-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 74
Chapter Title: A Visit to the Regent
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 74
Ekiel was the one responsible for training me—the reincarnation of Anash, the only one who could kill the Dark Divine Beast, the Black Snake.
And if he had the capacity.
When the great battle for the world inevitably erupted again, I would have to cooperate with him to kill the Black Snake.
‘So we’re partners. We have the same goal of killing that bastard.’
Sensing something was wrong, Jusy gritted her teeth.
‘This isn’t like Ekiel. Why is he avoiding me?’
She huffed, ready to march over and drag Ekiel back, but then she hesitated.
She didn’t want to go just like that.
Jusy washed up, had the maids help her brush her hair, and changed her clothes.
Once she saw that she looked much neater and prettier than she did as a White Tiger, she finally set off to find Ekiel.
The image of him averting his gaze upon seeing her in human form was still vivid in her mind.
She wanted to look clean and beautiful enough to instantly erase any discomfort he might feel about the White Tiger having become a person.
After getting ready, Jusy used her head, figuring Ekiel would run away if she went straight to the Emperor's palace.
Her destination was the Regent’s office.
***
Another boring day was coming to an end.
Jetar had turned his chair toward the window and was taking a short break, watching the violet sky as the sun set.
Watching the sunset always put him in a foul mood.
Even after decades, it was still the same.
And yet, he wanted to keep watching.
Because even though it was during the frantic moments of fighting that damned Black Snake.
It was the last time he had seen the living faces of his precious friends.
‘Take care of Ekiel, Jetar!’
‘It’d be nice to have a dad as handsome as you.’
They had been smiling even as they died.
‘Damn it. How could they make jokes in a situation like that?’
Jetar could not forgive the Black Snake. That was why he had even less faith in the legend of the Eastern Continent’s White Tiger.
The seal of the legendary White Tiger Divine Beast, said to have imprisoned the Black Snake, had been brutally broken.
And now he was supposed to believe again?
Moreover, this time, we had failed even with our human strength.
How could a ‘Beastman White Tiger,’ not even the ‘Divine Beast Anash’ herself, kill that wicked creature we couldn’t defeat even with our sacrifices?
It was better to place his hopes in Emperor Ekiel, a once-in-a-generation magical genius.
He believed Ekiel could do it.
But at the same time, he was afraid.
As Emperor Ekiel grew as precious to him as his own child, just as his friends had wished.
He was afraid of losing that child, too. Afraid that Ekiel was fated to die like his own parents and grandfather.
If that happened, he didn't think he could go on living.
That was why he wrote his resignation letter every day.
‘If it comes to that, I’d rather…’
He would find that bastard, ready to die, and stake this old man’s life to kill him for good.
As Jetar stared into the distance with a fierce, wavering gaze, a crushing tightness filled his chest, and he rubbed the left side.
“Gasp!”
But what was this anxiety?
Please.
Let it be just simple anxiety.
Let it be an old man’s delusion.
It was then.
The heavy air that had been tormenting Jetar vanished, and a refreshing breeze blew in.
Breathing a little easier, the Regent’s eyes widened. He pushed up his glasses and looked out at the main road beyond the building.
There, a small, unfamiliar girl stood with familiar attendants.
“!!!”
Jetar instinctively knew who the girl was, though he had never seen her before, and shot up from his seat.
The little girl smiled.
A bright blue ribbon tying her pure white hair fluttered in the wind.
Those noble eyes looking at him, blue irises like a mix of sky and sea, were unmistakably hers!
Archmage Luke Jetar, who always walked at a leisurely pace, cast a teleportation circle for the first time in a long while and was outside in an instant.
He soon stood before the small girl, who was looking up at him with wide, blue eyes.
It was Princess Jusielia.
‘Ah. So this is her human form.’
He had heard she finally succeeded yesterday.
He had been on an urgent business trip to a distant city and had only just returned today.
‘Good heavens.’
He’d heard the Imperial Palace had been turned upside down.
