The Obsessive Male Lead Is Obsessed With Me! - Chapter 153

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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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Episode 153

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Lionel, having escaped from the Empress’s Palace, mounted the giant horse and first headed toward the Imperial Palace. He judged that the probability of Cecilia being there was high.

Three hours earlier, the elite members of the underworld who received Lionel’s signal had first snuck into the Knights’ Quarters and Training Grounds.

Thanks to disarming the guards and knights who would have been summoned and rushed over in an emergency, the commotion wasn’t too great despite the Imperial Palace being occupied by an unidentified armed group.

And by now, the elite members of the underworld would be confronting the knights who had been summoned for emergency assembly after hearing the bell announcing the attack.

Fortunately, Lionel knew where the knights and guards would assemble during emergencies. So he avoided those places and rushed toward the Imperial Palace, but…

“Y-you cannot go any further from here!”

Despite this clearly not being an emergency assembly location, about twenty knights led by Beric, the Third Knight Commander, were blocking the path.

“Kreung!”

Krieg threateningly stomped his front hooves as if saying he would trample and crush them if they continued blocking the way.

“Hiiiek!”

The knights, who knew all too well that Krieg’s hooves were harder than iron hammers, reflexively cowered.

Yet because they never fled, Lionel eventually stopped Krieg.

“How did you know I was heading to the Imperial Palace?”

“Because that’s the only place Your Highness would go…”

If Lionel had set his mind to it, trampling and crushing them would have been nothing. Nevertheless, seeing him stop right in front of them, Beric wore a complicated expression.

In fact, he had intuited that such a day would come eventually. Ever since he had been promised the crown prince position by the previous Emperor, but had the throne stolen from him just before sitting in that seat and was given northern lands as his estate as if being driven out.

So when the bell announcing the attack rang, Beric and all the knights who had been to the north thought the same thing.

Ah, so it’s finally come to this.

“Honestly, I would have done the same.”

Someone said that, and everyone who heard it nodded.

Beric felt the same way. But inwardly, he thought this:

‘Still, wouldn’t the Second Prince be different?’

Because during his time as a prince, he was renowned for having such upright character and being fair and just.

And Beric had personally confirmed that Lionel’s character was indeed like that while serving as his right hand in the north.

No matter how resentful and wronged he felt about having the throne stolen, he wouldn’t commit such a treasonous crime as rebellion. Beric believed this without doubt, but…

In the end, the Imperial Palace was under attack like this, and Lionel was at the center of it, so he could no longer believe it even if he wanted to.

Beric looked at Lionel while hiding his slight complexity and asked.

“Your Highness. What brings you here?”

“…”

Receiving that question, Lionel looked down at Beric with his mouth closed.

After a moment, his mouth opened.

“I came to reclaim the place where I belong.”

A sigh flowed from Beric’s mouth. The other knights standing behind him felt the same. They had mistaken the “place where I belong” that Lionel mentioned for the throne.

“So you’ve started a rebellion? Even knowing that it’s treason?”

Lionel answered without hesitation.

“Is that a problem?”

That damn “problem”!

At those words that came out even in this situation, Beric forgot the seriousness of the situation and grabbed the back of his neck.

Seeing that, Lionel chuckled as if he had made a bad joke and jumped down from the giant horse’s back.

Then he drew the sword hanging at his waist.

“I won’t ask you to step aside. It’s your duty to cut down the enemy who has brazenly attacked the Imperial Palace.”

“…”

“However, I will define you who block my way as enemies.”

“Kreung!”

As if saying that Lionel’s enemies were also his enemies, the giant horse stepped forward threateningly and growled.

Even though they were Imperial Knights, they couldn’t help but be tense when Krieg, whom they had believed would never harm people, raised his threatening aura like this.

Beric glanced back and exchanged looks with his subordinate and fellow knights.

In fact, they had already finished their discussion. If a situation came where they had to block Lionel’s path…

“Please go.”

“What?”

“Please pass through. We never intended to draw our swords against Your Highness from the beginning.”

As if those words were sincere, Beric raised both hands to either side of his head.

The other knights did the same. When they dropped their swords, sheaths and all, to the ground to express that they had no intention of being hostile, Lionel asked them with a puzzled face.

“You have no intention of drawing your swords. From your perspective, I must be a traitor?”

“Of course, we swore loyalty to the Imperial Family. But we also have eyes and ears.”

