Seal Release (2)

Elizabeth Etrion.

She had left the royal palace under the pretext of seducing the hero, but

She still hadn’t achieved much success.

What was the cause of this?

‘Levi.’

That thorough girl had intercepted all goodwill and interest directed at Ethan.

So after days of contemplation, Elizabeth:

“Right! Let’s get help.”

She wrote a letter to her close friend, the daughter of Count Sharian.

It was a kind of love consultation.

Elizabeth remembered that Cecil had tried to dissuade her, so

She started the letter with “This is about my friend.”

Of course, Cecil already knew that Elizabeth didn’t have many friends, so

She didn’t believe the opening phrase of the letter at all.

“This is obviously about the princess herself.”

Since she couldn’t outright tell her to give up,

She wrote things like ‘Always be cautious,’ ‘Don’t hurt the other person’s feelings,’ ‘Why don’t you try to find out what they like first?’ and so on.

Lastly,

-I believe you are wise enough to know how to act, Princess.

She ended the letter, hoping she would give up.

Unaware that this sentence unexpectedly provided comfort to Elizabeth.

After exchanging letters two or three times,

Elizabeth made a decision.

‘Now’s my chance while Levi is away from home!’

After observing what Ethan usually likes, his hobbies, eating habits, interests, behaviors, and so on,

She mastered the optimal conversation topics and finally sneaked towards his room in the secluded evening hours, when

“Ethan-nim, I’m back.”

As if divine mischief had reached its peak,

Levi returned at that exact moment.

Snuggling into Ethan’s arms and turning her head slightly,

She even smiled leisurely at Elizabeth.

‘Ha!’

Elizabeth had no choice but to retreat.

She was somewhat hurt that she, a princess of a country, was being treated like leftovers, but

She never felt resentment towards Ethan because of it.

Strangely, it made her even more attracted to Ethan.

‘I will definitely overcome this.’

She was filled with thoughts of removing Levi by any means necessary, whether by climbing over her like a mountain or carving her away with magic.

But then,

-Boom!!!

Suddenly, an explosion was heard.

“What on earth…”

The moment she opened the door and peeked her head into the corridor,

“Princess!”

“E-Ethan-ssi?”

Ethan immediately ran over and grabbed Elizabeth’s wrist.

“Please follow me.”

“Huh?”

“It’s urgent!”

No one in the royal palace,

Not even her unremarkable brothers,

Not even the king himself could yell at Elizabeth.

But Ethan dared to raise his voice at royalty.

‘Oh my, could this be…!’

She recalled a scene from a romance novel she had read diligently.

The part where a commoner boy roughly treats a noble lady hiding her identity.

-What if you get hurt doing that!

-Ah, no, I’m fine…

-Enough, just get on my back!

The noble lady unconsciously starts to think the boy is cheeky yet cute and lovable,

And that becomes the catalyst for a beautiful love that transcends their innate class differences.

‘How romantic.’

Her heart started pounding without her realizing, and she didn’t know what to do.

Regardless,

Ethan pushed Elizabeth into the basement, then

Brought Jenny, the Mazira couple, and even the servants.

“Stay inside.”

“What’s going on?”

“Don’t come out until I come to get you!”

Finally, he left without even pretending to listen to her words.

“…My lady?”

“…He’s really charming indeed.”

“Pardon?”

“Ahem, hem. It’s nothing, Jenny. Let’s go down inside too.”

Since Ethan was undoubtedly a true hero,

She firmly believed that no matter what happened, he would resolve it safely and return.

The situation wasn’t as serious as expected.

When Ethan arrived at the scene,

Borka had partially contained the spreading evil energy with a veil,

And Kenny and the golems were repairing the collapsed outer wall.

“What’s going on suddenly?”

“Elyssia suddenly changed like that.”

Ponya pointed at the black-haired woman floating in the air.

With her back to the moonlight, levitating above the mansion’s backyard,

She was looking down at the gathered people.

“That’s Elyssia?”

The pure face that was always full of gentle smiles, the child who played and joked happily with her friends was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, there was a woman with mischievous eyes and a relaxed expression, arms folded.

No matter how you look at it, it’s not the same person.

“Brother, that…”

Only after hearing the circumstances from Hwaryon, who was fidgeting as if she had committed a great mistake,

“Ah.”

He was able to understand to some extent.

“So the necklace was for that purpose.”

The role of an amulet suppressing something.

Perhaps the recent increase in strength was due to the amulet’s power weakening.

The being occupying Elyssia’s body laughed cheerfully.

“Oh my, hello!”

“……”

“Tch, you’re not even going to greet me?”

The words ‘After causing this mess?’ almost spilled out but were swallowed back.

There was no point in provoking her when he didn’t know her identity yet.

