Chapter 77

Chapter 77

Even after leaving the throne room, Leonhard could not come to his senses for a long time.

‘…His Majesty must be misunderstanding something.’

However, he could not even explain to himself what exactly the Emperor was thinking of. Clearly, over the past few months, the Crown Prince had only shown a disappointing side so it was not unreasonable for him to want to change the Crown Prince somehow.

…Even if he used him.

‘This… I have to report it to my parents.’

Leonhard touched his forehead.

Three years ago, he tried to solve it by himself, but the Bernoulli family ended up completely withdrawing from the Capital. Besides, he had to focus entirely on breaking Celine’s curse for now, so it would be best to borrow his parents’ help for such a troublesome task.

‘I feel sorry for Celine, but I might have to go back to the North for a while…’

Suddenly, his entire body froze.

Even though he listened to his surroundings without moving, he didn’t hear anything though goosebumps sprouted all over his body.

Reflexively, he squeezed Rashir’s hilt.

It was simply a bad feeling, but the cause must be serious. Leonhard closed his eyes and focused his mind.

‘….!’

The huge magic power that was blocked by something was bubbling and bursting out of place. It was a magical power of a scale and nature that was too foreign to belong to an ordinary wizard.

Leonhard gritted his teeth and started running through the corridor.

Magic of such a strange nature…

He had only experienced it once. It was at a research institute where wizards belonging to the imperial family used the cores of the boss monsters that he had slain to create various suspicious tools.

‘Something’s wrong.’

He had a hunch.

Maybe one stupid wizard crossed the road of no return playing with a core… then, the only thing that could stop it was him in this Empire.

Leonhard, who took out Rashir and ran, didn’t have the slightest hesitation. Naturally, he did not know the exact location of the laboratory. It was because the wizards belonging to the imperial family hid the location of the research center, even from the Crown Prince.

The only way to get there was to travel with them.

However, he didn’t have to find a wizard belonging to the Imperial Family and ask where the research center was because he could just feel it. Only the strange flow of magic that he felt from the tip of Rashir was the compass and guidepost he needed.

After a while.

After training with the Paradiso Knights all day, Leonhard, who was already tired from hearing the bombshell declaration from the emperor, stopped in exhaustion. The place where he stopped was in front of a wasteland that seemed ordinary at first glance.

‘….’

He frowned.

Undoubtedly, the aura of strange magic was still felt here, yet he couldn’t see a way to get into the lab anywhere.

—Whip!

Leonhard started by swinging Rashir in the air a few times. If anyone had seen it, they would have thought he was crazy.

“Aagh!”

A scream came from the air.

Leonhardt ordered in a voice like frost.

“Let me in.”

“Lord Leonhard! Even if it’s you, you cannot enter here!”

Listening to the words, he snorted. Right now, the entire laboratory they cherished might explode.

“Are you in a position to hide it now?”

“…But, no—”

Leonhard sensed that the voice of the unseen person was filled with fear. Fortunately, it wasn’t out of fear of him.

“If you don’t let me in, the laboratory you cherish so much will explode.”

“How, how could that be…!”

“I have known for a long time that this is the entrance to the laboratory.”

He lied without spitting in his mouth. After all, the other person would not have time to judge the situation properly.

“….!”

An invisible voice gasped in horror.

“So, show yourself and let me in.”

“….”

Very slowly, the shape of a wizard began to appear in the empty space. The tattered clothes and the complexion that looked like it would collapse from exhaustion at any moment made it possible to guess the situation inside.

“Lord Leonhard, please promise me one thing. You shouldn’t tell anyone what you saw here.”

“Are there any rumors that I’m a good spreader?”

“It’s not like that.”

The wizard shook his head.

“Please don’t report anything you saw inside, even to the Emperor.”

“I understand.”

If Leonhard had heard the same thing before meeting the emperor, he would have hesitated for quite some time. But now, he was quite upset so he didn’t intend to report it.

“What?”

“I will. I swear by my name and by Rashir.”

The wizard’s eyes widened. There was no one who did not know that Leonhard Bernoulli’s oath to Rashir was always kept.

“Yes… Please come this way.”

He soon strode towards the wizard. In the next moment, a huge flow of magical power swallowed him up.

‘…It’s movement magic.’

Leonhard smiled bitterly.

Even when he only went to the laboratory once, he used movement magic. He thought at the time that it was just to go at once with little movement. Still, he was in a space that could only be entered with movement magic.

Wasn’t it different from a space that only those invited by the imperial wizards could enter?

