Finding the room where phosium was stored was easy.
Delphine and the other two ran down the corridor following the pipes connected to the phosium.
For some reason, there wasn’t a single guard to be seen inside the factory.
“Such sophisticated automation devices…”
Veli muttered quietly while looking around as they ran quickly.
“This level far surpasses the Empire’s science and technology. Just what is the Emperor’s identity…”
“Over there.”
At that moment, Lin, who was running at the front, raised his finger and pointed somewhere.
It was an iron door locked with an unknown double mechanism.
He increased his speed and reached out towards the iron door.
Click-
The lock on the massive iron door turned by itself with an intimidating sound.
Lin, who reached the door first, pulled the opened iron door without hesitation.
The heavy iron door slowly revealed its dark gap.
The three quickly headed through the gap in the door.
The room was so dark all around that the surroundings were barely visible.
Lin silently took Delphine’s hand, then flicked his other hand.
Along with that, a ball of fire flared up in the air.
And at the sight revealed under that orange light, the three simultaneously drew in surprised breaths.
Iron display stands lined up filling the room.
Neatly arranged on the shelves were transparent phosium crystals.
An unknown machine shaped like tongs picked up the phosium from the end and dropped it onto a moving belt.
So that’s how it’s connected to the lab to become black crystals.
The amount of phosium filling the room was enormous at a glance.
Delphine was very surprised, but not compared to Veli and Lin.
The two who had been using phosium extracted from items brought from the Northern Continent were astonished.
“So much phosium…”
“Where on earth did they get this from? The Northern Continent?”
Was the Emperor in contact with the Northern Continent?
Then why isolate the Empire with two layers of barriers?
While spreading rumors that monsters are crawling beyond, and that Northerners are all barbarians.
The questions grew, but they were unanswerable for now.
“Let’s gather as much as we can carry.”
They soon began collecting as much phosium as possible from the displays.
Before long, transparent crystals piled up like a mountain in front of them.
“…”
Delphine silently reached out her hand toward the piled phosium.
Just as that white, straight hand was about to touch the surface of the transparent crystal.
“Wait.”
A low voice stopped her.
Surprisingly, the owner of the voice was Veli, not Lin.
He hesitated and spoke to her.
“They charged those black crystals with human life energy.”
“…”
“I pretended not to know until just now… but Lin is right.”
Veli awkwardly continued speaking as he stared at Delphine looking at him blankly.
“There’s no way energy can be drawn indefinitely without any cost.”
It meant they didn’t know what would happen to her if she charged such a massive amount of phosium.
Did they think she came this far without that resolve?
She had been keeping that in mind ever since she first learned she could charge phosium.
Looking at his serious face, Delphine suddenly smiled slightly.
“Why are you suddenly telling me this?”
“Well… because you, my lady…”
Veli trailed off uncharacteristically, hesitating.
Even without saying it, she could feel it.
Well, it’s because he no longer saw her as just a pathetic noble or a hidden card in a gambling den.
If she had to say, after going through today’s events, they had become friends, or comrades.
Delphine said in a tone mixed with laughter.
“Call me Delphine. …Let’s speak comfortably with each other from now on.”
What use is there in distinguishing between nobles and commoners now?
Her words seemed quite unexpected, as the two opened their eyes wide.
Delphine spoke calmly, looking at them.
“My resolve remains the same as at the beginning.”
If she had intended to just find out the truth and pretend not to know, she wouldn’t have started in the first place.
She would have just played the noble lady quietly in the mansion as Ioan wanted.
But no.
Long ago, what her mother instilled in her was not such an empty show.
She will not be swept along by fate with her eyes closed.
“Del. Always act as your heart tells you. That will be your pride.”
Delphine turned back and reached out her hand toward the transparent phosium again.
Perhaps as Veli said, her life might really be shortened.
But even if she dies here today, it doesn’t matter.
All the confused emotions from before had evaporated, leaving only a surprisingly solid conviction within her.
The moment her outstretched hand touched the pile of phosium.
A force incomparable to anything before drained from her body.
It was like the sensation of sudden blood loss.
A chilling sensation, as if blood was draining from her body.
At the same time, the piled transparent phosium all emitted a mysterious five-colored light, filling the room brightly.
That radiance poured down on Veli and Lin’s heads like a divine blessing.
“What on earth…”
The two muttered with overwhelmed expressions.
“We can win…”
Especially Veli, his face was close to ecstasy.
“We can win against this tyranny that has lasted 300 years. …As long as she is by our side!”
Delphine was lost in thought alone amidst the light filling up like rapture.
