. An intricately carved marble fountain. And woven seamlessly among those myriad hues he had beheld his entire life—pale pink hair that had appeared at some point without the slightest discord.
Ah, our eyes met.
Clear, sky-blue eyes curved into crescents. The hair that usually floated in soft, fluffy waves was, for some reason, neatly braided to one side today. The woman sitting atop the marble fountain, swinging her legs, immediately leaped down.
“Your Majesty!”
She seemed to be calling to him, but the window was closed and he could not hear her. Auredhian stood motionless, watching the woman who appeared as though she might dissolve into light come rushing toward him through the sunbeams.
“Hm?”
The Princess of Lebovni, who had reached the window, tilted her head. Their eyes did not quite align as she had expected—the corridor window was simply too high for her.
Her gentle eyes curved once more, and a small hand suddenly appeared. Tap, tap. She knocked on the window. Auredhian read the shape of her lips.
O-p-e-n-i-t-p-l-e-a-s-e.
Without any conscious intention, his hand moved of its own accord. As he pushed open the window that could only be opened from within, a light breeze brushed across his face. A clear, lively voice came bouncing through, piercing his ears.
“Ah, it opened!”
“…I thought you were supposed to remain within Bellirook Palace today.”
He searched his memory—had he forgotten to mention it yesterday? No, he was certain he had told her. Yet immediately, the thought occurred to him that the Princess before his eyes would never obey such an instruction. Auredhian let out a hollow laugh and leaned his arm against the window frame, bending his body outward.
“You truly do not listen, Princess.”
“I’m not as predictable as all that.”
The Princess answered playfully. With her porcelain-pale face, she smiled beautifully—as though flour might dust away from her at any moment. Today, she seemed especially translucent, as if she might vanish. Perhaps it was the white dress with its ruffles that shattered like foam with every movement.
White clothing would not do. Auredhian thought this absently. The woman whose coloring was already so pale looked even more ethereal, more insubstantial, in an achromatic gown.
Without thinking, his hand reached out. The tip of his index finger brushed against the soft hair at her ear. At that delicate, whispering sensation, the tightness that had pressed upon his entire being vanished without a trace. It was a curious thing—he knew this Princess far less than he knew Soleia Elad, and yet.
But whenever he was with the Princess, as always, a pleasant sense of liberation enveloped him. She was so naturally free and buoyant that even those who merely looked upon her seemed to become that way, Auredhian thought.
The corners of his mouth lifted gently, and a voice flowed forth—one that even he recognized as remarkably generous and tender.
“Then, Princess, why have you taken the risk of coming all this way?”
“Ah.”
A small, slightly cool hand grasped his large, warm one firmly. In an instant, he felt the sacred radiance that had surrounded his body being absorbed into her. The Princess drew in a sharp breath. And then she smiled with satisfaction.
“Today, it is because—”
“Because?”
The Princess of Lebovni, who resembled a small pink cat, declared to him today as well with boldness and spirit.
“I have decided to kidnap Your Majesty from this moment forward!”

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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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