"It will be dangerous if we cancel our engagement now," Roxus said in the horse carriage.
She leaned over Lucifer's shoulder because that was what she used to do. "So your intention today is to try to separate Ariaster and that woman?" asked Lucifer.
"Right. Sooner or later, they will separate anyway. All I'm doing is making sure their breakup happens in the worst possible way," Roxus said. "That woman, she now lives in the residence of a man she no longer loves, and the man she loves still doesn't know her existence," Roxus muttered.
"Are you also planning to get in the way of that woman and Leonid Bertia's relationship?" asked Lucifer then.
"Hmm, should I do it to make that woman angry?" Roxus asked quietly.
"Or you can send me to kill Leonid Bertia right now. Even though I'm a human now, I still have enough experience, ability, and strength to do that," Lucifer offered.
Roxus smiled. "But you are no longer a devil with whom I have a contract. Right now, I am just a woman who is temporarily your master," said Roxus.
Lucifer was silent. His face stared coldly at the woman who was still leaning on his shoulder. In the past, Roxus had asked Eoin to cancel her engagement to Hamlet Ariaster out of anger after learning that the man was having an affair with Daisy. Of course, it made the Croix family lose support from Ariaster.
Later, the Crown Prince took the opportunity and secretly killed Eoin after dropping embezzlement charges on him. Now, even though they had warned Eoin about the Crown Prince's plan, making Eoin even warier, if they suddenly cancelled the engagement, then the change would be bad.
"It's not fair," said Lucifer. "I've got what I want, but you... you still don't get what you want."
"I've got it, Lucifer," said Roxus. "As soon as I saw Father's face, I knew that all this was what I wanted. And now, even without you, I've found a way to protect them all."
Lucifer smiled. He lowered his head closer to Roxus's face. Slowly the man kissed Roxus's lips because, in that position, that was all he could do. "I will go north and win that war for you," said Lucifer quietly. "Then I'll disappear so that everyone thinks I'm dead," he continued.
Roxus looked up at Lucifer. "Is that your plan?" Roxus asked. "But in the past, winning that war took 7 years."
"Are you going to let that war drag on for 7 years?" asked Lucifer.
Roxus sat up straight. "Luc, you don't have to do this for me," said Roxus.
"Think of it as a farewell gift. I will build your army in the north, and those who last will bow under your feet after I "die"," Lucifer stroked Roxus's cheek. "Moreover, my interference will probably attract the gods."
Roxus stretched out her left hand. Above that hand, in the air, an energy ball formed. Purple light enveloped the closed horse carriage on this lonely afternoon, and the light settled into a lavender-coloured crystal. "Take this with you wherever you go. At the very least, this will save your life once when you need it," Roxus said.
Lucifer is no longer an immortal being with limitless power. At least for Roxus, that reality was the reality that hit her the most.
"Why don't you just give it to your brother?" asked the man. The crystal is a Mana Core. Each Magus only has one, and if destroyed, a Magus can die. Giving the crystal to someone else means giving that person their life.
But Roxus is different. She is the first Archmage born after the last Archmage hundreds of years ago. "Don't worry. As of now, I'm not a Magus or an Archmage. I'm just an ordinary woman who knows about magic theory. My body doesn't depend on Mana, so even if this Mana Core is destroyed, I won't die. And I'm quite curious about what will happen if this Mana Core is destroyed," Roxus muttered.
Back then, when she had become an Archmage, her Mana Core was as big as a palace. Roxus hid it in a different space and time dimension that she created. Once Mana Core was at that level, she wouldn't be able to pass it on to others even if she wanted to. "And about my brother, I can give him something else," Roxus smiled sweetly.
Lucifer looked back at the woman coldly. She is a fearless woman. A woman who is willing to destroy the world to get what she wants. A woman who would not be bound by anything or anyone except the people most precious to her, but also a woman who gave her essence to a stranger like him. Maybe because Lucifer has already become a human, he started to feel this kind of weak feeling.
"I'll use it as I please, Roxe. And even if you beg me to return it to you, I will not give it back," said Lucifer coldly.
"I won't ask you to return it. Use My Mana Core to strengthen yourself. As long as you don't use it to kill my family, I won't mind."
Roxus didn't lose her smile.
Lucifer sighed. "What if I betray you and kill everyone you love? I can do it only because I want to see you suffer," said Lucifer coldly.
"But you know what will happen after you do that, right?" Roxus asked, with a grim smile. "Don't forget that I already know why you want to be human."
Lucifer laughed with delight terribly. "Only humans can see gods."
"That means, only humans can kill gods."
._.
He shouldn't have known.
Leonid stood at the end of his study, staring blankly out the window. He had been waiting and waiting, but his opportunity that should have arrived had not come. The door to his office was knocked, and then it opened.
"Your Majesty," called a young man in black uniform. Leonid turned around, waved his hand on the sofa, and invited the man to sit opposite him.
"We know everything has failed. And now we have to start over," said Leonid irritably.
"Your Majesty, it looks like we can't start anything more," said the young man.
"What do you mean?"
The young man shook his head slowly. "Count Croix knows everything," replied the man.
Hearing the words of the man in black uniform, Leonid slowly stood up, then looked back out of his office window. It's Tuesday, and that means Lady Croix is coming to meet his damned older sister. Of course, he would also see that woman walking through the labyrinth garden between his palace and his older sister's palace.
He saw a woman he was waiting for but suddenly gasped. Perhaps, gasping is not the right word. He was amazed. Lady Croix has a pale blonde hair colour. In the sun, sometimes the light of it looks lavender purple. Ariaster, the man she loves, likes a woman with long, flowing hair and soft waves, but Lady Croix has hair that is a bit boring, so she always neatly arranges it on the back of her neck.
Of course, Lady Croix doesn't look like the woman of his dreams at all, but she is still a woman appropriately dressed as a noble girl. But today, that woman looked like that—
.
Mana Core: A core that almost all creatures in the world have. When a Magus absorbs and stores Mana in their body, they will increase the size of the Mana Core in their body. It was said that the mana core of a Dragon deciding to become an Archmage was the size of a mountain.