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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Wjin
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“You knew I was coming.”
She reluctantly deactivated Optical Camouflage. There was no point wasting mana on it if the fake princess was already aware of her presence.
The fake princess said,
“The presence of you royals is impossible to ignore.”
Allen had told her that.
That someone of a Demon Lord’s caliber could easily sense her.
But what was strange was that this applied not just to Demon Lords, but to those White Knights upstairs as well.
‘They were…’
Probably related to their research.
They were conducting research to turn the fake princess into the real one.
They must have repeatedly studied the real princess’s unique presence to achieve that.
Because of that, she had lost precious time.
Only eight minutes remained.
She had to kill the fake princess, the 72nd Demon Lord, within eight minutes.
So Elsie raised her sword without another word.
Eight minutes wasn’t too short for a few words, but she couldn’t take any chances.
Allen trusted her with this important mission; she couldn’t afford to fail due to carelessness.
‘And I don’t want to lose.’
She had already assessed the fake princess during their conversation in the plaza.
She wasn’t being used by the Knight Commander or the White Knights.
She was simply obsessed with becoming the real deal.
The only thing she deserved was death.
Elsie began channeling light magic power into her sword.
The light extended, taking the form of a larger blade.
The fake princess remarked,
“For a princess to possess such combat strength. Impressive, or… is it thanks to that magnificent bloodline?”
“Well, it is thanks to the magnificent bloodline.”
At least, that’s what she was demonstrating now.
Her innate light magic power stemmed from the Lame royal bloodline.
But she possessed more than just that.
Using the enhanced speed from the Awakening Pills, she closed the distance to the fake princess.
It wasn’t as fast as Allen using the Authority of the Wind, but it was enough to surpass ordinary perception.
Of course, the fake princess was hardly ordinary.
She swung her sword.
The intensely shining light blade stretched out, aiming to cut down the fake princess.
But the fake princess blocked it.
“Is that all your magnificent bloodline can do?”
A sinister light blade emanated from her hand.
It resembled the Royal Sword she had seen in her father’s hand as a child.
Unlike the Royal Sword, this blade lacked a physical form, and its light differed from pure gold.
‘However…’
She was a formidable opponent.
Elsie created distance again.
Although not yet awakened, she was still a Demon Lord. Allen had warned her that the fake princess’s strength would be equal to or greater than hers, even with the Awakening Pills.
And after crossing swords, she could certainly feel it.
‘She’s definitely stronger than me.’
Even the other Demon Lords outside were being defeated by the combined might of Yuseora and Allen.
There was no way the 72nd Demon Lord would be weaker than her.
But being stronger didn’t mean invincible.
The venom in Elsie’s eyes intensified.
‘But I will win.’
She charged at the fake princess again.
Their swords clashed.
The light they produced was similar in size, and the clashing blades illuminated the white room in flashes.
As they exchanged blows, the fake princess suddenly began to speak.
It was a story she had never shared, a story she desperately yearned to tell only to the ‘real’ Elsie.
“Did you know? The Lodreim bloodline disappears the moment it deviates from that filthy incest.”
Elsie knew that.
It wasn’t a topic discussed openly, but it was evident from the family registry.
This wasn’t unique to the Lame royal family; it subtly occurred in other prestigious families as well.
Stigmas were inherited through blood. Naturally, if someone possessed a powerful stigma, diluting the bloodline was undesirable.
But the fake princess’s words carried a different nuance.
That it would ‘disappear’ if it deviated from incest.
“What do you mean?”
The fake princess smiled, a mix of bitterness and derision.
“Literally. The moment any blood outside the Lame bloodline mixes in, the cursed blood hidden within manifests. Your hair and eyes turn black, just like those Sak people the kingdom unilaterally treats as enemies.”
As their swords clashed, she spat out the words,
“That’s why the Lame royal family has always been so careful. They didn’t want it known that their bloodline carried impurities. But… your father, the previous Lame King, was a libertine.”
The fake princess’s eyes now burned with killing intent.
Her sword thrust forward, piercing Elsie’s shoulder.
“Kgh!”
Excruciating pain surged through Elsie.
Her shoulder, pierced by the light blade, wasn’t severed, but it was mangled.
Elsie immediately poured a potion from her inventory onto the wound.
The potion instantly mended bone and regenerated flesh, but the pain remained.
Despite this, Elsie quickly regained her grip on her sword.
The fake princess continued,
“He often disguised himself and went out to the streets for pleasure, but no one failed to recognize him as the king. He had that distinct aura of your magnificent bloodline. So, his illegitimate children began to be born outside the palace, one by one. And the royal family decided…”
She laughed maniacally.
