Wasn’t This Supposed To Be a Strategy Game? Chapter 105

Eden looked at Hegenti in puzzlement.

Did he actually like the nickname Choco?

“There’s no reason to call you that here… it’s just the two of us.”

“…Yeah.”

Hegenti looked oddly disappointed.

Had he always had this many expressions?

If anyone else saw, they would have scoffed and asked what on earth could be called an “expression” about that face—but Eden had grown sensitive to the slightest changes that flickered in Hegenti’s eyes.

“You’re not in pain, right?”

Just as she reached out to feel his forehead, her hand was suddenly caught in a large one and pulled down.

“You look perfectly fine.”

Startled, Eden and Hegenti both turned at once—toward Asmun, whose gaze had turned razor-sharp.

Before they knew it, Asmun was standing at Eden’s side, gripping her hand tightly as he met Hegenti’s cold stare.

“Your Highness… what about the matter…”

“I’ve relayed everything the Saintess saw to His Majesty. He has already sent people to the mine—they will find the evidence soon enough.”

Asmun spoke evenly. Eden nodded, though her face still carried quiet sorrow.

The mine was crucial evidence. If only Kyris hadn’t been seized by Patrian…

Now there were no more cards left to turn the situation around…

Her thoughts jolted to a halt. Eden suddenly raised her head and looked at Hegenti.

“Hegenti, is he awake?”

At that, Hegenti broke off the tense staring contest with Asmun and looked back at her. He understood immediately who she meant.

“Yeah.”

Eden didn’t even glance back. She darted straight toward the room where Chediak and the woman were. Hegenti moved to follow, but Asmun’s cold voice froze him in place.

“Eden.”

The sound of her name from Asmun’s lips stopped Hegenti’s steps.

“You can’t keep the promise you made with her.”

Turning back, Hegenti found Asmun staring at him—still icy, but with a shade more composure in his eyes.

“Trail after Eden like some abandoned mutt if you want, but make sure you understand this.”

Asmun’s gaze stayed locked on Hegenti as he recalled everything he knew of him.

The one hailed as the Grand Sorcerer, the sole archmage of the continent—a man with truly staggering magical power.

Raised from the beginning in the Mage Tower as a battle sorcerer for the Empire, he had played a decisive role in the Imperial Wars and in the extermination of magical beasts when the Tower and the Palace were still allied.

Thanks to him, the Hesmore Empire had become the undisputed strongest on the continent, and the number of monsters rampaging across the land had been cut in half.

Even though he had vanished fifty years ago, no other sorcerer had ever arisen to match even half his might.

No one knew why he had disappeared. The Palace had scoured the north in desperation to find the castle where he supposedly stayed, but Hegenti had erased all traces.

Fearing that someone else might succeed, the Palace had even erased his records—leaving only his name, lingering like a legend.

And yet Eden had found him.

Hegenti finally spoke, lips dry, voice detached.

“When you become Emperor, Eden will return with me.”

His slow, quiet voice carried unwavering belief in that promise.

Asmun’s reply was like a blade.

“I’ll spare you a cruel disillusionment now so you don’t suffer later. The only one going back to that decrepit castle is you.”

Of course. Asmun had no intention of ever letting Eden go. Not to the north, not even to Hamyun’s paradise itself.

Unfazed, Hegenti shot back.

“Eden is helping you only because of her mission. Because of that damned prophecy.”

At that, Asmun’s brows froze into a colder line.

“…So you finally show your true colors. Acting like some addle-brained fool in front of Eden.”

Asmun had known from the beginning. Hegenti was no innocent fool.

No truly innocent man could look at someone with such relentless obsession in his eyes.

Even at Asmun’s cutting tone, Hegenti’s expression didn’t waver. As if he hadn’t heard, he continued in the same flat voice.

“When the mission ends, so will her business with you. I’ll help make you Emperor. So be satisfied with the throne.”

As though he were granting Asmun the throne himself—his tone was patronizing. Asmun let out a cold laugh.

