Chapter 81
It was my fault. He hadn’t gone north, he’d come here because of me. Because of me, he’d stained his own hands with blood, entrusted the north to them, and become this… Emperor. All because of me.
Truly, this left no room for doubt. Not that I’d doubted him for a while now, but the lingering jealousy in my heart still made it hard to fully accept him. Even without that, the inevitable ending we faced…
Suddenly, I remembered the original story. During the Empress’s northern rebellion, Luigia manifested as an Omega, her dark magic visible as black smoke. But she hadn’t manifested yet. The original story was diverging again.
“So it still looks like transparent jelly. It’s hard to properly identify it that way…”
Then I remembered seeing that same transparent, jelly-like dark magic myself. When I visited the Imperial Palace, each room had been shielded with it.
“Your Majesty, was there dark magic cast in every room of the Imperial Palace?”
“…How did you know that? Zerga said that on that night, every door except mine was locked. He had no choice but to let Nyxna sleep in my room.”
Just as I thought.
“Sei, that day…”
“Let’s talk about that later. I don’t want to hear it right now.”
“…”
“More importantly, Your Majesty, I think I can see dark magic.”
Edin’s eyes widened at Lysei’s words.
“You can see dark magic?!”
“…Yes. When I visited the Imperial Palace, I saw it cast in every room.”
“……!”
“And come to think of it, I saw it during Your Majesty’s street parade too, that transparent, jelly-like dark magic.”
Suddenly, Edin pulled Lysei into a tight embrace.
“You can see dark magic!”
The worries that had plagued him vanished in an instant. If Lysei could see dark magic, making her his consort was a trivial matter.
He couldn’t make her a concubine, and he lacked the justification to make her Empress. He’d racked his brains endlessly, but now he had a reason to keep her by his side. Nothing could make him happier.
Of course, she immediately pushed him away, looking offended, but he would convince her that it was all a misunderstanding.
“Sei.”
“Let’s go north first.”
“No, you must return to the palace.”
“No, the north first.”
“Trey and the Shadows went north with Nyxna. You don’t need to worry.”
“Wouldn’t it be much faster to resolve this with another person who can see dark magic? And of course, Your Majesty, who can neutralize it, must go.”
“There aren’t many heretics, but it’s still dangerous for you…”
“I’ll provide the ducal troops.”
Theor appeared just then, speaking up.
Lysei asked Theor how many ducal troops he had, and he replied that he could provide about fifty immediately.
“Then let’s go together. Your Majesty and I can deal with the heretics, but it would be better for others to handle the troops sent by the Empress.”
Judging by the current situation, things weren’t unfolding exactly according to the original story, but the general circumstances remained similar.
Considering the number of marquisate troops the Empress had sent north when the rebellion began in the original story, Theor’s troops would definitely be helpful. Edin and Theor nodded at Lysei’s words.
Edin found it slightly odd that Lysei knew about the Empress’s troops without him mentioning them, but he didn’t show it. He agreed to go north with Lysei and quell the rebellion as she wished.
***
Luigia, who had arrived early and was removing the dark magic cast by the heretics, brightened at the sight of Lysei arriving with Edin and Theor’s troops. Her eyes welled up with tears.
Lysei, seeing Luigia on the verge of tears, forced a smile, feeling a pang of guilt.
“Sister!”
“Luigia, why haven’t you manifested as an Omega yet? Is it because Sir Zerga isn’t a dominant alpha?”
“That’s part of it, but two days is too short to manifest. I need more time, but there isn’t any right now.”
“Ah…”
“There’s so much dark magic here. It’s still transparent, so I often miss it. People keep dying because I can’t remove it fast enough. I’m trying, but it’s too much…”
Luigia’s voice trembled as she explained that so many people had suffocated to death where the dark magic had been. She was truly experiencing the reality of war.
She added that while she knew from the original story that the Empress had used the heretics’ dark magic to kill everyone in the northern border villages, seeing it firsthand was far more distressing.
Lysei hugged Luigia and patted her back.
“Don’t worry, I see it as black.”
Luigia looked at Lysei in surprise.
“You see it? Sister?”
“Yes. That part over there, it’s transparent to you, right?”
Luigia nodded.
“I see it as swirling black smoke.”
“…! …Oh my! Since when?!”
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