Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 83

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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 83
A whisper of silver hair brushed against my tear-stained face, and a long sleeve swept across my left vision. An arm suddenly thrust forward. A hand with long, curved nails seized Leria’s throat in a vice grip. I saw the tendons bulging prominently across that hand and forearm.
Lightning-sharp realization struck me. Raulus.
[I wondered where that grating sound kept coming from.]
“Gasp!”
[I never imagined the taboo of Remordi had been broken so long ago.]
Leria, her throat constricted, thrashed about with a bone-chilling whimper like metal scraping. Her skin where the long nails touched began to char and burn. Her body, stained by that malevolent force, was slowly being consumed by a powerful divine power.
Raulus twisted Leria’s neck and sneered.
[Does she think I couldn’t cross over because I had no summoner? Looks like I’m the only one who got screwed here?]
As tears that had pooled at my eyes fell with a soft plop, Raulus’s voice echoed through my mind.
[Run, crumb.]
It wasn’t his usual frivolous tone, but a low, cold voice. The sound was so distant it seemed impossible it came from right beside me, yet it clawed through my brain.
[Like that dawn, run as if you’re about to die right now.]
[W-what do you…]
[I can’t stay here long.]
Hearing those words, I stopped thinking. Abandoning Leria’s limp body in that grip, I ran. Just as Raulus said, the way I had in that nightmare when the specters chased me.
[Gasp, ugh…]
I’d wager there’s probably no other spirit in this world wearing a white t-shirt and jeans with blood shining silver. In my incorporeal state, feeling nothing, I ran desperately. I didn’t need to open the door. My hand passed right through it before I could even grasp the handle. I was startled, but the momentum of my sprint wouldn’t let me stop. I passed straight through the door and burst outside. Still, I felt nothing.
“…!”
And I locked eyes directly with Diego outside the door. His gentle golden eyes were half-glazed and unfocused. I saw my own reflection dimly in those golden eyes. Could he see me?
But I had no time to grab Diego and desperately plead, “I think something terrible is happening—could you help me?” There wasn’t enough time even to flee for my life, let alone cling to him. Besides, Diego seemed not to have fully recovered from the enchantment—he was barely conscious.
Screech. A similar grotesque sound tore through my eardrums again. It sounded like something violently scraping the floor. I gritted my teeth and rushed past Diego.
“Your Highness…?”
[…!]
If he hadn’t called out to me, I surely would have made it. Diego contorted his expression and pressed his head with his hand.
“What is that state…? But why is my body suddenly, ugh.”
His body swayed violently. I reflexively reached out, but my hand passed right through his arm without catching him. Diego leaned against the wall, barely catching his breath.
“What happened inside?”
I saw clarity gradually returning to his golden eyes. But I couldn’t wait for him to fully recover.
“Your Highness, what are you…”
[I!]
I finally couldn’t hold back and cut off his words. My heart grew increasingly frantic. It felt like the dead maidservant could burst through the door at any moment. I kept glancing back at the firmly closed waiting room door and spoke in a rush.
[I need to run away urgently. Diego, snap out of it quickly, and please look after Clarisse.]
“What? Where, ugh, where are you going?!”
Diego reached out as if to grab me, but it was futile. His body finally collapsed downward.
[D-Diego.]
He’s supposed to be the second strongest priest after Auredhian Belgot! Should I really leave him like this? But I had no choice. All I could do was trust that Diego had enough ability to fend for himself. Besides, it was I who was in urgent danger right now.
[Damn…]
I finally cursed under my breath and began running down a terrifyingly long corridor. There was only one place I could flee to. Outside the Imperial Palace—the Temple. Raulus hadn’t told me to go to the Temple. But I could sense it instinctively. The safest place for me in this land…!
[Gasp, ugh, gasp…]
However, I couldn’t simply slip away from Luxia Palace. The moment I rounded the corner, I caught sight of the grand hall where the welcoming ceremony was being held—its violet doors stood wide open.
[A gasp.]
A cry escaped my lips. All of my precious people were inside that hall. Auredhian, Sergei, Fernandis. My brother-in-law…! Even though I knew I had to leave this place without delay, my legs had turned rigid as stone. My body simply wouldn’t obey.
