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Chapter 270

And then, it came.

Something from the darkness reached out to grab me, and I rolled to the side.

Srrrk!

I couldn’t tell what had passed by.

I only felt an intense threat and instinctively rolled my body aside.

Something brushed past the spot where I had been. I didn’t know what it was, but it was definitely something dangerous, and I would have been in serious trouble if it had hit me.

One thing was clear: Charlotte was attacking me.

“Your Highness!”

In response to the laughter, Sabioleen Tana had instantly arrived at the instrument storage room.

“... Why are you here?”

As my eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, I began to see Sabioleen Tana and the presence staring at me from the shadows more clearly. She was surprised by my presence for a moment, but her attention was drawn to what was in front of her, and she stared at it with a blank expression.

“How, how did it come to this...”

“It” just stared at me with a creepy smile. Had Charlotte’s condition worsened further?

Sabioleen Tana pulled me behind her protectively. “Step back. I’ll ask questions later. Don’t stray far from me. You’ll die.”

Clearly, interrogating me about this situation was of secondary importance.

Only then did I see what had attacked me.

The darkness, refined into something resembling a blade, shot towards us as if it were alive.

Kwabang! Kang!

Sabioleen Tana instantly drew her sword and activated her aura blade, deflecting the sliver of darkness that flew toward us.

With a loud crash, the shadows shattered into pieces in mid-air.

“Your Highness! You must regain your senses!”

“Hehe... Hehehehe...”

“It” did not respond to Tana’s words.

Kurrrk... Kurrrrk...

The darkness seethed, and once again, solidified blades of darkness flew toward us.

Sabioleen Tana stood in front of me, deflecting the shadowy blades with her aura blade.

The blades came in from four or five different directions with ghostly speed, yet she managed to deflect them all. The air pressure I felt on my skin whenever her sword clashed with the shadows showed just how much force there was behind each blow.

Charlotte controlled the darkness—or rather, the shadows. That was her ability.

Charlotte’s ability was as eerie as it was powerful.

But Tana had the upper hand. Every attack had been blocked without too much effort.

However, she couldn’t hurt Charlotte. Unable to attack, she had to focus on defense, but also find a way to subdue her.

Step by step, she advanced towards Charlotte through the hail of shadowy blades.

Just as Sabioleen Tana was about to commit the blasphemy of grabbing Charlotte by her neck—

Flash!

Lightning illuminated the scenery outside the window, and Charlotte’s figure vanished without a trace.

Sabioleen Tana gritted her teeth, staring at the spot where Charlotte had disappeared. “Damn it...”

The fight had been brief, but an ordinary person would have died hundreds of times over. If I had been on the receiving end of those attacks, I wouldn’t have lasted even three seconds.

The knight commander turned to look at me.

Her eyes blazed with a fury as clear as her sorrow.

Wham!

“Ugh!”

She grabbed me by the collar and slammed me against the wall.

“You idiot! Why didn’t you leave? Did you think you could be of any help to Her Highness? Fool! If I hadn’t come, you’d already be dead! Don’t you value your life?”

She was spewing righteous anger and seemed as if she would slit my throat at any moment. She raised her sword and pointed the tip of the blade at my neck.

“There are things in this world you shouldn’t know and shouldn’t see. You ignored Her Highness’s consideration, and mine. For that crime, you will pay with your life.”

She looked ready to end my life with a single thrust of her sword.

Charlotte clearly looked like a demon to anyone who saw her in that state.

If the world knew that a royal, especially an heir to the throne, could enter such a state, it would be a huge scandal. Rumors would spread that she had been kidnapped and cursed by the Demon King. And the truth wouldn’t be far off.

‘That can’t be a mere superpower.’

Charlotte had clearly been subjected to something by the Demon King. That was certain, whether she knew it or not.

That was why the imperial family had kept it a secret. There was no reason to let someone who had seen it with their own eyes live.

Death was imminent, but strangely, I wasn’t afraid.

More terrifying than Sabioleen Tana’s fierce demeanor was the sight of Charlotte just moments ago.

“Of course I value my life.”

“... What?”

My life was not insignificant, and I didn’t want to die.

But I was more afraid that Charlotte would not be able to come back from that state.

