Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 88

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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 88
He didn’t know what else he should be thinking. In that moment, his mind wasn’t filled with anger, despair, or shock—only anxiety.
No, it couldn’t be.
Soleia Elad’s slender arm, which had been clinging to his shoulder like a tentacle, suddenly grasped at empty air. Auredhian turned his body and moved forward. Toward the small form sprawled carelessly across the grass. There was no room for hesitation in his steps. Before he could even reach her, his mouth opened first.
“Yerenika.”
No answer came. She was someone who loved being called by name and should have lifted her head immediately. The anxiety doubled, overwhelming him. He immediately lifted the motionless small body and held her. He held her and checked her face.
A face so pale that all vitality seemed drained away. Her slender neck bore bright red marks where something had gripped her, blood beading along the scratches. Her legs and arms visible between the dress hem were covered in wounds. Even though his own hands touched her, her body remained cold.
“Ah.”
A stunned groan escaped his lips. She should never have been left alone—. But before Auredhian could even accept that fact in his mind, whoosh, a light and gentle breeze swept past. It was a warm breeze. Carried on a wind from an unknowable direction, something changed.
“…!”
And it was in the very next moment that her tightly closed eyes snapped open.
* * *
“…Gasp!”
I opened my eyes as if being forcibly dragged up from the surface of water. The moment my eyes opened, what I saw was a pair of violet eyes that seemed to be tinged a deeper red than usual. Before I could even read all the shock and alarm contained within them, I first let out a sigh of relief.
“Thank goodness….”
Wow, that was really close…! When I rushed to the garden in front of Luxia Palace, what I saw was nothing other than my own body sprawled carelessly and Auredhian approaching it. After a desperate slide, I managed to reach my body and successfully returned to my flesh. It was a miracle that I succeeded before the body died.
“Really, thank goodness… huh?”
But before I could finish speaking, I was pulled into Auredhian’s embrace. My shoulder, which had nearly collided with him, began to throb with a sharp ache. With sensation fully returning, I felt the firm body holding me tightly. Reflexively, a flustered voice tumbled out.
“Y-Your Majesty?”
My voice came out hoarse, as if it didn’t belong to me. Why did my voice sound like this? The man who pressed me into his arms offered no answer. I heard him exhale slowly, a suppressed sigh.
I blinked blankly, then met the gaze that shot directly at me. A woman bound in the midst of countless chains of holiness—so many I couldn’t count them. Sharp holiness that glimmered like silver spearheads was aimed at her from all directions.
Soleia Elad. Always composed, or cool, or seductive. That beautiful face, which had maintained such expressions, was now twisted mercilessly.
“Hah.”
Auredhian seemed to hear the sound of me gasping sharply. With a weak floating sensation, my body was lifted up. Auredhian pressed my head firmly into his embrace.
“W-Wait….”
It wasn’t a particularly rough movement, but for some reason my waist and shoulders began to ache. However, compared to the pain in my throat, that was nothing.
“Ugh.”
God, it hurts so much! Half-dazed from the pain, I had to receive kisses that fell ceaselessly on my forehead and the top of my head while held in his arms.
“Ah, really. You’re trying to drive me mad….”
Auredhian seemed to be muttering something. But with his teeth clenched, only a low voice escaped, so I couldn’t hear exactly what he said.
“Um….”
I could tell what kind of expression he must be wearing without even looking. The air was trembling. I barely managed to peek my eyes over his shoulder. And I was startled by what I saw.
Whoosh.
Holiness, honed sharp as a blade and gleaming with a bluish tint, raked across Soleia Elad’s dress hem, her exposed arms and legs. That was all I saw. Auredhian turned around while holding me. My view naturally rotated with him. A firm hand fixed my head as it tried to turn with him.
“Wait, just wait. Your Majesty, right now….”
“I could kill her right now.”
What? My thoughts froze solid. My eyes snapped wide open. Before I could even protest, a cold voice continued.
“To unearth her roots, I’d have to keep her alive, but it might be better to just kill her now.”
I felt a hand lightly brushing the back of my head. It was always a gentle and warm hand. But the words it spoke were anything but gentle.
“Isn’t that right, Yerenika?”
Was this truly the man I knew? The thought struck me unbidden. What on earth had Soleia done to provoke such fury from Auredhian Belgot? He was not one to openly display displeasure, yet here he was, consumed by rage. I hastened to speak, my voice urgent.
