The Abandoned Prince’s Ghost Bride - Chapter 139

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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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The Forsaken Prince’s Phantom Bride — Episode 139

“Stop them!”
“Don’t let them pass this point under any circumstances!”
Black Mages in priestly robes appeared before Lucian and Age as they ran.
They hurled Black Magic, but at the head of the group was a White Dragon who had lived seven hundred years.
Freeze.
At his Dragon Word, the entire fifty meters ahead turned to solid ice. The Black Mages charging forward, the Black Magic hurtling through the air, and those preparing ambushes—all of them were buried beneath ice.
Only the path for Age and Lucian remained unfrozen, stretching cleanly forward.
Lucian followed close behind Age, passing through the Black Mages entombed in that thick ice.
He could see their eyes rolling wildly inside the frozen prison. It was grotesque enough to raise the hair on his arms.
“Just keep your eyes ahead. They won’t break free with their strength anyway. If it really bothers you…”
Age raised his right hand and clenched his fist in empty air.
Instantly, everything frozen shattered into fragments.
Witnessing Age’s complete lack of hesitation, Lucian couldn’t help but feel taken aback.
“You’ll get used to it. With a heart that soft, you won’t protect anything worth protecting. While you’re hesitating, your allies die. Remember that.”
“I… understand.”
“It’s far faster this way than taking them all into custody and executing them one by one. The Diamond Hall will be here soon—prepare yourself.”
Lucian felt a bloodlust so sharp it seemed to cut his skin and immediately shifted into combat stance.
Before long, Age and Lucian were forced to stop.
“The Sun has only just found his rest. I cannot allow any disturbance to intrude upon that peace.”
A single Black Mage stood directly before the entrance to the Diamond Hall.
“Bedford…”
He was the leader of the Black Mages.
At Lucian’s murmur, Bedford silently released his power.
Boom—!
It was incomparably stronger than any Black Mage they had faced thus far.
‘… It might rival Leon’s.’
Having once felt Leon’s strength, Lucian swallowed hard against the rising dread.
As he considered how to overcome this opponent, Age took a single step forward.
“I’ll handle this one. You move ahead.”
“… What?”
“It seems something is happening beyond as well.”
Lucian’s eyes widened as he stared straight ahead. Beyond Bedford, past a thick Barrier, he could see a door trembling as if it might collapse.
“Lia!”
Lucian surged forward, and Bedford responded immediately.
“Not so fast.”
But Age cut off his path at once.
More than that, Age bound Bedford’s hands in ice. Both figures then vanished from sight.
Lucian reached the Barrier.
Crackle—!
“Ugh!”
Strong electricity coursed through him the moment he drew near, before he could even touch it. Seeing the tips of his fingers blackened by the burn, Lucian let out a cry of pain.
“Lia, just wait a moment longer.”
Lucian resolved to break through this Barrier swiftly and reach Lia’s side.

.
.

Meanwhile, Bedford, forcibly teleported elsewhere, shattered the ice binding him and looked around.
This was the Royal Hunting Ground. Fortunately, he was still within the Barrier.
“If you’re going to cause a ruckus here and the palace comes crashing down, what then?”
Age’s voice came from directly behind. Bedford ground his teeth and swung a fist wreathed in Black Magic.
Age dodged it effortlessly and retreated.
Watching him widen the distance in a heartbeat, Bedford’s eyebrow twitched.
“… You’re no ordinary human.”
“How else could Lucian have risen to that position without backing or allies?”
“That arrogant tone, and magic that activates with no preparation time… Even the palace mages couldn’t cast magic the way you do.”
The sound of gears turning inside Bedford’s mind carried this far.
“And what do you intend to do, now that you’ve guessed my nature?”
Age flicked his left hand. The temperature plummeted in an instant, and the whole body felt seared by cold, as though winter had arrived.
More than that—ice crystals formed in the void, their sharp faces all turning toward Bedford.
Magic of a realm no human could possibly imitate. Bedford let out a hollow laugh, smiling faintly.
“A Dragon, then…”
“You don’t look particularly surprised.”
“Dragons are the finest material for Black Magic.”
At that attitude, which didn’t even grant him status as a living being, a crack formed across Age’s expression.
His pupils lengthened vertically like a reptile’s, and Dragon Fear began to coil upward from his entire body.
His whole frame froze solid, and terror of a predator washed over him involuntarily—yet Bedford kept smiling.
“Over three hundred years, we have sought the means to break the witch’s Seal.”
The first-generation master, Caligo, had failed to break it. They even captured witches from various places and demanded they reveal how to undo the Seal.

‘Why should we tell you such a thing? Whether we die this way or that way, it’s all the same. We won’t grant the likes of you what you wish. Live your whole life merely watching over that young witch, sealed away.’

