Chapter 01 …
A razor-sharp killing intent brushed across my cheek.
I tried with all my strength to keep the barrier up, but against the blade rushing toward my face, I was helpless.
Slice.
The chilling sound of skin being cut tore through the air, and in that instant, I thought:
I failed again today.
“Stand properly, Dame Ridel Cross.”
“Huff… huff…”
“And you call yourself the Empire’s greatest barrier mage?”
“I… hic, I’m sorry…”
My knees shook like thin branches in the wind. I pressed hard on the wound in my arm where the blade had passed, but I couldn’t stop the blood from leaking through my fingers.
Even so, the Emperor standing in front of me showed not a single hint of sympathy as the blood pooled at my feet.
“Stop apologizing. If you have time for that, use it to build a barrier that even Stronger can’t cut.”
His emotionless eyes were as cold as his voice.
“…Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Good. I’ll look forward to tomorrow. Dismissed.”
“Yes.”
The moment the Emperor gave the command, the space mage accompanying him drew a magic circle on the floor. As the Emperor stepped gracefully into its center, a dazzling golden light burst from the circle.
And moments later, the light vanished—and so did he.
After the Emperor disappeared, I forced my trembling knees to straighten and staggered toward the cabinet in the corner of the room. With shaking hands, I opened the doors and saw rows of healing potion bottles neatly lined up.
I grabbed the first one I could reach and gulped it down. The wound on my arm began to heal rapidly.
Thank goodness. I survived today, too.
Relief at the cleanly healed skin lasted only a moment before I collapsed right where I stood.
Tears I thought had long dried up began to fall again.
How did my life end up like this?
If I had just lived quietly as Ridel Cross, the fourth daughter of some insignificant knight…
If I had kept my barrier magic—awakened at eighteen—hidden…
None of this would have happened.
Blankly, I raised my head and gazed out the window, where the sky was already growing dark.
Countless stars hung so close they looked like grains of sand drifting slowly through the sky.
Of course they looked close.
I was on the 150th floor of the Magic Tower—highest point in the Empire, where the Empire’s great barrier began.
And it was my job to cast that barrier.
To maintain it.
Alone.
Drawn like a magnet, I walked step by step to the window.
It was the only window in my tiny room, the only way I could see the outside world.
Whenever the suffocation and isolation became unbearable, I would look down at the Empire through this window and comfort myself.
Yes. The Empire was peaceful because of my barrier.
The barrier I had maintained since I was eighteen had protected this land from invasion.
That should be enough.
It should be enough.
…Was it really?
“…Bastard.”
The curse slipped out between clenched teeth, but nothing changed.
With a deep sigh, I slumped against the wall and sat down.
On my eighteenth birthday, I discovered I had talent for barrier magic.
My poor father was overjoyed and sent me to His Imperial Majesty.
At just eighteen, I received the title of Dame and became the youngest imperial mage in history.
Back then, I thought everything would be perfect.
My magic was recognized.
My family became wealthy.
I was allowed to work at the Emperor’s side.
The Emperor was the most handsome man I had ever seen. Only three years older than me, yet he ruled the vast Mutos Empire, and he showed interest—real interest—in my barrier magic.
Fine. I’ll admit it.
I was enchanted by him.
Those mysterious black locks, those jewel-like blue eyes… maybe he really was my first love.
Now, I want to grab my past self by the collar and shake her, but back then his smile was warm, his voice gentle.
And I was just a naïve country girl of eighteen.
But once I left my family and came to the capital, I realized something was wrong.
“This will be your living quarters from now on.”
“…Excuse me, but… is there perhaps a mistake?”
I actually asked that on our first meeting, because the room they showed me was utterly shabby.
A small stone room with nothing but a bed and a desk.
Cramped, cold, bare—harsh for an eighteen-year-old girl.
But that was only the beginning.
“I will tell you your two duties from this point on.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“First, your power shall be used for the Empire. Both the Kingdom of Agenda and the Duchy of Deus are troublesome adversaries, so create a barrier strong enough to block them.”
“…Forgive me, Your Majesty, but to block both, I would have to cover the entire Empire.”
“Correct.”
The beautiful Emperor smiled and tapped my shoulder with a large, cold hand.
