Chapter 199
Chapter 199
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Grandmaster (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Haa….”
Rozanna let out a shallow groan, apparently worn out.
Then, she rose gracefully from her seat.
“There was a fox watching us.”
The empire’s First Lady murmured to herself.
And the moment she turned her head toward me.
Her ice-blue eyes flashed.
“…!”
The instant our eyes met.
Rozanna’s figure vanished like a shadow.
Soon after, her delicate hand gently caressed my shoulder.
“Strange. You didn’t seem like the type to lurk around spying on people.”
“…”
The scent of soap and berries wafted from the nape of my neck.
Followed by her radiant golden hair tickling my shoulder.
“What brings you to our waiting room, Baron Veil?”
I let out a short breath.
Then, shaking off her touch, I met her gaze squarely.
“I saw you during the match with Batsu. You were secretly reinforcing the Black Knights’ weapons.”
I pointed with my finger at the man who had just received the physical enhancement.
He stared back at me with an expressionless face.
“You can go now. Your match is coming up soon.”
“Understood.”
The Black Knight ignored me and headed out to the arena.
His next match was against Allen.
A Black Knight who was already strong, now enhanced physically and with his weapon…
There was no guarantee Allen would win.
“You look anxious. Worried, are you?”
Rozanna stood in my way, hands clasped behind her back.
Her sensual figure filled my vision.
“Under imperial law, private physical enhancements before a match are prohibited.”
I forced a serious look into my eyes and spoke.
“The knight who fought Batsu just now. And the one heading out now. They’re both breaking the law.”
“…”
Rozanna showed no particular reaction to my words.
She merely tilted her head and smiled faintly.
“You’re right. But that private enhancement law also says this.”
She flicked her finger through the air.
As if writing with a pen.
「Using ‘mana’ to perform enhancement procedures on others is prohibited.」
As Rozanna wiggled her finger, the word “mana” shimmered in blue.
As if emphasizing it.
“Sorry, but the procedure I used is my own unique ‘miracle.’ It’s neither mana nor the sorcery considered taboo.”
The elegant consort tapped my left cheek when she said “mana.”
Then, when she said “sorcery,” she poked my right cheek.
“So, legally, there’s no issue.”
An arrogant yet seductive gaze, just like Lea’s.
I couldn’t help but scoff.
“Is it proper for the empire’s First Consort to say such things?”
As I pressed her, she lifted the corner of her mouth.
Then, like an older sister soothing a child, she patted the top of my head.
Just as I had done to Lydia.
“Using one’s abilities to the fullest is the model for those in power.”
Rozanna said this as she moved behind me again.
Then, gripping my shoulders with both hands, she whispered.
“In that sense, you might not be so far from power after all.”
I felt the soft press of her ample flesh against my back.
The sensation was like sinking into a very soft bed.
“The same power as Leonhardt possesses. Yet you didn’t seize the throne with that immense strength.”
Rozanna, who had once harbored Grand Aura in her body.
She knew well the potential power I held.
“Or perhaps… it’s because of my daughter?”
Rozanna knocked on my left breast with her finger.
Each time, the power in my chest writhed.
“Well, Lea is an exceptional girl. But settling for just that much feels like a waste.”
Rozanna praised Lea, who was the spitting image of herself in every way.
However, she seemed disappointed that a man with Grand Aura’s ambitions stopped there.
“Who knows.”
In response, I smirked and lifted the corner of my mouth.
Then, I grabbed the consort’s finger and stopped it.
“There’s no need for Your Highness to feel disappointed.”
I turned to face Rozanna.
Her face, resting her chin on my shoulder, drew close.
“I’m greedier than I appear.”
I smiled back at Rozanna with a grin.
“I will obtain everything I desire.”
Fox-like slyness in her eyes.
And black pupils that gleamed even in the dim light.
Rozanna silently stared into my eyes.
Then, as if understanding my intent, she half-closed her eyes.
“You seek something worthy of the empire?”
