Chapter 248 – Chapter 248 ― More Is Not Always Better (2)
Episode 248 ― More isn’t always better (2)
It’s that face again
A very brief moment of sunken expression,
And the smile that followed.
I can tell it’s a negative feeling, but I can’t figure out what she’s thinking.
Roan was worried.
“I still seem to have concerns. Won’t you tell me honestly, Eleanor?”
A ripple arose in Erenia’s mind.
Inside, she smiled triumphantly at the unknown voice.
Roan is a better person than you think.
“I don’t mean to doubt Roan’s skills or thoughts… Can I go with you too? Even if you think it sounds immature… I want to help Roan too.”
Red eyes twinkled with sincerity.
A soft smile appeared on Roan’s face as well.
“I’m not immature. Thank you for caring about me.”
However, Erenia sensed an ominous energy from his breath and bit her lips.
“But there is something I can do for you because you are my wife. While I’m emptying this country, I want you to protect this place. Because you are the only one who can replace me here.”
Normally, he would have been delighted with Roan’s trustworthy words. However, these words that Elenir heard now only left the conclusion that ‘in the end, I can’t be by Roan’s side’.
“Guard the castle while I’m gone.”
Roan gently stroked Ernear’s head, and Ernear smiled and nodded her head.
[So she should have pulled him down quickly.]
It would have been nice if you weren’t the emperor.
It should have been.
“Go with caution.”
Erenia, who gave warm words to Roan, left her office with a faint smile.
As soon as she left the door, she lost her smile and went back to her lab. There are many dangerous medicinal materials, and because it is a place where magical power flows, ordinary people are prohibited from entering.
Therefore, her laboratory is her own space.
Sitting on a barely exposed chair in the corner of her cluttered laboratory, Ernear unearthed something of hers that had been buried in her pile of books.
What Ernear held in her hand was a small marble.
It is a magic tool for communication that Roan often uses.
[You’d better hurry.]
“Be quiet.”
Ernear replied nervously and gathered her magical energy into her hands. Her magic orb emitted a flickering light, and after a moment of waiting, she felt her magical energy rebound.
The moment she felt her mana being sucked into the magic sphere, that power flowed out as sound.
— What’s up?
Sharp voice.
It was the voice of the Grand Duke of Darkness, the great lord who ruled over the Southern Dark Spirit in the distant Swin Lake.
“I was excited, Father.”
— Even if you don’t want to hear the news of the emperor or empress, you still get it. Rather than that, you contacted me first. Are you in a hurry?
“…”
Eleanor, who had been stabbed to the point, shut her mouth.
After calming down her pain for a while, Ernear answered with a more subdued voice.
“I’m contacting you to ask because it doesn’t seem to be going as you said.”
— If it had happened overnight, I wouldn’t have asked you to help.
The grand duke, who spoke coldly, was silent as if pondering over his thoughts at Eleanor’s words.
“Father. More difficult to bear. You said you would monopolize the emperor. Roan now is different from before. More and more people are coming to him.”
– Okay. They stretched their hands all over the place.
The emperor, who had even cut off even his closest advocates, began to attract people to his side as if a person had suddenly changed one day.
Not only the people in the Imperial Castle and Basel, but also the lords and humans who were hostile to them from afar. Men and women of all ages did not care, regardless of rank.
The emperor began to gain people’s affection.
Deep wrinkles appeared on the pale face of the Grand Duke of Darkness. Her and Elenir’s plans to bring down the emperor were distorted together because of that.
I was too cautious. It took time.
I should have acted quickly even if I had to live with opposition from others. Anyway, the backlash would have quickly faded in the face of overwhelming power.
It’s been ten years since Erenia tried to yield even to her wedding, as she wanted.
At first, there was a cause, but I didn’t know that people would change so suddenly. What could have been the cause? I’ve been watching him for so long.
However, no matter how much the Grand Duke tried to remember, he was now vague about what he was aiming for the throne for.
Enough time had passed for ambition to turn into obsession, and it no longer mattered whether the emperor did the right thing or who he was now.
The important thing is that he is the one who can make his demons look like demons, and he wants his only daughter to be the current emperor, not the emperor. Thus, the needs of the father and daughter coincided.
“… Father.”
Hearing Erenia’s voice, the Grand Duke suddenly came to his senses. He remembered what the Grand Duke was trying to say, as if he was urging him to say something.
— Even if it wasn’t so, he found traces of the emperor’s surveillance. He seems to have attached a human to the human side.
Eleanor’s eyes narrowed.
Human.
The problem always seems to start there.
Being far away and having different cultures from each other. When humans start to become entangled, they cannot be controlled with the power of Elenia.
In the end like this
Will I have no choice but to borrow my father’s power?
[Borrowed, you and he made a deal. It’s what we wanted from each other.]
This sound sometimes says the right thing.
It was.
The Grand Duke wanted the throne, and Erenia wanted the prince.
That’s all.
“Roan also talked about Merde. He said he had an issue to settle.”
