ATIRPBT 198

CHAPTER 198………………………………………………………….

Kwaaang—!

“Th–The Second Princess’s palace…!”

A junior knight, who had been rescuing servants who hadn’t managed to escape outside, couldn’t hide his shock.

From far away, ominous sounds and waves of energy began to be felt, and not long after, the Second Princess’s palace was completely destroyed.

At that moment, countless ominous purple magic circles began to activate across the ground.

Just as one of the servants screamed upon seeing the circles, their head fell.

Thud… roll, roll….

“W-What…?!”

The knight, who witnessed the servant’s head being severed right beside him, drew his sword from his waist as cold sweat poured down his face.

“W-Who’s there…?!”

A man burst out of the magic circle.

He was the one who had cut off the servant’s head. The man twisted the corner of his lips grotesquely as he looked at the junior soldier.

“E-Everything is… f-for Him….”

As the man lightly dodged the junior soldier’s attack and raised his sword, the number of suspicious figures began to increase exponentially.

Several imperial knights tried to deal with them, but no matter how much they cut them down, the enemies rapidly regenerated their severed limbs and wounds.

This was not the regeneration speed of normal humans.

The junior soldier was momentarily left speechless by the sight.

“F-For Him… th-th-that One, th-that One, th-that One, f-for….”

Before he realized it, the man who had beheaded the servant was right in front of him.

Just as the newly enlisted soldier was about to have his nose cut off while standing there in disbelief—

“What is this now?”

Someone appeared and viciously kicked the man standing before him away. The junior soldier’s legs gave out, and he collapsed to the ground.

Trembling, he looked up at the one who had saved him.

“I–Iabel-nim…?”

“I go out on a search, and this is what happens?”

With a deep frown, Iabel looked over the devastated imperial interior.

“Hey. What the hell is going on here?”

“Ah—ah, well…!”

The junior soldier finally came to his senses and began explaining the situation.

The longer the explanation went on, the darker Iabel’s expression became.

“So that’s why His Majesty ordered a return….”

He clenched the teleportation stone in his hand tightly.

“Liri— no, where is Her Highness the First Princess?”

“W-When I last saw her, she was heading toward the Second Princess’s palace….”

“…Shit.”

Iabel cursed under his breath and was about to leave the junior soldier behind when he sensed another presence from behind.

It was familiar—someone whose face he didn’t want to see right now. Iabel tried to ignore it and keep walking.

He would have succeeded, too, if it hadn’t been that person.

“Wait, Iabel. What are you planning to do by yourself?”

“…”

Iabel shut his eyes tightly, then looked at the one who had called him.

Dmitri, who had gone out together with him as part of the search party, was standing exactly where Iabel had teleported from earlier.

Stretching his long legs, Dmitri approached Iabel—who had once been his younger brother—and spoke.

“You were once praised as the Empire’s greatest magic swordsman.”

“…”

“I heard a brief report on the way here. Without you, there’s no chance of winning.”

“…”

“All the commanding officers are already engaged in battle. There’s no one left to entrust the lost soldiers to, Iabel.”

“I…”

Iabel looked at Dmitri with unsteady eyes.

After suffering such humiliation at the hands of the imperial family and his own mother, being told to protect those responsible must have sounded unbearable.

But there can’t be any more damage.

He didn’t know exactly what was happening in the imperial palace, but he had seen the overwhelming power difference of the men being summoned from the magic circles.

In terms of skill, the imperial knights were superior—but that changed if the enemy had endlessly regenerating bodies.

“I heard you entered under Lirien.”

“…”

“Don’t do this for us. Do it for the child who took you in. Prove your worth to the world for her sake.”

“…”

“That’s the best way to repay Lirien—and the greatest revenge against those who ignored you.”

“…Understood.”

Iabel lowered his head deeply and nodded.

Dmitri patted his shoulder once, as if proud.

Lifting his head, Iabel immediately moved toward the imperial knights who had lost control of the battlefield.

Only after watching Iabel quickly blend in among them did Dmitri shift his gaze toward the collapsed princess’s palace in the distance.

