Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 99

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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 99
The elderly mage’s face contorted in agony.
“You harbored a criminal deserving of immediate execution for nearly fifteen years as your disciple, concealing her perfectly right before my eyes.”
The Emperor’s lips curved upward—a smile beautiful yet twisted. The elderly mage, who had been master of the Magic Tower since the Emperor’s birth, now understood that he could hide nothing more.
* * *
“Underground… She must have gone underground, Soleia Elad.”
Throughout the journey back to the Capital, Auredhian pondered the confession Rosel had made.
“I don’t know how she managed it, but she was a child who traversed the realm of spirits as she pleased. Her ability to command corpses and spirits surpassed that of any Black Mage I’ve ever known.”
A woman who had freely crossed even Remordi itself.
“That child desired to seize the mightiest sacred power on earth, Your Majesty. Ever since the day she came to the Magic Tower…”
That she had coveted him was a fact he’d long known. Five years of women clinging to his side, all of them purged.
What he questioned was ‘why?’ Why had Soleia Elad become so obsessed with him?
“She was taciturn and rarely spoke much to me either… but once, in passing, she asked me something. What it would feel like to touch beyond Udeta.”
Beyond Udeta? That was madness itself. Even he, who had inherited power similar to the force flowing beyond Udeta—the mightiest on earth—dared not contemplate reaching it. Yet a mage wielding the opposite power sought it.
“She spoke as though accomplishing that would end everything.”
“Yet you’ve left her breathing… It seems you won’t kill her outright.”
Diego interjected, breaking his reverie. They were returning to the Capital. One of the few remaining Imperial mages was maintaining a teleportation circle suspended in the air. Auredhian stepped forward and answered dismissively.
“Too valuable to dispose of. She’s the finest mage in Belgot.”
Yet the punishment he’d imposed on Rosel was hardly lenient. The moment he finished hearing Rosel’s full confession, without a moment’s hesitation, he had incinerated him. With those distinctive pale-blue tinged silver flames of sacred fire.
Of course, Chernata Rosel was not a Black Mage, so he had not perished in that ‘execution by flame.’ Purifying fire fundamentally burned only those corrupted things forbidden to the earth.
Yet sacred power was still a force that destroyed mana, and those flames, brimming with lethal intent, had burned away nearly all of Rosel’s magical power. Recovery would likely take considerable time.
Diego clicked his tongue at that unhesitating judgment. As time passed, he’d grown somewhat accustomed to a temperament that grew sharper with each passing day, like thorns sprouting in one’s mouth. Yet complete adaptation remained difficult. The punishments Auredhian meted out as he apprehended the remnants of the Magic Tower one by one were resolute and cold—chilling enough to freeze the spine of any observer.
The virtuous priest shook his head slowly.
“To strip a mage of their mana… You’ve become quite terrifying of late, Your Majesty.”
“I’ve learned that leniency accomplishes little. At least I’ve spared her life—isn’t that generous?”
Auredhian stepped swiftly into the teleportation circle. The surroundings shifted instantly, and a biting cold descended like a knife’s edge. In moments, they had moved from the gateway to the Southern Region to a point traversing the central reaches of the Empire. Diego followed him out of the circle, murmuring.
“I would have preferred death.”
“That’s precisely why I spared her. It will be more agonizing.”
Without a mage capable of weaving magic for long-distance instantaneous travel, reaching the Capital required changing teleportation circles multiple times. This was why he’d clung so desperately to each mage.
Remembering the time and resources invested in the Magic Tower and mage cultivation, his chest burned anew. Even consoling himself that discovery now was fortunate, the thought of the wasted blood-like taxes of Belgot’s citizens reignited his fury.
“That night, I felt the earth crack. Since that child always entered and exited the underground that way, I knew immediately. That she had committed the deed…”
The earth cracking, and she traversing below it with ease. Yes. On that night when chaos erupted in the Imperial Palace, Soleia Elad had vanished downward like falling. Beneath the earth. Underground. Below Remordi?
No matter how much a Black Mage she was, he’d never heard of a human crossing beyond Remordi. A human transgressing that absolute forbidden boundary. A human breathing and living in that realm of corpses and spirits…
Impossible. Yet Auredhian knew that shutting down such thoughts with ‘impossible’ was hardly sound reasoning. That very complacent belief had rendered the Magic Tower irreparably damaged. Moreover, there was something Yerenika had left behind in passing before her departure.
“Something seems to have attached itself to Soleia Elad just as Lari attached to me. Well, Lari says it would be good to find her before it fully blooms. It might take several years.”
Perhaps she had known… And now, more than the identity of the spirit attached to Soleia Elad, something else weighed on him. That avatar Raulus had sent to Yerenika. The wolf cub.
The thin, reedy voice Rosel had murmured like his final breath before death brushed against his ears.
“In truth, any sufficiently powerful sacred force would have sufficed for that child.”
