TMLOP 59

Chapter 59

The Male Lead Obsessively Proposes

53. Hypocrisy

Senelia didn’t ask Clifd why, despite Venerucia having agreed to marry her, he still suspected Lucalina and Venerucia and tried to harm them.

After all, if he had truly intended to kill them completely, he wouldn’t have bothered to call Senelia and show them both injured.

So, the conclusion was clear from the beginning: Clifd had a purpose for wanting something from Senelia.

“Do you want Ben and Luna to survive?”

Clifd asked, even though he already knew the answer.

He was truly a malicious man.

“…Please, Your Majesty, spare them.”

Even knowing the trap, Senelia had no choice but to comply.

She wished for Venerucia to survive.

Senelia knelt at Clifd’s feet, clinging desperately.

The thought of him dying made her heart sink.

She couldn’t bear that feeling.

“Use your ability to save them.”

Clifd’s voice, dripping with satisfaction, fell upon her.

Ah—only then did she fully understand the situation.

Clifd had been uneasy about handing over Senelia, the thorn of Cloracian, to Venerucia without knowing her abilities.

So, he schemed to verify her powers, by any means necessary.

Additionally, he wanted to confirm how deeply someone like Senelia, with such abilities, cared for Venerucia.

Senelia hesitated for a brief moment.

If she revealed her powers to Clifd in this situation, she likely would never escape from being under his control.

Her abilities were precisely the kind Clifd would covet.

More importantly, if Senelia, who had wanted to be free from the Emperor so badly, truly loved Venerucia enough to give up that freedom, how could the Emperor fully trust her?

It was a blatant trap, wide open.

“…I obey the Emperor’s command.”

Yet, despite knowing this, Senelia ultimately thrust her foot into the trap herself.

Snap.

The trap clamped tightly around her ankle.

Senelia headed toward the imperial hunting grounds with the Emperor’s knights and guards.

Upon arrival, the knights drove everyone else away.

Whatever powers she possessed, Clifd wanted exclusive control over that information.

Standing before the cave, Senelia drew a deep breath.

She felt nauseous from riding quickly to arrive here.

But worse than that was the situation itself.

Suppressing the horrible sensation, she reached toward the mana stone rocks.

Senelia’s power wasn’t strong enough to completely shatter or safely move all the mana stones.

It merely allowed her to bend the rules slightly, unlike magic.

Closing her eyes tightly, she used her “incantation” in Korean in front of the Emperor’s knight.

Unlike magic, incantations didn’t require complicated formulas or sigils.

This made it a power that all magicians coveted.

Even if someone like Senelia couldn’t perform grand incantations due to limited mana capacity, the very ability to use them was rare and valuable.

The words forming the foundation of incantations—“language power”—had to be in Korean, an ancient language of this world, so not just anyone could learn it.

Moreover, a practitioner had to have a unique constitution, using their own body as a vessel to absorb and store mana, then release it as their own.

The method was entirely different from magic, which accumulates mana circles in the heart.

Hence, an incantation practitioner was truly a chosen one, no matter the vessel’s size.

“Let me in.”

The moment Senelia spoke the incantation, her body rapidly absorbed the mana from the stones.

Unlike magicians, who needed to process the stones to use their mana, only an incantation user could do this directly.

The mana stones became like ordinary rocks once Senelia absorbed their energy, making it easy for her to cast her incantation.

Thus, she was able to enter the cave.

“Hah… huff…!”

Senelia panted as she stepped inside.

Her mana vessel wasn’t large, so she couldn’t absorb all the mana from the fallen stones at the entrance.

Even absorbing just some of it was enough to make her breathless.

Fortunately, she quickly spotted Venerucia and Lucalina amidst the rubble.

Had she needed to go deeper, she might have collapsed before finding them.

Senelia assessed their condition in the narrow rock crevice.

Venerucia’s strong swordsman’s body had not been crushed despite being under the rocks.

Senelia felt a small relief.

However, there was no time to relax.

Both were bleeding, and the cramped space was causing oxygen shortage.

“Heal.”

Gripping Venerucia’s hand, Senelia used her incantation again.

Pain coursed through her body.

Unlike ambient mana, mana from the stones was highly concentrated.

Absorbing it consecutively overloaded Senelia’s relatively small mana vessel.

Being in a space surrounded by mana stones added to the burden.

“Cough…!”

She coughed violently.

Blood wet her forehead as dizziness and darkness momentarily overtook her vision.

“Argh—!”

Desperately, she grabbed a nearby rock and struck her own thigh.

The sudden pain snapped her out of her fading consciousness.

If I lose consciousness here, we’ll all be buried.

She clenched her teeth, determined to endure until Venerucia was fully healed.

If she could hold on, Venerucia could cut through the stones and lead their escape.

It was simple enough for him to control his aura to prevent further collapse.

“Huff… please… quickly…”

Senelia exhaled heavily, channeling her mana into Venerucia.

His wounds began to heal as her mana flowed into him.

Finally, when Senelia could no longer continue,

“Selie…?”

Venerucia opened his eyes.

“Ah… it’s done.”

At that moment, Senelia’s own eyes closed.

“Selie…!”

Venerucia’s panicked voice was drowned in darkness as it overcame her.

As Senelia had hoped, Venerucia safely got all three of them out.

Now, he was watching over Senelia, who was asleep beside him.

The current condition of Her Grace, the Duchess, is that her body is overloaded with mana. Using holy power now will only cause further strain.

Following the priest’s advice, healing Senelia had to be postponed.

Her legs were now bandaged and splinted where the doctor had treated her.

“Hah… she hit her own leg with a rock.”

Venerucia muttered in disbelief.

Her leg was truly fractured.

She had struck it without hesitation.

Which noblewoman would deliberately injure herself so severely just to remain conscious?

“…You… you…”

Venerucia’s face twisted in shock.

He knew Senelia had a tendency to handle herself recklessly, but he hadn’t imagined it this extreme.

Seeing it firsthand was horrifying.

Even for someone like Venerucia, who had seen limbs severed on the battlefield, he could not endure witnessing Senelia’s leg in this state.

The fact that she had intentionally hidden her incantation powers from him until now didn’t matter.

He was simply… afraid.

Afraid that Senelia could harm herself so casually.

“I… shouldn’t have gone there.”

For the first time, he regretted going to save Lucalina.

If he hadn’t gone to the mana cave, Senelia wouldn’t have had to overexert herself.

Then he suddenly realized the selfishness of his thought.

Lucalina’s life had been in danger, yet he was thinking this way?

Still… still.

He couldn’t stop wondering if there had been a way to save Lucalina without putting Senelia at risk.

If he hadn’t gone, Senelia wouldn’t have needed to intervene.

Seeing Senelia injured lying there was far more distressing than witnessing Lucalina barely escaping death.

After leaving the cave, Venerucia entrusted Lucalina to the knights and focused solely on Senelia.

At that time, he had been overwhelmed by her unconscious state, thinking only to get her to the priest.

And he regretted it.

He felt responsible for Senelia ending up like this.

As Venerucia sank deeper into guilt, her eyelids twitched and fluttered open.