Political Marriage With a Friendly Enemy

Chapter 91

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A stone about the size of a palm, round and reddish.

As soon as I identified it, I got shallow goose bumps on the back of my neck.

“It’s a flame stone.”

Diaquit’s arrogant voice resounded.

“Usphere. If you don’t want to see everyone burn to death, crawl on your knees and come to me. Very politely.”

Diaquit grinned.

“You….”

Next to me, Kwanach gritted his teeth and murmured softly. Jenner, who was being held by Diaquit, shouted, crumpling his face.

“Brother! What the hell are you doing? Why are you doing this to sister?”

“I said shut up, Jenner.”

Like a luminescent stone used as a replacement for a lamp, a flame stone was a type of stone with magical power. It could only be mined on other continents, and used to be traded at very high prices.

The use was to kill. Breaking the flame stone with strong force created a tremendous fire that would devastate the surrounding area. It was a useful item on the battlefield. Diaquit also seemed to have saved some flame stones in preparation for the war with the Empire.

If the flame stone broke, the fire would reach where I and Kwanach stand, and the damage to the explosion would be enormous.

I looked alternately at the flame stone and Diaquit and said,

“What if I don’t obey you?”

“I’m going to break this.”

“Then you and Jenner will all die. Don’t you know?”

“Of course I know. I don’t care.”

Diaquit’s voice was imbued with a wild laugh.

Yes, that man came here with the intention of dying anyway. Even if he endured and ran away, the end was fixed. It was unfair to die alone, so he was going to take me with him. For that petty and personal revenge, innocent Jenner and other northern soldiers were brought in.

“If I crawl over there, will you let Jenner go and not touch the flame stone?”

“Yes, I only need you.”

Kwanach, standing silently next to me, grabbed my arm. When I turned my head and looked at him, I felt uneasy about his solid face.

“Usphere, no.”

I lowered my voice and whispered to Kwanach.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to do what Diaquit wants. I have an idea.”

“…….”

“I’m just trying to keep up with him for a second. I’m fine, so please wait without ordering an attack until I give you a signal. It may seem a little dangerous.”

Kwanach listened in silence, but his eyes were full of worries. ‘What do you mean, just watch you?’ I knew it was a difficult word to understand at the moment.

But I wanted to end this fight alone. Diaquit wasn’t going to back down until I stepped up.

I took a step forward and said to Diaquit.

“I’ll be there, so let Jenner go.”

“Sister, sister…!”

Diaquit grinned.

“As soon as I let go of Jenner, an arrow might come from the wall. You think I’ll let him go?”

“If you used Jenner to call me out of the wall, that’s enough, right? As long as you have a flame stone, we can’t attack easily.”

“But I’m still nervous. Tell him to take all his bows away.”

I bit my lips and then I looked back at Kwanach. Kwanach crumpled his forehead with disapproval and raised his hand and beckoned to the wall.

All the archers, who were aiming their bows tightly on the wall, took their bows and stepped down at Kwanach’s signal.

Kwanach was a man who could move a large army at will with his beck and call. A man like that believed me and was waiting for me. I will repay his faith.

I clenched my fist as I stared at Diaquit. If I finished Diaquit with my own hands, I felt like the old emotions that had been lumped in my past life would disappear.

The war that Diaquit was about to start would come to a complete end. If that happens, wouldn’t it fulfill some of the responsibilities in my second life?

I shouted at Diaquit.

“Now send Jenner over here.”

Diaquit saw all the bows which had aimed at him had been collected, and he pushed Jenner out of his hand.

Then he placed the tip of his sword on the flame stone, as if to break a flame stone at any time.

Jenner stumbled and turned to Diaquit and blamed him in a trembling voice.

“Brother, I trusted you…… Was it all a lie? Aren’t you ashamed of using the name Catatel? What does father in our country think…….”

“It was not me who betrayed the name Catatel, but Usphere. Blame that girl who left her family and took side with the empire of slaves.”

“I can’t believe you said that. We have a marriage alliance in the first place. Was the alliance a lie too, brother? I was against this marriage from the beginning. I didn’t want to let sister go. You were the one who actively sought the alliance……!”

