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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 33
Chapter Title: The Day the Beast Escaped
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His tone was accusatory.
Ekiel faintly raised the corners of his lips.
A foul premonition made Ritain furrow his brow.
“What is it?”
“Um, well, Your Majesty.”
“……”
Only three people remained in the conference room now: Ritain, Ekiel, and Urna.
They had requested Emperor Ritain’s understanding, as the discussion to follow was highly confidential and sensitive.
Urna remained in her capacity as the young emperor’s adjutant and guardian.
As Urna faltered under Ritain’s murderous intensity, Ekiel spoke up.
“I will speak.”
Ekiel extended his hand.
His golden mana then formed a shape in the air.
“Three years ago, in early spring. On the day Princess Jusielia was born, it fully awakened.”
*CRASH!*
The sound of the conference table shattering echoed through the room.
The marble table, struck by the enraged Emperor Ritain’s fist, cracked and crumbled pathetically.
“Ugh!”
Urna, aghast at the emperor’s immense power, stepped back.
But Ekiel remained seated, speaking calmly.
“As the black crystal sphere shattered, the Dark Divine Beast also escaped.”
“What does that have to do with my daughter?”
Ritain, glaring at Ekiel with blazing eyes, wanted nothing more than to destroy the illusion of the white tiger cub that the damn young emperor had created.
The newborn Jusi, and the ominous black haze shimmering around her.
“Why are you showing me this damnable thing?!”
Ritain finally lost his composure and roared.
“It is reality, Emperor of Penterin.”
Ekiel answered calmly.
“The Dark Divine Beast.”
Meeting Ritain’s murderous glare, Ekiel continued to speak with composure.
“A thousand years ago, it was killed and sealed by Anash. But while its soul was annihilated along with Anash’s, its body remained dormant in the Rosart River as a black crystal sphere.”
With a wave of Ekiel’s hand, the illusion of Jusi enveloped in the black haze vanished.
“After a long time passed… I surmise that both of the ‘two souls’ that had been annihilated have returned.”
“…A thousand years is a long time, indeed.”
With the ominous illusion gone, Ritain’s ferocious aura subsided slightly.
Nevertheless, his face was still filled with displeasure.
Though the illusion of Jusi had disappeared, the image of the black haze slithering around like a snake, searching for ‘something,’ remained.
Ritain was certain that Ekiel was creating this illusion to represent the Dark Divine Beast—the Black Snake.
‘That thing is looking for my daughter.’
Ritain’s golden eyes turned cold.
“Having regenerated its soul and lain dormant, it momentarily regained its power the instant it sensed the birth of the princess, the reincarnation of Anash. It must have felt its own power, which had vanished. On that day, the black crystal sphere cracked, and a portion of its power leaked out.”
Ekiel waved his hand once more, and the illusion floating in the air completely disappeared.
Ritain raised an eyebrow and arrogantly crossed his legs.
“So, are you trying to say this happened because my daughter was born?”
He growled, baring his sharp teeth.
His displeasure and rage were laid bare.
“How could that be? The birth of Princess Jusielia is the hope of this continent. I will protect the princess, even if it costs me my life.”
Ritain, who had spoken with deliberate sarcasm, was taken aback by the young emperor’s solemn vow to risk his life, and blinked in embarrassment.
He uncrossed his legs and let out a dry cough.
“Even without an emperor, there are plenty who would protect my daughter, so there’s no need to go that far, ahem.”
*Including me,* he thought.
Glancing at Ekiel, who was still looking at him with a serious expression, Ritain suddenly felt a sense of unease.
*What is this? This nasty feeling that something precious to me is about to be taken away?*
Following the instinct of a predator, Ritain let out an involuntary growl from the back of his throat.
“Your Majesty?”
“…It’s nothing.”
But his counterpart was just a child who posed no particular threat to him.
Albeit a child who was the greatest mage on the continent and the emperor of the Western Continent.
‘Who would dare take anything from me? Haha.’
Ritain decided to stop his pointless thoughts.
Ekiel, though unaware of what Ritain was contemplating, saw the complexity in his mind and continued speaking.
