“I do not have time. The trial will start soon. There is no way then.”
Ternaden spoke quickly, without giving Lasilia a chance to be surprised.
“We have to run now. Take my hand, sister.”
At the same time, he tried to snatch Lasilia’s hand. Lasilia barely escaped Ternaden’s hand.
“Why should I run away?”
“The Duke suffered.”
“…what? To whom? How?”
“Therefore… Ha, damn it. I don’t have time.”
Terdaden nervously moved his mouth as he looked at the closed door.
“I heard it from the Duke. What my sister is trying to do. He said he decided to admit his guilt and be dethroned. That’s definitely true, right?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t think the Duke wanted that. He told me to bring the shaman again. You may have asked how to restore the mark. But I know that the same spell cannot be used on the same person again. That’s impossible. So he said that the Duke would also give up and make a deal with the temple. Just as my sister told me.”
There was nothing wrong up to that point. But if that were the case, Ternaden wouldn’t have such an anxious and urgent look on his face.
“However? Did the transaction go wrong?”
“No.”
Ternaden shook his head. And then he said something she never expected.
“The Duke has become strange. After he went to the temple.”
“It got weird. How?”
“I don’t know, but the witch doctor said that. Part of my consciousness was taken away.”
“That is… What are you talking about?”
It was ominous to say that he had been robbed of consciousness. At that moment, an image of an imperial tailor flashed through her mind. A state where nothing seemed to be wrong, but all thoughts and actions led to a single purpose.
“Like I said, I don’t know. But it wasn’t normal. It was said that the only way to return the stolen consciousness is to achieve what the person who took it away wanted. They say it’s not witchcraft, so a witch doctor can’t intervene. Do you know what that means?”
Ternaden grabbed Lasilia’s shoulders.
“It means that someone in the temple is targeting my sister. Not a spell or magic, but someone with unknown powers! Rather than being fair, the trial would be a mess. No one can guarantee what the outcome will be. You have to run away.”
“I know that the temple is doing something against the imperial family. And now the target is me. But it’s a trial. You have to pretend to follow the law. According to imperial law, members of the royal family are not punished for murder.”
“Do you think that’s a problem now?”
Ternaden let out a voice as sharp as a blade.
“What they dig into is a sign. I’m going to ask my sister if she’s worthy of being Lescal’s companion.”
“Okay. Since the mark has disappeared, she will be dethroned…”
“Who can tell if the mark has disappeared or was never there to begin with?”
“What?”
“This has never happened before for a mark to disappear. Of course I will question that. If the mark wasn’t there from the beginning, the Piellion family would have committed treason. My sister, the duke, and I might all end up hanging on the gallows.”
“…”
Lasilia stiffened.
“I didn’t wear these clothes for nothing. Nui will reveal the mark out there. In front of all the nobles in the capital. Among them, of course, is the emperor.”
“That is…”
The deal is gone. The Duke who should have made the deal fell into the hands of the temple. She didn’t know what purpose they gave the Duke, but she thought they might have made him do something that the imperial tailor couldn’t do. The safety measures put in place for the trial disappeared. What the temple hoped for was an ending more terrible than dethronement. Of course, the Emperor would try to prevent such a thing. But that was the end. Now she would never have the opportunity to leave the Emperor again.
“So let’s run away, sister. That’s the only way. You can’t trust the duke either. I’m the only one, sister.”
“…”
Lasilia bit her lip and Ternaden looked at her outstretched hand.
“The shaman will help you get out of this country. It may be difficult right now, but think about the rest later. I know that my sister is not satisfied with just me, but… But that doesn’t mean I can’t be here on trial.”
“Then…”
“Please, sister. How much more do I have to ask? Please believe me just once. You know it too. I am the person who loves my sister the most in this world.”
It was then.
-Please. before it’s too late. Please believe me. I just want to save my sister. It’s okay if you don’t love me. You have to run away first.
Ternaden’s inner thoughts could be heard vividly. She wasn’t hearing it by ear. Rather, it was closer to what she saw with her eyes. Ternaden was telling the truth.
“…then.”
She didn’t know why she could hear his inner thoughts right now. Maybe he didn’t want to think about it. If not now, she would never be able to escape.
“How and where are you going?”
“Ha, thank goodness.”
Lasilia held out her hand, and Ternaden took it and placed it on his forehead. He was truly relieved.
“To where I came from. It’s a spell that allows you to bring your sister back. If my sister said she wouldn’t go, that door would just disappear.”
“…? Then what about you?”
“I would have stayed here too. There is no place to escape to in this room.”
“Ah…”
Here was a person who loved the Empress enough to risk his entire life.
‘You must tell them that I am not the Empress.’
But not now. Now she had to run away from here.
“Let’s go.”
Ternaden led Lasilia through a passage created by his magic. She hoped she could get away with this.
‘Forget everything.’
Praying like that, Lasilia took her steps towards the passageway to which she did not know where it was headed.
* * *
“…Huh?”
