Wasn’t This Supposed To Be a Strategy Game? Chapter 106

“…My head feels like it’s ringing.”

Gasp—startled by that, Eden quickly pressed a hand to Hegenti’s forehead, cautiously gauging his condition.

It was a full moon anyway, so Hegenti absolutely must not overexert himself.

She still didn’t know why Hegenti sometimes went berserk without warning—and right now he was basically a time bomb.

“You’ve picked up a mage whose acting is top-tier, I see.”

Asmun sneered at Hegenti in a chill tone, and Eden looked at him, stung.

Asmun knew nothing. If Hegenti were mishandled like this, he might suddenly go out of control and end everything.

Of course, she also understood perfectly well why Asmun was so angry.

“It was entirely my fault to disappear like that. But Your Highness also, without consulting me, you—”

Eden, about to rattle on at machine-gun speed, realized there were knights and Chediak right there and snapped her mouth shut.

But even that was enough for Asmun to grasp all the words she hadn’t said.

She resented that he had tried to make her Saintess without her consent and shut her up in the Temple.

“It was for the Saintess’s safety.”

“I can take responsibility for my own safety!”

“By taking risks like this? Do you have any idea how dangerous Marbelios is?”

“Ha… Your Highness still doesn’t trust me.”

The clash between Hegenti and Asmun instantly morphed into a war of words between Eden and Asmun, leaving the knights glancing about, unsure what to do.

Even Chediak, sensing the tension, held his breath—only Hegenti was oblivious to the mood, sticking close behind Eden and resting his head on her shoulder.

“Eden, I think I have a fever.”

At that, Eden whipped around to him, and a vein throbbed at Asmun’s temple at the same time.

“L-Let me see.”

When Eden touched his forehead, the gray eyes—glinting with a strange sense of triumph—slid toward Asmun.

“Hah…”

At that look, a laugh cold as ice slipped from Asmun’s lips, and the knights, suddenly taut with nerves, shot Hegenti reproachful looks.

“I don’t think you have a fever…”

Murmuring, Eden stepped away from Hegenti, hurried to Asmun, and lowered her voice to a whisper.

“Your Highness, I can’t explain now, but Hegenti absolutely must not get sick. And you mustn’t startle him, either.”

Eden’s conspiratorial tone, and the playful wink as if sharing some colossal secret, made Asmun’s red eyes turn razor-cold.

“…”

“…”

It was, unsurprisingly, not persuasive in the slightest.

Damn it, Eden swallowed tears inwardly.

“I won’t ever disappear without a word again, so… please don’t be mad. Okay?”

Asmun stared at her in silence.

Eden was misunderstanding the real reason he was angry. Yes, he was furious that she had vanished without a word and that she had prowled a dangerous mine without fear—but what he found most intolerable was Hegenti’s very existence.

Eden had to be Eden for him alone. Just as Eden was his only one, he had to be Eden’s only one.

Asmun parted his lips, set in an icy line.

“Don’t let shallow pity feed a calamity. He is not someone the Saintess can shoulder anyway.”

“Your Highness! ‘Calamity’? That’s far too much!”

“You already know this yourself, don’t you.”

Eden’s stomach gave a guilty lurch, and confusion pricked her.

What does he mean? Does Asmun know something?

“It would be best if the Saintess ended it first.”

He warned quietly, looking at the frozen Eden.

“Before I change my mind.”

W-What mind?

But Asmun didn’t say what he meant. He simply turned away and walked off.

The air in the corridor turned as cold as a northern glacier, and the knights, thawing from their freeze, scrambled to follow him.

The corridor that, moments ago, had been noisy enough to suggest a war had broken out fell silent in an instant, leaving only Eden, Hegenti, and Chediak.

“…”

Chediak furtively looked between Eden—troubled—and Hegenti, whose stare bored into her.

It was truly strange. Why were the eyes of a prince looking at the Saintess so very like the eyes of that terrifyingly brilliant sorcerer?

Whatever it was, one thing was clear: things between the three were… not simple.

“Ahaha—looks like I left something in the room!”

Feeling a needless chill up his spine, Chediak muttered awkwardly to himself and beat a hasty retreat.

With even Chediak fleeing, only two people remained in the corridor.

