Chapter 21
Maia instinctively turned her head toward the shouting.
A young nobleman was charging in her direction, clutching a dagger infused with golden mana.
Recognizing who it was, Maia urgently reached toward Lihi.
It was the young Duke Cesare—the family of those who had just suffered humiliation and mortal threat at Lihi’s hands.
“So noisy.”
Maia had opened her mouth to call out to Lihi, but the man who was the target of the murderous rage just muttered, annoyed.
At his reaction, so ill-suited to the urgency of the moment, Maia froze.
“Wh-What is this…?”
A trembling voice, unable to hide its agitation, pierced her ears.
Maia turned her head.
The young Duke Cesare was frozen mid-charge, dagger still in hand.
A red stream of blood trickled from his lips, as if he had been gripped by an invisible force.
“Gahk…”
Suddenly, the young Duke vomited blood.
Maia stepped back, engulfed in horror.
“Your filth is no different from your family’s.”
Lihi spoke quietly without even looking back.
The moment his voice ended, the young duke’s eyes rolled back and he collapsed to the ground.
“Baal!”
Duke Cesare screamed his son’s name as he rushed over.
“Please, please come to your senses, Baal! What on earth is going on now?!”
Clutching his unresponsive son and shaking him desperately, Duke Cesare turned red-faced and shouted.
“Who do you think you are to lay a hand on the blood of House Cesare?! Are you not afraid of the aftermath?!”
His furious voice echoed through the hall.
“Hah.”
Lihi scoffed.
Then he turned to gaze at the emperor, who had been watching this brutal spectacle with a faint smile all along.
“I sincerely hope Your Majesty will rein in your dogs. Barking before a monster that has slumbered for thousands of years is not only foolish—it’s practically begging to be torn apart.”
The high nobles paled at his merciless and savage tone.
Everyone wondered how a mere mage could be so arrogant.
Only the emperor, standing opposite that mage, remained unmoved.
After a moment of silence between Lihi and the emperor, the latter finally spoke.
“This is Lord Lihail Earis of the Mage Tower, favored by the great Ruaar. I know not why he has descended to this secular place.”
Ruaar. That name alone symbolized supreme power. The one and only rightful bearer of that title, a being who had lived through eons, one whose life was intertwined with the cosmos. Master of the Mage Tower and eternal ruler of mana. Ruaar.
A blurry voice echoed in Maia’s memory.
Wizards—those who approached the truth every ordinary human longed for.
To the beings who reached the peak of magic, a title was bestowed: Lord.
Although no one could surpass Ruaar, the transcendent master of the Mage Tower, these Lords wielded overwhelming mana, bent nature to their will, and possessed lifespans far beyond mortal limits.
And among them, Lord Lihail Earis was believed to be the most powerful magician of the era, second only to Ruaar himself, and the undisputed representative of the current Mage Tower.
“My God…! Lihail Earis?!”
“You mean that great Archmage everyone longs to see just once in their life—that’s him?!”
The nobles’ astonished whispers buzzed like bees in Maia’s ears.
She was in a daze.
‘I hate Mom. I hate Aunt Amika, I hate Dad for not coming back. I hate Grandma for not letting me see Mom! I even hate His Majesty! I hate everyone!’
Her childhood friend, to whom she had once confessed all her innermost and shameful thoughts.
‘What kind of life do you live that you show up the moment I call? Don’t tell me… you’re unemployed?’
A secret friend, closer than family, more intimate than a lover—so close she could say anything without hesitation.
“…What a load of crap.”
A voice thick with irritation rang above her.
An Archmage?
Maia couldn’t even breathe as she thought—
Seriously?
Her heart clenched tight. This wasn’t a misunderstanding.
The arms wrapped around her now belonged to none other than Lord Lihail Earis.
The same friend who had seen every embarrassing side of her.
The very person she had once secretly admired as a powerful mage.
She suddenly resented the world.
