TLed by NolepGuy
Chapter 30
Sera Bethel.
A Master-level expert and the attendant of the 4th Princess, Sizelry Ephania, she furrowed her brows over the events of yesterday.
This was because the informants planted in the Imperial Palace had either been bribed or were only obtaining false information.
‘What is this?’
Even when Sera threatened them, the bribed informants refused to speak.
They simply repeated that they had no other choice.
‘Even when I explicitly mentioned the Imperial Palace…’
Sera swallowed her frustration.
‘That means someone even higher than the 4th Princess must have given the order.’
In this Empire, there were only a few people ranked above Sizelry.
When Sera thought of those individuals, her frown deepened.
‘Why would they target the 4th Princess?’
Sizelry had deliberately acted like a tomboy to distance herself from the throne’s power struggle.
Because of this, her other siblings had not bothered to keep her in check, yet Sera couldn’t understand why things were changing now.
‘Can I protect her on my own?’
Sizelry is intelligent.
She only kept the bare minimum means of self-protection, creating nothing beyond that.
To her, the best defense was to hold on to nothing at all.
Thus, Sera felt a heavy sense of duty in protecting Sizelry.
Her mother had worried enough about Sizelry to plead with the Emperor to assign Sera, a Master-level expert, as her attendant.
Now Sizelry was being targeted.
By wolves lurking in the tiger’s den.
In front of those wolves, Sizelry was nothing more than a fragile sheep.
A sheep that could be torn apart at any moment.
Sera was the horn of that sheep.
The sole means of protecting her, but a horn far too small compared to the Imperial Palace.
“Haa.”
A long sigh escaped her lips.
Starting with the 2nd Prince absorbing the Night Crow, followed by the recent clashes between the 1st and 2nd Princes.
And then there were Sigrid’s peculiar movements.
Everything, from beginning to end, was suspicious.
She was suited for wielding a sword, not for scheming or strategizing.
Because of this, she had directly spoken to Sizelry.
But Sizelry only remained lost in deep thought.
Then, she told Sera to do nothing for the time being.
Instead, she gave an absurd order to simply protect her own body.
“What in the world are you observing all by yourself again?”
It would have been better if she at least shared her thoughts with her sole vassal.
But Sizelry, being so intelligent, preferred subtly influencing others’ actions rather than explaining her thoughts.
The problem was that the person being influenced often found it unbearably frustrating.
Knock, knock—
At that moment, a sudden sound came from the direction of the window.
When Sera turned her head, there was a crow.
“This bird…”
Sera remembered seeing this crow before.
It was none other than the crow belonging to the boy Sizelry had recently taken an interest in.
‘Night Crow.’
At the sight of the crow, the term popped into Sera’s mind, but she shook her head.
Sizelry had firmly declared the boy was not part of the Night Crow.
But how had that crow known her location?
He was just as inscrutable as Sizelry herself.
Creak—
So she opened the window for confirmation.
The crow smartly walked inside through the open window and opened its beak.
“Sera Bethel.”
Flinch!
Sera’s face stiffened instantly.
She had not expected the crow to speak.
At that moment, the crow’s beak curved into what resembled a smile.
For the first time, she saw a crow smile.
“I will temporarily share immortality with you in exchange for your life force. So feign death.”
The moment she heard those words, she suddenly realized darkness was seeping into her vision.
“Ugh!?”
Her sight vanished abruptly, and she involuntarily swallowed a gasp as she collapsed to the ground.
The sudden darkness had momentarily disrupted her sense of balance.
Something had happened to her before she could react.
‘What on earth…’
With her body tensed in alarm, she drew her sword and steadied her breathing.
She focused all her attention on the presence beyond the darkness.
By the time sweat trickled down her cheek, her vision slowly began to return.
Without her realizing it, a black star had formed and vanished in her pupils.
“…!”
Sera swiftly lifted her head.
But the crow, which should have been at the window, had already disappeared.
What exactly had happened to her?
Her mind was filled with unanswerable questions when—
Crash!
Suddenly, the ceiling above her collapsed.
In the gap, a golden aura shone through.
Sera’s body reacted instinctively, swinging her sword toward the ceiling.
Clang!
Her sword clashed with an opponent’s spear, and the resulting shockwave left the surroundings in chaos.
Furniture shattered and scattered across the floor, and even the windows broke under the force.
But she had no time to care about such things.
