I had never directly opposed Emperor Arthur III, not even once.
I thought about trying to oppose him, maybe even attempting an assassination. If it worked, I’d just rewind time, and if it didn’t, I’d rewind again and try something else.
But let’s be real, the Emperor is the final boss halfway through the series. He’s not the kind of foe you can just easily defeat.
Moreover, if I were to confront the Emperor alone, once the word got out, everyone in the Imperial Palace would come rushing at me.
…I’ve already checked the response time inside the palace. I tried blowing up a bomb inside the palace and even infiltrated a battleship that was briefly docked for repairs. I could escape somehow, but honestly, it was far more dangerous than being on the battlefield.
On the battlefield, my allies were waiting for me and so the enemies couldn’t focus solely on me. But in the Imperial Capital, if I were the only traitor, all the soldiers there would obviously chase after me.
Even if I succeeded in killing the Emperor, I doubted my chances of surviving and escaping were that high. Though if I kept rewinding time indefinitely, maybe someday I’d succeed, but when I actually attempted to assassinate the Emperor, the circumstances would be different.
In the end, I never faced the Emperor directly.
Is the Emperor’s swordsmanship above Lucas’? This was a topic of debate among players. If the Emperor and the Sword Saint had similar sword skills, then wouldn’t Lucas have defeated the Emperor by the time he managed to kill the Sword Saint?
Well, in the game, as expected of a ‘final boss,’ the Emperor’s stats were set higher. Even if the battle ended, it was often portrayed as if the opponent just let the player win. I couldn’t think of that kind of stats balancing as anything less than ridiculous.
Moreover—
Huff…!
As I rushed towards the Emperor, I suddenly twisted my body.
Of course the Emperor wasn’t about to just hand over the victory. He had changed all his plans because of my existence, yet he wasn’t about to give up on taking over the world.
Were his words directed at me lies? If I knew about the Emperor’s future and had foreseen it, perhaps the Emperor really would have acted as he did back then.
And in the meantime, he must have been watching for opportunities.
Just like that old Fanggriffon.
I dodged two swift sword strikes and rolled to the side, feeling my shoulder hit the ground. Bang! It made quite a loud noise, but my enhanced armor seemed to disregard the sound, amplifying the power in my legs severalfold as I slammed onto the ground.
As I suddenly moved my joints, I heard my signature crack sound, and I rolled sideways with the back of my head still on the ground. It wasn’t intentional, but to anyone watching, it would have looked like I planned it all along.
I meant to draw my gun, but then I remembered I had emptied the magazine during my fight with Lucas. In a panic, I pulled the bolt back to open the chamber—
And calmly rolled to the side again. This time, I clearly saw the Emperor’s movements.
Could it be because I had just fought Lucas moments ago?
The Emperor’s movements were surprisingly similar to Lucas’. Or to put it differently—Lucas was mimicking the Emperor since he had aimed to defeat the Emperor before he tried to cut me down.
If anything was different, it was that Lucas’s movements were comparatively smoother, while the Emperor’s were a bit more abrupt.
No, to be more precise, it felt like he forcibly connected movements that shouldn’t connect. But even so, it didn’t feel awkward. It seemed as if he had entirely stripped away any flair from swordsmanship, presenting a sequence of blows that flowed without any intermediary steps.
Rather than moving according to swordsmanship, it felt like swordsmanship dictated his movements.
Chaka-chaka!
Another strike etched onto the ground, and before that sword stroke could reach me, I dashed to the side quickly.
If I hadn’t been wearing my armor, I would have sustained serious injuries for sure. Opting to sacrifice defense for pure power seemed to have been a wise choice.
I took the bullet I had tightly gripped from the magazine moments ago and placed it back into the chamber, pushing the bolt forward. Click, it echoed cheerfully against the tense situation.
Then, I immediately aimed and pulled the trigger.
Thump, the sound of the gunstock hitting the shoulder of my armor echoed through the air.
“Hmm.”
But there was a significant difference in physical ability between the Emperor and me. Didn’t the Sword Saint also tell me that I lacked talent?
