<Wasn’t this a strategy game? Chapter 110>

“Eek!”

Eden froze in surprise as Asmun quickly wrapped his arms around her and grabbed the railing of the terrace to steady himself.

“Ahhh!”

“Get down!”

With chaos erupting from inside, screams echoed, causing Eden and Asmun to lock eyes in alarm.

Simultaneously, they dashed from the terrace into the banquet hall.

Upon stepping into the mayhem of the banquet hall, they spotted a dark black sorcery glyph drawn on the high ceiling.

“Gah…”

It was a raid by dark sorcerers.

‘Not again…?!’

It seemed the imperial palace had become a no-holds-barred zone.

Eden looked around the banquet hall with a bewildered expression. Knights were busily taking down monsters.

Asmun grabbed a sword from a flustered soldier beside him and swung it at the approaching monsters around Eden.

Thankfully, they appeared to be low-level monsters. Over there, Patriar was also cutting down monsters while pretending to protect the noble ladies.

“Huh…?”

Eden let out an incredulous sigh.

The appearance of dark sorcerers at a royal banquet with protective barriers was certainly the doing of Patriar, and this dreadful performance was just unbearable.

“Up there! They are!”

Someone shouted while pointing at a large chandelier hanging from the ceiling, causing everyone to shift their gaze.

There stood a figure draped in a black robe on top of the chandelier.

“Capture him!”

Then, soldiers with bows began shooting arrows at the chandelier. However, each arrow simply bounced off an invisible shield.

Frustrated, as Eden watched, she suddenly spotted the rope of the chandelier and shouted urgently.

“Cut the chandelier’s rope!”

Upon hearing her shout, the soldiers quickly realized what to do and aimed their bows at the chandelier’s rope.

As sharp arrows focused on the thick rope, the chandelier began to sway more and more before finally collapsing under its weight.

“Grab him!”

Everyone rushed towards the fallen chandelier, surrounding the dark sorcerer lying sprawled on the ground, as dozens of blades closed in around him.

The dark sorcerer, who had been hunched over, finally stood up, and the blades twitched, tracking his movements.

Unfazed by the encirclement, the dark sorcerer muttered in a calm voice.

“…You will all perish in the end.”

Just as he began to chant a spell to escape from the encirclement, a thunderous sound like an earthquake echoed through the banquet hall.

Suddenly, the floor of the banquet hall split open like a long crack.

The crack stretched out rapidly like lightning and stopped right under the fleeing dark sorcerer.

“…!”

Everyone’s gaze was fixed on the crack beneath his feet.

With a deafening crash, something burst up through the floor and bound the entire dark sorcerer in an instant.

It was a massive vine thick with magical power.

“Ugh…!”

The dark sorcerer struggled to escape, but the tighter the vine coiled, the harder it became to breathe.

Finally, as he rolled his eyes and fainted, a deadly silence settled over the banquet hall, which had just been filled with screams.

Everyone’s attention followed the long trail of magical energy left on the floor.

At the end stood Patriar.

“Put magical power suppression cuffs on him and drag him away.”

Patriar calmly ordered, brushing his golden hair that had fallen across his blood-red face.

The royal knight brigade, frozen in shock, hastily climbed the vine to shackled the unconscious dark sorcerer’s hands and feet.

“Your Majesty…!”

While everyone stared in bewilderment, Fernando stepped forward, breaking the tense silence with an impressed voice.

“You can use magic as well, Your Majesty? Oh my…! With such abilities, why have you been hiding it all this time!?”

Eden watched the two’s abhorrent act like she had just been struck on the back of the head.

Taking a leisurely breath, Patriar responded smoothly.

“I thought it unnecessary to complicate the hierarchy by stepping up until now.”

Asmun also glanced at the scene with cold eyes.

In other words, Patriar had been hiding his power out of noble kindness to allow Kiris to have the throne.

But now that Kiris had become like this, he saw no reason to hide anymore, and that meant…

‘He intends to become emperor now.’

Eden finally understood the filthy purpose of this banquet.

The plot to humiliate her was merely an option, while the real goal was to showcase to everyone, including Patriar himself, that he had the magical power to wield magic.