Amidst the dust rising from the collapsing ceiling, spears surged toward her again.
Sera quickly adjusted her stance and parried the incoming spear.
But the force she felt from the spear was beyond her expectations.
“Ugh!?”
As the unrelenting spear drove her back against the wall, Sera’s eyes widened.
She had never imagined she could be overpowered in strength.
She had reached the level of a Master.
Yet, here she was being pushed back.
That could only mean her opponent was also a Master-level expert.
‘Who is this?’
While there were quite a few at the entry-level of Master,
even then, their numbers didn’t exceed a thousand worldwide.
There was no way she wouldn’t know of someone who had reached Master-level within the Empire.
When her vision pierced through the dust, and she finally recognized her opponent, Sera’s eyes went wide.
It was a woman with black hair who appeared not yet in her twenties.
Her long hair, narrow eyes, and voluptuous figure all stood out as she silently gazed at Sera.
“You are—”
Sera realized her opponent’s identity and was greatly shocked.
Mary Diana, the daughter of the prestigious Diana family, once considered a candidate for the Empire’s strongest spear.
She was now pointing her spear at Sera.
However, Sera’s astonishment stemmed from something else entirely.
It was because Mary’s skills far surpassed her own.
And yet, she was barely in her early twenties.
A Master at that age?
Even in Balheim, the Empire’s long-standing rival, such individuals could be counted on one hand.
Moreover, the Mary she knew had never displayed strength of this caliber.
‘Was she hiding her true abilities all along?’
Sera hastily parried another spear flying toward her.
Each strike of the spear carried an immense, overwhelming power.
Perhaps, it might even surpass her own.
At that thought, Sera’s gaze hardened.
It didn’t matter if she was the daughter of the Diana family or not.
If she didn’t fight with everything she had, she would die here.
As the only sword of Sizelry, she couldn’t afford to die in this place.
Boom!
The barrier collapsed in an instant, and Sera tumbled across the ground.
At the same time, a red aura seeped into her sword, and Sera’s eyes grew fiercer.
She was the Mad Sword.
The longer the battle persisted, the more the aura within her body pushed her beyond her limits.
This was the Rampage Transformation she had mastered.
Once activated, it came at the cost of severe physical strain, but there was no time for hesitation.
Swish!
Sensing this, her opponent aimed to finish the fight quickly, hurling a spear through the collapsing wall.
The spear, imbued with a golden aura, was so powerful that Sera barely managed to deflect it.
‘Even so, it’s not beyond what I can handle.’
If that was the case, she would force her body to endure and activate the Rampage Transformation within a short time.
Grit!
As the weapons clashed, blood trickled from the corner of Sera’s mouth.
At the same time, her muscles swelled ferociously like a beast’s, tearing through her clothes.
With explosive force, her sword rushed toward Mary in an instant.
Rampage Transformation.
Mad Blood Eruption.
At that moment—
Thud!
Sera’s body froze in place, standing still.
Drip, drop—
Blood gushed out from her mouth in torrents.
Sera’s eyes trembled violently.
Her heart had somehow been pierced by the spear.
She hadn’t even seen the movement of the spear as it struck.
‘S-Skill.’
Along with the flowing blood, she realized that the force piercing her was a skill.
Mary’s skill, Excel.
A technique that drastically accelerated physical speed.
“To think it was… this level…”
Although she had heard of Mary’s skill before, she never imagined that even with her Rampage Transformation active, she wouldn’t be able to track it.
When combined with a Master-level warrior, Excel exhibited terrifying power.
Sera was certain of one thing.
That if Mary continued to grow and someday reached the Emperor level beyond Master…
There would be no one in the world capable of blocking her spear.
“Sera Bethel, take pride in dying for the Empire.”
As her vision blurred and her blood continued to flow, Mary’s voice echoed in Sera’s ears.
At the same time, she recalled the crow’s earlier words.
‘Pretend to be dead?’
But she was truly dying.
Sera’s consciousness faded completely with that thought.
***
After piercing Sera’s heart and confirming her death, Mary retrieved her spear.
She caught Sera’s collapsing body with one hand, letting out a sigh.
Though her body ached slightly from using Excel, it was manageable.
Against a fellow Master-level warrior, even this level of strain was unavoidable.
‘Has it already been a year since I returned through Memory Inheritance?’
After inheriting her memories, she immediately reunited with Sigrid, her closest ally.