“…to send all the bastards to the White Tower as test subjects for the White Knights.”
Elsie finally understood.
“You were one of those bastards.”
The test subjects above must have been the same.
In other words,
they were half-sisters.
A relationship where their fates could have been reversed.
“Yes, from the moment I was born… I was always a fake princess.”
At that moment,
Elsie charged again.
This time, using Allen’s swordsmanship, she struck a half-beat faster, from outside her usual range.
“Kh!”
The fake princess’s blood splattered.
But the color was strange.
A dark, murky, indescribable color.
It was like… chaos.
“It was truly horrific. They knew they couldn’t turn a fake into the real thing through conventional methods. So they turned to chaos.”
The bastards, injected with chaos.
The ones upstairs, transformed into something inhuman, were probably the lucky ones.
Most exposed to chaos went berserk and died instantly.
But the fake princess…
“I… endured the chaos injection for a week. A horrific time I don’t ever want to remember. But of course, it doesn’t fade just because I want it to.”
“A week…?”
“Yes. But the real torment came after. When I survived the chaos injection for a week, they implanted the Royal Sword within me.”
“What…”
She was effortlessly regenerating the part Elsie severed.
Not like other Demon Lords.
It was the same method as the White Knights, cauterizing and stitching with light magic.
It had to be agonizing.
But she showed no sign of pain.
And the reason was in her answer.
“Literally. They cut open my stomach, moved my organs aside, made space, and implanted the Royal Sword.”
It was a foreign object.
No, more than that, it was a large, sharp sword.
The pain alone should have killed her from shock.
But she survived.
“It was excruciating. The divine power of the Royal Sword clashed with the chaos already in me, destroying me from the inside. If I hadn’t heard the voice then, I wouldn’t have survived.”
“Voice?”
“Yes, a voice. It was definitely God. I accepted his offer and became a Demon Lord. And most importantly, I gained the power to become real.”
Her power surged.
“My hair turned white from the experiments.”
She parried Elsie’s sword and cut her thigh.
Elsie instantly applied a potion.
“But it made dyeing it blond easier.”
The fake princess was insane.
She instantly healed, even from Elsie’s near-fatal blows.
Repeatedly, despite the pain.
“The most important thing was that I gained the ability to absorb the Royal Sword.”
The brutal fight continued.
Elsie applied potions to her wounds, and the fake princess regenerated with light magic.
Neither was in a normal state.
But both possessed a venom far exceeding normal.
“If I absorb all the power of the Royal Sword and make it mine, it will truly become mine.”
“So the Royal Sword is still…”
“Yes, it’s still inside me.”
Her smile was pure madness.
“I carry the Royal Sword. Therefore, I am the kingdom.”
Elsie’s light magic, channeled into her sword, clashed with the light blade of the fake princess.
Light against light, but Elsie was pushed back.
Unable to withstand the force, she tumbled across the floor.
“I will become the king. If I become king, I’ll finally have a name.”
Her voice was laced with fury.
Years of resentment poured out with her raging voice.
“Soon, I will absorb all the power of the kingdom’s sword.”
She had been waiting for this moment.
“I’m not test subject 13, nor the 72nd Demon Lord. My name is now Ercia La Lodreim !”
She had kept the ‘real one’ alive to witness this moment.
To show the real one, right before her eyes, how a fake becomes real, and the real becomes fake.
As she was about to draw the last power from the sword for her awakening,
Elsie’s voice, which had been silent, suddenly echoed.
“Do as you please.”
The voice came from behind the fake princess, not in front, where Elsie knelt.
“Because I have a new name.”
The name Ercia La was foreign now.
Elsie was better.
Or rather, if she could only have her revenge, a name didn’t even matter.
It was just that Allen had called her Elsie.
Right before the effects of the Awakening Pills wore off,
Elsie, using her extended magical range, fixed her afterimage and moved behind the fake princess.
It was possible because the fake princess was blinded by rage.
Elsie, however, knew how to use rage.
She channeled light magic into the edge of her hand.
And plunged it into the fake princess.
“This is it.”
She felt something hard.
A cold, hard object amidst warm, squishy organs.
It was definitely the Royal Sword.
Yes, she would admit it.
The kingdom before the coup wasn’t perfect.
The royal family, obsessed with hiding the black-haired gene, captured illegitimate children and sent them to the White Knights’ laboratory.
And the White Knights, having lost their way, were now consumed by collective madness.
But that wasn’t a reason to destroy the kingdom.
“I will inherit the throne.”
An immense light erupted from the fake princess’s abdomen.
It pierced through the White Tower, reaching the surface.
The light that traditionally signified the birth of a new monarch.
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