CHAPTER 57: THE FINAL PHASE

’Huh?’

Azel stared at the floating blue text in front of him as though the system itself had developed a warped sense of humor.

He wasn’t shocked about Naelia — her attachment to him had been growing in ways that were already... unsettling but Ira too?

The quiet, unreadable girl he had barely spoken more than a handful of words to?

[Congratulations, Heroine ’Naelia’ and Heroine ’Ira’ have become Yanderes]

The notification pulsed innocently in the air.

He dismissed it with a mental flick, burying the rest of the alerts and reports.

He couldn’t — no, wouldn’t process that right now.

The last thing he needed while orchestrating a fake assassination and escape was two heroines slipping into obsessive madness at the same time.

"How the hell did this even happen...?" he muttered under his breath, eyes narrowing as his thoughts drifted.

He had been careful with his interactions — at least he thought he had and even if they developed feelings which he could understand since he was a handsome chad, it was still excessive.

Edna, oblivious to his internal chaos, moved to Ira, placing a steadying hand on the girl’s shoulder before gently taking Lillia from her.

The Empress’s movements were slow, deliberate, as though each touch was a silent promise that everything was going to be fine.

"The rest of you should rush out of here," Azel said, pointing toward the hallway with a sharp nod. "Get the guards. We need to make it look realistic."

The three girls shared a look, nodded, and headed for the door.

They opened it and froze.

The corridor beyond was lined with death.

Blood pooled in uneven patches along the polished stone, dripping sluggishly from the broken bodies of Whisper’s men.

Swords lay abandoned in limp hands.

And those eyes of a headless man they didn’t even know his name — glassy, staring at nothing were fixed forever in that last moment of confusion and fear.

Naelia’s throat bobbed.

She had grown up with the etiquette of nobility, the politics of court... but this wasn’t court.

This was carnage.

And yet — she did not turn away.

Azel just shouted out for them to be careful of the soap, so they took slow, cautious steps.

The pale smear of suds glistened faintly under the dim sunlight through the windows, slick enough to send even an experienced fighter tumbling if they weren’t careful.

But that wasn’t what Naelia was focused on.

’He... did this?’

She looked over the scene again — the precision of the kills, the eerie silence that must have accompanied them. Not once

had they heard a scream from inside the room.

’He took down this many people, without so much as a scratch...’ Her eyes darkened with a dangerous mix of awe and possessiveness.

Ira, walking ahead of her, was expressionless.

Her steps were calm, careful... and yet her aura radiated something Naelia couldn’t quite name.

It annoyed her.

On any other day, Naelia might have ignored it — might have dismissed Ira as someone who simply didn’t care.

But now, she couldn’t help but notice.

Ira wasn’t surprised.

It was as if she had seen worse.

But the dangerous part wasn’t that calm — it was the heat Naelia thought she saw flicker under it, the tiniest twitch at the corner of Ira’s lips as her eyes tracked the blood stains leading away from the bodies.

She had known Ira for a long time now to be able to discern her friend’s thoughts.

Because in truth, Ira’s inner world was anything but calm.

’He protected me~’ Her thoughts sang, every syllable dripping with an unhinged adoration. ’I love him~ I love him~ I LOVE HIM!’

The blush on her cheeks was invisible under the dim hallway light, but in her mind, she was already imagining a thousand scenarios in which Azel claimed her under the moonlight... in broad daylight... even in public...

She loved him so much she would let him do it here if he willed.

Azel, still inside, felt a shiver race down his spine for no reason he could name.

He frowned and shook it off. He had no time for bad feelings — only for execution of the plan.

"Hey, Edna," he said, stepping toward her.

She looked at him, her lips parting slightly. "Yes?"

"Don’t move."

Before she could ask why, he raised a shimmering orb above her head and crushed it in his hand.

A wave of magic washed over her from head to toe.

Her once golden hair shimmered, the strands melting into a sleek, silvery white that caught the light like spun frost.

Her crimson eyes lightened several shades, and her face shifted subtly, her cheekbones a touch sharper, her features less instantly recognizable.

Lillia was the first to break the silence, of course.

"Mama, you look more beautiful now!" she chirped.

Azel couldn’t help but pat the girl’s head.

She had been invaluable through all this, her cuteness played a role in everything too.

Then he crouched slightly to meet Edna’s gaze. "Do you remember the motel from yesterday?"

Edna nodded once.

"Lillia will get you outside the castle. Then you run there as fast as you can with her. Book a room under a fake name." He handed her a heavy pouch of coins. "This should cover it."

She nodded again, her lips parting — expectant.

Azel sighed. He knew that look.

He leaned forward and pressed a short kiss to her lips.

She made a small, satisfied noise before turning away with an almost imperceptible harrumph.

"Alright, Lillia," Azel said, "just like you practiced with Lorraine. Levitate over the walls and straight to safety."

"Yes, Papa."

The girl pressed her palms together.

Pink energy swirled around her and Edna, wrapping them in a protective bubble before propelling them upward and out through the open window in a smooth arc.

Azel watched until they were gone, then turned back to the grisly scene at his feet.

’Time to sell the performance.’

First, he took one of Whisper’s daggers and carved shallow wounds into his arms and chest.

They bled enough to look convincing, but with [Pain Nullification LV. Max], they barely registered.

Next, he pulled the [Fake Corpse] from his inventory. His face twitched.

It looked exactly like Edna.

Not "sort of" like her.

Not "passable" for her.

Exactly like her.

The system’s accuracy was, as always, both a blessing and deeply unsettling.

Shaking off the discomfort, he positioned the body in the wreckage, arranging the scene so it would look as though she had died in the blast.

Then he pulled out the final piece — an explosive orb meant for mission completion. The moment his aura touched it, it began to hum and pulse with dangerous energy.

’All I have to do is tank this.’ He took a deep breath, aura hardening around him like a second skin.

From down the hall, footsteps pounded against stone.

Naelia and the others were back, this time with guards in tow.

"Hurry!" Naelia’s voice cracked. "Sir Azel is fighting assassins that were after my mom!"

Her eyes darted forward, searching for reassurance — and perhaps silently praying that whatever he was doing was part of a greater plan.

One of the guards sprinted forward, eyes widening.

"There’s an explosive!" he barked, shoving Naelia, Ira, and Elizabeth backward.

They didn’t understand what was going on...

Heat roared through the air.

And then —

BOOM!

The palace shook as a massive wave of fire and pressure tore through the room where the queen had been.

The hallway itself buckled under the force, stone cracking, the blast carving a jagged wound straight through the heart of the building.

Shouts erupted behind the guards. Smoke poured into the corridor, thick and choking, hiding everything from sight.

To them — to everyone, it would look like the Empress had just been obliterated.

And that was exactly how Azel needed it.