Arc 5 : Prolouge

[Alisha PoV]

It all happened so suddenly.

Just last night, Father and I had been talking. He had even praised me, saying that I would become a good leader for this country.

And yet...

The bad feeling I had was proven right.

Father never returned after that night. Several patrol officers heard an explosion coming from the place where Father had met with Duke Alvaro, only to find both of them dead not far from each other.

"Rasputin, did you find anything strange about Father's body?"

I was currently inside a morgue with Archbishop Rasputin, the highest-ranking priest of Goddess Diana in this country.

"There is a large amount of Negative Mana within his body, originating from a type of curse magic commonly used by Warlocks," Rasputin replied as he examined Father's body. "Let's see... The spell that killed the Tsar was clearly a death curse, but he also had several other curses placed upon his body."

I clenched my fists, holding back my emotions after learning about the suffering Father had endured before losing his life.

A moment later, Rasputin shifted his gaze toward the other corpse in the room.

It was the corpse of Duke Alvaro. He had been found dead not far from Father.

Before examining Father's body, Rasputin had investigated Duke Alvaro's corpse. According to him, Duke Alvaro had died from a dark magic spell commonly possessed by demons.

His entire body also bore a distinctive magical Mark belonging to a high-ranking Demon.

"Princess Alisha, if Duke Alvaro was indeed the one who fought and killed Tsar Feodor, then his body should have traces of your father's Mana," Rasputin said as he approached me. "However, I cannot find any trace of Tsar Feodor's Mana on his body. This means that it is possible your father and Duke Alvaro fought against a powerful Entity that night."

I thought carefully about what Rasputin had just said.

To be honest, his earlier conclusion could have been wrong. There were many possible scenarios that could have occurred that night, even if Father had not attacked Duke Alvaro.

Perhaps Duke Alvaro had betrayed Father while they were fighting this Entity. That would explain why Duke Alvaro had no wounds caused by Father's magic.

However, that still did not explain why Duke Alvaro himself had died at the hands of this Entity.

Furthermore, both Duke Alvaro and Father were Archwizards. There was no way a Warlock or a Demon below the level of a Noble Demon could fight two Archwizards simultaneously.

So why would Duke Alvaro kill Father if their chances of winning were so high?

Then what had caused both of them to die?

Many of the Boyars in this country suspected that Duke Alvaro was behind Father's death that night. Their suspicion stemmed from the fact that a foreign nobleman had asked Father to go somewhere at such an unusual hour.

Duke Alvaro had chosen the meeting place himself. He could have prepared everything before Father's arrival and planned his assassination.

However, that still did not explain the injuries Duke Alvaro had suffered, which ultimately caused his own death that night if he had truly been working together with the Entity to kill Father.

Was there a reason that Entity had killed Duke Alvaro?

What had actually happened that night?

And what would happen to this country now?

We had only just recovered from the disaster caused by the monster invasion, yet another calamity had befallen us.

Father... What am I supposed to do with the rest of my life to make this country prosper?

I... I am not the person you praised me to be.

I am not nearly as capable as you said I was on the last night we met.

Tears began to fall from my eyes...

My hand tightly grasped Father's hand, which had already become stiff and cold.

- Bang!

I heard the door to the room open and quickly wiped away the tears running down my cheeks.

"Your Highness, I apologize for disturbing you at a time like this."

The person who entered was Leon, my personal servant in the palace.

"Leon, have all the Boyars arrived at the palace?" I asked him.

"Everyone has arrived, Your Highness. They are waiting for the final ceremony to honor Tsar Feodor."

"Very well."

I nodded before looking at Rasputin beside me.

"Rasputin, could you take care of the ceremony from this point onward?"

"As you wish, Your Highness," Rasputin replied with a bow.

"Leon, let us meet with the Boyars."

Leon and I then left the morgue and walked toward the guest room.

My servant asked whether I wanted to change my clothes before meeting the Boyars, but I refused.