She didn’t think she could ever again face the sun or moon.
‘You’re just a good-for-nothing freeloader!’
Just how far had her damn mouth gone?!
While she trembled with shame, burying her face in her hands, Lihi opened his mouth with his usual unbothered air.
“By the direct command of the mighty Ruaar, the all-knowing and sovereign master of the Mage Tower.”
His voice, clear and calm, echoed throughout the hall.
“It has already been thousands of years since I sequestered myself in the Mage Tower, turning away from the currents of fate that flow like rushing torrents. I now regret how little I paid attention to how the descendants of my old friend, Adelstein, have governed the Empire.”
At the solemn declaration of the great Archmage, the nobles were dumbstruck.
Some even fell to their knees.
“Lihail, my most loyal servant. Go forth in my stead and behold all that transpires in the mortal world. Etch it firmly into your mind, beyond the grasp of the evil black magicians of Arczel, and return to report it all to me.”
Maia looked up at Lihi in a daze.
He no longer seemed like the person she knew.
“Depending on what you see in this empire, I will choose whether to bring about the end and overturn everything… or to grant another period of grace.”
“…What…?”
“An end…? What do you mean, the end?”
Voices filled with confusion rippled quietly through the room.
Lihi watched their paling faces with smug disdain and delivered his final words.
“But seeing this farce right after descending—well, I’ve seen enough.”
With a beautiful yet eerie smile, he scanned the hall.
“All of you gang up to slander and dissect one person using pathetic, fabricated evidence. How filthy. Don’t you feel ashamed of yourselves?”
His cold, aristocratic voice slashed mercilessly through the hall of lavishly dressed nobles.
“How dare you… even if you’re a great Archmage, isn’t that too much?!”
Even the might of a Lord could not quell the fury of nobles whose pride had been crushed.
“We didn’t condemn the Duchess of Western without proof! Her Highness the Crown Princess testified herself!”
Once again, the arrow was turned back to Maia.
The nobles were reminded of what had happened earlier.
‘Her Highness the Crown Princess said she approached you first out of kindness while you were alone, only for you to speak vile curses against the imperial unborn! How could someone be so cruel?!’
Maia’s heart pounded painfully. She quietly clenched her fists.
“Your hand.”
Suddenly, a whisper dropped softly into her ear.
Maia flinched.
Lihi was watching her hand with a quiet expression.
“Don’t.”
His voice barely audible, he shook his head gently.
“….”
Maia slowly opened her hand, the pain dulling.
The glove was a bloody mess.
Staring down at it for a moment, Maia then raised her eyes to meet Lihi’s.
She wanted to ask what was going on, whether he truly was Lihail Earis.
But a pale, graceful finger touched her lips.
A silent command—Don’t speak now.
Maia bit her lip hard.
Only then did Lihi turn his head, a smile finally forming—one that looked like his usual self.
His gaze, slow and deliberate, swept across the hall as if to build suspense.
At its end stood the Crown Princess, pale as chalk and staring at him with a face drained of all color.
She trembled like a leaf, searching desperately for someone to protect her—but no one could shield her from the mightiest servant of the Mage Tower’s master.
Unable even to meet his eyes, the Crown Princess opened her mouth with a tremble that seemed like a spasm.
“Lo-Lord Lihail. What happened before your arrival was… truly, it was not like that…”
She seemed to realize instantly that Maia and Lihi were no ordinary acquaintances.
Even in this surreal situation, Maia let out a hollow laugh.
Lihi had no interest in her excuses.
He simply stared intently—at her belly.
Only when the Crown Princess realized his gaze did she gasp and wrap her arms around her abdomen.
“How strange.”
His calm voice flowed out.
The Crown Princess, trembling all over, raised her head.
His golden eyes, narrowed with icy amusement, met hers.
“If you truly bear the blood of Adelstein, then your unborn child should reek of mana from the womb. But what I sense from within you is something entirely… different.”