“I’ve wanted to meet you.”

“Me?”

“Who else would there be?”

“Do you know me?”

“Of course, I’ve been watching you every day through big sister’s eyes.”

The girl gently flew over and landed in front of Ethan.

Then she reached out and lightly brushed Ethan’s chin.

“Ah, the texture. So soft! It’s been so long, it’s so fascinating!”

“Big sister? What do you mean by that?”

The woman suddenly looked at Ethan with a deflated expression.

As if an enjoyable moment had been abruptly cut off.

“Are you curious?”

“Yes.”

-Clap! Clap!

The woman clapped twice.

And then,

“Since it’s come to this, I’ll tell you if you play with me.”

The ground shook.

The entire backyard trembled.

Whose mansion was the white mansion originally?

It was the mansion of Kavic Roan, the head of Serdin’s underworld.

His white mansion had an enormously wide backyard attached to it,

And there were rumors that flowers and trees grew especially well only in his garden.

The reason for that was revealed today.

-Thud!

A white pillar sprouted from the middle of the flower bed.

The tip spread out like a flower,

And soon it was grunting and gripping the ground.

-Thud thud thud!

Soon, the main body of the pillar popped out from underground.

“Skeletons?”

At first, there was one.

Then about 10.

Soon, hundreds of skeletons popped out.

The dead were waking up one after another.

“Necromancy.”

The taboo of raising the dead.

It’s clear evidence of evil.

“Master, this won’t do. I think it would be right to deal with this now.”

“Ethan-nim, forgive my impertinence, but if we leave it like this, all of Serdin could be in danger.”

Both Julius and Levi

Said they should deal with the opponent now and drew their weapons.

But,

“We can’t kill Elyssia.”

“That’s…”

“……”

We can’t cut down Elyssia because of some evil spirit.

There must be a way.

“Borka.”

“Yes, Ethan-nim.”

“Put a veil around the mansion. So that no one can go in or out.”

“I’ll deploy it right away.”

So we can find a solution internally without causing harm to the city.

He bought time for that by spreading the veil.

At the same time,

‘Mana Block.’

He used ‘Mana Block’ on the woman.

Basically, evil energy grows by burning mana and others’ life force, so

If you block mana absorption with Mana Block, its quantity should naturally decrease.

‘But why doesn’t it seem to be working?’

[‘Maintenance’ says that the amount of evil energy the being already possessed is considerable, so it will take time for it to dissipate.]

‘You mean it’s not that she increased it, but she had this much evil energy to begin with?’

Even ordinary demon worshippers don’t emit this much evil energy.

Even Targan, whom we encountered in the abandoned mine, was only about 1/10 of this level.

“Play with me too.”

The skeletons started to advance.

“Ethan-nim, what should we do?”

Ethan said as he summoned his armor and sword.

“For now, let’s go along with it.”

When she gets tired, Elyssia’s consciousness might return.

We need to buy time until then.

“Let’s go!”

-Clack clack clack!

“Ugh!”

These aren’t ordinary skeletons.

The bones stained with pitch-black evil energy weren’t easily cut even by the <Divine Tree Sword>.

-Whoosh!

Levi’s whip wrapped around a skeleton’s body and pulled,

When the skeleton lost its balance and leaned forward,

“Ha!”

Only then could Ethan cut off the skeleton’s neck.

“It still doesn’t die?”

Even so, the skeleton that only lost its head stood up again, wobbling.

Others were struggling just the same.

Even Julius’ aura couldn’t easily cut the skeletons.

Of course, when he went all out, he could neutralize them, but

“If we deal with them one by one, we’ll get exhausted first.”

Moreover, when evil energy seeps into the cut skeletons,

Like Kenny’s golems, the broken bones stick back together.

We need to consume the opponent’s evil energy.

Ethan thought of the most suitable being.

“Borka!”

She seemed to have already started casting magic.

“<Compression>, <Expansion>, <Re-compression>, <Dispersion>.”

Along with the deployment of conceptual magic,

The tip of Borka’s staff shone brilliantly.

Eventually,

“<Thunder Rain>.”

-Crackle!!!

The mana that was expanded and repeatedly compressed above the skeletons’ heads shot out blue lightning.

A wide-range yet precise attack targeting only the skeletons.

Despite countless fragments flying and the skeleton army suffering near-annihilation damage,

The woman didn’t even blink.

“Yes, this is it. This is how I wanted to play too!”

‘What on earth is she talking about?’

Just as Ethan sighed and readjusted his posture,

“Ethan-nim!”

“Hm?”

Borka urgently pointed towards the mansion’s main gate.

“The veil at the main gate has been neutralized!”

“What?”

Someone had infiltrated the mansion.