Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 85

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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 85
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If one asked what benefit came from existing as a spirit, there was precisely one answer: the absence of obstacles in my path. Walls, people, carriages, even the city gates themselves—I passed through a boulder as tall as myself in a peculiar experience that defied comprehension, emerging beyond the fortifications.
[…Ugh!]
Conversely, the drawbacks were numerous and merciless. A gust of wind arrived at precisely the wrong moment, sending my incorporeal form lurching helplessly side to side. I reached out to grasp something, anything, but my hands passed through everything with pathetic ineffectuality.
Was this what weightlessness felt like? I had become tormented by the very wind that rustled through leaves!
Still, the speed was undeniable. Once I abandoned all attempts to stabilize myself and simply surrendered to the wind, I could traverse distances twice as fast as running myself to exhaustion. Rolling through empty air was an experience I doubted I would ever replicate, even in another lifetime….
In any case, my arrival at the Temple proved as swift as riding a horse at full gallop. The moment my feet crossed the Temple’s threshold, the oppressive magical aura that had constrained me noticeably weakened. Without hesitation, I ascended the stairs leading directly to the Altar.
“Entry is forbidden here. This is where Raulus walks in person.”
When I had mistakenly climbed these stairs before, Diego had explained that the Temple above was the Altar where Raulus descended directly. I did not linger and rushed up the stairs as though flying. Fortunately, the wind at my back aided my ascent, making the climb effortless.
[Wow, damn. Why is this so high!]
Yet high it truly was—absurdly, ridiculously high. The summit seemed impossibly distant.
[Damn it, this is insane!]
No matter how far I climbed, the end remained invisible. Building something this tall would never bring us closer to Udeta, so why construct it so unnecessarily high…!
The moment that thought crossed my mind, a violent gust struck from behind. My spirit-form, frailer than paper, tumbled across the stairs and was sent hurtling upward.
I’m dizzy. I think I’m going to be sick.
[…Gasp.]
A typhoon-like wind struck once more. My body shot skyward, then plummeted mercilessly downward.
[Ugh.]
I rolled across the floor. It was fortunate that I felt no sensation; had I possessed a physical body, my bones would have shattered completely.
[So dizzy….]
I felt nauseous, as though suffering from motion sickness caused by wind. To experience vertigo from wind alone was truly extraordinary. I was experiencing everything under the sun. I barely gathered my wits and pushed myself up from the floor. At least the wind continued to aid me. In an instant, I found myself atop the Altar.
The city of Barishard spread beneath me like a map. The Magic Tower rising in the distance had shrunk to the size of my pinky finger. Every window of its dark spire blazed with light. The Imperial Palace had evidently recognized the emergency. The Magic Tower, teeming with Soleia’s subordinates, was hardly a welcoming sight.
Shifting my gaze, I glimpsed the Imperial Palace, no larger than a fingernail. What was transpiring there at this very moment? I bit my lip anxiously and turned away from the city of Barishard.
Between towering pillars, the Altar stood at the center. The massive, flat marble platform rose far higher than my own height. I lifted my gaze to regard its surface. Should I ascend?
The instant that thought formed, wind surged forward once more. My paper-doll form was lifted into the air and descended lightly upon the Altar’s surface. The wind was aiding me. Without further deliberation, I called out to my pitiful absolute being with all my strength.
[Raulus.]
Here lay the true problem. How was I to summon Raulus? I called to him again, infusing my voice with desperation.
[Raulus, can you hear me?]
There was no answer. Yet I vividly remembered Raulus manifesting and grasping Leria’s throat, his voice cold and cutting. He had violated Udeta’s taboo against direct intervention in the mortal realm and descended to the surface. But he had said he could not remain long.
A conversation from the day I first saw the mural depicting Raulus in the Temple flashed through my mind.
[Once every ten years, when I descend to the mortal realm, my children summon me by the name I have given them.]
The name Raulus had bestowed. A baptismal name. I did not know my own, but…I knew many others. I had clearly seen the full names of successive Belgot Emperors written in tiny script beneath Raulus’s mural in the Temple.
The first name to catch my eye. The very first name on the first line. The name of the first emperor. The name Raulus had proudly revealed as the baptismal name of his firstborn child came to mind first. But would that suffice…? I opened my mouth to attempt something, anything.
[Adrea.]
A sound like wind brushed past my ear. No—it was the sound of space being torn asunder. I spoke with renewed conviction.
[Lacais Lu Elizad…. Adrea, Belgot.]
The sanctity contained within the names I uttered manifested upon the Altar, accompanied by a shimmering aura of light.
