Chapter 52

Chapter 52: Imperial Palace (3)

… Deculein left.

As promised, there was no rematch or a comeback. Meanwhile, Louina remained in her place.

Sophien looked at her.

“What do you think of this situation?”

“…He seems to be better than me.” Although her pride was hurt, she answered honestly.

“He’s much better. Not only was he better, but our battle was also a lot more fun. You’re too much of a coward.”

“… I understand. I’m sorry.”

“Did you grow up being beaten by someone when you were young?”

“No. It’s because I only read books at home.”

Louina took Sophien’s words calmly. She didn’t show anything on her face.

“I heard the relationship between the Yuklines and the McQueens isn’t that great.”

“… That’s right.”

However, she didn’t feel confident enough that she’d be able to maintain her composure against that question. She lowered her head to hide her face.

Fifteen years ago, at the Bercht Conference, the former Head of the Yukline family attacked the McQueen family Head and eliminated him by stealing her father’s mana source, ultimately crippling him as a wizard. He then claimed that wasn’t his intention and that such incidents frequented Bercht in the first place.

Yukline then demanded McQueen’s ‘magic vision,’ making an assortment of promises that he would give to him once he had gotten back on track.

McQueen, at the time, refused. It was a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils.

Their family wasn’t the first to fall prey to the Yuklines’ atrocities.

Even after Deculein became the Head of their household, such actions were regularly executed, and as a result, many ‘magic visions’ were asleep in the underground of Yukline’s library.

Louina’s primary goal was to get their family’s ‘magic vision’ back.

“…”

After a long silence, Sophien bowed and looked into her eyes.

“Hey, are you crying?”

“…!” Louina shook her head in surprise.

The emperor noticed her feelings of anger and hatred, which wasn’t that hard to uncover.

They weren’t towards Deculein. Her emotions were opaque and smoky, as if they were covered in dust.

She didn’t show any shards of it, however.

“Louina.”

“Yes.”

“Is this your gift?” Sophien laid her hand on the spellbook that she had brought.