Her whole body was exhausted with an inexplicable sense of weakness.
But surprisingly, even at a moment like this, what came to her mind was Ioan’s face.
‘Ioan. Now I’ve truly, completely become your opponent.’
He on the side of the Emperor and Veritas.
Herself on the side of La Rouge and freedom.
Their war will officially begin in earnest starting with today’s phosium heist operation.
Realizing that fact, what is this strange feeling rising sharply in her chest?
“Alright. Now we just need to escape from here with the charged phosium!”
“I’ll teleport us.”
“Will that be possible inside this barrier?”
“It’s easy. With this much massive phosium, it’s a piece of cake.”
Lin picked up a large piece from the pile of phosium brightly illuminating the room and grinned.
Soon a round white magic circle rose around them.
It was bigger and brighter than ever before.
Beyond the fading pile of phosium, Lin reached out his hand towards her.
“Delphine.”
Delphine, about to grab that hand, suddenly turned her head.
Why did she feel like Ioan was approaching nearby?
“Delphine. Hurry. The teleportation is about to start.”
“…”
Delphine tightly grasped the outstretched hand and inwardly said goodbye.
‘…Goodbye.’
To Ioan.
To her husband, with whom she had promised eternal love, if only formally.
To the boy who made her heart flutter in her childhood.
And.
To her own heart that still longed for that boy.
Never again would she waver because of him.
From this moment on, he was only an evil target to be eradicated and an enemy.
Nothing more, nothing less.
The bright light of the magic circle enveloped her.
Lastly, just before disappearing, Lin swung his hand holding the phosium towards the display stands.
A gust of wind blew through the quiet, cool room, and the lined-up display stands lost balance and collapsed to the floor with a crash.
[This is the timeline separator]“While collecting the black crystals, suddenly a loud noise was heard from beyond the corridor.”
“…”
Pryde coolly surveyed the storage room where phosium had been kept.
“So when we came, it was like this…”
Walter looked quite shocked.
No wonder, as broken phosium shards that had fallen and shattered on the floor were visible here and there.
As someone who knows how much value each of those crystals holds, it’s understandable to be this frightened.
“How did this suddenly happen? Could it be that some machine malfunctioned…”
Walter asked with a scared expression.
But this was a place that had moved perfectly without a single error for the past 300 years.
So that couldn’t be it.
Pryde, who had been examining the messy storage room with cold eyes, suddenly spoke.
“…Some of the phosium is gone.”
“What? How on earth? No, more importantly, how do you know that, sir?”
It was a fact he could know because of his inhuman senses.
Instead of answering Walter’s question, Pryde muttered ominously.
“…Rats must have snuck in.”
In this empire, only they would dare to oppose the Emperor and himself.
Hearing those words, Walter’s face showed surprise once again.
“What? Then are you saying those revolutionary bastards infiltrated all the way here?”
Anyway, to someone who doesn’t know, it would just look like transparent crystals.
So if there was a reason to sneak in here and steal phosium… there was only one.
They also have someone who can use magic.
He couldn’t know yet who or how exactly.
‘Who is it?’
How far have they gotten into the secrets hidden in this empire?
Just who…
Pryde, who had been examining the messy storage room with sharp eyes while walking, suddenly stopped in his tracks.
“Sir? What’s the matter?”
Without any reply, he bent his tall frame to pick up something thin and shiny from the floor.
“…What’s this?”
It was a strand of red hair.
As vivid as if on fire.
______
In This Life, I Won’t Be Foolish To Lose You Again (Female-dominant)
When Shen Yuan encountered Su Jin again in his previous life, she had already become the Prime Minister of the current dynasty. As for him, the former top young master of the capital, he had long since fallen into the abyss, becoming a singer on a pleasure boat.
After a song ended, he was redeemed and sent to the Su Residence.
Su Jin respected and cherished him, gave him a roof over his head, and bestowed him with warmth. Shen Yuan fell deeper and deeper, but before he could express his feelings, Su Jin passed away.
Shen Yuan died to follow her in death, but instead, he returned to when he was fifteen years old.
At that time, he was not yet engaged, and Su Jin was just a poor scholar.
Shen Yuan gritted his teeth, casting aside all his pride, and thought of ways to coax and entice her every day.
The colder and more indifferent Su Jin was towards him, the more proactive Shen Yuan became.
He was not afraid of being mocked by the world, only wanting to marry his Wife-master early, to hold her hand and never let go for a lifetime.
[Note: This story will not specifically point out the male lead’s reincarnation time point; it’s all in the details. Whenever you feel that the male lead is acting strangely, he has most likely been reincarnated.]