The Emperor Who Was Chapter 59 : Chapter 59

Chapter . 59

“In that case, keep it until your sister wants it. So that when she does, you can give it to her.”

Nanette reached out with all her might.

Towards the letters fluttering like butterfly wings in the air in front of her.

But there were no letters that the anti-magic girl could grasp. The letters even began to fade. Since a mage who could resist anti-magic had lowered her staff.

“Hurry, Nanette. The letters are disappearing.”

At that mont, the look Yolande threw at .

It was the sa look my Master from before the regression threw when she was furious.

-Word Soul Magic is uncertain and unstable, so many mages do not even consider it magic.

However, I think there is no better magic than this to help people understand magic.

She disliked Word Soul Magic and did not want to teach it, but since I wished for it, she taught

reluctantly; I never knew I would approach my Master with Word Soul Magic. Life is full of paradoxes.

“Ah, ah! What do I do!”

Nanette shouted pitifully and tried to grab the letters again and again. While we only watched. However, Yolande’s staff, though not raised again, was emitting a faint light.

“I caught them all!”

Until Nanette finally let out a cry of relief. In that small hand, the golden letters sat like golden butterflies.

“Well done, Nanette. It shall be as you wish.”

I said so and stroked Nanette’s head. The golden letters, bearing even my mana, disappeared as if being sucked into Nanette. Nanette hugged

tightly.

After Nanette fell asleep, we all went to bed. I sat alone on the balcony of my bedroom, looking at the night sky.

At so mont, Yolande appeared before . She had sneaked in using invisibility magic. Imperial Father probably hadn't issued an assassination order yet.

“For soone as noble as the Prince to care deeply for a commoner girl, I am truly moved.”

Yolande seed sincere. To the extent that I would have been fooled if I were not accustod to Master.

“However, I wonder if there is anything the Prince can gain from that young girl. That young girl might have exaggerated my sister’s abilities... but that does not an that sister is truly strong, or that we can conclude I am that sister.”

Yolande thought I was trying to conciliate her using Nanette as bait. That I, having no mage, was trying to get my hands on the Emperor’s mage by holding Nanette hostage. Although outwardly the Emperor bestowed her upon , Yolande’s real master was the Emperor. For now.

Since Nanette, who had kept her sister’s words well, told

her na, she was even more wary.

“Possibilities are nurous. Perhaps my Imperial Father had no intention of sending you to , but you ca to

out of concern for Nanette…….”

I paused and looked at Yolande, but she showed no agitation.

“But if Imperial Father sent you, there must be a reason for it.”

“I heard the Prince brought Lady Nanette from the Grimiati ducal residence. Although the plan was originally to bring a mage.”

Yolande ignored my words and said her piece, not resembling Master at all. Master was soone who, even while jumping up and down asking if I was dying to die, would explain everything about why it couldn't be done before moving on. Not only raising Michelon and Nanette, but now I have to raise Master too? I really hate it. Shouldn't Master originally be Master from birth? Knowing everything even as a baby.

“That is correct.”

“Then, if you had brought a real mage instead of Lady Nanette from the ducal residence, what did you intend to do? Do you think a mage would obey just by issuing an order, as you did to ?”

A gaze that tested and also provoked .

-How did the Imperial Family or the great nobles below them monopolize magic?

Master had asked the sa question before the regression.

And she did not say more. Because Master herself was not free from that thod of monopoly.

But now I could easily guess. In a way, it was clear.

If even a dragon is tad by the contract of the brand, if that itself is magic, there is no reason it cannot be done to humans.

Just as Rhiannon thought.

-However, Your Majesty the Empress, as you have seen until now, if you brand a human with this, they die. They cannot withstand it. It is possible because it is a dragon.

The words the Empress’s mage said while hesitating to brand .

The contract brand on a human had never succeeded before . And it was clear it had not succeeded after

either. If it had, Rhiannon would not have left the other brothers alone.

“It is a difficult problem. Since you cannot stamp a contract seal on a human as you do on a dragon.”

When I probed subtly, a faint agitation appeared in Yolande’s eyes but soon disappeared. It was hard to distinguish whether it was because she had an inkling or because she heard such terrible words.

“Just holding a hostage has its limits. Since it is not a ans to put a brake on the mage’s power itself.”

Whatever I said, Yolande kept her mouth firmly shut.

“What if it is an oath spell?”

Michelon had said that the Emperor brought a mage to serve as a guarantor for an oath, and did not care what happened to that mage when the oath was broken.

If he monopolized mages in the sa way…….

“What did you swear? An oath of obedience risking your sister’s life?”

If an oath and a hostage are combined like that, magic can be restrained.

Yolande shook her head.

“Right... You were separated from Nanette. Changed her na and sent her far away. People probably didn't even know you had a sister.”

“…….”

“But you wouldn't be the only mage who appears to be alone... What do they do when there is no one to take hostage?”

“…What could be important to a mage.”

Yolande said calmly.

“Mana.”

The answer ca imdiately.

“An oath spell is a binding spell. If you violate the conditions of the binding, your power becos bound and you cannot use it.”

However, Master whom I t before the regression used magic just fine. Although she feigned death and ran away, her power was not bound. In the end, it ant she did not break the oath.

“It might have almost been so.”

Yolande whispered.