Any would have sufficed… But on earth, the mightiest sacred power belonged only to himself—of Raulus’s bloodline—and a handful of priests including Schmart. So Soleia Elad’s target should still be himself. Yet why did Yerenika’s words from then keep circling in his mind?
“It’s Raulus’s avatar. Since I’ve been rolling around here so much, I suppose Raulus found it pitiful to watch.”
Even the smallest suspicions—mere hunches that something was amiss—I had resolved not to dismiss carelessly. So when the seeds of holiness that had clung to Soleia suddenly vanished without a trace, and when doubt crept into my heart regarding my distant lover’s safety, I could not simply overlook these signs.
My heart tightened with anxiety. For twenty-six years, I had kept myself at arm’s length from such restless and uneasy emotions, yet over this past year and a half, I had been forced to carry all of these unfamiliar feelings with me. With each brief letter that arrived, I found myself clinging to them more desperately.
The letters were always cheerful, containing nothing that should have caused me concern, yet the unease refused to subside. Like walking across thin ice while wearing heavy iron shoes, my anxious heart was now being driven ever closer to its breaking point. Because I could not identify the source of this dread, frustration and impatience accumulated layer upon layer.
Auredhian muttered irritably.
“Why has only a year and a half passed?”
“…?”
“Must we truly wait the full two years?”
“I… beg your pardon?”
Diego Schmart flinched and asked for clarification. Auredhian’s brow furrowed. His composure had shattered long ago.
“Slow.”
At the words he muttered habitually several times a day, Diego Schmart exhaled a sigh so heavy it seemed the earth itself might collapse. Regardless, Auredhian boarded the transfer gate leading to the Capital with quick strides. His silver hair fluttered in the ripple of magical energy.
The conclusion born from anxiety and impatience was singular: I must bring her back as soon as possible. The silver cross hanging upon Auredhian’s chest gleamed brilliantly in the radiant aura as the magic circle activated. In the place where the two men had stood, only that small light remained.
* * *
Spring of the following year. Hejad.
After the cold winter passed, the Southern Region was the first to feel the spring breeze, and Hejad, the gateway to the south, was now experiencing the melting of snow and the arrival of warm air.
“They say His Majesty visited during winter?”
“What are you talking about?”
As always, the bustling streets were filled with countless tales and rumors. Half were mere hearsay, half of that half were distorted facts, and the remainder were stories that approximated the truth.
“I’ve heard tell that the Vice-Prelate of the Barishard Church was seen.”
“It wasn’t just the Vice-Prelate, they say.”
“Come now, speak sense. What business would the Emperor have coming all the way to this remote Hejad?”
And rumors concerning the Emperor were being treated as mere gossip in this small city.
“You don’t believe me.”
“There’s no reason for him to make the journey in person. And in secret, no less.”
“There is a reason, I’m telling you.”
Footsteps crunched softly.
“Well then, let’s hear it. What is it?”
“It’s that….”
The hem of a long cloak brushed against the dry earth.
“A band of traitors was hiding in this Hejad, or so they say.”
“What?”
A short, incredulous laugh burst forth.
“In this rural city where no bounty has ever been issued?”
“Yes. They were the former master of the Magic Tower in the Capital.”
“Good heavens, you’re speaking of dangerous things. That topic is forbidden, forbidden.”
“I’m telling you it’s true.”
Though the air had grown warmer, the season still lingered at winter’s edge. People’s clothing remained drab and heavy. The black cloak covering from head to toe did not stand out particularly. Moreover, Hejad, being the only city leading to the Southern Region, was naturally filled with foreigners, and those in suspicious attire were commonplace. The peddlers pulling their carts continued their conversation.
“I’ve heard that the master of that collapsed Magic Tower fled. You’re saying he hid here?”
“Yes, yes. And so His Majesty came down to Hejad himself to interrogate him personally.”
“Hmm….”
The sound of the cart being dragged ceased as we arrived at our destination. The whisper of the black robe’s hem trailing across the ground fell silent in tandem.
“I don’t like the look on your face. You still don’t believe me, do you?”
“Belief requires merit. You’re far too credulous—you have a tendency to accept every rumor as gospel truth.”
“Tch, how exasperating.”
“Why don’t you just say outright that the Magic Tower’s master was actually a Black Mage? Then at least I could understand your position.”
“I’m not in the habit of spouting such absurdities. What do you take me for…”
The sound of goods being unloaded from the cart—clattering, thudding—and now their bickering had grown more heated.
“The rumor that His Majesty married this coming spring would be far more credible than this.”
“There was such a rumor?”
“Well, I only overheard it from the nobility who went south for their winter retreat. But this one does have credibility, doesn’t it? It’s the sort of gossip that spreads through the Capital.”
“Ah…… true enough. The Empress’s seat has been vacant for quite some time.”
The conversation drifted now toward the Emperor’s matrimonial prospects. Few among the passersby spared any attention for the foreign stranger standing motionless like a painted figure on the roadside.

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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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