The Crown I Will Take From You - Chapter 343

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Part 2, Chapter 190

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The sky visible through the window of the 1st Prince’s palace was so clear and bright.

“So then.”

It was the complete opposite of the devastation of the Holy Kingdom that Theo had confessed while kneeling.

“Paollo freed Rachel, who had been imprisoned in the obsidian layer, and seized control of the temple.”

The voice delivering the news was trembling.

“What about His Holiness the Pope?”

Medeia asked as she set down her teacup.

Her expression was calm as usual, but her green eyes were shining sharply.

If Pope Benedict had been there, he wouldn’t have given up control so easily.

“There are only Paollo’s words that His Holiness received divine punishment.”

Theo bit his lips tightly.

All the chaos began with the Pope’s absence.

“The false saint blinded the eyes of those who prayed, trapping the true saint in deception and persecution. How can this heavy sin be repaid?”

“The Goddess punished His Holiness and gave me, Paollo, a revelation, commanding me to set right the laws of the Holy Kingdom. The true representative is Lady Rachel!”

The proper priests and temple knights strongly resisted.

“All of this is vain nonsense! In which doctrine does it say that the Goddess’s representative uses black magic!”

“Is what happened to His Holiness the Pope truly divine punishment? What about Chief Priest Agnes? Where is Guard Martes!”

“Paollo proclaimed himself papal regent and arrested all the temple knights. Everyone, including the Captain…”

“What are you doing! Capture those apostates who deny the will of God! For the Goddess! For the Saint!”

Paollo thoroughly blocked all communication channels leading outside the central temple.

And he purged all those who rebelled against him.

It was swift and cruel conduct, hard to believe from someone who had once fallen together when Rachel was exposed as a false saint.

“For Saint Rachel! Serve the true representative!”

Saint Rachel’s restoration ceremony was held beside the temple knights who knelt on the cold stone floor with their arms tightly bound with rope.

“Paollo, you scoundrel! Aren’t you the one who harmed His Holiness and proclaimed yourself regent! Can you swear your innocence before God!”

Rachel recognized Theo, who was shouting with bloodshot eyes. A cruel light flickered in her violet pupils.

“Ahaha. Look who it is. Medeia’s dog is here too.”

A diadem was glittering on Rachel’s head.

It was even more dazzling and eye-piercing than the one Medeia had worn at her wedding.

Rachel slowly approached him, as if savoring prey caught in a trap.

“Rachel, you… I should have killed you long ago…”

Rachel reached out and grabbed Theo’s hair roughly, pulling him up to meet her eyes.

Her breath carried a mixture of rotten scent and the smell of blood. Theo’s face contorted.

“Don’t be too disappointed. Your master will soon pay the price too. I must repay what I received, mustn’t I?”

She really scratched Theo’s chin as if tickling a puppy.

“I won’t kill you right now, don’t worry. You have your uses. If you’re Medeia’s dog, you should be used for your master.”

As soon as those words ended, thud-

Her long-grown nails dug into his skin.

Swoosh. With the sound of skin tearing, red blood flowed down.

“What a pity… Such a good face. Ahahaha!”

Rachel smiled meaningfully and giggled.

Clear yet eerie laughter echoed through the square.

Theo and the temple knights were imprisoned in the obsidian layer, the deepest prison of the temple.

Their ankle tendons were severed and their holy power was drained.

That place where not a single ray of light penetrated,

was the very place where Rachel had been confined.

The prison once built to seal evil had now become shackles that bound them.

However, neither that darkness nor pain could break the will of the temple knights.

“Escape. Theo, we’ll make sure you get out safely.”

Leonor and the temple knights gathered all their remaining holy power.

They were those who had awakened pure holy power.

Though their bodies were crumbling from wounds and torture, the holy power concentrated from their combined resolve was powerful.

Finally, they succeeded in breaking through the powerful barrier of the obsidian layer and helping Theo escape.

