Overpowered Archmage Doesn’t Hide His Talent

Chapter 169:

Translator: MarcTempest

Proofreader: naturallyInconsistent

Chapter 169 It’s going well.

A severed head rolled on the ground.

Aurora closed her eyes tightly.

She couldn’t bear to watch the scene with a clear mind.

But it was too late.

The images that were etched in her brain became clearer as she shut her eyes.

Her relatives in the scene showed no mercy.

“Aurora?”

A voice from reality snapped her out of her trance.

Her aunt urged her again.

“Look at us, dear. Can you see the future?”

“Yes, yes?”

“There’s a rumor that you can see the future. If that’s true, we’d like to know what our future holds.”

Her aunt and uncle’s faces had no trace of worry.

They only looked skeptical and curious.

“…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Aurora pretended to be calm.

“I can’t see the future. Really.”

Her aunt and uncle exchanged a brief glance.

Knowing that their lives were hanging by a thread, Aurora kept silent and broke out in a cold sweat.

After a hellish time, her aunt broke the silence.

“I see.”

Her uncle and aunt nodded.

The girl felt relieved several times, thinking that she had saved her life.

“Take care, Aurora.”

After her uncle and aunt left.

Aurora ran to her parents and told them the truth.

Of course, they didn’t believe her.

“What are you talking about?”

“What…?”

But Aurora’s urgency prevailed and an investigation began. Her relatives were all arrested.

They had evidence of plotting treason.

“You saved us, Aurora.”

“We almost had a disaster.”

Aurora was finally able to get out of her chamber.

After that, her surroundings changed.

The time she spent with her parents, the luxurious tea, the clothes that she could never wear in her lifetime….

The girl was happy.

She wanted to live like this forever.

But that was a mistake.

“Yes…?”

“Come on, Aurora. Do it as usual.”

One day, her parents ordered her to examine the officials around them.

People called it ‘judgment’.

“Aurora. Is there anyone here who disagrees with the royal will? If there is, tell us.”

Her father sat on the throne, surrounded by fierce soldiers.

The dragged officials trembled in the middle.

“…”

Even though she was young, she understood that an official’s life depended on her word.

But unfortunately, the girl had no will of her own.

The only thing she could do was look at the paper in her hand.

“They are… traitors.”

[X]

That’s what was written on the paper.

The girl was nothing but a tool for the rule.

“I knew it. Take them away!”

“No! It’s not true. It’s unfair. Cough!”

She couldn’t look into the eyes of the officials who were dragged away.

It was natural.

In fact, there was no treason in their future.

But she believed that this was the right thing to do.

As long as she did this, she would be loved, she would be a lovely daughter, she was sure of it….

Clang─!

One day, Aurora dropped her teacup. She saw a future that she couldn’t believe.

“Why…?”

The girl muttered in despair.

The dark space, her father’s roar, her mother’s contemptuous gaze…. The future she saw was all like that.

Bang─!

At the same time, the soldiers stormed into Aurora’s chamber.

A strong hand grabbed the girl’s slender wrist.

“Aurora.”

Her father appeared between the soldiers. Aurora didn’t know what to ask. She barely managed to utter a word.

“What is, what is this…?”

“The empire has finally achieved peace. So I thought we should focus on your treatment now.”

“Tr, treatment?”

“Yes. We’ve been neglecting you as parents while you were bearing the weight of the emperor. Now it’s time to pay attention to you.”

“I’m, I’m fine! I’m perfectly fine!”

But no matter how much she pleaded, it was useless. Her father only gave her the same answer.

At first, she tried to explain.

She tried to make him understand. She tried to tell him that she was fine and that she worked hard for him. But.

“…”

The moment I met my father’s eyes, my thoughts were erased.

His cold gaze.

What was reflected in his pupils was no longer the look of a father towards his daughter.

Aurora’s breathing started to quicken.

No matter which part of the emperor’s future she tried to peek at, there was no scene where he regarded her as his daughter.

“Don’t worry too much. You can join me anytime once your condition improves. You just have to stay alone until your mind clears up.”

“…Are you afraid?”

Aurora asked in a hollow voice.

Only then did the emperor’s face show a hint of confusion.

“What?”

“You’ve had a lot of doubts about Abamama lately. Were you afraid of that? That I would say something bad about Abamama?”

It was natural for fear politics to breed resistance and suspicion.

Aurora thought she understood why her father kept mentioning ‘treatment’.

Treatment was just an excuse. He just wanted to bury her underground.

“Look at this. You’re talking nonsense again.”

“What was I to you?”

Aurora’s voice trembled faintly.

“I did everything to please you, but you want to lock me up because of your anxiety? You don’t trust me even as much as a straw. What am I to you?”

“Shut up!”

The emperor shouted.

He was no longer treating her as his daughter.

Yes, Aurora had seen that expression before. It was the expression he made every time he executed innocent officials.

“Ugh…”

Aurora burst into a bitter laugh.

“Considering your bloodline, I decided not to execute you and watch your progress, but how can you utter such foolish words! You stupid and pathetic thing!”

Every word turned into a dagger and pierced her heart.

She had always been an arrow for her father, but he finally stuck an arrow in her heart as well.

“Your eldest sister lost her emotions, and your youngest sister collapsed, all because of your eyes and mouth! Did you think I wouldn’t know!”

The soldiers grabbed Aurora’s arms with strong hands.

The small girl’s body was hanging in the air.

“Kik… Hahaha…”

Aurora kept laughing.

She seemed to know for sure now.

