They Say an Age Gap Like This Doesn’t Even Need Matching - Chapter 77

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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 moment the Emperor’s eyes widened as he turned to look back.
Thud.
A dull impact echoed as the Emperor’s body crumpled.
Just before his body, having lost all support, could fall toward me, a hand caught him.
“Ser Brin.”
I looked at him and smiled softly.
“Your timing is perfect.”
He was none other than Elhart.
“Am I late?”
“Does it look like it?”
He studied my face carefully before shaking his head.
“No.”
In truth, even if Elhart hadn’t arrived, the situation wouldn’t have changed much.
I would have knocked him out at an appropriate moment and created another culprit before slipping out of the Imperial Palace.
Still, meeting Elhart in the heart of enemy territory filled me with genuine joy.
I wanted to embrace him right then and there.
Elhart, who had been holding the unconscious Emperor by the nape of his neck, hurled him onto the bed.
I watched with my mouth agape as the Emperor’s massive frame flew through the air as lightly as a pebble.
“He’s not dead, is he?”
“He won’t die from that.”
Elhart answered calmly.
“Though it wouldn’t matter if he did.”
His added remark was bleak.
His gaze upon the Emperor sprawled across the bed was the same.
It was cold and settled, as though he could kill the Emperor at any moment.
I gently grasped his hand, then released it.
“We need to move quickly. By now, the Crown Prince must have realized I’ve fallen into a trap.”
Since he was supposed to wait in the dining hall, it was only a matter of time before he noticed something amiss, and I couldn’t predict when he might burst through that door.
“Right.”
‘I have no idea where the contract might be hidden here.’
Since I’d fortunately made it into the Emperor’s bedchamber, I needed to search it thoroughly.
I immediately changed direction and moved deeper into the chamber.
The bedchamber was excessively spacious.
Ornate decorations, expensive furnishings, and unnecessarily vast empty space.
It was a typical manifestation of dominance and ostentation intertwined.
As a result, there were many places to search, and I had to rummage about frantically.
‘He must have hidden something somewhere.’
The bedchamber, which even had a secret passage, seemed far more likely to feel safe than the study where many people came and went.
After all, he could grab it and flee if necessary.
I recalled how the Emperor had manipulated a mechanism on the wall earlier and began searching meticulously for something similar.
And not long after.
‘Found it!’
I discovered another hidden space concealed within the opposite wall.
I immediately swept all the documents and objects inside into my spatial pouch.
Given the time constraints, examining each item individually was impossible—this was the best approach.
After running my fingers through the now-empty space one final time to confirm, I manipulated the mechanism again to seal it shut.
Just as I was about to investigate elsewhere, Elhart’s voice reached me.
“Ser, come over here for a moment.”
“Did you find something?”
I rushed toward him and gasped in surprise.
The enormous bed had been shifted to the side, yet the Emperor remained sprawled across it.
“There’s something here on the floor. The flow is completely different from any magic circle we’ve discovered so far.”
I approached where Elhart stood and slowly traced the air with my fingertips.
The flow was far more dense than anything we’d encountered before.
It was a viscous bundle of life force, pulsing like a living heartbeat.
As I carefully felt along it, the mana flow trembled ever so slightly.
“Here. Is this it?”
Elhart nodded.
We exchanged a brief glance before simultaneously beginning to excavate the floor without hesitation.
My heart pounded fiercely with the thrill of discovery.
Marble slabs were torn away, and mysterious structures were removed.
After excavating for some time, we finally found it.
“Could this possibly be….”
“We finally found it.”
Despite searching through every corner of the Imperial Palace, we had never discovered this.
It was a life force supply device.
That enormous structure pulsed rhythmically, like a beating heart.
I could sense hundreds, thousands of invisible vein-like tendrils extending outward in all directions from the device.
The closer I drew to it, the more it felt like a living organism rather than a mere mechanism.
“One wrong touch and we’ll be in serious trouble.”
I nodded at his murmur.
I immediately retrieved a reagent from my spatial pouch.
“Let’s mark it.”
“Now?”
“Now or never.”
I had no way of knowing when another opportunity might arise.
Without hesitation, I uncorked the reagent bottle.
We began marking rapidly along the device’s perimeter.
Carefully avoiding the flow, I dripped the reagent thinly along the surface of the wall.
‘One touch and we could be exposed immediately.’
I had to execute this flawlessly, without a single mistake.
By the time cold sweat had soaked through my back,
“…It’s done.”
We had finally completed the work.
As I sealed the reagent bottle, I exhaled a sigh of relief.
Elhart checked the area around the device once more, just to ensure nothing had been overlooked.
“Good, it’s perfect.”
Barely had I felt a sense of accomplishment before we began restoring the floor without pause.
We roughly filled in the removed structure and laid the marble slab back into place.
“I’ll use restoration magic.”
I infused just enough mana to make it imperceptible to the eye, filling in the broken portions of the surface.
Then I returned the bed to its original position.
“What do we do now?”
As I stared at the unconscious Emperor, hesitating for a moment, I looked toward Elhart.
“Undress the Emperor.”
“…What?”
Even as he questioned me, he immediately moved to remove the Emperor’s clothing.
“I’m going to make sure the Emperor and Crown Prince have a proper confrontation.”
I tore my dress to shreds as I removed it.
Then I carelessly tossed it onto the floor beside the bed.
“Ser…”
Realizing what I was thinking, Elhart’s eyes widened as he stared at me.
“You don’t care if the Emperor dies, right?”
“Hmm… You’re not actually going to kill him, are you?”
As I stripped away my undergarments and dropped them, Elhart hurriedly turned his head away and spoke.
“He’s definitely going to die. I’m certain of it.”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“Then he dies. What of it?”
I retrieved a spare maid’s uniform from my spatial pouch and put it on.
“The Crown Prince will think I’ve been poisoned.”
I pointed to the incense burner still actively emitting smoke.
“Poison? That?”
“Your Highness, you have quite the resistance to poison, don’t you?”
Elhart simply tilted his head in confusion.
“I suspect it might be something like an aphrodisiac. Since I have a constitution immune to poison, I can’t say for certain.”
“I see.”
After thoroughly disheveling the room, I turned to leave immediately.
“Let’s go.”
“Which way are you planning to exit?”
At Elhart’s question, I recalled the path I had taken to get here.
The Treasure Vault and Maze-like Corridors.
‘The security over there is far too stringent.’
Then.
“Let’s exit through the path you came in.”
“Very well.”
The man nodded and moved forward without hesitation.
It was toward the bathroom.
“This way.”
I followed him, turning back one last time to look behind me.
Upon the bed.
The Emperor’s fingertips twitched, as if consciousness would return before long.
A faint moan seemed to escape his lips.
‘I wonder if that bastard will live or die today.’
I could only regret not witnessing the Crown Prince’s arrival firsthand.
It would have been quite entertaining.
Turning my head again, I saw Elhart waiting for me at the bathroom door, which he had opened.
I smiled slightly and stepped through the doorway he held open.
And….
‘I should have just taken the way I came.’
Barely managing to break through an enormous obstacle incomparable to the knights stationed in the corridor, I finally escaped outside.
It was the first moment Elhart appeared contemptible to me.

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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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