“And on the day Princess Jusielia was born, the Dark Divine Beast broke its seal and escaped from the Rilberg Imperial Palace.”
“Ha, good heavens.”
“His Majesty, the previous emperor, tried to stop it before it could escape completely, but his efforts were not enough. However, thanks to his final, all-out attack, the Dark Divine Beast sustained significant damage.”
As he explained, Ekiel appeared serene, showing no particular emotional turmoil.
“It couldn’t even properly maintain its form as a divine beast. That’s likely why it still hasn’t been able to approach the princess directly.”
“Ah…”
Ritain’s face hardened as he listened to Ekiel’s explanation. Urna, standing beside him, had a mournful expression.
He spoke in a heavy voice.
“The previous emperor… he passed away that day?”
“That is correct.”
“My condolences. I apologize for my harsh words earlier, bringing my daughter into this.”
“It is nothing.”
But the end of Ekiel’s voice trembled slightly.
Watching him, Urna’s heart ached as if it were being torn apart.
*To describe the situation so dispassionately. How sad our emperor, so mature for his age, must have been.*
Of course, Ekiel remembered that day’s tragedy vividly. But it would only be more painful to explain it in detail.
As the memory resurfaced, Ekiel bit his lower lip.
‘No!’
The Dark Divine Beast, the bastard, had lunged at his grandfather, plunging a sharp black spear into his abdomen.
Caught in the emperor’s massive dispelling magic circle, the Dark Divine Beast had shattered into pieces, transforming into the shape of a thin black snake and escaping in an instant.
Ekiel had clung to his grandfather’s cold body as it bled profusely, pouring all his healing magic into him.
Even though he knew it was of little use to the dying.
‘My boy, protect the White Tiger. And live your own life, Ekiel.’
He vividly remembered the moment his grandfather used his last ounce of strength to leave him with his final words.
The moment his eyelids fluttered closed, and his breathing stopped.
The child, who didn't understand emotions well and was clumsy at expressing them, cried for the first time after losing his grandfather.
This all happened on the very day Jusi was born and began to be left alone in the tower.
After the state funeral for the previous emperor of Rilberg ended, Ekiel was recognized as the successor and ascended to the throne as the new emperor.
A few months later.
Ekiel headed to the emperor’s Sealing Chamber.
The place from which the Dark Divine Beast had escaped, despite being surrounded by layers of powerful sealing magic circles.
He hadn’t wanted to go, as it was the place where he had lost his grandfather, but he was the emperor, and it was his duty to find and kill that beast.
Searching the Sealing Chamber thoroughly, Ekiel belatedly discovered something that had seeped into the room’s subspace.
It was a rather large fragment of the crystal sphere that had broken when the Dark Divine Beast escaped.
Ekiel was certain that the vessel which had contained the Dark Divine Beast for so long must hold an answer, and he placed the fragment in his personal subspace.
That night.
Ekiel cried himself to sleep, missing his grandfather, and a white tiger cub appeared in his dream.
An infant tiger he suddenly encountered while weeping over his grandfather’s death, even in his dream.
He recognized it at once.
This gentle child, who picked flowers to comfort him, was the reincarnation of Anash—the princess of the Penterin Empire.
Just as the Black Snake was about to approach, targeting the white tiger cub, Ekiel woke up.
The princess was the reincarnation of Anash, so she wouldn’t be easily defeated, but he was worried.
The white tiger cub looked so small and fragile.
Through research, Ekiel discovered that he had entered the beast’s dream thanks to the black crystal fragment he had collected.
It was the same principle that had previously allowed his high level of mana to read the beast’s thoughts.
From time to time, Ekiel would quietly peer into the beast’s thoughts using the black crystal fragment left behind by the Dark Divine Beast.
The beast, in its weakened state, planned to enter the white tiger princess’s dreams and devour her power, at least within that realm.
From that moment on, Ekiel began to train.
When he had vanished from the dream at the end, he had drawn upon his mana just in case and felt the same power he wielded in reality.
‘I can use my magic.’
And so, Ekiel prepared to fight.