“You think I’m funny, too? Don’t yell at me!”

Jenner was on the verge of jumping on Diaquit. Jenner’s just and principled nature left him.

“Jenner!”

I called Jenner urgently.

“You don’t have to fight. Come here.”

Jenner looked alternately at me and Diaquit, quivering, and took a step toward me. The tension melted into the silence.

Then Jenner came up to me, and I hugged him, who was about the same height as me.

“Sister, sister….”

Only then did Jenner speak in a tender and young voice of his own age.

At that moment, the news of Jenner’s death, which I heard in my previous life, rang in my head.

This time it was different. I protected Jenner.

But it was too early to be relieved, as Diaquit had a flame stone.

‘Diaquit, it’s not going to work out the way you want it to.’

One time was enough to lose one’s life under the guise of Diaquit.

I let Jenner out of my arms and looked at Kwanach and said,

“I’ll leave Jenner to you.”

“What are you going to do?”

Kwanach’s thick voice melted deep concern. I said with a faint smile.

“Do you remember what I asked you to do a few days ago?”

Kwanach frowned slightly, and then, “oh”, his voice sounded as if he had realized something.

Diaquit seemed to have thought he could get rid of me by calling me out of the wall. But I wasn’t the Usphere he used to know. There was something prepared by soldiers for the upcoming battle.

The story of my power at the border may have spread to the north. But Diaquit would have dismissed it as just an inflated rumor. It was his habit to look down on me with arrogance.

Arrogance was the defeat of Diaquit. And it would be a noose that would clamp down on Diaquit’s neck.

Diaquit shouted triumphantly, aiming at the flame stone with the tip of his sword.

“Bow your head and crawl on your knees! I have nothing to fear now. If you don’t comply with me, your husband will be burned to death.”

“I see.”

I took a step towards Diaquit. His face was smeared with a fishy smile.

To humiliate and kill me before he loses everything. That was the only last remaining wish of Diaquit.

And I had no intention of fulfilling such a poor wish.

I walked slowly and gradually knelt down. As I knelt down, I heard Jenner shouting my name in an angry voice behind me.

In front of me, Diaquit was smiling grimly.

When the Empress knelt down, a disturbance around her came through the air.

“Yes…… Crawl back to this brother, Usphere. Like a young day. How well you followed me.”

Disgusting words went from ear to ear.

I put my hands on the ground, completely on my knees. Diaquit thought I was posing to crawl to him, but I wasn’t.

I felt nature with my palms touching the ground. And I let my strength flow through the soil.

Under the ground was full of seeds that were buried by soldiers not long ago. The seeds of the flat vine sprouted one by one, resonating with my strength with great speed.

Gooong. Gooong.

The ground began to vibrate. The vibration from the bottom of the ground was weak, but I could feel it clearly.

I wasn’t confident when I first used my strength. Because I didn’t know how strong I was. But now I knew the limits of my power.

Confidence that I could manipulate the seed-laden earth. The confidence awakened the power more elaborately and forcefully.

The dust fluttered little by little. The flow of air was changing.

It was about this time that Diaquit realized that something was going wrong.

“You…… I told you not to do nonsense.”

‘It’s not me, it’s you who’s doing the nonsense, Diaquit.’

I wanted to respond so badly, but I couldn’t open my lips because I was concentrating on magic.

“Do you want to see them die?! Yes, I’ll do what you want.”

Diaquit shouted in a venomous voice, and raised his hand high with the sword. It was to break the flame stone.

If the flame stone was broken, the flame would spread not only to Diaquit but also to this point, and everything would blow up. Diaquit seemed to have a crazy will not die alone.

But that was what was expected.

‘I won’t let it go your way.’

I clasped the dirt with my trembling fingers. I felt a strange sensation as if my whole body was collapsing. I felt like I was scattered and united with nature.

All the plants fluctuating under the ground moved according to my will, and it felt like part of my limbs.

And the moment Diaquit hit the flame stone with his sword.

Through the cracks I created in the ground, the stems of numerous vine plants soared toward the sky.