Fortunately, Sigrid’s Memory Inheritance had also been successful.
Together, they set out to find Arthur without delay.
He was their beloved and their hero, and they wanted to stand by his side to protect the world.
Yet, for some reason, Arthur was nowhere to be found.
On the very day they had all shared a bed together…
Arthur had promised to wait for them at the location he would return to through Regression.
‘Arthur, where have you gone?’
Mary bit her lip tightly.
Even after days of waiting, Arthur did not appear, so she searched the entire Empire for him, but he was nowhere to be found.
Moreover, Abella had also vanished without a trace.
When she inquired at the Red Magic Tower, they too stated that Abella had disappeared suddenly.
‘What on earth…’
What was happening?
Thankfully, Sigrid comforted her, saying that Arthur would surely return soon.
Otherwise, Mary might have fallen into despair and wasted away.
‘For now, what I must do is…’
Assist the 3rd Princess Sigrid and become the strongest spear.
Thus, she had killed Sera to accomplish the task Sigrid had assigned her.
Sigrid was currently away on other business.
That was why Mary had to complete this task with absolute precision, as Sigrid had entrusted it entirely to her.
For the future of their Empire.
Step, step—
At that moment, footsteps echoed through the space.
When Mary looked up, she saw a burly man with stitches all over his face.
He was none other than Ebelasque’s Corpse No. 13.
The one currently holding Sera’s heart was Mary.
Since the heart was entrusted by Sigrid, Ebelasque’s Corpse No. 13 could not disobey her command.
Following the prior instructions, he placed Sera’s corpse into a sack he had brought.
Then, slinging the sack over his shoulder, he turned to leave.
“Wait, hold on.”
At that moment, Mary called out to No. 13, stopping him.
Startled by her sudden words, No. 13 froze.
No. 13 was a corpse.
However, the one controlling him was none other than Ebelasque.
A cold sweat trickled down Ebelasque’s forehead as she observed the entire situation beyond the corpse.
She felt a pang of anxiety, wondering if something had been discovered.
“I haven’t yet heard who the corpse participating in this Martial Arts Tournament is.”
In this Martial Arts Tournament, one of the participants was a corpse from the Night Crow.
On the surface, this was under the orders of the 2nd Prince.
The 2nd Prince wanted to expand his influence by revealing that he controlled the Night Crow, and he chose none other than this tournament to do so.
Of course, this was a plan premeditated by both Sigrid and Mary.
It was designed to clearly show the entire Empire that the 2nd Prince held the Night Crow in his grasp.
Thus, after having Sera kill Sizelry, they intended to frame it as the work of the Night Crow, ensuring that the blame for Sizelry’s death would fall squarely on the 2nd Prince.
Naturally, they had already fabricated sufficient reasons for the 2nd Prince to want Sizelry dead.
Once Sizelry was killed, the 2nd Prince would inevitably end up behind bars.
“Still, after watching the Martial Arts Tournament, I think I’ve figured it out.”
Thus, Mary was aware that a Night Crow member was participating in this Martial Arts Tournament.
The problem was that she had been too busy with other matters to learn who that member was.
“It’s that boy with the crow, isn’t it?”
So she asked to confirm.
“Yes, that’s correct.”
The reply came promptly from Number 13.
“How clever. Flaunting the crow to make it obvious that it’s from the Night Crow. Ah, I suppose it must be under Lady Sigrid’s orders. There’s no way you’d come up with something so clever yourself.”
Pretending to be refined while still delivering a biting remark, Mary smirked as she spoke.
However, since Number 13 showed no reaction, Mary felt a slight chill.
“You may leave now.”
Bowing his head, Number 13 began to walk away.
Although Ebelasque, watching through him, was tense, Mary didn’t particularly suspect her.
After all, as long as Mary held her heart, she couldn’t rebel.
‘Still, it’s surprising that Ebelasque had such a cute one with her.’
With that thought, Mary briefly recalled the boy named Krad.
She never would have expected Ebelasque, who usually dealt with grotesque corpses, to have something like that in her possession.
‘If only it weren’t a corpse…’
She fell into thought for a moment before shaking her head to clear it.
It seemed she had spent far too much time away from Arthur.
Judging by how her long-buried preferences were starting to resurface.
‘Arthur, please show yourself soon.’
With that wish in her heart, Mary resumed walking.