Chapter 2: -stop (2)

Episode 2 – I Quit (2)

“We exist solely for the great Empress. If that is your will, we shall simply obey.”

Saruel looked somewhat dazed, but he still gathered his wits and nodded.

From the start, they had no choice but to follow Elena’s commands.

Though the current Elena wasn’t exactly threatening them, a black magic brand had been seared onto their bodies the moment they swore their loyalty.

The moment they betrayed her, their hearts would burst, killing them.

In other words, they were Elena’s ultimate personal guard, destined to stay with her until the very end.

“Please give your final command. All of the Dark Shadow Corps, including myself, will obey.”

“No, why are you talking as if we’ll never see each other again?”

“B-but Your Majesty just now…”

“Who knows what the future holds? While I’m resting, you can all rest too. Do what you want, see what you want to see.”

Saruel, who had opened his mouth after steeling his resolve, was flustered by Elena’s reply.

At Elena’s words, who seemed to have forgotten all decorum and burst into laughter, Saruel was dumbfounded and speechless.

“Then, could there be a day when you regain the imperial throne of this nation?”

“I don’t know either.”

Her answer was exceedingly vague, yet Saruel’s eyes regained the light of hope.

Nothing else mattered.

If the weary Empress desired the imperial throne once more, he would simply devote his body and soul to assist her.

“We will live for the great Empress, anytime, forever.”

“Farewell. See you again someday.”

Saruel rose from his seat and withdrew, bowing as usual, but with greater reverence.

Elena, bidding farewell, also returned to her usual manner of speech and waved her hand.

That was the final meeting between the two, as Empress and subject.

****

“Revolution!”

“We must change this rotten empire. Overthrow the wicked and tyrannical Empress!”

One thousand years ago, on the day the Valtira Empire was said to have been founded.

The annual Founding Day celebration was the empire’s largest festival and event.

It was a holiday with a long tradition and history of feasting and merrymaking, not only in Ruballen, the capital where the imperial palace stood, but also in almost every city and village.

“Move quickly! Now that the Capital Guard and Imperial Knights have all departed, this is our chance!”

However, that festive day had now turned into a chaotic scene of cannon fire and shouts.

A gathered group, disguised as people moving for the festival, launched an assault on the capital, Ruballen.

They seized the opportunity when most of the Capital Guard had dispersed under the Empress’s orders to supervise and assist with festival security, and even the Imperial Knights had left the palace to inspect the Altar of the Sun, an ancestral imperial legacy where the Empress was to make an appearance, rising up with smuggled weapons.

“Whoa, what in the world is happening?”

Most Ruballen residents, shocked by the sudden rebellion, immediately fled to their homes.

From their perspective, they were trying to legally eat and enjoy themselves for the first time in a while when a war suddenly broke out.

“Comrades, the time has finally come. This is our only chance!”

“The Empress is a black magician. Execute the witch!”

However, not a few people, seizing the moment, joined the revolutionary army or had been forewarned.

Indeed, before Elena’s possession, she had sacrificed many innocent people, and it was also true that she was a witch who had learned black magic and implanted a demon’s heart.

The gathered crowds themselves became a medium for absorbing even more crowds.

Thus, the revolutionary army, engulfed in fervor, charged into the imperial palace alongside the crowds.

“W-when are the Imperial Knights coming, damn it?!”

“Guards! Quickly call the guards! The traitors have already reached the palace gates!”

It was the bureaucrats and ministers who found themselves in dire straits.

Unaware of anything, they frantically stomped their feet, forgetting that the Imperial Knights had vacated the palace and the Capital Guard had dispersed, all due to the Empress’s orders.

“Your, Your Majesty! Please flee at once! Those mad rioters are setting their filthy feet inside the imperial palace. We can’t hold them off any longer!”

“Where would I go? The entire imperial palace is already surrounded by these rioters who think they’re so great.”

At the words of the Foreign Minister, who had run in, sweating profusely, Elena, seated on the throne, scoffed.

The Foreign Minister’s face turned ashen at Elena’s demeanor.

In this absurd revolution, there seemed to be no way out, no matter how he looked at it.

“If you wish, you may flee, Foreign Minister. That fellow, the Minister of Internal Affairs, already cursed at me to my face and ran away. The others haven’t even come.”

“H-eek…!”

Trembling at Elena’s cold laugh, the Foreign Minister, his bald, shiny crown exposed by his dislodged wig, hesitated as he heard the increasingly closer shouts and gunshots of the enemies.

Eventually, even the Foreign Minister fled, leaving no one by Elena’s side, as she had already told the maids, butlers, and other subordinates to escape long ago.

‘They’re having fun. I envy how earnestly they can live.’

With a crack, the sound of something breaking was heard.

A thud, and the vibration of a collapsing building, was also felt.

The magnificent chandeliers swayed, and the ornate decorations and ornaments adorning the grand hall fell or shattered.

Elena chuckled, waiting for them.

Thinking of those who must be dominated by dopamine and adrenaline, believing their revolution had succeeded, she found it hard to suppress her laughter.

