Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 94

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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 94
“Be quiet, really….”
“Be quiet about what? The moment your body recovers, we’re packing up and leaving, so keep that in mind.”
I let Sergei Lebanon’s threat go in one ear and out the other. Raulus, undeterred, climbed up my body and grumbled.
[Besides, this drowsy, languid feeling is the first time it’s ever existed. Can’t you do something about that body of yours?]
My insignificance seemed to possess the ultimate destructive power of dragging my opponent down to my level. Then again, since the summoning ritual itself hadn’t followed proper procedures, it was only natural that Raulus couldn’t exert his full strength.
[But there is something hopeful, crumb.]
“What is it?”
[For now, since I’m here, you won’t suddenly die from mana depletion. You no longer have a time limit, that’s what I mean.]
For once, Raulus was saying something genuinely comforting.
[Second, it takes quite a while for that bastard Hades to adapt to a human body. Probably at least several years before he can begin acting in earnest?]
Now that I think about it, Soleia Elad had thrown that question at Hades—how he intended to adapt to a human body. Hades had said her body would be sufficient to accept him.
But if it takes Hades at least several years to adapt to her body, then we’ve bought ourselves that much time. How many years would it take? One year? If I’m being generous, three? But to search the entire continent, a mere few years doesn’t seem like enough….
As I anxiously tried to estimate the years, Raulus pressed both paws firmly on my legs as if to demand my focus.
[I’m not done talking yet. There’s a third hopeful fact.]
“There’s a third one? What is it?”
[I planted a seed of holiness in that bastard’s tail!]
“What?!”
My eyes widened in surprise, and Raulus wagged his tail triumphantly.
[Well, it’s only a seed at best, but it’ll be no problem for tracking. That Hades won’t even know holiness is clinging to his body. He can’t sense it.]
“When did you do something so clever?”
[That day, right before everything shattered beneath Remordi.]
“Wow, Raulus. You’re so smart…!”
Admiration for Raulus bloomed abundantly in my eyes in an instant.
[Go tell her. While purifying all of Belgot, chase after the seed of holiness. And in the meantime, you….]
Raulus scanned my body from top to bottom and spoke decisively.
[Let’s get you some rest, little one.]
“Rest?”
[You nearly died. If I hadn’t been right beside you, no matter how much holiness she poured into you, you wouldn’t have made it. This land is the worst for you too.]
Seeing even Raulus say this, it seemed I was truly in a precarious state. I thought about where I could move about most freely. Looking at Sergei Lebanon sniffling in the corner, the answer came quickly.
“You were like a thoroughbred when you were in Lebovni, but now you’ve become a dying old warhorse, our Yerenika….”
Lebovni. A remote kingdom with beautiful mountains and clear waters, where they didn’t even know the first letter of magic.
‘Is it really okay to go back like this….’
The original story had definitely changed. I continued thinking quietly before suddenly realizing. I had managed to twist even the original fate that had been assigned to Auredhian Belgot.
It pains me that I might be sacrificed in return, but my struggles—mere butterfly wings—were not in vain. I don’t know what kind of typhoon those wings will become and what storm will descend upon me, but in any case, I’ve accomplished everything I set out to do when I entered this world.
So what remains now is me. Me, who has crossed the threshold of death countless times. Me, who doesn’t know what kind of backlash will pummel me…!
“Self-reliant survival.”
I muttered forcefully. Sergei Lebanon was now looking at me as if I were mad.
“Self-reliant survival. Self-reliant survival….”
Regardless, I shook my head vigorously. My pale pink hair, made unusually dry from the pain, fluttered in all directions. I clenched my fists firmly.
“My objective is to survive on my own strength…!”
While Hades completely consumed Soleia’s body, and while Auredhian Belgot pursued him from behind, my priority was to fully recover my own strength. It would be even better if I could summon Raulus, Hades’s only true rival, with greater perfection!
“Hey, come here and let me check your temperature. It’s time for your medicine.”
“Go away, Sergei Lebanon.”
The moment I returned, it was time for extreme recuperation, Yerenika! I shoved Sergei Lebanon under the bed and reaffirmed my resolve. Now that it’s come to this, my only goal is to survive to the very end no matter what!
* * *
“All official documents have been delivered, Your Majesty.”
“Without omission?”
“Yes.”
Diego Schmart sighed as he watched the Emperor scan through the documents with eyes still clouded by suspicion. It had been merely ten days since he witnessed with his own eyes the entire Imperial Palace engulfed in purifying flames.
