Proofreader: somnium

“Maria. This woman is in pretty bad shape. Would she be okay?”

One of the members of Parax, who was holding Lena in the carriage, forcibly picked up Lena, who was about to collapse, and asked.

“It doesn’t matter as long as she has her breath.”

“Then, that’s a reli…… huh…… ?”

“What’s the matter?”

“Ah, she was breathing until a while ago…….”

Then, Maria grabbed Lena’s neck and looked for her pulse. But no breath could be felt on her white face, drenched in cold sweat, and no pulsation in her thin neck as she held it in her fingers. Come to think of it, Lena’s moaning and groaning stopped at some point.

“My God…… She is already dead.”

Maria didn’t regret it very much. Because she was someone who had to die anyway.

It was the moment she took her fingers off Lena’s neck without taking it too seriously. At first glance, something purple had touched her, but then Lena opened her eyes. The just droopy body was looking at Maria with a still face.

“Huh…… ? Isn’t she dead…… ?”

“Huh? She is really alive.”

The member who supported Lena was also amazed while looking at Lena’s face. But that was all. For them, Lena had to die, so it wouldn’t make any difference if she opened her eyes. Of course, things didn’t always go as expected.

“You two, what are your names?”

Lena, who had been groaning in pain until she lost her consciousness, didn’t seem to be in any pain anymore. Rather, it was a strangely calm and dignified voice.

“What does this mean now? Do you sleep talk?”

“Name.”

The member holding Lena laughed out loud, but Maria didn’t take her gaze off Lena. She knelt down on her knees in front of Lena and bowed her head.

“It’s……Maria.”

“Maria?”

The member looked at Maria in bewilderment, but they had a similar fate.

“And you?”

“…… I, I amTejian.”

Lena nodded her head lightly and smiled slightly.

“Maria and Tejian. You should help me.”

Lena, who smiled softly, got out of the carriage through the door opposite to Kahel and Liddell. Maria and Tejian escorted her naturally. The air outside the carriage was overflowing with dark magic energy enough to give goosebumps, but only Lena felt it.

Lena moved her steps naturally. With Maria and Tejian by her side, the rest of the Parax didn’t really care. Parax itself was a group that had Maria as their head, so they just thought, ‘Maria is trying to move the hostage to another location.’

The place Lena approached through the back road of the building was the entrance to the forest where Leonard was holding Damien down.

“Uuugh, Leonard… … !”

“Thank you for your hard work, Damien. But that’s it. The single wing that will enjoy the infinite glory of Logos is Santella.”

“A Guardian of the Kingdom…… Taking the people hostage……!”

“We decided to become rulers, not Guardians of the Kingdom. A sacrifice like this is worth it.”

Damien, who had used up his magical power to defeat the monsters with Kahel, was being helplessly beaten by Leonard, whose magical power had barely been used. Leonard looked down at Damien, who had fallen to the ground, crushed by his magic, with a triumphant smile.

“Stand down, Leonard. We must not step out of our position of obeying the Queen and defend Logos. Forgetting our original sin……!”

“Ah, are you talking about that ‘original sin’? You’re still obsessed with that old-fashioned notion. I didn’t even teach my kids about original sin.”

“Think of the reason we are able to live on this earth!”

“It is because of our strength. And it’s natural for the winner to have everything.”

The original sin of the ancestors who killed countless other lives with great power did not concern the current Leonard even a single bit.

The ancestors, who were in danger of being cast out of this land by the gods, swore that they would use this power only for the sake of the Queen and humanity, but that had nothing to do with Leonard. Why should he live only as a servant, leaving the power to devour not only Logos, but the entire world?

“Why don’t you know that we ourselves are outside the laws of nature!”

Damien tried to convince Leonard until the very end, but in vain.

“Tsk tak. Silly and poor Damien. The world has changed. Look at the dying Queen now. God has abandoned this land. And we’ve been preparing for so many years to take over this unowned land. You will be surprised to know how long and how meticulously prepared we have been.”

Leonard paused for a moment to see Damien’s despair, and then said with a smile,

“Because the curse on Kahel has been made since seven generations ago.”

“What…… ?”

Damien’s eyes widened.

“On the day Kahel swore allegiance to the Queen, I succeeded in placing the curse, the masterpiece of my ancestors, completely on him. That may go down as my greatest achievement.”

“Le, Leonard, you…… !”

“Yes, it was me. Oh, how much I wanted to confess this to you…… ! I wanted to see you suffer and hear. Now, I feel great.”

Damien ran everywhere in search of a way to break the curse that had devoured his son, and Kahel, who should have grown up in the spotlight more than Liddell, was forced to lock himself in Luave. Leonard did what no one dared to think of.