“There she is… the Empress is there…!”

“Calm yourself, Yulien! Have you forgotten that the Empress is a witch?!”

Kyle Braunner, leader of the revolutionary army Equitas, restrained his trembling comrade, Yulien.

In the magnificent throne room, a lavish hall believed by the imperial citizens to have been built from their blood and sweat, the Empress, known as a beauty beyond compare, sat haughtily on her grand throne, legs crossed, waiting for them alone.

‘Why… why did it succeed so easily?’

Kyle swallowed dryly as he watched Elena.

Clearly, all their plans had succeeded.

Thousands of crowds were already with them, and Heaven had helped them, even sending the most troublesome unit, the Imperial Knights, to a remote location.

However, even Kyle, one of the masterminds behind this plan, was bewildered by how smoothly things were progressing, almost as if they were soaring through the sky.

His other comrades were intoxicated by excitement and fervor, growing impatient, but Kyle alone maintained his composure.

‘That man is Kyle Braunner. Is he Len Knaits’s master…?’

Elena faintly curled the corners of her lips as she looked at Kyle.

It’s amusing.

And incredibly thrilling.

She, the person in question, was purely enjoying this situation.

“Rensha! The purification spell!”

Kyle, leading Equitas, ordered his mage comrade to prepare for battle with Elena.

Since Elena was sitting so leisurely, Kyle, expecting her to fight fiercely with black magic, never let his guard down.

“How presumptuous and foolish. Are you trying to fight without any dialogue?”

‘Not a bad line, is it?’

Elena, opening her mouth to provoke Kyle and the revolutionary army, recited a line she had prepared in advance.

She was quite satisfied with the majestic line herself.

“Silence, witch. There are survivors who directly witnessed you using black magic.”

Kyle’s reaction was also not much different from what she had desired.

“Purification spell ready.”

“Attack immediately. If the Imperial Knights come, it’s over. There’s no time!”

Meanwhile, Rensha, an officer of the Equitas Mage Corps, announced that all preparations were complete.

Nodding, Kyle ordered the Mage Corps to attack Elena.

“Fire!”

The purification spell was a black magic-specific incantation, combining magic and holy water.

Chains of magical power, spewing from numerous pure white magic circles created by the Mage Corps, flew simultaneously towards Elena.

The holy water used here was personally made by the High Priest of the Holy Church, so they had indeed prepared thoroughly.

“Alright, we’ve got her?!”

The chains instantly bound Elena’s entire body.

They restrained her arms, wrapped around her entire body to immobilize her, and dragged her down from the throne.

“Purify her!”

At Rensha’s cry, staff in hand, the energy of subjugation began to flow through the chains.

Elena merely hung there as they wished, her face contorted as if in pain from the subjugation energy.

“Huh…?”

However, Rensha and the other mages instinctively felt that something was wrong.

Because a black magician affected by the energy of subjugation couldn’t simply end with a mere grimace.

It should have been normal to feel pain as if their entire body was burning.

“It seems the holy water concentration is a bit low. Was it so precious that you diluted it with water?”

“Aargh!”

“The spell is broken…!”

Indeed, the moment Elena tilted her head and drew forth her magic, the chains shattered from the blackish-red magic she released, and the subjugation energy was reversed and overwhelmed.

As a recoil, the screaming Mage Corps members all fell and rolled on the floor.

“Fire!”

The remaining troops, who had been on standby, frantically fired their aimed guns.

However, Elena simply took the bullets with her bare body, without even a common shield, and deflected them.

“C-could it be… truly?!”

Rensha, rising from the floor, trembled upon seeing Elena’s suddenly gleaming, cold eyes.

The implantation of an ancient demon’s heart, which even they secretly thought impossible.

If Elena had truly succeeded in that.

And if, beyond succeeding, she possessed an unprecedented talent to freely wield that power.

“No. We can’t win. None of us!”

Rensha screamed.

That what was before their eyes was not a mere human, but a half-human, half-demon fiend.

Indeed, Elena’s intuition was not wrong, as the black magic minion she summoned with a single gesture was capable of facing all of them.

“Ah, did I use too much power? I’m feeling dizzy…”

“Huh?”

But at that moment, while everyone was flustered and scrambling, Elena, who had uttered a very awkward line, staggered, placed a hand on her head, and collapsed with a thud.

The intense atmosphere instantly dissipated.

Not only Rensha, but even Kyle was so dumbfounded by what was happening that they briefly stared at each other, stunned.

“Alright, seize her. Seize the witch!”

Still, Kyle gave a timely command, just when Elena, who had so blatantly collapsed, wouldn’t be too awkward.

The revolutionary troops rushed forward, pressed down on Elena, and restrained her arms and neck using magic-sealing devices.

“Now you have nothing more to say, do you?”

“Is that so? How impressive.”

“…We shall see if you can remain arrogant until the very end, before the people enraged by your tyrannical and heinous rule.”

Kyle strode forward and roughly removed the crown from Elena’s head.

Therefore, no one saw it.

Her face, smiling brightly amidst her disheveled hair.