CHAPTER 11
“Damn it!”
This was clearly not her room in the Imperial Palace.
She was still lying on a bed—but everything else was different.
A narrow, dark ceiling. Damp, sticky air and a rattling vibration beneath her.
The sound of horse hooves echoed steadily.
“This feels like… a wagon?”
Had someone kidnapped her—bed and all?
Just then, light crept into the space.
“You’re already awake?”
The voice triggered instant tension across her body.
It was low, eerie, devoid of hostility, but also devoid of life.
And it was a young voice.
“Who could it be? The Great Sage from Graeme? The heir of Tenebres?”
Or…
“Someone else entirely?”
Whoever it was—they weren’t ordinary.
The Imperial Palace was in utter chaos.
“Y-Your Majesty… O-our little Rozi—!”
Right before everyone’s eyes, Princess Roziana had vanished.
Even Daniel, the Great Sage of Graeme, who had been healing her with blue light flowing from both hands, stood dumbfounded.
He had just poured high-level pure divine power into the princess, who was writhing from growing pains.
Daniel wasn’t called a Great Sage merely for his wisdom. His divine power was extraordinarily pure.
“I clearly saw her body growing right before my eyes!”
As the pure divine energy stabilized her small frame and gradually matured it, golden energy burst from her body and began to envelop the blue divine light.
Then—FLASH!
A blinding light exploded.
The brilliance was so intense it momentarily blinded everyone in the room.
But it only lasted a moment.
Not long enough for someone to steal a child—bed and all—without being seen.
The Emperor roared at Daniel.
“You said her body would grow to that of a three-year-old!!”
But you never said she would disappear.
“R-Rozi…”
The Empress fainted, her daughter’s name the last thing she whispered.
And in the same instant, a golden inferno blazed around Emperor Leodian’s body.
“G-Great Sage…”
His Majesty was enraged.
Everyone in the room could sense it without a word.
“I—I don’t understand what happened,” Daniel stammered.
He was in shock. How long had it been since he’d felt this stunned?
Had he ever been this flustered in his centuries of life?
“You call that an explanation!!”
But what shocked Daniel more than the Emperor’s wrath was that Roziana had vanished—right before his eyes.
Like a man possessed, he muttered,
“She must become the Saint…”
Even setting aside his personal obsession—this was their one shot in a millennium.
The Star of Orphe only rose once every thousand years.
And now… they’d lost it.
“The chance to restore the Celestials’ glory and rule the world… gone.”
While Daniel stared into space, dazed, the attendants helped the fainted Empress and Cedric tried to calm Leodian.
“Y-Your Majesty!”
Too late.
Leodian growled, low and menacing, summoning his familiar.
“Zarva…”
His whisper reverberated through the entire palace. One more syllable, and a winged lion the size of a palace would materialize.
Panic-stricken, Cedric quickly spoke up.
“Your Majesty! Please calm yourself! If you summon the beast here, the entire palace will collapse!”
They would all be in danger.
Only then did the madness in Leodian’s golden eyes begin to subside.
The furious golden energy of the dragon slowly faded.
“There will be no more mercy.”
The Emperor spoke coldly, having regained control.
“I’ll give you one day. Bring back my daughter—now.”
Daniel swallowed hard.
One day. Or it would all be over.
Elsewhere, Magic Tower Master Edwin lifted the remains of a shattered crystal orb.
“…What exactly did I just see?”
Just moments ago, he had been monitoring Roziana’s room from the palace’s guest chamber using the magical orb.
Ordinarily, this would have been considered an invasion of privacy.
But not this time.
The Emperor himself had asked him to do it.
After confirming the engagement contract written by the former emperor, Leodian had permitted Edwin to stay in the palace a few days and asked two things:
One: to keep a watchful eye on Roziana’s room in case of another dark magic attack.
Two: to monitor the Great Sage Daniel and ensure he didn’t misuse divine power on Roziana.
