Chapter 188: Peruth’s Destruction
As the story’s heroine, Charli possessed a unique healing magic talent.
While even the former pope had only been able to sustain the emperor’s life with rare and precious light potions, Charli could achieve it with her own healing magic.
However, Yu Mo hadn’t called Charli to Aram to save these dying people.
With the place in this state, even Charli couldn’t save them.
Yu Mo simply wanted to make this a training ground for Charli, to accelerate her growth.
As the future “Queen,” she needed to understand that protecting her subjects was a responsibility she had to fulfill.
She also needed to realize how difficult the path ahead would be; if she didn’t push herself to become stronger and braver, she would lose everything.
The swelling power of the God of Light in this world was like a tide, continuously disrupting the balance of power between earth and sky.
If they only held it back temporarily without addressing the source, then, as the story unfolded, a massive plague would inevitably strike the lands of the Glory Empire, and even the northern regions would fall.
He wanted Charli to awaken her “Protection” magic here and to armor her overly gentle heart with steel.
Before the plague came in full force, she would become the first line of defense here.
Then, her name would spread across the land.
Everyone on this earth would witness how she protected them, and the Northlands would become her supporters and allies.
When the sun of the Glory Empire finally fell, Charli would ascend to the throne under the gaze and hopes of all.
This was the path Yu Mo had chosen for her.
*
Charli waited a day at Margburg Castle and finally received news from her brother.
“Princess Charli is to go to Aram immediately?” The steward protested, agitated. “But isn’t there a plague over there! How could we let Princess Charli go to such a dangerous place!”
“My brother is there too, so how could it be dangerous? Shall we go now?” Charli asked cheerfully.
The steward shot an unhappy look from Amos to Charli. “Princess Charli, His Majesty only agreed for you to meet Marquis Cecil briefly. If you insist on putting yourself in danger, we will have to bring you back by force!”
Suddenly, dozens of knights clad in Margburg’s garb, along with a few magicians, appeared, surrounding the steward and those who had escorted Charli from the royal city.
“Are you threatening Princess Charli?” Amos asked coldly, his expression stern. He looked remarkably like his mentor, making his presence intimidating.
“What are you doing?! Order these men to lower their weapons! We were sent by His Majesty—this is a direct insult to him!” the steward cried out in panic, trying to sound authoritative but clearly shaken.
But those surrounding them remained unresponsive. A slight move would bring those menacing weapons close to their chests.
Charli turned to Amos. “Let’s hurry; I don’t want to keep my brother waiting.”
The steward, shocked that the gentle and kind princess could ignore their predicament so completely, called out desperately, “Princess Charli!”
Charli turned back to them, her expression serious. “I can tolerate offenses against me, but offending my brother is unacceptable.”
The steward’s face turned ashen, and everyone realized the situation they were in, returning to their rooms quietly under the watch of the armed guards.
In the end, only Charli, Makin, and a squad of Margburg Castle knights arranged by Amos set off for Aram.
“Is Amos not coming with us?” Charli asked.
“Teacher asked me to handle other matters here in Margburg.”
“My brother trusts Amos so much. I’m jealous,” Charli replied.
Watching his two friends with matching looks of admiration, Makin muttered to himself. Both of them worshiped Marquis Cecil, thinking he was perfect in every way. Makin, however, found him somewhat terrifying.
…
Charli rushed off, excited to see her brother, but as soon as she met him, after barely exchanging a few words, he sent her into the dreadful city of Aram.
Facing the brutal plague for the first time, Charli began her own trial by fire.
In Aram, Charli met the long-unseen Cardinal Peruth.
But his mood didn’t seem good. Charli sensed an inexplicable hostility from him. Though he spoke to her with a smile, there was something dangerous in it that made her uneasy.
Makin noticed it too, staying by Charli’s side protectively.
Now a knight of the Holy Temple in the royal city, Makin felt that everything about this cardinal—from his excessively beautiful and gentle appearance—seemed false, more unsettling even than Marquis Cecil.
Peruth’s heart was cold and merciless, a fact that showed in how he managed things in Aram.
Charli, unable to sleep, worked tirelessly, desperately trying to save the lives of the people here. But Cardinal Peruth considered it all pointless.
With a knowing expression, he watched as Charli knelt beside a skeletal, plague-ridden patient, pouring out her magic only to find it was not enough to save him.
“Pity,” Cardinal Peruth sighed, and before her eyes, he burned the body that had just taken its last breath into ashes.
Time and again, as if deliberately tormenting her, he and this dead city were equally despairing.
Had she never come to Aram, never seen these people on the brink of death with her own eyes, their passing and the city’s demise would have merely been sad news to Charli, easily overshadowed by other matters.
But she was here, trying to save every single person she encountered, only to find that she couldn’t save any of them.
