The Unfilial Heir Who Tries to Kill Me Tempts Me - Chapter 53

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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 53.

Crash!
The moment we landed, the floor reverberated beneath us.
Without thinking, I clung to Kaius’s shoulder while dangling upside down.
He hadn’t taken the stairs, hadn’t used the railings—he’d simply smashed straight through the floor and leapt down.
I had no memory of raising Kaius to be this brutish of a character.
“Charlotte, is this the right direction?”
“Yes, if you go straight down the right corridor, there should be a turning point where—”
Before I could finish, Kaius swung his sword again. This time, the wall crumbled in a shower of plaster and stone.
At this point, I couldn’t help but ask.
“Are you insane?”
“Don’t let go. Hold on tight.”
He wouldn’t even answer me now.
Kaius seized my waist again and broke into a sprint, so I squeezed my eyes shut as blood rushed to my head.
Bang, crash!
I’d lost count of how many walls he’d demolished.
But was this really okay?
Normally wouldn’t the building collapse?
By the time the dizziness caught up with me, Kaius set me down on solid ground.
There was something almost absurd about hands that carefully lowered me after so violently charging through walls—I let out a breathless laugh.
“I think we found it.”
I shook off the vertigo and lifted my head.
In the center of a dust-choked room, black Magical Crystals were heaped in abundance.
…So this is how you find them.
“Yes, it’s here, it’s definitely here…”
“Then destroy them. Now. Before the building caves in.”
“Did the man who just demolished every wall just say that?”
“Thanks to me, we found them quickly. You said we needed to move before being discovered.”
Kaius replied without a trace of shame.
“That’s true enough.”
Better to clear out the crystals before the building collapses than to be surrounded by ravens. There was no contest.
I conceded the point and reached toward the crystals. A dark purple mist spiraled around my hand, gathering like a whirlwind. Soon it formed a massive black circle, a vortex unto itself.
“Come, you bitter crystals.”
Wind howled through the chamber. The crystals stacked high against the ceiling rattled and tumbled, sucked into the black circle.
And I couldn’t help but notice something.
Just how much magical power had they compressed into these things?
It felt entirely different from when I first arrived in Lucifénia and drew in Contamination.
When I’d absorbed the Contamination from the farmland, the drain had left me ravenous, but absorbing these crystals sent a surge of strength through me instead.
Was it because this was pure magical power?
It felt like I’d drunk a recovery potion.
Of course, Dark Magic at this level wasn’t something an ordinary dark mage could wield—it would burn away unused soon enough.
Finally, the crystals that had filled the room up to the ceiling were gone, and bare floor appeared. I left a single crystal behind, absorbed the rest, and turned to leave.
“That’s done.”
Kaius had been staring at me with newfound approval, and now he reached out as if to lift me again.
If he was going to carry me anyway, couldn’t he at least do it like a proper princess hold instead of hauling me around like luggage? Why did he keep treating me like cargo?
I was about to voice my complaint when I felt something—an odd shift in the air.
“Wait.”
“…Charlotte Schmit?”
“Shh.”
I blocked Kaius with my arm and stepped forward. I hadn’t been mistaken. There was a sinister presence nearby, and they were approaching at tremendous speed.
“Stay still.”
Soon, black smoke rippled across the space before us. What had looked like a faint haze took on the unmistakable shape of people, growing clearer by the second. Not one figure. Five.
“Your Grace.”
“Right. So we can’t slip out quietly.”
Kaius drew his sword.