“If there hadn't been soone to beco my hostage instead of Nanette.”

Husband.

The husband whom she mourned and missed saying he died beca a hostage instead, allowing her to swear an oath of obedience without Nanette being discovered.

“If you had not sworn the oath in the end... what would have happened.”

“It is the sa as the dragon. If I do not contract with the Emperor, other imperial family mbers would have targeted , and they would not have offered more generous conditions. If one cannot escape the contract, it is better to do it with the one offering the best conditions among them.”

Master is a strong mage, but even so, she cannot withstand attacks from multiple other mages who received orders. She could also be exposed to the Traneha Order’s mage hunting.

“Is your other family... for instance, your husband, still with the Emperor?”

Yolande did not answer further.

“I have said enough. If you give

an order, I will follow it faithfully within the reach of my power. It would be better for the Prince to keep , who revealed my identity myself, as a watcher. You cannot argue with His Majesty the Emperor about this matter, and even if you chase

away, another mage will co and monitor you even more severely than I do.”

It ant she would turn a blind eye to most things in return for taking care of Nanette. If that anti-magic test had failed, Yolande herself would have beco my enemy, though.

“It must have been hard. Even if it was to protect a young sister, sacrificing a husband.”

At my words probing for confirmation, Yolande’s eyes burned.

“He suggested it first. Saying since she is a young sister without parents, we must protect her. Does the Prince think mages are an evil group without family or lovers, without love? That we seduce children to sacrifice and eat them as people say?”

“I took Nanette as the daughter of my nanny. Do you not trust that I will protect Nanette?”

“…I am grateful.”

Yolande lowered her eyes and said. In fact, as an older sister, if she had taken her young sister, she could not have been sure of the treatnt without seeing it herself. Since there is nothing as foolish as trusting only rumors within the Imperial Palace.

“You are willing to risk any sacrifice for Nanette’s happiness. However, keep in mind that very thing might make Nanette unhappy.”

“……”

Yolande bit her lip and remained silent.

“Because Nanette is a child who cannot be happy alone, regardless of whether her sister is unhappy or not.”

***

“An oath a mage makes staking a hostage, it looks similar to a dragon’s contract but is not the sa.”

Michelon said after hearing about the conversation with Yolande.

“Why? Isn’t the contract with a dragon also essentially taking the next generation, the dragon’s egg, hostage?”

“You could say so, and you could say not.”

“What do you an?”

“I do not know either. I did not inherit intact mories. Though rare, in preparation for an unlucky death due to an emperor’s foolish command during war, a dragon sotis leaves mories in advance. But Mother did not do such a thing, and the mories I inherited are damaged. As if Mother’s last appearance damaged the intact mories.”

“…That is sad. But honestly, I do not understand. There is no way Ilaves did not know the danger of that act. Did she trust Imperial Father to that extent?”

“To leave mories in advance like that, she also has to explain why she must do so. Early mory transmission also requires my mana.”

“Then didn't your mother want to tell you the fact that she ca to undergo such an experint?”

“…….”

Seeing Michelon not answering, I changed the subject.

“I always thought it was strange. The fact that only descendants of Valaska can contract with descendants of Calamitia. Isn't it really strange that no matter how strong the mana is, others cannot do so?”

“Perhaps Valaska and Calamitia each did sothing unknown, but it is a question that cannot be solved until we know what that first contract made between the child of the forr and the latter was.”

The beginning of all these contracts. The contract that birthed all these contracts. If it enabled the dragon’s obedience for all those long years, what on earth was the content?

“Then, would the undamaged mories you should have inherited have contained that content?”

Michelon frowned. It seed he was at a loss for words when asked about a problem uncertain even to him, but he did not want to admit it.

“I am the one who wants to ask? It was Valaska who forced the first contract on the first Guardian Dragon, yet the exact content of that contract is not passed down to his descendants?”

We stared at each other for a mont.

“…The only way is for you to beco Emperor.”

“The only way is for

to beco Emperor.”

We reached the sa answer simultaneously.

However, first, I had to save Master and Master’s husband. To do that, I had to properly find out the thod by which the Imperial Family monopolized mages. Perhaps that contract might beco a clue to reveal the mystery surrounding the contract with the dragon.

“Then, shouldn't you go to the Emperor? Since you say the contract between the Emperor and mages is the strongest.”

Michelon raised a reasonable question.

“Do you know the reason why it is the strongest?”

“The Throne Magic Circle?”

“Correct.”

The Throne Magic Circle contained records of contracts with mages. Because they contracted using the Throne Magic Circle, the contract between the Emperor and a mage was stronger than contracts between other imperial family mbers and mages.

Also, even if the Emperor taught the contract thod to imperial family mbers, he would not let them use the Throne Magic Circle. When he kept its existence a secret too. Rhiannon only found out after becoming Empress Dowager.

“Imperial Father wouldn't tell

that story anyway. It is not good if my question gets too close to the answer. It might arouse his wariness and strengthen security regarding the Throne Magic Circle. Pressure on Yolande would also intensify.”

It was a valid reason. So that I wouldn't have to reveal the fact that before the regression, the Empress accomplished a truly powerful contract called my brand even without the Throne Magic Circle.

“So, you go to find the Empress, not the Emperor?”

“Exactly so.”