THE NORTHERN CONTINENT'S EMPRESS

Chapter 28: Something New (3)

Lord Sheritt paused for a moment before she answered Cale's inquiry.

"The Black Magic seems to eat her mana away slowly," She said. Cale's eyes widened.  Black magic can eat the mana of a living being? how could that be?

"Cale, It's not very apparent right now but, the presence of black magic inside her body is moving very slowly. It will continue to stay inside her with no possible cure at all," Lord Sheritt said to Cale.

Cale remembered the smiling expression of the empress while they walked outside the Black Castle... that person... will she die early?

"I have not seen anyone with her case so I cannot accurately judge the situation at the moment... So the Empress must stay here for a while to find some way to help her," Lord Sheritt said and Cale looked down at the ground, his mind was in turmoil.

That person... she will keep living while in pain? the black magic is slowly eating away her mana?

Also, Cale hasn't figured out the person who tried to assassinate him and the empress in the Capital city.

Cale stood there like a statue, Lord Sheritt knew that he was busy thinking so she let him be and left to look for her son instead.

Choi Han saw Cale standing in the middle of the hallway and couldn't help but walk up to him and greet him.

"Cale-nim,"

"Mhm? What is it?"

"The Empress, how long will she stay here?"

Cale met Choi Han's gaze and couldn't answer immediately. He too, does not know.

"The three Northern Dragons, they already left the Western Continent saying that since the Empress is alive, they have nothing to worry about," Choi Han reported.

"They already left? without saying goodbye in front of her?" Cale asked with a frown.

Choi Han only looked at him. They both know why those dragons left immediately, it was because of the curse.

"It'll be for a while, there was no definite answer at the moment," Cale said to Choi Han before he went back to his bedroom.

The rest of the day was uneventful. Nothing really happened.

After dinner, Cale heard that the Empress went back to the underground training hall to practice. Cale wondered why and chose to follow her instead.

He told Raon before walking after Empress Helena and saw that she was unsheathing a sword from her side. 

Cale concealed his presence and watched from a good distance, watching how she started to train with her mana and sword arts. 

'The black magic really is on her system,' Cale thought he was looking at her powers. 

He wonders how Empress Helena would cope and feel if she knew the dangers of the black magic eating away her mana. It was a slow-reacting phase, and the pain that she was experiencing will get more intense later on. 

While he was deep in thought, he heard Empress Helena groan and fall to the ground, her hand on her mouth while coughing, but Cale became worried and went straight towards her when he saw blood. 

"Lady Pauline," Cale kneeled next to her and took his white towel to help clean the blood on her lips. 

"T-Thank you, Sir Cale- ngh!" Empress Helena took the towel and coughed one more time on the towel, eyes tearing up and face frowning from the pain. Cale was worried. 

"I think you should stop and take some rest now," Cale suggested and helped Empress Helena to stand up and help her to go to her room. 

"Thank you, Cale, I appreciate it," Empress Helena gave him a weak smile before going inside her room. Cale looked at the closed doors before frowning. This is bad, she needs to know the seriousness of her situation and at the same time, have himself stop worrying about her. 

Cale turned around and went to his room. He called Raon and told him to teleport towards the three dragons from the North. Eruhaben went with them and when they got there, Cale's face turned serious. 

The three dragons were sealed once again. Cale, Raon, and Eruhaben looked around the area to look for clues on what happened. 

"There's no sign of struggle," Eruhaben said. 

"The barrier looks and feels stronger than the first time, Human," Raon said as well. Cale looked at the expanse of their caves before he looked behind him, his sight was on the desolate-looking castle. 

"We have to look at the Castle first, we need to know what happened in this place," Cale said and they traveled towards the Castle. 

Cale told Raon to use invisibility magic and went inside the hallway of the castle. There was not a single person in sight. Cale and the other two dragons went deeper inside the castle and found that it was really desolate. 

"There's no one here," Cale said while looking at the throne room, and found that there were two crowns left on the thrones. 

"Raon, search for any living being in this place," Cale said as he went to the upper floors with Eruhaben to look around. 

When they reached the room at the end of the hall, there was a locked door. Eruhaben opened the door and they went inside. It was a library, with tons of books at the round tables. Cale looked at the first book that caught his eye, 

It was about rituals. Cale frowned before he looked through the other books and saw some sigils and summoning circles. 

"What are these for?" Cale muttered before telling Eruhaben to guard the room as he started to record the books that were on the round table. 

Books about summoning circles, offerings, sacrifices, and the last book.

"Really?" Cale could not help but scoffed. Those people, want to open the dimensional crack in this place for the demons to slip inside this location. 

"How could this be possible?" Eruhaben peeked at the contents and was surprised. Cale closed the book and opened the first two buttons of his shirt to prevent himself from overheating. 

"We need to look into this," He said before calling for Raon. When Raon came back he told him to teleport Choi Han and Rosalyn here. 

"This place is already abandoned. We need to find traces of the demons here," Cale said seriously.