Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 95

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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 95
Fortunately, all of his questions were answered when Yerenika sought him out in the dead of night.
“A fragment of Raulus?”
Auredhian Belgot gazed down at the wolf cub nestled in her arms with suspicion. The small creature, from which no trace of divine pressure emanated, whimpered softly as it slept.
“Well, um. I’ve been rolling around here so much that I suppose Raulus took pity on me. His name is… um, well, Lari! Yes, that’s it. Lari.”
It was clearly a name she had just invented. As he continued to scrutinize the silver wolf with unwavering skepticism, Yerenika added with an awkward smile.
“Having Lari here seems to have helped me recover faster. Apparently His Majesty’s divine essence alone wasn’t enough. Still, I’m relieved that he came to help.”
By Auredhian Belgot’s standards, ten days could hardly be called early recovery, but Yerenika appeared unbothered.
“What proof do you have that this beast is Raulus’s fragment and not some monster?”
“Are you really going to be so disrespectful to Belgot’s guardian deity?”
Clear laughter echoed across the terrace. Yerenika gently combed her fingers through the wolf’s fur to reassure him.
“I’m a living witness, after all. Without Lari, I would have died for certain.”
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s just a figure of speech. And when I sent Soleia Elad away, Lari planted a seed of divine essence within her. It should help us track her location.”
“You can trace her?”
“As long as Soleia Elad remains on the surface and the seed doesn’t perish. And it seems something has attached itself to Soleia Elad just as Lari came to me. Lari says it would be best to find her before it fully blooms. It should take several years.”
“So at least a year or more. That’s sufficient.”
The earth had certainly split open, and Soleia Elad had fled into the depths below. He had immediately summoned purifying flames and burned through the entire Imperial Palace, yet he had failed to capture her.
He had resigned himself to believing she had escaped, but if Yerenika spoke the truth, this time he would finally force her to kneel before him. He would tear through not just Belgot but the entire continent if necessary to seize her.
Yerenika, watching his expression, carefully opened her mouth.
“And… about me.”
“Yes.”
“I’m not completely healed yet. The fundamental problem hasn’t been resolved. It’s a constitutional issue.”
“…You’re saying you need to leave.”
“I’m afraid so…”
Yerenika’s expression quickly grew downcast as she nodded. Yet Auredhian Belgot felt a wave of relief instead. He had been thinking it was time to send her away as soon as possible. The sensation of her body, cold and rigid as a corpse, still clung stubbornly between his fingers, tormenting him. Each time it did, the wicked witch’s voice echoed in his mind as well.
“In the end, it will be Your Majesty who kills that princess.”
So he had found himself needing to personally confirm multiple times a day, ever since Yerenika opened her eyes, that she was alive and breathing. In truth, nothing mattered more than that. The mere fact that those clear, sky-blue eyes were looking at him made all his doubts seem meaningless.
No matter how closely he remained by her side, the very soil of Belgot itself posed a danger to her. It was right that she return to the safety of Lebovni and convalesce in her family’s embrace. Wherever she was, as long as she lived and breathed safely in the place most secure for her, that was enough. If he could only be certain of that, he could bear to let her leave his side for a time.
After he had set his kingdom in order, after he had confirmed again and again that not a single danger remained to threaten her, only then would he indulge his desires. Auredhian Belgot steeled his resolve multiple times not to feel regret about her return to Lebovni.
Because even regret was merely greed at this moment.
Auredhian Belgot suppressed a sigh and gently lifted her into his arms. When he set her on the terrace railing, their eyes were nearly level. Yerenika let out a startled cry, then quickly turned her head to the side.
“And there’s something else I need to tell you. About the Imperial Palace, Your Majesty.”
“So when are you planning to leave?”
“Oh, in about two days. But Your Majesty, the Imperial Palace…”
“Two days, then.”
Auredhian Belgot answered dismissively and turned her head back toward him as she tried to look away.
“Stop looking elsewhere.”
“…Was it really necessary to do it like this?”
The way she tilted her head with her words drawn out was endearing. He understood immediately what she meant, but Auredhian Belgot chose to ignore it entirely.
“You have a long journey ahead.”
“What did you just say?”
“Your throat—is it better now?”
Her sky-blue eyes flashed with indignation in an instant. With no intention of letting the matter drop, Yerenika pointed sharply beyond the terrace.
“What on earth happened to the Imperial Palace!”
“Ah, that.”
“Ah, that?”
It seemed as though a huff of exasperation might burst from her small, upturned nose. Yerenika continued in rapid succession.
“I should have realized it from the moment you tore up the grounds in front of Bellirook Palace. The Imperial Palace has only a few magical mechanisms, but if you burn the whole thing down like that, if you dig it all up so people can’t even walk through it…. What are we supposed to do!”
Her voice grew hoarse midway through, punctuated by coughs. Though her distress was endearing, Auredhian worried that continuing would aggravate her throat further, so he covered her mouth with his hand.
“Enough. I understand.”
“You don’t look the least bit remorseful.”
“I am remorseful.”
Had I known the Imperial Palace would suffer such devastation from merely this much purification, I would have begun restoration work the moment I ascended the throne. Auredhian reflected on my own complacency and refocused on examining Yerenika meticulously.
“Your throat?”
“…It’s fine.”
“The bruises?”
“They’ve almost completely faded. Would you like to see?”
Auredhian caught her arm as she began to roll up her sleeve, exhaling something between a sigh and a laugh. To his eyes, she still resembled delicate glass shot through with countless fractures—glass so fragile it might shatter at any moment. The dark handprints around her slender throat had not faded even after nearly two weeks. How violently must she have been strangled for the damage to extend so deeply within?