The moment she was born with a power that others didn’t have, she was already unable to understand others and be understood by them.

Emotional exchange was nothing but an illusion.

“Haha, hahaha…”

She didn’t need the affection that was only a shell. Emotions other than anger only made humans weak.

“Hahaha, hahahahaha─!”

She felt the ridiculousness.

She couldn’t bear the sight of herself being reduced to a mere tool and being used.

She was no different from a pathetic dreamer who longed for what she couldn’t have.

“See you in eight years. Abamama.”

With those words, she was thrown into the dark underground.

Exactly eight years.

That was the time the girl spent underground.

◈

Present, Reheln Hill.

“Yes. There is such a story.”

On a late night when the stars twinkled in the sky, we sat around a bonfire. We naturally ended up like this because we didn’t sleep for the sake of guarding.

Trixie, who had been listening quietly, asked.

“How did you get out of the underground?”

“That…”

Yushia started to explain slowly.

“The empress died suddenly and the emperor was also brain-dead.”

“I know that, but wasn’t the eldest princess first?”

“Just think of the eldest princess as nonexistent.”

Scarlet, who was leaning on a pile of wood, interrupted.

“The eldest princess has no emotions. She’s a vague existence that can’t even be called human.”

“Yes. As Scarlet said.”

Yushia nodded.

“All the relatives were executed and killed, and even the third princess was in a vegetative state…. The only one who could be called a successor was Princess Aurora.”

Trixie still seemed to have some doubts.

“But there must have been a lot of opposition when you came to the surface.”

“She broke them all.”

“Broke?”

“Yes. Princess Aurora came up as a completely different person. She eliminated all her enemies and kept only loyalists by her side, and built an indisputable position.”

“Eight years… That’s possible.”

Trixie nodded and continued.

“But where did you get all that information?”

“Me, that?”

Yushia spoke awkwardly.

“Isn’t it necessary to do some research beforehand? I looked up various things as a way of commemorating my participation in the Dawn Butterfly Collection. They said it was very recent information that was released…”

“Hmm.”

Fortunately, Trixie didn’t ask any more questions.

I closed the book I was reading with a thud. I had conjured up a chair and sat in front of the bonfire.

“A mundane story.”

Being outstanding always comes with loneliness.

Aurora had the ability to see the future, not just excel in a specific field. She must have endured a lot of loneliness.

I didn’t feel any sympathy or compassion for her. I just wondered what she felt.

A life of darkness longing for dawn.

To me, it was nothing but a mundane story.

I calmly gave the next order.

“You should get some sleep. I’ll guard alone.”

But neither Trixie nor Yushia followed my words right away.

They just looked at me with worried eyes.

“Sir Flan, what about our butterflies?”

Yushia looked at me anxiously.

I understood the concern in her expression. They had encountered eight dawn butterflies today, and they had missed every single one of them.

But.

“It’s going well.”

That was all I said.

“From tomorrow, don’t hide your presence. Rather, chase away all the butterflies on the Reheln Hill.”

“Yes?”

“That’s how you catch butterflies. Don’t ask anything else.”

There was a connection between the dawn butterflies and the previous world. Maybe, my falling into this world was not a simple phenomenon.

I needed more research on this.

But the most urgent thing right now was…

I lifted my head and stared at the barrier.

The barrier that seemed much weaker than before.

“From tomorrow, worry about surviving.”

◈

Early morning.

Aurora lifted her body from the bed, soaked in cold sweat.

She wiped her forehead with her arm and it was terrible. It was enough to make her believe she had been rained on.

“Hoo…”

Her panting breath was not noble. She calmed her breathing first.

She had a dream of her childhood.

She couldn’t even tell if it was day or night outside, there was no sound at all, and she was always lost in thought and slept until the meal came.

“Ha…”

Aurora laughed at herself.

“Are you still afraid of that time…”

Being able to see the future was a curse.

The people who met the young Aurora had similar impressions.

They were afraid of Aurora revealing something of theirs, and they always turned into anger.

But now it was different.

Everyone was afraid of Aurora, bowed their heads, and swore loyalty for honor and power.

“No.”

Could she still say ‘everyone’?

There was an exception who was wide awake and active.

Flan.

She thought of the man who was not afraid of Aurora and felt a strange feeling in her head.

It was an instinctive defense mechanism.

She would never go back to the past.

It was dark and cold, wasn’t it?

Even her blood relatives who shared the same blood had abandoned Aurora.

If you trust humans, that’s what happens. If you have power, you have to dominate others.

That was her destiny.

So.

“Ban.”

Aurora muttered in a low voice.

Soon, her knight guard came in front of her in formation.

“Is the Dawn Butterfly Collection still going on?”

“Yes. They are all chasing the dawn butterflies diligently.”

“They won’t be able to catch them. From the beginning, the dawn butterflies were just an excuse to gather them all.”

No matter how brilliant they were, they were meaningless if they didn’t submit to Aurora.

Breaking and taming the ones who didn’t bend was Aurora’s way.

That was the only way to survive.

Aurora slowly raised her head.

“There are two barriers right now, right?”

“Yes. There is a barrier that blocks the Vampires, and a boundary that serves as the border of the Dawn Butterfly Collection.”

“Remove the barrier that blocks the Vampires.”

There was a moment of silence.

“Completely… You mean to remove it?”

“Yes.”

She never intended to catch the dawn butterflies.

If she could subjugate the ones who didn’t bend, that would be her own ‘dawn butterfly’.

Aurora’s eyes sparkled.