I Will Become the Queen of the Enemy Country

Rosh opened the door to the conference room and paused. The atmosphere in the room was very heavy.

The fact that they had closed the gate and secured a path to Ragnaros’s main body felt like a lie in such a gloomy atmosphere.

“Your Highness, I have contacted the capital. His Majesty is dispatching warriors to check the safety of the gate,” Rosh reported, facing Karan’s back by the window.

There was no response from Karan.

He had been in that state since returning from the gate. He was like the sky before a storm. Calm, but unpredictable, as if he could pour out a storm and heavy rain at any moment.

“Your Highness, it’s Countess Rosh.”

Haltbin spoke to him, but Karan seemed unable to hear.

‘What is he thinking…’

It was the first time Karan looked pitiful.

“Haltbin, divert your gaze.”

Karan said a word, perhaps uncomfortable with the gaze that was staring at him. Haltbin immediately turned his body.

Karan was reminiscing about the time when Elise fainted

He had reviewed the conversation between her and Ragnaros from the first word to the last period hundreds of times.

Ragnaros seemed to know Elise.

‘How could Elise know a dragon that was in deep slumber hundreds of years ago?’

Even though it seemed impossible, the miraculous actions shown by Elise made it seem possible.

But such curiosity soon disappeared. Instead, another thought dominated Karan’s mind.

When will Elise wake up?

Will she wake up?

A dark shadow loomed around Karan.

Cough. Rosh coughed. She knew she shouldn’t disturb Karan’s time, but as a countess, she had to do her job.

“Your Highness, His Majesty has ordered a detailed report on the gate subjugation.”

As planned, Karan should have headed to the capital immediately after conquering the gate.

He planned to take the heart of the Drake, a trophy, to the king of Tetris, receive recognition for Elise’s merit, and hold an engagement ceremony with her.

But then Elise fell into a coma. Even after confronting Ragnaros.

It was unknown how the king of Tetris would accept this.

So Karan issued a gag order to everyone about what Elise had gone through.

“The fact that we couldn’t block the last blow of the Drake is not your fault. So don’t blame yourself too much for Elise’s condition.”

People think Elise fell asleep due to the attack of the Drake.

“It’s surprising that a Drake could use psychic magic…”

To explain the state of Elise, who has been asleep for two weeks, the members who went into the gate even had to create an ability of a Drake that didn’t exist.

“Your Highness, we can’t keep delaying the report.”

Although Elise’s misfortune was pitiful and regrettable, and heartbreaking, Rosh was the lord of the Dex territory and a vassal of the king of Tetris.

She didn’t want to offend Tyllo’s mood by delaying the report.

“…Is he sending a doctor?”

Karan opened his mouth after a long time. Rosh bowed her head deeply at his long-awaited reply.

Karan had requested the king several times to send a competent doctor from Tetris, but the king had consistently ignored him.

There was Leber, but he had given up on treating her a long time ago.

“It’s not a disease that a doctor can cure.”

Karan almost wanted to strangle someone to death.

“I’m sorry, Your Highness.”

Is it being ignored again this time?

Karan closed his eyes. The frustration and anger he felt prickled people. They were sweating cold sweat on their backs.

Everyone had the same thought.

Unless Elise wakes up, there will be no bright light in Tetris’s future.

‘It will only be a matter of time before the Dex territory collapses.’

They didn’t know when Karan’s anger would be directed at them. He didn’t need a reason to choose a target to express his anger.

“He blew up a mountain.”

It was something Karan did when he said he would go out for a while. The face of Trish, who was reporting it, looked like she had seen a ghost.

‘I have to find a way. Anything…’

Then, something flashed and came up in Rosh’s mind.

“Your Highness, if it’s a disease that a doctor can’t cure, what about a shaman?”

****

The rain poured down like a waterfall. The carriage struggled through the flowing water and muddy road towards Hell’s Land.

Karan held Elise’s body every time the carriage shook.

The carriage bounced again. Karan wrapped his arms around Elise’s head.

“I’ll do it right!”

Karan was so angry that the coachman shouted first. Karan kicked the wall of the carriage.

It was a signal to speed up.

The coachman, who had been serving him for a long time, quickly understood his intention.

The sound of horse hooves became more intense and the speed began to increase.

It was natural that the shaking became severe. But Elise’s body, nestled in Karan’s arms, did not move at all.

That’s how strongly and safely Karan was holding her.

“Elise…”

Karan looked at Elise’s closed eyelids and kissed her forehead.

Her skin, touched by his rough lips, was soft and warm. There was also the cozy scent unique to Elise.

Everything was the same as before she met Ragnaros. Only one thing was different. Elise was asleep.

Just one thing had changed, but Karan’s world had changed.

Since Elise didn’t laugh, he had no reason to laugh, and since she didn’t speak, Karan also hated conversation.