“Wait, Your Majesty. There’s something I need to confirm—”
Even those few words tore at my throat with searing pain. A metallic, coppery taste flooded my mouth.
“There’s something I need to confirm—”
“I have nothing to confirm.”
His hands, stroking my shoulders and back, were unnaturally gentle.
“Neither will you.”
“What do you mean—”
Now the taste of blood rose from the root of my tongue. My body, ravaged by Leria’s dark magic, had not yet recovered even under Auredhian’s divine power. Damn it. Even clothed in flesh, I remained fragile as glass. I grasped his collar and lifted my head.
“Your Majesty, I’m not dead. I’m perfectly fine, so please, just give me a moment to think—”
“Does a perfectly fine person sound like that?”
There was something I needed to confirm. What stood behind Soleia. What it meant that the taboo of Remordi had been broken. Why Raulus was grinding his teeth so fiercely—I needed to understand—
“…!”
My thoughts could not continue. My body began to tremble violently, beyond my control, like an aspen leaf in the wind. I could sense it instinctively. This was it. This was the malevolent aura Raulus had told me to perceive. An evil, inhuman presence that had crossed Remordi’s taboo and set foot upon the surface world. I parted my trembling lips.
“Ra, ra, ra…”
Raulus!
As I cried out that name internally, as if coughing blood, the earth itself split open. Even though I had turned away, I could sense it clearly. The ground convulsed violently with a deafening roar.
“…!”
I felt Auredhian’s grip momentarily weaken. I seized the opportunity and lifted my head, quickly turning to look behind me. And I saw that the ground beneath Soleia had completely torn asunder.
“…Insane.”
The earth yawned open like a monster’s maw, exposing the abyssal depths of the Underground in their entirety. Soleia, bound at the arms and waist by chains of divine light, floated suspended directly above that terrible chasm.
Crack.
“That sound…”
I murmured blankly. That sound. Something dry and brittle scraping against my nerves, colliding violently. From within the fissured earth, something pale and ghastly emerged. A skeletal hand, withered and gaunt. That bony appendage groped across the surface as if searching for something.
Raulus. I called his name silently once more. The cross-shaped earring dangling from my earlobe seemed to grow heavier with each passing moment.
“Raulus.”
“What?”
Auredhian, who had remarkably caught my faint murmur, lowered his gaze to me. I quickly unwound my arms from around his neck and struggled free. In that same instant, the flow of divine power that had swirled around Auredhian came to an abrupt halt. The very air stilled.
Seizing that gap, I managed to break free from his embrace. My feet touched the ground, and my body swayed momentarily, but fortunately I did not collapse. I ignored the sharp pain in my ankles and whispered softly.
“Raulus.”
Whether Auredhian heard me or not, I called out that name again, urgently.
“You said to call you. Why won’t you come!”
Finally, my patience snapped.
“Slow!”
A voice echoed through my mind at that very moment. Just as I was about to unleash a torrent of curses.
[This is all because you’re so pathetically weak. Who else is there to blame?]
The earring grew heavy. A silvery luminescence, tinged faintly blue, burst forth. As the divine power that had flowed into me from Auredhian drained away completely, the concentration of magical force that pricked my body surged instantaneously. Hundreds of thorns, far thicker and sharper than needles, seemed to pierce through my entire being, and agonizing pain overwhelmed me.
“Gasp—”
[Endure, little fragment. Until I properly reconstitute my form.]
How could I possibly endure this? I had clearly overstepped the bounds of my abilities. It was not Auredhian or Soleia who was dying from the relentless collision of divine and magical forces—it was me. Me, who could perceive both magic and divinity with almost all five senses.
“Insane. What cursed luck….”
Moreover, this oppressive force pressing down from above felt distinctly different from Soleia’s magical aura. It was far more akin to the sensation I’d experienced when confronting Raulus’s manifestation.
A pressure that stole every breath from my lungs, a gravitational weight threatening to bury me into the earth below. This was decidedly not the power of a mere human. Then was it the strength of a specter? Yet how could a phantom—already dead, its flesh and organs long since rotted away—emit such overwhelming force?
No. This was not the power emanating from some wandering spirit haunting the borderlands. I steadied my breathing with difficulty, cursing like a prayer.
“Damn it. What exactly did you summon, sister…?”

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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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