Follow Your Heart [EN]: Chapter 119

As calmly as ever, she tried to sort out her thoughts.

Having exerted that much power, they wouldn’t be able to do anything about the western border. It was obvious they had bet everything on this.

The Reestablishment Army’s situation might be close to annihilation.

And Lee Jae was determined to destroy that Demon Gate by any means necessary.

She couldn’t stop all the evil spirits from pouring into the human realm in the process, but the King’s energy could withstand that much.

If Lee Jae closed the Demon Gate while the King and his knights found Ilias and the Prince, this battle would be completely over.

Just as she was about to convey her thoughts to the King and discuss them, people began walking out of the old mansion on their own.

They numbered only a few dozen in all.

At their center stood the Prince, who had said he wouldn’t avoid her next time.

He still exuded a scholarly and refined aura.

But Lee Jae sensed a much firmer conviction in his expression than before.

The King called out his name.

“Edgar.”

“It’s been a while, Brother.”

As the opponent fully revealed himself, the King and the knights stood to shield Lee Jae.

The Prince smiled subtly, as if he knew something, watching them.

A gentle voice flowed out.

“I’ve already suspected that Mellon’s blood might be flowing through Her Majesty the Queen.”

“………”

“I only learned of all these circumstances recently, but it’s a well-known story that you’ve changed somehow since the royal wedding, Brother.”

“………”

“Of course, at first, I thought it might be the power of the Blake royal family manifesting. But it doesn’t seem to be the case.”

Lee Jae stood behind the King, listening quietly to the Prince’s words.

Surrounded by people shielding her completely, she lowered her gaze for a moment and smiled bitterly.

‘You think that what you know is the only truth.’

But what you believe might not always be the answer.

I’m not Mellon. Nor am I Hayley Duncan. I’m just Kang Lee Jae.

A tiny existence, like a speck of dust.

A small uncertainty that wasn’t in your history and plans.

“But Brother, that’s not enough. Didn’t I tell you? The balance of power has already collapsed. After much deliberation, I’ve taken a firm stand.”

“…………”

“I wish you would just give up. I don’t want to lose you, or any member of the royal family.”

The King was silent for a long time.

The silence stretched so long that Lee Jae reached out without realizing it.

She wanted to grab his sleeve and shake it.

To tell him not to. After enduring so many long nights alone, he shouldn’t give in.

You’re not someone who should stop at such words.

She lowered her hand when a sigh-like chuckle came from the King.

“Edgar.”

“Yes, Brother.”

“If you had done this because you coveted the throne, I would have preferred that.”

Lee Jae looked at the King’s back with a slightly choked expression.

She felt too much human emotion in his words.

The King had already understood what the boy king had said.

That the Prince had made his choice not out of greed, but out of firm conviction.

And that he wouldn’t change his mind.

“Is it so difficult to sit at the negotiating table?”

“Ah, negotiation. Such a nice word. A king can make concessions and compromises as long as it serves the greater good.”

“………”

“But Edgar, is this kind of humiliation really a negotiation?”

“………”

“You’re not negotiating, you’re being extorted by Cayenne. No one will raise a sword for a king who tolerates that.”

As the dawn light grew brighter, the brothers simply stared at each other in silence.

They both knew that they no longer had a meeting point.

The gap that had opened could not be closed in an instant.

So the Prince spoke in a voice that excluded as much emotion as possible.

“I won’t say much either. But you will soon understand what I mean, Brother.”

It was at that moment.

Lee Jae felt a certain energy flowing out from behind the Prince. An energy she knew well—the energy of assassination.

Ilias was among that group.

As the Prince turned his back, Lee Jae nodded towards the King.

The King signaled to the Commander of the First Order of Knights, and Lee Jae also grabbed a talisman and began to chant a wide-range incantation [a magical spell or formula].

To give as much power as possible to those at the forefront, even though the Demon Gate was not yet fully open.

“Sa Bul Beom Jeong, evil energy cannot overcome what is right. Pa Sa Hyeon Jeong, break the evil and reveal the right…”

But in the midst of ceaselessly moving her lips, Lee Jae sensed another chilling energy.

A cold and heavy air, as if ice walls were slamming down all around.

Startled, she cried out urgently.

“No! Stop! Don’t go!”

But it was too late.

Several of the knights at the forefront collapsed powerlessly, as if they had crashed into a giant wall.

Meanwhile, the Prince’s people were disappearing one by one into the dark mansion.

Lee Jae, who had been watching them with a bewildered expression, began to tremble slightly.

Because she belatedly realized something.

The suffocating energy that surrounded everything. This giant, greenhouse-like space was a kind of barrier.

“Schmidt… is alive.”

Their trump card wasn’t the Demon Gate.

Just as the Cayenne royal family had Lee Jae as a weapon, the opponent had been hiding Schmidt’s existence.

Lee Jae pondered the Prince’s words.

‘But Brother, that’s not enough. Didn’t I tell you? The balance of power has already collapsed.’

Even if the Queen from the Duncan family had Ellen’s power flowing through her, or if the royal family’s power had awakened.

They thought the odds were in their favor because they had both Ilias and Schmidt.

Lee Jae, standing in the very center of the barrier, walked to where the King and the First Order of Knights were standing.