“Perhaps you’re the one mistaken. Ever consider that her feelings for you are nothing but pity?”

“……”

“Sorry, but I have no intention of letting go—neither of the throne, nor of Eden. So you’d better drop your delusions. Once the hunt ends, the hound is always discarded.”

A sharp killing intent flickered in Hegenti’s indifferent eyes.

“Eden is mine.”

The blunt words made Asmun’s gaze turn razor-sharp in return

“I’ll shatter that delusion for you.”

***

“Mr. Chediak!”

Eden burst the door open. Inside, Chediak was slumped on the sofa, nodding off, while the woman sat silently by the window, staring out.

“P-please return it!”

Chediak started awake with a yelp.

“Huh…? Miss Edi…?”

Eden brushed past his groggy confusion and approached the woman carefully.

On the nearby table sat an untouched glass of water and a bowl of soup, cold and full.

Revived by Eden, the woman simply stared into emptiness with dead eyes.

“Um… are you all right…?”

Up close, Eden saw she was barely her own age—a young woman.

She hadn’t realized before, when the girl had been on the verge of death.

The woman’s gaze slowly drifted to Eden.

“……”

Her face suggested she already knew what had happened, probably from Chediak. It was the resigned look of someone who had accepted her fate. Eden felt guilty—because there were still things she needed to ask.

“Ah, what’s your name? You look about my age. I’m Eden.”

She forced a warm smile, trying to put the woman at ease. It seemed to work—the girl’s parched lips opened.

“…Lydia.”

Her voice was as dry and cracked as her lips.

Ah. Lydia.

Eden rolled the name on her tongue softly, then spoke kindly again.

“Lydia. Do you feel any better?”

Lydia nodded.

“If it’s not too hard for you… could I ask what happened in the mine?”

Lydia’s face immediately darkened. When Eden looked back at Chediak, he shook his head, as if to say he had tried already and given up.

‘Right. This isn’t something I can push her on.’

She had nearly died as a sacrifice, after all. Everything must still be a blur.

But Lydia had been bound directly by the black magic. Surely she knew something of the black magi.

Maybe even something about Patrian.

But Eden couldn’t press someone with such empty eyes.

“All right. Just rest.”

Eden let it go, and Chediak’s eyes widened. He hurried over to whisper.

“Edi—ah, I mean Saintess. Did everything work out? Was the ritual stopped?”

Eden hesitated. The Emperor’s soul had been spared—but no, things had not worked out.

“His Majesty is safe.”

At that, the tension drained from Chediak’s face.

After a pause, Eden decided to share the bitter truth. He had a right to know.

“But we were wrong.”

“Eh? What do you mean…”

“It wasn’t the First Prince. It was the Second. He’s the one colluding with the black magi.”

Chediak’s face froze in shock. As Eden turned her head back toward Lydia—

BOOOOM!

“Waaah!”

The explosion in the corridor made Chediak scream. Eden, startled, suddenly remembered—she had left Asmun and Hegenti behind.

“Ah…!”

She bolted out. The corridor’s ceiling and walls were shattered, burning.

“Your Highness, please calm yourself!”

“C-call the mages!”

The knights couldn’t intervene in a duel of such scale; they only floundered helplessly.

Chediak, running after Eden, clutched his head in terror.

“What is this! Why are His Highness and Mr. Choco fighting…!”

As Asmun raised his sword, Eden shoved herself between them, horrified.

“Stop! Enough!”

Chediak rushed in as well, quickly repairing the collapsing, flaming corridor with his magic. The knights and servants sighed in relief at the timely intervention.

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

At Eden’s scolding, Hegenti instantly dropped his hostile aura, slipping to her side with an innocent face.

Huh…?

The shameless act made Asmun’s brows twitch upward.

“You all right?”

Fooled by his act, Eden turned to fuss over Hegenti.

Hegenti lowered his eyes obediently at her touch, quietly murmuring,

“…My head feels like it’s ringing.”