Karan’s life was losing its meaning and was corroding. If it continues like this, he will wither away.

And before withering away, there was a high possibility that he would destroy everything she loved.

Because he couldn’t forgive those who shared even a little of Elise’s affection…

After all, she is asleep and won’t see his ugly jealousy, and the violence caused by it.

Karan didn’t want to go that far.

“So it would be better for Elise to open her eyes soon.”

More than anything, he wanted to see Elise’s lively appearance. Karan rubbed his cheek against Elise’s cheek.

[Karan.]

The tender voice calling him, her body curled up in his arms, her hot body temperature that held him, and her smile like sunlight came up in turn, it all made him sad.

“Elise…”

Sleeping, eating, walking, talking, watching.

Karan’s time passed, but he was stuck in that time when Elise fell asleep due to Ragnaros.

****

Besti’s actions were slow and weak.

Karan had to grip the armrest tightly to suppress his urge to rush.

With a creak, the armrest that couldn’t beat Karan’s strength broke and the sound stopped Besti’s already slow action.

“Are you uncomfortable, Your Highness?”

“Keep going.”

Karan shook his head and waved his hand. He threw the powdered armrest on the floor and dusted off his hands.

“Shall I change the chair for you?”

In the Bronze District, there was only one armchair, and Karan had just broken it.

Besti asked with a little difficulty, wondering what to do if he asked to bring out another chair.

Fortunately, Karan refused the new chair.

Besti’s gaze turned to Elise, who was lying flat on the bed.

In fact, it was just a crude wooden plank to call it a bed, but Elise’s expression was comfortable.

Besti’s index finger touched Elise’s forehead, between her collarbones, her solar plexus, and finally below her navel.

“She’s in a very deep sleep.”

“Anyone can tell that.”

Karan spoke gruffly, getting annoyed at her weak actions.

“Yes, that’s correct. But you probably don’t know why she’s asleep.”

Besti spoke as if she knew. But instead of speaking straight away, Besti brought a broken incense burner, swept the sand on the floor into it, and stuck a long stick in it.

It was incense made by rolling tree bark. Soon, a pungent smoke filled the room.

“Hmm.”

Besti’s hand, which had exhaled a long breath, groped over Elise’s body in mid-air.

Karan turned his head at the sight of her hunching her short body and waving her hands here and there.

Was she the last shaman of the Dex territory?

Shamanism had long disappeared into the back alleys of history, pushed by the development of medicine and magic.

Shamanic treatment was dismissed as something that only poor and ignorant people do.

Their often ambiguous prophecies were dismissed as fraudulent acts to incite people.

It was taught that way in homes, schools, and higher education institutions like the academy.

Karan also grew up receiving that teaching.

Karan, who was called a barbarian and had a bit of a peculiar constitution, had no aversion to shamanism, but he also had no faith in it.

But seeing the demeanor and actions of Besti, the last shaman, he felt a sense of rejection.

‘There’s no power at all. It’s squishy like a worm.’

How could an hour of groping in the air help Elise?

Karan sighed as he looked at the six-time flipped 10-minute hourglass.

The last grain of sand was just falling. If she continues the same action until flipping it one more time, he felt like he couldn’t stand it.

“It’s over.”

Fortunately, that wasn’t the case.

As the tension in Karan’s jaw eased, Haltbin was relieved that the shaman’s command would continue for a few more days.

“Simply, the conclusion first.”

The shaman had a habit of speaking in circles using all sorts of metaphors and rhetoric.

It didn’t suit Karan’s personality.

Besti, with a dissatisfied look on her face, spoke under Karan’s sharp gaze.

“The mana vessel has completely dried up.”

Rosh, Regina, Haltbin, and Trish shrugged their shoulders as they looked at each other.

“An explanation is needed.”

Karan said.

When Besti smirked, wrinkles spread across her face.

It seemed funny that he had asked for an explanation while telling her to speak simply earlier.

“Quickly.”

Karan was impatient. He leaned his upper body forward.

“Ragnaros’s thought form.” (TL: simply an object formed through thoughts/thinking)

“What?”

“What you saw inside the gate then is Ragnaros’s thought form. Shall we say it’s the visualization of mental power? It seems to have absorbed all of Elise’s mana. Mana has a similar property to life, so Ragnaros, who wanted to wake up even a little faster, greedily sucked it in.”

“Is that possible?”

“In the very distant past, it is said that magicians also absorbed mana from each other. Bodies that were severely dehydrated and dead were often found.”

Could Elise have been in that state if she wasn’t careful? Karan’s face twisted in anger.

He was going to kill Ragnaros anyway, but now he was wondering how he could kill him painfully.

“If you know the cause, you know the treatment, right?”

The tone was strongly imbued with an unspoken doctor’s opinion that it must exist.