[Ugh…]
Creak. That irritating, maddening sound scraped against my ears once more. I dragged my unresponsive legs forward toward the violet doors that gaped open before me. No, it couldn’t be. Surely Soleia wouldn’t overturn this gathering, not when foreign dignitaries were present in such a place…
Yet my hopes shattered the moment my eyes took in the scene within the hall.
* * *
The Central Banquet Hall of Belgot Imperial Palace was thick with acrid steam. The bewildered nobility cast confused glances around them, searching for the source of the suspicious odor. Then, all eyes fixed upon the woman standing beneath the open doorway.
Soleia Elad—a mage with reddish-brown hair cascading over a pitch-black dress—stood at the entrance of the vast hall. The moment she stepped inside, two forces collided sharply in the air, sending sparks scattering. The smell of steam grew increasingly pungent.
People instinctively sensing the threat began to murmur. Soleia dismissed all those voices with ease. As her high heels clicked against the marble floor, the entire hall fell into a silence so complete it seemed suffocating.
The distance to the Emperor grew steadily shorter. As Soleia approached the Imperial Throne, she spoke.
“Have you given thought to the proposal I made before, Your Majesty?”
“…”
Auredhian Belgot. The Emperor, reclining at an angle upon the golden throne that only Belgot’s master could occupy, lifted the corner of his mouth in a crooked smile.
“I did not think you ignorant of what this gathering represents.”
“I have come today to hear your answer to that day. I believe I have given you sufficient time.”
“You would conduct private matters in public?”
His tone was unmistakably mocking. His reddish eyes gazed down at Soleia with a chill that made her difficult to regard lightly, even for one blessed by the Underground. Yet it was a gaze she had received countless times over the past five years.
“This is a most public matter, Your Majesty. After all, the position of Empress and the very survival of Belgot Magic Tower hang in the balance.”
At Soleia’s serene words, a silent commotion rippled through the gathering. Empress. And Belgot Magic Tower. It was a subject of undeniable interest. The Azekien Mages’ eyes gleamed as they turned their gaze toward her. The Emperor, too, seemed to have noticed their reaction.
He spoke slowly, yet as though grinding out the words.
“Soleia Elad. It seems my previous words did not register as a warning.”
Contrary to his tightly suppressed tone, a sacred power sharp as a spear lashed out in all directions. Soleia laughed softly at the invisible force converging upon her throat from every side. Did he know? Did he know that the Princess he held so dear, whom he yearned for so desperately, was dying even now? She had no desire to inform him of that fact so kindly. Indeed, it would be quite satisfying to let him arrive too late, to face her already cold and lifeless corpse.
Creak. Bone scraped against earth. A skeletal hand, forbidden to the surface, crossed the boundary of Remordi and reached upward. Her impatient master could no longer contain herself and stirred restlessly.
Thud. Another bone fragment fell at Soleia’s feet. There was no longer any room for hesitation. Soleia gently pushed back the sharp sacred power aimed precisely at her throat. The moment her fingers touched the sacred force, her skin seared and a burning pain spread across her hand. Soleia closed her eyes slowly, then opened them.
“…If your hesitation is because of the humans in this hall…”
Her obsidian-bright eyes momentarily lost focus. She swept her gaze—eyes like black pearls that swallowed even light—around the banquet hall.
The Azekien Mages observing from a distance flinched at her stare. The mage who appeared to be the delegation’s representative looked at her with an expression of shock. He clearly grasped the nature of the magical power Soleia was now emanating and the darkness slowly seeping into the banquet hall.
But by the time they realized it, it was already too late. The air trembled. A single wave of cold, subterranean air swept through the hall that had been suffused with light and warmth.
The Imperial Orchestra’s gentle melody ceased abruptly. Wherever the damp, humid, and musty air swept through, it drained away vitality. Breathing stopped. Bodies that had moved freely froze in place. The soft skin of the living hardened like bone.
Complete silence descended upon the space stripped of life. The murmuring voices. The whisper of dresses and formal jackets brushing against one another. The clink of glasses. All those vibrant sounds were cut off, leaving only an eerie hush in their wake.
It was unmistakably a power descended from the master of the Underground. A force that transcended the limits of magic humans could perform. Only then did Soleia bloom into a smile once more.
“Now, will you speak with me properly?”

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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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