The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 197

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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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Chapter 197

Oli added with a bitter smile in a joking tone.

“Ah, except when you self-destructed. That was truly a terrible wrong answer… Wait, since we all ended up alive and reunited as a result, should I consider that a correct answer too?”

“Haha…”

Then, Lillieta laughed briefly before falling into a long silence.

Olivia alternately looked at her friend’s pale face and the northern sky where another friend had disappeared, then spoke as if tossing out the words.

“And… besides Rita’s intuition, there’s something that could be called a basis for possibility or hope.”

Rita’s head snapped up. Her violet eyes shook precariously as she stared at her. At that desperation, Oli paused to choose her words.

As soon as she heard that Gid’s monstrous form resembled a black dragon, and that people shouted that the Black Dragon had returned upon seeing it, something came to mind.

A thought she could have because she was more familiar with this empire than Lillieta, who had only recently returned. Something she could naturally connect because it was a question she’d had for a long time.

The stained glass of the Sanctuary temple was in the form of a black dragon crouched under the setting sun.

Olivia den Luna Blen looked up at that stained glass and thought about mythology.

As was typical of things related to the Kairam Empire’s imperial family, this place too was intertwined with stories about the black dragon from the founding myth.

About a thousand years ago, the black dragon supposedly helped the first emperor drive out the monsters from this land and pioneer the capital, then created an avatar in the form of a human woman.

That avatar crowned the first emperor with a laurel wreath and became the first empress, called the ‘Coronator.’

In the empire’s history, Coronator was originally a noble title referring to the black dragon’s avatar. In the early days of the empire, people even believed that those selected as Coronator were reincarnations of the black dragon.

That authority has remained to this day through the long years, which is why the Coronator of the succession ceremony is regarded as the emperor’s companion and a sacred being regardless of their background.

After creating the Coronator, the black dragon supposedly left only its massive body, that is, its shell. The place where that dragon’s corpse was said to be buried was the ‘Sanctuary.’

‘There’s no other mythology besides Kairam’s founding myth that describes the imaginary creature called a dragon in such specific detail while treating it with such importance.’

As if they had actually seen one.

Even the belief that the black dragon became human and married the founding emperor, making the imperial family descendants of the black dragon, exists only in this empire.

Oli told Rita exactly the story she had thought of that day.

“Only Kairam has dragons appearing in its founding myth. No, to begin with, this is the only country that has left such detailed descriptions of dragons that don’t even exist, believes in their existence, and reveres the imperial family as descendants of the black dragon.”

“Why are you suddenly talking about the founding myth…?”

“Think about it, Rita. Maybe there was some believable basis in that era? If that myth was a story created based on events that actually happened… what would it mean for the black dragon to transform into a human and marry the first emperor?”

“…!”

“Maybe the black dragon in that myth was actually a case like Gid.”

Oli continued speaking without hesitation as she saw light returning to her friend’s dimming eyes.

“Dragons officially don’t exist. Not even fossils have ever been discovered. They’re products of imagination. Yet the existence of the black dragon remains so vividly in Kairam’s mythology, and it even transformed into a human later—”

“—That black dragon was actually an ancient oath-bearer who became monstrous like Gid, and eventually calmed their rampage and returned to human form?”

Rita eagerly picked up the thread. Oli shrugged and answered with a sigh.

“It’s just that there’s a possibility it could have been that way.”

“That’s enough, Oli.”

Lillieta smiled faintly.

“As long as there’s a possibility, that’s enough.”

Then she fell silent for a moment before adding as if trying to convince herself.

“Even if… it can’t be reversed, I have to find Gid. I must somehow prevent Pascal from using Gid’s rampage. That’s my responsibility for falling into his trap.”

After that, she left.

Clutching a thread-thin possibility and crumbling duty, heading north where Gid had disappeared.

Only Lucas, whose domain was at the northern edge, left with her to check for signs of monster upheaval and to serve as Lillieta’s vanguard if Pascal truly appeared.