Leonard accomplished his mission at the moment when the Duchy’s blood relatives could not use their magical powers, and the opportunity would never again present itself if that day was missed. How much he wanted to brag about it. In particular, he wanted to see Damien’s sense of superiority, who always took care of him like a little brother, getting crushed, and he finally fulfilled that wish today.

“Come on, now that I have seen the father’s grievous mourning face, I should give it as a present to the monstrous son.”

He gathered the magic in his hand and created a long magic spear. Realizing that Leonard was about to kill him and throw him at Kahel, Damien gathered what was left of him and tried to break free from the shackles. Laughing at his futile effort, Leonard without hesitation raised the magic spear and plunged it down at Damien.

However, his powerful magic spear broke before it even touched Damien’s body and disappeared as particles of light. In addition, the power that suppressed Damien was nowhere to be found.

“What, what?”

Not only Leonard, but Damien, who only thought he was going to die, looked at each other in surprise. However, the one who had the answer they were looking for was walking slowly, looking at them from afar.

“It is not a power left behind to kill colleagues and humans. How many times do I have to tell you…….”

“Lena……?”

Instead of Leonard, who was speechless, Damien asked, startled. It seemed that she was the maid Kahel was looking for like crazy, but she looked too ordinary and sane compared to Kahel’s devastation. Surprised by that, he realized after a long while that the words that just came out of Lena’s mouth were quite strange.

“Maria. Why do you bring that girl here? You should be waiting behind Liddell!”

Leonard came to his senses, completely ignoring Lena and scolded Maria standing behind her. But Maria no longer bowed her head to Leonard. Rather, she only looked at Leonard with a sharp gaze, just like when she stood guarding Liddell. It was the same with Tejian, who was by her side, too.

Although they did not fully recognize their change, they were initially offended by the fact that Leonard did not behave obediently in front of Lena.

At that moment, a bang was heard from not far away. It seemed that Liddell and Kahel had clashed again.

“I don’t have time.”

Lena, who was quietly measuring her magical energy, raised her hand with a firm expression and swung it. Then, the amount of magical power that Leonard and Damien had was swapped, and Leonard fell to the floor. Lena stumbled a bit as it was her first try, but she didn’t fall, thanks to Maria’s immediate support.

“What, what is this! What are you?”

Embarrassed, Leonard screamed. But the truth was that both Damien and Leonard knew instinctively. There was only one person in the world who could control magic so naturally.

“Your Majesty…… The Queen…….”

Damien staggered, but raised his body and knelt down on one of his knees in front of Lena. The long-awaited power is now blooming in front of him and slowly revealing its perfection. It was so amazing that he forgot the circumstances around him and was drenched in emotion and joy.

In fact, Lena was also unfamiliar with her own transformation and was afraid of the power overflowing within her, but strangely enough, she was clearly aware of what she had to do.

“Now, I have to go to Kahel.”

The darkening magic was ominous.

* * *

Crash-Bang!

The ground on which Liddell was standing was gently dug like pudding by Kahel’s unwavering power. But Liddell jumped lightly and swung her sword in the direction Kahel was standing.

Slash-!

A sword that cut through the air left a long streak of blood on Kahel’s body. However, the wound was not deep and even disappeared as he turned around.

Because Liddell’s magical power was still stronger, she had a bit of an advantage, but the situation itself was completely different from what Liddell had expected. She continued to inflict wounds on Kahel, but he did not back down, and as time passed, the wound healed faster. Not only did the recovery speed increase, but the attack speed and evasion speed also increased. The eerie red eyes were full of life, and it seemed that it was far from the Kahel’s she knew.

‘No! You can’t do this!’

Liddell, who had been confident, was noticeably irritated. It was only a matter of time before Kahel’s power would surpass Liddell while going in this state. Then, the day that her ancestors had prepared for it would have been in vain. It was for this day that everyone in the Santella family supported her, and her reason for existence was rapidly shaken.

“Well then, goodbye.”

Kahel’s last farewell, when he had said to her that the next time they met, would be as an enemy, seemed to ring in her ears. Kahel really looked after her as a friend. Considering the magical power he used when he slaughtered the monster hordes earlier, Kahel’s power seemed to be greater than that of the Duchy’s relatives combined.

Liddell clenched her fists and lowered her body in the distance, looking at the hordes of monsters waiting for orders. The monster hordes were meant to be saved as much as possible in case of an emergency, but in the current situation, there was no other way.

‘Yeah, there’s one more horde left, so it’s still okay.’

Liddell’s blue eyes lit up and she chanted a spell full of malice. Then, the crouched monster horde got up again and started running towards this side.

“Come on, try stopping this one.”