Chapter 131

Sure enough, Evan threw his head back and laughed exaggeratedly with a frown.

The sight of him clutching his stomach and laughing too hard was quite bizarre, making the already deadly atmosphere grow even colder.

After finally calming his laughter, Evan suddenly returned to a frigid expression and spoke.

“What I’m doing is no mere rebellion. This is…”

Evan’s red eyes swept over me and the knights.

His black hair fluttered as his face moved.

After a brief pause, Evan curled up the corners of his mouth and quietly uttered his next words.

“Punishment for the rotten imperial family.”

A madman. A lunatic.

I wouldn’t have guessed it, but this man before me had been insane from the beginning.

He was too far gone for rehabilitation—or rather, understanding what went on in his mind seemed impossible.

Seemingly pleased with my astonished expression, Evan readjusted his spear, still wearing a smile.

“It’s unfortunate for you, Lady. I didn’t want to hurt you, but to subdue that monster of an emperor, I have no choice.”

Even in this situation, he seemed to have his own principles—he briefly hesitated to lay hands on me before steeling himself, his eyes gleaming.

“So let’s call it even that I indulged your stalling tactics. My courtesy to you ends here.”

So he knew all along.

I anxiously glanced toward where Hadel might be.

‘Hurry, Hadel.’

Though anxious, I couldn’t let it show on my face.

“You seem to be waiting for the Emperor, but even he won’t come easily. Our Hye-wang is not an opponent to be taken lightly.”

From Evan’s casual remark, I confirmed my suspicion that the Eastern king had personally come to the Empire.

I hoped Hadel would handle it well.

If worst came to worst, I still had a final measure here…

Stay calm and don’t tremble, Ashaella.

I steadied myself and looked directly into Evan’s eyes.

“Silver Lily, I will protect you even if it costs my life, so don’t worry.”

“Knight of the Lu tribe, weren’t you once under Duke Balkyrino?”

“He is my enemy now.”

Rahu growled with anger toward Evan.

Evan lightly evaded Rahu’s sword path. Just then, a shadow pounced on Evan from behind, as if it had been waiting.

“Hyah!”

With a short battle cry, Teiman swung his greatsword as if to split Evan’s head in two.

But Teiman was pushed back several steps by Evan’s spear.

Seeing Teiman’s sudden appearance, Evan let out a faint exclamation.

“…Impressive. Have all the Jesentia soldiers been defeated?”

As Evan noted, the strange soldiers that Teiman and the imperial knights had been facing were mostly dealt with.

This was partly due to our advance preparations, and partly because Hadel had stationed all his elite knights here.

The fiercest battle would have been where Hadel was.

Now that Evan had arrived here, this place would become intense too…

But the scale would be different from the battle over there.

“Are these proud knights ganging up on me alone? This is troublesome.”

Despite his words, Evan was handling Rahu and Teiman’s attacks with ease.

As if proving that he hadn’t shown his true abilities during the swordsmanship tournament.

In this way, Evan instantly cornered both men.

In the moment when Teiman’s greatsword cracked and Rahu’s sword flew away.

“…No!”

“Silver Lily!”

In that instant when everything seemed to slow down, I quickly thrust my hand into my garments.

Simultaneously, Evan’s cruel smile drew terrifyingly close.

“Game over, Lady.”

As Evan reached for me, I burst open the pouch I had taken from my pocket.

I, who could wield no weapon, had long known that physical attacks against someone as powerful as Evan would be futile.

So I chose an attack that no one could evade—one without form.

“That’s my line.”

With a smirk pulling at the corner of my mouth, I uttered my final words and held my breath.

Evan showed confusion, but it was already too late.

Having rushed toward me with such violent movements, his breathing had grown rough.

Finally, as I watched Evan’s red eyes grow hazy, I was certain my plan had succeeded.

An attack no one could avoid, one without form—the inhalation of harmful gas through the air.

I would have preferred to use a tiny amount of deadly poison, but since it could affect me too, I’d prepared a sleeping drug instead.

I’d even received confirmation from the physician that even if I inhaled it, it wouldn’t harm the baby.

We would simply fall into a deep sleep.

“What the—!”

Evan trembled his eyebrows and shook his head, but having already taken a deep breath, he would find it difficult to stay conscious.

Instead of stumbling away from me, he cut his own arm.

“Hmm… You came extremely well-prepared.”

Drip. Drip.

Red blood ran down Evan’s forearm and fell to the floor.

He was likely trying to stay conscious through pain, but it was behavior no normal person would display.

‘At this rate, I’ll be captured…!’

As I tried to move my body to evade Evan’s grasp, my vision suddenly blurred.

Through my hazy sight, I could see Evan, bleeding and grinning hideously.

‘This is bad. I’ve inhaled some of the sleeping drug too.’

I caught a glimpse of Rahu charging at Evan from behind, weapon back in hand.

And beyond that, from even further away, I felt a wind rapidly blowing toward us.

The wind, which started as a black dot, was warm, comfortable, and also…

Looking at the pink eyes that filled my vision, I drifted off to sleep.

* * *

“Yulia, what do you think of this flower?”

“A magnolia? For Silver Lily’s bedchamber?”

“Yes, I thought she might like seeing something pretty when she wakes up.”

“Good idea. I’ll take it in.”

Lady Grandel, who had been a temporary head lady-in-waiting before officially becoming a lady-in-waiting at the Lily Palace, quickly became friends with Yulia.

Yulia had also returned to her position as head lady-in-waiting, tending to Ashaella.

Click.

Yulia quietly entered the bedchamber of the Lily Palace, arranged the flowers, and sat silently beside the bed.

“Silver Lily, please wake up soon.”

It had been three days since the outbreak of the Eastern-Imperial war.

Ashaella had fallen asleep then and still hadn’t awakened.

