The Orion Empire was the last land to retain its na within the human territory.
Although it was said to be in crisis, the capital and the Imperial Family were so well protected that the crisis was not felt, which ant there would be no obstruction to the leader’s plans to be implented with the empire at its core.
This ant that the future she prophesied was highly likely to be implented.
Therefore, before that future would co, there was one thing she had to do: et and persuade the witch.
“Oh, found you, Airi~”
She encountered a familiar face just before heading to the library where she was waiting.
As she stopped for a mont and turned to the side, Airi spotted a woman with short white hair approaching, wearing a black cloak.
“rilyn?”
“Hehe. I heard about it, but you really ca to the Imperial Family~ Do you know how much I looked for you as soon as I heard the news?”
As soon as she appeared, rilyn expressed her joy.
Although she usually found her rival annoying and botherso, when Airi actually faced her, she felt a sense of anticipation.
She thought that maybe the person in front of her had co here for her sake.
“Could it be that you ca all the way here to rescue ?”
“No, I ca here on my own.”
“I knew it, you damn demon!”
No matter how much she fell in love with a human, her nature was still that of a demon.
She wouldn’t act out of an altruistic heart to help soone, would she?
“…rilyn, what on earth were you thinking coming here?”
“Hehe, who knows? I think you, Airi, would understand without having to explain…”
rilyn just responded with her characteristic sly smile to her question.
Although it grated on her nerves, Airi didn’t care and focused on reading her movents.
Before parting with her partner, she t another of the Four Heavenly Kings and was led to the Imperial Family.
“The Demon King… Are you serious?”
The look of shock on Airi’s face as she recalled all those events was an expected reaction.
rilyn just shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly despite the reaction.
“Well, I don’t know either. What was I thinking getting involved in this?”
“Don’t dodge the question; answer properly. What you’re trying to do now is…”
“It’s a necessary task.”
A single word that cut off emotional questioning.
As Airi felt at a loss for words and stared at her fixedly, rilyn gave a bitter smile and quietly placed her fingers on the strings of the lute she was holding.
“To test how strong my love is… I should be prepared to jump into the fire myself, shouldn’t I?”
“…Even if that decision turns this land into a sea of fire?”
“Honestly, there are things that bother . I don’t care what happens to humanity or the world… but it would be sad if the place he returns to is burned down.”
rilyn also knew what would happen on this land in the future.
Still, the reason she had given in to her deceitful kin and joined this plan was simple.
“But it turns out that much of it was already in motion by the ti I realized it. And it seems the Crown Prince has made up his mind, too.”
Even if she didn’t take action, it was sothing that would eventually happen.
Feeling that one of the people who caused this was watching the conversation, rilyn drew a bitter smile and plucked the strings.
“If it is a fate destined to flow uncontrollably, then perhaps it is right to ride the current rather than resist it…”
Dding~
“Airi, isn’t that why you voluntarily ca here?”
As if to say that Airi was no different from her and had no right to criticize, rrilyn’s gaze pierced her.
Just as Airi placed her hands over her pregnant belly, Seis, who had been watching the situation unfold, intervened between the two.
“Shall we stop the conversation here?”
“Hehe, of course. The great leader shouldn’t waste ti with a lowly jester. Then, I shall excuse myself.”
With a light bow, rilyn left Seis’s side.
Then she brought her lips to her rival’s ear and whispered softly.
“Hyo-sung will be sad when he returns.”
Even without the gift of prophecy, she knew.
She already knew what she had co here for and what she had prepared for.
Indeed, just as rrilyn had said, the world they knew was heading toward destruction.
The Crown Prince’s plan was to prepare for such destruction, and Airi had already decided to participate in it.
If she had truly received all of her clan’s power for that purpose and if it was ant to lead to a future connected with him…
‘But not this child.’
Yes, not the child in her womb.
She, as the last descendant of the Goddess of Destruction, was the one who should bear that burden—not her child, who would inherit the future.
This was the reason she sought to et the witch.
By eting the central figure in person, she hoped to rewrite the future she did not want.
“Wh-who are you?”
But what she encountered when she steeled herself was not what she expected—a shabby-looking woman in pajamas, trembling amidst piles of books in the library.
“…Vivian.”
“Wh-where am I? I… I…”
“Vivian, can you hear ?”
“Uh… uh… ah…”
Vivian looked around with trembling eyes even at Seis’s call.
No, even that was only for a mont.
What flowed from her mouth as she collapsed to the floor was deep despair.
“Wh-what is this? Where am I? Wh-why am I here…? M-Mom… Wh-where are you?”
To so, she was a mass murderer who had slaughtered people like they were trash. To others, she was a symbol of hope who could save humanity. To those who knew the distant past, she was the most terrible disaster of all.
But now, there was no trace of any of those aspects in her current state.
“M-Mom? Did I have a mom? N-no…”
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