Her face was as if she were possessed, or as if she had suffered a great shock.

And Roderick was standing right in front of the barrier, intently observing something. He, too, had sensed the strange energy lurking right before his eyes.

Lee Jae, still confused, first pulled the King back.

“Your Majesty, don’t get close. Tell the knights to step back about twenty paces as well. Just to where the central army is.”

“…What is this?”

Lee Jae didn’t answer.

She simply narrowed her eyes and stared at the barrier.

Because it was a type of barrier she had never seen before.

Meanwhile, the knights were helping up their fellow knights who were lying on the ground.

Lee Jae grimaced at their painful groans.

She couldn’t see any external wounds with her naked eye, but she could see the demonic energy that had struck them with her spiritual sight.

If she hadn’t stopped them in time, they probably would have all died instantly.

And soon, Lee Jae had no choice but to sigh even more deeply.

Petty spirits were freely moving in and out of this prison-like barrier.

This wasn’t the concept of a barrier she had ever seen before.

The barrier Lee Jae knew was meant to protect the human realm from the dead. But this barrier was trapping and harming the living within a limited area.

How can such a barrier exist in the human realm?

Confused, Lee Jae looked outside the barrier.

Seeing the Demon Gate growing wider, she felt anxious. Time was running out, and complex branches of thought were rapidly spreading through her mind.

The Prince seemed convinced that Lee Jae had inherited Mellon’s power. However, he didn’t seem to know that she could dismantle formations.

That was probably because the assassination attempts they had launched had failed every time, but Lee Jae had never used her dismantling abilities.

‘If I can just break this barrier…’

She certainly wouldn’t be able to close the Demon Gate, but wouldn’t the King and the knights be able to catch Ilias somehow?

At least His Majesty can ward off evil spirits.

Then, wouldn’t we have a chance?

But it was a very slim chance. The five powers she possessed. None of them matched those individuals.

Nevertheless, Lee Jae could no longer hesitate. If the Demon Gate fully opened and evil spirits entered, they would be trapped and forced to fight.

Lee Jae steeled her heart and opened her mouth.

“Your Majesty, step back. And from then on, don’t move until I give you a signal. Understood?”

“………”

“Answer me.”

“Lee Jae, explain what this is first.”

Inwardly, she paused slightly, but she pretended to be nonchalant and said,

“Your Majesty, Schmidt is alive.”

“………”

“And this is… like the statue I gave you as a gift. It doesn’t move like an arrow, it’s fixed in this spot. It doesn’t move away or scatter just because Your Majesty is here.”

It sounded like a play on words, but it was true.

And from that moment on, Lee Jae began to spew out lies like someone who had made up her mind. Mixing in appropriate truths, just like when they first met.

“I’m going to dismantle this now. It’s actually the field I’m best at.”

That wasn’t true at all.

Lee Jae had rarely dismantled formations other than talismans, and dismantling was the field she was least skilled in.

This was a barrier formed with special energy.

But she was the only one here who had the potential to break it.

“If someone with strong energy like Your Majesty is nearby, the barrier will become twisted. Then I won’t be able to undo it either.”

Lee Jae calmly added, gazing into the King’s blue eyes.

“Your Majesty, please listen to me carefully.”

“………”

“The Demon Gate is right in front of that mansion door. It’s like a kind of passage. Other people shouldn’t even go near it, but if Your Majesty goes close, you’ll definitely be able to feel it.”

“Yes. I can feel it now.”

“After I tear down this barrier, I’m going to close the Demon Gate right away. Honestly, it might take a long time. So please catch Ilias before then.”

“………”

“The curse ends when the caster dies or gives up.”

Having finished speaking, she immediately turned towards the barrier.

However, the King remained motionless for a while.

As Lee Jae, who was inwardly anxious, glanced sideways, his blue eyes were intently scrutinizing her.

Lee Jae knew too well what her husband’s gaze meant.

It was an expression she had often seen before.

That was the sharp look he had when he wanted to check if she was lying or not.

“Hurry. The passage is getting bigger. Then I’ll have more to do.”

At Lee Jae’s urging, the King nodded briefly.

He still looked unconvinced, but Jade quickly followed behind the King.

After watching their backs for a while, Lee Jae turned her gaze back to the barrier.

She first took a couple of steps back and shot an arrow.

However, the arrow broke powerlessly before it even reached the barrier.

She pricked her palm to draw blood, but the result was the same.

Is it here? Or not? Is it there?

Where should I focus my energy?

The barrier, which she was seeing for the first time, was only perplexing.

She lacked confidence, but she had to keep trying. Deciding that she had to sever this point, she gathered energy at her fingertips.

And then, a familiar energy approached her side.

One of the dead who could freely cross this barrier more than anyone else—the Boy Ghost.

Lee Jae ignored him, intending to touch the barrier.

Because she felt like she knew what he was going to say this time.

-Kang Lee Jae.

She didn’t answer, but a terrifying warning flowed from the Boy King’s lips.

-If you touch that barrier, you’ll really die this time.

Lee Jae slowly lowered her half-extended hand.

And with a calmer face than ever, she looked up at him.

After a long silence, she asked the being who resembled an absolute being.

“Do you really think… that I didn’t know I was going to die like this?”