Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 84

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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 84
Auredhian Belgot exhaled a breath of exasperation.
“I’ve lost count of how many times magic has been carelessly cast within my palace. What exactly did you do?”
“Have no fear. I merely halted the flow of life temporarily.”
Crimson eyes swept across the surroundings. The nobles stood rigid as stone fragments, and the foreign envoys remained motionless—the sight sent a throbbing ache through my head. I had come to Belgot with the intention of resolving this accursed Glucaman Tripartite Agreement in one fell swoop, but now everything had crumbled to dust.
Soleia Elad had audaciously seized both matters that had tormented me until now and wielded them like weapons. The Glucaman Tripartite Agreement. And Soleia Elad herself. The fraying threads of patience that had been twisted together snapped one by one.
“Give me an answer. Will you answer my proposal to take me as Empress and bind me with a leash?”
Auredhian Belgot descended the steps beneath the Imperial Throne with a savage sneer. He moved slowly down the few steps—barely five—and with each footfall, the fury that had been suppressed until now seeped through. The blade-like sanctity that enveloped his body tore through the carpet covering the stairs. It scraped across the polished marble floor, leaving gouges with an eerie sound.
Soleia laughed smoothly. She was skilled at conjuring laughter in any circumstance.
“Do you not need the Belgot Magic Tower?”
“I have no need for a tower rooted in darkness.”
“The Magic Tower always obeys my will. Should you take me, I will devote my loyalty to Belgot, and should you cast me aside, then it would be only natural to call them a faction truly rooted in darkness. What an abandoned tower might do is far too obvious.”
Auredhian Belgot twisted his lips into a crooked smile. Soleia Elad seemed determined to test exactly how far he could be pushed before he transformed into something unrecognizable.
The Belgot Magic Tower. The collective embodiment of Belgot’s magical arts, nurtured through the vast expenditures of previous emperors. Ah, yes. That tower—always an irritating thorn in my side. What did it matter if it ceased to exist? In those crimson eyes, now stripped of all reason and reality, a fierce flame ignited.
“You’ve made such a mess of things, and yet you still dare propose a deal to me. That is, in its own way, quite remarkable.”
Auredhian Belgot stopped with five steps remaining.
“Rather than allow a treacherous tower whose backstab I cannot predict to persist, it would be far better to swiftly turn it into an enemy. Do you truly believe I cannot bend a single Magic Tower to my will? You seem to have forgotten—this is not a Demon Kingdom, but a Holy Empire.”
Clearly, over the past hundred-odd years, I had been far too accommodating to the mages’ sensibilities. All lingering attachment to magic and the cultivation of mages was cleanly erased from Auredhian Belgot’s mind.
“Then what else remains? Ah, did you dare speak the name of the Princess of Lebovni?”
It was a blessing beyond measure that Yerenika had happened to leave at that moment. I needed to resolve this before she returned.
“If I seize you here and send the Princess back to her homeland, then that card too will be rendered useless to you.”
A sharp crash—glass shattering somewhere. Silver sanctity, stretched like a keen blade, bent fluidly and surged forward. It spread like a curtain over the people who had stiffened like wax figures, and rushed toward a single target.
From somewhere, a small scream seemed to echo.
* * *
A chilling silence descended upon the Grand Hall. I looked around, my face drained of all color.
[What is this…?]
The vast hall resembled an intricate painting that had been frozen in place, devoid of any sign of life. I frantically searched for faces I recognized.
[Ser, Sergei.]
Fortunately, I quickly spotted Sergei Lebanon in front of the terrace to my right. I rushed toward him with a sigh of relief, only to be struck with horror. Sergei Lebanon, stiffened like a wax figure, seemed unable to see me. My reflection did not appear in his green eyes. Rather than hastily hiding me behind him in shock, he merely stared into empty space with an expression of alarm.
It was not only Sergei Lebanon. Fernandis beside him, Duke Lebanon, all of them stood rigid with their faces slightly contorted. I reached out to touch their cheeks, cold and hard as stone, but my hand simply passed through without any sensation. The people who had been drained of their life force did not stir back to consciousness.
I barely managed to suppress the urge to faint as I looked around the Banquet Hall again. People frozen in unnatural poses. Candlesticks that did not flicker. Purple curtains caught mid-flutter by the wind, suspended motionless in the air. Air that did not flow.
[…Damn it.]