Those were the words of the greatest witch of all.
At her words, Leon erupted in fury and immediately executed every witch they had captured, the greatest among them first.
Even with witches, Black Mages, mages, and sorcerers of all disciplines called upon, they could not break the Seal.
The Black Mages in cooperation with Leon naturally followed his command, pursuing the method to break the Seal across generations, and at last reached one conclusion.
“Since a Dragon created the Seal, we have no choice but to use a Dragon to undo it.”
What the Black Mages did after that was perfectly obvious.
“About one hundred and fifty years ago, we captured the Green Dragon just after it attained its Adult Form.”
Age’s eyes snapped wide.
“The resistance was fierce during capture, so we resorted to… rougher methods. Its mind shattered.”
Age’s lips trembled, cold streaming from them as white scales rose along his skin.
“It became a Mad Dragon, so we conducted various experiments to determine how to kill it. It died midway through, but thanks to that, we obtained precious Dragon Byproducts, which proved invaluable to our Black Magic.”
“You dare speak such words before a Dragon. Do you have multiple lives?”
“We succeeded once in capturing a Dragon. Why not twice?”
Age’s pupils shrank, and a chilling cry tore from his throat.
Kraaaaaaaaagh!
A Dragon’s roar so terrifying it made his limbs shake rang through the forest, and the ice crystals hanging in the void were flung toward Bedford.
Bedford hastily unfurled a barrier to protect himself. Once the barrage of ice crystals ceased and he lowered his barrier, Bedford watched as murky smoke dispersed.
As the smoke cleared, what appeared before his eyes was whiteness that consumed his entire field of vision.
Age had already returned to his true Dragon form.
From his transformed body alone, killing cold poured forth, and frost crept across the nearby trees.
Though he had spoken with fierce confidence, this was actually Bedford’s first true encounter with a Dragon.
Yet because he had been taught the secret techniques for capturing Dragons and had refined them across generations, Bedford possessed absolute certainty he would win.
“I will show you the agony of having your limbs torn asunder, of a pain that makes death seem preferable.”
“The Green Dragon said something similar.”
Age and Bedford locked eyes, then, as if by mutual signal, launched their attacks simultaneously.
A tremendous roar echoed through the forest for a long time, loud enough to reach the Imperial Palace itself.

* * *

“It was right nearby all this time.”
Kaiser finally emerged from the Underground Tunnel and, arriving in the Gallery with the portraits of past emperors, muttered in frustration.
A passage to the Imperial Palace had been opened, small but visible, in a junction he had passed several times.
He had simply gone past it too quickly to notice.
“P-please, just put out this fi—!”
“Oh right, you’re still here.”
At the pained words coming from his side, Kaiser glanced back dismissively.
The Black Mage who had shown him the way was being consumed by the White Flame of the Emperor.
Since it only burns that which is corrupt, this alone wouldn’t claim his life. But the Black Mage was suffering as if death would have been a mercy.
Kaiser snapped his fingers, and the White Flame that had engulfed the Black Mage died away instantly.
Finally freed from agony, the Black Mage’s face lit with gratitude.
Squelch—
“… Huh?”
His relief was short-lived. He could form no further thought. Seeing an arm pierce through his chest and emerge on the other side, the Black Mage’s eyes wavered.
But before he could complete another thought, that light slowly faded.
“You worked hard. Thanks to you, I got here smoothly.”
Kaiser turned away with a smirk. Besides the Black Mage at his feet, the Underground Tunnel leading into the Gallery had quite a few corpses piled up.
A trap Kaiser had set in advance had been triggered. Since only Black Mages had used this passage all this time, such a thing was possible.
Just as Lia had suggested before, he had planted additional traps in a few other locations beyond this one.
He could feel that those traps had already been sprung.
He realized that without those traps, the Imperial Palace might have been in even greater upheaval by now.
“Still, there are cockroaches swarming all over the place.”
After entering the Imperial Palace, Kaiser had tracked down every presence he felt. Half of them were unfamiliar presences. Black Mages, probably.
“I should head toward Lucian.”
It seems Lucian is struggling with something on his own.
Kaiser quickened his pace. As he left the Gallery, something stirred among the corpses in the Underground Tunnel he had vacated.
“The 3rd Battalion Commander…!”
He was a Black Mage fortunate enough to have avoided a fatal wound and clung to life. The person Kaiser had just killed was one who held considerable authority and skill among the Black Mages.
The Black Mage, who had watched Kaiser handle him as easily as a child, revealed his presence to spread word of this fact.
“… Huh?”
But suddenly, flames appeared before his eyes. Before he could even wonder at it, they swelled in size and consumed him along with all the corpses scattered nearby.
“No, this can’t—!”

.
.

Aaaaaaaagh!
“Where do you think you’re going, slipping away alone?”
Kaiser, strolling through the corridors, snorted. He already knew there was still a living Black Mage.
He simply hadn’t dealt with them on the spot because it wouldn’t have been amusing.
But now that matters had sorted themselves out to a degree, there would be no further reinforcements for the Black Mages through that channel.
“Intruder!”
Just then, a Black Mage spotted Kaiser from a distance and approached.
“Where in the world did you come from?”
“We made sure everyone went to the Knight’s Training Ground without exception.”
They apparently mistook Kaiser for a civilian who hadn’t Surrendered.
From what they said, Kaiser grasped the situation.
“Ah, so that’s why I felt so many people gathered in one spot.”
A notably large concentration of presences was felt not far from here. Among them were the presences of Ruber and Serena.
“Surrender at once if you don’t wish to die!”
The Black Mages displayed their Black Magic with snickering confidence. Kaiser, wondering if this counted as a threat, raised his fist.
Bang—!
A dull, heavy impact echoed through the void.
In less than a minute, Kaiser had reduced the Black Mages’ faces to rags and left them piled unconscious on the floor, then pushed himself upright.
“Hmm…”
He sensed toward Lucian and the location where many presences clustered.
“More hands would be useful, if nothing else.”
His footsteps then turned in one direction.

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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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