As her fiancé, Edwin gladly accepted. He had been watching as Daniel began healing her when—
As soon as the divine energy touched her, golden light burst from her body. The orb turned pure white and exploded.
But just before the orb shattered…
He saw something beneath Roziana’s bed.
“A black… cloak hem.”
Edwin recognized it.
Whether it belonged to a dark magic user or someone else, he couldn’t be sure—but one thing shocked him even more:
In less than a second, someone had moved Roziana and the bed entirely.
“This isn’t vanishing—it’s abduction.”
He immediately headed for the princess’s room, where he found Leodian and Daniel arriving in haste.
“Leodian, we need to speak. Privately.”
The Emperor’s golden eyes burned with icy fury and relentless resolve.
“I can’t trust anyone right now. Let’s speak in a secure place, Edwin.”
Daniel flinched.
The attendants already backed away without being told.
After all, the Emperor had just lost his youngest daughter right before his eyes.
And anyone in the palace could be involved.
Edwin nodded.
“I agree. Let’s talk in my chamber.”
Together, they entered the guest suite.
Once the room was confirmed empty, Edwin spoke.
“Your Majesty. I believe the princess has been kidnapped.”
Leodian’s golden eyes narrowed dangerously.
No one had seen anyone enter the room. The girl had just… vanished.
“A kidnapping? By whom?”
“I saw a black cloak hem.”
A black cloak?
Those were everywhere. You couldn’t arrest everyone wearing one.
“What makes you think that means she was kidnapped?”
Leodian’s voice was tinged with disbelief. Edwin leaned in and whispered,
“Because it wasn’t just any black cloak. It was a magical one—that I made.”
“…What?”
Leodian’s pupils shook violently.
“You made it… yourself?”
“Yes. It’s a cloak that only I and the wearer can see.”
A cloak of invisibility?
He’d heard of it.
It rendered the wearer unseen—as if vanished into thin air.
“I only ever made two. And gave them to two people.”
“!!”
Leodian couldn’t help but shout.
“Who did you give them to?!”
The cloak was a rare magical item that consumed enormous power to make and use.
Edwin had gifted it only to the strongest people he had known at the time.
“They were like family to me back then.”
“So who are they?”
Leodian’s gold eyes gleamed like a beast’s.
“One was the mage Tenebres, my old friend. The other…”
“Tenebres? The founder of the ducal house?”
That meant the cloak had been made centuries ago.
“And the other… was Mephisto. My greatest enemy.”
“Mephisto!”
Leodian’s expression cracked.
He knew that name.
A mage exiled long ago for using forbidden magic.
His jaw clenched coldly.
“So, you know the name,” Edwin said calmly.
Leodian only nodded, grimly.
Even saying the name was said to bring misfortune.
“But here’s the strange part,” Edwin added. “Both of them… are no longer among the living.”
But Leodian didn’t look reassured.
His expression darkened further.
Tenebres had died long ago.
But Mephisto…
“Just because he doesn’t belong to this world… doesn’t mean he’s gone.”
As Edwin spoke, Leodian remained silent—because deep down, he feared Edwin was right.
“Mephisto is in the Demon Realm.”
“As I suspected.”
After Demon King Beelzebub was destroyed by four great witches, chaos engulfed the demon world.
But not every entity disappeared.
A few demons and monsters survived—and Mephisto seized control of the chaos.
“His name means ‘He Who Does Not Love Light.’ A user of forbidden magic. A black mage.”
A dark magician?
Leodian’s golden eyes glinted sharply.
“It can’t be…”
Edwin voiced what Leodian feared.
“Yes, Your Majesty. If Mephisto really did take Princess Roziana… then it’s likely he was also behind the recent assassination attempt using black magic.”
Leodian’s face turned even paler.
“No…”
One terrifying possibility gripped his heart and refused to let go.
At that same moment.
Now in a three-year-old’s body, Roziana sat up in bed.
Standing with her newly grown legs, she shouted toward the unknown figure:
“Who are you?!”
