Wasn’t This Supposed To Be a Strategy Game? Chapter 104

Patrian’s stout voice carried more dignity and force than ever before. Though deep wounds marred his face and body, his expression shone with triumphant pride.

“Kyris… Is… is all of what Patrian says true…?”

When the Emperor asked in a daze, Kyris—who had kept his head deeply bowed until then—slowly nodded.

Eden’s and Asmun’s eyes hardened at the same time.

“Hah, you mean… all of it is true? That you dared use black magic to devour my soul!”

The Emperor thundered in wrath. Kyris was silent for a beat, then parted his dry lips.

“Yes… It is all true. I have been in league with black magi for a long time and, in the end, sought to seize Your Majesty’s soul through black magic and ascend the throne.”

It was an all-too-docile confession.

‘That can’t be. Someone like Kyris—no way…’

Staring at him in dismay, Eden suddenly thought of something and looked to Patrian. The corners of Patrian’s mouth, kneeling, were lifted ever so slightly.

“……”

In that instant, a shock like the Anaght tablet itself crashing down struck her.

‘It was Patrian.’

It had been Patrian—the prince truly colluding with black magi. Kyris was merely a puppet being used by him…

『They will soon realize that the fake Anaght Tablet has been stolen. Aware of the situation’s gravity, they will begin the Anaght Ritual tonight, when the full moon’s energy covers the sky. The location of the ritual is the underground prison of First Prince Kyris Declend’s castle.』

The victim of the Anaght Ritual wasn’t the Emperor—it was Kyris.

‘You’ve got to be kidding me…!’

Only now did Eden realize how fatally ambiguous the prophecy book had been.

“‘They,’ huh.”

They—who?

“Where is the tablet.”

At Eden’s abrupt question, the Emperor, Patrian, and Asmun all turned their eyes to her. Eden fixed her gaze on Patrian.

“Where is the tablet? I mean the Anaght Tablet.”

Patrian stared at Eden for a beat with a flat look, then smiled thinly.

“I destroyed that wicked thing.”

At those words, Asmun grasped the same truth Eden had and looked coldly at Patrian.

“And that man? Looks like he’s stopped breathing.”

Asmun pointed quietly to a man lying dead atop the central magic array, bleeding, and Patrian answered the Emperor with a grave face.

“When I arrived, the ritual was already underway. The poor man—who possessed holy power—was already dead.”

Eden stared at Patrian, speechless.

It was Patrian who had killed that man. Patrian had offered the sacrifice to conduct the Anaght Ritual and had subjugated Kyris’s soul.

Kyris, not offering a single word in his defense and keeping his head bowed without a twitch, was the very proof of it.

“But because I arrived by the narrowest margin, the ritual was not completed.”

“Where are the black magicians ?”

Asmun asked, staring straight at Patrian. Patrian let out a small sigh.

“They fled the moment I entered. I had no other choice. I had to stop the ritual, so I couldn’t pursue them.”

A perfectly tidy excuse—as if prepared in advance.

“Your Majesty. I subdued my elder brother, who sought to dominate Your Majesty’s soul. But this is still a heinous crime against one’s parent. I am prepared to accept whatever punishment Your Majesty decrees.”

Patrian’s performance was flawless.

A trembling voice containing something indistinguishable—tension, fear, or grief—yet eyes steadfast with loyalty, with not a hint of regret.

The Emperor, at a loss for words, looked to Kyris. Soon he accepted it all. Kyris had truly tried to cast black magic upon him. Patrian had stopped him.

That merit could not go unrecognized.

“Rise, Patrian.”

“Your Majesty.”

“How could I punish the one who saved the Empire? You saved me today, and that is little different from saving Hesmore itself. If not for you…”

The Emperor trailed off, then looked at Kyris with eyes mixed with emptiness and betrayal. Kyris still kept his head bowed.

His own son had sought to harm him.

The hollow space within him quickly filled with boiling betrayal and rage.

“Immediately transfer the criminal to the Imperial Palace dungeons and begin interrogation! Do not cease the torture until he spills every piece of information on the black magi. He is to be denied even a single sip of water.”

At the Emperor’s indignant order, knights hurried to bind Kyris and drag him away. The Emperor swept his gaze over the dungeon once more.

A prince colluding with black magi—those who sowed chaos in the realm and toyed with the Empire’s people. It was enough to make one laugh hollowly.

The Emperor turned to Patrian and Asmun.

“For now, we return to the palace.”

***

“Damn it…”

Back alone in Asmun’s castle, Eden wandered the empty corridor and finally let out the curses she’d been holding in.