***

Leoni Schmit had been worn down—body and spirit—by the succession of crises that had erupted lately.
She’d nearly lost her beloved Fabian to her half-sister Charlotte Schmit, and the aftermath had plunged her into weeks of anguish and torment.
The Capital had grown so unbearably chaotic that Leoni had refused every invitation thrust upon her and secluded herself for an entire month.
So this summer, under the guise of a holiday, she’d resolved to convalesce in Sandvich, far removed from the Capital.
Her tender parents had protested strenuously, citing that the place lay near Charlotte’s place of exile, but in the end they couldn’t break Leoni’s stubbornness and yielded.
It didn’t matter. After all, the girl was confined to her exile as a criminal unable to leave.
Especially when the Lord of the exile itself was that Grand Duke of Lucifénia.
The probability of Leoni and Charlotte crossing paths in Sandvich approached zero.
In truth, when Charlotte first announced she was heading for Lucifénia, Leoni’s heart had grown heavy as stone.
She’d disliked the girl, yes, but she hadn’t wished for her to walk into danger. If she truly didn’t mean to die, there was no need to venture into that territory.
But after meeting Charlotte in the Imperial Capital’s dungeons, Leoni had abandoned such thoughts.
For ten years she’d regarded that girl as a true sister, and all she’d received in return was jealousy and a twisted heart. Leoni simply could not fathom how Charlotte had become that way.
Forget it.
Forget everything, heal here, and return home.
Sandvich proved to be the perfect city for soothing Leoni’s wounded heart.
It was a place where the word peace belonged.
The sky was a brilliant blue, the air crisp and clean. Venture a short walk from the bustling thoroughfare and you’d glimpse the dazzling emerald sea and a distant horizon that seemed to stretch forever.
Barefoot along the shore, treading the snow-white sand, she felt as though every care and sorrow was swept away by the waves.
During her stay, Leoni spent her days wandering the sea and her nights through the busy streets, coaxing comfort into her weary spirit.
That is, until yesterday.
“Ann, doesn’t the atmosphere feel a bit strange today?”
“Does it? I hadn’t noticed…”
Leoni’s maid glanced around with a shrug. To all appearances, the busy quarter of Sandvich looked no different from any other day.
Yet Leoni’s expression hardened, her lips pressing shut.
In truth, she possessed keener instincts than most people. According to the priest who had bestowed a blessing upon her as an infant, her innate Holy Power far exceeded ordinary measure.
Though she’d never performed any miraculous feat with her Holy Power, she could sense anything illicit or shadowed far more clearly than anyone else.
But today, for some reason, her fingertips tingled with a dark, murky presence.
Clearly something was amiss somewhere in Sandvich.
“Ann.”
“Yes, miss?”
“Let’s head that way.”
Leoni pointed toward the alley behind the thoroughfare. Ann started in alarm.
“We can’t, miss!”
“Why not?”
“That’s a redevelopment zone—nothing but old theaters and shuttered shops. It’s not a tourist area, miss. Look, the street is dark!”
“But from that direction—”
“Miss.”
Ann spoke firmly.
“Do you realize how worried your mother was when she saw you off? How distressed she became because you refused to take an escort?”
Leoni fell silent for a moment.
Of course she remembered.
Count Schmit had wept into his handkerchief, asking how he could possibly let his daughter travel alone to such a distant place.
And her mother—hadn’t she clutched Leoni’s hand all the way to her departure that morning, reminding her time and again that safety came first?
They were such tender, gentle souls.
“But you ended up bringing an escort anyway.”
“You mean those guards twenty paces back, miss?”
Ann gestured irritably toward the crowd. There stood the escort knights Count Schmit had grudgingly sent along, clustered in a group.
The moment their eyes met Leoni’s, they spun around as if on cue, flustered.
Unfortunately, they were all dressed in the pristine white uniforms of House Schmit, making them far too conspicuous.
Leoni exhaled quietly.
“…Very well. I understand.”
Ann, the escort knights—none of them seemed inclined to let her slip into that dark alley just yet.
She’d have to sneak out one night in a few days and investigate. As she turned to leave with that resolution, it happened.
“My goodness, what is all that?”
“Hmm?”
Suddenly the area erupted in commotion, and dozens of people came pouring out of the very alley Leoni had pointed to moments before.

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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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