It was a Political Marriage, But I’m Being Loved - Chapter 54

“Achilles might be late or he might never come back at all.”

Trusting someone was always painful—because the world never missed a chance to test that trust. Charlize decided she wouldn’t include Achilles’ return in her plans.

It wasn’t because she didn’t believe in him. She simply feared that every extra second spent waiting would turn into resentment.

“It’s not like I’m completely out of options.”

“Steward, tell everyone to head up to the third floor.”

As Charlize quietly whispered while holding his arm, Lewein—being a Sword Master—could easily hear every word she said.

“Your Highness, there’s nowhere in this mansion you can escape to. You’d be wise to come quietly.”

Seeing she had no intention of surrendering easily, Lewein and the knights began crossing the hall. The steward, flustered, turned to the people of the castle and shouted,

“By order of Her Highness! Everyone, go upstairs—to the third floor!”

Panic set in as people rushed past Charlize and hurried up to the second floor. The staircase to the third floor was located at the far end of the second-floor hallway.

A few servants led the way, with maids and attendants running desperately behind them. The soldiers helped guide the younger staff and supported the elderly cooks and the steward.

Charlize followed with her stag, while the mechanical dolls brought up the rear.

Lewein scanned the area cautiously, wondering if there might be more traps. He had already underestimated them once—he didn’t expect the dolls to appear armed before.

Holding back the knights who tried to rush ahead, he followed behind the fleeing group.

He believed they had time. The operation had used hundreds of Rafinas as bait. At the very least, it should be enough to keep the Tower Master occupied for an hour.

“Your Highness! Where do we go now?!”

“That way! To the magic training room!”

Aside from the view of the snow-covered northern mountains, the only real advantage of this castle was its well-constructed magic training room.

Charlize, not being a mage, had once thought of it as something out of reach. But that changed after meeting Achilles. The magic training room had no windows and only one door.

“You’re planning to hide in there? That kind of door and walls won’t stop us.”

From down the corridor, Lewein, steadily closing the distance, mocked her.

Charlize turned to look at the frightened people inside the castle and shouted,

“Don’t think about it—just get inside! Now!!”

The magic training room sat at the very end of the long, narrow hallway on the third floor. At her command, the people moved with the urgency of those trained to follow orders, and hurried into the room.

The long, ornate door of the training room looked solid and beautiful, but Charlize knew better.

It was highly resistant to magic—but physically, it wasn’t very strong. If Lewein stepped forward and swung his blade, it would break easily.

“Your Highness!”

“Princess, please hurry!”

The maids and attendants were inside. The elderly cook, the servants, the steward supported by soldiers, and even the mechanical dolls had all entered.

Now only Charlize and her stag remained at the doorway. The dolls stood holding the door, waiting for her to enter.

Charlize looked toward Lewein and the other knights at the end of the hallway. Maybe he believed she had nowhere else to run—he wasn’t even trying to chase her anymore.

His arrogance worked in her favor. Whether it was overconfidence or blind faith in their plan, it was still a relief.

“The magic circle ends around there…”

Her emotions were surging—fear, tension, adrenaline—and that made it easier to move her mana than usual. Achilles had warned her not to use magic when he wasn’t around, saying her control was unstable.

Charlize had agreed. Safety always came first.

“After I cast the spell… six seconds. That’s usually when I lose control.”

Standing just outside the range of the magic circle, Charlize extended her hand through the narrow opening of the door. Her blue eyes glowed faintly, then shifted into a brilliant golden hue as her mana surged.

“Marquis, step back! What is this… The Princess is casting magic!”

Flames burst from her fingertips like a dragon’s breath, roaring down the corridor like a tidal wave. The spell consumed a huge amount of mana, but Charlize—blessed with an abundant natural reserve—barely even noticed.

Charlize quickly pulled her hand back and stepped away the moment the magic burst forth.

“Close it!!”

She had seen it many times before—how the magic, when not controlled by Achilles at her side, would spread wildly without restraint.