The sensation of their deaths in her hands filled her with an unprecedented guilt and despair.
The young girl lying beside her, with hair like dried grass, was just a child. As Charli cast her healing magic, the girl’s numb expression suddenly shifted.
Her eyes were green, revealing a hint of life amidst the murkiness.
Like the other patients, she was incredibly weak, but just before she passed away, she managed to force a smile at Charli.
“Thank you, I feel… so much better.” With those words, the girl took her last breath.
This was the first person Charli had spoken to since she began treating the people in Aram.
“Don’t! Please hold on a little longer! Don’t die…”
“What a pity,” a soft footstep approached. “Another one has died. Charli, let her go; I must burn her now.”
Charli bowed her head, her beautiful silver curls and dress stained with dirt and ash.
Finally, unable to contain herself any longer, she broke down and cried out in despair.
*
Yu Mo observed everything about Charli’s behavior, including Peruth’s. He chose not to intervene in Peruth’s deliberate provocation of Charli.
“Charli is crying; this is too cruel for her. What a pitiful child,” Peruth said as he approached Yu Mo, suggesting with concern, “Perhaps we should send her back to Margburg. I can handle things here.”
“No need,” Yu Mo rejected him once more.
Peruth fell silent, watching the city of Aram with him. “I remember how much Eloren cherished his sister; how could he bear to see her tormented like this?”
“Then why not let me take care of it? I can do what you expect even better,” Peruth said, placing a hand on Yu Mo’s shoulder and pulling him into an embrace. He whispered, “Do you really think there’s something Charli can do that I cannot?”
Since Yu Mo had refused to let Peruth handle Aram and instead allowed Charli to take charge, Peruth had struggled to hide his displeasure.
As the most suitable candidate, he felt entitled to resolve the issues for his beloved but had not been chosen by him. This was something he found both unbearable and incomprehensible.
“Just keep watching; this will be over soon,” Yu Mo said, unperturbed by Peruth’s evident dissatisfaction.
“It will indeed end soon. No one in this city will survive.”
Peruth had witnessed too much, having once tried futilely to save lives, ultimately becoming indifferent to it all.
“So what does Eloren really want Charli to do here?”
“Do you think Charli’s efforts are meaningless?”
“Yes, I believe it is meaningless.”
“But a world like this needs someone like Charli.”
The brave “heroine,” unwilling to give up and refusing to despair, was the faint hope in a crumbling world.
Peruth’s smile faded completely as he stared deeply at Yu Mo.
“It seems you have high expectations for Charli and trust her a great deal.”
Peruth released his grip on Yu Mo’s shoulder. “So is that why you chose her?”
He glanced again at the silver-haired girl who had stopped crying and was now running toward another patient.
Eloren said, “Someone like Charli,” but what kind of person was that?
Peruth felt that such a person was as foolish as his past self. Even if they appeared to possess dazzling, so-called noble qualities now, time would ultimately change them.
“I do indeed have high expectations for Charli.” However, it was not his choice, but rather the system’s.
This was a task he had to fulfill.
Yu Mo pulled his thoughts from the complex arrangements, noticing that Peruth’s expression was not good; he couldn’t even manage his usual smile to hide it.
“It seems I’m of no use here, so I’ll be taking my leave,” Peruth said.
For the first time, the cardinal departed straightforwardly, without leaving any arrangements for their next meeting as he usually did.
Yu Mo did not stop him. He stood alone on the city wall, watching as dark clouds rolled across the sky, and a cold wind from the north rustled the cloak draped over his shoulders.
The coldest season was approaching once more.
He could, as before, use sweet words to soothe Peruth; it wasn’t difficult to do.
But such reassurance was temporary, and similar situations would continue to arise.
The root of the problem didn’t lie with Charli or Peruth, but rather in his own indecision.
Yu Mo found himself in an unusual state of hesitation.
Some things had already been decided long ago, back when he had planned Charli’s path to queenship, but now he was wavering.
Charli was merely a star-like hope in this world, a hope that could heal hearts but could not save the world.
Even in the original plot, the two protagonists hadn’t truly saved everything.
If he wanted to extend the life of this world, it could only be through Peruth. He was the most unique.
Only he could go once more to the divine kingdom and control the erratic power of the sun.
He could return the moon’s power to the earth and the sun’s power to the sky.
But this was not something that could be easily accomplished, and it would certainly require a cost.
Yu Mo had seen another version of Peruth in the liminal space between life and death, a time when he was about to become an evil god, only to meet his end through his own failure.
Would Peruth fail again this time?
Yu Mo wasn’t sure.
This uncertainty stemmed from his own wavering heart.
He had captured and tamed this future evil god, yet at this crucial moment, he hesitated to choose him.
Because his choice could very well lead to Peruth’s destruction.
