Chapter 268
“Casilia will be fine. I pray she remains unharmed.”
With those final words of comfort, the elderly man with violet eyes stepped out of the room, slipping past the palace guards to teleport away.
Click.
“……”
Alone again, Ysaris reached for the teacup but stopped herself, pressing her fingers to her temples instead. Clasping her hands tightly, she forced herself to breathe.
Sitting alone in the emperor’s reception room, her thoughts inevitably circled back to Casilia—and then to Kazhan.
She had planned to request a meeting soon to obtain his blood, but never like this. She hadn’t meant to raise her guard against him so sharply.
And yet—what a mess. In her panic, their first conversation in years had been nothing but desperation.
“Huu…”
A throbbing headache pulsed behind her eyes. No matter how she rationalized it, the weight of the future pressed down on her. She hadn’t even sorted out her feelings for Kazhan, and now this.
‘What will he demand in return? Will Casilia truly recover? Will I have to return to Uzephia? What path should I take after this?’
Amid the storm of thoughts, one worry stood out: What was the cost of forcibly awakening a Tennilath’s power? To awaken purification abilities, didn’t the child have to brush against death?
Even if Casilia survived, what if there were side effects? Still, anything was better than death.
At least Kazhan—another forced awakener—had emerged unscathed, so she dismissed that concern for now. As a former princess of Pyrein, where abilities were rare, it never occurred to her that someone else might pay the price instead.
Click.
“Your Majesty, the Empress.”
“Duke Blake?”
When the door opened to reveal Temisian’s voice instead of Kazhan’s, Ysaris didn’t yet grasp what had happened. Her focus snapped to the child in his arms, and she bolted up.
“Casilia! Duke, is my daughter alright? How is she?”
Frantic, Ysaris scanned Casilia’s body, not daring to touch her yet.
The child looked unharmed. The gash on her head had vanished, her cheeks were flushed with healthy color, and her chest rose and fell steadily. If not for the memory of blood, she might have seemed merely asleep.
“As you can see, she is unharmed. Merely resting now.”
“Ah… Thank goodness. Truly…”
Ysaris swayed, bracing a hand against her forehead as her legs gave out. The relief was so overwhelming she could barely stand.
“Thank you for watching over her, Duke. But where is Kazhan?”
Her husband had kept his promise. Now it was her turn to pay the price. She’d express her gratitude properly, exchange long-overdue words—
But no answer came.
“His Majesty is…”
Temisian’s voice faltered. When Ysaris looked up in confusion, his face was rigid.
“…in a deep sleep.”
“Asleep?”
He must be exhausted from helping Casilia awaken. How kind.
Temisian’s jaw twitched at her obliviousness. He shut his eyes, struggling to suppress the resentment bubbling beneath his composure. But some truths refused to stay buried.
“Was it necessary to go this far?”
“What?”
Though he hadn’t heard the details, Temisian knew why the emperor had staked his life. The reason was painfully obvious.
Because the woman he loved asked it of him.
The duke’s stomach churned. The memory of slicing open his emperor’s heart with his own blade—a man he’d served for over a decade—was still fresh.
And the things he’d found in the study while carrying out Kazhan’s final orders only deepened the bitterness.
“Did you truly have to push him to that point? He was blind enough to offer you his life and death alike.”
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