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When we arrived in the guest room, I saw that all eight Boyars were already there. They immediately stood from their seats to welcome my arrival.

"Princess Alisha! Please accept my deepest condolences for the passing of His Majesty!" one of the bald Boyars suddenly spoke.

"Thank you for your concern, Boyar Radahn," I replied with a nod.

"Your Highness! What have you discovered regarding His Majesty's death? We must severely punish whoever is responsible for this!" said a Boyar with a thick beard.

"You are right, Boyar Marivka," I replied. "But let us sit down first so that we can discuss this matter properly."

Everyone then sat down at my command.

The noble system of this country was different from that of other nations.

Here, the only nobles who directly served beneath the Tsar or Tsarina were the eight Boyars.

The Boyars were responsible for the military forces throughout the country. Their forces were limited to only 5,000 soldiers each. They were responsible for maintaining security in several regions of the Tsardom of Slavia.

After sitting in the chair that had previously been reserved exclusively for Father, I revealed the findings Rasputin had discovered from the corpses of Father and Duke Alvaro.

"In your opinion, how could the two of them have died that night?" I asked after explaining Rasputin's report.

"Your Highness, is there no information indicating that Duke Alvaro was a Warlock?" asked one of the Boyars named Stalin Nevorivsky. He had a distinctive mustache unlike the other Boyars.

"Unfortunately, there is none, Boyar Stalin. After examining his body, there was no Negative Mana commonly used by Warlocks coming from Duke Alvaro's body," I replied.

"Hmmm... In that case, it seems that two Entities appeared and attacked Tsar Feodor and Duke Alvaro—this Demon and a Warlock," Boyar Stalin said.

"I disagree!" shouted Boyar Lenin Stronov. "I am certain that Duke Alvaro lured Tsar Feodor to the location where this Demon and Warlock were waiting to kill him!"

Everyone in the room looked shocked by his statement.

It seemed that almost everyone here had already agreed that Duke Alvaro was not the one who killed Father.

"Your Highness, I have a question. Who stands to benefit the most from His Majesty's death?" Boyar Lenin asked me. "When dealing with a conspiracy like this, we must consider who benefits from the event!"

His words made me think in a direction I did not want to consider.

However, I still had to ask what he meant to make sure.

"What exactly are you trying to say, Boyar Lenin?"

"Raul de Garcia... Isn't he your fiancé?" the Boyar replied with a snort. "His Majesty is still under fifty because he married the late Tsarina at a young age. I suspect that this boy is after the throne of this country!"

Boyar Lenin spoke vaguely, as if he was trying to spare my feelings.

It was true that if Father remarried and had a son, that younger brother of mine would inherit leadership of this country.

"But if what you are saying is true, then Raul de Garcia was willing to sacrifice his own father just to take control of this country?" I asked him.

From my interactions with that black-haired man, I doubted that he was truly this evil.

However, when someone is confronted with the prospect of obtaining power, there are many people who can be driven mad by it.

"Your Highness, there are many things that can be accomplished with magic," the Boyar replied. "I am not saying that Raul de Garcia killed his father. Rather, I believe the two of them planned to fake Duke Alvaro's death after luring His Majesty into a trap, allowing them to escape suspicion."

"You mean there is magic capable of creating a perfect replica of a human body?" I asked him.

"Exactly. However, I believe this is something that the mages in the Magic Tower would be better suited to explain, as I am not an expert in this field," Boyar Lenin replied.

"I understand."

In truth, I did not need to conduct a complicated investigation if Raul de Garcia and his father really had planned Father's death.

That was because, besides Frozen Time, I possessed a Profound Codex called Dream Catcher.

This ability allowed me to see a person's past by activating it on a part of their body as long that person still alive.

It was through this magic that I had discovered the secret that Leon was once a Prince of the Kingdom of Greco.

However, there was a risk involved in using this Profound Codex.

The farther back and the longer I looked into someone's past, the more my brain would burn from using the magic.

