Trapped in Another World With No Magic

Chapter 98.1: Bonus Story: Battle for the Imperial Crown Part 1

A/N: Thank you to all of my readers who continue to support me!

As a special treat, I had a spark of inspiration for some bonus chapters during Sundenelle's rise to Empress. I didn't write every event or detail, since that would arguably be an entire story to itself if I really wanted to do it justice, but these chapters should give a nice peek into how Sundenelle does things. Are her schemes sometimes convoluted and overly-complex? Perhaps. But, She is constantly scheming and trying to think several steps ahead with everyone she's dealing with, even her own mother. So I hope you will enjoy these bonus chapters!

Thank you again for reading, and I hope you'll stick around for many more chapters to come!

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"S-Sun...den...elle... C-C-Come closer..."

"Father!" Sundenelle bolts up from her seat at the Emperor's side, kneeling at his bedside. He is clinging to life in his last moments, but every physician, doctor, and magic healer has given the same prognosis; his ailment is beyond recovery, and they don't know enough about it to treat it properly.

It is currently a time before a fateful hero summoning in Mornistae, though there have been rumors throughout the land that more and more people have been having the dream Sundenelle had recently. She didn't know what it meant at first, but the rumors are growing that the dream foretells a great disaster, where darkness consumes the land. Then, the sun devours Zenkon, and everything will be erased. In it, there were two shadowy figures, a tall man and a small woman by appearances, though the dream is blurry and doesn't make a lot of sense on its own.

Now, with the Emperor seemingly coming to an end of his life, she feels fear for the future of the Empire.

"I'm here, Father," replies Sundenelle, squeezing his hand gently. Her maids and ladies in waiting have urged her repeatedly not to touch the Emperor, for fear of her contracting the plague, but she couldn't care less. He is and will always be her beloved Imperial Father. She is not the next in line for the throne, so her fate is to be a loyal servant to the Empire; a fate she has always welcomed with her mother and father at her side. She saw how heavy the crown is upon her father's head, and she could only ever wish to ease some of his burden.

How she wishes she were not wrong with those thoughts.

"I... I have something... to confess, my dear sweet S-Sundenelle."

"Take your time, Father. I'm not going anywhere. Mother is here with me, too."

He tilts his eyes, barely able to see Sundenelle, let alone the noblewoman behind her that he had a 'sixteen year long affair' with. It was always odd that many people in the castle knew of the Emperor's love for Sundenelle's mother, Byleathea, but she was never made a consort or the Empress. In fact, he had very little affection at all for the Empress, who shared the sentiment, and the consorts were almost exclusively political pairings.

"Good," whispers the Emperor. "You both should hear this." He coughs, and the doctors do their best to be close, in case they need to step in. But, the weakened man manages to regain control of his breathing, and he relaxes once more. "Sundenelle... You are my only child."

This causes an eerie silence to befall the room, and Sundenelle blurts out quietly, "What?"

"It is true, child. The only woman I have ever loved... is Byleathea."

He looks to where Byleathea is, and she trembles as her hands cover her mouth.

"If they knew... Byleathea, forgive me... If they knew... You would have been targeted. I'm sorry. It was selfish of me... t-to *cough* to keep your rank so low..."