The magic circle inside the training room was designed to block magic from within, but it also had some defense against magic from the outside.

Screams echoed.

With a thunderous bang, the door slammed shut, followed by agonized shrieks from beyond. Charlize winced at the sound, covering her ears tightly with both hands.

“They’re the enemy.”

If left alone, they would kill her people. Hadn’t they already made it clear they intended to? What she did now—it was the right choice.

One of the soldiers, who had fled to a building along the castle wall after seeing bows aimed in his direction, was desperately searching for a place to hide. At times, he had fantasized about heroically defending the castle from monsters or bandits…

“This is a countryside fortress! Who could’ve imagined knights like that would launch an attack?”

He believed he had done his part simply by shouting a warning. The rest was the responsibility of the knights and soldiers from the capital. Not his.

“Why did the Princess come down here without any royal guards?”

There wasn’t even a city nearby—just a small village, and even that lacked any real nobility. What reason could she possibly have had for being here?

He needed to escape somehow, but the only exit from the castle was the main gate. And right now, three knights were stationed in front of it.

They had been assigned to guard the entrance on Lewein’s orders while the rest stormed the mansion. The remaining knights had surrounded the estate completely, leaving no gaps.

“Getting out through the gate is impossible… I have to find somewhere safe to hide, or—”

BOOM!!

Suddenly, every window and door of the mansion exploded outward as flames surged from within. The shockwave partially collapsed the walls, and even the knights surrounding the estate were thrown back by the blast.

Even the soldier hiding behind the castle wall felt the shockwave and collapsed to the floor. If he had felt it that strongly from a distance, there was no way the people inside had survived.

Trembling, the soldier crawled to a window in the wall and peered out at the mansion. Parts of the building had collapsed, and thick white smoke was rising from it. Because it was a magic-induced explosion, the fire didn’t spread widely and was already beginning to die down.

“W-what the… are they all…?”

Dead?

Even after the fire subsided, he didn’t breathe for a long while. The fierce flames had filled the entire castle, followed by an explosion that sent a massive shockwave throughout. For a moment, even he had felt death brush against him.

Looking around, he saw that only a few of the knights who had followed him to the third floor were unharmed inside the mage’s protective barrier.

The rest weren’t so lucky.

When fire spreads in every direction, one could protect themselves by surrounding their body with mana. But not many knights knew that they must also cover their eyes and noses, and keep their mouths shut.

If you breathed at that moment, the flames would enter through your nose or mouth—and survival was unlikely. As expected, knights who had failed to make it into the barrier were now lying on the ground, groaning in pain.

He had brought only one mage with him, so the damage on the other floors must have been even worse. Lewein extended his senses to check for anyone still alive—and found almost none.

Out of the 42 knights he had brought, excluding the three stationed at the gate, only nine were still standing. Six had been killed by the mechanical dolls, two had perished in the fire, and the rest were writhing on the ground with horrific burns.

“Damn it!”

What enraged Lewein the most was the realization that anyone who failed to escape with him now had to die here.

They couldn’t leave behind any witnesses.

That was why Dave had personally taken care of things before. Even if the bodies were discovered, there would be no way to trace them back to the organization.

As long as they kept their mouths shut.

If capture was a possibility, then they had to kill and retreat.

“I didn’t expect the Princess to be able to use magic!”

And not just any magic—she had covered the entire castle in flames. Her magical power, the scale of it—it was overwhelming. And most shocking of all, there had never been any report about it.

Lewein had never once thought of Charlize as a mage. Magic was a talent you had to be born with. And even with that talent, it took decades of training to wield it properly.

If the Princess had shown any sign of magical potential, the Emperor would’ve summoned the best mages in the empire to teach her. Yet, there had never been a whisper of such a thing. Even their leader hadn’t known.

Given how much Charlize had adored their lord, there was no way she would have kept her magical talent hidden if she had known.

Which meant…

Support