I cursed under my breath and turned my head anxiously. Even a fool would know whose doing this was. In a place where even the Azekien Mages were present, only Soleia Elad could wield such power. Just how much ability does that woman possess? At this point, she hardly seems human.
The air trembled once. And then, a voice so cold it could freeze all the blood in one’s body crashed heavily into my ears.
“Then what else remains.”
I swear I had never once imagined that man could produce such a voice. I turned my head as though drawn by a magnet. The voice had come from the far end of the hall, before the Imperial Throne.
“Did you dare speak the name of the Princess of Lebovni?”
I hid myself behind Sergei Lebanon and peered at the situation through the gap between his arms. Auredhian Belgot and Soleia Elad stood facing each other. At first glance, it appeared they were merely quarreling.
Wow, that man is truly furious. What should I do? Is it still better to stay near Auredhian Belgot? If I remain in this spirit state much longer, I feel like I might simply dissipate if someone so much as lights a flame with magic beside me…. I nervously observed their standoff, and then I realized something I had not known before, and my breath caught in my throat.
‘It was not merely a quarrel—.’
Before I could finish my thought, a window shattered directly above my head.
[…!]
Shards of glass scattered down like a deadly rain. I reflexively let out a small scream, but then I witnessed something extraordinary—the sharp fragments hung suspended in mid-air, blocked by an invisible barrier that prevented them from falling further.
A transparent, silvery veil spread wide across the entire Grand Hall, shimmering brilliantly. Though I felt no physical sensation, I instinctively knew it was Auredhian’s divine power.
I breathed out a sound like a groan.
[The Emperor’s divine power….]
It was the most concentrated, most raw and unrefined manifestation of divinity. I could see my soul’s surface, which had been wavering anxiously as if scattering into the void, reforming into its proper shape. But that moment was fleeting. Even in a state where I couldn’t properly sense anything, I felt magical power constricting from my head to my toes.
[Ugh….]
It was Soleia Elad’s magical power. Two superhuman forces colliding on the earthly plane created a spine-chilling, grinding friction. The air trembled. A bluish-silver divine radiance flashed in the distinct shape of a spear point, surging forward. And beneath that divine power swirling through the empty air, something dark and viscous began pooling at my feet, spreading like a proliferating stain.
Crack.
[Damn it.]
I cursed again through gritted teeth as I watched the dark miasma slowly accumulating on the Banquet Hall floor. The aura expanded its territory bit by bit. It wasn’t merely a black mist—it spiraled and whirled like a vortex. Between those pitch-black gaps, I could glimpse what looked like bone gleaming with an eerie white light. Bone fragments shaped distinctly like hands.
Suddenly, a terrible realization struck me.
[…It’s not human.]
This wasn’t Soleia Elad’s power. This was no force a mere human could possess. A skeleton risen from Hell. A phantom? But if it were merely a dead spirit, then why… My feet instinctively retreated step by step. Looking down, I saw my translucent body becoming increasingly transparent. It wavered as if it might vanish from the earthly realm at any moment, bearing scratches as if clawed by something unseen.
[I never thought the taboo of Remordi would be broken in ancient times like this.]
I seemed to hear Raulus’s voice grinding out those words. I instinctively understood what I had to do. For Remordi, Udeta. For magical power, divine power. And for the unknown existence in the Underground… the Absolute beyond Udeta.
I had to summon Raulus to the earthly realm.
But was that even possible?! I was an ordinary human with virtually no divine power whatsoever. To summon Raulus, I would need divine power on the level of an Emperor. I’d even heard that any attempt on my part would result in nothing but a pathetic death. There was no way I could summon Raulus….
[….]
But then another thought surged forward. Auredhian would ensure that not a single hair on the heads of the people in this Grand Hall would be harmed. He was not a man who would stand idle while such a catastrophe unfolded in his own nation, in his own Imperial Palace. But if that strange bone fragment truly possessed power beyond human capability, power from beyond Remordi… then truly, the future was unknowable!
While I stood paralyzed, unable to move in either direction.
“Ah.”
Auredhian let out a short gasp. Even from a distance, I saw blood spray across his right cheek and was shocked.
[That, that, that woman….]
How dare she lay hands on him! That was when my reason completely snapped. A wound on my man’s face! I abandoned my meaningless hypotheticals and probability calculations on the spot. Without hesitation, I turned around. Whether it meant death or ruin, I had to try…!

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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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