“I leave the Empire in your hands, Dame Cross.”
“Y-Your Majesty?”
“If you disobey—”
I learned then that a person’s face could change so completely.
The gentle smile disappeared.
His expression became sharp, predatory—like a wolf or a hawk.
His blue eyes turned hard, like frozen ice.
“I will select citizens at random… and use them as an example.”
I would rather he killed me than kill innocent people because of me.
Hearing that, I froze where I stood.
Only then did I understand how a twenty-one-year-old ruled an entire Empire with iron authority.
He was a man with no blood and no tears.
If you have usefulness, he uses you.
Once you lose value, he discards you without hesitation.
If anyone dared to plead for mercy, the sword at his hip tasted blood without pause.
That sword.
Thinking of it made me sick all over again.
Being trapped at the Magic Tower at the age of eighteen—I could endure it.
Living alone for ten years maintaining the barrier—I could endure it.
But what I couldn’t endure…
“Second, you shall help suppress the power of Stronger.”
“Stronger…?”
I had heard of it.
The legendary sword passed down to the Emperors of Mutos.
It guaranteed its wielder victory and triumph, but if its power overflowed, it devoured the master’s life force instead.
For someone like me, a humble knight’s daughter, Stronger was a distant legend—yet here it was, relevant to my life.
“There is nothing Stronger cannot cut. But tell me, can it cut your barrier?”
The Emperor had smiled as he said that.
I remember that smile clearly.
Because right after it, he drew the sword and slashed my arm.
The attack was so sudden that I barely managed to put a barrier around my arm.
If I hadn’t, the whole arm would have been severed.
Instead, it was only deeply cut.
As I groaned in pain I had never felt before, the Emperor tossed a potion at me and muttered indifferently:
“Does it hurt?”
“G-ghk…”
“If you dislike pain, then build a barrier Stronger cannot cut. That is your second duty.”
He said all he needed to, then stepped into the space mage’s circle.
Surrounded by swirling light, he left me with one last terror:
“I’ll be back tomorrow.”
For the next ten years, he returned again and again.
I was slashed, healed, slashed, healed.
Over and over.
Even when he wasn’t here, I had no freedom.
The Tower mages forced new mana-enhancing potions on me every day.
They tasted foul, but the taste wasn’t the real problem—the side effects were.
After drinking them, my amplified magic overwhelmed my body.
Seizures. Fever. Shivering. Dizziness.
If I survived that, the next morning the Emperor came again with Stronger.
The pain never became familiar.
The fear never dulled.
And through all of it, I had to keep up the Empire-wide barrier.
I thought about killing myself.
Once, I tried jumping out the window.
But the only window on the 150th floor was enchanted, warped in space—so I fell harmlessly into my own bed.
Once, I refused potions.
But before I could bleed to death, the Tower mages forced my mouth open and poured them in.
Once, I faced Stronger without a barrier at all.
Just before the blade pierced my heart, the Emperor stopped and looked at me like I was pathetic.
Those icy blue eyes terrified me so badly…
I ended up taking the blow as usual.
For ten years, I couldn’t escape.
Couldn’t die.
Couldn’t even resist.
Dragging myself to my bed, I curled up on the hard mattress.
Tears came on their own.
Life was miserable.
Why was I born like this?
If not for this cursed power, I would have married some ordinary man by now, built an ordinary family, lived an ordinary life.
No romance.
No love.
No marriage.
Just trapped in this tower, used like a lab rat.
This wasn’t a life.
It was a death dragged out across years.
If only I could go back.
I’d had that same thought hundreds, thousands of times.
If, when I opened my eyes, I was eighteen again…
If I could return to the day my power awakened, I would never use magic.
I would live quietly, invisible, like a mouse.
I would die peacefully, calmly, as no one important.
Just thinking about it made me feel warm.
With a faint smile, I drifted off to sleep.
…And then—
“Ridel! How long are you going to sleep?”
“…Mm?”
“Hurry and get up, you’ll be late!”
I groggily raised my head.
A small, cozy bed.
A bright room full of morning sunlight.
And someone’s voice waking me.
What…? A dream?
This is the first chapter of “Seducing the Count’s Daughter’s Lover” not “She’s Not a Saint but a Fairy”. I was so confused!