According to the imperial physician, the accumulated stress and fatigue had caused her body to protect itself by remaining asleep.

‘Of course, His Majesty was beside himself, demanding she be awakened immediately.’

The Emperor had finally calmed down after the imperial physician convinced him that allowing her to sleep for a few days would be better for her health.

Besides, the Emperor was anyway…

Knock, knock.

The sound of knocking reached Yulia’s ears as she was lost in thought.

When Yulia opened the door herself, two small children stood there fidgeting.

“Rilsha, Dalsha.”

The Lu tribe twins visited almost daily—no, almost hourly.

They had insisted on staying by Ashaella’s side until she woke up, in place of the Emperor.

“Head Lady, still no change?”

The question implied: Has Silver Lily not awakened yet?

Yulia nodded and answered.

“Yes. Come in. Have you eaten lunch?”

The sun was already setting. The children, who would have eaten long ago, instead tugged at Yulia’s arms.

“Of course! But what about you, Head Lady? You haven’t eaten, have you?”

“No, you’re right. I should eat.”

In truth, Yulia had no appetite. She probably wouldn’t until her mistress, Ashaella, safely opened her eyes.

“Go on, go! We’ll look after Silver Lily.”

“Ah… alright.”

Finally, Yulia moved, following Rilsha’s guiding hand.

But she couldn’t leave the bedchamber.

“Mmm…”

A familiar and longed-for voice came from behind.

Then rustling, rustling.

The sound of bedsheets moving sent Yulia and the twins rushing to the bed without a moment’s hesitation.

“Silver Lily!”

“Sister!”

Sunset light poured over the bed. It was a truly beautiful sight.

And there, with her silver hair disheveled, blinking dazedly, was Ashaella.

“Ah… I’m sleepy.”

Like a doll, she awakened with such beauty.

Yulia couldn’t help feeling regretful.

‘His Majesty should have been here to see this!’

He would surely regret for a long time not being present at this moment.

* * *

“Three days… have passed?”

My head felt foggy. I was still half-asleep, but Yulia’s tearful words snapped me fully awake.

“The war? What happened? What about Evan? And Hadel—I mean, His Majesty?”

Even as I asked, I had a good guess. Seeing that I was safely asleep here, with Yulia, Rilsha, and Dalsha greeting me with bright faces…

“The war is still ongoing, but His Majesty is safe. The traitors have been mostly dealt with, so don’t worry, Silver Lily.”

Right, Hadel must have arrived in time to handle Evan.

That was truly a relief.

I let out a sigh of relief.

But one question still lingered.

“Where is His Majesty now?”

Thinking back, no one had gone to call for Hadel since I awakened.

I had assumed Hadel would be glued to my side when I opened my eyes, but his absence left me with a strange feeling.

At my question, Yulia blinked several times, then scratched her cheek awkwardly.

“Ah, well… about that.”

What is it? Just tell me.

She seemed to be struggling with how to broach the subject.

For a moment, I wondered if Hadel was injured and unconscious, but I shook my head.

That couldn’t be.

Yulia’s reaction was lighter than what I’d feared.

After I waited patiently, Yulia collected her thoughts and slowly revealed Hadel’s location.

“He’s in the East…”

I mulled over Yulia’s answer for a moment. Then asked again.

“Where did you say?”

“The East. The Eastern Empire. Well, it’s not the Eastern Empire anymore, but…”

“What?”

I was already confused that Hadel, who should have been fighting Evan in the Empire just three days ago, was suddenly in the far-off Eastern Empire.

And now she was saying it wasn’t even the Eastern Empire anymore.

Unable to follow the conversation, I ended up asking again like a fool.

“Maybe I’m still half-asleep. Could you explain again, Yulia?”

“Well… I wasn’t there myself, so I can’t really… Ah! Let me show you a map first.”

“Why suddenly a map…?”

Leaving me puzzled, Yulia brought over a stiff map.

The paper was still white and clean, suggesting it was newly made.

“It’s a new map the Empire created just this morning.”

Indeed, it had been made just this morning.

But why would they make a new map in the middle of a war?

A strong sense of foreboding swept over me, but I decided to wait for Yulia’s explanation.

With a swoosh, the map unfolded on the bed, revealing the vast imperial lands.

Land stretching endlessly westward. The Sieria Empire encompassing nearly the entire continent was such a great empire that it had almost no rivals in these lands.

Though nomadic tribes formed small nations in the north, they offered annual tributes to the Empire, making them virtually vassal states.

And the only rival in the east was…

“Wait a moment. Something seems off about this map.”

I pointed to the eastern lands where the Eastern Empire should be.

Using the territory of the Hamolli family—where Yulia had posed as Dobae—as a reference point, the eastern lands began to the right.

But on this map, the border with the East was drawn much further eastward.

The Eastern Empire used to be about half the size of Sieria, but on this map, it was only half that size.

“The map isn’t wrong, Silver Lily.”

“…?”

“His Majesty headed to the East the day before yesterday…”

Before Yulia could finish, I grasped the situation.

Hadel suddenly heading east. And a map showing the Eastern Empire being clearly devoured.

I spoke to Yulia, who was struggling to explain.

“That day, His Majesty killed the Hye-wang.”

The day of the execution ground attack—which felt like yesterday to me, not three days ago.

Hadel had gone outside the capital to stop the Balkyrino-Eastern alliance forces invading the imperial city.

I’d told him not to kill the Eastern king if possible…

“Well, I didn’t see it myself, but that’s what they say. There’s a rumor that he… carried the dying Hye-wang on his back and rushed to you…”

Good heavens. He apparently brought someone with critical injuries, not someone who died instantly.

It seems Hadel tried not to kill the Hye-wang, but why did she die then?

“What exactly happened after I fell asleep?”