Chapter 100
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Chapter 100
"You... you are...!"
Orpen stared at Lahedis striding across the empty Audience Chamber, his face draining of color.
This was their first direct confrontation since Isella's funeral fifteen years ago.
To kill or to spare.
That small child who had once granted him the leisure of such magnanimous deliberation had grown—far beyond his expectations.
Taller than himself.
Now those hands possessed the strength to throttle his very neck.
Orpen attempted to retreat, but his arms, weakened by terror, flailed uselessly through empty air.
Behind him, the throne's solid frame blocked any escape.
He reached desperately for something—anything—to hurl, but his trembling fingers grasped only the phantom dread born of his own inferiority.
Lahedis, observing Orpen's pathetic state, halted at the base of the steps.
"I had intended to pay my respects formally in due time, yet circumstances have forced this unfortunate meeting. I regret the circumstances greatly."
"How dare you enter this place, you wretch!"
"I believed Your Majesty had summoned me."
Just as Orpen opened his mouth to demand an explanation, Lahedis withdrew a document from his coat.
"Was it not your wish to see both myself and my grandfather kneel before Your Majesty?"
Though the contents remained obscured, Orpen needed no reading to comprehend what it was.
'How did he...?'
Orpen's pupils began to tremble as recognition dawned.
The payment ledger for the Dark Mages who orchestrated the Hunting Festival incident.
The very document he had instructed his spy at the Duke's Residence to plant in Kaltz's Study.
Lahedis spoke as though reading the turmoil in Orpen's mind.
"Do you know the first condition for guaranteed victory in a card game, Your Majesty?"
Orpen regarded him with suspicious eyes at this sudden question.
Lahedis incinerated the document in his grasp with magic and continued.
"The first is to conceal one's emotions."
“....”
"Once your feelings are exposed, your next move becomes readable."
Orpen had already discerned the identity of the spy he had placed at the Duke's Residence long ago.
Since the interrogation of Kaltz following the Hunting Festival.
It was predictable what Orpen would attempt once he realized Lahedis still lived—driven by such consuming inferiority.
Yet uncovering Orpen's scheme brought Lahedis no joy. Merely irritation.
He had never wished to participate in this game to begin with.
"I harbor no desire to defeat you, Your Majesty."
“....”
"That throne upon which you sit appears far too tedious for my taste."
In that instant, Orpen's grip upon the throne tightened with desperate force.
Lahedis's manner of speaking of the throne overlapped perfectly with Leopfried's image when he had once offered to cede the imperial succession.
That face, which resembled his maternal grandfather far more than his father, bore in this moment an uncanny echo of his father's features.
From the moment I faced Lahedis, the unpleasant emotion that had been building within me completely consumed my thoughts.
"So then."
My nephew, who had seized the throne by murdering his own father, looked up at me.
Even though he was clearly looking up, I felt as though he were looking down upon me.
"Do not lay a hand on my people."
It was an unmistakable warning.
The moment Lahedis finished speaking, chaos erupted outside the Audience Chamber.
The Chief Attendant's voice that followed soon after shattered the suffocating atmosphere permeating the chamber.
"Your Majesty, Knight Captain Mateo requests an audience."
"I shall take my leave now."
Lahedis bowed respectfully to Orpen and turned to depart.
As I watched Lahedis disappear through the slowly closing door, my hands trembled uncontrollably.
I cried out convulsively without even looking at the Knight Captain who had entered.
"Summon Dane Lowsweed! This instant!"
* * *
"I will dismantle the Demon Realm's barrier within the coming days. Prepare yourself."
These were the first words Dane heard when summoned to see Orpen on his day off.
Dane's eyes wavered upon hearing this.
"...Is there truly a method to dismantle the Demon Realm's barrier?"
"I cannot simply sit idle with my hands folded, waiting for the barrier to crumble on its own."
"Your meaning is...."
"I have been researching various methods all this while. Only the defeated sit paralyzed, claiming there is no path forward."
Ever since the Demon King erected the barrier fifteen years ago, sealing off the passage to the Demon Realm.
I had been searching for cracks in the barrier, and began researching methods to dismantle it using Dark Mages.
Recently, the research had begun to bear fruit.
But before that could happen, the barrier had begun to weaken, so I was preparing to consolidate my findings.
Until it suddenly became reinforced.
And moreover....
'That man has appeared.'
The reagent to weaken the barrier had not yet been verified for safety, but this was not the time to concern myself with such details.
Lahedis's appearance had ignited the inferno of my inferiority.
"So prepare yourself as well. Be ready to cross into the Demon Realm the moment the barrier falls."
"...I shall obey your command."
"Ah, and it would be wise to resolve your daughter's matter swiftly as well."
"...."
"Not merely because of the issue with Allen, but because entanglement with that man will surely bring calamity upon her."
Dane gazed at Orpen, who was expressing concern for Vivian as though bestowing great benevolence, with eyes that had grown quietly still.
'Had it not been for this man's greed from the start, that child would never have been wounded, would never have lost her mother.'
It was absurd that the very architect of this tragedy should speak such words, yet Dane skillfully concealed his emotions and opened his mouth.
"I shall bear that in mind. However, Your Majesty, there is something I must inform you of beforehand."
And with that, I laid my trap.
"Your Majesty must personally absorb the Demon King's heart and bring it back."
Orpen hesitated at my words.
The greedy gleam in his eyes flickered with unmistakable doubt.
'But in the end, he'll fall right into it.'
After the Hunting Festival plan fell apart, I had devised a new strategy.
Lure Orpen into the Demon Realm, kill him, and use him as a living sacrifice for the barrier.
That way, I would die in the eyes of the world as a hero who protected the Emperor until the very end.
'The death of one Emperor won't be the end of it.'
Once the Demon Realm connects, someone will covet it again, war will erupt once more, and again and again....
The world that Serenia loved would become a sea of flames, and half-breeds like Vivian would be driven into war.
So....
"Are you certain about this, Your Majesty?"
This time, it was my turn to become the shield.
As my ancestors had done, as Serenia had done... for the next generation, for the era in which Vivian would live.
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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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