Little Tyrant Doesn’t Want to Meet with a Bad End
chapter-592-2

Noyce Fortress was exceptionally quiet at night. The strict military order compelled the soldiers to practice self-discipline, which was how they became humankind’s elites in the first place.

The soldiers standing on the distant fortress walls, lit by blazing torches, had their eyes firmly focused on the vast prairie before them, not slacking off in the slightest. The marching sounds of the patrols were unified as one, reminiscent of soldiers in a military parade.

Lilian nodded in satisfaction at this sight before turning her attention toward the stars.

A feeling of discomposure was not something to be shrugged off for a high transcendent. Intuition, from a certain perspective, was a higher force than one’s senses. Often, when a high transcendent felt unnerved, it was a sign that something huge was going to happen. It was not always on the mark, of course, but it rang true at least half of the time.

That was why Lilian didn’t shrug off her intuition and instead walked out of her room to investigate her surroundings.

With a quick glance, she could tell that the fortress was operating as normal. The distant prairie looked peaceful as well, with no signs of an army invasion. It was highly unlikely that the fortress would face an attack tonight.

What else could my discomposure be about? Lilian pondered grimly before turning her sights to her own body.

For a period of time now, she had felt like her mana would suddenly flow off without any reason. She had raised this matter with Audrey, though she neglected to mention that her mana didn’t just disappear into thin air but was instead consumed by something else.

She had never experienced such a situation before, and there were no records of this, either. Even so, she was certain that it wasn’t just her imagination, and she had her guesses as to why this was happening, too.

Lilian looked at the vast night sky with eyes brimming with worry. She subconsciously placed her hand on her womb while pondering this question.

Her child had been her only reason to live on ever since that man’s disappearance. To protect the crystallization of her love with that man, she was even willing to fight against the powerful Emperor Lukas against all odds.

Yet, a problem was now presented before her eyes. The unborn little life in her womb didn’t seem to be a normal being.

Her guess was that the one who had been consuming her mana was her child, but such a thing was thought to be impossible by the Sia Continent’s common sense. Fetuses developing in their mother’s womb were incapable of absorbing mana for nourishment; that was the reason Lilian had to force herself to eat despite her terrible morning sickness every day.

All children, no matter how much innate potential they harnessed, were born ordinary mortals. That had always been the case, whether they were of the Xeclydes’ Angel Bloodline or the Sorofyas’ High Elf Bloodline, let alone humans like Lilian and Roel.

Lilian had initially wondered if this was an exception caused by the Kingmaker Bloodline, but she quickly refuted that possibility. Past inheritors had to awaken to their Kingmaker Bloodline in order to reap its benefits, including Roel and Lilian. They, too, were born mortals.

Of course, if she really wanted to find an explanation for it, she definitely could find a plausible theory about it. While it was unheard of for human fetuses to absorb mana, it was commonplace for the ancient races, such as the Giants, the Dragons, and the Angels.

Those of these ancient races started absorbing mana as fetuses and were naturally born as transcendents. This was also the reason they were much stronger than humankind.

But considering that both Roel and Lilian were full-fledged humans, such a situation shouldn’t be applicable to them.

Is my intuition off the mark?

Lilian let out a helpless sigh before turning around to return indoors. As she was about to enter her bedroom, she noticed a hint of faint light behind her in her peripheral vision.

“Who is it?!”

She immediately turned around while simultaneously channeling her mana to summon a knight order ahead of her and a magician order in the sky to counter any aerial assaults. It took only a split instant for the wide balcony to be filled with soldiers.

Yet, she froze up when she finally caught sight of the figure standing behind her.

A glowing silhouette was standing at the edge of the balcony, where Lilian was standing earlier.

It was a girl who looked to be around seven to eight years of age. Her eyes were tightly closed, and she had long, black hair that drifted with the night breeze. Despite her young age, one could already tell that she would grow up into a beauty.

Lilian was startled to see the girl, but she decisively made the call to attack a split moment later. She knew that it was especially against enemies who looked out of the norm that she mustn’t let her guard down. It was common for assassins to transform into children to disarm their target.

A sharp glint flashed across Lilian’s eyes as her knights began charging forth.

It was also then that the girl standing at the edge of the balcony opened her eyes. Her golden eyes widened upon the sight of Lilian, and she reflexively murmured a single word, “Mother…”

“!”

Goosebumps rose all over Lilian’s body, and the raised blades of her knights froze in mid-air.

The black-haired, golden-eyed girl paid no heed to the knights’ aggression; her eyes were solely focused on Lilian. Her body trembled in agitation, and tears trickled down her cheeks.

“It worked… It really worked! N-no, now isn’t the time to be saying that!”

Lilian stared at the girl who shared Roel’s eyes and hair color and subconsciously murmured doubtfully, “You…”

Before Lilian could finish her sentence, the girl suddenly exclaimed aloud, “Mother, you have to save Father right now! You have to go out in full force in order to save Father, or else…”

The girl was clearly trying to relay something to Lilian, but the light shrouding her body suddenly flickered, and her voice was abruptly cut off. Without any warning, her silhouette dissipated into thin air, as if what had just happened was a mere illusion.

It was only at this point that Lilian finally snapped out of her daze.

“W-wait!”

She stared at the area where the girl was previously standing before belatedly rushing forward, but it was already too late. There was not a speck of light left behind.

What was that?! I don’t sense any spatial fluctuation at all, so could it be temporal instead? That means that girl might really be…

Lilian recalled how the girl addressed her, and she was engulfed by a profound feeling of loss. Then, she suddenly processed the words that the girl had left her with.

She said ‘save Father right now’? If that child is real, that would mean that her father is…

A shudder ran through Lilian’s body, as she quickly understood the implication of those words. Her lover, whom she had thought was dead, might just be alive! However, this brought about another question.

She had absolutely no clue regarding Roel right now. What was she supposed to do in order to save him?

…Wait. She said that I had to ‘go out in full force in order to save Father’. ‘Full force’?

Those words sounded so familiar that they left her with a strong feeling of incongruence.

Then, something suddenly clicked in her mind. She turned to look at the room behind her before abruptly sprinting back inside. She picked up the letter on the table and stared at the words that had previously confounded her.

I’d like to request your full forces for this military operation.

“!”

Slowly, her eyes lit up.