Naturally, the Imperial Palace remained unrepaired throughout those ten days, and the Emperor had issued orders to conduct purification operations across all of Belgot. Diego Schmart could no longer be certain how many bodies the Emperor thought he possessed.
“I have verified everything, so you may rest assured. The purification operations are scheduled to commence from the end of this month.”
“The timeline?”
“Three years, approximately….”
“Reduce it to two years.”
A sharp command fell like a blade. And Diego Schmart became certain. The Emperor undoubtedly thought his body was worth two or three of itself.
“…Yes.”
Yet there was nothing else he could say. He had essentially failed in the escort mission for the Princess of Lebovni that the Emperor had entrusted to him.
The virtuous priest had to bear considerable guilt. In truth, even if it were someone completely unrelated, guilt would arise if one had stayed by the Princess’s side during these ten days of her suffering. Especially for someone who had witnessed her body and soul torn asunder before their very eyes. And even more so for someone who had witnessed that spectacle yet could do nothing.
‘Should I speak of it, or should I remain silent…?’
Diego Schmart had agonized over that very question for nearly ten days. Should he confess to the Emperor that he had seen the Princess’s ‘soul’ dressed in strange attire that day, or should he keep silent?
Yet regardless of any decision, he had not even been granted the opportunity to broach the subject with Auredhian Belgot. The moment one touched upon it, he would spew forth fierce words without restraint, so it was no wonder that everyone in the Imperial Palace, including Diego Schmart himself, had learned to keep their distance.
The Princess had suffered gravely. Even with holiness filling her body completely, there was no discernible effect, and they had done nothing but wait for her to open her eyes for a full ten days. Having witnessed that sight from right beside her, it was only natural that the Emperor had become extremely sensitive.
Perhaps it was a blessing that the palaces of the Imperial Palace remained relatively intact? It was a stroke of tremendous fortune that more than a dozen palaces had not all collapsed entirely.
Of course, the Training Grounds, the carefully tended Garden, and every other vacant land where no palace stood had been either charred black or carved out with massive craters. Yet everyone in the Imperial Palace, including Diego Schmart, had breathed a sigh of relief that the destruction had at least ended there.
However, their master showed not the slightest interest in the ruined Imperial Palace.
“We have received word that Rosel, the Master of the Magic Tower, is heading toward the Southern Region. I have ordered the purification operations to be expedited at every passage leading to Kelkita in the south, so he should be captured within this year at the latest.”
Auredhian Belgot’s lips curled upward slightly. After the Master of the Magic Tower fled with his disciples and the woman designated as the next Master of the Magic Tower sank into the earth, the Belgot Magic Tower had been ransacked to its very roots. Yet most of the evidence had already been incinerated, and the Black Mages who had fled had vanished without a trace. What remained in that now-empty tower was merely dozens of corpses and a handful of mages. Even those he could not trust, so he had confined them all to the Underground Dungeon, leaving the Imperial Court with precious few mages it could immediately deploy.
“Damn it.”
Auredhian Belgot cursed under his breath.
All the time, all the money he had poured into the Magic Tower. The Magic Tower that his countless ancestors had built up across generations was actually rooted in the darkest of evils. When the most absurd assumption proved precisely correct, the feeling was far more vile than imagination could conjure.
The Magic Tower that had been breached that day was littered with corpses controlled by black magic.
“How is it? Do you dislike corpses?”
The voice of the witch—one he would not mind tearing to shreds—had struck his ears. It was clear that Yerenika had intended to create that very spectacle. For reasons he could not fathom, it became evident midway that she was targeting Yerenika. And Yerenika, for whatever reason she harbored, had allowed that woman to escape.
He should have severed her then. Auredhian Belgot pressed his temples firmly, recalling that kiss tinged with the metallic scent of blood.
“How am I supposed to push that away….”
Yerenika had clearly seen through the most perfect method to restrain him, even if only momentarily. He had fallen into her trap most magnificently, and in doing so, he had lost Soleia.
There was another mystery. That silver wolf that had fallen from the sky out of nowhere—what on earth was it? That wolf cub that bore the resemblance of her sky-blue eyes. Auredhian Belgot distinctly remembered what Yerenika had murmured vacantly that night.
“Raulus….”
It was a summons far too purposeful to be the voice of one seeking a god in a moment of crisis.

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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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