The remaining Beacon stayed in the capital Lamcard.

Dong—

The bell of the Sanctuary rang heavy and long.

The flower offering ceremony was over.

The blood-red sunset filtering through the colored glass draped over the people in mourning clothes like an ominous net. The shadow of the black dragon carved in the glass covered the coffin.

Dong—

The somber bell sound cut through the silence once again.

Olivia watched the scene of the emperor’s coffin being moved to the underground cemetery and thought.

The emperor was dead, the crown prince was missing, and monsters had stirred earlier than the disaster.

Duke Adickl, who hadn’t completely seized control of the imperial guard or capital security forces, mobilized private soldiers to fill the imperial palace.

Under the pretext of investigating the emperor’s cause of death and eradicating the monsters that had infiltrated the palace. Claiming they needed to fill the gap left by the imperial guard that had suffered heavy damage during the Red Founding Festival.

Asserting that they were forces he had raised to respond to monsters, like the crown prince’s Tritoma Special Knights.

There were many strange things about them for ordinary private soldiers.

Like how they all wore hoods pulled low and masks covering their entire faces, claiming it was to avoid contamination by monsters, how no one knew where they came from, and how none of the soldiers except for a few who seemed to be squad leaders spoke a single word.

Ethan, who had secretly investigated them, discovered a terrible truth the day before yesterday.

“I suspected it since the Podonamu Estate, but damn, it really was that fucking Commander. Those soldiers are all monsters under the Commander’s command. That monster bastard is attached to the Duke. What kind of deal did they make…”

Monsters pretending to be human roamed the imperial palace.

At least the empress’s palace hadn’t been occupied by monsters thanks to the surviving imperial guards gathering to provide security.

All spaces except the empress’s palace were guarded by monsters. The Duke had seized control of the imperial palace while commanding monsters.

However, people didn’t know this truth. They believed that chaos had been resolved and public order had found stability under the Duke’s command.

‘But we can’t rashly shatter that belief either. If the monster army revealed their true nature in the imperial palace in the heart of the capital, it would become a living hell.’

An era that hadn’t existed in Pascal’s history had begun. An era like rapids beneath ice.

Outwardly just a bit cold but peaceful, yet a precarious world where one wrong step would crack all daily life and everyone would drown in the icy water.

The entrance to the Sanctuary’s underground cemetery gaped open like a monster’s throat. Olivia rubbed her forearm. Despite it being summer, she felt a strange chill.

Empress Ophelia followed the emperor’s coffin toward the underground, keeping her slender neck and waist straight.

The one who had reduced her own influence and exited the stage over the past four years was taking a battle stance again.

From now on, she would use every means available as empress to hold out against the Duke who was trying to enthrone Joseph until the crown prince returned.

Olivia and Ethan would protect such an empress while searching for the Commander. Seraphina would use the authority of the religious order to check the Duke, and Isaiah would prepare for war against the Commander with the Tritoma Special Knights.

Waiting for Lillieta’s return.

With faith that she would save Gideon and return together.

* * *

Despite being midsummer, the temperature was cool.

Because they had approached the northern edge of the empire, the last land where humans could live.

Going further north past the Raskail Domain, the widest plain in the empire’s north, the most rugged White Mountains on the continent spread out.

In the highland region in the middle of those mountains lay the domain of Margrave Winterfield. Beyond Winterfield existed only the ‘Black Forest’ where no humans lived.

It was land where monsters capable of withstanding extreme cold had built an ecosystem of survival of the fittest among themselves, resulting in countless things far more dangerous than other regions inhabiting the forest.

Among them, monsters pushed out in the survival competition or running out of food sometimes burst out of the Black Forest and moved south, and Winterfield was the empire’s northernmost shield that blocked such creatures.

Lucas den Mayer Winterfield, the second son of that very Winterfield, stoked the campfire flames with an embarrassed expression.

“I’m sorry for making you camp out in a place like this, sister. This area is too rugged, so there are no inns.”

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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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