“It’s just that, as much as I value my life, I value Charlotte’s life too. That’s why I’m here, hoping I can do something.”

“Arrogant fool. You overestimate your abilities.”

Her cold, blazing eyes seemed to pierce through me.

“It’s not arrogance.”

“Then what is it?! If not arrogance, then what do you call this presumptuous act of yours?!”

“It’s desperation.”

Charlotte’s life... That alone was enough of a reason for me.

That was why, driven by a strange sense of unease, I had disobeyed the orders of the princess and the leader of the Shanapell Knights and infiltrated the Spring Palace.

For the first time, I had risked my life for something. I couldn’t stand to see the fruits of that effort, Charlotte’s life, vanish just like that.

Sabioleen Tana looked into my eyes as if trying to discern whether there was any doubt, arrogance, or childishness in my gaze.

The tip of her sword, still pointed at my neck, trembled.

How much time had passed?

Slowly, she lowered the tip of her sword.

Releasing her grip on my collar, she continued to glare at me.

“Your fate will be decided by Her Highness when dawn breaks.”

However, her eyes conveyed a certainty that I wouldn’t face severe punishment.

“May I ask what is happening?” I asked.

“No one knows.”

I was dumbfounded by her response. “What do you mean, no one knows?”

“No one knows what this situation is. Why Her Highness has such power, why she is increasingly being consumed by it, and why, at night, that power takes over her body.”

Tana’s despairing expression mirrored the sentiments of the entire imperial family.

“No one knows anything. We can only speculate that it has something to do with what happened to Her Highness during her captivity in the Demon King’s castle,” she continued.

She grabbed my shoulder, her eyes scanning the darkness.

“What’s clear is that the situation has worsened. Don’t stray from me. Her Highness, or rather the thing that takes over her body, can move through the darkness. It can appear in front of you, behind you, or even from the ceiling.”

Realizing that she could no longer hide what I had already seen, she began to reveal what she knew.

Indeed, it had moved through the darkness and appeared before my eyes in an instant.

Even if Charlotte were physically bound, it would be useless, and even if she was under watch, she could suddenly disappear.

That was why Sabioleen Tana had lit up the entire palace. Without any darkness, there would be no shadows to move through.

That method had worked so far, and so Sabioleen Tana had continued to flood the palace with light during the night.

However, that method had been thwarted.

Now, “it” could even extinguish magical lamps at will. At night, “it” could even affect the light.

The night belonged to “it”.

“Does this happen every night?”

“Not every night. But the frequency is increasing. And this is the first time it has extinguished all the lamps. Also, Her Highness’s eyes... the last time I saw them, only one of them was affected...”

Tana’s eyes were filled with frustration and helplessness. “It’s aggression is also increasing. Initially, it was said that she wandered the palace at night like a sleepwalker... but recently...”

She trailed off. It seemed she couldn’t bring herself to mention the murder.

“In any case, you must leave the palace. This place is dangerous. Whether or not you face punishment, that can only happen while you’re alive. If you act recklessly again, I will truly take your head.”

“I understand.”

Sabioleen Tana moved cautiously, heightening her senses with each step.

In the darkness, I enhanced my vision to pierce through the shadows. I could see more clearly in the dark than ordinary humans. The lightning that had been hindering my sight had also subsided.

Ssshhh...

Only the cold sound of rain echoed through the corridors of the Spring Palace as Tana moved forwards carefully. We needed to descend to the first-floor hall and exit the palace.

She intended to get me safely out first.

“What will you do?”

“I’ll have to subdue her. That’s what I’ve done so far.”

She had been forced to use violent means to subdue Charlotte.

She probably knocked her unconscious before she could melt into the shadows and escape. It had worked until now.

Given her reaction and the warning from my Qi Sense, there was only one conclusion.

Things had reached a turning point.

Charlotte’s eyes, which had once only been partially corrupted, had now been fully taken over. The power that was devouring Charlotte had grown even stronger.

Would Tana ultimately fail to subdue Charlotte, and end up killing her?

If so, how could I possibly prevent that?

The Demon King was involved with this, and Charlotte’s power was a byproduct of that.

That was all I knew.

‘Some scheme involving the Demon King...’

It wasn’t the time to ponder over that.

Tana moved cautiously, paying attention to every direction—front, back, left, right, up, and down.