Rozanna’s gaze roamed over my body with a suggestive glint.
Then, her eyes caught the sword at my waist—Irina’s treasured blade.
“This is…”
She noticed the treasured sword of the second consort, Estina.
And even the ring on my finger from the third consort’s Vanessa family.
“Aah…”
Rozanna’s lips parted as realization dawned.
“Right, you’re no ordinary lazy fox after all.”
The consort released me.
She stepped back for a moment and stared intently at my face.
“You intend to follow the same path as Leonhardt.”
Rozanna first pointed to the ring Lydia had given me.
“Starting with his marriage alliance to Vanessa, princess of the Samad Kingdom, lord of the east.”
Next, she pointed to Irina’s treasured sword.
“Then marrying Estina, representative of the furious people after long wars.”
Finally, Rozanna placed her hand on her own breast.
“And ultimately, by being with my daughter Lea, you plan to protect Leonhardt’s empire.”
The consort, having seen through my true intentions.
Thinking I sought to embrace the princesses to safeguard the empire’s stability, she clapped.
“The same thinking as Leonhardt. Using women as expendable tools to protect his precious nation.”
But her applause soon stopped.
Then she sent me a witch-like icy glare.
“Truly the same.”
I stared blankly at her menacing expression.
Then, I responded with a cold gaze of my own.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness, but you’re mistaken.”
I slowly approached the consort.
And answered flatly.
“I have never once thought of the princesses that way.”
I recalled memories with them.
At first, I saw them only as young women intoxicated by authority.
But the princesses were different.
Each did their best in their positions to protect the people.
Moreover, they never tried to claim me through authority.
They sought to meet as one woman and one man on equal terms.
‘Of course, they occasionally played mischievous pranks…’
Suddenly recalling times like introducing me to their maternal family.
Or buying up all the watermelon seedlings.
Or chasing me in a nun’s habit.
But they acted cautiously, in consideration for me.
“And they never saw me as a mere plaything either.”
‘To think I would see such women as mere tools?’
I approached the arrogant consort, who knew nothing of our bond.
Then, with an equally menacing glare, I warned her.
“Keep making such baseless assumptions to shake things between us, and I’ll have to discipline you.”
Rozanna froze for a moment at my encroaching face.
“…”
She had surely thought her sorcery had intimidated me enough just now.
Yet as my massive shadow engulfed her, she composed her expression.
“Oh my… It’s been a while since I felt this way.”
Rozanna let out a wry chuckle at the shadow swallowing her.
Then, she sent a relaxed smile my way.
“So, your love is genuine?”
The empire’s First Consort nodded as if accepting my true feelings.
However, she soon shifted to the gaze of the great witch and snapped her fingers.
―――――.
“But it won’t be easy.”
At her call, shadows spread wide.
The surroundings were engulfed in darkness.
Darker this time, enough to keep even Lea from infiltrating.
“Pretty fairy tales from storybooks don’t come easy in reality.”
Rozanna’s platinum dress gradually turned black.
The parts wrapping her ample flesh shifted to black lace patterns.
“You can’t stop me in this tournament.”
In the darkness, only her blue eyes flashed.
“Your disciple, your beloved princesses—they’ll only taste despair, Veil.”
Rozanna left those meaningful words and began to fade away.
“It’s been fun, like meeting young Leonhardt again.”
She vanished, leaving me alone in the darkness.
As if to confine me until the matches ended.
“But the place you stand today ends right there.”
The consort pointed at me, trapped in the dark space.
Then, with leisurely steps, she exited alone.
“Damn…”
I was left alone in pitch-black darkness.
No matter how I looked around or ran, no exit appeared.
“What absurd sorcery.”
As expected of a talent even her homeland Epina feared.
A bizarre technique neither mana nor sorcery.
Soldiers encountering it for the first time would all fall into fear.
‘No wonder they say she’s a woman only the emperor can handle…!’
I stopped in place for a moment.
Then, I tried to activate Grand Aura to illuminate the surroundings.