They said the cute and lovely Princess White Tiger had finally succeeded in humanizing, and she looked like an angel descended from heaven.
Jetar, too, had wanted to see her immediately after his trip, but Emperor Ekiel had issued a stern warning.
Anyone who loitered around Stella Palace hoping to see the Princess’s human form and made her anxious would be severely punished.
The reason given was for the peace of mind and body of Princess Jusielia, who had just finished humanizing.
Jetar couldn’t defy the Emperor’s direct order, so he had been patiently waiting.
But.
Oh, but!
‘Her Highness the Princess came to see me herself! And look at her—my god, she’s a baby angel!’
Jetar’s mind was already in an uproar, filled with praise for the princess.
Jusy’s pure white hair, tinged with a strange golden hue from the sunset, swayed gently in the wind.
Along with it, Jetar’s sanity swayed aimlessly.
In short, he wasn’t in his right mind.
Unaware of this, Jusy grinned at him and called out cheerfully.
“Regent! It’s me. Do you recognize me? Nice to see you, right?”
“Hah!”
Jetar trembled, involuntarily taking a step back.
So, so adorable!
This level of loveliness was hazardous to the heart.
The princess had been cute as a White Tiger cub.
But seeing her speak with her own voice and look directly at him was so breathtakingly pretty it felt like his breath would stop.
He was on the verge of dying from a heart attack.
‘Ah, it was a good life.’
Jetar meekly placed both hands over his aching left chest and wept internally.
‘This old man has seen all the good things in this world and will now die of a heart attack. My friends who went before me, wait for me. I’m coming too.’
He muttered a ridiculous last will and testament to himself.
If he had said it out loud with his youthful face, it would have looked even stranger.
Jusy tilted her head at his incomprehensible behavior, then pointed to his left chest and asked.
“Does your heart hurt?”
Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump!
It was beating a little fast, but Jetar’s heart was perfectly sturdy.
Embarrassed, Jetar cleared his throat and shook his head.
“N-No, it doesn’t hurt.”
“Really? That’s a relief. You have to live a long life.”
“I-I will live a long life. A very, very long life. I plan to live forever, if possible.”
The man who had just been writing his will and vowing to be the first to leave to kill the Dark Divine Beast was gone.
A single word from Jusy had made Jetar dream of eternal life, and he declared it shamelessly.
Jusy smiled brightly and clapped her hands as she looked up at Jetar.
“From this height, you look even more handsome, Regent! Your nose is so high, and you don’t have a single blemish.”
“I-Is that so?”
“Yes! Claude resembles you, doesn’t he? But in my artistic opinion, the Regent is more refined and has a better aura.”
“Th-Thank you?”
Jetar’s face turned bright red like a boy in puberty, and he nodded his head furiously.
The employees of the Regent’s office, who were watching this from nearby, were on the verge of fainting.
Is our Lord Regent actually blushing right now?
The Lord Regent we know would have said it’s only natural that he’s handsome.
Our Lord Regent used to go around saying his face was God’s greatest gift.
And now he’s stammering like that just because Her Highness Princess Penterin complimented his looks?
Moreover, the Lord Regent had been on edge all day.
After returning from his trip, he had harangued the administrators, who had worked in tears, barely able to breathe.
‘The Regent is disappointed.’
‘*Sob*.’
‘I have no need for people who handle things this poorly. Get out, all of you!’
He had said that those who couldn’t handle a single assigned task didn’t deserve to eat.
He had even followed them to the dining hall, shouting and tormenting them until they were miserable.
And now, that prickly Lord Regent was acting so meek and demure in front of that tiny girl.
How could they not be astonished?
‘He looks like a mouse before a tiger.’
Jetar’s adjutant, Baron Curtson, watched his superior’s two-faced behavior and thought that was exactly what it was.
After all, he was the one who best knew of Regent Luke Jetar’s secret adoration for the princess.
With the object of his fervent admiration appearing right in the middle of the office courtyard, it was only natural for the Lord Regent to act like a broken wind-up doll.