[Ah.]
The glimmering light spiraled upward across the Altar, then vanished through the circular opening in the ceiling. I gazed upward in a daze. Through the perfectly round aperture, like an observatory observing the heavens, the pitch-black night sky was visible. Stars glittered brilliantly.
Wind swept through the space. The Altar trembled faintly. My body swayed helplessly, as though it might be hurled into the void at any moment. Yet something felt subtly different from before. My body, which had been as light as a feather and seemed ready to scatter at the gentlest breeze, now felt ever so slightly heavier. In the next instant, a familiar voice resonated through my mind.
[Give me something.]
[Y-yes?]
In this spirit state, the voice was even more jarring than usual, like a hand churning my brain into pulp. Raulus, who had remained silent until now, finally spoke.
[Anything will do. Something to anchor me to the earthly plane. A medium.]
[A medium…?]
[A cross would be ideal, or any object that symbolizes me. Truly, anything at all.]
Anything? I quickly patted down my form, my expression darkening. There was nothing like that. I wasn’t wearing a physical body! Just bloodstained jeans and a white t-shirt. There was no cross or wolf-like symbol to be found, and even if there were, I wouldn’t be able to touch it. I felt around my body in various places, but still sensed nothing. Damn it, why does nothing ever work out smoothly for me?!
I was just about to unleash another torrent of curses.
A soft clink.
[Huh?]
Something heavy hung from my earlobe. It was the first distinct sensation I’d felt since separating from my body. Immediately after, not just my ear, but my entire form gained weight.
“Ah…”
I let out a bewildered gasp before freezing in shock. My voice was working properly. I quickly looked down at my body again. A frilled deep blue dress came into view. Still translucent, but unmistakably Yerenika’s form. My actual body should still be in the Imperial Palace, shouldn’t it?
But there was no time for such idle thoughts. The memory of preparations for the welcoming ceremony flashed through my mind like lightning.
“Raulus, you really meant anything would work, right?”
[Yes, anything.]
I immediately unfastened the earring from my ear. I reached up, wondering if I could actually grasp it, but fortunately the earring held firm in my hand. A silver cross-shaped earring with a deep purple gemstone set in its center. The moment I removed it and placed it on the Altar, Raulus’s voice turned petulant.
[Hey, that’s far too trivial.]
“Be quiet. You said anything would be fine.”
[Even so, my dignity…]
This god, really? I glared upward with wide eyes. In a situation where every second counted!
“That’s…”
In the end, I flashed my brightest smile while grinding my teeth.
“Can’t we think about that after you come down?”
My man—I had no idea what he was doing with that terrifying woman right now! Raulus still seemed thoroughly displeased. His grumbling voice hammered against my mind.
[You will be the first to bind me to the earthly plane with something so insignificant, child. And with the name of my very first child, no less.]
Wind wrapped around me in a spiral. I felt the faint divinity that had been circulating through Yerenika’s form being rapidly drained away. Simultaneously, all sensation in my body vanished once more.
[Ah.]
My form, returned to spirit state, twisted and wavered like a leaf caught in a gentle breeze. The world lurched violently before I could think of anything else. The marble Altar trembled as though it might crack at any moment. For an instant, I glimpsed what seemed to be a reddish-purple light flashing across my vision.
The clusters of shimmering light blazed suddenly like lightning. That was all I could see and hear from atop the Altar. The next moment, I couldn’t withstand the violent vortex that came rushing down, and I was swept away below the Altar.
[Ughhhh.]
I tumbled down below the Altar with a strange cry. I stifled my scream and barely managed to lift my head. And the moment I did, instead of the telepathic voice that usually shook my mind, I heard a real human voice emerging from an actual throat.
“Hello there, little crumb.”
[Ah…]
The tone was light, as though someone had simply stepped out for a picnic, yet the voice carried a solid resonance.
[Raulus…?]
“I never thought I’d walk the earth with my own feet again.”
The flippant manner of speech remained unchanged. The genderless quality of the voice itself was familiar to me. But his appearance was utterly unfamiliar.
Long, gleaming silver hair that dragged past the ankles rippled below the Altar. Skin as white as blank paper, delicate features carved with precision, a flat chest visible between the folds of an old-fashioned white tunic, and fingernails grown long and pointed. And above all, an oppressive divinity that permeated the space around him.
The being seated upon the Altar with an air of supreme indolence, chin propped upon one hand as it gazed down upon me, was divinity incarnate. A murmur escaped my lips, as though I were entranced.
[I… succeeded…]

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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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