Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 64

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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 64
“If I hadn’t harmed that Princess, would Your Majesty have reacted so sensitively?”
That was a statement that sealed my lips. It wasn’t that I had nothing to say—quite the opposite. Emotions far more turbulent than before surged violently up my throat, threatening to choke me.
Soleia Elad laughed deeply, as if to say, see?
“Your Majesty, I understand you better than you think. The time I’ve spent by your side has been far from brief. The moment you discovered I was a dark mage, you would have sent me to the gallows. Under normal circumstances.”
I couldn’t deny it. Auredhian straightened from where he’d been leaning against the window. Violet eyes and pitch-black eyes collided intensely in the empty air. Soleia Elad whispered her question.
“What frightens you?”
What frightens me? That was abundantly clear.
Auredhian had come to realize he couldn’t protect Yerenika perfectly with his own hands. Not unless he locked her away securely within his walls. But Yerenika was not the sort of person to be confined anywhere. The image of her face, complaining that staying in a room made her restless, surfaced vividly in his mind. In the first place, the reason his heart had softened was because of her unbound nature—there was no way he could ever cage her.
Words tumbled out in a twisted tone.
“Yes. I once thought that as the master of an empire, I should fear nothing. But now, the thought of what you might recklessly do without regard for anything terrifies me beyond measure.”
He’d believed nothing could shake him to this degree, but he wasn’t strong enough for such arrogance. It was the successive Belgot Emperors—and he himself—who had cultivated a power that stood in direct opposition to divinity, a power that even threatened divinity itself.
He felt nothing but disgust at his own position, unable to command that this wicked woman be restrained immediately. Though the Magic Tower was subordinate to the Belgot Imperial Family, it was an organization with enough influence to boldly demand autonomy. If the true power behind that organization was a dark mage… how deeply was the Belgot Magic Tower mired in darkness?
To put it somewhat exaggeratedly, Belgot moved by virtue of mana stones and the mages of the Magic Tower. Mana was a force that wielded more influence in this empire than the divinity that only the chosen could possess. That was why he couldn’t simply send this woman to the Underground Dungeon. Not when the external situation surrounding Belgot was in chaos, and he couldn’t afford to make the Magic Tower—the force sustaining the realm from within—his enemy.
Auredhian exhaled a short sigh. It was a helplessness he rarely experienced. Soleia Elad smiled faintly and reached toward his face, marred by irritation and anger. Her crimson-nailed hand lightly brushed his jaw.
“Your Majesty has no cards left to play. Only weaknesses.”
“….”
“In any case, I’m the one who wins. You’ve learned that now, haven’t you? It’s really quite simple for me to reach toward that lovely person.”
And then came a mocking laugh.
“Of course, that’s only if I’m truly an evil dark mage.”
The woman who had once whispered false love to him had vanished without a trace. Auredhian clenched his teeth and spoke with a growl.
“So, what do you want?”
She seemed to have been waiting for those words alone. Her beautiful face bore a smile far darker and more dangerous than before. The most powerful, wicked, and cunning dark mage of this age spoke sweetly.
“Then, Your Majesty, put a leash on me. Marry me as was originally planned.”
Sharply honed, raw divinity swirled violently around him. As opposing forces collided, a faint mist-like scent rose into the air. Soleia Elad’s final words fell.
“Then Your Majesty’s realm and Your Majesty’s Princess will suffer no harm.”
* * *
What… what is happening right now? The hand gripping the doorknob went cold in an instant. My thoughts froze. I stood rigid, my hand still clasping the handle to Auredhian’s office.
“Then, Your Majesty, put a leash on me. Marry me as was originally planned.”
A soft, whispering voice drifted from inside Auredhian’s office.
“Then Your Majesty’s realm and Your Majesty’s Princess will suffer no harm.”
I didn’t need to see to know. I could sense who was in there, what they were discussing, and what expression that man’s face wore.
