I will not die a Villainess's death

Chrome held Elysia's message close to himself, already dreading opening it up and reading its contents. Every time Elysia wrote to him, it was never any good news in its contents.

At this point, Chrome just wanted Elysia to stay put and not move during the whole operation. But knowing Elysia, she might still find trouble one way or the other.

"Your highness, we are keeping an eye on the Queen but she had shown no signs of noticing."

Chrome sighed a sigh of relief as he heard this. He was deathly afraid of what the Queen could be planning, especially right now when the tensions were rising high.

"And what about Lucas? Any news from him?"

Chrome had no hope of ever spying on Lucas but he had still asked to be kept informed by the other royal. But Lucas was a wild card so Chrome had no confidence in controlling him.

Even the guard looked a little afraid and hesitant to make any remark. That was enough for Chrome to know that he had been caught spying by Lucas and had been issued a warning by the other royal.

"You know what? Never mind what Lucas is thinking. We should focus on our operation for now."

Chrome gave up on that front pretty soon, knowing that it was an uphill battle with Lucas. It was better to let Dirac do what he wanted until he was satisfied.

"Y-Yes? Ah, my lord. I wanted to let you know that the temple has invited you to the ceremony. Here is the invite for your attendance."

The guard extended the yellowish paper to Lucas, waiting for him to take the paper. Lucas took it without any delay, looking at it with disdain.

He did not want to open this letter to know what it likely said. Since Elysia had already told him about the Queen's intentions, Chrome had every intention of refusing the invitation.

"This letter does not have the Head Preist's seal so I will not be entertaining it. Besides, I have too much work to do before I can attend the ceremony. I don't think I will be able to make it in time."

With a single sentence, Chrome managed to dash all the work Queen had done to secure this invite. The temple did not have the best relationship with the royal family so they were not invited to each other's programs.

So this invite was a ticking time bomb for Chrome and he would not have accepted it even if the Queen had not been involved.

"What is it? I can see that you want to talk with me more so out with it."

Chrome could see the guard hesitating to speak up again. He had thought that he had gotten through all the bullshit but it did not seem to be the case.

Chrome braced himself for another headache that was about to come as he gestured for the man to speak.

"T-The thing is, L-Lady Saintess wrote to us. S-She and the emperor want to visit us for peace talks."

If Chrome could have thrown something at the wall to vent his anger, he would have done so in a heartbeat. This was the worst possible news, especially at such a tense time for his kingdom.

Not only was the Queen an unstable force but the temple was out to get him as well. And the foreign dignitaries wanted to travel to his kingdom right now for peace talks? It was all too much.

"W-We can ask them to reconsider if it is not possible."

The guard hurriedly took his words back, not wanting to anger the emperor anymore. Chrome's angry look was making him second-guess his decision of bringing up this topic.

"Fine, they can come but only after the ceremony for Herma's rite is over. We do not need any kind of distraction right now."

The guard sighed in relief as Chrome looked away from him. The atmosphere had been so tense up until that moment. And the guard had been ready to bolt away from the room when he had been given this good news.

Chrome just watched the guard bolt away from him with lightning-fast speed. He knew he was courting trouble for himself but it was difficult to resist the temptation of the offered peace.

Not to mention…

'I do not want to get on Emperor Adam and Saintess Eve's bad side. They both scare me a lot.'

//////////////////////////////////////

"He denied my invitation? How dare Chrome show me this disrespect? Is he not afraid of what I will do to him for this insult?"

The queen looked pissed off as she tried to get her emotions under control. It would not serve her to be this angry at the emperor and show her true colors.

Especially since she knew that Chrome was a paranoid bastard and was looking for any opportunity to suppress her influence.

"What is the news from the temple? Did they send the letter as well?"

The Queen had instructed someone in the temple to invite Chrome. It would not help much but it would make him hesitate a little bit.

"He denied that invite as well. Also, sir Lucas denied our invite as well but he disappeared from our sight."

The queen gritted her teeth at another piece of bad news she got. She had thought that it would be easy to get Elysia Dirac under her control and then use that to threaten the other two.

But now it seemed like the tables had turned on her and she was being led around with a hook in her mouth.

"Calm down before you burst your head. Everything is still under our control for now."

The Queen looked up sharply at Boras's words, her eyes blazing and ready to burn the shaggy-haired man on the spot.

But the man looked like he was not even interested in how the Queen was looking at him right now. Her glare faltered as she noticed more and more that she was having no effect.

"Then, what do you want me to do? My life is dependent on this plan so why can't I be worried about my life?"

The queen was ready to say more when she calmed down. Especially since she noticed various eyes on her now.

She had entered the temple's corridor and now the nobles were looking at her with shrewd eyes. They were her allies but they could turn on her any second now as well.

The political world was a battlefield that had no end in sight. And the Queen was a centerpiece on this bog board.

"Look, the Head Priest is up there with Elysia Dirac. The real show is about to start now."

The queen knew that it was time to look forward to something good now. Especially without Chrome here, her plan was all but halted. So she might as well sit back and enjoy this show that was about to start.

Above all their head, the sky was turning more and more scarlet. The gold freckles were starting to move in a circular motion and they would soon start to converge toward the earth.

It was a grand ceremony that would require a lot of magic. And the best thing was if everything fell through then the ones who would be blamed would be Elysia and Chrome.

It was a win-win situation for her in any case.

"Here, we will start now. I hope everyone is ready to give your attention to us."

The Queen looked up with sparkling eyes, finally ready to see the fruits of her labor this far. She had waited for this moment for so long and now it was time to see her labor bear fruits.

Magic was gathering in the center pot and everyone held their breaths as it started to reach the top. Elysia Dirac was much more powerful than anyone had given her the credit for. She was easily able to handle the ceremony.

But it was also time for the Head Priest to mix his twist in it and the flash of the light hid the pained expression Elysia Dirac gave.

It happened in a flash, bolts of darkness filled the temple hallway up and pierced a lot of people. No one was critically wounded but they were huffing for sure.

"W-What is going on here?"

A noble asked from the Queen's right side. He looked really scared of what was happening around him even as the darkness reached toward his ankle. The likeliness of any of these guys surviving was low and the Queen could not wait around for the blame to be pinned on Chrome.

And then her stomach was pierced by a metal sword and she looked down with wide eyes. She could not imagine someone piercing her stomach like this but it had happened anyway.

"Sorry, my queen. But you are more of a hindrance at this point than a help so you will have to go now. I hope you don't hold a grudge against me for this."