‘Wait…’

For a moment, he was so sorely tightened that he wondered if his heart had stopped. A wizard belonging to the imperial family invited Celine to an unknown place called ‘Flua’, and she moved right there with movement magic…

‘…No way.’

He swallowed a gulp.

Flua was a lost archaic word meaning flower. And, what unfolded before his eyes was a vast field of withered and dying flowers.

“Celine—!”

Leonhard’s scream echoed through the decaying flower fields.

Celine thought the vibrations would soon subside, but it was the exact opposite. The vibrations intensified and toppled all around until she was unable to even sit still. Rose grabbed her arm and started half-crawling on the floor.

“Wh-wha, what happened…”

Rose made no reply.

No, she seemed unable to answer.

Like Celine, she, too, was trembling all over in astonishment and terror. Rose spoke when they reached the wall of the cave where the other wizards had already settled down and were sitting back to back against the wall.

“Inject magic… to this wall.”

“What? Is this a cave?”

“Yes. Quickly…!”

As Rose’s urgent and alert voice resounded, Celine closed her eyes, focused her mind, and sighed.

‘It’s alive!’

The wall reacted to her magic like a living creature and absorbed the magic power injected into it. For a moment, she thought it was a monster, but she didn’t feel the evil energy unique to a monster.

“What is this?”

Celine could not overcome her curiosity and spat out a word, but they didn’t give her a proper answer.

“It is better not to know.”

After a while, the walls of the cave swarmed once loudly.

“Ack…!”

Even though she let out a shriek, the atmosphere around her was quite the opposite. Rather, most of the wizards sighed and swept their chests, saying that they survived. Rose was no exception. She half-embraced Celine with a bright face.

“Now the hump is over! You worked hard, Celine.”

Celine blinked her eyes. The shaking that had really shaken the entire cave with the force to collapse was gradually fading away.

“Now tell me. What happened, and what is this?”

“…I’ll tell you later. Now we have to get out of here.”

“I-is the dangerous thing over?”

Rose frowned instead of answering.

“It’s just that we’ve passed the point of death for now.”

Celine understood what she meant in just a few minutes.

It started with Rose’s hand losing her strength and slipping away as she ran across the cave with the other wizards, holding Celine’s hand tight. In an instant, the lights that filled the entire cave disappeared, and suffocating darkness fell.

She gulped.

‘They’re all wizards, so why not light a fire…’

As soon as Celine tried to create the light, she could see why.

This was no ordinary darkness.

“Ah…!”

A scream erupted spontaneously from her mouth. The magic that Celine had gathered by focusing her mind was immediately robbed by the darkness, like a grown-up taking a toy away from a child.

‘The darkness is alive, too…’

When her body began to tremble with fear and tension, Celine took a slow, deep breath. Even if the situation was dangerous, panic did not help.

‘Besides, I’ve been through more dangerous situations than this.’

Warlocks’ strongholds and volcanoes couldn’t be less dangerous than they were now. She tried hard to ignore the fact that, at the time, Leonhard was always by her side.

‘…It’s not that different from back then. I can do it.’

She unconsciously squeezed Ringzor in the scabbard.

‘Wait.’

Even when she herself was rebounded by the Warlock, she was able to use killing magic with Ringzor. So, what now? If this darkness blocked the wizard’s magical power in a similar way to the warlock, Ringzor would be able to fight against it.

Celine very slowly pulled the Ringzor out of the scabbard.

“….!”

Ringzor began to shine brilliantly as soon as Celine touched it.

“Rose! Look at this…!”

She opened her mouth and shouted, but Rose didn’t answer. Seeing that, Celine hurriedly increased Ringzor’s light even more, illuminating her in all directions.

“Ro, Rose…?”

Her mouth trembled, and she couldn’t get a single word out of her mouth. It was because the motionless wizards lying on the floor were revealed in Ringzor’s bluish light.

The strength in her leg loosened.

‘No, it’s because Ringzor’s light is blue. Not everyone is dead…’

Celine shook Rose, who was lying face down next to her. Still, even if she shook her hard, Rose was still silent so she put her finger under her nose instead.

‘…She’s alive.’

A feeling of relief enveloped Celine. The next moment, she confirmed that several other wizards around her were also lying unconscious but not dead.

‘Everyone is alive.’

Slowly raising her body, her body no longer trembled. She would rescue these people against that mysterious enemy.

‘I can do it.’

Because Celine was immortal, not dying even if she died.

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