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Chapter – 114
Limit
The collapsed Josephine was immediately moved deeper into the Empress’s palace.
An emergency was declared throughout the palace at once.
Josephine finally opened her eyes late in the night.
“…Mm.”
“Your Majesty! You’re awake?”
The first person to greet Josephine was Risha.
“Risha?”
The moment Risha confirmed that Josephine recognized her, tears burst out of her eyes.
“Waaah! Your Majesty! B-Because of me, you had to stand against His Majesty the Emperor…!”
Large tears rolled down from beneath her chin, soaking the blanket covering Josephine’s bed.
Josephine stretched out her slender fingers and gently stroked Risha’s bronze-blonde hair.
“Don’t cry, Risha. You must have been very frightened because of me, right?”
Risha quickly shook her head.
“No, it’s because I couldn’t do my job properly…”
Her round light-brown eyes glistened transparently with tears.
“No. You did more than enough. I’m just glad you woke up safely.”
Josephine softly comforted the sobbing Risha and patted her head.
“Risha, Her Majesty the Empress needs to rest now, so it would be best for you to withdraw.”
From behind them, the shadow of a slender figure spoke to Risha.
After hearing Harriet’s words, Risha wiped away her tears and hurriedly stepped back.
“I have committed discourtesy, Your Majesty the Empress. I shall take my leave.”
Only after Risha left did Josephine think of the others.
“…Where are Siegfried and Nathaniel?”
At the mention of their names, Harriet flinched slightly. However, she soon lowered her eyes and answered what Josephine wanted to know.
“Both of them are waiting outside.”
After a brief silence, Harriet revealed something Josephine had not known.
“When Your Majesty collapsed, Sir Nathaniel treated you.”
“…Nathaniel?”
Standing behind the flickering candlelight shadows, Harriet quietly nodded.
“Shall I call him in?”
Josephine nodded at Harriet’s suggestion.
After all, she had received his help, so it was only right to thank him.
“I shall escort both gentlemen inside.”
Even though Josephine had not specifically mentioned him, Harriet seemed to have intended to bring Siegfried as well from the beginning.
Not long afterward, Harriet returned with the two tall men.
“Empress.”
The first to rush forward and grab Josephine’s limp hand lying on the bed was Siegfried.
His red eyes were filled not only with worry, but also with a confusion she had never seen before.
“Are you really alright? Is there anywhere that hurts…?”
Watching the restless Siegfried, Josephine shook her head.
“I’m fine. Other than my body feeling heavy…”
She tried to sit up as she spoke, but a fierce wave of dizziness immediately swept over her vision again.
“Your Majesty.”
Harriet, who had been watching nearby, stepped between Siegfried and Josephine to support her.
Siegfried unconsciously let go of Josephine’s hand and took a step back.
The color drained even further from his already pale face, making him resemble a flawless white marble statue.
“There are traces of overload in Your Majesty’s mana circuits. That aftereffect is what caused you to faint.”
Nathaniel, who had been silently standing there, glanced once at the retreating Siegfried before finally speaking.
“I have already taken measures for now, so you need not worry.”
“…Did you touch my body again?”
Sensing something ominous, Josephine asked the question.
Nathaniel hesitated briefly before honestly admitting it.
“Yes, that is correct.”
For a moment, Josephine swallowed a dry breath as resistance rose from deep within her core.
The only time she had allowed him to touch her body was earlier, when extracting mana—not while she was unconscious and defenseless.
Reading her thoughts, Nathaniel quickly spoke first.
“Please rest assured. Other than stabilizing Your Majesty’s mana circuits, I did nothing else. His Highness the Prince witnessed everything.”
Strangely enough, those words instantly washed away Josephine’s discomfort.
If Siegfried had been watching, then Nathaniel surely would not have been able to do anything improper.
For some reason, she trusted that without question.
“Thank you, Sir Nathaniel.”
Josephine did not forget to thank Nathaniel as well.
“It was nothing.”
Nathaniel bowed before Josephine with a respectfulness far more formal than before.
“But if my mana circuits were overloaded… does that mean there’s something wrong with my body?”
Even so, the unease inside her had not completely disappeared.
Not once during all her years studying magic since her academy days had her mana circuits ever suffered overload.
To begin with, if she had been born with mana circuits of such small capacity, she would never even have had the opportunity to study magic at the academy.
“Previously, I asked Your Majesty a question, did I not? About how you were able to freely use divine authority powerful enough to even nullify Angram.”
“You did.”
Josephine sensed something ominous in Nathaniel’s voice, which carried far more weight than usual.
“Normally, divine authority manifested through a human vessel always requires some form of payment from what that human possesses.”
Nathaniel spread out his hand, causing a round sphere of mana to float above it.
“You may consider Vidar’s curse to be one such form. Its original price is a human’s lifespan.”
Up to this point, even Harriet—the only ordinary person present—already knew this much.
Nathaniel swallowed an uncomfortable silence before speaking again.
“However, Your Majesty has continuously ‘overused’ divine authority while carrying Vidar’s curse without suffering such limitations.”
At those words, even Harriet could not help but be shocked.
She had vaguely realized that Siegfried had some sort of curse-like problem, but she had never imagined that Josephine was involved in it as well.
“…And because of that, my mana circuits developed problems?”
Nathaniel nodded heavily at Josephine’s question.
“It is unavoidable when a human vessel abuses power beyond its capacity.”
“Then that means…”
The worst possibility surfaced in Josephine’s mind.
“To state only the objective facts, Your Majesty has not actually been purifying or suppressing Vidar’s curse.”
Nathaniel paused for a moment.
It seemed he needed time to steel himself before saying what came next.
“…You have been taking in and absorbing even the curse’s side effects from within His Highness the Prince as part of yourself.”
He clenched the sphere floating above his hand tightly.
The mana sphere instantly shattered apart and scattered into fragments.
Josephine unconsciously trembled.
“So the side effect caused me to become like this.”
“The fact that you have remained sane until now is already nothing short of miraculous.”
Nathaniel answered plainly.
“I myself had many questions about how such a thing was possible, but earlier, when I came into contact with Your Majesty and absorbed mana, I finally understood.”
He stepped forward and looked directly at Josephine.
“Divine authority had already resided within Your Majesty’s body long ago.”
Josephine’s eyes widened briefly in shock before settling again.
“Divine power…”
“So that is what it is called here.”
Nathaniel immediately understood what she meant.
“It was protecting Your Majesty’s body. That is why, even though you continuously absorbed the Prince’s curse, there were no problems until now.”
He continued his explanation with a grave expression.
“Thanks to that, Your Majesty was able to use the divine authority granted by Vidar without any restrictions.”
A supreme authority capable of nullifying all physical force and magic in the world.
Everything finally fell into place one after another, yet Nathaniel still looked deeply troubled.
“…I see.”
“But even this will soon reach its limit.”
Just as Josephine began to feel relieved, Nathaniel immediately delivered a stern warning.
“No matter how powerful the force known as divine power within Your Majesty may be, Your Majesty is ultimately still human.”
“Which means…?”
“It means that continuing to accept and absorb His Highness the Prince’s curse like you are now will eventually reach its limit as well.”
