Ch.174While She Sleeps (3)

“This is my last question. Why on earth did you do this?”

Even Ernst, who had realized Isabella’s goal, couldn’t understand her reason.

A woman who had everything, why would she destroy it all by her own hand, even killing her children?

Before swinging his sword, he had to hear it.

“You won’t even show respect to your mother anymore? How sad. How did you grow into such a rude child? I never raised you that way…”

Isabella twisted her body, sobbing with exaggerated gestures. Still, her attitude was nothing but playful.

As if all of this was mere entertainment to her.

Ernst pressed his blade against her throat.

The cool Kenaz steel touched her skin, which was so pale it was almost transparent.

“I won’t let you spout nonsense. Answer me! What’s your reason for trying to destroy the Empire, Isabella Benes!”

“Reason? A reason… Well, because it’s fun.”

Isabella caressed the blade pressing against her throat.

With delicate finger movements, as if pleasing a man.

“Fun? Did you just say fun?”

The Kenaz blade trembled.

Ernst’s anger cut into Isabella’s skin.

The blade sliced her neck, staining it red.

“Don’t make such a frightening face. It’s obviously a joke, isn’t it?”

Despite blood streaming down her collarbone and soaking her chest, Isabella laughed nonchalantly.

Without showing any sign of pain or fear, her expression was seductive, almost ecstatic.

It was utterly chilling.

Ernst’s fingertips trembled as he felt a chill pierce his heart.

“As you said, I do have a reason. But why should I tell it to you? To a son who has grown into such a bad child… pointing a sword at his mother’s throat.”

Isabella grabbed Ernst’s blade.

More blood flowed along her grip.

“If you’re curious, why not cuddle in my arms and whine like you did when you were little? If you please me enough, I might just tell you?”

Isabella licked her lips at Ernst while caressing her blood-stained chest with her right hand.

“Nonsense until the end…!”

Ernst’s patience reached its limit.

There was no point in continuing the conversation.

It was clear Isabella would only continue to mock him without giving a proper answer.

Cutting off all lingering attachments, Ernst finally swung his sword.

Isabella’s head was severed in one stroke.

—-

“Haa… Haa…”

Ernst looked at what he had done, exhaling rough breaths.

‘Is it over? This simply…?’

On the luxurious bed lay a headless naked woman, twitching and convulsing.

Blood gushed from the cross-section of her neck, staining the bedding red, while obscene fluids spurted from between her legs that flapped like they were electrocuted.

Her rolling head was covered in the whitish excretions she had expelled.

It was a disgusting, ugly death.

The corpse of his mother, beheaded by his own hand. Ernst turned his head away completely.

He feared memories from his distant childhood might surface.

A sense of revulsion weighed heavily on his chest.

He didn’t regret it. It was something that had to be done, something he had always intended to do eventually.

It just happened sooner than he had thought.

For vengeance for Josef and Matthias, for Leonore’s future, for the well-being of everyone in the Empire.

He had sacrificed his own life to behead his mother.

‘With this, the throne will go to Leopold.’

No one would follow a prince who killed his own mother.

Even if he claimed Isabella had intended to destroy the Empire, how many would believe him?

Even Ernst himself hadn’t fully suspected it.

Given that Isabella’s goal had been to start a civil war, this ending was actually fortunate.

With the tragedy of a prince killing his birth mother, the 3rd Prince’s faction would scatter like rats fleeing disaster, losing both their leader and their cause.

This would allow Leopold to ascend to the throne quickly without any interference.

Once Ernst was removed from succession for killing his parent, Leopold would be the only heir, making a vote unnecessary.

After stabilizing the government, they could somehow repel the non-human invasions.

As long as civil war was avoided, the elves would remain silent, and the remaining two races were not enemies that couldn’t be defeated if the imperial army and the prince-electors’ forces cooperated.

‘I’ll have to entrust Leonore to the Aishan-Gioro princess.’

Isabella’s words had made him a bit uneasy.

She seemed certain the eastern Ka’har would invade.

If they tore up the peace treaty and became enemies again, the Aishan-Gioro princess would be in a difficult position too.

Though with the reputation she had built up so diligently… perhaps it wouldn’t be a major problem.

Either way, it was no longer something he could influence.

Sighing, Ernst looked back at Isabella’s corpse.

Her face, still smiling, was covered in bodily fluids and glistening, while her empty eyes stared blankly at the sky.

Perhaps it was his last lingering attachment as a son, or some form of respect.

Ernst picked up his mother’s head.

Sticky substances stained his gloves, but he ignored them and faced the severed head to speak his final words.

“This is just retribution, so you shouldn’t feel wronged. Go ahead and wait for me. The day I follow… isn’t far off.”

Since Leopold wouldn’t leave him be, his remaining life wouldn’t be long.

In the end, he never learned why she had done such things, but this was enough.

When his father died, the situation had already looked grim, and with Matthias’s death, the battle was already lost.

Having killed the source of all troubles and protected at least Leonore, he had done enough to clean up after the defeat.

