Chapter 123
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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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Chapter 123
'So that's it!'
The speed was truly astonishing, and the power behind it was immense.
Thick veins bulged across the High Priest's slender arm.
Even I, who knew nothing about physical combat, could see at a glance that this was no ordinary human.
"Gack!"
As Crown Prince Kiaros struck the High Priest's vital point with blinding speed, a flicker of bewilderment crossed his eyes.
"What? Shocked that an Imperial Servant might fall to human hands?"
He even laughed mockingly, his voice dripping with confidence.
"But don't be too surprised. I'm nearly an Imperial Servant myself."
Despite the strike to his vital point, the High Priest didn't flinch.
Instead, his grip around Crown Prince Kiaros's throat only tightened.
His frame was gaunt and diminutive, yet subduing him proved difficult. The High Priest's eyes gleamed with madness and murderous intent.
'But there's a flying test subject above a running one!'
The moment Crown Prince Kiaros's brow furrowed slightly....
"Activate!"
I swiftly activated an attack scroll, targeting the High Priest.
It was one of the scrolls the Tower Master had given me.
I poured all my magical power into it, calculating as quickly as possible.
Of course, attack scrolls typically only inflicted minor cuts....
"Kyyyyyyeeeeeaaaahhhhh!"
With a thunderous crash, the High Priest was hurled backward.
Blood now stained his back and chest profusely.
I gasped for breath, my chest heaving. As blank scrolls fluttered down, I saw the High Priest's mangled form.
This wasn't a minor cut—it was as if he'd been slashed repeatedly with a blade. His priestly robes were drenched in blood.
I immediately rushed out and opened the door.
"Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!"
Opening the door dispelled the soundproofing scroll's effect.
The knights outside heard the High Priest's agonized screams and came rushing in.
"What has happened!"
"Your Highness! Are you unharmed?"
They all witnessed Crown Prince Kiaros sprawled on the ground and the High Priest convulsing in agony.
Though they might have been shocked, Crown Prince Kiaros remained composed. He slowly rose to his feet and spoke.
"Arrest him immediately for attempted regicide. Given his superhuman strength, he appears to be a test subject of the Gaejo Faction—cooperate with the Ravens."
"Yes, sir!"
The knights showed little alarm at the blood-soaked High Priest.
They seemed to assume Crown Prince Kiaros had handled it. He continued in a low voice with another command.
"...And everyone, leave for now."
The knights seized the still-screaming High Priest and withdrew like a receding tide.
Crown Prince Kiaros turned slowly toward me.
His shadow leaned toward me.
"Namia Loapi."
"...Yes."
My voice trembled as I answered.
I was afraid to meet Crown Prince Kiaros's eyes. He asked in a tone of disbelief.
"What was that scroll? Does an attack scroll possess that much power?"
"...."
"And...."
He stepped closer to me. I retreated a step, maintaining the distance between us.
Crown Prince Kiaros asked with lowered, darkened eyes.
"Why did you use an attack scroll? As if you were certain I, an Imperial Servant, couldn't subdue the High Priest?"
He was sharp—devastatingly sharp. How did he grasp everything in an instant like that....
I glanced up at him with fearful eyes.
"...Do you know that I'm in the Dark Age?"
I knew he was intelligent, but I never expected him to be this perceptive....
My back finally touched the wall as I retreated.
Crown Prince Kiaros slowly stopped. His eyes were filled with confusion.
In truth, it would have been reasonable for him to say, "This woman is also using strange power—she's suspicious. Take her away for interrogation immediately." Yet he still hesitated, as if afraid of threatening me.
"Your Highness, the Crown Prince."
I confessed with a trembling voice.
"I apologize, but I am indeed a suspicious person."
"What?"
"I, that is... I am indeed an experimental subject. I didn't know either, but... my mother... she continued experimenting on me...."
My words tumbled out incoherently. Still, Crown Prince Kiaros would understand perfectly.
But the more I spoke, the more horrified I became of my own existence.
An "experimental subject" who didn't even know she was being experimented on....
"It's true that I know the future, and it's true that I possess strange power."
