Chapter 30
‘Should I ask Her Majesty the Empress for help?’
The other side was an SS-Class Transcendent. If he truly made up his mind to avoid her, there was no way she could deal with it. He wasn’t someone who could be restrained even if several knights were assigned.
When Ephinia consulted Meredith while worrying it over, Meredith suggested speaking with the head attendant of the Crown Prince’s palace. Since Her Majesty the Empress had ordered them to help Ephinia, they would obey no matter what was asked.
“Even if I give any kind of command?”
“Yes. They’ll tell you everything, including where His Highness is. There’s nothing more important than delaying the tempering of His Highness’s rampage.”
At that explanation, Ephinia hesitated. She didn’t know how sharp a Transcendent’s senses were, so she needed Meredith’s help.
“Then… if we do it like this, will His Highness still be able to recognize me?”
* * *
It was already the third day. Another day passed without him seeing Ephinia’s face even once. Just as he had worried, she didn’t appear in his dreams again, but instead he felt like he was going insane from frustration.
‘F**k, why did my body have to become one that suppressants don’t work on…’
He was lowering the numbers with a guiding substitute, but his whole body ached. He thought he had grown used to chronic pain, yet when he was tormented by agony that felt like blades slicing through his head, his longing for Ephinia only grew stronger.
Why can’t I receive guiding?
‘It’s not that useful anyway. Even after being touched for a long time, it’s barely that much…’
So what if it is. I enjoyed it plenty.
He could not receive that woman’s guiding. If his swollen desire burst, it felt like he wouldn’t be able to escape. He still didn’t want to take such a shabby woman as Crown Princess, yet at the same time, the time he spent with her was driving him crazy because he liked it.
They were miserable moments. Nothing was impressive, and he had to keep receiving messy guiding, yet in his memories, she felt nothing but beautiful.
‘It’s only now. These feelings, this craving too. If I endure it, it’ll get better.’
Enduring was something he was used to. Pain was nothing. From childhood, he had naturally accepted suffering as something the strong were meant to bear.
That was why he could be greedy. He had endured all this time, so didn’t he deserve to grasp the very best? He had no intention whatsoever of failing to overcome a momentary desire and clutching something insignificant as if it were a treasure.
“Baroness Linier has left.”
At the report delivered by the attendant, Kasselard felt relieved. He had won today’s game of tag as well.
He could have simply forbidden Ephinia from entering the Crown Prince’s palace, but since she had received permission by order of Her Majesty the Empress to come and go freely, that wasn’t possible.
“I’m returning to my palace.”
“Will you be handling the rest of today’s schedule there?”
“No. I should rest today.”
He had already handled even tomorrow’s work while moving around anyway. Lately, even other Transcendents and the ministers were worried about his worsening condition, so there were no plans for Kasselard to go on an expedition.
‘In the worst case, Agnes will be summoned.’
Even with a low match rate, she was still an S-Class Guide. They would pressure her to do something somehow. Kasselard thought it would be better not to let things reach that point.
‘I can suppress it. My power is related to magic anyway. I’ve managed just fine on my own without a matched Guide until now.’
Leading his attendants out of the Administrative Palace, he boarded a carriage and headed for the Crown Prince’s Palace. It wasn’t as if he’d lacked a Guide for just a day or two, yet his body felt more exhausted and sluggish than ever.
How deceitful the human body was.
‘That guiding wasn’t anything special anyway. It just felt good…’
The drop in numbers was pathetic too. Kasselard glanced at the bracelet type magic tool he had received from Ephinia. The crystal displayed the number 1231. Even though he had been managing it by downing guiding substitutes these past few days, it was steadily creeping upward.
“Should I pressure the Mage Tower again…”
The Mage Tower Master was a Transcendent and was acquainted with the Emperor and Kasselard as well. He wouldn’t want an SS-Class Transcendent to go on rampage either, so perhaps if he asked for help, there might be a way.
Or he could threaten to crawl into the Mage Tower once his numbers got bad enough to cause a rampage.
As the image of the Mage Tower Master’s grim face came to mind, Kasselard felt his mood lift slightly. That seemed like a fairly good method.
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