How could they not have heard the rumors about the true owner of the oracle?

Moreover, those who had rolled around in the north were emotionally on Lionel’s side.

“And I don’t know if we should say this, but we conducted our own investigation into the circumstances of the previous Emperor’s death…”

That’s when it happened.

-Poof!

The giant horse’s form was enveloped in pure white smoke, and after a moment, when the smoke cleared…

“G-g-g-giant wolf?”

“It’s a giant wolf!”

The giant horse had disappeared without a trace, and in its place stood a giant wolf.

“Kreung? Kreureung?”

At the knights’ shocked reaction, the giant wolf looked around and checked its two front paws, then looked back at Lionel in confusion.

“Kreureung?”

“…Let’s go!”

The caster of the magic that had transformed the giant wolf into a giant horse was Ruda.

The fact that the magic had been dispelled meant either that Ruda’s magical power maintaining the giant horse’s transformation had completely run out, or that Ruda had suffered injuries severe enough to be unable to maintain the magic.

‘Ruda must have gone to Liri…!’

His heart was anxious. No thoughts came to his mind.

With the single-minded determination to quickly find Cecilia and Ruda, Lionel entrusted his body to the giant wolf and headed toward the Imperial Palace.

Meanwhile, one of the knights watching that retreating figure with a dazed expression shouted in an aggrieved voice.

“I knew it! No wonder it was growling!”

Right, a horse that could smash monster heads with its hooves couldn’t be an ordinary horse.

The thought that its true identity being a giant wolf was rather natural consumed everyone’s minds.

“Just how did Your Highness manage to get a giant wolf…”

-Dong.

Then, a bell sound echoed from the distance.

A bell sound that brought peace to the heart just by hearing it and naturally relaxed tense bodies.

This bell, which could only be rung with the permission of seven cardinals including the Pope, was the sound of ceasefire recommending laying down weapons.

The fact that this bell sound was ringing in the current situation meant that the Temple had already recognized Lionel’s rebellion, and at the same time, it was the Temple’s declaration of intent to mediate this rebellion.

Why had the Temple, which never interfered in politics except for carrying out oracles, made such a decision?

It meant that oracles were involved in this rebellion.

In other words, depending on the circumstances, the Temple might side with Lionel, the one who started the rebellion…

[You shall rise to an exalted position regardless of your own will]

[You shall bear a wise ruler who will be remembered throughout history]

Considering the oracle Lionel received and the two oracles presumed to be Cecilia’s, it was obvious whose side the Central Temple would take.

“Wow, we almost got into big trouble.”

Despite being Imperial Knights, not blocking Lionel who had attacked the Imperial Palace was entirely their choice. They had chosen the latter between their mission as knights and loyalty.

But seeing that bell sound ring out, it seemed the scales had been completely tilted to one side from the beginning.

“We’ve come from the Central Temple! Everyone put down your weapons… Huh?”

Then, Holy Knights on horseback rushed toward them.

They had just heard the ceasefire sound anyway. Beric and the other knights obediently raised both hands.

The Holy Knights who approached them found it strange that their swords were already dropped at their feet, but soon figured they had done so after hearing the ceasefire sound.

“Did you hear the bell that rang just now?”

“Yes. We heard it. We will follow the Temple’s will.”

Once the sound of war’s end had echoed, no one could think of continuing to hold weapons.

Not only the elite of the underworld, but also the knights and guards who had been resisting, and even those who had been hiding and trembling in empty places. Following the guidance of the Holy Knights, they all gathered in one place.

To the Grand Banquet Hall where countless people, including nobles, had already assembled.

“Um… why exactly to this place?”

“Please wait a moment. His Holiness the Pope will be coming soon.”

“His Holiness the Pope…”

At those words, everyone had the same thought. The Pope would surely raise objections regarding the current Emperor’s ascension to the throne for the fulfillment of the Oracle.

Most people felt rather at ease, thinking that what was bound to come had come, but on the other hand, they were also harboring such concerns:

‘What if he starts stubbornly refusing to step down…?’

Would the Pope drag him down directly, or what would happen?

No, come to think of it, there was someone other than the Pope who could drag the Emperor down.

‘His Highness the Second Prince has already occupied the Imperial Palace.’

Perhaps Lionel’s prior show of force in occupying the Imperial Palace, followed by the Pope’s objections, might be pressure directed at the Emperor.

The pressure that if you don’t step down on your own, Lionel will seize that position by force.

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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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