But at that instant.
A strange stinging sensation came from my heart.
As if poisoned.
“What…?”
I placed my palm on my chest.
Then, a subtle texture came from my breast pocket.
“…”
I pulled out what was inside.
A single tea bag steeped in a cup appeared.
“Paralysis Herb…”
A herb used to subdue knights who mainly use mana.
No effect at first sniff, but after a few minutes of exposure, it temporarily blocks mana use.
Of course, it was meaningless to me.
No mere herb could block Grand Aura.
However.
Combined with Rozanna’s sorcery, its effect seemed doubled.
Thanks to that, I couldn’t activate my aura for about ten minutes.
“…”
Suddenly, gazing at the paralysis herb, I recalled the emperor’s words.
「Rozanna was an extraordinary girl.」
Originally burdened by bedding a woman twenty years his junior.
Rozanna had seduced him using her sensual figure and girlish shyness as weapons.
But when her efforts failed to sway him…
She sneaked into his chambers and burned “paralysis incense.”
The emperor said even he couldn’t use aura for ten minutes.
「I underestimated her because she was young…?」
And those remaining three minutes were enough for Rozanna to claim the emperor’s body.
「This arrogant old man needs to be taught a lesson.」
At first, she only meant to bear his first child to elevate her status.
But once she tasted a man’s body, she was drawn by her unknown lewdness and instincts, spending countless nights awake.
‘Now that I think about it, there were always pomegranate tree paintings near Rozanna’s portraits…’
Shivering, I swallowed hard.
Then, I focused solely on escaping this place quickly to thwart Rozanna’s scheme.
Ambition enough to covet the emperor.
Who knew what she’d plot with that ambition.
For now, I sat cross-legged on the floor.
Then, meditating, I began expelling the paralysis herb’s energy and Rozanna’s bizarre sorcery.
But something strange happened.
“…!”
The more I reacted to and expelled her sorcery.
The more images of Rozanna seducing the emperor flooded my mind.
As if her memories were being shared with me.
Straddling his paralyzed body, removing her lace-trimmed bra.
For some reason, the scene kept replaying.
「What do you think…? Will you still dismiss me as a little lady?」
The consort’s lewd movements weren’t learned.
They were instinctive, as if etched into her body from birth.
At first, I tried to erase the image from my mind.
But gradually, Rozanna’s face in the scene began overlapping with Lea’s.
As if showing me my future.
「What do you think? Can you still refuse me now?」
The empire’s First Princess’s lewd voice.
Her rough breaths mingling—I squeezed my eyes shut.
‘She plans to trap me in illusions of Lea to make me falter.’
“…”
With a blank expression, I watched their scene.
Then, suddenly, I saw the emperor shattering Rozanna’s sorcery.
Focusing the power surging to his lower body back into his heart.
Then, thrusting his palm as if firing the gathered energy—Rozanna’s sorcery shattered.
‘That’s it…!’
Using him as reference, I concentrated all my body’s power into my heart as much as possible.
Rozanna’s lewd movements overlapping with Lea’s hindered me midway.
But I ignored them with deep breaths.
And the moment I tried to push out Rozanna’s sorcery.
“…!”
The ring from Lydia on my finger began to glow red.
As if repelling the tempting image of Lea.
The treasured sword from Irina at my waist did the same.
Like an older sister grabbing her sibling’s hair to bite first—their energies interfered with Rozanna’s.
“Got it…!”
Thanks to that, I could focus all my power at my heart’s center.
Then, the instant I thrust my palm.
――――――!!
The curtain of darkness enveloping me crumbled.
Afterward, the passage to the arena reappeared.
“Huuu…”
I finally exhaled and tried to stand.
But Rozanna’s image kept superimposing Lea’s face, nagging at me.
This seemed part of her sorcery too.
As I pondered Lea’s image alone.
The ring on my ring finger and the treasured sword kept sparkling, urging me.
“Alright, alright…”
In response, I stood up again.
And hurried toward the arena.