The end was slowly coming into view.

“Impressive.”

Once Rius successfully captured the men who had attacked them, the restrained men began to struggle violently.

“Hey now, stay still.”

Addix subdued them with binding magic and slid his gaze toward Rius.

“Was the order delivered safely?”

“Yes. I immediately ordered the Second Prince and the Crown Prince to move to the imperial palace. The immediate crisis should be handled.”

“What about these guys?”

In the direction Addix pointed, the ones called “dolls”—who had earlier cornered the three young lords—were tightly bound.

Rius looked down at them with cold eyes.

“We take them with us. We need to hurry back to the imperial palace too. Something feels off.”

An uneasy feeling kept creeping up on him.

As if he might lose something—something that he would regret for the rest of his life if he delayed any longer.

Losing that child any more than this… losing…?

Rius frowned slightly and tilted his head. Lirien had been in danger countless times before.

And every time, she had escaped in some utterly unexpected way.

But now… he had never felt this kind of foreboding before.

As though someone was about to take her life—as though he had already crossed an irreversible river.

Rius’s face paled as he quickly turned away.

“I’ll go to the imperial palace first. Do whatever you want with them—experiments, torture, your choice.”

“Weren’t we going together?”

“…I’ve got a bad feeling.”

Frowning, Rius infused mana into the teleportation stone Addix had given him.

In an instant, he was engulfed in light, and the place where he stood became empty.

“…Should I pray that the First Princess is safe?”

It was brief, but a chill ran down his spine.

The Emperor hadn’t said it outright, but it was effectively a warning to both of them.

A warning of “death” to those who looked like his familiars.

And a warning to himself—the tower master who had put the First Princess in danger—that this incident would never be brushed aside.

“…Tch. Shouldn’t have accepted the help.”

Addix wiped his face dryly, lifted the ropes binding the dolls, and teleported away.

After handing them over to the tower’s mages, he too would have to accompany the Emperor.

After all, the sense of foreboding wasn’t felt by the Emperor alone.

“So it looks like he’s trying to return to the Mansion of Hallucinations….”

As I watched Lebanon’s trail with a grim expression, the goddess approached and spoke.

[Don’t worry. It doesn’t look like he’ll get away so easily.]

“But he shook off Reinhardt. And Yevgeny is rampaging. The reason he messed with Yevgeny was probably just to create an excuse for me to escape, right?”

Otherwise, there’d be no reason for him to twist Yevgeny’s magic.

Honestly, even saying it out loud makes the future feel hopeless….

Still, I needed to return quickly.

The goddess had done something to keep my body—separated from my soul—from rotting, but she said the effect wouldn’t last long.

At most, about ten days like during the hunting festival; at worst, my body might start rotting in five days.

Even ten days would be lucky. Since my soul had already left my body twice, she said that, realistically, I had exactly five days left.

Should I just gamble and go back right now?

Whether I’m taken or not.

If I move fast enough, maybe I can escape his grasp.

Just as I was about to ask the goddess to return my soul immediately—

“There you are.”

“…!”

That voice…!

I hurried closer to the circle illuminating Lebanon and peered inside.

Under the moonlight, shining silver hair and striking crimson eyes—utterly contrasting—were gazing indifferently at Lebanon.

It was Dmitri.

Brushing back his ash-colored hair fluttering in the wind, Dmitri frowned as he looked at me in Lebanon’s hand.

“…Why is my little sister like that?”

“Oh my. I thought I’d finally shaken you off, but now another group is trying to take Her Highness the Princess from me?”

“You talk as if she originally belonged to you.”

“She does belong to me.”

“Nonsense.”

Dmitri rebuked him coldly, his eyes devoid of emotion.

“Don’t talk about a person as if they’re someone’s property. It’s disgusting.”

“How rude. I’m merely trying to make Her Highness happy.”

“You’re saying her happiness is death?”

Dmitri quickly reached for the sword at his waist.

Pointing the drawn blade at Lebanon, he spoke heavily.

