Chapter 4
‘What… is this…?’
Cecilia staggered.
It had already been five years since she had fled from the tyrant who had been stalking her relentlessly.
Shouldn’t he have given up by now?
And Keres…!
Though they weren’t in love, he had been a good companion, and she had surely filled out every document for the sake of her husband.
Since the Duke of Keres had to divorce her to avoid any trouble, it should have been settled.
‘Was my divorce request rejected? Why am I still the Duchess of Keres?’
That wasn’t her only question.
‘Mezina is an independent kingdom. How could Emperor Lineck issue a bounty of this magnitude?’
But there was no time to ponder. Along with a piercing siren sound, uniformed city guards appeared from all directions.
“A fugitive! A fugitive has appeared!”
It wasn’t hard to grasp the situation.
‘A magical detection network.’
After hundreds of years of being built by renowned mages, it was inevitable that she would be detected.
The commander of the guard, confident of victory, shouted triumphantly:
“The fugitive must surrender immediately!”
At that moment, Cecilia’s lips curved into a small smile.
“C-Commander…!”
The guard’s face turned pale. He frantically searched the area but couldn’t find any trace of the woman who had been right in front of him.
Cecilia Keres let out a loud laugh and vanished from the city.
‘How…? Using teleportation magic in the capital is impossible!’
The commander shouted in frustration:
“Bring the mages immediately and report to headquarters! The fugitive is a skilled mage at escaping!”
Following his order, the on-call mages arrived instantly. One of them swept his hand over the spot where Cecilia had been, then opened his mouth with a strange expression.
“Invisibility magic. She has likely left this area entirely by now.”
“Invisibility magic…?”
The guard was shocked—not because the magic was difficult, but the opposite.
Invisibility magic is a basic-level spell that should never be able to bypass a detection network. That it had done so meant perfection.
“She has reached a level of mastery I’ve only heard about. I’ve never actually seen it in action before.”
The mage sighed.
“She either hired a powerful archmage… or she is an archmage herself. Either way, this won’t be an easy fight.”
Evading the magical detection network was no small feat.
Cecilia cursed herself inwardly—but far too late.
‘I should have traveled by land from the start!’
But what could she do? She never imagined that the tyrant would issue a bounty even in Mezina.
‘They must have discovered I’m a mage too…’
Things were looking grim.
‘First, I need to leave Mezina and hide in the Empire.’
Though she would have to live in hiding because of the tyrant, it was at least better than staying in Mezina.
‘Teleportation magic will be detected, so I’ll have to ride a horse.’
Her carefully laid plans had unraveled within just a few hours.
As she was galloping toward the border, she was suddenly ambushed by a group of mages.
“Surrender, fugitive!”
Cecilia’s expression darkened.
The mages, dressed in robes emblazoned with the royal crest, were clearly royal mages.
Facing more than ten royal mages at once was impossible, even for her.
Cecilia thought quickly. Her invisibility magic hadn’t been broken.
There was only one possible explanation.
‘They must have tampered with the detection network.’
By rearranging the detection network more densely, even invisibility magic with minimal presence could be detected.
The problem was that even royal mages could not tamper with the network at will.
‘The Mage King must be personally involved.’
Cecilia’s face stiffened.
‘Why? This isn’t something worth such extreme attention…’
Though she had only been briefly a duchess, Cecilia had basic knowledge of international affairs.
Mezina was a small country but possessed powerful mages, allowing them to interact on equal terms with the Lineck Empire.
This was precisely why Cecilia had fled to Mezina five years ago.
And now, the tyrant was causing all this chaos just to capture one woman?
‘Something’s off.’
Even if she asked, he wouldn’t answer willingly, so Cecilia acted quickly.
A massive blue pillar of magic shot up from the very spot where she stood.
The royal mages immediately formed a defensive formation, but it was unnecessary.
In an instant, Cecilia Keres vanished without a trace.
Boom!
A tremendous shockwave shook the ground.
“Ugh…”
Cecilia rolled on the floor, groaning in pain as if her limbs had been broken.
‘Got me.’
She had succeeded in temporarily disrupting the entire detection network using the royal mages as a medium, so teleportation magic should have activated without issue.
It had failed spectacularly.
Cecilia staggered to her feet. The royal mages would soon converge, so she had to prepare.
But then…
‘Where am I?’
Cecilia looked around with wide eyes.
She was in the midst of overgrown thorns and ruins that were once a magnificent palace.
At that moment, a hoarse voice echoed from above.
“If you do not go to Lineck, this will be the future for all of us.”
Cecilia looked up in shock. A massive, intimidating body hovered above her, teeth bared menacingly.
A dragon.
Its identity needed no questioning.
The Mage King, Björn.
The cruel genius who had ruled the Mage Kingdom with an iron fist for the past hundred years.
He tolerated no invasion, earning the nickname “Mezina’s Wall.”
‘A dragon…’
Cecilia acted immediately. Blue magical energy burst explosively as her body lifted into the air, and a massive magic circle formed beneath her feet.
“How pathetic.”
Björn mocked openly.
A barrier large enough to cover a dragon shot up from the ground in an instant.
Cecilia gritted her teeth.
She knew she couldn’t win. How could a human defeat a dragon?
Her goal was simply to create a small opening in the perfect wall for her escape.
Boom!
A loud crash echoed, and Björn’s illusion shattered, revealing the true massive hall.
They were inside the palace.
The entire building shook as if it could collapse at any moment.
Cecilia’s blue magic spread, striking Björn’s red barrier, which writhed and exuded a dark crimson energy.
Cecilia shivered. Even minor contact with Björn’s power felt like plunging into a raging fire.
‘Still… I won’t let them take me to Lineck!’
She remembered the prophetic dream she had on her nineteenth birthday.
Half a year later, the Lineck Emperor would see her at his youngest son’s coming-of-age ceremony and fall instantly in love.
As a result, Cecilia would be forced into marriage with an emperor forty years her senior.
The emperor would use her as an excuse to accelerate his tyranny, and Cecilia would become history’s most notorious femme fatale.
Her end would be executed alongside the emperor in a violent rebellion.
She only realized after entering the Guardian Tower that the prophetic dream was actually the manifestation of latent magical power.
Her magic, the most powerful ever recorded in the Tower, had been mistaken for a dream.
‘Stay calm. I’ve avoided capture so far.’
Cecilia carefully examined the barrier. True to the Mage King’s reputation, there was not a single flaw.
But her goal wasn’t to destroy the barrier—it was to create a momentary chance to escape.
A spiral spear, as large as the dragon itself, appeared before her.
Using only 10% of her magical power, she cast it to prepare for escape, mostly for show.
3, 2, 1.
The spear hurtled toward the barrier.
Boom!
A shockwave far greater than she expected assaulted her very bones.
But there was no time to consider the cause.
She had to escape—fast…!
‘Huh?’
As the dust settled, Björn hadn’t appeared at all.
‘Could it be…?’
Could she have actually defeated him?
‘There’s only one way to be sure.’
Just as Cecilia’s blue magic began to envelop her again, something wriggled at her feet.
‘…?’
She looked down, eyes widening.
A small, wriggling creature caught her attention, desperately squeaking.
“S-Surrender! Surrender!”
The words slipped out of Cecilia’s mouth, stunned.
“A lizard…?”