To neutralize Asmun’s unique advantage while simultaneously proving his own legitimacy.

Thus, he intended to officially declare his entry into the throne war.

It was indeed a brazen declaration of war.

‘That brat…’

Things like the stability of the empire or peace within it were all excuses. Having successfully finished his show, Patriar commanded the head of the royal knight brigade in calm tones.

“Inform His Majesty that we have captured a member of the dark sorcerers. With him in custody, we might find out the source of the dark sorcerers. Regrettably, we must end today’s banquet…”

The announcement to conclude the banquet led to cheers erupting from all corners of the hall. Everyone clapped and called out Patriar’s name, showering him with praise for capturing the dark sorcerer’s trail.

Patriar waved and exchanged glances with them as if he were already the emperor, then strolled out of the banquet hall gracefully.

Asmun watched the whole scene with an expressionless face. Once Patriar disappeared, he turned his head back to Eden.

Eden was gazing with a peculiar expression at the ceiling where the chandelier had fallen.

Eden silently stared at the new quest window replacing the spot where the chandelier used to be.

“…”

Hagen’ti moved quietly. Each step he took crunched the leaves scattered on the ground.

The small village was completely quiet. It didn’t seem this quiet before.

No, in fact, all the memories were muddled and fragmented, making it impossible to be sure.

However, Hagen’ti succeeded in recalling the place from his last memories. A small house in the woods and the blacksmith attached next to it.

「So make sure you never leave the capital. Understood? If anything happens, you have to go to the 3rd Prince, even if you don’t want to. That way, I can be aware of it. I will definitely come. It’s a promise.」

He felt sorry for breaking Eden’s last request, but he couldn’t stop searching for his memories.

From the moment he met Eden, his memories had gradually returned, and the key to breaking the curse—whose cause and remedy remained a mystery—was only his memories.

For the past two weeks, the headache had been returning.

「The only way to end this pain is through death.」

Hagen’ti had once eagerly awaited a sweet death that would be given to him in his cold castle.

He had hoped to die soon so everything would be over, but now he no longer wished for death.

He wanted to quickly lift this curse and become free to stay by Eden’s side. That was all he wished for now.

Finally arriving in front of the house from his memories, Hagen’ti gradually slowed his steps. In front of the steaming house stood someone.

“Huh? Who are you?”

A burly man sharpening a sword in a yard overgrown with weeds spotted Hagen’ti and asked with a puzzled expression.

“……”

Instead of answering, Hagen’ti stared intently at the man’s face, which seemed familiar from his vague memories. It was definitely a familiar face.

“Hey, who are you!?”

As he didn’t respond, the man’s face darkened abruptly.

Hagen’ti racked his brain trying to recall the man’s name. It felt like searching for a particular grain of sand on a misty beach.

“Who are you! Huh?! If you don’t answer, I’ll report you!”

Losing patience, the man raised the sword he was holding and approached. That’s when Hagen’ti’s eyes lit up.

“Pavelov.”

At those words, the man halted abruptly. He frowned at Hagen’ti and scrutinized him.

“…Are you a guest? Long time no see?”

Pavelov.

His name was Pavelov. Hagen’ti’s eyes shimmered with overwhelming emotion. But he couldn’t remember any more than that.

So Pavelov was…

Just as Hagen’ti was once again reaching for those memories with joy…

“Ugh…!”

An overwhelming pain, like being split in the head, suddenly washed over him. As he involuntarily crumpled to the ground in agony, the man hurriedly rushed over.

“Hey, are you okay?!”

As the man’s hand touched Hagen’ti’s shoulder, he instinctively shrugged him off and abruptly vanished.

“Huh… what was that?”

The man looked where Hagen’ti had been a moment before, utterly astounded.

“A magic merchant…? Was there a magician among our guests…?”

As he frowned, recalling Hagen’ti’s face, a lively voice called out from a distance.

“Daddy!”

At that sound, the man’s face, which had been crumpled, brightened instantly. His daughter must have returned from the school that had been completely restored recently.

“Ella!”