"Namia. Wait. You're trembling so much—first, try to calm down...."
Before the bewildered Crown Prince Kiaros, I desperately squeezed out the words to continue.
"B-but even if I must die, I will do so by my own hand. I will never bring chaos to the Empire."
"Wait a moment. What are you saying...."
"Thank you for everything until now. And to Kibon...."
The moment Kibon's name left my lips, my throat tightened. Tears spilled down my cheeks.
"Please just tell Kibon that I left a letter."
And immediately after, I spoke the words I had been preparing.
"Activate."
The next scroll I had been continuously calculating was a teleportation scroll.
In other words, what Oson had asked of me before.
[Namia, hurry and make me a teleportation scroll. Right now. I don't need to go far. Just make it so I can get outside the Imperial Palace. Okay?]
That very teleportation scroll—the one I had said back then was pointless when walking thirty centimeters would be better.
But now I could amplify the scroll's power by thousands of times over.
Closing my eyes, I desperately imagined my destination.
'Father... Tower Master... just one last time....'
Whether I died here at Crown Prince Kiaros's hands or in the heart of the Gaejo Faction at theirs.
There was no middle ground for me.
Simply hiding my body and living as though I knew nothing held no meaning.
I refused to live in constant dread of when Mother's experimental results might manifest in me again, merely clinging to survival.
If it had to be one or the other, I would storm the Gaejo Faction and at least see my family once before I died.
"Namia...!"
Before Crown Prince Kiaros could finish speaking, my body was engulfed in brilliant light.
* * *
How far could I have traveled?
I had poured every ounce of magical power I possessed into setting the Southern Region as my destination.
'I should have arrived somewhere in the Southern Region, at least.'
I had a rough sense of where Father and the Tower Master were.
[Namia, I intend to charge into a vast and deeply entrenched enemy stronghold to rescue my daughter and son-in-law.]
I had gleaned this much from the Tower Master's letter.
A vast and deeply entrenched enemy stronghold....
From what I understood, the Magic Tower itself was said to be immensely vast and sprawling.
If the Tower Master, who witnessed such expanse daily, described something as 'vast and deep,' it would be no ordinary scale.
For a place of such magnitude to remain undetected by the Ravens thus far....
[From the moment the Minister began to suspect the High Priest, we dispatched the Ravens to all the Imperial Temples. Until then, we refrained from interfering within the temple interiors out of religious deference.]
It meant the Ravens could not approach that space for some reason.
Then there could be only one answer.
'It's the Temple.'
The Tower Master had certainly said he was heading south.
And in the south stood the largest Grand Temple on the Continent.
[Are you currently staying at the Grand Temple of Parens?]
[Yes, that is correct. While I came up for the banquet, I plan to stay at the Imperial Palace Temple for about ten days before returning south to Parens.]
It was precisely the Grand Temple of Parens where the High Priest had been staying until now.
With my eyes closed, I tried to imagine it roughly.
Mother, who had recklessly come south to an unsafe region claiming she would undergo experimentation, and Father, who had sold himself to that illegal organization where Mother had placed her body.
'If I go deep into the Temple... I should be able to meet Father, right?'
Originally, I had been too afraid of getting hurt to even attempt it.
I had simply waited for Crown Prince Kiaros to mobilize all public authority to rescue Father.
But now I had nothing left to lose.
I had nothing to lose, and truthfully, even death held no fear for me anymore, so I was prepared to charge in recklessly.
'Let's go. Just go and smash everything.'
Unintentionally, I had become incredibly strong now. With attack scrolls, I feared nothing.
In the meantime.
My spinning vision gradually slowed, the dizzying rotation easing into a gentle drift.
It seemed the teleportation was coming to an end.
My feet touched the ground slowly.
"Ah...."
Despite it being November, a distinctly warm breeze enveloped me.
Whether I had arrived at a coastal village in the Southern Region, the distant sound of waves reached my ears—along with the familiar cadence of the Southern Region dialect I'd heard so often in childhood.
My eyes snapped open. In that same moment, I realized I had arrived in the Southern Region.
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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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