However, the end of that process was not intact.

“Full alert! Alert! The prisoners have escaped!”

When ear-splitting noise erupted from inside the temple, Leonor urgently pushed him away.

“I won’t run away alone, leaving the Captain and my brothers behind!”

“Stop talking like a child! What meaning is there in a dog’s death!”

Leonor grabbed Theo’s cheek.

Blood gushed like a fountain from Leonor’s chest as he emerged from the obsidian layer.

The sacred seal engraved on his heart was still burning with a faint light.

That sacred seal, which consumed his life, played a decisive role in breaking the barrier of the obsidian layer.

“You must quickly go to the Saint and inform her of this. His Holiness has passed away, and the temple has already fallen into the hands of the corrupt. Only Lady Medeia can resolve this ordeal.”

Leonor’s fingertips, which held Theo’s cheek, were trembling.

Ah. Despair clouded Theo’s eyes as he sensed the end.

“Tsk. I wanted to see you bear the burden of Captain with my own eyes.”

Leonor let out a hollow laugh and pressed a silver badge into his hand.

Sticky blood stained the badge that signified the Captain of the Temple Knights.

“Go quickly!”

“I will return. I will definitely come back and save the Captain and this temple.”

Theo swallowed his tears of blood and turned away.

However, shaking off the pursuers who tenaciously chased him from the Holy Kingdom and reaching Kazen alone was never easy.

Finally, when he suffered a serious injury to one arm and faced death-

“Sir Theo?! What on earth- No, let’s deal with those things first and then talk.”

He miraculously survived.

Amazingly, he had encountered the Mercenaries of Facade.

They were heading to the Holy Kingdom on Chezare’s orders to assess the situation at the central temple.

“No wonder there’s been no news from the central temple all this time…”

Garo counted the days with a dark expression, folding his fingers.

If Theo’s words were true, the Mercenaries of Facade who had infiltrated the central temple would have been purged as well.

A heavy shadow fell over his face, and the atmosphere turned cold.

“…By massacring the temple knights and cutting off all external communication, what exactly are they plotting?”

Neryl continued quietly with a hardened expression.

The news of Rachel’s restoration and Paollo’s rise as papal regent had not yet reached anywhere on the continent.

Then, urgent footsteps were heard.

“Your Highness, Your Highness…!”

“What’s the matter?”

The one who appeared behind the door that burst open was Alpha.

Unlike usual, his face was flushed with excitement.

He held parchment that seemed hastily scribbled in his hand.

“The Queen Mother is dead.”

* * *

The Queen Mother, identified as the mastermind behind the assassination attempt on 1st Prince Chezare, was found as a cold corpse.

It was not long after she had been confined to her palace servants in the Western Palace.

“It was poisoning…”

The Court Physician’s voice trembled.

In the room, along with broken silk cords, the lingering scent of poisonous herbs remained.

At the place where she had ended her own life, a single suicide note was left behind.

[In a moment of foolishness, I lost my judgment and committed an irreversible act…]

The suicide note contained her confession written in the Queen Mother’s characteristically neat handwriting.

[…I will pay for this sin with my life, so please have mercy on the innocent 3rd Prince and remove all suspicion and punishment from him. I beg this of you with my death.]

The Imperial Court became busy preparing for the Queen Mother’s funeral.

The coffin and funeral that had been prepared for the 1st Prince suddenly became the Queen Mother’s.

It was an expensive, sturdy, gleaming birch coffin that she had prepared while showing off to the Crown Prince’s Faction and pretending to be generous.

She could never have known then that she would end up using the gift she had prepared for Chezare herself.

The Queen Mother’s coffin was lowered onto the cold marble.

No one could believe what had happened overnight.

That this woman now lay as a cold corpse inside the coffin.

And by her own chosen death, no less.

The one who could least accept the Queen Mother’s sudden death was, of course, her most cherished and only son, the 3rd Prince.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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