If I used it excessively, my death would be inevitable.

After the meeting ended, the Boyars and I headed toward the Temple of Goddess Diana to pay our final respects to Father.

Along the way, I looked out at a city covered in snow.

The citizens were busy with their daily activities despite the freezing weather outside. Whether their lives were going well or poorly, they continued to smile and remain optimistic about the future.

I...

I will not allow this country to fall into chaos again like it did back then.

I swear that for the rest of my life, I will make this country stable once more so that Anastasia and Leon can carry its future forward toward a better path than before.

---

[Lilith PoV]

It had been several days since the assassination.

At present, Alvaro and I were in the northern region of the Tsardom of Slavia to awaken a creature that had been frozen for hundreds of years.

"Hey, are you sure you can make this journey?" I asked the Duke, who looked exhausted.

"My body is still extremely weak because using magic capable of creating a perfect human replica requires a large amount of blood from my body," the man replied.

The breath he exhaled turned into mist, a sign that he was already extremely cold.

"Don't worry, Your Highness. Besides, we will reach the cave where that creature was frozen soon."

Our destination was a special place created to freeze an ancient Demon known as Devorus.

He was an Ancestral Demon of Fire who had once terrorized this country during the invasion of the Demon King's army in the past.

Because of his immense body heat, the freezing conditions of this country had no effect on him during battle.

That was why he had been chosen to attack this country, as he was resistant to the specialized Ice Magic of the Romanov family.

However, the Saint suddenly arrived and subdued Devorus.

He was then brought to a place with the coldest temperature possible, where he was sealed and frozen.

Furthermore, the previous ruler of this country had cast a spell called Eternal Absolute Zero inside the cave where Devorus was sealed, ensuring that no one could enter and release the Demon's ice seal.

Not long afterward, we arrived at a cave whose entrance appeared to be completely covered in ice.

"Is this the place?" I asked the Duke.

"After searching for its location for several months, I am certain that this is where Devorus was sealed hundreds of years ago," Duke Alvaro replied.

I nodded before approaching the cave.

The closer I got, the colder the surrounding temperature became.

My feet began to freeze, and my body started trembling, even though, as an Archdemon, I possessed greater resistance to both cold and heat.

I stopped and activated my special ability as a Doppelganger.

My body slowly grew until it reached a height of fifteen meters.

Flames began to emerge and burn across my new form, melting the ice that had previously covered my body.

I then burned through the ice sealing the cave until it melted enough for me to enter.

Once I was finished, I entered while maintaining this form.

Inside the cave stood a creature that looked similar to my current form, frozen like a statue.

That's right...

My ability allowed me to imitate any creature, both their appearance and their powers, as long as that creature was below the strength level of an Archdemon.

That meant there were only a few beings I could not imitate—the Demigods, my siblings, and the Gods.

I then activated Fire Magic to heat the area.

Slowly, the ice sealing Devorus began to melt.

Not long afterward, the Demon's red eyes opened.

"I am Devorus! Uwahhhhh!"

He then let out a loud roar while activating an enormous amount of Fire Magic, destroying the cave around us.

"You have awakened, Devorus?" I said to him.

Hearing my voice, he looked confused for a moment before kneeling directly before me.

"Your Highness... Are you the one who freed me from this seal?" he asked me.

"That is correct... Do you remember the task my grandfather gave you long ago?" I asked him.

"I remember, Your Highness. Whenever you are ready, I am ready to make up for my previous failure!" Devorus replied loudly, causing the flames around us to grow even larger.

"Good... Burn this country until nothing remains... Release your anger, Devorus... Show them the power of the Fire Demon that our race takes pride in!"

"UWAAAHHHHHH!!!!"

Hearing my words, the Demon roared even louder, creating a towering tornado of fire that rose into the sky.

That's right...

Go wild, Devorus...

Burn this country with your flames...

Let us reclaim our homeland from these humans!