A senior wizard from the Imperial Wizard Guild tilted his head. He had been checking the blockade and tracking magic circle that had been placed around the Great Temple of Harios for a week until today. Magic was a relic of the past. In terms of academics, there was endless things to learn, but the results were not up to par. That was the case with this blockade magic circle. To operate a magic circle of this magnitude, one would have had to study magic for roughly thirty years, so it was much more reasonable to just have a hundred knights set up a perimeter. For one reason or another, the number of wizards was decreasing. Above all, it was impossible without being born into a family that supported me enough to devote myself to studying for several decades. So most of the empire’s wizards belonged to the imperial guild. Once you join the guild, living expenses and research expenses are taken care of. He could live buried in magic until he died of old age. Thanks to this, when a mobilization order came from the imperial family, it had to be followed without a word, but such cases were rare. This was one of those rare occasions. As this year’s research budget was about to be set, the guild master generously sent advanced wizards. There were seven senior wizards mobilized to the main temple today, and the number of assistant wizards was seven times that number.
“There is nothing wrong with the magic circle…”
Senior wizard Prian tilted his head again. There was no breach in the blockade magic circle. But strangely enough, the tracking magic circle was moving. What the imperial family requested was to establish a barrier around the main shrine. It was said that no matter who came and went, the imperial family must be able to identify him. So he set up a chain of blockade and tracking magic circles. When one jinn moves, the others react accordingly.
“Why is only one tracking team moving separately?”
“Huh? Does that mean someone escaped through the barrier?”
“But why is the blockade quiet?”
Prian’s assistant wizards tilted their heads to follow their teacher. Even if they were advanced wizards, those who had only known magic their whole lives had almost no practical experience. Although he may be knowledgeable in magic theory, he was slow to react to unexpected situations.
“Umm… Well, that’s fine.”
“You mean the Emperor was imperfect?”
“Master, you made a typo when writing the runes?”
Prian frowned.
“I didn’t!”
“Then why is that?”
“It’s a connection team, so there’s no way the tracking team alone can go wrong.”
The teacher glared at his students who kept tilting their heads and asking questions.
“Don’t just stand around and ask questions, come find the answer!”
“Uh? Master, you don’t know either?”
“Are we?”
“Ah, no matter where you ask! …wait.”
Prian suddenly jerked his head to the side.
“Is the Emperor over there moving too?”
“Huh?”
“Yes?”
“That one over there is also a tracking team!”
Even if there was only one, if there were two, it meant trouble. The face of the master who had called her aside and asked her to take care of him because next year’s research funds were on the line passed before her eyes.
“The fact that only the pursuit team is moving means that something has escaped from here… But the fact that the blockade did not move… Wait, this was a temple.”
Prian asked his disciples.
“Is there something like teleportation among the divine powers?”
The disciples waved their hands.
“Oh, that can’t be possible.”
“The fields are completely different. There are only five areas of divine power. Foreknowledge, healing, purification, prosperity, and curse. There is nothing else.”
“Then what is there! Being able to teleport without being affected by mana!”
“Uh… Something like that… ah!”
“Wouldn’t it be possible with witchcraft?”
It was correct.
“Oh, yes! Incantation! There was witchcraft! The group has been quiet since they broke through the blockade with a spell, but since the person who placed the blockade has disappeared, the pursuit team is moving!”
Prian suddenly got excited and raised both his hands. Again, the wizards of the fortress had little actual combat experience. This meant that there wasn’t much opportunity to use magic. Such a large-scale chain reaction could only be known in theory and could not be tested in a laboratory.
“My wand! Bring your wand! And quickly go and inform the Royal Guard!”
The disciples moved quickly, one getting a staff and the other running to where the guards were. Prian swung his staff with all his might.
“Tracking! The chase of the chase! Block the tracking target!”
Wooooow!
Following his gesture, the magic circle drawn around the temple began to move.
* * *
“I parked the carriage over there.”
The feeling of walking through a magically created passage to another dimension was very strange. It was bright yet dark, and time was fast yet slow. The thoughts seemed endless, but her mind was empty. That strange road ended at some point. Lasilia found herself standing with her back to the wall. The low but smooth wall was the wall surrounding the temple.
“Did you leave the temple?”
“Huh.”
Ternaden pulled Lasilia’s hand. Her hands were cold. It was because of cold sweat.
“Now, if you go a little further, behind that tree… Ah, there it is.”
Ternaden pointed to a black chariot that looked too ordinary to be a Duke’s carriage.
“It’s done now. If you ride that carriage, no one will suspect anything. Just cross the border like this. Let’s go to Trinidad first. No one would think that my sister went to a place like that.”
Little by little, warmth returned to her cold palms. It was evidence that the tension was starting to ease.
‘Okay… I’m going back.’
It was that moment when Lasilia comforted her heart once again and quickened her steps.
Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu… bang!
She felt like the ground was shaking. It seemed like a blue light was gathering under the carriage.
Bang! Bang!
The light appeared and the carriage was instantly destroyed.
“Oh! Uh, how?”
Ternanen shouted as if he couldn’t believe it even though he saw it with his own eyes. Above the blue light that destroyed the carriage, another group of lights with a darker color emerged.
Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch… Pot!
When the light disappeared, a group of people appeared on top of the broken carriage. Unfortunately, they all had familiar faces.
“Your Majesty the Empress.”
The person who called me with a confused expression was Ryan. And Serven, and Decan, and…
“I want you to let go of that hand for now.”
Today there was an emperor whose gaze was as pointed as the tip of a spear.
—————————————————————
Translator Note:
Hello there! This is RJR. I hope you liked it <3
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