Even though it wasn’t far to the entrance of the palace, she was extremely vigilant.

Kang! Kwakang!

The shadowy blades that suddenly flew at us like daggers from the darkness were the reason why Tana couldn’t let her guard down.

Those black blades targeted both me and Tana, and she deflected all of them by herself.

“Damn it...”

In the darkness, I saw her clenching and unclenching her right hand.

She stood in front of the stairs leading to the first floor, gritting her teeth as she surveyed the entrance beyond the grand hall.

The grand entrance of the palace was obstructed by a black barrier and was shrouded in pitch-black darkness.

In front of that living darkness, Charlotte, still wearing that eerie smile, was watching us.

“It seems she has no intention of letting either of us leave,” Tana said.

“It appears so,” I replied.

“It” stood there, blocking the entrance, as if daring us to come closer.

A being that could move through the darkness and attack us with it... In this place, consumed by darkness, “it” probably saw us as mere toys.

Though “it” was far away, it could move through the shadows and appear right in front of us in an instant.

“Previously, I managed to subdue her without much difficulty, though I sustained a minor injury due to my carelessness.”

If it were truly just a minor injury, she wouldn’t even have mentioned it. Hence, it wasn’t a minor injury.

“...”

“But I don’t know what that thing truly is, and therefore, I can’t be certain I can subdue it safely this time.”

The continent’s strongest warrior was calmly acknowledging the possibility of defeat.

This unknown opponent had the perfect battlefield, the perfect environment, and as of that day, its power had grown even stronger.

However, Sabioleen Tana, who had to face it, hadn’t rested for over six days, and hadn’t received proper treatment for her injuries.

Tana’s condition was terrible, but a defeat while in a poor condition was still a defeat.

If she died, it would be all over. There was no point in saying that she could have subdued it easily if she were in top condition.

Could it be that the one who was about to die was not Charlotte, but Sabioleen Tana?

Was my Qi Sense warning me that Tana’s life was in danger, and not Charlotte’s?

Sabioleen Tana was one of the key figures in the later part of the story. If she died, that would also be a turning point in history. A very negative turn.

However, even if Sabioleen Tana died, it did not mean that Charlotte would survive.

If Charlotte did not die, and ended up killing Sabioleen Tana, she would still be killed the next day.

If her power was dangerous enough to kill Tana and couldn’t be controlled, it would have to be dealt with immediately, even if the one who carried that power was a princess.

Both Sabioleen Tana and Charlotte would die... And then, I too would die.

I was the only variable in this situation, and so I had to do something about it.

In these two battles, though, I was too small a variable.

“Reinhart. You said you used Mana Reinforcement on your own, right?”

“... Yes.”

I couldn’t tell her that my Mana Reinforcement wasn’t practical for real combat yet.

“I’ll fight while trying to protect you, but I can’t guarantee your safety. My priorities are firstly, Her Highness, then myself, and you last. Keep that in mind,” she said as she handed me her sword. “Those shadows can only be countered with something imbued with magic. You may not be able to infuse magic into a sword, but with this sword, you should be able to fend them off.”

She seemed to intend to fight using her mana sword.

Sabioleen Tana’s sword was not a Holy Relic, but one of the empire’s national treasures.

It was the Tempest Sword, Tempesta.

In front of me was the sword that Ludwig, the future master of Alsbringer, would take as his second sword, claiming it was Tana’s keepsake.

“No, thank you.”

Summoning a mana sword would consume a lot of energy, and I wasn’t going to do anything that would worsen Tana’s condition.

“I told you, it might be difficult to protect you—”

Srrrk.

I summoned it.

“I have my own sword.”

“Soul-bound...?”

Her eyes widened as she saw the sword, with its milky-white blade, in my hand.

“How... How do you have this?!” Tana asked.

She stared in shock at Tiamata, the Holy Relic of Ouen, in my hand.

“We’ll talk later,” I responded.

I hadn’t expected to use it in a place like this, but this time, I was about to face my first real battle while wielding Tiamata.

It was not against a bandit, a monster, or a villain deserving death, but against my first friend.

I had to fight Charlotte.

Sabioleen Tana pushed her questions aside for the moment.

“Alright.”

Both she and I knew the gravity of the situation.