Of course, the moment the Emperor saw my aiming posture, he was already preparing to dodge my shot.
Naturally, the bullet I fired whizzed past the Emperor, hitting the ‘device’ situated behind him instead.
Bang, a small explosion followed. But it wasn’t enough to destroy the device. Well, it makes sense—after all, it was a contraption specifically designed to seal the Goddess’s power.
Unless destroyed using the power of the Goddess, it probably wouldn’t break.
The Emperor must have confidently dodged precisely because he knew that.
If the device remained intact—
I lowered my hand and grabbed the small valve at my knee.
I loosened the tightly shut valve a little. The steam that only escaped when I moved began to seep out.
Given that my joints were already aching with every movement, if I continued running in this state, I might really get hurt.
Well, what can I do?
Even if I confronted the Emperor, I was still just a Crown Princess. I could return and get treated by the healers later.
Should I have kept the morphine with me? Or at the very least some amphetamines—
That would have just angered Alice.
I recalled Alice, who had flipped out after discovering morphine in my room for the first time. Thinking about it, it wasn’t that long ago; it hadn’t even been a year.
Even now, gunshots and clashing swords echoed from various directions. Listening closely, I recognized every voice. Everyone seemed to be shouting vigorously, so it looked like they were still safe.
In just under a year, so many people believed in me. And yet, I hadn’t properly explained anything to them.
I let go of the valve and pressed my hands down onto the ground.
Then, just like a sprinter on the starting line, I crouched down and gave it all I had to run forward.
The target wasn’t the Emperor.
What I focused on was solely that contraption in front of me.
I wasn’t sure if I could destroy it or not. Everyone kept saying that I had the Goddess’s power, but I had never felt anything close to it. It was impossible to move forward just by rewinding time. Continuing to attempt with no means to destroy it would only be meaningless.
But then, if destruction was impossible, I would just have to dismantle it.
Before the battle began, the Emperor definitely had that junk—those parts—held in his hands.
The Emperor wasn’t a fool. He must have figured out the direction I was looking and what I was trying to do.
As the Emperor turned to face me and prepared his next strike, I pulled out my pistol and unleashed a barrage of gunfire toward him.
My trusty .455 caliber revolver, which I had adored since childhood.
The trigger pressure was a bit high, but being a double-action revolver, I could empty the cylinder in an instant if I wished.
Inside the cylinder, I loaded custom bullets filled with long-tipped Marmaros instead of conventional gunpowder.
Surely, the speed would be slow, and the range short.
But at this distance, that didn’t matter.
Bang, bang, bang!
The explosions from the bullets leaving the revolver were way smaller than expected. The Emperor swung his sword and managed to deflect some of the shots mid-air, but he couldn’t prevent the explosions.
If I had truly wished to kill the Emperor from the beginning, this plan would have failed.
It only momentarily covered his line of sight.
If it were a game, this would have been a situation rife with misses, right? If I were in a game, I’d have thrown the controller in frustration, cursed several times, and reloaded from the start since I had failed to land even a single hit with such strong gear.
But that kind of thing only happens in games without choices.
I briefly held the Emperor’s feet in place.
But I didn’t stop running.
The Emperor skillfully wielded his sword, dispelling the smoke. Through the gaps in the smoke, I could see the Emperor’s eyes.
I felt fear.
The Emperor’s smile seemed genuinely delighted by the situation, almost as if to say that nothing I tried would matter.
“Sister!”
“Silvia!”
But any worries vanished as soon as I heard those voices.
How Claire and Alice managed to break through the swarm of enemies, I couldn’t tell.
As the Emperor cleared the smoke and raised his sword, he lunged straight toward me.
Did he think he couldn’t completely evade the attacks from those two? Or did he decide that taking me out first would solve the problem right away?
The Emperor’s sword strike aimed for the space between us—it was Alice’s attack.
It was precise, timed perfectly, but—
Swipe!
Blood splattered.
The Emperor took that strike head-on.
But he didn’t even turn his head.
The Emperor was looking directly at me.
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