— Directly?
“Yes.”
This is a deal
Still, the fact that he didn’t tell everything was an excuse in Erenia’s mind.
The Grand Duke, who had heard what Erenia had said, muttered in a heavy voice.
— Should humans be warned? It’s cumbersome.
“What are you going to say?”
Erenier recognized who the human the Grand Duke was talking about. The real power of the country called Merde. The one who was said to be a wizard who manipulated the king.
The Grand Duke did not tell his daughter everything either. Even Elenir knew that he was working hand in hand with humans to create something, but was he close enough to tell each and every human in Spross something?
[I heard that Roan also attached tracking to humans. No one tells you everything.]
“Footle… What are you going to say?”
Hearing his daughter’s nervous voice, the Grand Duke also twisted her face. Ever since he learned demonic magic, sometimes Erenia would spit out nonsensical words.
Demonology is, after all, magic that achieves miracles by trading souls with something. People whose souls are broken like this are common. But anyway, it’s not nice for him to see his only remaining blood relative like this.
So, to everyone’s surprise, the Grand Duke’s answer softened a bit.
— I should tell you to watch out for the tail. If you can catch it, even better. Shouldn’t we be careful because the emperor might go directly to the human country?
Why on earth would Roan want to go to the human world?
“Do you know what Roan is trying to deal with?”
The Grand Duke was silent for a moment.
— Didn’t I tell you not to ask?
“If it is too dangerous, I will do anything to stop it. At least it’s important to me that Roan doesn’t get hurt.”
[Actually, isn’t it better to get hurt? You can save me.]
A twisted smile appeared on Erenia’s face. However, Ernear did not speak her voice, and the Grand Duchess did not know what expression her daughter was making.
Erenia will stop the emperor. It wouldn’t be bad if Elenir could directly block the emperor’s interference.
It would be best if a human could catch the guy the emperor had attached, but there’s no way he would have hired easy people.
With human power, no matter how prepared, it would never be easy to deal with the person of the emperor.
The best thing is to avoid it.
— He was looking for something human.
“What?”
— You don’t need to know that. Anyway, the important thing is to make the emperor fall in love. Thanks to that, it’s also starting to reveal who’s after us.
You dug a trap.
Eleanor’s bizarre smile grew thicker.
If he could save Roan from the trap, he would
If there is something that can dramatically help at the scene.
[That would be a great ending!]
“I see. You are wonderful.”
The magic sphere became quiet for a while, then the grand duke’s shady voice returned.
— How is the research going?
At the new question from the Grand Duke, Erenia looked around the messy surroundings as if embarrassed.
Several huge desks were covered with experiment tools, herbs, ores, mana stones, and books. At the center of it all was a metal coin that Elenir had touched.
“… I am in a hurry.”
Erenia fiddled with the coin.
“It is based on invisible power, and I cannot ask for help from anyone around me. Didn’t I tell you it would take time, Father?”
— You just learned how to stand up. Do you know that I am doing this out of my own greed? Stupid thing.
Ernear bit her lip.
I was heartbroken, but as my father said, this wasn’t just for his greed.
It was inevitable to keep Roan by his side.
— Hurry up as much as possible. I have to move before autumn is over.
“All right. Father.”
Everyone has an invisible power.
A peculiar ability possessed by each individual.
In the case of ordinary people, the power is very insignificant, and it is difficult to grasp what kind of power they have.
However, in the case of people who show exceptional talent in a certain field, most of them show abilities that far exceed the level of experience, effort, and talent.
Erenir also had that kind of power that I could vaguely guess, and so did the Grand Duke of Darkness.
The abilities that Roan is presumed to have are things like the power to obscure a woman’s reason and the power to put pressure on the people around her.
In the past, when the emperor did not control such power, everyone had a hard time enduring his ability.
But now, no one has such trouble. Because Roan started to control that power.
And as Erennier investigated, controlling such an ability is very, very, very difficult.
That ‘ability’ is similar to the awakening of demons. The direction of manifestation cannot be adjusted at will, nor can the degree of force manifested change.
How much training would he have to go through to be able to handle it freely?
Since people who do not even know the reality in the first place are the majority, the starting point of Roan is at a high place from the point where you can already know what to deal with.
So, the Grand Duke and Eleanor came to the conclusion that if they could suppress Roan’s ability, they could halve his power to some extent. And that conclusion, unfortunately, will be somewhat correct.
Roan is an excellent swordsman by himself, but
Indeed, without the ‘overwhelm’ or ‘detection’ he had from the start, his powerlessness is halved. It is all the more so considering the ability and weight of the skills he has acquired.
[Cheer up. Shouldn’t I break my wings and throw them away so I can come into your arms?]
A voice in my head that sometimes makes an intrusive rustling sound. But for now, I am sending so sweet cheers.
And Eleanor is as before
In the end, that voice that remains on my side,
He had no choice but to agree to the voice that touched his desire.
“You will succeed. Father.”