Yes. This was his final act.

“Isn’t that too soon?”

“What…!”

Ernst dropped the head in shock.

The severed head had spoken to him with a smile.

The head that had fallen onto the bedspread spun around by itself to face Ernst.

“What is this… what’s happening…!”

“Ernst, Ernst. To cut off your mother’s head without hesitation, how cruel. My neck and chest hurt so much, I could cry.”

Tears of blood flowed from Isabella’s eyes.

A severed head cannot speak.

The lungs and vocal cords were left with the body.

Then what was happening now?

At this demonic, spine-chilling phenomenon, Ernst unconsciously took a step back.

The next moment, pitch-black darkness rose from Isabella’s corpse.

Dark Mana.

Dark Mana like an impenetrable curtain, so dense nothing could be seen beyond it, swallowed Isabella’s corpse.

“Dark Mana…?”

Ernst suddenly recalled what he had said to Leonore.

He had compared Isabella’s actions to those of a demon… but to think it was actually true.

He had never even imagined it.

He had thought she was still human in essence. How could he have known she wasn’t human at her core?

Finally, he could understand why she wanted to destroy the Empire.

‘From the beginning, she wasn’t human…!’

She must be killed.

Gritting his teeth, Ernst swung his sword at the wave-like curtain of Dark Mana.

The Kenaz blade cut the Dark Mana in two.

The severed darkness dissolved into the air.

There was nothing beyond it.

Only the cut bedspread fluttered; Isabella’s corpse had vanished without leaving even a bloodstain.

‘She disappeared…!’

“Shall we play hide and seek?”

With a seductively melting voice, something licked the back of his neck.

Ernst reflexively turned his body and thrust his sword.

The tip of his sword stopped, caught by something.

“That’s dangerous.”

He tried to pull it out hastily, but the firmly held blade didn’t budge, as if stuck between rocks.

Gripping the longsword’s handle with both hands, Ernst looked at the woman who had caught his sword.

The woman who until recently had been his mother, and just moments ago a filthy corpse.

Her brilliant golden hair writhed like snakes.

Surging Dark Mana swirled around her immaculate naked body like a dress, without a single wound or stain.

Her purple eyes emitted an eerie light.

“A demon. No, a witch…!”

“You have no words you can’t say to your mother? Not wrong, though.”

Isabella stuck out her tongue and laughed.

Her long tongue extended down to her chin and wriggled.

Ernst broke into a cold sweat.

A witch. A being that only occasionally appeared in history books.

Monsters who sold themselves to evil gods and in return transcended humanity.

“Even for a witch, you shouldn’t be able to survive having your head cut off by a Kenaz blade…”

Kenaz severs mana and disperses Dark Mana.

Even for demons, wounds inflicted by Kenaz blades cannot heal.

Except for undead that move despite decapitation, it wasn’t an attack that beings like demons or witches, who are still alive, could ignore.

“Curious…? You’ll know soon.”

Isabella withdrew her tongue and pointed at the wall with her fingertip, smiling.

From the room where she had sent away her playthings earlier, shouts erupted.

“Urgh! What is this! A head!!”

“W-what on earth…!”

Something collapsed with a thud, followed by the sound of something round rolling on the floor.

Six men screamed in terror.

Strangely, no female screams could be heard.

“It’s a bit noisy. Better put them to sleep.”

As Isabella waved her finger, the commotion in the next room instantly quieted.

Then, six more thuds followed.

“Well? Ernst, you’re quite clever… can you guess how your mother survived?”

“No way…”

A chill ran down his spine.

Considering the screams from the next room, there was only one possible answer.

“You… transferred your death to someone else?”

“Yes. That’s correct. As expected of my son, you understand quickly. …It’s a pity. If you were a little less intelligent… you wouldn’t have even thought of raising a sword against your mother.”

[Netherworld’s Return]

A dark art that transfers one’s death to someone they’ve been intimate with, allowing resurrection.

One of the powers bestowed upon her by the evil god.

“Such a thing can’t be possible…!”

“It’s entirely possible. What is possible and what is impossible isn’t for you to decide, Ernst.”

Ernst groaned.

Though he couldn’t fully grasp the nature of her power, that made the situation all the more desperate.

He had no idea by what principle this resurrection worked, or how many more times it could be done.

Still, he had to fight.

His mother was a monster.

A witch who would destroy the Empire, devour her children, and spread death throughout the world.

A being that shouldn’t exist.

“If one death isn’t enough, I’ll just keep beheading you until it sticks!”

“Try your best?”

Isabella mocked her son and spread her arms wide.

Waves of Dark Mana swirled out and surged toward Ernst.

Ernst gritted his teeth and awakened the power of Karma.

The blessing of heroic deeds descended upon his body.

The power of a Master.

The highest realm possible for current humanity.

However, before the darkness that surged like a tsunami, it was nothing more than a dim candle flame.

Darkness fell upon him.

A nightmare from which he would never wake.