“Damn… blasted Hamyun…”

As the shock loosened its grip on her mind, everything snapped into clarity. Kyris had never even had the capability to collude with black magi in the first place.

From the very fact that he had received their support, it had been Patrian’s scheme. In other words, the true mastermind behind every plot Kyris had carried out until now was Patrian.

“I was far too complacent.”

Patrian had been one of the key figures as well, and overlooking him was her mistake.

Focusing only on Kyris, she had taken the comparatively quiet Patrian too lightly. The truly sly, duplicitous prince had been Patrian.

“Truly damn it! We cooked the porridge just to feed it to the dog! Agh!” \[Note: Korean idiom “죽 쒀서 개 준다”—to toil for something only for someone else to reap the benefit.]

Unable to contain her frustration, Eden clutched her head and let out an irritated scream.

No matter that Asmun had run himself ragged to present evidence of treason to the Emperor first—the victor was ultimately Patrian, who personally subdued Kyris and seared that scene into the Emperor’s memory.

Politics, above all, was about impact—and Patrian had left the Emperor with an unforgettable impact.

“Hah…”

Eden let out a laugh of disbelief. In the end, she had dragged the Emperor to the scene—enduring hellish toil—just to provide impact for Patrian.

Patrian had stepped on her and Asmun to climb one step closer to the throne.

“Stay calm, Eden…”

Barely steadying herself, Eden braced a hand against the corridor wall and tried to sort the situation.

One way or another, there might have been no avoiding this progression. Given how the prophecy had been phrased, this must have been what Hamyun intended. \[Note: Suggests a god manipulating events via prophecy.]

‘That insane man—no, insane god—whatever!’

Thus Kyris’s downfall and Patrian’s “debut” were inevitably bound together.

Which meant that from here on, Asmun and Eden would have to face that insidious Patrian.

“Fine, then. Let’s do this.”

A hot flame roared up inside Eden. Her scalp still prickled, and her long-dormant will to win blazed back to life.

Just then—

“Eden.”

Hegenti suddenly appeared before Eden. Startled, she looked up at him. It seemed he had been waiting for her the whole time.

“Is it over?”

Hegenti asked quietly.

Ah…

Eden glanced aside, sheepish.

「We’re almost there. If we get through this, His Highness will become Crown Prince. So just wait a little longer—I’ll be back soon.」

Those had been the promises she made to dissuade Hegenti from following her to the palace.

‘Ugh…’

But far from ending, everything had been reset to square one. No—because Patrian had left such a deep impression on the Emperor, things were worse than at the start.

“The thing is… it got… complicated.”

Eden let out a small sigh and confessed honestly. Hegenti stared at her.

She knew why he had gone along with her all this time—because he thought, once this was over, he could return to the castle with her.

She felt genuinely sorry to shatter that expectation.

“…I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right.”

Startled by Hegenti’s reply, Eden looked up at him. It was not the answer she had expected.

“Really all right?”

Hegenti nodded.

“It really is. For me.”

It was a refreshingly clean answer, as if nothing at all weighed on him. Somehow, that small nod made her chest tighten, and all the tension threaded through her unraveled at once.

‘Ha… after all that hell… I even dragged Hegenti through it… how foolish…’

To end like this—what futility. She told herself there was nothing she could have done, but there must have been moments—clear chances.

Chances to realize that Patrian was the true enemy.

It was she who missed them. It was her foolish pride that let this game deceive her so completely.

“……”

Eden looked at Hegenti, a lump in her throat.

Seeing that face, Hegenti slowly reached out. His long, beautiful fingers stroked her cheek—gaunt after a day, no, two days of grueling strain.

“Eden.”

“……”

“I’ll help you. So…”

Eden gazed into the gray eyes that, even as he spoke warm words, could not quite shed their innate aloofness.

“Don’t cry.”

Only then did Eden realize she was crying. Startled, she wiped her tears.

“Ah, why am I— Damn it, crying means losing.”

Eden bit her lip to hold back the tears.

She mustn’t cry over something like this. In the end she would topple Patrian and make Asmun Emperor. So there was no need to cry.

Feeling embarrassed, Eden wiped her cheeks—then suddenly noticed the moon rising outside the window. It was a full moon.

Startled, her gaze swung back to Hegenti. She hurried closer, cupped his clear face in her hands, and looked him over.

“Hegenti, are you okay? Are you hurting anywhere? Did you take the medicine? Do you have it with you?”

Hegenti blinked at Eden as she kneaded his cheeks like dough and peppered him with questions.

“Not calling me Choco anymore?”

“Huh?”

“……”

Hegenti closed his mouth again.