I released the doorknob and stumbled backward. No matter how much I thought about it, I’d come to his office unable to sleep, burning with fever, only to hear a conversation beyond imagination unfolding inside. I clenched my teeth. So this is how it ends? No matter what I do, everything flows according to the original story?
“Your Highness?”
Felix, the aide who had been waiting outside the office just as I was, seemed to have heard the same thing. His face had gone rigid as well. I looked up at him with trembling eyes, then cast my gaze downward again.
“She’s insane.”
The words spilled from my lips in a thin murmur.
“That woman is insane….”
There was no way she wasn’t mad to stake her life on a deal with Auredhian. I could sense it instinctively. Auredhian Belgot would not refuse that wicked, cunning proposal. He was the Emperor. He couldn’t cast aside a woman who held the Magic Tower in her grasp. That fact was far weightier than my life, which she’d used as a bargaining chip. My mind was a tangled mess, making coherent thought nearly impossible. In the end, I turned away from the office.
“Please keep it secret from His Majesty that I was here.”
All I could manage was to whisper urgently to Felix before slipping away. I couldn’t bring myself to run, fearful that my footsteps might carry through the door. Instead, I withdrew from that room—where such a horrifying conversation had unfolded—with agonizing slowness.
* * *
[I did, little one.]
I returned to my room and hastily shut the door. Two maidservants startled at my contorted expression and attempted to follow me inside, but I blocked them and slid down against the door frame. My legs gave out completely—I couldn’t possibly have made it to the bed.
[There are things even I cannot change.]
I lacked the strength to respond to that voice reverberating through my mind. I simply remained there, crouched with my face buried in my knees.
“It seems that’s truly the case.”
My voice emerged far lower than I expected, rough and strained despite having spoken barely a word. Perhaps it was the accumulated exhaustion from sleepless nights.
“Is there truly something that cannot be changed…?”
After all, even the absolute being of this world was nothing more than a creation defined by the original work, wasn’t it? An extra among extras, a mere accessory like me occupying a corner of the source material—how could I possibly alter its grand trajectory?
I came to Belgot in Tezebia’s stead. I, who harbored every intention of obstructing Auredhian Belgot and Soleia Elad’s marriage. The original work must have shifted somewhere from that point onward, yet ultimately, the direction it rushed toward remained identical.
That damned marriage.
Perhaps how much Auredhian Belgot suspected and guarded against Soleia Elad was never truly the critical issue.
Could it be—could it possibly be that he would stake the entire empire and myself against this…?
I struggled to suppress the surge of emotion rising within me. To possess Auredhian Belgot to such an extent, employing any means necessary—at this point, it had transcended mere obstruction of a marriage. It had become a confrontation. A clash between the world’s most vulnerable sunfish and its most formidable shadow manipulator.
I finally burst out in frustration.
“Does this even make sense? The balance is completely skewed!”
[You startled me.]
And Raulus—that damned absolute being beyond Udeta—proved utterly unhelpful once again. I clutched my aching head and lowered my gaze.
“What am I supposed to do now…?”
[Hmm.]
Raulus fell silent for a moment, seemingly lost in thought. Only after I had wrung my hair in desperation, exhausted myself, and finally collapsed onto my back did Raulus speak again, slowly.
[For now, little one, what if you entered the Temple?]
“The Temple?”
[Yes. Staying there would only make you bait, wouldn’t it?]
It was a cold assessment. To cause no further trouble, I needed to leave the Imperial Palace immediately—and more broadly, Belgot itself. That way, Auredhian could focus on Soleia Elad without concerning himself with me.
“…Damn it.”
I cursed aloud. I had thought her merely beautiful, wicked, and cunning.
“Put a leash on me.”
“She was truly insane….”
How does one deal with a madwoman?
[You must retreat strategically, that’s all.]
Raulus spoke with infuriating cheerfulness, and my frustration boiled over. This god understood humanity no better than the vast distance between the mortal realm and Udeta itself. I pressed my temples, which throbbed with mounting pressure. In any case, having heard that entire conversation, I could no longer remain in the palace. My decision had been predetermined from the very beginning.

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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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