Hegenti took slow steps forward, drawing close behind Eden, who was still staring after Asmun. He slowly reached out and gently pulled her rigid body into an embrace.

Gasp—only then did Eden’s gaze tear away from the corridor where Asmun had vanished.

“Hegenti…”

When she looked back, he tucked his head into the curve of her shoulder.

“When he becomes Emperor, is he going to throw me away?”

At the quiet words, Eden’s pupils dilated.

“W-What are you talking about? Who’s throwing away whom?”

Even as she stammered, her heart pricked like a needle.

When she stopped Hegenti’s rampage and finally cleared the game, she wouldn’t only be leaving Asmun’s side.

She couldn’t call it “throwing away,” but—what difference did the wording make? She was starting to confuse herself.

Hegenti stayed silent a moment, face still hidden, then spoke faintly.

“Don’t forget you said you would take responsibility for me.”

At the words, tinged with a strange obsession, Eden only pitied him more.

The cause of Hegenti’s fixation was obvious: after losing his memory, he had been alone far too long.

So this was like the blind, newborn love of a hatchling imprinting upon the first person it saw—like a mother.

Hegenti was still the great Grand Sorcerer. Once he reestablished his sense of self-worth, he would naturally leave her.

It would sting a little when those soft eyes—softer only for her—were gone.

“Okay. I will.”

Eden turned and gently stroked Hegenti’s soft hair, answering quietly. Then she took his hand and tugged him along.

“Let’s go back and treat you.”

Hegenti stared as if to bore a hole through the hand holding his, and let himself be led. He could have teleported them in an instant, but he chose not to mention it.

News of Kyris’s appalling act of treason swept the Empire in a flash and turned it upside down.

People were shocked that a prince had colluded with black magi—and worse, had tried to perform a vile ritual upon the Emperor. And they were deeply moved by Patrian, who, for the sake of the Emperor and the Empire, had kept a low profile for so long, seen through Kyris’s schemes, and in the end subdued his own blood brother with his own hands.

“They say he was in league with black magi! Sounds like the whole mess at the Solar Festival was the First Prince’s doing. That wretch…”

“But listen, the rumor is that the First Prince had his soul stolen by black magi long ago. So he couldn’t help it, see?”

“His Highness Patrian supposedly saw through him early on and kept watch all this time. They say His Highness Patrian even has a sacred gift to discern black magic!”

“Their relationship was so close, too. How his heart must have ached, having to cut down his own brother…”

“To think His Highness the Second Prince had such resolve! Among the three princes, he’s the kindest one!”

All manner of bizarre, twisted rumors tore through the Empire—but amid them, Asmun’s name was scarcely mentioned.

‘So no one cares about the illegal mine…!’

Eden clenched her fist in fury and grumbled inwardly.

She had mobilized Chediak to expose the illegal mine, trying to reclaim the opportunity Patrian had seized—but there was no way that could beat the impact of saving the Emperor’s life.

「The people exploited in the mine had taken out loan-shark debts from House Milstein. They were locked up and made to work until the debts were repaid; if they were injured or became useless, they were moved somewhere else. No one knows where—but we suspect they were used as sacrifices for black magic.」

House Milstein—implicated in illegal mining, illegal forced labor, and illegal moneylending—and closely tied to Kyris, could not avoid the charge of aiding him. Their annihilation was assured.

But that was it. At the moment, no one had attention to spare for some illegal mine. Everything Eden, Chediak, and Hegenti had risked themselves to uncover went up in smoke.

Hoping Lydia might know something more, Eden asked for her help—but Lydia answered only that she knew nothing.

Lydia was taken to the palace as a witness, and there was nothing more Eden could do.

‘Patrian, you creepy bastard…’

When she thought of Patrian coolly acting before the Emperor, fury surged—then a bleak chill coiled inside her.

It was clear that Patrian had been laying the groundwork to topple Kyris for a very long time.

He had brought forth misdeeds far more damning than some illegal mine, piling charges on Kyris—there was no way Kyris could escape execution.

Two days ago, Kyris finally climbed the scaffold. Yet even at the longed-for end of Kyris, Eden could not smile.

‘So Patrian used black magi to trap Kyris. Patrian was behind every incident tied to black magic.’

Kyris was certainly a bad man—but without Patrian’s machinations behind the scenes, he would never have made it all the way to treason.