“How is arbitrarily trampling on the life of someone who wants to live more than anyone else supposed to be her happiness?”

“Depending on how you look at it, it could be another kind of happiness.”

Lebanon sang the words softly.

“You might not know this, but in her previous life, the First Princess always wanted to die.”

“…What?”

“You claim to know Her Highness better than I do, yet you’re just interpreting things however you like. Did you know this?”

As if whispering a secret, Lebanon placed a finger to his lips.

“She’s already been killed by the same person once. The method was different, though.”

“What are you talking about—”

“The Second Princess is truly vile. In her previous life, she disguised the murder of her half-sister as poisoning. And now, after repeating life, she’s sold that same sister to a dark mage.”

“…!”

Dmitri’s eyes widened as never before. Seeing that reaction, Lebanon smiled in triumph.

“So I’m trying to make Her Highness happy. She’ll come back again, you see.”

Of course, as an idiot.

The moment the soul returned, if its core was extracted, the princess would cross a river she could never return from.

If she goes back to the imperial family, she’ll live as a walking corpse, not even aware that she’s unhappy.

In that case, turning her into his doll might be a happier ending for her.

Lebanon smiled sweetly.

“So stop interfering, will you?”

Without chanting, Lebanon summoned a magic circle beneath Dmitri’s feet.

Countless chains emitting a purple aura burst forth and wrapped around Dmitri’s ankles.

Not only was he immobilized, but searing pain erupted from where the chains bound him.

Depending on where they touched, his clothes began to melt.

“Hydrochloric acid. Your skin will burn away.”

“…”

“Even your face twisted in pain is beautiful—though not as much as the princess’s.”

“Shut up.”

Dmitri sneered.

“A perverted kidnapper sure talks a lot.”

He severed the chains in an instant and moved right in front of Lebanon in the blink of an eye.

With a cold, twisted smile, Dmitri lightly tapped Lebanon’s shoulder.

And then—

Boom—!

A magic device that had been unknowingly attached to Lebanon’s shoulder exploded.

Lebanon tried to tear it off, his face twisting in fury, but the device detonated first.

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you that trusting yourself too much isn’t a good habit?”

“…!”

“And that if you take someone’s precious family hostage, that family member might completely lose it?”

As the smoke cleared, Lebanon regained his senses—and realized his hand felt light.

Looking ahead, the princess he thought he had seized was hanging limply in the man’s arms.

Holding Lirien securely, Dmitri spoke coldly.

“Thanks for taking care of my sister.”

“You…!”

“My sister’s happiness isn’t for you to decide. And it’s not for me to decide either. If someone’s going to shape her life, it should be herself—not third parties like us.”

“How dare you take what’s mine—!”

Dmitri sighed and shook his head.

“I told you, she’s not yours.”

He easily dodged the ice spikes flying toward him and checked Lirien’s condition.

Is she not breathing…?

Her chest was pierced through. It was practically instant death.

If only I’d arrived a little sooner….

She wouldn’t have met such a senseless death.

Grinding his teeth at the flood of guilt, Dmitri thought:

But it’s not too late yet.

He had heard that with papal-level holy power, someone who had only just stopped breathing could be revived. And hadn’t the Pope been visiting the imperial family?

There was still a chance to save Lirien.

Dodging incoming attacks, Dmitri began retracing his steps.

Lebanon chased after him with a murderous expression.

“Hurry—bring back the First Princess—!”

Just as he was about to plunge a dagger into Dmitri’s neck—

Lebanon cast a binding spell the moment Dmitri glanced back.

“Bring her back…!”

“Ugh—!”

The chains shot out, slicing past Dmitri’s arm and heading straight for Lirien.

They successfully wrapped around Lirien’s wrist.

As Lebanon tried to pull the chained wrist toward himself, something heavy slammed brutally into his back.

“Aaagh!”

With a scream, Lebanon toppled forward.

Seeing who had appeared, Dmitri pulled the corner of his lips up faintly.

“Your Majesty.”

“Why is my daughter like that?”

“Because of that bastard.”

Dmitri pointed at the fallen Lebanon.