Her body, dragged by the dead maidservant, bore countless lacerations and bruises across her arms and legs. The Royal Physician had said it was a miracle that nothing was broken or fractured. Moreover, she had coughed up blood the moment she regained consciousness, indicating severe internal injuries. By any measure, her condition could not be called fine. Yet there she stood, smiling so brightly as though nothing had happened. The mere thought of that expression made my chest ache—not merely ache, but burn as though being clawed at from within.
“Your Majesty?”
The edge of the thinnest bandage, meant to conceal the unsightly marks on her throat, fluttered in the breeze. Yerenika smiled brightly and tapped his shoulder playfully.
“Would you like me to tell you something interesting?”
“…What is it?”
“I think I can roughly tell what you’re thinking just by looking at your expression now.”
I have no idea what you’re talking about. Auredhian barely restrained himself from saying so. When he first met her, he had thought no one wore their heart so transparently on their face. He had been utterly mistaken. A complete miscalculation.
Yerenika knew how to conceal her true self behind that smiling face with perfect seamlessness. Whether intentional or not, her smile was nothing short of destructive in how it consumed the observer’s composure.
Yerenika wore precisely that smile as she swung her legs over the railing.
“Hmm, you have that expression again—like something displeases you. What is it this time?”
“Nothing like that.”
He could not bring himself to say that her smile was unwelcome. Of course, her radiant laughter was endearing, and yes, he found himself helplessly swayed by that face. But still, he would prefer to see her weep. Then he could tell at once—she is sorrowful now, she is in pain, it would be clear.
Having thought this far, Auredhian smiled faintly. A dangerous thought. Could she read even this?
“No, really. Don’t try to deceive me. You’re thinking of something else right now.”
“Am I?”
Well. His voice emerged without conscious intent.
“Then guess what I’m thinking right now.”
“Hmm….”
Yerenika tilted her head, appearing to ponder something briefly. Then she smiled with crystalline clarity.
“That you want to kiss me?”
A single sentence that robbed him of all words. Her carefully combed pale pink hair caught the wind and danced upward, flowing across the luminous full moon hanging above her head. The full moon of early dawn hung directly behind her. Auredhian could not discern which shone more brilliantly—her or the moon itself.
“…You’re not wrong.”
“I thought so.”
I answered quietly and reached for the blanket draped over the terrace railing.
It fluttered softly.
The thick blanket settled over my slender shoulders, my small frame disappearing entirely within it. The motion was habitual, something my body had learned to do instinctively over these past few days, requiring no conscious thought. As I pulled the blanket snug, Yerenika’s brow furrowed slightly.
“Ah, really. This is overprotective—”
Before she could finish her complaint, Auredhian Belgot leaned down and pressed his lips gently against hers. My body stiffened in surprise.
“…!”
But the kiss was brief, his lips parting almost immediately. The sweetness of it lingered in the space between us, stretching like taffy.
I blinked.
“Hmm. That’s it?”
Auredhian Belgot barely suppressed a laugh. Yerenika had a tendency to disarm people with her blunt honesty. How should he describe it? Mischievous, perhaps? He swallowed the word and said instead:
“Longing should linger.”
“Longing?”
He tucked the blanket around me again, carefully and thoroughly. A woman who had suffered through more than three and a half months in his kingdom—he wouldn’t have her catching another cold on the journey home. His next words came slowly, deliberately measured.
“That way, when we meet again, you’ll be happier to see me.”
In truth, Auredhian Belgot couldn’t be certain of anything. Even if he purified all of Belgot. Even if he recaptured the escaped Soleia Elad and beat her half to death. When that time came, would Yerenika still take his hand?
“Hmm….”
The slight furrow of her brow as she pondered something only deepened his unease. After a long moment of contemplation, she slowly opened her mouth.
“Well then, shall we do this instead?”
Her round eyes curved into crescents with a smile. It was a look that trampled his anxiety underfoot and swept right past his defenses. Yerenika spoke playfully, her nose twitching slightly.
“There was something I wanted to tell His Majesty before I leave.”
“Something you wanted to tell me?”
“But I suppose I should hold back too.”
Yerenika traced her slender, cool fingers along his lips as she whispered the rest.
“Then you’ll come find me all the faster, out of sheer curiosity, won’t you?”
It was a whisper dizzyingly sweet. His rigid expression melted away in an instant. Slender arms wrapped around his neck and pulled him close. My small frame nestled against him. Her soft voice drifted into my ear like a dream.
“I’ll carry the longing with me. Your Majesty, you just hold onto the curiosity.”
It was, truly, the most exquisite certainty. The luminous, almost translucent strands of her hair filled my vision as she rested against me. And in that moment, Auredhian Belgot understood instinctively that he would never forget those words—not any more than he could forget the bittersweet kiss from that night when the Imperial Palace burned.
* * *
The morning of departure was bustling from dawn.
“Mind yourself on the long journey, Princess. This medicine must be taken immediately after meals, this is a vitality tonic, and this one—you must take one every evening.”
“Yes.”
“You absolutely must not exert yourself strenuously for some time. No horseback riding, absolutely none whatsoever!”
“I can’t ride anyway, so that’s fine.”
“You must absolutely, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely not go near any mages or magical artifacts. One careless moment and your internal injuries could rupture again.”
“Eek, yes!”
The very thought of my injuries rupturing made me shudder. I grasped the Royal Physician’s hands firmly, my face pale, as I listened to his endless stream of warnings.
“Though you’ve improved considerably, you must not forget that you are still a patient. Do you understand? Your health is the absolute priority!”
“Yes. I understand.”
I smiled as brightly as I could manage, nodding vigorously. If I didn’t, I had a terrible premonition that we wouldn’t depart until the sun reached its zenith. Even after embracing the Royal Physician, there were still others who tried to detain me.

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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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